blog 6-13 – on

It would seem that I have taken some serious time away from blogging. It was probably the inspiration of bob, the 6 year traveling Australian which inspired me to take up again. Besides, I have long had the desire, but not had the energy or the privacy.

So it is important, I guess, to bring myself up to date.

I moved to Burkina faso 2 weeks ago. I took it very very easy at first. I think it was the seduction of family, and the desire to chill out after traveling so much. I spent a good amount of time just chatting with gaetano, and enjoying, for the first time in a long time, some one on one mentoring. After a week of that, with some scattered research stabs, I was antsy to put the pen down and set off on interviews once again.

The week that gaetano went off to benin, afforded me the opportunity to get out of the house, go to late night events, see the town, and overall be free. Now that didn’t necessarily lead to me meeting many people. One day walking along, however, I noticed this white guy wandering along. I was making my way in that direction, towards the taxi stand, having just come from swimming with Leone, a French girl I had met when watching the emperors weekly fake departure ritual. He turned the corner. When I reached the other end, he was coming back again, however, and I greeted him with a bonjour. He responded, however ,with a “hello, how are you.” I swiveled around right away. An Anglophone! I am not language prejudiced, but in the same way that skin color or nationality create these little forums for connection, so does language. This is mostly true, however, in a situation where you are the minority. I told him I would be at the concert downtown later that night, and he agreed to meet me there.

I arrived around 8:10. Later than my intention, but I have perhaps become a little too accustomed to African time.
He had met another local who spoke English and invited him in with us. Now, I, unfortunately, do get very suspicious of locals who you meet just on the street, because it can be a signal that they are looking for something more. I have this particular prejudice for those people who you meet in a context that would not necessarily be considered typical in the US, i.e. someone just approaches you in the street. While for the young traveler, it is exciting to have a chance to talk to a “local”, the strings typically attached to these hungry friends can become a little too much. All the same, his friend, while eating on our ticket, didn’t ask for anything else. Perhaps that was already too much, however. Maybe I should just do it the African way, order my own food, and then say to the person there, you’re invited. This typically leads to them graciously declining, but with such gentlemen, it would probably backfire however.
It was great to have a chance meeting that led to great conversation touching everything from religion to traveling etc. Bob has been traveling for the past 6 yrs. I later found out that this was sparked by a brain aneurysm which left him in the hospital for 8 months. He is a budget traveler, and uses the money earned from renting his apt out in Sydney to pay for his travels. Incredible. Both the simplicity and vivacity with which he travels is inspirational. We were out till 1 am or so, the latest, in fact, I had been out since I arrived in Burkina.
I was feeling the lack of sleep the next day, when I rose at 5:30 to head off to mass. Bob said that he might meet me there. I gave him the wrong info, so he showed up halfway through the service, but it was probably better that way, as I imagine he might not have wanted to sit through the whole 3 hrs. the mass was followed by a procession with the eucharist around the block, stopping twice to pray. I decided to have no shame, and moved about the event recording. Following the mass and the procession, bob and I sought out food. Having found ourselves omlettes and yogurt, I offered to show him around, and help buy him some pants. When we left later that afternoon, we said that we should try to get together again the next day, but I grabbed his email address all the same, just in case it didn’t work out. Little did I know that later that day I would be moving in next door to him.
Indeed, in the taxi on the way back, I got a call from gaetano saying they had gotten back. With one more guest already in the house, and one more on the way, it was time to move on. One has to be wary when one gets too comfortable in a living situation when on the road.