Life is quite interesting in Burkina Faso these days; events and work have kept me busy over the past several weeks, and it doesn't look to slow down until at least December. Over the past month, I biked until I was dizzy with dehydration, attended a wedding that put Prince William's to shame, and adapted my association's logo so much that I started dreaming of ATTA graphics! With the Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary Fair in Ouaga starting in two days, Burkina is the place to be.
In my last blog entry, I wrote about the Tour du Faso, PC Burkina's annual bike ride around the country. As I mentioned, a couple of friends and I were planning on starting with the tour in Karfiguela, a small tourist village about 10 km west of Banfora. However, because the big fete celebrating the end of Ramandan happened to fall on the day before the bike tour (no one knows what day Ramandan ends until there is some sort of sign in the night sky), we couldn't get a bush taxi to the starting point. Instead, my friends and I started the bike tour early, and we biked the 45 km to the starting location. The following day, we had a gorgeous ride from Karfiguela to Orodara, deep in southwest Burkina. Those 65 km, with the constant, gradual inclines, made the trip a challenge. The following day, Orodara to Bobo, was another grueling 80 km, with several very large hills adding to the strenuous course. By the end, rolling into Bobo under the hot midday sun, I started battling a bit of dehydration, despite the power bars, my ORS (oral rehydration salts, usually for diarrhea but works for biking too), and liters of water. Thankfully I made it into Bobo, alive and kicking, but I decided to end my tour there and not continue on Dedougou. The bike tour was alot of fun though; I definitely want to join up for at least a week next year. If you want to read and see pictures from the bike tour (which is finishing up on Thursday here in Ouaga at the fair), check out: http://burkinabiketour.blogspot.com/
The weekend after I returned from the bike tour, my homologue, Omar, got married in one of the biggest fetes that Toussiana has seen for awhile. Saturday morning, bright and early, I biked over to the mayor's office for the 8 am civil ceremony (in Burkina, all marriages are done first at the mayor's office and then at the respective church/mosque). To my surprise, 8 am passed without a member of the wedding present. At first I was nervous that I had gotten some information wrong, but eventually at around 8:30, some guests started to arrive. Finally, just before nine, Omar and his wife-to-be arrived in style in their decorated car. Only in Burkina Faso would a marriage ceremony start close to an hour late!
As official photographer, I was on-duty at the ceremony, which was chock-full with guests all wearing the matching pagne that Omar and Mai picked out for their big day (see my pictures, if the internet ever is fast enough to upload them). After the civil ceremony, all the guests got on their motos or in their cars and headed the 2km up the road to the church, honking their horns in a ceremonial procession. I jumped on my bike, hooked up my helmet, and suavely joined the beeping procession, pedaling as fast I could. Yea, I am that cool. When we arrived at the church, it was already full of more guests, admiring the paper decorations that had been added for the ceremony. All the guests enjoyed listening to the local village chorales before the service took place, but we were all excited for the big entrance.
A couple minutes past ten, the ceremony began with the twin flower girls leading in the couple of honor. After a long and musical service, after noon, we were finally able to cheer on the new Mr. and Mrs. The ceremony was followed by pictures and then a big lunch of riz gras, poulet, and salade. Everyone ate well, which was necessary considering the hours and hours of dancing that were to follow. That night in Omar's family courtyard, most of the village came to listen and dance to the balafon band. Even though I resisted for a while, eventually my friends dragged me out to do the "Toussian shuffle", our local dance. To do this traditional dance, I basically spend half of my time trying to find the beat in the balafon music (I am pretty sure there is none) and the other half trying not to look absolutely ridiculous swinging my arms back and forth and attempting to shake my backside. Ha. All in all, the marriage was a huge success, and we all had a great time. I can't wait for the next village wedding!
Finally, I am currently in Ouaga preparing for the big Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Fair starting this Thursday. This year, the PC is celebrating our global 50th anniversary, though we have only been Burkina for 37 years. To celebrate, a dedicated group of PCVs in country have spent hours and hours planning a three day extravaganza, highlighting the work of volunteers past and present as well as Burkinabe projects too. The newest stage will be sworn-in as volunteers to kick-off the fair on Thursday and we are having an exclusive concert by the uber-famous Burkinabe artist, Floby (he even wrote a PC-themed song for us). Another special event will be the fashion show on Friday night, where I will be making an appearance in aladdin pants and a tank top made by my association. I am more excited for my ATTA booth, as members of my association are making the six hour trip from Toussiana to Ouaga to sell bags, dresses, pants, shirts, computer covers, and other products. This will be our first opportunity to start selling products to help support our association, and I am hoping we have a lot of customers. However, like all big events, there is alot of planning and prep work that are going into the fair, and these last couple days in Ouaga have been insanely busy. For more information on the fair, check out our website at: http://pcburkina.org/fair
Other than that, I will be heading back to site in about a week, where I will be joined by my new site mate, an education volunteer. Having two of us in village is a great opportunity to get more projects done, and I am looking forward to painting a world map together at the primary school in November. Other events I am hoping to get rolling are planning a Service Day at the local middle/high school on Int'l Volunteer Day (Dec. 5th), starting a girls club at the primary school, and teaching computer classes at our new secretariat/cyber in town.
Check out my new pictures of the wedding and my trip to Morocco on the left side. Also I want to give a huge thanks to all the packages sent by my wondeful family and friends recently. I should be updating again soon with fair and swear-in pictures. An be ke kofe!
The weekend after I returned from the bike tour, my homologue, Omar, got married in one of the biggest fetes that Toussiana has seen for awhile. Saturday morning, bright and early, I biked over to the mayor's office for the 8 am civil ceremony (in Burkina, all marriages are done first at the mayor's office and then at the respective church/mosque). To my surprise, 8 am passed without a member of the wedding present. At first I was nervous that I had gotten some information wrong, but eventually at around 8:30, some guests started to arrive. Finally, just before nine, Omar and his wife-to-be arrived in style in their decorated car. Only in Burkina Faso would a marriage ceremony start close to an hour late!
As official photographer, I was on-duty at the ceremony, which was chock-full with guests all wearing the matching pagne that Omar and Mai picked out for their big day (see my pictures, if the internet ever is fast enough to upload them). After the civil ceremony, all the guests got on their motos or in their cars and headed the 2km up the road to the church, honking their horns in a ceremonial procession. I jumped on my bike, hooked up my helmet, and suavely joined the beeping procession, pedaling as fast I could. Yea, I am that cool. When we arrived at the church, it was already full of more guests, admiring the paper decorations that had been added for the ceremony. All the guests enjoyed listening to the local village chorales before the service took place, but we were all excited for the big entrance.
A couple minutes past ten, the ceremony began with the twin flower girls leading in the couple of honor. After a long and musical service, after noon, we were finally able to cheer on the new Mr. and Mrs. The ceremony was followed by pictures and then a big lunch of riz gras, poulet, and salade. Everyone ate well, which was necessary considering the hours and hours of dancing that were to follow. That night in Omar's family courtyard, most of the village came to listen and dance to the balafon band. Even though I resisted for a while, eventually my friends dragged me out to do the "Toussian shuffle", our local dance. To do this traditional dance, I basically spend half of my time trying to find the beat in the balafon music (I am pretty sure there is none) and the other half trying not to look absolutely ridiculous swinging my arms back and forth and attempting to shake my backside. Ha. All in all, the marriage was a huge success, and we all had a great time. I can't wait for the next village wedding!
Finally, I am currently in Ouaga preparing for the big Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Fair starting this Thursday. This year, the PC is celebrating our global 50th anniversary, though we have only been Burkina for 37 years. To celebrate, a dedicated group of PCVs in country have spent hours and hours planning a three day extravaganza, highlighting the work of volunteers past and present as well as Burkinabe projects too. The newest stage will be sworn-in as volunteers to kick-off the fair on Thursday and we are having an exclusive concert by the uber-famous Burkinabe artist, Floby (he even wrote a PC-themed song for us). Another special event will be the fashion show on Friday night, where I will be making an appearance in aladdin pants and a tank top made by my association. I am more excited for my ATTA booth, as members of my association are making the six hour trip from Toussiana to Ouaga to sell bags, dresses, pants, shirts, computer covers, and other products. This will be our first opportunity to start selling products to help support our association, and I am hoping we have a lot of customers. However, like all big events, there is alot of planning and prep work that are going into the fair, and these last couple days in Ouaga have been insanely busy. For more information on the fair, check out our website at: http://pcburkina.org/fair
Other than that, I will be heading back to site in about a week, where I will be joined by my new site mate, an education volunteer. Having two of us in village is a great opportunity to get more projects done, and I am looking forward to painting a world map together at the primary school in November. Other events I am hoping to get rolling are planning a Service Day at the local middle/high school on Int'l Volunteer Day (Dec. 5th), starting a girls club at the primary school, and teaching computer classes at our new secretariat/cyber in town.
Check out my new pictures of the wedding and my trip to Morocco on the left side. Also I want to give a huge thanks to all the packages sent by my wondeful family and friends recently. I should be updating again soon with fair and swear-in pictures. An be ke kofe!
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