One word: BICYCLES. Whether they are with or without a motor it does not matter, but in Ouaga there are so many bikes that I would recommend for other people’s safety that you do not drive a car here. Bikes require no fuel, so are cheap, and motorbikes take a lot less fuel then a car. The number of people in accidents typically sound like many, but the severity of the accidents are low. No ambulances have been called to any of the accidents I have seen and at least a dozen people come to the aid of the people in trouble. This city, except for Ouaga 2000, needs severe attention. Everything the people of the city gets imported are typically goods being disposed of, and even then the costs are fairly high. The cost of one litre of petrol is in the order of 1.20 AUD, but to understand that the entire countries annual wage is about $450 USD per person per year, then you would understand that this is bloody expensive.
To drive around the city during and just after peak hour is like doing a slow suicide; the amount of pollution that one is exposed to would make the Burnley Tunnel feel like a sanctuary. The bikes are all disposed of European bikes that have not been efficient for the past couple of years. This is not the only serious threat to everyone’s well being, I felt sorry for everyone that drinks the water. There are three major water retentions that were on the outer rim of the city, but due to city expansion all the systems are now enclosed by houses and businesses. This is also the spot where every time I would pass by, people were either trying to cross through the water, wash their clothes, food, bikes or even themselves. Every time we would pass after a massive rain, seeing cascades of brown murky water going down a tier was not the worse thing, it was seeing all the junk that would go along with it. To be able to handle this water you would either need a slow initiation process, or have been brought up on this stuff from day one.
Mosquito bites are no joke in Ouaga. In the more regional spots it is easier to keep away from mozzies, but in Ouaga they are present everywhere (maybe not Ouaga 2000 as the mozzies don’t fit the criteria). The pollution seems to help them survive away from the usual breeding grounds of the regional areas. At the evening times you should protect yourself… but it is actually all day you should also do this. I have currently seen two species of these little buggers, and they attack during different periods of the day. The potency of the anti mosquito agents may not be as good as other countries, or they are more resilient here. Either way, bites have appeared the morning after and sometimes it is just hard to prevent.
People are seemingly busier in the built up region, but if not in transit they still are able to find the time to either talk to each other or help each other out. The food is usually has been similar to what the people eat in villages, but with less meat in it. People who you talk to on the street, or in their house, that you may have only said five words to, are more likely then not to offer you a portion of their food. If confident, I would recommend having the equivalent of a taster to make them feel happy about meeting someone from a new region who they can claim that they have eaten with… and always show enjoyment, unless too spicy. Other then business like the banks and doctors, many industries are a relatively road side business with minimal luxuries for the workers. The long term business with more then one employee normally help people due to the motorbike form of transport. If something is oversized, the employees would take the supplies to your desired location (by foot). Other businesses are villagers that have wandered in with their supplies. The workers generally sleep at night alongside their products, where there is no covers. For 200 CFr one should be able to get 5 bananas, the equivalent of about 0.50 AUD. Certain regions are renowned for the night working ladies, where I have found out (from other people) that a cost of 3000 CFr (about 7.50 AUD) can give you that pleasure that would otherwise cost maybe $200 in Australia. I suppose everything is relative to the wages of everyone else in the region, and it needs to be more accessible from the public to allow for both competitive rates and regular customers (I am talking about all forms of businesses).
While there is no Harbour Bridge, or Millennium 2000 bridge that swings, Ouagadougou has its own form of tourist attractions. Several of the museums in the area try to represent the more regional aspects of the areas (whether it is nature, culture or other), people with their roadside businesses is also a tourist like attraction in itself, or eating the style that cannot be found on any other continent with the specific styles of food exciting a whole new plethora of taste buds, watching people doing various works is also possible (like Bronze working) but if a visit to BF is on the agenda research should be done to see if a festival is going to be on during your visit. The country has many festivals to cater for any person who ever wanted to visit an African country, both in the traditional sense and the more modern sense. While one may buy from the many stores surrounding the city, to buy from the workers themselves (eg for Bronze souvenirs)would see one get a heavily reduced item and see that the money goes to those who produce a good portion of the finer works. I loved the ability of being able to experience a hot day while on a motorbike, amongst hundreds of others, and feel the wind cool me down.
The city has one aspect of a necessary aspect that needs to be experienced, but the housing area is a whole new side of the boat. Imagine a region with an extremely small waste management system in place, one would anticipate an accumulation of rubbish. Well, people try to put things into an appropriate pile, but with any kind of wind or rain, the organised piles are taken care of in a horrible manner. Everything washes into the centre of the side streets that hold it all due to the dirt nature of them, or into the water catchments, or in many (bitumen) areas the guttering, that is kind of below the ground, make perfect holding grounds. These gutters are a couple of metres from the road edge, typically a metre to 1.5 metres wide and about two to 2.5 metres deep. Vision is the best solution to fill in your curiosities, so hopefully one is taken.
Due to the expensive nature of phones, people are selling the prepaid cards at every major intersection. Costs are dependent on phone, but a cost from 135 CFr to 300 CFr per minute is no surprise. This might not sound much, but a person who earns less then 1000 CFr per day (which is majority of the population) would find this extremely hard to cater for. Other means to cater for the expenses of mobile phones is by going to one of the telecentres (there are seriously hundred of these just in Ouagadougou). Another market that seems to be a huge hit is the Cyber Cafes, with more of an emphasis on Cyber then on Cafe.
Aah yes, any description of Ouagadougou can not be complete without a small part being done about the quality of the roads. Cars being driven off of the bitumen roads will more likely struggle. Not only is there an accumulation of waste over the roads, but the potholes that are increasing daily would make a teenagers pimple dominated face seem as smooth as a babies bottom. To adequately drive on some of these roads you have to drive off the road and nearly hit either people or donkeys. Wait… I said donkeys. Yea, as one goes to the rim of Ouaga, or towards a village, donkeys become second nature to your view. But back to road quality: With no major funds being pumped into the infrastructure there is great difficulty in trying to get proper care being done to the roads and there seems to be no hope for there to be improvement in the near future.
Ouaga in a few words: Motor/bikes, pollution, French, Moore, mosquitoes, poor roads, NON STOP CULTURE.
