Ouagadougou

We left Banfora early in the morning and got into Ouagadougou around lunch time with a short snack stop in Boromo. We were all very impressed with the service on the Rakieta bus; clean, air-conditioned, videos & great drivers. It was like something in Europe ...

Arriving in Ouaga we got a taxi down to the Catholic Mission, it was a bit of a mission finding it but finally the taxi pulled up outside a gate and a guardian eventually came to open it, we found ourselves on a street to the side of the Cathedral. I went through wanting to find out if there was any room for us and left Maddy to pay the taxi, which in hindsight was a stupid move. She didn't have the correct change for the taxi and had a lot of touts around her, one of which paid for the taxi. Understandably she was rather upset.
We walked into the park like ground and went to find one of the 'sisters' being a Catholic Mission it accepts ladies and the occasional man - they told us they were full; we thought that our tattered dusty apperance possibly put them off, they sent us to the 'brothers' who gave us a dingy room for 6,000CFA and as soon as we came out of the gate we were pounced on by a group of 5 guys one of which had paid for our taxi. However they were incredibly aggressive and refused to take no for an answer or Maddys attempt at F*** O**; only when I said similarly in French did they step back ... it was very threatening and not letting us pass them was getting a little worrying - one of those situations when I had yell, but not something I like doing in Africa where things are usually done peacefully.


Dani took us a great restaurant that we'd passed earlier in the taxi (she'd really found her feet!!) and we realised it had rooms: so taking their guardien for protection Maddy and I crept back to the brothers passed our gang of boys and managed to get our packs out of the room and creep back to an ecstatic Danika who was waiting at Le Samaritain for us with lunch ordered!!! We had a room for about 14,000CFA basically a small suite with only air-con in the room. I'm not good with air-con so offered to take the little living room with a mattress on the floor and putting up my mossie net made for some interesting gymnastics between the 3 of us! Maddy & Dani shared the bed, but as it was I was up most of the night freezing! Later that night my friend Issaka I'd met 2 years previously when we were both backstage at a Johnny Clegg concert turned up to see us. He invited us all for lunch the following day!

So, on Sunday I went out early to go in search of bus tickets to Fada N'Gourma ... after getting several taxis around town I eventually ended up back at a Rakieta depot and then promptly bumped into the Germans we'd met at Diebougou bus station who were spending their last day shopping. On my return we all went off to the bronze artisans shops not too far from the auberge and again we met the Germans! We had Sunday lunch with Issaka and his family; he heads up the Burkina Chamber of Commerce. I finally met his wife Angelique and 3 kids, he took us all to a great restaurant in Ouaga - Le Foret where we had far too much food before heading off on another cracking Rakieta bus from a depot next to the Libyan cultural centre to Fada N'Gourma. I can't say enough about Burkina's transport system ...

However, I think Dani ate too much at lunch and slept most of the way to Fada N'Gourma on the bus ...