Ouaga Ouaga Ouaga and More

Ahhh, so it’s been quite a while since I updated. Part of the reason for that is that I was in Burkina Faso for Fespaco. It was amaaaaaaaaaazing. It was so nice to get out of Accra and to see a different part of Ghana (we drove. For 16 hours.) and Africa. There was just so much that happened so I’m just going to stick with the highlights (and lowlights) of each part.

The Drive Up:
It was really awesome to see the landscape change. Accra is really lush and tropical with palm trees and green everywhere. At some point, Ghana completely changes. It become more of a Savannah/deserty landscape... It definitely looked like we could have been straight out of the Lion King, minus Pride Rock. It was really cool to just see the smaller villages and their very traditional mud huts with thatch roofs.

On the first day we left Accra at 5:30 and got to Bolgatanga, where we spent the night, after dark. It was a pretty rough day of driving (we couldn’t have the air conditioner on a lot of the time because the car would likely die). I do not think I had ever sweat so much in my entire life. It was gross.

The next day we got up way early again to finish the drive to Ouagadougou. We made it to the border pretty early. We had to get out of the car and physically walk across the border. Twice. On each side. It was pretty annoying, but it was great to finally be in Burkina Faso. After crossing we had a couple more hours before making it to Ouagadougou.

FESPACO:
The film festival was both awesome and frustrating. It was awesome because I’d never been to a film festival and got to experience it and see some great African movies and partake in all that went along with FESPACO. It was frustrating because it was kind of poorly organized. It was near impossible to find a schedule.

Also frustrating, the movies were rarely in English. If they had subtitles they were mostly French subtitles. I sat through a two hour Malian movie with French subtitles and was so incredibly confused for tour solid hours. I understood none of it but this: There was a cult of some sort that sacrificed albinos and the movie was investigating the murder of one albino. Also at some point there was a really strange performance art piece with people dressed in clothes with stuffed animals attached to them.

The best movie I saw was a short film about the equivalent of Tro-Tro workers in either Algeria or Egypt (there was some disagreement among us about where it took place). Regardless, it was really interesting and a great documentary. Also, my professor’s movie was shown and that was really cool to see. It’s called Rasta’s Paradise.

Ouagadougou:
Ouaga was sooooooooo different from Accra. Maybe because it’s Francophone, or maybe because it’s not coastal, I’m not sure, but it was definitely a huge change. The thing that probably stuck out the most was how clean it was compared to Ghana. In Ghana, there’s trash everywhere and open gutters. In Ouaga, there were actually trashcans and no gutters to fall into!

Also, Ouaga was hot, hot hot! It wasn’t so terrible though because it was way more of a dry heat. It was definitely reminiscent of an Arizona summer. Because it was so dry though, it was also really dirty. I thought I had gotten a really nice tan, only come to find out that it was all dirt after I sufficiently scrubbed my body in a shower back home.

The food in Ouaga was great. There were the most delicious strawberries. Women would have them piled up on trays that they would carry on their heads. That’s a pretty normal thing, but these women would then be riding on bikes or motos! That was crazy. I got some really phenomenal pictures of one strawberry seller who was riding a bike with them on her head WHILE she had a baby attached to her back. Also great in Ouaga – EGG SANDWICHES. They were sooooooo good. They came on delicious baguettes and I definitely had a few while I was there.

Ouaga was kind of expensive. We were warned about it though and a lot of the prices were inflated because of the film festival. The whole time I was there I only spent 50,000 CFA though (slightly less than $100) and that included my hotel accommodations. I was pretty impressed with myself.

The Drive Back:
We left Ouaga on Tuesday and crossed the border to spend the night in Bolga again. We got up hella early the next morning to make the drive back to Accra. This time, the van kept stalling out so we had to go without air conditioning for much longer stretches of time. This car ride was far grosser than the first. I was so dirty that as I as sweating, the sweat that was rolling off of me was brown. Needless to say, I think I took one of the best, most needed showers of life when I got back. On the way home, it started to rain and we got a flat tire (two different incidents) which all made for quite the adventure. We finally made it back to Church around 8:30 Wednesday night.

This weekend was quite uneventful. I got a lot of stuff done regarding applying for summer internships and whatnot. So far I’ve sent stuff in to the Museum of the City of New York, A&E Television Networks, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Jewish Museum, and the Southstreet Seaport Museum. I’m waiting for the Brooklyn Historical Society to post their internships so I can apply there as well. I’m mainly looking for museum or archival work so that I would be able to do the internship for credit. Hopefully something will work out.

I’m leaving for South Africa in four days. This could not be coming any sooner. I’m getting so antsy being here in Accra. While I love Ghana, I’m not such a huge fan of the city of Accra. I’d much rather be traveling around the country than stuck in Labone. The heat and humidity has been so oppressive lately that there is very little incentive to even want to venture outside. Cape Town will definitely be a welcome change of scenery and pace (from what I’ve heard/read, it’s very, very western. I think it will be a nice temporary escape). I’ve got the following planned for Cape Town so far: sea kayaking to the Simon’s Town penguin colony, visiting Robben’s Island, a Winelands tour, hanging out at the beach, drinking tap water (it’s strictly the principle of it), and generally having an awesome time. For Namibia, I’ve scheduled a Four-Day, Three Night Safari to the Sossusvlei dunes and Swakopmund (where Shiloh Jolie-Pitt was born!).

I’m counting down the hours practically I’m so excited. EEEEEEEEEEEK!

peace and love.