Getting settled in Burkina Faso

Its Saturday morning and raining cats and dogs in Ouaga. I feel exhausted to be honest!! I can’t remember the last time I’ve had even 5 min. to relax. Everything is overwhelming and very different from the Africa I know so well. The good news is that I’ve found a house already. Its old and need a lot of repairs, but the thought of getting my own space soon (I hope) makes me happy. It all depends on the speed of labor. No let me rephrase: LACK of speed:-) Although I haven’t always found it amusing the past week, when I think about it now, its hysterically funny. Just to get the deal going on the house was the biggest circus ever.

You use these démageurs here, which means that a herd of young men start crusing around the quarters on their mopeds looking for vacant houses. In the process, they ask for money every time you take a breath. Its for reasons such as petrol, gifts, viewing the house, credit for phones, you name it, they ask!! When you finally decide on a house, they ask for commission, normally half a month’s house rent. Yet, its all a bargain, so I was first told 2 month’s house rent as commission, 2 month’s deposit and 3 month’s payment ahead. “Do you have the money now”? they then wanted to know – ha ha, not such a special a price, as I was first promised. “Pas de problem – special price for you”………..

This negotiation took about 1 and a half weeks with eternal meetings, lots of stories, lots of driving around, lots of people not turning up, lots of keys having disappeared, etc. When I finally met the actual owner of the house, the whole negotiation process started again. I had made a contract and the owner spend a long time looking and reading it, or so I thought. But I was soon to discover that he couldn’t read and had to have a member of the very extended family to help out. He then decided to do another contract as well, this time handwritten. After what seemed like hours and hours of negotiating, we finally signed and the deal became real.

At the moment, builders are working on the repairs and on meeting the many UN security regulations, which is yet another amusing circus. The inspecting UN security officer decided that I had to expand the wall around the house with 2,5 m and put barbed wire, that I had to get window bars on all windows and that all locks were to be changed. They refund you however, but it’s a lot of money to start with and guess whose paying? Anyways, they are finishing the work bit after bit and I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel.

When the house is finally ready, I have to get everything from a fridge to furniture and kitchenware. I already got a local carpenter to build furniture for the whole house. Will be real interesting to see the style. For some reason tiger, leopard and lion prints are high fashion here in orange, yellow and colors alike?? Hmmmm. Everyday is exciting when it comes to the house. You never quite know which changes have been made. Suddenly all lamps were painted yellow (“so know one will steel them”, was the explanation), windows have been cemented on each side around mosquito nets to avoid mosquito, etc, doors are being changed and all sorts of unnecessary actions executed, meanwhile the much needed painting of the house is completely ignored. There’s a real cultural difference in logical thinking, I’ve concluded.

The best part of the house is my veranda overlooking the garden with an orange and lime tree:-) Boy I’ll be spending many a nights on that veranda. The house is also situated next to a mosque. Everyone has warned me, but I love the sound of calling for prayers, and I mean you are woken up by dogs, chicken, kittens, children, music and bars anyways. Happy to have found earplugs, cause it’s a real buzzing African capital. There are all sorts of little shops around the quarter with all the necessities such as sugar, yogurt, bread and milk, which allows your shopping to remain local and you avoid the aggravating trips to the city center.

Then there’s the house help to think about. People are queuing outside the house every time I visit. I’ve already been given a guard by Nelly, whose house I currently stay in. She thought it important that I know at least one of the people I employ, and often the guards don’t speak French. Jacque does and I’m happy to have him. The UN recommends 3 guards, but I’ll take 2, at least to begin with. Its just too awkward with that many people around the house. I’ve already hired a maid. Well it was sort of arranged for me by the démageur. She seems very young and inexperienced, but maybe I’ll give it a go, although everyone warns you to take on someone recommended by other ex-pats. That might take months though. When ex-pats are satisfied with their house help here, they tend to keep them for years. Some even bring the same maids along when positioned in various countries. Haven’t reached that stage (yet?) and I think it might take a child or 2 to consider such a move!!

Work wise I share an office with Zongo who works with communication. He speaks English, which is more than lucky for me. At the moment RECIF is closed for holidays, but I still work. It’s a bit bizarre, as we are only 2 people. Eric from Quebec is the other one without a holiday. He works with computers and training. Its still rather blurred what my future assignments will be. I’ve started translating a declaration on trade from French to English and apparently I’ll be training radio journalists around the country in human rights/women’s rights, AIDS, micro-credits, etc. I’ll also be advocating on national and governmental levels the importance of mainstreaming gender into all sectors. I’ll be fundraising, advocating UNVs, and monitoring the 52 member NGOs of RECIF in relation to integration of gender. Oh my God I already sound like all words and no action. The thing is, its still really blurred and I still struggle to figure things out. I need to accumulate all the patience I can, and patience has never been my strong side!!

The rhythm here is different as well. We start at 7.30 and end at 18.00. Then there’s this long siesta where everything is closed. The amount of times I’ve reached a bank and found it closed between 12.00-16.00 are endless. It takes a while to get used to the business hours and days seem to slip away like minutes. Often I’m not home until 20.00 and more often I go out directly from work to met up with people. There’s always some meeting taking place and often work related, which make the boundaries between work and pleasure blurred as well. Of course, I’m lucky to met all these people much due to Nelly’s endless contacts and endless amount of energy. This girls never gets tired. She is in charge of the UNV agency and has been in Burkina for 4 years, so not a bad contact in terms of experience. She has also been exstremely hospitable and relaxed around the house. Very different from my experience in Botswana. The rain has stopped and its time to get out of bed and face yet another day in Ouaga, and who knows what that will entail?:-)