the tour

Today is my three-week point until my departure date. I thought I was going to have another lazy Sunday but one of the guys working in the office stopped by my house last night an asked if I was free tomorrow and offered to show me around town. He picked me up at around ten and has one of the worst motorcycles I’ve ever been on. It was so old, and it went VERY slowly, especially with two people. At one point we were stopped on a hill and he had to use his legs to push it up onto the road. On our adventure he drove me down the main highway to go take a look at the president’s house. I don’t really know what it looks like because we were about 2 miles away from it, he wouldn’t get any closer. He said that you used to be able to drive up to the front gate but since the unrest no one drives down the street. We continued on and he showed me another house owned by Gaddafi, and then a few more presidents of African countries. He then took me to the American Embassy, which if you go to any country the American embassy is always, something funny to look at. I have seen my fare share of American embassies and they are always the same; big, atrocious looking, sanding alone, and overly guarded. This was no different. I waved at one of the police but he just stared at me. The American embassy was very far from all the others, and while the others looked like they were made out of old houses, this one was clearly done by a non-burkinabee architect. We drove on, visiting a big church and the house where one of the chiefs of Ouagadougou resides. He then took me to the biggest market in Ouaga, but it was Sunday so most of the stores were closed which was fine with me because the sells men are very aggressive. Afterwards he mentioned that there was a park that people went to, and he had never been but wanted to check it out. I always get nervous when you go to a park with people you don’t know, but when we got there I realized there was nothing to be nervous about there were hundreds of people. It cost 50 cents per person to get into the park and 2 dollars if you wanted to take pictures….I opted not to take pictures. At first there really wasn’t much to see but bushes and a dirt road, and at one point he asked if I wanted to turn back but we kept on walking. It was extremely hot though, so I was constantly wiping sweat from my face. Finally we started to hear some music and as we followed it, we found a huge open space with people sitting laying about talking, playing music and dancing. Everyone was enjoying the shade of these big bamboo stalks and some trees and as I followed the bamboo up to their top I realized that just above u was thousands upon thousands of bats flying around. None of the people seemed bothered by the animals and they just kept on dancing and playing music, we both had a coke and headed out. On the way home we stopped at his house and he introduced me to his family, for what reason, I have no idea. But afterwards I realized…I think I just went on a date…….