Giselle has taken me a bit under her wing and will not relax until we are well installed. Using her contacts she called around and found us a place in a family that have an extra room that we can rent. Giselle bargained to make sure we got Burkinabé price for rent. Giselle’s tastes however are a little richer than what we expect. She wanted to make sure that we were comfortable and healthy.
We moved onto a hotel for two days while our new place was cleaned and while we searched for a mattress and some basic essentials. We are now living in an area away from downtown, the suburbs of sorts. It is a community that is middle class with varying levels depending on the house. We are staying with a family that have 4 kids, Drama (Father), Mariam (Mother), Salmata (14), Amake (11), Ibrahim (7) and Ismael (10 months). The family is true entrepreneurs! The mother runs a cooking wear stand in the market, the father supplies tailors with sowing machine pieces; from the house they sell juice, yogurt and sort of homemade popsicles. They are always working, the kids included. Since it is the vacation from school the daughters go to the market for 7am – 6pm, then once home they help make juice or yogurt, then sit out front talking and playing card and selling the juice and yogurt.
There are also two women who work at the house, cooking and cleaning. One is mute so the fact we know little Dioula does not matter much. She is very friendly and helpful. The other day when I was trying to do laundry, by hand, and I was obviously not doing it the right way she kept trying to tell me she would do it for me. Once I convinced her that I could do it she then showed me how to do it properly and laughed all the time. She has a little son, Akime, who is very shy and definitely not sure of us “tubabu’s” (White person, what all little kids say with excitement on the road when they see us).
We are trying to improve out Dioula, so to be able to speak and share a little more with the family. The kids speak French well enough so we can talk through them, but the mom and dad speak only a little. It would be great to be able to communicate better, but I’m sure that will come with time.
We moved onto a hotel for two days while our new place was cleaned and while we searched for a mattress and some basic essentials. We are now living in an area away from downtown, the suburbs of sorts. It is a community that is middle class with varying levels depending on the house. We are staying with a family that have 4 kids, Drama (Father), Mariam (Mother), Salmata (14), Amake (11), Ibrahim (7) and Ismael (10 months). The family is true entrepreneurs! The mother runs a cooking wear stand in the market, the father supplies tailors with sowing machine pieces; from the house they sell juice, yogurt and sort of homemade popsicles. They are always working, the kids included. Since it is the vacation from school the daughters go to the market for 7am – 6pm, then once home they help make juice or yogurt, then sit out front talking and playing card and selling the juice and yogurt.
There are also two women who work at the house, cooking and cleaning. One is mute so the fact we know little Dioula does not matter much. She is very friendly and helpful. The other day when I was trying to do laundry, by hand, and I was obviously not doing it the right way she kept trying to tell me she would do it for me. Once I convinced her that I could do it she then showed me how to do it properly and laughed all the time. She has a little son, Akime, who is very shy and definitely not sure of us “tubabu’s” (White person, what all little kids say with excitement on the road when they see us).
We are trying to improve out Dioula, so to be able to speak and share a little more with the family. The kids speak French well enough so we can talk through them, but the mom and dad speak only a little. It would be great to be able to communicate better, but I’m sure that will come with time.
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