Oh, the City Life!
Burkina Faso!
Our first entry to the North from humid, wet, beach like, Southern Ghana. Perspective definitely changed as body adjusted to climate, being that Niger was much drier. But, this is first journal entry upon entering Burkina Faso from Ghana…
30/12/04
Burkina is SO, SO, SO Dusty!! It’s everywhere! In houses, walking down the street, you breathe it into your lungs and through your nose. Our skin dried up immediately as our lips chapped instantly stepping off our air-conditioned bus (hey, we didn’t rough it all the way). And… it’s hot. Really, really hot. The air feels like we are baking in an oven. It’s a lot to take in your first day. It is a dry heat though, so your sweat dries before you feel it. Sort of like Vegas I think, except no air conditioning anywhere. However, the nights are cooler, much nicer than Ghana. Except for that damn dust that gets in the way. I guess that’s what you get for travelling during the strongest part of the Harmattan season. Dec/ Jan. It’s cooler they say then the “hot season”, but dust and sand will be everywhere! Thankfully, we will not be here to experience the “hot season”, poor Burkina PCV’s.
So on top of the climate, on the list of things to adjust to on your first day in Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso), there are tons of motorcycles in Ouaga. They call them moto’s or taxi-moto’s, b/c they are…well… a motorcycle and a taxi. And they are everywhere!! Driving in every direction (normally the wrong one), backwards, forwards, sideways, against traffic, with traffic, between traffic. Along with the cars that are doing the same thing. And the motos carry the craziest things on them. I’ve seen one with 20 to 30 chicken tied all around in a circle of the driver. I’ve seen taxi motos with the driver and a women carrying three huge baskets of things; 2 under each arm and one on her head, don’t ask me how! Even moto’s carrying goats and cow heads!!! I swear! They carry anything and everything. So it’s tough, crossing the street is scary. At least on the first day. Walking through the city feels exactly like a video game or an episode of “Paperboy”, on Nintendo if you remember. We’re everything is trying to get you, like dogs, wheels, crazy men, but you have to continue delivering newspapers. Well, in Ouaga, we’re also dodging dogs and crazy people, but along with that we’re dodging cars, motos with god knows what on it, bicycles, sellers, goats, chickens, beggars, small children, all moving super fast in a haze of dust. And there we are….3 whities….just trying to make it to our next destination without having our foot run over. To me, this seems the story of cities in Africa. Villages move slower than you could ever imagine and the cities are like constant games of leap frog or paper boy, in which you hope you have more than one life left.
Our first entry to the North from humid, wet, beach like, Southern Ghana. Perspective definitely changed as body adjusted to climate, being that Niger was much drier. But, this is first journal entry upon entering Burkina Faso from Ghana…
30/12/04
Burkina is SO, SO, SO Dusty!! It’s everywhere! In houses, walking down the street, you breathe it into your lungs and through your nose. Our skin dried up immediately as our lips chapped instantly stepping off our air-conditioned bus (hey, we didn’t rough it all the way). And… it’s hot. Really, really hot. The air feels like we are baking in an oven. It’s a lot to take in your first day. It is a dry heat though, so your sweat dries before you feel it. Sort of like Vegas I think, except no air conditioning anywhere. However, the nights are cooler, much nicer than Ghana. Except for that damn dust that gets in the way. I guess that’s what you get for travelling during the strongest part of the Harmattan season. Dec/ Jan. It’s cooler they say then the “hot season”, but dust and sand will be everywhere! Thankfully, we will not be here to experience the “hot season”, poor Burkina PCV’s.
So on top of the climate, on the list of things to adjust to on your first day in Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso), there are tons of motorcycles in Ouaga. They call them moto’s or taxi-moto’s, b/c they are…well… a motorcycle and a taxi. And they are everywhere!! Driving in every direction (normally the wrong one), backwards, forwards, sideways, against traffic, with traffic, between traffic. Along with the cars that are doing the same thing. And the motos carry the craziest things on them. I’ve seen one with 20 to 30 chicken tied all around in a circle of the driver. I’ve seen taxi motos with the driver and a women carrying three huge baskets of things; 2 under each arm and one on her head, don’t ask me how! Even moto’s carrying goats and cow heads!!! I swear! They carry anything and everything. So it’s tough, crossing the street is scary. At least on the first day. Walking through the city feels exactly like a video game or an episode of “Paperboy”, on Nintendo if you remember. We’re everything is trying to get you, like dogs, wheels, crazy men, but you have to continue delivering newspapers. Well, in Ouaga, we’re also dodging dogs and crazy people, but along with that we’re dodging cars, motos with god knows what on it, bicycles, sellers, goats, chickens, beggars, small children, all moving super fast in a haze of dust. And there we are….3 whities….just trying to make it to our next destination without having our foot run over. To me, this seems the story of cities in Africa. Villages move slower than you could ever imagine and the cities are like constant games of leap frog or paper boy, in which you hope you have more than one life left.
posted by Melissa @ 10:35 PM
1 Comments:
At 6:51 PM,
Raskolnikov said…
I love "paperboy" on old school nintendo. The graphics suck ass but its fun and challenging.
Did you ever play "excite bike"? I wonder if riding the moto-taxis in Burkina was a similar experience. I was never good at that game becuz I always overheated the damn engine. I suspect there's less jumping in real life but in that hot weather, the bikes probably do overheat from time.. and perhaps collide with each other.. and burn passengers' legs who wear daisy dukes.
I like your blog entries, Cortalini. You have a knack for making the unfamiliar familiar by relating it to common experiences.
Keep on bloggin, sista friend
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