Location: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Hello from Burkina!

First order of business, I just found out that I was accepted to Harvard School of Public Health. Holy crap! I really wasn't expecting that....I kind of just wanted to see if I could get in!

Yes, I am now in the city that I remember hearing about in my high school French class and thinking, "That city has the best name ever." And here I sit.

I flew in on Friday night from Dakar and got in at around 11 pm. I thought the Dakar airport was small, but this one is even smaller, with the added advantage of being less aggressive and easier to deal with. It was easy to find a taxi and a hotel, so that was good. I was a little worried about that since I was getting in late. Anne, the first I am traveling with, took a bus from Niamey, Niger and got to Ouagadougou on Saturday afternoon. I had spent the morning looking for and moving to a cheaper hotel than the one I spent the first night. I didn't do much the rest of the day but around 4:30 pm I went in search of Anne at the hotel where we had planned on meeting (it was full). Turns out her bus had gotten in earlier than I had expected and I missed her. Luckily she had left me a note there. So I then went in search of her at the new hotel, which was closer to downtown than the place I had found. We decided that I should move, so I again packed up my stuff and moved to the new hotel.

In the process of all this moving around, I had acquired a follower named Michel. At first he was okay because he was just helping me find the different hotels and whatnot, but soon one of his friends joined us and they wouldn't leave Anne and I alone. Every time we left the hotel, they were there waiting for us. That's weird. We tried to tell them to go away (in those words) but no, they kept insisting on following us and inviting us to a concert. We eventually lost them for the night. But where were they the next morning? Oh, waiting for us outside the hotel, again ready to follow us around. This time I REALLY told them to leave but of course it didn't work. We had breakfast and they found us AGAIN. Creepy! Finally we decided to ignore them and haven't seen them since. I don't know what they wanted in reality, but they knew that we both lived in other African cities. Did they really think they could pull something on us?

Ouaga itself is somewhat of a disappointing town for me. I never knew how well we had it in Dakar! The interior countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) have it a lot rougher, for obvious reasons and I guess I never realized that it was to this degree. Everything seems much smaller....fewer large buildings and in such. I felt that right away when I started walking around. The city is very dusty (the ground is red clay) and oppressively hot. To me, Ouaga feels more like a small town, where as Anne is impressed with the city. I told her she is going to love Dakar! I will definitely appreciate it when I get back. I'm getting to like it better as time goes by though. There's actually a lot of art here. Good live music, cinema (some of you may know about the film festival that is held here at the end of February on odd numbered years....too bad we missed it by a year! I've heard really good things about it). We just spent the morning at the craft market, where things were cheaper than I am used to paying for in Dakar and the bargaining was much less aggressive.

We are actually hoping to get out of Burkina as fast as possible and start traveling in Ghana. We went to apply for the visa this morning and apparently you are supposed to apply 3 days before you want to go. I really don't understand why visas take so long because all they do it put a stamp in your passport. Anyway, the guy seemed to think that they would be done by tomorrow and gave us his phone number. I hope he's right! Later this afternoon we are going to bus station to see when we can get a bus out. I'm trying to be patient but it's hard when I know there are so many good things waiting in Ghana while the things to do here are running out. This will help me work on my patience I guess?

We did meet two people from the Peace Corps this morning and they told us we should go check out the American embassy, which apparently has a rec center with pool, restaurant (the girl said they even have Tex Mex!), and a place to watch movies. We are also going to check that out this afternoon. It's so hot here and no water to swim in except for pools!