Matthew arrived in Ouaga May 15, 2011. After a week at the hotel, he moved in with our friends Irene and Jean-Baptiste; Irene is a choreographer / director of a professional dance school, JB is a doctor who specializes in HIV/AIDS and represents WHO for West Africa.
They helped us find a very nice house in their neighborhood, "petit-Paris" Gounghin, that matthew visited on the day he arrived and immediately signed for. It is a residential area, very close to the downtown with a population of wealthy Burkinabes and expatriates. Matthew was blessed with their tremendous hospitality, generosity, precious company and help. In the house there were 3 to 7 kids on a regular base, which brought into his life some distracting joy and chaos. They were a real help in terms of our integration into local life: Irene introduced us to her niece madina who's the boys nanny, she recommended great workers (plumber, carpenter, tailor, electrician ...) ; they helped us understand local customs and practices; and they often introduced us to their good friends.
In short, the settling in Ouaga has been easier than in any other city in Africa. It must also be remembered that Irene is a true personality, that everyone here knows and respects, and ... the mere fact that she is a friend of us, helps in many situations again.
Then, mima (Cherifa), the boys and myself have joined matthew June 26, after we spent two months in Morocco. We had the opportunity to see my family and friends with a little more time than usual, to eat Jmia's (jimmy) divine cuisine every day and enjoy her soothing presence. My mother was of the greatest help and patience on a daily basis since we were living with her. She had a lot of fun looking after little omar: singing to him when awake, putting him to sleep when he had colics, she even tried some Reiki on him with her nice, big warm hands to calm him down. She did better team with omar this time, hakimou being much less manageable in his "terrible twos". My dearest brother Omar saved my days in Morocco: he spent time everyday with hakim awakening his curiosity, playing and talking with him, feeding and bathing him, as well as filling daddy's chair to a certain point. And Babouzi (my father) made the best of him time in Morocco with his grandchildren, every time he came back from Tunisia where he lives now.
This was the second long separation of hakim with daddy, as Matthew travelled to the DRC during the month of March 2011. To reassure hakim, I kept telling him that daddy went to Ouaga first to equip the house and, as soon as there will be beds, a refrigerator, a stove, and a dining table in the house we will join him. He hold on pretty well, but one night when going to bed he asked me: "mameena, I want to see daddy's picture."
The reunion at the airport in Ouagadougou was very moving: hakim ran into his father's arms, and hold him very tight for a while; matthew wept with joy to see his hakimou again, but he missed him in a very painful way as well. He was worried that hakim had forgotten about him.
Matthew and the Marcel-DMI's driver came to pick us up at the airport and we arrived in our new home aroung 2am, tired but happy to be all together again.
We woke up in empty rooms whith our beds and our luggages on the floor, and a lot of light. In the living room there was a dining table made of wood and iron, in the kitchen we had some dishes and what we needed for our first breakfast together. The sun and heat were holding tight above our heads Sunday morning when we got out to meet Irene and JB for a lunch at their house.
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