Monday, December 5, 2011

the view from a cafe in Ougadougou

ok, so its an expat cafe but i like it cause it has free, and fast, wifi and because street vendors aren't allowed to come up on the veranda and shove stuff in my face.

Danielle just successfully ordered a Bloody Mary. I love it here.

I hate visas and borders. Crossing a border is one of the most stressful things I can think of. When I was in Lome a couple weeks ago, I went to the passport place to buy Burkina visas. In Lome they are 35 mille as opposed to 90 mille on the border-- so I heard. Anyway, I get to the place, and the guy is like "c'est fini." He told me to come back in a week. I said I couldn't do it, and he was like, "buy a visa at the border. 25 mille." Right.

I left Kouka on thursday with Kader. We met up with D in Kabou, spent the night in Kara, and then left early friday for Burkina. We got to Cinkasse, on the border, at about 1300. Kadar is friends with the one of the customs officials there who was going to get us across. then we found out that visas at the border cost 94 mille a person. After much deliberation we decided to head back which sucked cause one of the reasons we were going up to Burkina, besides for a vacation, was because Kadar was going to visit family. We were walking back to the station when we found a little bank. D was able to withdraw enough cash on her card to cover our visas. So about 1800 we got into Burkina.

We spent the night in Cinkasse, then took a bush taxi to Ouga. The taxi had a functioning speedometer. The driver kept it pegged at 100-110kph. That's the fastest I've gone in Africa. That says something about the condition of burkinabe bush taxis and roads . . .

Ouga is pretty cool. Its more developed then lome and it seems like everyone has a scooter. There are a lot more foreigners here too. D and I walked around a supermarket yesterday just to remember what it was like. I saw a yellow Lamborghini and got soft serve ice cream.

I am more tired of traveling now than I am when I last posted. 7 hours from Kara to Cinkasse, then another 5 up to Ouga the next day. Stuffed in a van with 20 other people. The car up to Ouga had a moto on top of it. This is not unusual. However, the genius owner didn't shut off the fuel line before he had his moto mounted, so gas ran all over the roof of the car. I've scrubbed my backpack 3 times and still cant get the smell out. Oh well. that's what cologne is for.

Otherwise, i love vacation.

1 comment:

  1. love these stories. Wish you had a camera to post quick pics too.

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