Fun Times in Ouaga

August 25, 2009

Sunday morning, we all piled onto the STMB bus that came to ECLA to pick us up. We were all relieved that the bus came to pick us up first before going to the bus station. At least this way, we all got a seat on the bus and there was no half the people going at 8 and the other half going at a different time. I noticed that the bus company had oversold the tickets for the bus. There were several people that had to wait for the next bus to Ouaga. A couple of the PCVFs made everyone frozen coffee! It was absolutely delicious :) I slept for most of the bus ride, and Tim watched the countryside as we road to Ouaga. After the bus dropped everyone else off at the station, the bus drove all the PCT to the hotel. From there people broke off into groups for lunch. Most of the people went to either a Lebanese place, a Chinese restaurant, or to the Four Seasons. Tim, Steph and I decided to find somewhere different and give it a go. We stumbled across this yummy little sandwich shop. I got the very special hamburger, which was a huge cheeseburger with a fried egg on top. Sounds gross, but it was amazing. Tim and Steph both got the schwarma.
After lunch, Tim and I crashed for an two hour nap in our air conditioned room! Lets just say, it was heaven... After that, we went down to the lobby to see what was going on that night. A group of 10 of decided to go to the Four Seasons for pizza for dinner. Tim and I each ordered a pizza, gosh it was so yummy. 5 of the group left after eating and the rest of us just hung out for a while and they ordered drinks while I got a banana split!
Monday morning and part of the afternoon were spent in classes. We had a class with Doug, our CD first. Then a class with Sylvie, our PCMO. We did manage to sneak over to the ice cream shop in between the first and second session :) Tim and I went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The food there was so good. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken. It was nothing like what I expected, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing. The sauce was super sweet, but very good. Tim ordered a beef dish that was amazingly wonderful. It reminded me of beef stroganoff. After lunch, we had our final session with Jeff. After this session, Tim and I went to the most wonderful place in Ouaga, Marina Marché. This store is amazing! It has wonderful European products for sale. Tim says it is the equivalent to a European Supermarket. I want to cry when I first walked into the store. Directly off to my left was a lovely chiller full of confectionery delights. You can also buy Lindorfer chocolate there, but not the yummy truffles. Tim and I decided that our first trip to the store was just to look around a little and not buy a whole lot, so we ended up spending 60,000 CFA there. Our next trip to the store, we spent another 60,000 CFA too. Yes I know we are horrible, but being denied yummy food for three months, you are going to go a little wild.
We got to take a tour of the embassy here in Burkina. That was pretty cool. The embassy here is rather small with only 30 people from the US working there and about 150 Burkinabé. We got to meet the person who is running the embassy now since we are waiting for the replacement to arrive in October. The speech that he gave about what the embassy does and how to become a member of the State Department. There was also a guy that had been in the Peace Corps. He gave us some advice on not looking to far into the future and that the Peace Corps wasn't really a career track because you can only be in for 5 years then you have to be out for 5 years. After the tour we went to the rec center and had a pretty good lunch with milkshakes, chili, and onion rings. The chili and milkshakes were awesome but the onion rings were a bit of a let down.
Tuesday afternoon was a busy time for both Tim and I. Tim went to this nice little store that sells all sorts of amazing things. You could buy nice European cookware and utensils, some really good cleaning products and shampoo. I spent my afternoon trying to get to the bureau to talk with Sylvie about my nasty little cold. I left the hotel a half hour before my appointment. I walked from the hotel to the round point. I jumped onto the Rue de Fada and went to talk to a taxi man. I asked him how much it was going to cost to drive me down the street to a specific intersection. He told me 3,000 CFA, I laughed and said no. I told him that I would give him 500 CFA and he told me it was a long distance. I shook my head and just started walking. I hate having to deal with the taxi people. They assume that since you are white, they can rape you with charges. I walk for until 5 minutes before my appointment then hailed a cab. I told him the intersection that I wanted and that I would pay him 300 CFA. He agreed to the price, so I hopped in. Well as we were driving, I noticed that I was only 3 blocks away from the street that you go down to get to the transit house. This meant that I was almost to the bureau. The driver kept on going and I wasn't 100% sure how far down the road I wanted was. When the driver started getting toward the outer edge of where I had seen before I got really nervous. I asked the driver where the intersection was. He told me it was up further, I told him no it wasn't and to stop the taxi. The driver wouldn't stop the taxi after I told him several times to stop, so I just opened the door. He stopped after I did that. I jumped out of the cab and started walking back the other way down Rue de Fada. I ended up texting the PCMO phone that I was going to be late because the taxi got lost. This was answered by a phonecall from Sylvie. After walking for another 5 minutes, I hailed another cab told him to take me to the Red Cross. I finally got to the bureau and my appointment 45 minutes late. Then again, being 45 minutes late in West Africa is being on time :) Sylvie scored myself and two other PCTs a ride back to the hotel that way we would have time to get ready for our swearing in ceremony.
The Swearing-in Ceremony was a lot of fun. We all got dressed up and headed over in our finest Burkinabé fashion. The food was pretty good and the cake was great. Becky kept going and getting two pieces using the excuse one for her and one for me. The speeches were kept short for the most part. Five of the trainees gave speeches in French and in local languages. The temporary ambassador gave a really good speech and had pretty good French as well. After the ceremony, we got to hang out for a bit and talk to all the other volunteers who had come. We talked with the guy that we are replacing and to our closest PC neighbor. The party ended around 8 o'clock and we headed back to the hotel for the post party around the pool. Becky and I headed to bed early cause we were getting taken to Boulsa the next morning at 7 in the morning.