Ouagadougou weekend

Ani-Sogoma!

Last week was a dark time for the FAVL students. Some people didn’t make it through with their sanity but I managed to come out of it relieved and happy. Three tests, one French novel, various lectures and a dance performance. They have completely front-loaded our classes so that we have the bulk of our work done before we leave for the villages in two weeks. Its like cramming five 4-unit classes, three of which are upper division, into a five-week period. On top of that our Economics/Service learning/program director professor went back to the states two weeks ago, so for our huge econ test we had to teach ourselves three fourths of the material based on readings and uninformative guest lectures. Now we cannot wait to get to our villages and have ten hours a day of free time.

After a day of recovery I got rid of the nervous twitch my eye had acquired specially for our econ test, and I was happy to get out of the house to explore more of Ouaga. Lizzie, Elena and Meghan were in a small dance performance for our bi-weekly dance class at the French cultural center that afternoon so we all headed over there to admire and simultaneously make fun of them. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you are aware of the somewhat extreme rules imposed on us about going out so if you run into David Pace or Michael Kevane one day on the street, please don’t tell them about this blog. Or if you are one of these two men, have mercy. That said, after the performance, Lizzie, Elena, and I took a cab to meet up with our friend Meredith, and some burkinabé friends we know from dance class, Marius, Romielle and Baya the drummer and a French girl working in microfinance. After drinks, we went dancing at an out door bar and ate brochettes (goat meat on a stick, soooo gooood) for 50cfa (about 10cents) apiece. It was so much fun to get away from all of the white hang outs we end up at and actually get out in Ouagadougou. Don’t worry we were really safe… mom.

I’ll keep trying to upload photos!

Bisous,
Merry