Goats Are So Sweet!!

Yes, goats are such sweet animals. I say this because when I am riding on a bus in BF and someone puts a few goats on top of the bus the goats dont seem to mind too much. Wait . . . what?! They are putting goats on this bus?? Transportation in Africa is so freakin funny it may be my favorite thing about BF.

Things to remember about Burkina: it is basically desert and sand cannot be driven on. There is a season for rain which means that the ground and roads cannot handle rain when it does come. Floods. Keep that in mind.

There are a few paved roads in Burkina - my town happens to be on one because I live inbetween two main cities (Ouaga and Dori). The next grade of road is dirt road which is decent by Africa standards. There are a lot of ruts and you shake around a ton. Next is "brousse" or the brush which is bascially the great wild open and you just point the car in a direction and go. It is pretty hysterical. They have placed all of the volunteers in my group on at least paved or dirt roads. Thank God.

There are three types of transport in Burkina. The "bus" is about the size of a regular American bus but the interior is very different. On one side of the aisle is a row of three seats with two seats across the aisle. They are really camped and the bus driver usually lets on as many people as can pay which means that someone is usually sitting down in the aisle. It is not uncommon to stop every 20 minutes and the bus people have to rearrange all the baggage and get goats and motos off the top and the people sitting in the aisle get stepped on etc. I mean it's crazy. The last stretch of transport that I took was supposed to take 2 hours and it ended up taking 3.5 just because they kept stopping and picking up extra people. At one point we got to a big stop/bus station (a "gare") and I got off the bus to pee. I inquired as to where the latrine was and the guy pointed around the corner of the building. Come to find out the yard was the latrine and there were like 8 people, men and women, peeing against walls. What? Needless to say I turned right around and got back on the bus. Volunteers had always told me to watch how much water you drink on transport so you dont have to pee and now i know why. Even I have to draw lines somewhere.

For some reason they always BLARE Bob Marley on the buses here which never fails to crack me up because it makes feel like I am in a movie. Typical. Buses never leave on time which is fine - Africa cant be predicted so I understand. At the gare is the only place where i am glad to be a white woman because the gare attendants do everything for me - they take care of my bag and they make sure my velo is on the bus etc. This really is awesome because sometimes your bag just never makes it on transport or they take it off at the wrong spot. I always say that if you care about tardiness or losing your possessions - travel in Africa is not for you. Hahaha. A sense of humor goes a long way here. I am exaggerating here of course.

If you do not live on a paved road then you get to take a taxi brousse or a cargo truck to get where you are going. Hah. Goats and sheep actually get on these. These are like those big vans and are usually called "Air Buolsa" or "Air Titao" even though air is not involved. Or at least I hope not.

I could go on of course but i have run out of time on the computer. basically you have to see it to believe it. so come see it. ill take care of you i promise!