9-28 First free weekend in ouaga

September 28, 2009

This past weekend was our first weekend in Ouagadougou with no traveling after arriving about 26 days ago. During this time we have been non-stop working FAVL machines. Class has been 4 days a week for about 7 hours a day and then there’s homework and scheduled outings, so we were very content to stray from our monotonous daily routine. Of course we are very grateful and we are learning so much but everyone has their limit and all nine of us reached ours last Friday night.

Friday was our first free day to ourselves so we decided to go to the pool at the International school of Ouagadougou. A very good idea for the price of 2,000 cfa. Elena wanted to play marco polo but none of us would indulge her so we splashed around and tried to even out our ridiculous tan lines. We then headed back to our respective housed to get ready for the night ahead of us.

David Pace (from now to be refered to as Naaba Pace, the mossi word for chief as we call him), our photography professor and man in charge when Michael isn’t here, had invited us all to go to a small outdoor music concert at the French cultural center in the evening. Little did he know, we also had plans. Meredith, a friend of ours from djembe class doing her masters research here in Ouaga, invited us all to go out dancing to experience the Ouaga nightlife. Also, some questionably creepy American rednecks from the US Air Force were having a party that evening in one of the nicest areas in the city, literally called Ouaga2000, and we were invited to that little shindig as well. Everyone was stoked to have a night out to unwind and hang out with other people that weren’t the nine of us. Granted we get along better than any of us could have expected after living and working and stressing with each other over the last month. Needless to say, I wanted to talk to people who weren’t part of this group.

At the concert, everyone was decked out in the cutest dresses, showered, legs shaven and wearing makeup for the first time in a month. Such was our excitement and thrill for the plans we had made. We met Naaba Pace at the concert.

“You ladies look nice” observed Naaba Pace
“We are very excited about dancing with Meredith and meeting up with some of our Air Force friends after the concert. The concerts going to be a ball too though! What fun!”
“Air Force? Dancing? No, no this is your first night, I don't really think it's smart or safe to run around the city. Plus, it's already going to be late when we leave the concert, you will probably be tired and want to sleep.”

Bad move my friend, bad move. A little man against 5 stir-crazy young women, used to being able to do what they want. Pace did not understand, he wasn't walking on thin ice, he was tap dancing on thin ice waking up the sleeping carnivorous beast sleeping below. At the concert we could hardly focus on the music because the threat of not having fun was too great to shake off. I decided to plea our case.

“Don't you think it would be safer, nay the safest possible option to go to an Air Force party? I mean, it's a bunch of ex-pats. Plus, their job and principle responsibility is to protect America, we are Americans. I think it's pretty clear Pace...”
“Merry, do you know why those men are here?”
“No…”
“Neither do I. They are probably on some covert operation to overthrow the government and no one wants that.”

Pace you commie San Francisco bastard! Granted I agree with him but did not tell him and in any other situation I would never go near a group of Southern fighter pilots. But they have tortilla chips, flip cup, an oven, free beer and peanut butter and this was a rare occasion where I would be willing to put my political opinions aside for one night. Also, my tax dollars paid for all of these luxuries so we might as well take advantage of them.

We finally reached a compromise where we were allowed to go out dancing with our friend Meredith and two bukinabé from our dance class as long as our program assistant Elisée would come with us (swoon), and we had to be home by midnight. Feeling 14 years old again, we said goodbye to our concert friends and went to an outdoor dancing club nearby. This was probably ten times more fun than an air force party anyway. We had some much needed time to unwind and rolled back home around 1 in the morning.

The next night however, we made it to an air force house down the street from us without the knowledge of our fearless leader. There were peace corps volunteers there too who were really nice to talk to and when the air force guys were not creepily hitting on us, they were pretty cool people. They also have a fish-shaped pool and we got to illegally use 26,000 dollar night vision goggles on their roof. By the end of the night I had charmed my way into getting one of their beaded Kenyan Obama bracelets to “borrow” but they are never seeing that thing again. In fact, even though it was a fun night, I really don’t think I will hang out with them again. It’s too weird. I don’t know why they’re here and they can’t tell me. Its frightening stuff.