Final words...

Now that I ave been back in Canada for a few weeks, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on my African Adventure.

First and foremost, this experience has been incredible, I am so thankful and fortunate and humbled by the past few months. From learning to appreciate consistently running water (remember - I had to bathe out of a saucepot on several occasions) to enjoying my friends and family and no longer taking them for granted, I have come back enlightened. Don't get me wrong - I am NOT granola - I am rather a more appreciative person of the luxuries we enjoy every day as Canadians. Like I said, running water for one, reliable electricity for two, and food, roads, transportation etc... Are things I become very excited about these days.

So - let's recap on the past few weeks. I would like to start with the plane ride home. Needless to say, it was long. I slept 5 hours in a total of 72 hours, and needed to down a can of red bull the minute I arrived in Montreal. In Ouagadougou (where we had to catch the plane to go to Paris from Burkina), the flight was delayed eight hours because of an air traffic control strike in Niger, where 50 of the passengers on our flight were coming from. In the end they decided to force 200 passengers to wait in Ouaga - from 9pm to 6am - so that 50 passengers could arrive by bus from Niamey, Niger. Interesting logic: deal with 200 people's connections in order to accomodate 50 more passengers... Don't ask - I've tried to analyse and deduce every possible reasoning to no avail. Bref!

Once we arrived in Paris, we had only missed our flight by one hour and there was another flight leaving in two - so we decided to grab some grub... Interesting observation: There are no bakeries or patisseries in the Paris airport! Silly! The flight to Montreal was very emotional for me... Especially when I landed, put the SIM card in my blackberry, sent my dad and Victoria text messages and got calls right back. First from Vicki, telling me she bought me mini-wheats with maple syrup and sangria, and then from my dad welcoming me home... What a great way to land on a plane... With two of your most favorite people in the world welcoming you! My wonderful aunty Kim and cousin JJ picked me up at the airport and brought me to my grand parent's house in Laval, where we enjoyed the famous Maisonneuve family spaghetti and meat sauce.... With garlic toast! Yummmmmmm!

After catching up with my family I drove my car (I left it to my grandparents while I was gone) to Victoria's house in the island of Montreal... How I missed driving! I was then welcomed with a big "WELCOME BACK AFTON!!!!" from Vicki's balcony - her and her room mates... How cool is that?! They then treated me to a fabulous Montrealais evening... Walking down Parc and St-laurent Ave. to a trendy little lounge with great music and an even better ambiance. I thoroughly enjoyed my first evening back in Canada! After the lounge Vicki treated me to good ol' Montreal thick crust pepperoni pizza and fairmont bagels with strawberry cream cheese... Talk about gourmandise! Everything tastes better after you've been in Burkina-Faso for three months I tell ya.

After driving home and arranging a few things (and baking cookies, obviously...)I drove back to Montreal for a mini-family reunion on Sunday the 3rd. What a wonderful day. My family and ice cream cake... Who could ask for more?! I was overwhelmed with emotion when I saw everyone... Waterworks! We then spent the rest of the day in the sun on the fleuve St-Laurent - football, lawn bowling and my dad's 12-song playlist on his i-pod... He still hasn't added any other songs although the capacity is close to 500 songs.... How I missed him and his querks.

That evening I plunked myself into my parent's guest bed and slept like a baby, after drinking a cup of hot water with lemon and catching up with my dad and step-mom... Life is good.

Since getting back to Ottawa and my appartment I have been running around, trying to secure myself employment and register for fall classes in university. I also cleaned my house upside down - I've been spending a vast amount of time with Fergie, my cat - she missed me.... and I missed her too. What a cutie. I've also been walking everyday in continuation of the habits I developped in Burkina. It's great for clearing the head. I've also been enjoying my wonderful friends.... Vicki - what would I do without you?! Adora - come back from LA! We've been without each other for too long!!! You all know who you are.... Thank you so much for making my return to Canada so great - You really know how to make someone feel welcome!

As far as future plans, I know I will be returning to Africa. I love it there and it is so different from Canada and the global North in general. Travelling has always been in my blood, but in that same respect it is always nice to have a home base as beautiful as Canada. I know I will sound like a broken record when I say this, but we are SO LUCKY! Canada is a wonderful rich (in several different ways) country full of opportunity and prosperity - our poor are considered rich in Burkina!

I would strongly suggest a trip alone to Africa to anyone who has either made a big decision, will be making one, or who has simply had a bunch of changes in their lives... You are forced to think and take care of yourself and realise that there are people in the world whose problems go right down to the basic necessities of life like eating and drinking... It kind of makes you think twice about getting mad at your brother or sister for ruining your favorite shoes, or crying over that guy or girl who broke your heart. Although these are problems, they are so insignificant in the larger scheme of things. This is what I've realised over the past few months. I just have to do my absolute best to remember these lessons as I carry on with my life in Canada.

In closing, this trip has ultimately changed my life. I can only hope I've become a better person as a result of this trip. Although it was extremely difficult to leave AVOH and Mme. Drabo and Nathalie and Assita and Herve and my room mates, Axelle and Yohan, it was so nice to put my two feet on Canadian soil once again. Burkina-Faso was my address for three months, but Canada is my home. I know I will absolutely go back to the continent - maybe not Burkina right away, as I would like to experience other parts of Africa, preferably on the coast, like Ivory coast or Ghana. This is the beginning of the rest of my life.