Ouaga

Ouagadougou (Pronounced wag-a-DOO-goo) or Ouaga in short (pronounced WA-ga) is the capital city of Burkina Faso, a former French colony located just north of Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire. It is a city that has grown rapidly in the past twenty years, now flirting with a population of two million. Although I've traveled quite a bit in coastal West Africa, this is my first time in the interior of this vast and complex region. There is a lot of cultural similarity with points further south in terms of dress, cuisine, and culture, but the climate is markedly different. Burkina is a hot and dusty place, another step in the slow transition from the verdant tropics of the Atlantic coast to the blazing deserts of the Sahara in the north. 

A roadside café outside of Ouaga, made of magically heat-beating woven grasses

Like much of Africa, Burkina experiences wet and dry seasons. The rains generally begin in late May-early June and last through September or October. I'm told that when the rains come, the dusty, brown world springs to life with grasses and crops. It's kind of hard to imagine the verdancy people describe amidst the dusty brownness of the end of the dry season. The dry season tends to peak in April, which is also the peak of temperatures, when daytime highs can easily reach 50 degrees centigrade (about 125). 

Although the worst of the April heat has passed, temperatures are still averaging around 40 centigrade (104 F) with nighttime temperatures falling to around 30 (86 F). Although April's heat, I am told, is dry desert heat, Ouaga today is also experiencing a bit of humidity as the rains draw near. It makes for quite an appalling mix. Life largely shuts down in the early hours of the afternoon, when most people can be seen resting under an awning or tree or, in some cases, sprawled out on a cool stone floor. Every conversation seems to turn at some point to le chaleur (the heat). It does make me wonder why the hymn "blanc, blanc plus que neige" (white, whiter than snow) is so very popular in the church here, akin to "Amazing Grace" in the United States of "Velikii Bog" in Russia and Ukraine. I've puzzled over that one every time I come to Francophone Africa, and will continue to puzzle. 

A well with banana trees growing from the runoff

One of the fascinating things about Africa is the seemingly near-magical cooling power of its trees. Large mango trees dot the Burkina landscape and serve as parking spots for cars, motos, and bicycles, as well as a place for people (especially mothers and babies) to rest. There is something magical about stepping under one of these magnificent beings, as the temperature seems to drop precipitously. 

This cooling power also seems to extend to grasses. The long grasses that grow up during the rainy season are dutifully harvested and then carefully and artfully woven into mats, roofs of shelters, granaries, and wind-blocking walls. They are everywhere. Again, buildings covered by these grass roofs seem somehow magically cool, while more "modern" metal-roofed buildings feel ready to bake a pie. 

A bicycle parking lot

While all hotter climates clearly have an appreciation for water, this seems especially pronounced in Burkina, where water is carefully collected during the rainy season for irrigation of crops in the dryer months. I am told that it is not uncommon for people to walk 8-10 kilometers to a deep-water well in the end of the dry season for water, as sources closer to the surface gradually dry up. I visited yesterday the site of a recently drilled deep-water well about 10 kilometers outside of Ouaga. A new community is sprouting up on what was once a desolate plain. A mother stood bathing her two young children from a bucket for freshly drawn, cold water. Somehow, the phrase "water is life" takes on a whole new meaning here. 

Water is Life