With Fidel coming around for the next couple of days from 0830 to 1130, the anticipation was that I was going to get down and dirty with the clay batter mix, well so I thought. When Fidel arrived, we had to wait for Donat for an hour. When Donat came with the statement of how he was sick and it had been affecting him the whole night. Man, he was really tired and had been dosing up on various drugs to accommodate the whole thing. The sinuses, yes, like anyone who gets sick in relation to the sinuses, it is definitely one that can make you feel a lot crapper then the body really seems to be.
So, with Donat out of action, and sitting aside a bit, Fidel and I were talking more in depth then the previous days, delving into all sorts of situations, dealing with the real situation of community and various elders (kind of priests) who deal with the construction process of the hut. So, even though we were not physically productive, we got some of the real cultural depths of constructing a suri-dogo (definitely spelt wrong), which is applying to the respect of the individual (sorry ladies, men only) for whom the dogo is being built for.
Just before Fidel left, the electricians came to hook up the masionette with electricity and sort out the buggered up fan in the masion. Anyhow, Fidel left with the anticipation that the report would be officially finished on his return, aah! Also, on the electricians’ completion, the heavens opened up. So, while we had our lunch, they dug into their lunch, the rain stopped and au revoir. Also, Patrick and Aoua (Eve) arrived just before the start of the rains, they didn’t actually eat with us, but by the time we had finished they had already gone. Apparently Aoua is not allowed to leave her house unless it is for family or her work/ education (ps she cannot do both at the same time).
Back to the three of us Donat was toked up on drugs and Canazui had a bit of an easier afternoon, finally. After lunch, though, I wanted to get my comparing of Ouaga 2000 report underway. So, armed with book, camera, pen and several other things, I grabbed Canazui’s bike (freshly pumped) and was on the road. Wow, I kind of had a little thought come across me on the ride over: Any white person I had seen had predominantly been stuck in an a/c car or occasionally on a motorbike, so me riding around on a push bike stood out to every person, be they black, white, yellow whatever. OMG, the road down to Ouaga 2000 did not ring any happy bells in me, the thunder clouds were rolling in, and they looked dog ugly. Imagine a badly bruised person from constant thrashings, but then being the portrayal of the sky. It kind of had a mystical feel about it. Electric clouds on the brink of unleashing its fury, I thought it might mean the rain would not fall. Just before reaching Ouaga 2000, big drops began falling, they were the 5 second warning, and at this I threw my jacket over bag and body.
“Ey, ey, si vous plait.” A guy was waving me over to the first house in Ouaga 2000. This house was still in the midst of constructing and kind of looked like it had included a number of architectural influences, from Russian to Mediterranean and so on. After talking to the builders, who were now relaxing midst the downpour, in Moori and French, I was given permission to do a self guided tour of the house. Wow, 4 stories high, the ground level was the same size as my folks home… now that was plain old ridiculous. Oh yea, this place was on the smaller side for the region too. Just as I got back downstairs, the owner pulled up as I sat down with the workers. A guy representing the whole ‘Look at me, I am Mr Bling’ walked along a freshly laid panel, for his shoes, and walked up with a brief update from the leading hand, then his eyes caught me. I suppose it is not every day that you see a white man (or boy) just sitting on your construction site.
This guy was able to talk to me fairly fluently in English, which was apparently his fourth, or fifth, language (after French, Moore, Russian and German). The building that he was the owner of, and under construction, was going to be more for businesses, but in the same token, it allowed for several bedrooms throughout the four story house. It was ludicrously large, but keep in mind this was on the smaller scale of things to be seen in Ouaga 2000. After a small tour, we actually introduced each other, Hate was a guy who had worked for the most renowned (rich) guy in the city, the real Canazui, and had gone about developing his own business. By the end of our extensive conversation, based around how good he was and how he was doing this for his family, the rain had reduced enough for me to have the chance to get the hell out of there.
Once again, I seemed to be the centre of attraction riding the push bike back to Reciproka, but this time was absolutely doused in rain. Walking into Reciproka, dripping, I was able to distract Miriam and Donat from their work. Actually I had to get rid of the clothes and wash off all the dirt that had flicked up on the ride home.
The rest of the day was dealing with black outs that were happening, mostly due to the rain and storms that had been inundating the area recently.
