Paris

I wanted to hate France.

I was excited to travel and see family, but after witnessing the horrible and demeaning visa process for Elisée, I officially stated my hatred for all things France and vowed to never return.

But then I arrived in Paris.

 

  

I mean, how can anyone hate Paris? The beauty, the culture, the history, it was all so incredible! And despite the stereotypes of Parisians being stiff arrogant pricks, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the locals.

 La famille

 

Contemplating art inside the Louvre

In the 10 days I was there we visited everything a tourist could see, from the Eiffel tower to the catacombs. We visited museums, strolled along the Seine, picnicked in Bois du Boulogne. We took the metro quite a bit but I’m pretty sure we walked on every street corner of Paris.

With FAVL unable to escape our minds, we visited France’s national library and were lucky enough to visit Paris during the huge ‘Salon du Livre’ exposition where I was able to buy numerous books for Pobé’s library.

Overall the trip was a much needed and wonderful vacation. My only disappointment was the food, though I of course I gorged myself on plenty of pastries, wine and cheeses.

 The moms and I in front of Notre Dame

Centre Pompidou

 view of death inside Paris' catacombs

Work (finally) and more

A couple weeks ago was FESPACO, the biennial African film festival that takes place in Ouagadougou. During its last occurrence two years ago I stayed in village and didn’t attend any FESPACO events, so I made sure to participate this year. I saw several well-made and interesting films, though I really loved some of the short 20 minute films. My favorite was “Lezare (for today)” by the Ethopian Zelalem Woldemariam.

My mother complains that I don’t write enough on my blog about the work I do with FAVL. Like I mentioned in a previous posting, work mostly includes fundraising, publicity for FAVL, developing relationships with local governments and organizations, etc. I really enjoy the work but I don’t know; maybe it’s just me but I feel like even if I were the next Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky I still couldn’t make reading about grant writing very appealing to readers. I do, however, write quite a bit about our work activities on FAVL's blog if anyone asides my mom is curious. Have said that, this past weekend we did organize two fundraisers that were time consuming in terms of preparations but a lot of fun:

Race for Reading

 Race for Reading runners in Parc Bangr Weogo; handing out the prize to 6km winner Ronald

I run a couple times a week at a nearby park with Elisee and one morning he mentioned that we should organize a race to help raise funds for the FAVL libraries. This idea turned into Race for Reading, a 3K and 6K walk/run which we held on Saturday morning, March 12^th. Overall it went well, though we seemed to have quite a bit against us. Recently students have been organizing massive demonstrations in towns and cities all over Burkina over the controversial death of a student after being beaten by police. While the circumstances surrounding his death may or may not be true, it has become a catalyst for several massive demonstrations against the government.

Despite the protests, we had enough participants to have a decent race. It was an amicable, family friendly race with all participants expressing their happiness with the race's organization and vows to participate in future events.

Jungle Party

On the evening of March 12th, FAVL was once again the recipient of the raffle during Jungle Party, an event organized by a local expat. It’s a night of music, dancing and drinks that like Race for Reading, took place in the Parc Bangr Weogo. FAVL went around selling raffle tickets throughout the night and at the end, received all the money from tickets sold. It’s a good event and honestly, a relatively easy way for FAVL to receive money (the entire event is organized by the expat, FAVL just needs to get certificates contributed by different stores and businesses for the raffle). I guess I enjoyed the Jungle Party but I don’t know, it’s just not really my type of scene. It’s awkward, reminding me of some 8^th grade dance, with boys on one side and girls on the other, the dance floor empty in the middle. Except it’s even MORE awkward because everyone there is like 35 years old. Only around 1 a.m., once the drinks have gotten into people’s systems, does the dance floor start to fill up (Hopefully this last part doesn't resemble an 8th grade dance but with kids these days...you never know!).

On the 18^th I’m heading to France for 10 days. There I’ll meet up with my mom, aunt and cousin (who I haven’t seen in 3 years!). I must admit, I very much dislike France right now, especially anything/anyone involved with the French embassy in Burkina, who I find treats people (especially those who happen to be Black) like diseased animals. Despite my feelings, I am incredibly excited to be able to see my family and I know we will have an amazing time together. I haven’t been to Europe since 5^th grade and I’ve never been to Paris. I’m a little worried about the weather. FIFTY degrees? I was freezing by butt off during Burkina’s “cold” season when it was 75 degrees!

 SANOU Dounko, FAVL’s activities coordinator, was recently in Pobe-Mengao for two weeks to train a new FAVL librarian. On his return I met up with him and got a wonderful update on the library complete with lots of pictures. Check out the Pobe-Mengao library blog  to read more.

A Day in the Life

On my blog, I spent two years trying to describe and share my life in village. There is no denying that this year, living and working in Ouaga is completely different than my experience in Pobé. Yet I’ve realized that since I’ve been in Ouaga, I haven’t really written about a typical day here. What is it that Emilie is doing exactly in Ouaga? How does she spend her days? Where does she go? Who does she hang out with? Well my friends, you don’t have to torment yourselves with these burning questions any longer.

Welcome to “A Day in the Life : Emilie Crofton, special edition Ouagadougou”

I wake up in the morning in my comfy bed, wrapped up in my sheet like a sandwich roll because I’m ACTUALLY cold from the fan blowing on me all night (I love you electricity). I go to the boutique which is so perfectly located directly in front of the house. They know me so well that now their standard greeting to me is not "Ney y beogo" but "Fo data gela wana?" How many eggs do you want?  Because I always buy an absurd amount of eggs.

After breakfast I bike to work. Despite the short 7 minute commute I pray to the traffic gods that I won’t get hit by speeding drivers who clearly don’t respect any sort of traffic laws.
At the office, the chair in front of the FAVL computer has become my throne, where I pass endless hours typing (I know I know, welcome to the real world Emilie). Work includes anything from grant writing, fundraising, organizing events, improving contacts with local officials in Burkina, etc…

After work I usually head to the gym for an hour of aerobics. When I think of the fact that I used to be an athlete who’d train up to 3 hrs a day, this class is a joke. Yet I always leave tired and sweaty and continue to struggle lifting the damn wooden rod with what I swear are invisible weights. My college bball coach would be ashamed.

After the gym I stop to buy veggies from the women merchants set up along the road. Even after months of being in Ouaga, I can never get over that I can buy eggplant, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, green onions, potatoes, avocados, zucchini etc… and rarely ever spend more than $3. I may vary my veggie ladies but I always buy my fruit at the same stand, where Aminata always has fair prices often gives me a "cadeau."

On my way home I'll sometimes stop to visit Madina, who’s become a very good friend here in Burkina. She’s incredibly friendly, generous and a great businesswoman. During the day she runs a stand in the nearby market selling colorful “pagnes” and in the evening she sells “achieke”, a delicious dish made from cassava, originating from the Ivory Coast.

Madina and her beautiful pagnes by day...

Madina by night

Because I can never resit buying some of Madina's wonderful pagnes, every now and then I stop by to visit Pauline, a tailor I go to to have clothes made and who has become another good friend. Then its back home to whip up some dinner, get washed up and its off to bed, ready to begin another day.

Visit to FAVL libraries

  Last week  I went down to village to visit the FAVL libraries. The visit was for a couple different reasons: 1) I acted as a sort of liaison/tour guide to a visiting professor from USF and 2) to assist Rodrigue, a student in Ouaga doing research for his thesis, in conducting an inspection/survey of the FAVL libraries. Even though it was for work, it was great to be able to get out of Ouaga for a while.

It amazes me how much village calms me. I guess it’s the quietness, the simplicity of village life. I returned from village calm and stress free.  It didn’t last long, returning to an abundance of emails and work, but it was wonderful while it lasted!

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so I feel like I can better express my time in village through pictures (taken by Charley and the professor) rather than my rambling words.

 

Conducting a survey of Bereba's library with Rodrigue

                                           A happy reader
                                                                   

                                             The library of Koumbia

                                            Outside Bereba's library

                                         It's cotton cultivating season down south

                                     Woman making bricks with baby helping

                                I'll pass on taking this taxi brousse!

                                     Hanging out in the village of Boni
                                                            

                                                Don't get any ideas (yet) mom!
                                                   

                            Playing with paper planes in Dimikuy

Happy New Year's!

This year my Christmas and New Year’s were definitely more ‘holiday-like’. Like previous holidays back home, I spent too much, drank too much and ate too much! To be honest I’ve been completely spoiled these past few weeks, indulging myself quite happily and guilt-free in the “good life.”

Still arrogant with the success of our first brunch, Charley and I held another party at our house, inviting our neighbors and friends. Now that my culinary skills are at their finest (or so I thought) I cooked up “riz gras” (rice cooked in a tomato-like sauce), beef kabobs and teriyaki chicken with brownies for dessert. Unfortunately, the kabobs and chicken were tough and overcooked. The rice was absolutely delicious but the truth is that a Burkinabe friend came to help and ended up cooking the entire dish herself…a blessing actually. Charley and I were pleasantly surprised with some beautiful locally made gifts by our very good friend and neighbor Madina.

As a Christmas present to ourselves, Charley and I now have a fridge in the house. It’s sad how ridiculously happy we are about this. I realized though, that I haven’t had a fridge in my house since June 2008, and considering I am the Queen of Food (or rather, Queen of EATING), that is saying something! I have reminisced about what having a fridge means to me: 1) I don’t have to buy veggies/ingredients the day I plan to use them 2) Cold drinks await me just outside my door 3) I can no longer use the excuse “I guess I HAVE to eat this entire cauldron of mac and cheese since it will go bad by tomorrow”

In addition to my new eating habits, some ex-pat friends left to travel over the holidays. I was asked to feed their cat while they were gone. Having this tiny crazy cat attack my feet and claw up my legs was totally worth it: not only is their house beautiful but I was able to swim and lounge by their wonderful pool!
So as you can see, my holidays were nice: everything from going out to nice restaurants, lounging by a pool, dancing the night away and watching an incredible (even for US standards) New Year’s fireworks display in downtown Ouagadougou.















However, I also realized that this has been the third holiday season that I have spent away from home, away from family and friends. On the phone my mom told me “I’ve been spending the past three holiday seasons with other people’s children…next year I want to spend it with you!” I concur wholeheartedly. And today, posted on the internet where anyone/everyone can see, I promise that next year I will be at home (or Quebec) surrounded by friends and family for the 2011 holidays.

Happy New Year everyone!