Arrival!

Arrived!

It was another long trip with lots sneezing and stuffy-ness with this new “allergy” thing my body has picked up (thanks dad :)!), but as usually pretty uneventful. The most eventful part was the arrival! Burkina has a tiny airport, made even tinier by the fact that they have a reconstruction project going on (again…wonderful for my allergies as dust swirled around in the air!).

The best part about this reconstruction is that there are no luggage belts for your luggage to come through nicely and you to stand back and let them come to you. Instead a few guys were wheeling huge carts in piled with our bags and tossing them in a big line in front of all the passengers. You then had to proceed to squeeze you way through and maybe, hopefully get a glimpse of you bag…if not make the painfully slow process down the line desperately searching! This wouldn’t be a problem if the plane was half full and if everyone didn’t seem to have 4 or 5 bags!! But, to be honest, everyone stayed really calm and joking about what a hassle it was. There wasn’t any of the Senegal aggressiveness that would have led to elbows in ribs and angry jostling. Already this country feels more calm!

Ulla (my supervisor at the embassy) was there in baggage claims after I came out through security, which was really nice!! She was a life-saver and held down the fort with my stuff while I suitcase hunted in the crowds.

We got out to the house where I am living and I am super excited! It is a little three bedroom house with a living room and kitchen. Emeline (a French girl) and I share one bathroom and Sarah (who is Swiss) has her own in her room. There is a little garden out front and a little space you can sit outside! There is always a guard at the house…which is either disconcerting or kind of nice. Nice to know there is always someone at the house I guess.

My first day at work went wonderfully as well. Lots of the usual reading and looking through documents to get familiar with what I’ll be doing! Looks like it’ll be really fun and everyone at the embassy is super nice. There is another student as well and we share an office which is kind of fun too.

More about the job later as I learn more about what I’ll be doing :)

So far…very good impressions of Burkina! I have to remember that it is not Senegal…because there are a lot of similarities…but many differences too. The biggest I’ve notice so far is essentially ZERO transportation options in this lovely town. Shared taxis (that may or may not take you, depending on their route and “zone” they work in) seem to be the only option…unless you want to wait an indefinite amount of time for the couple of city buses that might run every once in a while… hmm this could get challenging!!

For those in good ol’Canada…hope you are enjoying the heat wave. Weather here is beautiful (of the one day I have seen of it :)!) I even have a ceiling fan in my room!!