Burkina Faso

Visited: January 2009

Duration of visit: 9 days

Capital city: Ouagadougou (Ouaga)

Population: 15 million

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

• Second part of my humanitarian project to help the poorest African kids in their effort to achieve basic education in the vicinity of Bobo-Dioulasso.
• Exploring villages around Banfora on a moped with a Swedish buddy.
• The capital city of Ouagadougou is practically without any tourist attractions. One of the highlights after spending a lot of time on the African countryside was shopping in a real supermarket.
• Fully loaded buses: Squeezing too many passengers inside a bus while the roof is loaded with cargo that would be more suitable to transport on a small truck.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Mali and Ivory Coast.  A former French colony that became independent in 1960, was first called Republic of Upper Volta until finally renamed to Burkina Faso in 1984. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a high level of poverty and unemployment.

The Land of Honest Men offers home to 60 different ethnic groups, that combine into one of the world’s youngest populations. Around 80% of the Burkinabe population is engaged in subsistence farming, which means that most of the crops and animals are grown for own consumption; no surplus for sale or trade. The main export of the country is gold, while peanuts, shea nuts, sesame and cotton are some of the few big-scale cultivated crops.

Burkina Faso lacks tourist attractions. The simple fact that it was on my route of West Africa trip, was enough to include it on a list of countries that I crossed during 3-months trip around the region. Probably the only worthwhile landmark in the country is the Grand Mosque of Bobo-Dioulasso, one of the largest mosques in West Africa.

Burkina Faso is a country of funny names, rare sights and the ideal place to realize the second part of the humanitarian project for African children. Complicated names of the largest cities Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso are perfectly abbreviated to Ouaga and Bobo. Ouaga is a non-spectacular capital city where I stayed for less than 24 hours; beside some moderate attractions the highlight of my stay was – a well-stocked central supermarket.

That’s right; a new, medium size supermarket. It can be quite a dramatic visit when, after months of catering my needs at simple kiosks or improvised stands, you enter a grocery store, offering fully stocked shelves with all possible products you can live without … until you see them again.

Human need for unnecessary material goods quickly awakens at the first impulses, but on the other side, I was feeling confused asking myself: “Why would I need all these consumables, since I have been doing well without any of these products recently?”.

I bought two Snickers chocolates with discount to fill my body with healthy ingredients such as milk, chocolate, caramel, peanuts and palm oil. As always, American style chocolate made me lazy with stomachache only fifteen minutes later. The short-lived temptation was worth the sin.

Grand Marché de Ouaga offers anything a human being in Burkina Faso might need and imagine: from the West African fabric and textiles to souvenirs, vegetables fruits and mobile phones. Ouagadougou is full of art available for sell in various places, where local artists exhibit their creations.

A unique orange cathedral Cathédrale de l’Immaculée-Conception de Ouagadougou is probably one of the oldest buildings in the capital, built in 1936. I was careful to avoid taking photos from inside, since some people warned me that it is disrespectful and prohibited.

The Grand Mosquée of Ouagadougou was built much later, in 1956 and already repaired three times. The peace and tranquility that reigns in the temple provide a pleasant retreat from the street chaos.

I rented a moped in Banfora and drove around to the surrounding villages with a Swedish friend that I met on a bus the previous day. Old mopeds had a very particular way to start. I had to pedal to gain speed, release the clutch and press the ignition button. I am used to motorbikes and learned the routine immediately, while my Swedish friend’s little attention to this procedure seems to have caused a failure in his moped.

Some beautiful waterfalls and colorful stone structures were the highlight of Burkina Faso. Banfora Cascades are a series of waterfalls along the Komoé River. In the dry season, the water level was low, permitting us to have a nice swim and chill up in the river. Even more interesting was the encounter with hippos in a small lake. The hippos can be observed from the shore, but we decided to rent a small canoe to get closer to them.

The Fabedougou Domes are natural sandstone or limestone rock formations almost 2 billion years old. This whole area was once under a big ocean packed with free-flowing sediments, molded through years into domes and craggy fingers pointing skyward. Semi-spherical dome-shaped hills are several meters high, scattered across the terrain. Being dry, they were easy to climb up and down, offering spectacular panoramic views from the top.

On the way back, an uninspected event occurred, when my friend’s moped suddenly stopped in the middle of a village, where they don’t see foreigners very frequently.

Immediately, all the children gathered, laughing and making fun of the unfortunate white people.

It didn’t take long to locate a mechanic who fixed the problem just before dusk. Once again it has been proved that in Africa every problem has a solution; only patience and time are needed.

On the outskirts of Bobo-Dioulasso I found a newly established school, which was built with the help of Icelandic NGO, named ABC. The central aim is to reach out to street children who, for numerous reasons, especially economic ones, have not had the chance to receive an education in state-run schools.

Yes, even to attend state schools, parents need to pay small amount of money for notebooks, uniforms and shoes. Not everyone can afford it.

Each October, about 100 children between the ages of 6 and 9 begin attending classes. They are additionally motivated with free snacks and lunch. In two classrooms with 50 students each, they receive a quality education and a healthy diet, which gives them strength for daily walks from remote villages.

So, I embarked in an exciting task. I collected voluntary contributions from my family and friends back in my home country to support a project that would benefit poor kids without possibility to proper education. The idea was to improve chances that these kids would get at least basic education.

Together with the principal, a cook and a local representative of an Icelandic NGO, I spent the whole morning acquiring the necessary books, personal writing boards, rice, sack of corn, beans and a large water tank.

Everyone was overjoyed, as the financial crisis in Iceland was reducing the source of income and future school projects are in question. With phase 2 of my personal project to help African children during this trip, the mission is successfully completed – total amount of 950.00US$ was invested in education and basic needs for children in Guinea and Burkina Faso.

It is amazing how many school utensils, books, basic food and necessary tools I managed to buy. Without a single dollar of commission, directly from supporters to the kids.

Certainly, this is one of the highlights of my trip and a motivation to continue similar campaigns in the future. If I turn Neil Armstrong’s words around, I could say: A small step for humanity, a big step for a man. We will not eradicate poverty in the world overnight, but I believe that each of the participants feels a spark of satisfaction in themselves.

Thanks again for your help and cooperation my friends!

This project has changed lives of many women who had been unemployed before.

Besides giving them a serious job, they can now be more independent, providing their kids school utensils, clothes or pay electricity bills and buy food.

An excellent project with several positive effects of improving the living standard for women, as well as reducing the amount of waste bags on the streets of Bobo city, is financially supported by Cooperation GAFREH – Groupe d’Action des Femmes pour la Relance Economique du Houet.

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest and least visited countries in West Africa, landlocked, politically instable, threated by climate changes, in constant fight for the power among elites, military forces and corrupt politicians. Even in peaceful conditions the country doesn’t have much to offer to seldom visitors.

However, I found very pleasant atmosphere with friendly, welcoming Burkinabes. Very few landmarks, national parks or attracting cities are on the menu, tourist infrastructure is basic, but no issues with the security.

Renting a motorbike and visiting small villages on the road to Banfora was as pure as it can get. The same as the experience with the kids, who received my help in a form of school utensils, sweet potatoes and an opportunity to shake hands with a foreigner, sing him a song and proudly show the knowledge acquired at school.

Pure Africa at its best!