Burkina Faso et fin

Burkina Faso:
Not so bad once al qaida's kidnapping plots make you get stuck there! It's beautiful and the people have the same warm teranga that they do in Senegal.

Highlights:
-Riding a moto! You obviously don't need a license and it was cheaper to just learn rather than hire a driver. So much fun! Through sugar cane and peanut fields, down shaded tree-lined dirt avenues, past mountains and waterfalls and lilly-ponds and villages.... It was so unbelievably gorgeous, that I couldn't even help exclaiming about it out loud in "oohs" and "ahhhs."
I want one!

-Papa Noel: an eccentric previous-American with amulets and traditional clothes, who goes by Papa Noel... While sitting at an outside street tea table late one night, he sauntered down the street in a little cloud of magic. He came over to greet Ria and gave us anti-mousitque from him front bib pocket as well as a short american history lesson. Booboo and I were instantly infatuated and wanted to know everything about him. What an interesting guy! We saw him a few more times, but it'll never be enough of Papa Noel. The best thing about him is how he dances at the traditional music shows. It's like a robotic dashboard-doll shuffle. Afterwards, he leaves bags of bread in their money bowl. (I left two packages of underwear... long story.) We were sad to leave the place of P. Noel, but I at least am staying close to him in the form of my falling-apart copy of Lord of the Rings, the donation of which he merrily accepted. And so I gave a present to Papa Noel! What does that make me?

-Ria: a British special ed teacher who does things like hitchhike literally to Timbuktu. On that trip, she spent three weeks crossing the dessert with 56 toureg men and their giant guns, one old woman, 16 goats, and she-doesn't-know-how-many chickens. My favorite quote was (imagine in a cute british accent:) "All I brought into the desert with me was a dagger and nine goat skins." Why the goat skins? "Well, they're cheaper there!" Ahhh.
Meeting people like this is inspiring and otherwise enlightening. It's good to meet people more "hard-core" than you are, and it might be even better to realize you have no desire to be that hard-core yourself. I think we all kind of want to be like these exciting people, but the very fact that we want to tell these stories makes us already unlike them. I'm just glad they're around to have nighttime tea with!

-The Carpe Diem Cafe: I convinced the management to give me a free espresso after showing him my tattoo. Free advertising! They were baffled as to how and why the name of their restaurant came to be on my ankle. I was getting the feeling that they really had no idea it was anything but the name of their place, so I asked them to confirm the french translation. "Les plaisurs sur la table!" No, that's your motto, I see on the sign, but I mean the translation of the phrase, "carpe diem..." "Oui, oui, ca signifie 'les plaisurs sur la table!" And they could not be convinced otherwise. Wow.

-Fried caterpillars: surprisingly tasty! They sell them in sandwiches in La Vielle Quartiere in Bobo, and I really don't know why they don't sell them everywhere else too. The caterpillars eat up the shea trees, so I think it would be smart all around to eat them up first!

-The rest of La Vielle Quartiere: quite interesting. It's divided into sections for: Muslims, Animists, Griots, and Forgers. They make everything from millet beer to drums there. The largest "fetish" in the animist section is covered with blood and feathers for sacrifices. The sacred catfish river was a bit of a hoot. Besides being sacred, it also functions as the disgusting town dump. Pigs waded through, and filth and trash were everywhere. A kid was peeing a high golden arc into it as well. Perhaps the no-eating-the-catfish rule is for the best!

-Acrobatic dancers: We saw an amazing performance of stunts that are literally in Cirque du Soleil, non-stop. Holding each other up at ridiculous angles, standing and flipping off each other's heads, flipping in every other way, eating fire, balancing and juggling with spinning bowls... Absolutely hands-down the best show I've ever seen for $1.20!

We had to skip Mali to avoid being kidnapped, but I'll go back there some day. So instead we flew to Dakar (this transition was not exactly painless, but I'll leave it to Booboo to write about that...) Once in Dakar, we saw our favorite people, went to surf camp, and I bought $50 worth of parasite/ amoeba/ schisto medicines.

So concludes our magical journey! Good times!