Ouagadougou

Three weeks passed awfully quickly. Last night I had the same feeling I often had after returning home from summer camp – a bit nostalgic for camaraderie in a place that seemed a different reality to me. I left Bobo yesterday and arrived in Ouagadougou for an overnight, waiting for the return flight to Dakar. The Hotel Splendid fared better in the daylight – I checked into a clean, air-conditioned room overlooking the pool and was pleased to find that the wireless internet worked. I felt a bit too enthusiastic for air-con.

I took a taxi to a restaurant off the main rond-pointe which had been recommended by a friend who was a Peace Corps volunteer a few years ago. I was disappointed to find that the restaurant was closed, but that ended up working in my favor because it was closed only for lunch and so I had dinner there later in the evening. Instead, I went next door to an artisan market with a café and, as I half-expected, was followed by shopkeepers all too eager to show me their merchandise. When one lady followed me to the table where I sat down and I asked her for a menu, she split right away. Lunch was mediocre at best and the service lagged, but I was desperate for some energy and it served that purpose (so that I could shop in the market for the couple of hours I had before dark!).

I returned to the hotel in time to swim before the sun set, and then walked back to the restaurant which had been closed earlier and discovered it was a lovely setting – much like the Forge in the Forest in Carmel, leafy and cozy since each table was full. The house specialty is brick-oven pizza and was indeed on par with pizza at home; it was a slice of heaven, particularly after so much rice and sauce.

I’m heading back to Dakar this afternoon and am looking forward to seeing some familiar faces there before leaving for Seattle on Tuesday night. Although it’s taken me a while to warm up to Dakar, I’m finding myself happy to go back, and visit with people and finish some work there. Simultaneously I feel a bit sad to leave Burkina. Where Dakar has the ocean, Bobo is extraordinarily green; vendors and taxi drivers seem more aggressive in Dakar, more personable and quicker to laugh in Bobo; my work in Dakar is very much jack-of-all-trades, in Bobo I feel more focused as I am in charge of a specific project.