The day started with a group leaving for Bobo- Dioulasso, another group was heading to Ouahigouya to visit their ONGs headquarters, and Simon (remember Simon who tore a ligament 1 week ago) was heading to South Africa for an operation – while his wife and 3 kids are off to Bobo.
The move was not completely smooth but we could not expect it to be .... could we? Packed the car (but really packed the car) and off to our new neighbourhood (The «we» is that I am an immediate neighbour of Thérèse and Pierre who are here for 3 months)- once we brought our luggage in our respective houses I started to notice a few flaws in mine such as water pissing all over the place in the bathroom so I had to shut it off – no mosquito net for the bed which needs to be installed with a wood frame – no connection tube from the hot plate to the propane – no instructions on how to use the water filter – and now that it is night we all realized we had no electricity. Finally got electricity at around 9h00 pm only to realize that my fridge does not work. But as the Burkinabè say «pas de problèmes – il n’y a jamais de problèmes» i.e. no problem everything can be fixed in time, not too sure when that time is but it does come eventually… It is 10h00 pm and I am exhausted.
January 23rd
A little rude awakening to the new neighbourhood – or should I say awakeningS as I am next to a Muslim Mosque with prayers starting at 4h30 am intermittently to 6 am – hope I get use to it.
My new home is really a lot better than I expected – I have a fairly large living room, a dining area, a kitchen , 2 bedrooms and a bathroom + large parking area and all fenced in. The furniture to date is a little skimpy – in the living room I have a sofa and 2 extra seats and a coffee table– a desk with a chair – 1 of the bedrooms has a double bed and the kitchen has the essentials with fridge, hot plate and propane and a small piece of furniture to put some dry foods.
I purchased some other essentials such as sheets, plates, casseroles, buckets, broom, cleaning solutions and a little bit of food. Then I met with a carpenter to make me some furniture – a dining table with 4 chairs and a commode for the bedroom so I can hang up my clothes. I should get the furniture in about 1 to 2 weeks. The prices are unbelievable – the total cost will be 75 000F CFA or $185 – not sure about quality of workmanship but I am sure it will do for the next 2 years. Next purchase will be an extra bed (will wait to see if I need it) and a night table for my bedroom.
The one inconvenience is the bathroom – the shower is part and parcel of the bathroom so everything gets wet including toilet paper and towel. By the way here the temperature of your water when you take a shower depends on the temperature of the water as you have absolutely no controls for hot or cold water - it is what it is.
Another challenge will be the dust – red dust. I washed the floors 4 times and dusted the coffee table 3 times and it is still dusty – one solution would be to close the windows but then I would suffocate of heat. So cleaning is a daily shore.
Today everything that needed fixing got fixed so I can take a cold shower and cook some food. I am in my new home for the next 2 years and hopefully will get use to it. The neighbours are all very nice and welcoming but the neighbourhood is really dark at night (no midnight strolling here) and garbage everywhere - since there is no garbage pick-up the city is infested with garbage, plastic bags everywhere - tires - paper etc... however everything comestible gets eaten up pretty fast by the animals who roam the streets (donkeys, chickens, pigs, dogs, cats) so it does not smell.
Electricity is also another interesting thing here - you need to prepay electricity units and if you do not keep a watchful eye on the counter you may very well find yourself with no electricity until you go buy some more units. I am sure that will happen to me a few times.
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