Lots of news around here, not all of it good:

Tomorrow is going to be a “Dead Wednesday” in Ouagadougou. As a protest against steep increases in the cost of living here in Burkina, most deeply felt in food prices, all shops will be closed tomorrow. Any place violating the strike will be vandalized, so my Burkinabé friends are telling me. I’m not sure what good this mass action will do. The Burkinabé government is not well known for rushing to the aid of its citizens. But at least the people in power may be forced to admit that there’s something deeply wrong.

Second bit of news: the internet connection here is extremely messed up since yesterday morning. I haven’t been able to read my emails from the weekend yet, so sorry to anyone that might be expecting a message from me. No can do.
Also, I can’t update my Photobucket album, which means the Carnival and Nanou pics aren’t up yet. Blogspot seems to load ok, if I am very, very patient. So, I should be able to keep blogging…
Which reminds me: Yesterday’s post was my 200^th- which is maybe not big news, but it does give me a certain warm, fuzzy feeling of accomplishment.

More good news: Sunday night I was across the street at a neighbor’s house, translating a phone call (it’s a looong story. Good, but long) for about an hour. When the call was over, Solange and I had been chatting for a while when we heard a truck out in the road. When I got back home, I found my kids entertaining our good friend Greg from Canada!! He and his lovely family lived in Ouaga for years and now he is back, just for a short work visit. We had planned by email that he’d come for a tour of Papiers du Sahel Tuesday (today!), but Sunday’s visit was a complete surprise. A very nice one. Besides his witty banter, he also brought cake mixes and some cheese!

Final news: the saga of my exciting weekend will NOT be continued today. But I am hoping that tomorrow will be a little less busy and I’ll be able to spend a bit of my morning writing.