Above: A picture of the most common footwear for a football match. They're white rubber shoes, and atleast once a game a player will lose his shoe while making a big kick.Below: Watering the field down before the final match of the league game.
I have tons of pictures of random children from Yako, and tons of cute pictures of kids from the orphanage. This little one was at one of the soccer games we went to. The kids love to have their picture taken, and love to see their picture. Even more they love seeing video of themselves- they're astonished by it.
Driving in Africa is a little different than driving back home. This picture (although a little blurry because I took it through the winshield) is a small example. Note the bus on the left is being repaired, while the bus on the right has pigs and motos strapped to the roof.
This is a picture of one of the roads we take often in Yako. As promised here is my list of February Observations
-When all the lights are out and it’s just the moon and the stars you still have a shadow, you can see people clearly and your shadow is perfect (not like when there’s a bunch of lights on and you have a couple shadows.).It is hard to find the constellations because everything looks different, but it doesn’t matter because there are so many stars to look at anyways. -There are always tons of people hanging around the wells. - You can’t find any real dairy products anywhere. Yogurt and milk are made with powdered milk. -Celine Dion is extraordinarily popular here! -Glass windows don’t seem to exist, just metal shutters. -Tone of voice doesn’t translate well between languages. Sometimes I hear people talking in Mooré and think they’re angry when they’re not because their tone of voice is different. -What we view as culturally normal is different here in terms of how people touch. Couples for example don’t touch at all, even to hold hands (except perhaps in Ouagadougou. They don’t in Yako!). But people of the same gender hold hands, or hug all the time. Grown men will hold hands with each other or lean on each other’s shoulder as an expression of friendship. Although sometimes I still catch myself being a little surprised at this, I recognize that neither the way we do things in North America nor the way they do things here is right nor wrong, simply different. -Many women have fake hair. They keep their real hair short and then put elaborate extensions, braids or put on short wigs. -Women paint their nails, but only the nails on their left hand, because their right hand must be clean for eating. -There’s a sound you can make that means no, a sound for yes and a sound for bad. It’s hard to describe not really a tongue click more sucking air through your lips. Twice is no, once is yes. Blowing air out means something is no good. I struggled with this for a while, but I got the kids to help me and I think now I can make the right sounds. It’s kind of fun. But they told me it’s the ‘lazy’ talk, for when you just are too lazy to say no, you make the sound. -In Yako market day is every 3 days, but in Ouaga it’s everyday. -Everything is done with the right hand because it is the clean hand, but only the palm of the right hand matters apparently. You can shake hands with someone and touch your left hand to their right, so long as the palm of your left touches the back of their right hand- this way their hand is still clean. -I saw someone walking fast on the road one day and realized how out of place that was. Everyone walks at a leisurely pace here, and comments on how fast us Nasaras walk! -The stop signs say ‘STOP’ not ‘ARRET’ as you would expect them to say. -Women don’t speak openly about being pregnant, and are embarrassed if you ask them about it. -A normal handshake is not firm at all. In fact I have been told it is offensive to firmly shake the hand of someone more important than you. They say to never ever, shake the hand of a chef firmly! When you shake hands after shaking you snap your middle against their middle finger. -All the lighting is fluorescent. -Instead of knocking on the door people say ‘kock kock’ or clap a couple of times. I thought this was strange until I went out on home visits and realized a lot of people don’t have doors to knock on. -Locks in Burkina take 2 turns to lock and 2 to unlock. You can mistake it for being locked because it sounds like it locked, and maybe looks like it, but you have to turn the key around another time for it to lock. -A lot of people here have scars on their face. When I asked about it someone explained to me it’s a tribal marking. Each group has their own mark, and so that’s why I see so many different types of scars. The mark identifies you to your village and someone told me can even be used like an identity card for travelling to Cote d’Ivoire. The scars are made by cutting the skin (usually done when still a baby), and then putting hot ashes into the cut. I find it extraordinarily interesting to note the different markings and placement of markings. This was a cultural thing I was not aware of before to Burkina.
-When all the lights are out and it’s just the moon and the stars you still have a shadow, you can see people clearly and your shadow is perfect (not like when there’s a bunch of lights on and you have a couple shadows.).It is hard to find the constellations because everything looks different, but it doesn’t matter because there are so many stars to look at anyways. -There are always tons of people hanging around the wells. - You can’t find any real dairy products anywhere. Yogurt and milk are made with powdered milk. -Celine Dion is extraordinarily popular here! -Glass windows don’t seem to exist, just metal shutters. -Tone of voice doesn’t translate well between languages. Sometimes I hear people talking in Mooré and think they’re angry when they’re not because their tone of voice is different. -What we view as culturally normal is different here in terms of how people touch. Couples for example don’t touch at all, even to hold hands (except perhaps in Ouagadougou. They don’t in Yako!). But people of the same gender hold hands, or hug all the time. Grown men will hold hands with each other or lean on each other’s shoulder as an expression of friendship. Although sometimes I still catch myself being a little surprised at this, I recognize that neither the way we do things in North America nor the way they do things here is right nor wrong, simply different. -Many women have fake hair. They keep their real hair short and then put elaborate extensions, braids or put on short wigs. -Women paint their nails, but only the nails on their left hand, because their right hand must be clean for eating. -There’s a sound you can make that means no, a sound for yes and a sound for bad. It’s hard to describe not really a tongue click more sucking air through your lips. Twice is no, once is yes. Blowing air out means something is no good. I struggled with this for a while, but I got the kids to help me and I think now I can make the right sounds. It’s kind of fun. But they told me it’s the ‘lazy’ talk, for when you just are too lazy to say no, you make the sound. -In Yako market day is every 3 days, but in Ouaga it’s everyday. -Everything is done with the right hand because it is the clean hand, but only the palm of the right hand matters apparently. You can shake hands with someone and touch your left hand to their right, so long as the palm of your left touches the back of their right hand- this way their hand is still clean. -I saw someone walking fast on the road one day and realized how out of place that was. Everyone walks at a leisurely pace here, and comments on how fast us Nasaras walk! -The stop signs say ‘STOP’ not ‘ARRET’ as you would expect them to say. -Women don’t speak openly about being pregnant, and are embarrassed if you ask them about it. -A normal handshake is not firm at all. In fact I have been told it is offensive to firmly shake the hand of someone more important than you. They say to never ever, shake the hand of a chef firmly! When you shake hands after shaking you snap your middle against their middle finger. -All the lighting is fluorescent. -Instead of knocking on the door people say ‘kock kock’ or clap a couple of times. I thought this was strange until I went out on home visits and realized a lot of people don’t have doors to knock on. -Locks in Burkina take 2 turns to lock and 2 to unlock. You can mistake it for being locked because it sounds like it locked, and maybe looks like it, but you have to turn the key around another time for it to lock. -A lot of people here have scars on their face. When I asked about it someone explained to me it’s a tribal marking. Each group has their own mark, and so that’s why I see so many different types of scars. The mark identifies you to your village and someone told me can even be used like an identity card for travelling to Cote d’Ivoire. The scars are made by cutting the skin (usually done when still a baby), and then putting hot ashes into the cut. I find it extraordinarily interesting to note the different markings and placement of markings. This was a cultural thing I was not aware of before to Burkina.
This is a video from the fete for the chef i went to back in January. It's a short clip but might give you a feel of the sights and sounds of the celebration. Enjoy
Many Blessings!
Brittany
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