This week has also been fantastic.

On Tuesday (July 1st - Canada Day!) I took the bus with Sebastien to Ouaga at 7:30AM. We arrived in Ouaga at noon, then dropped our bags off at his house, ran some errands, then met with a gentleman from the Caisse Populaire about Seb being able to include some micro-creditors in his documentary.

We only got to eat (for the first time of the day) at around 1500H, and I tell ya, it was well worth the wait! We went to a small restaurant called the "bourgainvillier" (which is a beautiful vine-like plant that blooms the most gorgeous flowers...I hope I spelt it right). I ate a vegetarian pizza, Seb had an awesome seafood calzone, and we shared a 1/4 pitcher of red wine and ate a "crepe royale" (extra chocolate sauce n all...) for desert. We were stuffed but it was good. I don't think either of us have eaten like that in a long time.

After our late lunch, the craziness never ended. Iin between running around trying to find someone who sold a simple hand-sewing needle (after 4 tries we finally found one) so I could sew a patch on my dress (which turned out quite well considering I took the material off of my free Air France sleeping mask and only had 10 minutes to finish) and having to jump start Seb's car every time we needed to turn it on (which reminded me of Kirby last summer - thanks for fixing it for me Adam!), we managed to be ready for the Canada Day party at the embassador's house for 1800H. Impressive, no?

The party was fantastic. The house was beautiful. The food was amazing - they served it appetiser-style, with waiters bringing around serving platers. Grilled filet, meatballs, sausage and egg/spring rolls were the stars that night. Then for dessert, they brought out none other than my favorite girl-guise maple cookies. And sucre a la creme (or maple fudge, as good anglophones say). I definitely ate 5 cookies and 3 sucre cubes. Team fat-ass here we come. But it was worth it.

After the party, and after our French comrade Antoine decided to jump into the pool in his orange skeevies, I apologised to the embassador and said that he's French, not Canadian - and therefore can't help it - the embassador laughed... Good sense of humour! We then jump started Sebastien's car (keep in mind I was still in my full-length dress) and played monopoly for two hours at his house before surrendering to bed. I won :)

I then took the bus at 10AM... To arrive in Bobo at 1400H. I then dropped my stuff off at home and packed up to go to work. What a crazy two days!

On Thursday and friday we managed to almost completely catch up on the lost day. We went to several printing stores (and wasted maaaany hours with one in particular - the owner kept telling us the samples would be ready and we would come back and he hadn't ever started on them.. finally I told him I would come back at such and such time and if they weren't ready we were dropping him as a possible supplier - we then showed up at the scheduled time and it wasn't ready - so I said "buh-bye!")

Today I finished a cople errands - picking up samples and visiting another printing store and now I'm at the cyber cafe... again... waiting for them to finish their samples and pricing list. So far I have three different propositions for the President (she says she will be back Monday - but last week she said she would be back last Monday - so we'll see!) - I really need her in order to finish the work I'm doing...

This reminds me of a funny story: When Seb and I were at the restaurant in Ouaga, his boss called him from Canada (a man who has done a wide range of work in this continent, which will be obvious in a moment) and the first thing he said to Seb over the phone was, "So how many days have you lost so far?!"... SOOO TRUE!

That is the beauty of this place, however. You learn to become very patient. My patience has been tested numerous times and has actually been fully depleted at others - as in I've lost it once or twice. But I'm doing better than I thought I would. I literally left my "honk first, drive slow later" attitude in Canada. We'll see what happens after two months in Canada again.

That's it for now - I will update very soon... IT'S SATURDAY! Let's hope I don't fall asleep at 2000H again like I did yesterday. I guess you'll find out soon enough!