Exploring le grand marche

I’m trying a new tactic – instead of trying to type the blog entry on the blasted French computers, I’m going write my entries at home and then bring my own computer to the internet café and cut & paste it in.

In my last entry I put my snail mail address – I am not sure how well the Burkinabe postal system works, although our Burkinabe colleague who has been helping us get settled assures us that it is pretty reliable. In some neighbouring countries, you can expect to receive less than 50% of the mail but Aziz says its much better than that.

The big adventure of Sunday afternoon was our trip to the market. Lesson #1 – never, ever go as a group of 7 foreigners to the market. We were followed & hounded nonstop. It just gets so tiresome!

There’s an interesting system here. Sometimes a person will attach himself to you (it is never, ever a woman) and follow you. If you stop to look at anything – say, containers for water, they will then either try to drag you to every stall (or shop) containing water containers or alternately, they will sometimes just turn up with an armload of water containers from various merchants. I think they must get a cut of the proceeds. The only thing is, they get pretty annoyed if you don’t buy the item you were looking for. Or sometimes, it’s the item they decided you want. The women sit quietly and never harass even the passing foreigners; they just take your business if you decide to work with them.

The market was really interesting, full of fascinating sights and smells, and I look forward to exploring more on my own now that I’ve been there once. I love the chaos of the market. And it wasn’t threatening feeling like some I’ve been in (like in Peru). The place is a veritable warren, one could get lost for days. The stalls are piled high with every imaginable good, there was everything from incense stalls to pots to CDs, and many cloth stalls, and even stalls selling caterpillars (to eat!). Some of the women had fish, laying out ‘ripening’ in the sun and they would fan them to lessen the fly infestation. The vegetable situation was pretty good, since it’s the rainy season… beautiful peppers, eggplants, tomatoes (like the Mbarara market!) but also green beans and some local vegetables like jaxate, which looks like a green tomato but is a variety of very bitter eggplant. But I definitely need to learn some Jula for using at the market, as many of the people in the market only speak that language.

Sunday night we ate in a great restaurant, called Deux Colombes (2 doves). We were the only customers, but I think it was the nicest meal we’ve had yet in Burkina Faso. I had steak, green beans & potatoes lyonnaise and it was just lovely. (Many of the restaurants are adequate; not brilliant). But still no good coffee.

Its actually less hot than I expected. Its the rainy season here, and reportedly it usually rains every day though it hasn't been. Despite the guidebooks warning about this time of year being humid and hot, it seems pretty nice. I think the climate here is nicer & cooler than in Ouaga. The streets are wide and tree lined, and the shade they afford certainly helps.

Anyhow, take care & I hope to hear from you soon!
Laura