This morning was spent at the electric company office in Dassasgho, again trying to close down our account. I had plenty of time to look around and count the fellow sufferers - I mean clients- waiting in line. Sixty two of us there were, crammed into a small waiting room served by six glacially slow Sonabel agents.
I had a book along to pass the time, but even counting people in line was more interesting. 'The Crimson Code' by Rachel Lee is touted on the cover as "a highly complex thriller". But it is actually a very simple soporific.
At one point during the wait, the power went off for quite a while.
That's right. The Sonabel can't even keep the power on in their offices.


But that's all over and done and now I'm busy getting the car (which I'd like to SELL now, please) repaired. Yesterday's exciting adventures in the bush knocked the muffler loose and it needs some work now. That trip was so great in so many ways.
Anyway, judging from the noise it makes now, you'd think my feeble little station wagon had a 747 engine under the hood.
The extreme racket, coupled with the green color of my car, did give me worries that people were going to mistake my car for a Taxi Vert. The cheap local taxis here are olive green and usually in very bad repair. I always fancied that my car was a nicer shade of green- more turquoise-ish, but I was probably kidding myself. Nobody has flagged me down yet, but it's just a matter of time. I hope I can get it properly fixed before tomorrow morning...

In a country where the vast majority of the population gets around by bike, scooter or on foot, the rainy season is a general invitation to chaos. No one is ever where they are suppoosed to be when they are suppposed to be there. So, you can sit at the phone company offices (for example) for over an hour, waiting for the employees to show up. Multiply this by the electric company and the water company and it adds up to lots of hours hanging out at public utilities. What fun. Remind me next time to move during the hot season. Oh wait- I forgot: I'm never moving again. EVER. It's way too much work. When I get to our house in France I am settling in and do not intend to be pried loose under any circumstances.
Unless JP gets a really cool job in, say, New Caledonia. That would be COOL!

Mostly I am making progress on our move. The house is being painted and small repairs made. The utilities will soon (I hope) be shut off.
The cats are all ready to travel. Their blood test results came back from France pretty quickly and the microchips are in, so Mr. Darcy and Cleo are good to go.

I have no access to TV and little to internet though, so I have no idea what's going on in the world beyond Ouagadougou. It's actually kind of soothing. I don't have to process any information not directly related to my immediate survival. Which is nice, because my brain is kind of tired. Maybe exhausted. I went to sleep at 7:30pm last night, fully clothed. I had laid down across the bed for "just a little rest". Right.

Ouaga weather has been great lately- unusually cool. By that I mean that some days it doesn't go up over the 100°F mark, so it's all relative. But the hottest month is behind us and May is feeling pretty good. Plus the forecasts call for a pretty cool weekend, just in time for the twins' First Communion festivities this Saturday!
Thrillingly, the relatively cooler weather has meant less stress on the electric plant in Ouaga- which has meant fewer blackouts for us! In the last two weeks, we only had three power cuts, which was brilliant! And I'm expecting even fewer with the advent of the rainy season.

Not so brilliant is the fact that my internet connection at home once again has serious problems. I haven't been able to get online for over two days (since my last blog post). To add to my problems, there seems to be a further problem with my email. I'm posting this from an internet café after attempting to open my mailbox. It seems to be a problem with Liptinfor. It's very frustrating as I know there are emails from lots of you. I am trying to fix this problem. But if it's really important, please call me. Moderately important stuff can go to the comments section of this blog. As I have an "approval before posting" system, I can read the messages and then delete them.

Ouaga is on the last day of a three day long general strike. Maybe it sounds impressive, but it hasn't been that big of a deal -which is sort of NOT the point of a strike, people! But most people say that they can't afford to stop working for even one day. So, the only things closed have been a few public services like the post office and the courthouse. The buses are running, supermarkets open and schools in session. Somehow, I don't think this strike is going to make the government cave in to the demand for 25% salary increases.

Our household is curently focused on the upcoming party this Saturday. Valentine is making the calligraphy placecards for the 60 guests. JP and I puzzle over the seating arrangements (ie: where to seat the US Ambassador, the Vice-President of the Burkina Faso legislature, the ex-Minister of the Interior of Burkina, and a priest. They all need to go at the head table, but in what order???) I am also starting the cake today, which I have big plans for.

As for my friend S. from yesterday's post. She believed me (and the pharmacist) and will stick with her generic supplements. But she (like me!) was pretty bewildered at why a doctor would try to make her spend nearly half her monthly income on a medication that can be bought at a fraction of the price.
Also- thanks to my kind neighbors T. and K., I was able to give S. a bag full of lovely and practical baby clothes!

Once again, I blog to you from a cybercafé in (way too) sunny downtown Ouagadougou. The power cut out in our neighborhood at about 7am this morning and who knows when it will be back on... My technique is to spend the maximum amount of time out running errands in cool places like banks and supermarkets. My car (repaired now!) is also a nice place to be, as the air-con works really well. Nothing else does, mind you, but the air-con is fine.
I am just hoping that we're not headed for a long, hot, electricity-less wekend.
Curse you, Sonabel!

My mailbox today contained an invitation from the US Ambassador to attend the groundbreaking for the new compound that they will be building over in the über-chic neighbourhood of Ouaga 2000. It’s on April 1^st. I’ve thought about going, just so that I can have the experience (and blog about it, of course!). But it says that “office attire” should be worn. Office attire??? I guess I could stick post-it notes all over a t-shirt and have my girls make me some nice accessories out of paper clips… And heck, even if I did own such strange things as a skirted suit and heels, I wouldn’t put them on and stand around outside in the 110° F heat.

So, it looks like I won’t be reporting on the groundbreaking ceremony, but I’m sure that some other interesting (if not frankly bizarre) thing will happen to me, providing plenty of blog-fodder. I just hope it’s nothing bad - nothing like the horrible and mysterious guinea-pig plague that swept through our pet population on Wednesday.

That day we lost three one-day old babies (who had seemed quite healthy for several hours) and also the mom pig Patches. The post-mortem c-section that the vet’s assistant and I did revealed three more dead pups, so we lost seven in total.

I have been involved in two c-sections for human friends since I have been in Burkina. I only had to pay for them- I didn’t have to assist the surgeon (How thankful am I for that? Very.) Of course, they cost a lot more- about 100 dollars. I paid about 80 cents US for the one at the vet’s office.

I’m very happy to report that the human cases both had much happier outcomes. Live babies and moms. Not that the average Burkinabe maternity clinic is a walk in the park- it’s not even a short stroll somewhere vaguely pleasant. In general, to give birth, you lay on a cement slab in a stifling room (you’re lucky if there’s a fan) while overworked nurses bark orders at you and even insult you. I’m not saying this always happens, but I’ve talked to lots of women and spent many hours in maternity wards… (Plus, JP’s research team has done research on the topic! Fascinating stuff!)

If you are lucky enough to get out of that alive, (which is quite a trick-1000 mothers in 100,000 die in childbirth. 36 babies in each 1000 dies as a neonate) you get a cracked vinyl mattress in a hot, dirty ward jammed with women and babies. Plus, each woman has a female friend/family member staying with her at all times- even sleeping at night on the floor next to her mattress, on a bit of cloth or a plastic mat. You have to have this help because there is no help at all for you in the ward. You have to be up washing diapers in a bucket, heating bath water over a fire, etc…there’s lots of hard physical work that need to be done. Plus, there is no food at the hospital- at all. There's no food service, no cafeteria, not even an old lady going around with a pot of rice to sell. Nothing. Someone has to cook for you there (over a wood fire) or bring food in. If you are a woman on her own, you have no help and no food.

One of the friends I mentioned is paralysed due to childhood polio and gave birth to twins, so her case was very difficult and she was in the hospital quite a long time. I brought her her breakfast every morning and spent time visiting with her. This gave me lots of time to observe the goings-ons. It was a very eye-opening experience, to say the least.

There is lots of pressure on women here NOT to give birth at home with traditional mid-wives. Everyone is supposed to go to a hospital and be “modern”. But based on what I’ve seen, I certainly understand why many women resist. If I were given a choice between giving birth in a local maternity clinic and doing it in a mud hut- frankly, I’d choose the mud hut.

My life here lately has been sucking technology-wise. You'd think I lived under primitive conditions in darkest Africa or something.
Oh wait. I do.

My specific complaints:
1. On Easter Sunday, I couldn't phone any of my family in the USA. Couldn't get a line out.
2. After being off the internet a tiny bit that day- just long enough to post a short blog entry- I got kicked off and haven't been able to get back on since.
3. Yesterday, the electricity was off in the eastern part of Ouaga for much of the day. This, of course, included my house. And as temperatures yesterday reached over 107°F (42°), my house was not a good place to be, especially considering that it has a
4. metal roof. It's the most common kind of roof here, as it's the cheapest- unless you go for straw, which brings with it it's own issues of leakage, rot and dust, not to mention insects raining down into your food, onto your head, etc. Corrugated metal roofs are cheap and insect-free, but very, very hot. Take it from one who knows.
5. So, here I am at the internet café, trying to get my cyber-life back in order, but my e-mail seems to be blocked. No access...I guess it's issues with Liptinfor. They have many.

Well, that's my litany of complaints/excuses. So, no ending for the tax story as of yet. I am hoping life will be a little more normal soon and I'll be able to get back to writing the big, long, epic blog entries you've all come to know and possibly (hopefully!) like.

Late breaking news: This just gets better and better! I was just just clicking the "Publish Post" post button when the power here at the internet café went out! Luckily, Blogspot is good about saving automatically, so when I finally got back online (it's a looong story) , my post was saved and I didn't have to re-write it all. You guys wouldn't believe what I go through some days to get a post up on this blog! Crazy.

Protest-free day in Ouaga.
Except for me- I'm protesting because the power is down again.

There is very bad news about the Oasis du Cheval riding club, but I don't have the heart to write about it tonight. It is very, very sad.

I picked up the phone early this morning to call a friend on the north side of Zogona, to ask if they had electricity or not. I figured that would be a good indicator of whether or not we'd keep ours in the afternoon. The line was dead. I shouted across the garden wall and asked our neighbor if his phone was working. No phone for them either.
I thought that maybe the protests had begun and the lines had been cut as a result. Luckily, I have a cell phone and was able to call around to other friends. I found out that 1. Everyone seemed to have electrical current 2. the city was quite calm and 3. the phones were out all over the Zogona/Zone du Bois area for some unknown reason.

So far, so good. The phone came back on at about 2pm. It's now 3pm and the power is still on! I've been out driving around a bit and everything seems very calm, at least on the east side of town. The University is quiet, as is the area near the French Embassy.

It looks like International Women's Day is going to be celebrated with the scheduled bike race and NOT by another wave of protests and violence, which is good!

But I certainly support the release of Thibault Nana who has been accused of "sedition" by the Burkinabé government. I hope he doesn't end up like Moussa Kaka, in jail for months with no end in sight.

No electricity here yesterday from about 3 pm until midnight. And there won’t be any power again today. To be honest, we are all a teensy bit sick and tired of it.

Yesterday, as soon as the power shut down, I put the kids in the car and sought distraction. We had to drive even more cautiously than usual, though, as all the traffic lights were off, of course.

We wandered around Orca a bit. It’s a Lebanese owned store that is kind of like a Bed, Bath and Beyond, only 10 times smaller and 10 times more expensive. We bought a few extra candles there, though, as there was a 30% off sale on them.

The fact that something I actually needed was on sale tricked me into thinking it was my lucky day. It wasn’t. I didn’t find any D cell batteries at all in any of the shops we tried.

So, I finally gave up and we headed over to the Rec Center. I figured that the kids could swim while I worked out in the gym. But the power was off there, too. And no WAY do I work out in 105° F heat with no air-con. And I hate swimming. (I am secretly convinced that I died of drowning in a previous life. The fact that I don’t even believe in reincarnation is no obstacle)

We ended up over at the CCF (the French Cultural Center). Now, just because it’s called that, please do not imagine a place full of blindingly white French folks gathered together to sip fine vintage wines and congratulate themselves heartily on all the Great Culture that they have created (the Louvre, Moliére, Monet, Haute Couture, the metric system, big metal towers that attract hoardes of toursts and tiny cups of really strong coffee)

In fact, when we showed up, we were the only expats there. The outer courtyard was full of Burkinabé people enjoying an exhibit of the work of local cartoonists/ caricaturists. When we entered the library, it was full of Burkinabé children quietly reading. This is very typical. The CCF is used much more by locals than by expats, as it is intended as a sort of community outreach center. Yes, the French high school puts on their school musical there, but local dance companies and theatre groups are more often the performers on stage.

We stayed in the air-conditioned library, reading comic books and magazines, then went on over to the Verdoyant to eat a quick dinner of (yes, it’s true) ice cream.

When we got back home, we lit some candles and played board games until about midnight. Then the power came back on!

Today’s Ouaga Rumour Mill bulletin is that the Part we are all waiting for is coming from Germany. Of course, there is no direct Germany to Burkina flight, so it has to pass through Paris, anyway.

The Part did NOT arrive on last night’s plane, so it will come on Sunday night. We hope.

My pals over at the electric company are waiting for a vital Part to arrive from France. And the lack of this object is ruining my life. Well, ok- maybe not ruining it, but still managing to make it far less nice than it could be.

You long-time readers of my blog know these guys- they’re the national electric company called Sonabel- the nice folks that regularly make things burst into flame at my house.

Well, for the last three days, they have been having problems over there, as they can only keep about half the residences in Ouaga on the electrical grid at the same time, due to the lack of some vital Part. At least, that what my source says- a Burkinabé friend whose husband is retired from the Sonabel.

I guess that two sections of the grid are doing a time-share thing with whatever vital bit that there is now only one of. In the morning, it’s plugged in on one side, so that we here on the south side of the Zogona neighbourhood have power. But that means that there’s no power to the north and in the Zone du Bois. So, at about noon, they pop the precious piece out and use it to provide electricity to the folks who were deprived all morning.

But that leaves us over here with a long, powerless, miserable afternoon and evening. The power doesn’t come back until about 10 or 11 o’clock at night, so it’s pretty dark and boring. And very hot.

The twins and their pal who was sleeping over last night played a board game by candlelight. Val and Sev sang duets from High School Musical for our entertainment.

Mostly, we complained about how hot it was. The daily temperatures here are up to about 103° most days and don’t cool off much at night. So, not even having a fan to stir the air was a bit miserable.

No, I was being brave and stoic. It was actually very, very miserable.

No TV, no computer (my battery lasts about 40 minutes, tops), no radio, not much light.
Plus, it was hot. Did I say how hot it was? It was very hot. Even my Burkinabé pals that resist the heat better than I do are complaining about how hard it is to sleep with no fan. Lots of folks are sleeping outside, which only helps a little. And with the shoe-thief still at large, we are sure not sleeping outside at my house.

Last night, almost every battery in every flashlight in our house gave out at the same time. We also burned through most of the candles. And I hate candles, anyway, as does almost every Burkinabé person I've ever met. They cause many, many house fires and deaths in this country where people have no, little or sporadic access to electricity.

I'm trying to be prepared. I went out foraging in the shops today and bought all the D-cell batteries I could find. I got enough to fill our big lantern, but that’s it.
I’m going to have to go out again and hunt around in some different shops this afternoon. (I would kiss the floor of a Walmart if one magically appeared in Ouagadougou right now)

The shops and business in the city center are all open. It’s just certain neighbourhoods that are being affected by the power cuts. So, after lunch, I’m taking the kids and going shopping for batteries. Then we’ll go visit various friends that have afternoon/evening electricity.

I hope The Part comes soon. I am about ready to jump on a plane to France and go fetch it myself.
But then, once I arrived in Paris (current temperature about 5° C ) I'd go to the Louvre, visit friends and do some shopping. I wouldn't come back to Burkina, ever.

But I'd at least make sure that The Part got loaded onto a plane and shipped to the Sonabel in Burkina.
Probably.