Hi all, well unfortunately or fortunately there seems to less to write
about of late. Loren arrived home on Wed night. His ticket said he was
to arrive at 14h40 (2:40 pm for you non-military Canadians) but
somewhere in the last 7 weeks they changed their schedule and didn't
bother to mention it. So when he called and asked if the plane was on
time, they said "yes of course", but he arrived at the airport to
discover that on time now meant leaving at 7PM and making a stop in
Togo. So he didn't actually arrive in Ouaga until 10PM. His 45 min
flight turned into a 7 hour wait at the airport and a 3 hour flight.

The stories he has are painful to hear. He talks about being spoiled
coming back to Ouaga - he was literally in the bush with nothing,
drinking river water, being swarmed and stung daily by bees, eating
manioc (a kind of mashed up grain) and bush meat - deer, monkeys,
whatever they could kill - so here with electricity, cold beer, and
vegetables, as well as not having to worry about workers striking and
getting shot at, Ouaga probably seems like paradise. Although it's a
lot hotter here, it's less humid (40+ deg and only 35% instead of
35deg and 80%!). Just at night, he said they needed a fire because it
got down to about 18 - 20 deg C. Here, at 4AM it's still over 30deg.

Loren was amazed at how much Ben had grown in 2 months. He was also
amazed at how big the cat was and immediately started talking about
putting it in a casserole with wine sauce. I THINK he's joking.

At least he's home. I found myself strangely distant when he arrived.
Part of me was expecting that we had to start all over again and it
was as if I was shut off from our relationship and had to be
re-started, like a car that's been parked for 7 weeks. It didn't take
too long to get back up to speed and the next part in some ways
doesn't seem so bad anymore, in others feels worse. It will be 10
weeks and I will have been re-Canadianized somewhat so we'll see how
it goes. At least I have something to look forward to. Like being
freezing cold! I'm bringing my coat!

We went to a funeral this morning. It was our friend Michel's
grandmother who died. So we drove out to her village. She was a
chief's wife so it was kind of a big deal. We sat out under mango
trees eating chicken and rice, and pork and french fries, drinking
coke, beer, whiskey, water. I wore a knee- length skirt and still
managed to get a light sun burn on my legs under the trees as my legs
haven't seen sun in 8 months. We sat and talked, and Ben of course was
bored, as all children are at parent functions. Fortunately Loren has
a couple friends who are quite amusing. Yves showed Ben how to make
origami boxes. Yves is also absolutely hysterical and had us nearly
crying because we were laughing so hard. He likes to mix english and
french. So he said things like, we were traversing the school yard in
running, and told Ben that he was to "be regarding me during my
conception" (regard in french is to watch, and conception is a design
- so totally different than the english).

During the funeral, they do something of a salute - anything that has
to do with the chief, they do 4 shots from a gun, just powder, no
ammo. This happened to be a muzzle-load shot gun. What was funny -
along the lines of being in the desert, by camel ride and hearing cell
phones go off - was the first round of shot set off a bunch of car
alarms. I think I nearly peed from laughing so hard.

Having said that, I don't think I quite have the hang of their humour.
Loren was telling the story of a group of friends who had very little
so they decided to pool their resources to send one to Europe to get a
job. So each of them sold all their possessions - bikes, everything -
and sent one guy to Europe. 2 weeks later they see him again and ask
him what he's doing back. He says "it's cold up there". And everyone
around the table bursts into laughter.

Another one, that I did think was funny but not nearly as funny as
everyone else seem to think: a boy at school is asked to write a story
describing a picture. The picture shows a boy being chased by a
crocodile. The boy writes: Drissa nage (swims), crocodile nage. Drissa
nage nage, crocodile nage nage. Drissa nage, nage, nage, nage, nage,
nage!!!!! Crocodile nage, nage, nage, nage, nage, nage!!!!

And some of you are thinking, what the hell is wrong with you?!

Anyway, it seems odd that I will be home in less than 2 months. Let me
know if you have any requests for artwork, batiq, cloth, statues,
masks, or little instruments. I won't buy a djembe - too heavy. Benny
is staying until the end of August. Then he gets one more month of
vacation when he arrives here. I am checking out 2 new schools near my
office since he seems terribly bored where he is. We'll see how that
goes. But I'll miss him!! We've never been apart that long!

Off to shower then to bed. I don't think my hair has been 100% dry for
nearly a month now. Your scalp sweats and your hair stays wet inspite
of/because of ? 40 deg weather. Keeps you cooler anyway. I'm getting
used to sleeping soaked in sweat. Just a few more weeks of this, but
then the mosquitoes will be back too. Africans don't believe me when I
talk about the mosquitoes, horse flies and black flies in Northern
Ontario and in some of the parks. But at least those don't carry death
and disease like malaria and sleeping sickness.

I will be going to Ghana in a few weeks and am debating about taking
Ben with me so I can stay a little longer. We may have to drive to
Tamale (about 6 hours costing about $600 total airfare and another
$200 in gas) and fly from there because from Ouaga to Accra is just
too expensive (about $900 Canadian for me and $600 for him). Our
Burkina visas have expired, as has my Ghana visa. Should be an
interesting trip for him. I also have to do a couple minesite tours so
don't want to leave him too much.

http://www.evebrownwaite.com/

I mentioned that the current bain of my existence and at the same
time, my saviour, is ebooks.com. I typed Burkina Faso into the search,
and came up with a bunch of boring World Bank stuff that costs
ridiculous amounts of money, and this.

First comes love; then comes malaria.

I laughed so hard at the title, I bought the book instantly and read
it all... today. This woman's writing is terrifically down to earth
and she sounds ever so much the JAP (Jewish American Princess) she
paints herself to be.

Yet for me, too much of what she was saying sounded familiar - things
I've thought about, worries, fears, mental debates I've had, when I
was here before, when I was at home wondering why I wasn't in Africa,
and now that I've returned. We don't have landmines and gunfire to
deal with here but much else is too similar.

Hope you read it, enjoy!

Running out of excuses for not posting photos! Now that I have regular internet. Okay so they're a little out of order.
We have Benny back in March, playing on the computer.

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...

Hi all,

Here is the revised schedule. I had wanted to go to Ottawa first so
Ben could visit his old school but it would mean having to go to
Ottawa twice from Toronto. Going to Guelph twice is easier!

Friday June 25 to Monday June 29 - Guelph
Monday June 29 to Monday July 5 - Toronto/ Niagara Falls (probably on
the weekend)
Monday July 5 to Thursday July 15 - Ottawa
Friday July 16 to Sunday July 18 - Guelph and Toronto (fly out Sunday night)

Ben of course will be there longer. Felicia is the director of his
social agenda so you'll have to book your time with her!

Coming home...
Well as some of you knew, I was only going for a year, August 2009 to
August 2010. That time was for Ben to spend some time with Loren and
learn about where his dad comes from, and it was for Loren and I to
spend some time together as well. I booked my tickets last year, in
early May and you can only book 330 days in advance so even though I
can stay for a year, the latest date I could book was end of March. So
of course it's getting close to the time when I would have to decide
if I wanted to stay longer, and if so, how much longer.
Loren is heading to Central African Republic next week which I knew
was going to happen at some point during our stay. He originally had a
6 week contract and they have now added 2 months on to it, so he'll be
back end of April for 10 days but then heads back again until early
July. That's a big chunk of time away. So we talked about what we
wanted to do and we decided that Ben and I would stay longer. I was
mostly concerned about whether or not to change my tickets since that
would cost about $500 plus whatever fare increase there was. We also
decided Ben would benefit from going back to Canada for the summer
(July is a particularly unpleasant month here with lots of
thunderstorms and heavy rains). So we're coming home at the end of
June (arriving 4pm Thurs June 24 in Toronto – I fly back to Burkina on
Sunday July 18th). I get 4 weeks off so I will be returning to Burkina
mid-July but Ben will stay until some time in August. So the title of
this post was a little misleading. We are coming home, but for a
visit.
We haven't set a timeline for how much longer yet but I will again
have to be thinking about it around October as my sabbatical expires
November 17th and I have to decide if I am going to return to the
government. My thinking right now is that I definitely would not
return to my old job (they haven't filled it yet), but I don't know
that I would leave the public service entirely. I had several offers
on the table when I left, a few in government working for people that
would be interesting to learn from, a few in the private and
non-governmental sectors. I figure my current experience will make me
just that much more saleable, with the added responsibilities.
Ben's doing well at school but he's bored. For the fundamentals, he's
doing more than he would have in Canada but they don't have a very
good balance. The science is almost totally lacking, as is art and
music. At least he's getting a whole lot more exercise than he was,
he's like a string bean, long and lanky, and all muscle. He rides his
bike (Loren and I got him one for Christmas) and plays soccer every
day. He's outside running around for a minimum of 2 hours every day.
At night we read, or talk, or play games like Monopoly or Scrabble. On
the rare occasion, we watch a movie or play video games on the
computer. There's a whole lot less computer time than there was and we
are down to one movie every other week!
I've largely healed from the accident although I'm still having a few
problems due to my shoulders and my broken rib - sit ups and pushups
are definitely out. I've unfortunately gained some weight (and lost
muscle) so feeling a little pudgy but it will come off again as I get
back into my routines.
Work is going okay. It's still pretty stressful with all the stuff to
learn and the staff are not making it much easier. They aren't really
the kind to take their own initiative, in fact if I'm not watching,
they'll sit around and do nothing, not even the stuff I gave them to
do. I'm having to learn all the taxes (9 kinds of taxes!), labour
laws, English and French accounting practices, international
importation and exportation procedures, as well as all the products,
their uses, selling and getting to know the clients – much of it in
French, as well as all the cultural things both in Burkina and in
Ghana. My head feels pretty full lately, actually over my head but I
figured it would take me a good 6 months to feel comfortable – maybe a
whole year! We have a new GM with an accounting background starting.
He's been a GM at a large logistics company so we are hoping for a big
turnaround in the company. It's reached critical mass and needs to get
more of the right people in.
Anyway, that's the deal. I know a lot of people who won't be terribly
happy that we're staying but the next few months I think will be
fairly telling. If you can handle hot season in Burkina, you can
probably handle anything. We didn't get much of a Harmattan or winter
and we jumped into hot season about a month early. It was 45 deg C
when I arrived back from my trip to Ghana on Wed March 4. Hoping for
some early rains as we have daily power outs (it was from 6pm til 9:30
pm tonight!) and will likely have some water shortages soon too.
So that's the word for the moment. I'm hoping to catch up with a lot
of people so I'll post more about when I'll be in what cities. I am
tentatively thinking (this is VERY tentative)
• Ottawa June 25 to July 1,
• Toronto and Niagara July 1 to July 5,
• Guelph July 5 to July 12,
• Ottawa again July 12 to 16 and
• Toronto July 17 and 18, when I fly out at 7pm.

See you then