Dusty wind of November

Hello All,

It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog, yet I always think of you all and talk about you everyday with hakim and omar. You are regularly in the stories hakim tells me: you ride regularly in his planes or boats, he remembers very well what each and everyone gave to him, he still sings the "clean up song" he learned with aunt kathy,  he loves seeing pictures of his cousins on the Web…

Life is going pretty well in Ouagadougou so far, thank God. The boys are overall healthy, except for minor colds, and a quick episode of roseola for omar last week, and painful growing teeth sometimes. We had to go to the medical center last sunday and tuesday to check for malaria, because of a three-day fever preceding the roseola diagnosis. At his age, doctors don't want to take any risk, so they always encourage you to have the test done. 

Their social life, as I told you previously is "blossoming": they both love Madina, the super zen and friendly nanny - nothing ever gets her mad or angry, and she has a total control over the tone of her voice: I really envy her. She has the softest and most delightful lough; it's very communicative. Celine the cleaning lady, who is always singing Celine Dion's songs, loves the boys too, and is always tuned to "playing mode". I promised that if Celine Dion one day performs in Ouaga, I'll get her a ticket for the concert:)

Hakim loves playing soccer with the guard or the driver outside the house; he also loves being in his arms. Friday morning, hakim and I got into our taxi at 8 am to go to school -our car was still at the garage getting the engine changed-, he told me: "mameena, I want marcel to take me to school today". I got out of the car and let them go… Yes, I was proud of my hakimo, but sad.

The space in the house is a gift for hakim's running and omar's crawling. And thank god for that because there are not a lot of outdoor spaces in Ouaga (playgrounds, museums, gardens, not even sidewalks…) where to walk and play. Plus the traffic's pollution (cars, taxis, mopeds) doesn't really encourage the neighborhood walks.

Both hakim and omar are very attaching at their age and full of interest, I feel very blessed -and also challenged- to get to spend so much time in their company, and watch them grow. Hakim is very curious, asking billions of questions, describing and commenting every little object, person or action. He tells stories at night to his friends in his bed ( tito, papy, bunny and doggy), and resists everything we ask him to do, either by "non" or "jamais, jamais, jamais" (never). he loves wrestling, and anything that involves a lot of energy.

Omar has a constant smile on his face, he's a happy baby, and… biting, crawling, standing up, braking mameena's glasses and calling "daddy" all day long are his favorite things to do.

"Raising a toddler is like chewing little rocks", one of matthew's collegue said…  well it's definitely challenging: we love our boys to death but boy, when sunday night finally comes, aren't daddy and mameena drained!!

In short: you better be healthy, have a great mental constitution, and put as much patience as you have in your voice, your heart and your brain.

Matthew said they will soon play together and we will then enjoy some quiet moments. Which is probably true.

Meanwhile, they are both an inexhaustible source of happiness, unique joy and comfort and at the same time a great deal of exhaustion:)

Langage skills: hakim has a pretty extended and detailed vocabulary in French. Unfortunatly he doesn't speak English anymore and even though Matthew reads to him in English every night, he also tells him stories involving "zibo zibo" the nasty monkey, his sister "zaza", their father "zouzou", the bird "souke souke", the elephant… and that's in French. I am trying to convince Matthew to speak more English to him, even if it means some frustration in the beginning, but that would be the only way to get it back. I am also encouraging hakim to join the weekly English class at school.

I also offered to teach him some Moroccan arabic, "darija", so that he can speak to "Jimi" our cook and home sunshine for 25 years, when we visit her in May, as well as when she visits us in Ouaga. 

A couple of good news here as well: Both Vincent, the guard and Marcel, the driver are in their 30's. They both got out of school in the two first years of elementary school more than twenty years ago. After discussing the importance of schooling and feeling of regrets, we offered to pay for their education ($20/year for  5 classes/week!) and school books ($10) for the time we are here. So they both went back to school, for adults evening classes in their neighborhood public school. And now they spend long hours of the day and night writing and reading together.

And the second great news is… after nearly dying, our car is alive, with a new engine, ready to travel to Bamako, Mali! After spending two weeks in three garages and no fixing, we finally brought it to a French car mechanic, Alain Camier. When he first saw the dying car, he said: "I am not touching it, it has been fixed so many times that nothing is working really!" The car was driving with the sound of an airplane taking off; it was consuming as much gas as a 4x4; and the engine was getting to really high temperatures very fast…So he said the only thing he can do is change the engine entirely. Now, we can't really travel to bamako with it, but for the city, it's great! We even have air conditioning, which we got used not to have:)

The big news in the family for those who don't know it yet is Matthew's promotion, from program manager/producer to country director of the project. It's a big change: I think he has over 30 people to manage, more responsibilities and work; but probably less traveling. Which is great for the family life. He still works 10 hours a day though.

Three new employees are arriving successively a Ouaga, between mid November and late December. And now matthew is in charge of picking them at airport on saturday, picking them at their hotel on sunday morning for a 2 hours car tour of Ouaga, and lunch with us. We went last sunday to eat "crepes" with Cheikh, a malien radio and TV producer who lived in Ottawa, CA for over thirty years. And we had a couscous at home yesterday with Salim, former BBC employee from pakistan who lived for years in London. Cheikh and Bassirou, both from DMI joined us too. And the surprise guest was: Omar my brother, who's visiting us for 10 days!! Hakimo is thrilled with his uncle's visit.

Life in Ouagadougou doesn't offer much to see, to do or to buy. Fabrics are great, music instruments, wood furnitures, wooden masks, gold and silver, cotton and wall paintings on cotton called "batiks", woven baskets, shea butter, and other local products are pretty much what you want to take home to remember your trip to Burkina Faso. Gold mine industries and NGO's are the largest official employers, beside the administrations, but the majority of the industries are "black market". That gets the job of collecting taxes probably like hell. 

The richness here in Ouaga is the social network and all the relations you can grow. All the relations you have with people, whether it's your guard, cook, nanny, shopkeeper, plumber… become very easily meaningful. People here have so little that they can't imagine living without the support of each others; they all count on a solidarity that gives sense to their life. If they were so poor and isolated… they would probably die. 

I think the boys are lucky to be exposed to such a different culture in such an early age, and to so little temptation to buy things, and toys…

When you give hakim money and you ask him what he wants to get, he answers: "I'll go to the market and buy avocados, potatoes, carrots and bread, and bissap juice…"

As far as I am concerned I've been challenged several times in my relationships with  the Burkinabes men and women. There are situations when I don't understand how people function and think. I am quickly learning that my Moroccan-western, rational, "logical'(?)  way is definitely not the local people's way. And… if I want to make friends here, and not miss an opportunity to learn about a totally different culture, I better start observing, discovering and appreciating the differences! 

Matthew, who has long lived in sub-Saharan Africa, knows very well his way around and how to communicate with people here. He is completely open, permeable to what each and everyone can express,  and to who they really are, without a hint of judgment ever. He even said that he feels much closer to Muslim Africans,  like Mauritanians, because he can share their tea, and not the local beer. 

I understood pretty quickly after meeting Matthew that, while he loves his family and country in a very deep and strong way, a reciprocal adoption happened with Mauritania and the Mauritanians since he heard his very first concert of mauritanian music in Dakar, Senegal.

As an example of  my personal failure to understand some people here: I'll tell you about two professionals I met, both trained overseas and back in their country to work. The first one is Dr Forogo, a very competent physical therapist; the second is a librarian, Mr Milogo, brilliant guy who knows his job. The PT's appointments start at 9am, and some days he doesn't want to show up at the office, so he just does his errands and comes whenever he feels like it. The second has his office on the first floor, in the middle of the shelves, because "he wants to be close to the readers and clients to better answer their questions and needs". Of both professionals, I feel closer to the librarian's work vision and work ethics than the PT's; but there's probably more in the PT's whole picture for me to understand!

Another area of questioning: do I have to speak the French I learned in French International High School, or the Burkinabe French, which is slightly different. As matthew said, "it depends what your goal is. If it's to be natural and yourself, or if it's to be understood and communicate with the local people". Hakim understood it way before I did, and he's been using some local words and adapting his French already, as well as using sophisticated sentences and verbs (from the Literature French).

We had great crepes for daddy's birthday. Against all odds, there is a very good "creperie" in Ouaga. Hakim has been acting as if he was a big bear all morning that day, perfectly imitating his gait, arms and legs wide apart. And he didn't stop kissing and hugging daddy for his birthday, walking to his room and back to daddy!

I  apologize for taking so long to translate the French version this time,

We think of you and love you all,

zineb