Mark trying to buy dodgy CDs in Ouaga

BURKINA FASO

13 february. koro to ouahigouya, burkina faso

(MJ writes) Another day, another country. We rise early to arrive at the border in plenty of time before lunch; as we don’t know what the formalities are for Burkina and we don’t have a visa, we’re not quite sure what to expect. Firstly, we make a few required stops on the Malian side to get exit stamps on passports and carnet. The officials there tell us the Burkina border post is 12 km away. First stop, la Police des Frontieres, where a smiley official welcomes us to the country and invites us into his office. Unfortunately, the Ouagadougou head office hasn’t delivered the visa request forms, so he has to issue a hand-written form for us to fill out. After having watched him write all the questions down for us to answer, underline the appropriate headers, etc., we fill out the forms. In the meantime, we make small talk and Mark learns a few Moré words. A few more stops along the road - the Douanes for the carnet and the Gendarmerie for I’m not sure what - and we’re on our way to Ouahigouya to find somewhere to sleep.

On the road, we list our first impressions of the country we’ve just entered and compare with Mali: more water-holes, rows of planted and GREEN trees beside the road, more cashpoints, traffic lights, advertising, rubbish bins, more kids on their way to school, more people on their way to somewhere rather than just sitting around (i.e. men), more people on bikes, mopeds. In short, we get the impression the country is more affluent and dynamic than Mali.

When we drive in to Ouahigouya, the fourth city in Burkina Faso, we find the place bustling with activity and we drive around looking for the “6 S - Groupement NAAM”, where we intend to spend the night. As I’ve finally been hit by a bout of ‘turista’, my only requirement is that the toilets be accessible and flushable. We decide to take an air-con room (including toilet, seat and loo paper - hurray!) and Mark leaves me to go service the Landy.

Our first contact with locals that afternoon is slightly disappointing as the few people who approach us are desperate for us to help them. Just as we were beginning to think that people here looked liked they helped themselves. One guy tells us that he presides an association who looks after street kids and teaches them to play the djembé or make jewellery and crafts. We think it’s a wonderful initiative, until he wants us to meet three girls who need money to go to private school (not sure we understood why they didn’t get in to the public system as Burkina is known to put great emphasis on education) and to take us to his association to buy things. We share our meal and spend a lot of time with him to try and understand why the help he needs has to come from the white man. Mark asks him what he would do if he had 500,000 F CFA. The answer is to set up a shop to sell crafts; somehow we don’t really think there’s a need in the market for another craft shop... After a while, when he decides we’re not the investors he’s after, he tells us he’s off to another hotel to find the white man. The cycle of dependency continues...

14 february. ouagadougou.

We head into the capital and find a place to camp at the OK Inn, which is a 3-star hotel not far from the airport. We can park for free behind a lorry park, next to a mini-golf and the HGV driver training centre; definitely not the quietest place we’ve stayed at - and the reception staff definitely don’t like campers -, but we have access to toilet and showers, and the pool, providing we take a meal in the hotel restaurant. Not to much of a hardship, as it’s Valentine’s and the restaurant has a French menu. We treat ourselves with a meal of entrecôte bordelaise and Château Barreyres and it’s not long before we’re both very sleepy after so much food and wine!

15 february. ouagadougou.

Up early to get a taxi in to the Ghanaian Embassy. We fill four (!) copies of the required form, leave photos, passports, pay 15,000 F CFA and are on our way to explore the city. As I need new flip-flops we head toward the market. Mark stops at a stall selling CDs and finds something he wants to listen to, so the seller and his friend take us to neighbouring CD player vendors. After three tries in three different CD players - including the one in the CD-pirate’s shop, it’s obvious this copy is of distinctly dodgy quality, so we decide to forget it. It doesn’t take long before a guy sees me looking at flip-flops and decides he’s going to be the one to find me exactly whay I’m looking for, so he takes me from shoe stall to shoe stall, so the vendors can show me what they have. At one point, Mark wanders off and I have about eight guys around me helping me try on flip-flops; I’m only good at shopping when I’m on my own, so I’m finding all this very loud attention a bit overwhelming. Luckily, for everybody, I find some that are suitable and Mark and I can resume our leisurely stroll through the city.

After a while, we decide to take a taxi back to the OK Inn and the driver asks us if we’ve seen Le Village Artisanal. As we haven’t we decide to go and have lunch there. Le Village is a grouping of artisans (ironworks, woodwork, bogolan weaving, jewellery, pottery, painting) and we find many things we would like to buy. Unfortunately, prices are quite steep and we don’t really have anywhere to put things so we decide to pass.

We return to the hotel and spend the afternoon by the pool. As the visas for Ghana take 48 hours to issue and won’t be ready before Friday afternoon, we’re going to stick around and wait until then.

16 february. ougadougou.

We feel that we’re just passing through Burkina and not really wanting to take take the time necessary to explore more of the country. It seems we need to chill for a while and since the beginning of the trip Ghana is the place we’ve wanted to do that, so for the time being we’re just waiting for the green light to drive to Ghana.