Nasara Bonjour!! And a note on my posting strategy

I've arrived in Yako, Burkina Faso, where the temperature at 9am was a cool 27 degrees Celsius.

First thing's first: I've bought a cell phone and you can reach me at 011 226 7500 2125 if you feel like buying a calling card for Africa. Just please remember that I'm in the same time zone as France and try not to call in the middle of the night!

I've been here exactly one week now and there's a lot to tell. Getting here took 2 days, which was an adventure in itself, and I've barely stopped moving since my lovely host family - the Zidas - picked me up at Ouagadougou International Airport. Well, it feels like I've not stopped moving but the truth is I've probably spent a third of my time prone in bed. I'm healthy, don't worry! I spent one day catching up on sleep after my white night in Charles de Gaulle and another day getting used to the food.

In the last 6 days I've been to Mama Zida's village, attended several funerals, worked at the orphanage, relearned how to survive the midday heat, had some clothes tailored, reunited with my host family from 6 years ago (the Sawadogos), eaten tô (blech), drank dolo (also not great), and eaten more meat than in the last 6 years together. I've also had some interesting, though brief conversations about climate change impacts in the region. I think they deserve a separate blog posting, so I'll ask some more questions, do some more research, and get back to you on that.

As for the title of this post, "nasara" means white person in Mooré, the local language. When I was last here I walked everywhere and strings of children would run behind me calling out "Nasara bonjour!" "Nasara ça va?!" and "Nasara je veux le un franc/bidon/bonbon." This time Mama Zida is driving me everywhere so the calls are muted, but, like energy from the sun, they will never run out.

I've been writing blog posts pretty much every day and saving them with this app I downloaded, but naturally my first chance to access the internet I go and forget my iPod. My plan is to write posts pretty much every day and save them, then post them all every time I can access the internet. Hopefully that will be once a week. So be prepared for two weeks' worth of posts coming in next week!