Monday, April 23, 2007
Hi folks, Hope this update to our blog finds you all well. We have had a lovely Easter break, we managed to take a few days holiday away from the stresses and strains of Tumu and took ourselves off to Ouagadougou, capital of neighbouring Burkina Faso.
The journey to Ouaga, as it is affectionately called, was not too eventful. Rather surprising as journeys from Tumu would normally cause us both a lot of heartache, and rather a lot of bottom ache, in more ways than one! We eventually secured a seat on the second tro tro of the day from Tumu to Bolga, having been in the queue from 4:30 am, it left at approximaetely 7.20am. We got off at Navrongo, the stop before Bolga, and took a taxi to Paga. This is a border town in the Upper East Region and there passed through Ghana immigration and into Burkina Faso without too much fuss. Then we were shown to a taxi and agreed a price of 4000 CFA (roughly £4) per person for the onward journey to the capital. Waiting in the taxi, for this read, very old, rather falling apart looking Peugeot 605, were several passengers. The car essentially had three rows. In the back were three, rather large, Burkina ladies. They were lovely and cheerful, and somehow squeezed in amongst them were two children of around 3 and 7 years of age. You would have needed more than a can opener to prise them out! On the front row, along side the driver was another young lad of about 8 years and another large lady with a fantastic woolly hat on! Then in the middle row we were accompanied by a smart gentleman with what appeared to be a laptop briefcase. Once settled we started on our journey… for about two minutes, when we all got out – ladies and all, to go through the Burkina passport and visa control. Now 20,000 CFA’s (about £20…I take it you can work out the exchange rate now!) lighter the first part of our mission having been accomplished, our journey continued along beautifully tarred and straight roads to Ouagadougou 160 Km away. The three hour journey was interspersed with several stops: to greet the drivers family; to greet his brother who just happened to be the local doctor driving an ambulance; to buy onions, thankfully the non too smelly variety, as there must have been several hundred weight of these added to the already axel bending load, mangoes and bread; and of course to assist at the scene of an accident. I say of course, as accidents are enjoyed by all spectators and participants, if that’s the correct term, as long as no one has been hurt. Let me explain, there is lots of shouting and finger wagging, the saga gets told and retold, a bit like a fisherman’s tale, then all of a sudden they shake hands and go on their respective ways. So an entertaining way to spend several minutes. Just as good as a coffee break in a Trusthouse forte motorway service café. Also along the way we managed to pick up two more passengers. One squeezed into the front seat, and one along side me. So now four people occupied the middle row and two adults on the passenger seat and the child, who had fallen asleep, now sat with the driver on his seat! Total number in car:13! We eventually arrived at the hotel at 2.30pm – not bad going at all. All in all an entertaining journey into a new country.
And what a different country Burkina Faso is. Apart from the fact that no one speaks any English, the contrast with Ghana, let alone Tumu is huge. The first thing that is so obvious is the good infrastructure – their roads are fantastic. Well, as we’ve spent the last 7 months riding along on dirt tracks anything that has tarmac and is smooth and straight has to be good. But in true French fashion we had to pay a ‘peagé’ for the privilege. The water and irrigation systems in B.F. have been very well planned and there are several areas that have been dammed and the land around planted and tended with rice, fruits and vegetables, so the availability and variety of food stuff in Ouagadougou far out weighs anything we can possibly get in Tumu. The other quite stark contrast is in the level of poverty. Here in Tumu people seem to be all able to survive, it is a working town and all the people are able to find enough money to feed their families and have somewhere to live. But in Ouaga, there are people, who obviously are very wealthy, driving nice big shiny four-by-four vehicles, pick up trucks, land cruisers and the likes, and then people who are begging on the streets with absolutely nothing. So that was a shock to us not being accustomed to the clamming attention of so many people.
During our stay we paid a visit to the embassy and managed to obtain an annual multi-entry visa for Burkina Faso, so the second part of our mission had been accomplished. So now we will be able to fly home and return via Ouaga which will be so much easier than having to travel for two days down from Tumu to Accra, for our flights.
The third, and for me the most important task we had to undertake, was not too difficult, in fact it was really, really enjoyable. This being to eat as much cheese as we could, and just a few scoops of French wine to wash it down. The food was heavenly and the restaurants we found certainly did not let us down.
So fed, watered and having spent several hours swimming in a lovely cool swimming pool, our trip to B.F. was a total success and a thoroughly enjoyable one.
But I can’t end this blog entry with you all thinking that the Whitehills are living it up!!! We have today had one of our worst experiences……a spider came to paid us a visit. I say spider, it was no ordinary spider. It was spotted hiding in the crack of the bathroom door late at night, and Al in his dream like state decided not to investigate too much and stepped over it and returned to bed. However, it was still there in the morning, 5 rather thick hairy legs sticking out from the corner. So we eventually plucked up enough courage to try and capture it, typically British we didn’t want to kill it. Well, the spider wasn’t too keen, and he was indeed quite a biggy, so when we put a stick close to him he attacked it! Eventually we got him into a transparent plastic container covered with a piece of cardboard – and boy could it jump! So with my hand firmly on the cardboard and ignoring Al’s murmurings about getting the camera, I told him to get the door open. When outside we put him, well threw him, a fair way from the house. Whilst having a good look at the spider, our other goat, Bully, together with baby Bully, strolled over to see us expecting the usual food. They walked directly towards us and stood over the spider. Then the spider proceeded to climb the goat’s rear leg, but it simply flicked it off without looking and then nonchalantly, yet unwittingly, stood on it! So we had a dead spider despite our humane attempts at keeping it alive! We’ve included a picture of the ‘spider killer’ – Bully (with Baby Bully). When a friend of ours, from the local environmental NGO Green Sahara, called later he told us it’s known as a ‘wolf spider’. Let’s hope we don’t get any more. We believe it’s because of the recent rainfall (first in 6 months) that it appeared – there’s been a noticeable increase in creepy crawlies. There’s also been a noticeable increase in power cuts, so to show you how we pass the time during these we’ve attached a photo!
The journey to Ouaga, as it is affectionately called, was not too eventful. Rather surprising as journeys from Tumu would normally cause us both a lot of heartache, and rather a lot of bottom ache, in more ways than one! We eventually secured a seat on the second tro tro of the day from Tumu to Bolga, having been in the queue from 4:30 am, it left at approximaetely 7.20am. We got off at Navrongo, the stop before Bolga, and took a taxi to Paga. This is a border town in the Upper East Region and there passed through Ghana immigration and into Burkina Faso without too much fuss. Then we were shown to a taxi and agreed a price of 4000 CFA (roughly £4) per person for the onward journey to the capital. Waiting in the taxi, for this read, very old, rather falling apart looking Peugeot 605, were several passengers. The car essentially had three rows. In the back were three, rather large, Burkina ladies. They were lovely and cheerful, and somehow squeezed in amongst them were two children of around 3 and 7 years of age. You would have needed more than a can opener to prise them out! On the front row, along side the driver was another young lad of about 8 years and another large lady with a fantastic woolly hat on! Then in the middle row we were accompanied by a smart gentleman with what appeared to be a laptop briefcase. Once settled we started on our journey… for about two minutes, when we all got out – ladies and all, to go through the Burkina passport and visa control. Now 20,000 CFA’s (about £20…I take it you can work out the exchange rate now!) lighter the first part of our mission having been accomplished, our journey continued along beautifully tarred and straight roads to Ouagadougou 160 Km away. The three hour journey was interspersed with several stops: to greet the drivers family; to greet his brother who just happened to be the local doctor driving an ambulance; to buy onions, thankfully the non too smelly variety, as there must have been several hundred weight of these added to the already axel bending load, mangoes and bread; and of course to assist at the scene of an accident. I say of course, as accidents are enjoyed by all spectators and participants, if that’s the correct term, as long as no one has been hurt. Let me explain, there is lots of shouting and finger wagging, the saga gets told and retold, a bit like a fisherman’s tale, then all of a sudden they shake hands and go on their respective ways. So an entertaining way to spend several minutes. Just as good as a coffee break in a Trusthouse forte motorway service café. Also along the way we managed to pick up two more passengers. One squeezed into the front seat, and one along side me. So now four people occupied the middle row and two adults on the passenger seat and the child, who had fallen asleep, now sat with the driver on his seat! Total number in car:13! We eventually arrived at the hotel at 2.30pm – not bad going at all. All in all an entertaining journey into a new country.
And what a different country Burkina Faso is. Apart from the fact that no one speaks any English, the contrast with Ghana, let alone Tumu is huge. The first thing that is so obvious is the good infrastructure – their roads are fantastic. Well, as we’ve spent the last 7 months riding along on dirt tracks anything that has tarmac and is smooth and straight has to be good. But in true French fashion we had to pay a ‘peagé’ for the privilege. The water and irrigation systems in B.F. have been very well planned and there are several areas that have been dammed and the land around planted and tended with rice, fruits and vegetables, so the availability and variety of food stuff in Ouagadougou far out weighs anything we can possibly get in Tumu. The other quite stark contrast is in the level of poverty. Here in Tumu people seem to be all able to survive, it is a working town and all the people are able to find enough money to feed their families and have somewhere to live. But in Ouaga, there are people, who obviously are very wealthy, driving nice big shiny four-by-four vehicles, pick up trucks, land cruisers and the likes, and then people who are begging on the streets with absolutely nothing. So that was a shock to us not being accustomed to the clamming attention of so many people.
During our stay we paid a visit to the embassy and managed to obtain an annual multi-entry visa for Burkina Faso, so the second part of our mission had been accomplished. So now we will be able to fly home and return via Ouaga which will be so much easier than having to travel for two days down from Tumu to Accra, for our flights.
The third, and for me the most important task we had to undertake, was not too difficult, in fact it was really, really enjoyable. This being to eat as much cheese as we could, and just a few scoops of French wine to wash it down. The food was heavenly and the restaurants we found certainly did not let us down.
So fed, watered and having spent several hours swimming in a lovely cool swimming pool, our trip to B.F. was a total success and a thoroughly enjoyable one.
But I can’t end this blog entry with you all thinking that the Whitehills are living it up!!! We have today had one of our worst experiences……a spider came to paid us a visit. I say spider, it was no ordinary spider. It was spotted hiding in the crack of the bathroom door late at night, and Al in his dream like state decided not to investigate too much and stepped over it and returned to bed. However, it was still there in the morning, 5 rather thick hairy legs sticking out from the corner. So we eventually plucked up enough courage to try and capture it, typically British we didn’t want to kill it. Well, the spider wasn’t too keen, and he was indeed quite a biggy, so when we put a stick close to him he attacked it! Eventually we got him into a transparent plastic container covered with a piece of cardboard – and boy could it jump! So with my hand firmly on the cardboard and ignoring Al’s murmurings about getting the camera, I told him to get the door open. When outside we put him, well threw him, a fair way from the house. Whilst having a good look at the spider, our other goat, Bully, together with baby Bully, strolled over to see us expecting the usual food. They walked directly towards us and stood over the spider. Then the spider proceeded to climb the goat’s rear leg, but it simply flicked it off without looking and then nonchalantly, yet unwittingly, stood on it! So we had a dead spider despite our humane attempts at keeping it alive! We’ve included a picture of the ‘spider killer’ – Bully (with Baby Bully). When a friend of ours, from the local environmental NGO Green Sahara, called later he told us it’s known as a ‘wolf spider’. Let’s hope we don’t get any more. We believe it’s because of the recent rainfall (first in 6 months) that it appeared – there’s been a noticeable increase in creepy crawlies. There’s also been a noticeable increase in power cuts, so to show you how we pass the time during these we’ve attached a photo!
