Suck on These Sugar Cubes If You Get Dizzy

December 12, 2010 at 4:34 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

So this past week I was in Bobo-Dioulasso for the 50th anniversary of this fine country.

The actual date of independence is in August, but, hey that’s rainy season and people are busy. There is planting and cultivating and in general a lot of work to do. In practicality, the 11th of december is the declaration of the republic and is celebrated as the anniversary date with parades and the like. It’s ‘cold’ out now, especially during the morning.

So yesterday was that day. Fifty years of independence is a big deal and they have just had an election. The government invited us to march in the parade which was a really terrific honor. For the past week we have been practicing in this big parade.

How does one practice for a Burkinabe parade? Well, this Africa so it gets hot. Therefore to practice we stood on the pavement under a hot-bright sun. For four hours a day. Sunscreen isn’t enough, and thankfully I had brougt extra pagne to create my own shade. Very helpful. The guys marching with ECOWAS in front of us kept saying I looked like a good muslim girl. In reality, I was a few shades less red.

We would stand on the road, sneak off to the shade when the gendarmes got a little lax. We had he best gendarme, Jean-Luc. He was very patient with us. But anyway we would sit under the tree on rocks or the stray cinder block usually with the smell of rotting sweet watermelon rinds left in he gutter (watermelon season is here), the street vendors would walk by with bissap, gingembre, Ghanaian sweet rolls, bananas, gâteau, watermelon slices smiling on platters like the first glimpse of the chesire cat… That is one great thing about here. You have a hankering for something (that is available of course, this doesn’t work for Kraft Singles) and it will undoubtably walk by within fifteen mintues. And if it doesn’t, you can always give a bit of money to a petit to get it for you.

So it was hot, a lot of waiting, and intense marching. We had to walk in lines, swing our arms and march in step. 8 to 5′s these were not. It wasn’t the greatest part of my service, but it was an experience. I really give kudos to the Peace Corps staff for getting things organized in place of a few hiccups from the government. Like find 30 people housing in a few days time.

So after a week of marching in the mornings, napping and trying good food ( La Margarite had the best Lebanese) and going around the grand marche, we had Friday off as repos (rest). It was nice sleeping in until 630 and to spend the morning in the markets. The bureau and PC officials came in Friday and that night the country director set up a movie night for Charlie Brown Christmas, my favorite. The speech by Linus at the end is my favorite. It was a really chill day in preparation for the big march.

The morning of I woke up in the house for a quick night on a thermarest (there weren’t enough mattresses but it could be much worse), got dressed in the uniform (we had complet made with 50th anniversary pagne. The girls all got an extra pagne for a fular and I showed a few of the girls how to tie them like Mama Ouedraogo taught me during stage. I love fulars.

So here we are at 630 standing on a predawn African street, sleepy but well dressed. It was too early for the boutiques to be open for breakfast and to keep the parade organized, there weren’t many street vendors. What to do for breakfast??

Have no fear! The government provided us breakfast. We were given sachets of water (50cc in uv treated plastic baggies) and a box of cane sugar cubes. I can’t express what it was like being handed a box of blond sugar as the army guy said, in all seriousness, suck on a sugar cube if you start to feel dizzy. This will help you march well.

Luckily that was the low point. Around 930 the president drove by and a bunch of the top ranking generals. Pretty neat. After some more waiting and a few random dance parties with ECOWAS and the Lebanese Community who were just behind us, it was finally time to march. Il fallait arreter “The Electric Slide.”.

It was hard to hear the band so mostly we just walked in our rows. Being at he beginning of the parade we walked past some of the later legs, mostly military. Niger was represented. The Burkinabe women’s corps was there which was pretty neat to see. We walked past the crowds, the president as they said our name over the speaker system “Corps de la Paix Americain” and at least one chant of “O-Ba-Ma.”.

Finallement, we could go home and rest. It was a long day. A bunch of us went to Trois Karite for lunch, which is located next to our bureau. There were a lot of us there but at separate tables and the waiter the us a really hard time. I had banana foutou, which was surprisingly delicious. It was served with sauce but it was nice to have something with flavor as a base instead of the normal flour ‘to’ I eat in village.

So that was a quick run down of the events for the anniversary. I didn’t have a chance to see what thepresident said en tout, but I heard a clip in the background and ‘Corps de la Paix Americain’ caught my ear.

Heading for more training for a week and then I get to return to village.

Cheers.