Day Zero

Today I arrived in Burkina-Faso... AWESOME!

I left Ottawa at 4:15pm Satuday, then left Montreal Trudeau at 8:15pm and arrived in Paris De Gaulle at 8:15am (about 2am Ottawa time). From France we went to Niger then Burkina Faso from 11:00 (paris time) to 6:16(Burkina time). We took Air France and all I have to say is FIVE COURSE DINNERS!! Individual sized baguettes, camenbert cheese, salted butter, spinach canneloni and complimentary wine were just a few of the perks of the plane rides today...

Although seeing the French coast on the way in was cool, nothing compared to the red deserts of Africa. On our way down to Niger, all we could see was endless red desert with towns poking out here and there. Although Burkina is a bit more lush, the ground is still really red and it's really dusty in the capital (Ouagadoudou)... Apparently it had just rained before we got there so it wasn't as dusty as usual. The temperature was 37 degrees in Niger and 29 degrees in Burkina... apparently some of the coolest days they've gotten this year. Wow.

I took a shower and afterwards it was like I had never taken it because of the prespiration... For that reason, cold showers are the only showers here. For the first week we (four girls from Ottawa) will be doing our orientation and are slated to leave on Sunday for our respective towns... I luckily have one other girl, Axelle, who is going to Bobo with me... We have already arranged a place to live. She's from the ivory Coast so it's really nice having someone around who is used to the culture and weather here. Angele, the director here in Burkina for WUSC (the organization who sent me on this internship), took the four of us to dinner tonight... She drives a big white Toyota Land Cruiser, diesel and manual (COOL!) and has been here for 5 years... It was acctually quite funny because it turns out that, when she still lived in Ottawa, she bought several cars from Bel-Air Toyota, the dealership I used to sell at... A good ice breaker.

I had "Capitaine au citron et epinards" for dinner... a white fish in lemon butter sauce with spinach - SOOOO good, and it cost a whole 4900 francs, which is the equivalent of almost $10... dude. Oh and I had a beer too - locally brewed and I forget the name - I'll have to get back to you on that.

All is well and I will definitely sleep in tomorrow morning, seeing as I had a hard time staying awake in the car ride home from the restaurant. In a nutshell, that is how my day went.

Until next time, Ciao!