Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Good Morning, Ouaga!

This morning, we were woken up by the sound of roosters crowing. No we’re not in the village yet. Welcome to suburban life in Ouagadougou!

After the rain yesterday, temperatures were down, which meant that we didn’t need to run the air conditioner during the night to help us sleep. So this morning, we were able to enjoy all the sounds and smells of the neighbourhood: people talking and banging cooking pots in nearby courtyards as they made breakfast, wood smoke from their cooking fires, the radio blaring at a coffee stand down the road, the putt-putt of motos and semi-mufflered roar of gravel & firewood trucks going by and, of course, the roosters :) Even in suburban Ouaga, many people live much like they did in the village. Because that’s where many of them originally came from, often just a few years ago. In fact, the key to knowing how most people think in Ouaga is to understand the rural village life they’ve come from.

After the high speed Internet of Canada, this Internet connection in Burkina is driving me crazy! It takes forever to send a message! And if there are several messages, I have to resend for virtually each and every one of them. Receiving messages is just as bad. And don’t even get me started on trying to get on Facebook, check my Hotmail, or access my bank account!!! The expression “slower than molasses in the wintertime” comes to mind… The positive side to this is that I now have time to read entire chapters of books between mouse clicks!

I guess I shouldn’t complain TOO much since we at least still have access to the Internet, though it seems to me that transmission speed has diminished since we left in 2005.

Yesterday evening, I called Pastor Emmanuel in Zabré. It was our appointed call time. You should have heard the excitement in his voice when he realized that we were actually, physically back in Burkina! I’m planning to drive down to see him on Thursday. This is a little sooner than I’d originally thought of going, but Kathy & I are meeting with our Director on Friday to discuss the future of the Kusaal Project, so I need to touch base with Pastor Emmanuel and get his input before then.

Well, I’d better get to work. Several of the screens we have on our windows to keep out the mosquitoes have rusted out along the bottom, allowing the little malaria carriers to infiltrate our domicile. Got to put a stop to that!

1 comment:

The Guthries said...

Hello Kathy & Mike,

After you mentioned you had a blog I googled you to find it! I will be following it and praying for you both!
I am excited for you to be back in Burkina. Thanks for your input on our support raising, we will keep you informed.
God Bless,
Carin Guthrie