Yel Kaye – Travel Blog, Writing and Photography

I am cancelling today’s scheduled complain-a-thon (the short version: it’s too hot in the desert and our bus back from Gorom-Gorom was practically flooded by rain) to write a more balanced list of “Things I Like and Things I don’t Like in Ouagadougou”

Things I Like

1. Street Vendors that aren’t Artisans. Selling anything from bananas to magazines to belts, there are thousands of young men and women roaming the street with their wares on their heads. My favourite are the “all purpose” vendors, the guys that have boxes filled with the same mix of goods: chewing gum, tissue paper, sesame snacks, cigarettes and laundry detergent.

2. Le Festin. This must seriously be the only restaurant in downtown Ouaga open for lunch. At first glance (when you open the menu to the “Meals of Resistance” page) it looks expensive, but turn to the “African Speciality” page. For 700CFA (about 1.50CAD) you can get rice and beef with a delicious peanut sauce.

3. Calling People Black. After being greeted with “Nasara, Nasara” (white person, white person) every 5 seconds, I learned the Moore word for black person. Now I return their greeting with “Nisablaga, Nisablaga” and am greeted with laughs and a lot more respect (or maybe just laughs).

4. Motos. Riding around on the back of a moped is awesome.

5. The cafe beside my house. Literally two steps out my door, I go here every morning because apparently my host family doesn’t eat breakfast? It is basically a little shack with one bench, and four dudes working where one could easily suffice. Every morning I drink Nescafe with sugared condensed milk, and fried egg on a baguette. Mysteriously, the price changes every day, so I pay anywhere from 300 to 450CFA for this culinary delight. They also blare reggae from about 6AM every morning.

6. Snacks. Sesame cakes, friend dough balls, ice cream in tubes… who needs real meals?

7. Green taxis. Today, for instance, I rode in a taxi with 6 adult passengers, 3 children and 2 chickens. The doors, incidentally, didn’t open from the inside. In any case, I love them.

Things I Don’t Like

1. 10,000CFA notes (about 22 bucks). In a country where the average income is something like 200 dollars a year, why does the government print so many goddamn large denomination bills? It is literally impossible to break them unless you go to a gas station (and even then, they will give you the death stare) or a really high end restaurant. And, of course, ATMs only dispense 10,000CFA notes. In fact, breaking any bill is a struggle. For example, I got into a huge argument with a taxi driver yesterday over wanting to pay my 500CFA fare with a 2000CFA (about four bucks) note. He said that I couldn’t expect to pay for things with bills. I got extremely annoyed and told him that someone, somewhere, was going to have to take my money, otherwise I would never have any change. He tossed me the change, slammed the door and sped away.

2. Young rich Burkinabé men. I am obviously generalizing here (there are exceptions), but wealthy young men here are absolutely atrocious and feel the need to flaunt their superior class position at every chance. Who needs three cell phones, gold jewellery and a gold watch, AND feels the need to get their shoes shined in the middle of a bar? A friend (who I realize now that I can’t stand, and am avoiding at all costs) told me that I should get a car as soon as I can, because it’s improper for the rich to walk on the street with poor people, even if it’s safe.

3. Crossing the street. It’s kind of like an extreme version of Frogger, with cars, motos and bicycles all going at different speeds. Even with stoplights and 17 police officers blowing their whistles and directing traffic, I still haven’t quite figured out when to cross the street. My only successful method is to wait for a Burkinabé person, and cross when they do.

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On a final note, here’s a memorable statement.

Rasta on Polygamy

“I want five wives, because that way I can have enough children to start a soccer team.”