Le mercredi matin, nous nous sommes levees assez tôt et nous sommes alleés vers Burkina Faso, mais d’abord, il faut visiter immigration, à la frontier. Friendly Englsih speaking Ghanaian officials chatted to us, asked us where we were going and why and cheered us on our way. We then walked the 500 metres or so of No Man’s Land, rucksacks on our backs, feeling the adventurous backpackers that we are!
On est arrive à Burkina Faso (BF) immigration et nous avons rempli le formulaire du visa. Les officiels parlaient seulement francais et il etait difficile de leur comprendre. (Madeleine, how’s my French doing so far, ignoring the accents and graves?) Apres une heure ou plus, nous montaient l’autobus destinee a Ouaga, la capitale de BF. This took four hours going through dry countryside, passing the occasional village made up of mud huts and finally arriving at the bus station – without having a clue how to get to Laetitia’s. No not a hotel, but a lady I met in my first week in Ghana, who’s living and working in Ouaga and who had invited me to stay.
Our Ghana phones wouldn’t work and we barely had enough local currency (CFA, francs, where 10,000 CFA = approx 35 GHC = 15 pounds) to buy a sim card so we could call Laetitia to get directions. Eventually, we bought the sim card, found a taxi, made our way to her apartment, which is probably the best apartment in the country. BF is the second poorest country in Africa (marks given for telling me which is the poorest) and the average income is 300 CFA per day (to put it mildly, that’s less than peanuts). It explains why every single native person we met tried to sell us something, or take us to their “soeur” or “frère” who’d sell us something. What it doesn’t explain is why there is a preponderance of bicycles, scooters and motor bikes – especially given that petrol is reasonably expensive. Anyway, if we thought we were ripped off in Paga, it was nothing compared to Ouaga (pronounced Wagga, short for Ouagadougou). Taxis – a fortune; fruit – we had to negotiate hard; water – one seller wanted 10 times the amount we pay in Ghan, laundry (OK, so I’m still a princess!!) – he tried to charge us double what he charges Laetitia. And so it goes on …
We didn’t find anything of great cultural interest (cinema is hot in BF but the films were on at inconvenient times for us) though we kept trying! Main points worth noting are:
Everyone seems to have a bike of some description – including and especially smart women, mothers with babies on their backs, families with 2 adults and 2 children. Then the praying 5 times a day which takes place outdoors in the streets, blocking roads and traffic lights (70% of BF is Muslim). Produce is almost all sold from stalls and not from the head. It’s MUCH hotter than southern Ghana by day and MUCH cooler at night. You’ll be pleased to know that I was even cold and had to put on a shirt in the morning to take breakfast on the terrace.
Good things were the delicious street foods – cous-cous and beans which made a great change from rice and more rice and baguettes was a huge improvement on the awful floury bread in Ghana. We also had beautiful large strawberries.
But for me the problems were that I got no latitude or gratitude for at least attempting to speak French – rather, they got very cross with me when I couldn’t understand their very rapidly-spoken replies. Also, there was a lot of more obvious begging in the streets – these were the Muslim children who are sent out with tins to beg and are disciplined when they go back “home” in the evening. The begging is to teach them humility. Judge for yourself … Ouaga was more expensive despite being a lot poorer.
As regards other observations – the city is quieter than Accra – selling produce seems not to elicit yelling as the Ghanaians love to do
The Grand Marché was no grander than Watford Market on a weekday afternoon
The day temperature was hot, yet people were wearing jackets, hats and gloves as if it were an English winter day. Laetitia explained that it’s the “cold” season – so I’m grateful we weren’t there in the hot one!
People were unhelpful and unfriendly – with some notable exceptions, all of whom spoke English (what does that tell you?!) (sorry Madeleine – I really did try to communicate with them in my best French!). people in Ghana go out of their way to help – and surprisingly, mostly they expect nothing in return – apart from asking four telephone number or email address, so they can add you to their list of friends.
So we spent 2 days looking round Ouaga, found an artisan village where they made and sold beautiful arts and crafts, jewellery, bronze statues, wooden artefacts, furniture etc. Would be good to export them to a willing European market (no, this isn’t going to be my new career!) WE found nothing else of note, though I am assured that there are some lovely parts of BF.
We cut short our trip by a day and headed back from Ouaga on Saturday morning, arriving at the “gare de l’autobus” at 9.00. One large bus, a shared taxi or a tro-tro – which to take? Well the first to depart of course. Each one was waiting – as is the custom – until it was full, so in theory you could wait all day … The tro-tro left first (10.30 so only 1½ hours to wait – that’s REALLY not long in West African standards), then proceeded to stop for all sorts of reasons - engine problem which was quickly resolved (phew!), toilet breaks, passenger pick-up and set-down and sometimes just because the driver felt like it. It was the most uncomfortable ride so far this trip, without a doubt. Squashed between Big Mamma and Fat Daddy for four hours, till we arrived back at the border. Back to immigration in BF first , only 5 minutes this time –and the best sight we’d seen in 3 days – WELCOME TO GHANA!! We were “home”. Friendly immigration officials and they have computers and scanners, compared to their BF counterparts who wrote everything by hand in a ledger, both inward and outward travelers but never correlating the two. Then through into Ghana proper – and I never thought I’d say this – but I couldn’t have been happier seeing Paga again!!
