April 13, 2010 - Time for an update. I haven't written in quite some
time. It's been a tough few weeks, I've spent a lot of time reading
and just thinking. My boss was here over Easter and so I was running
about for much of that time. As I get to know him I realize that
Steve, my boss is someone I have a great deal to learn from on both a
personal and professional level, though we don't agree on a lot of
stuff.
Loren has been away now for 5 weeks and will be home in 2 more weeks,
which is great except the week following that we go through yet
another long separation, even longer than this one, 10 weeks instead
of 7. It sounds kind of silly when I say it that way. I mean really,
what's 10 weeks, it's not even 3 months. But this time has felt
interminable and I worry the next will be worse. Planning for the trip
to Canada and the actual trip itself will probably fly so I'm sure it
will feel shorter. That and it won't be hot season anymore.
This hot season has been strangely, not as hot as usual. Instead of
harmattan coming in January and having a normal cool winter (I swear
Mom! It gets cold at night here! – she doesn't believe me), we had a
rather warm one. But then mid-March when it was supposed to be the
normal "hot", we had harmattan and actually had some nights where one
could use sheets. We did have a few days of 45/46 degree weather but
it hasn't been a lot. Now it's April. Rainy season is around the
corner so the humidity is mounting – it's trying to rain, and it has
in areas to the west and the south, but not here yet. So it's 42
degrees and probably 50% humidity.
It's hard to explain temperatures over 40 to someone who's never
experienced it. Everything is hot. You lie in your bed at night and
the mattress is warmer than body temperature, like someone with a
fever was lying there before you. The walls are hot, your shampoo and
soap feel hot. And of course the water is hot because it's up in a
concrete water tower all day. Overnight we are still around 38 until
about 3 or 4 AM when it finally drops to 30. Everything is pretty much
made of concrete so it takes awhile to cool down especially if it was
in the sun. I find it interesting that at the office, the interior
stays fairly cool, even though we may not have had the aircon on
because of power outs. Yet at my house, even if I close all the
shutters, the inside still gets really hot, perhaps it's not
adequately isolated, meaning the office has another door closing off
the hallway to the interior, whereas my house does not. Anyway,
working on the concepts of hot and cold because air conditioning is
not always an option.
Power outs. SONABEL (National Burkina Electricity company) is
obviously a monopoly, more or less like Ontario Hydro (and still is
really) was or Hydro Quebec is. It's not like you've got somewhere
else to go for power – unless you buy a generator, which is where
we're headed for the office. Some days it's not so bad, a few hours.
This hot season has been very bad, power outs started happening back
in late Feb, they started being daily in March and by end of March,
you could expect that the power would be out for as much as 50 hours
per week. Yup, like a third of the week. It's been 7 hours a day for
the most part, which hours seems to change weekly so I guess everyone
gets a fair dose. They were nice enough to leave the power on most of
the Easter weekend in my area. Generally, power is on before one would
go to bed but still there have been a number of nights where we slept
outside and power came on at 2AM. I have aircon but have avoided using
it up until recently – the humidity is just too much and the house is
no longer cooling down enough to sleep in. It still feels 40 inside
and the fan just blows hot air around. Rather than put on 2 A/C, I
just let Ben sleep in my room. I put the A/C at 27 to cool the room
off before sleep, then to 30 to sleep, then I shut it off/open the
windows/turn on the fan at 3AM. Aircon is crazy expensive here. My
usual electricity bills with a fridge (20 years old, Freon,
inefficient as hell, from Italy that we bought for $250), regular
computer/internet use, cell phone charging, and about 6 ceiling fans
runs about $50/month. At the office, with the same but with at least
one A/C running pretty much all the time, the bill came to $300 for
one month and that was with the power being off half the time! It's a
little frustrating being hot, tempers tend to flare so it's always
good to keep your sense of humour with you.
There is some kind of rich irony somewhere that I'm sitting here right
now with a terrible heat rash all over my neck and from about the
knees down, but shivering because I'm covered in sweat and sitting
under a fan. Poor Benny's neck looks like he's about 100 years old.
It's absolutely covered in heat rash. He insists it doesn't bother
him, he wouldn't tell me if it did, but I don't see him scratching it.
I tried putting this powder on it called Salvatis powder, everyone
here uses it. My legs are covered in it, works great for getting rid
of the itch but for some reason it made Ben worse, so we're using a
cortisone cream which doesn't make me very happy but seems to work
well... until he sweats it off running around. I can't imagine how he
manages at school where I don't know that they even have a fan. 17
little bodies, stuffed into an 10 x 20 foot room in 42 degree heat.
To be honest though, using A/C just seems to make the humidity worse
which is the other reason I try to limit my use. Stepping out of a 25
deg, air-conditioned room to a 42 degree, humid day is like walking
into Hell itself.
Where Loren is, in Central African Republic, is probably a lot kinder
climate-wise, running daytime about 35 degrees (although the humidity
is high and they've had a few good rainfalls) and 25 at night.
However, fact is he's in the bush (probably where he'd rather be
anyway) but he's also not too far from where the LRA have entered back
in the CAR from Sudan. He's about 80km from the raids and fighting,
where the rebels have stolen vehicles, food and killed a number of
people. It's not as bad as it is in DR Congo, where thankfully our
friend Nick is no longer stationed. Loren has had other problems such
as a bunch of his workers went on strike so he had to fire them, lack
of supplies, fuel, money. He said it was the same as last time but
this time he knew so he's not pulling out his hair. He figures he's
getting about 30% of what he could be doing if they would actually
fund and resource the job properly. Makes working in Burkina sound
like a dream.
I had to laugh. I was out to a mine site visiting clients. These
clients are from a Canadian company, and most of them are French
Canadian. When I tell them that I'm actually on sabbatical from the
Canadian government, they laugh and ask me "so what's harder? Working
in Burkina or working for the government?" To be honest, the
frustrations are quite similar. Bureaucracy beyond compare, procedures
that change before you have a chance to write them down, people who
have no advance planning skills who spend more of their time figuring
out why it's not their responsibility than they spend doing their job.
Not 100% true, in either place but remarkable.
Benny has added recently to his list of health issues – he broke his
nose and has determined that he is allergic to school – at least the
one he's currently attending. Before Easter, before my boss arrived,
we had Dembele's son, Djamal sleep over for a few days. We had power
out as usual, just before bedtime, so the boys put the mattresses
outside for sleeping on. They decided to wrestle a bit, Ben was lying
on the mattress and Djamal fell backwards on to him. Normally this
would probably not cause a problem but because it was power out and
thus pitch black, Ben didn't see it coming and did nothing to protect
himself. The back of Djamal's head met squarely with Ben's nose. When
I got a flashlight on him, there was blood everywhere and quite
clearly he had broken his nose. After a bit of ice on his nose, the
bleeding stopped and the swelling went down, and they headed off to
bed – I on the other hand was ready for some Valium or something! Poor
Benny! Poor mommy! That really freaked me out. His nose still hurts
but of course that doesn't prevent him from trying to wrestle his
friends or playing soccer and crashing into people – which makes me
totally CRAZY!!
Then there's our cat who is providing a great deal of, uh,
entertainment. He is a real hunter and has grown to be quite large
given he's only 7 months old. His expertise? – lizards, geckos. I was
treated to the lovely feeling of stepping on a fresh, dead gecko he
left me under my seat at the dining room table. Fortunately I was
wearing shoes. The baby ones he eats which is also disgusting. Other
presents include cockroaches (they are 2 inches long here, they climb
out of the drains – he doesn't eat those thankfully) and any other
large bugs he can get ahold of. He caught some kind of grasshopper
thing last night – it was huge, and could jump/fly up to the ceiling
before coming back to the floor. Caught it mid-jump and then had a
ball with it. He was so hot, he would stop and pant like a dog in
between. I was worried about him so made him stay in my bedroom
overnight to cool off (had the A/C on so the floor isn't 40 degrees).
There are also these big, black shrews (like giant rats) that skulk
around the yard. I don't think he'll mess with them because they stink
and are really mean, but we've had him vaccinated just in case. Benny
is quite attached to him (me too, he is awfully cute!) so I feel bad
because I know animals don't tend to last very long here, certainly
not the 18 years a cat can live in Canada. He'll either get sick, or
get killed, possibly by another cat, a dog, or someone looking for a
meal.
This probably still all sounds very negative. Yet for whatever reason
it's just the way things are and it doesn't feel nearly as stressful
as being in Canada does. A friend sent me an email today (verified on
Snopes http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp ) in which the
Washington Post has a famous violinist play in the Metro Station in
Washington DC. Joshua Bell played 6 intricate Bach pieces for 45
minutes on his multi-million dollar 1713 Stradivarius, during rush
hour, in which time over 1000 people passed him. Only 6 people stop to
listen and 20 people give him money, without stopping. He earns about
$32 for his effort. The irony being that he played a concert 2 nights
before in Boston where the average cost of a seat was $100 and he
plays on average 200 international concerts a year. Only one person
recognized him. I'm figuring the average person wouldn't know good
violin playing from average, never mind exceptional, and had it been a
singer it might have been taken more note of. However, the point is
taken and there is a sense of people sadly shaking their heads at the
truth of what that story tells. The point is, that would never happen
here (first there's no subway so everyone is in a vehicle or on a
motorbike but other than that!). People here will take time to stop
and watch or listen to a street performer, even if they aren't good,
just for the entertainment of it. People will stop and dance to music
in the street, even professionals, even if the quality of music isn't
good because the sound system is terrible. So even when I tell you
horrible sounding stories, I still will tell you that I'm less
stressed and less out of sorts that I was when in Canada. There is a
calmness and a sense of guided purpose (even when I don't know what
I'm doing!) and a feeling that I'm in the right place at the moment,
that somehow makes all the challenges and frustrations okay. I also
don't get as frustrated because I feel it's more about learning my own
response than it is about dealing with the frustration. Really that's
what it's about anywhere but perhaps I cut Burkinabe more slack than I
cut Canadians.
Ooo! I just heard thunder! Hopefully that means rain...
