Ziniare Trip

So for the girls who are working for Kabella on our Cohort, they all live quite far out from the rest of us in Ouagadougou. They are on a rural placement just outside of Zinarae. All us UK volunteers thought we’d take the trip down for weekend, before Monday where we would have an awareness raising event to see the Kabella girls, and let them host us for a while, away from the City. So Saturday afternoon we all caught a coach bus from the centre of Ouaga and headed on down. Most volunteers stayed in a hotel, near where we were dropped off. However, Chloe and I thought we’d stay with the Kabella lot, and see what their workplace and homes were like, plus I needed to save money and I fancied riding a bike for a change!

So first things first, we all went for a drink! We headed to a event which the Kabella girls were hosting already on Saturday which involved exhibiting their products, having an awareness talk and also many locals came to share what they know of Kabella and the women they help. We chilled for the afternoon, had a look at their shop, met some of the community and ate the local food! Afterwards, me, Chloe, Jade, Lauren and Isla got on our bikes and headed to their house. They only came on their own bikes of course, so the plan was to cog on the bag of them. By this I mean, hold on for dear life! I sat on a bar attached the back wheel, dangled my legs and held onto Jade all the way, with no breaks and on a dirt, bumpy road most of the way. It was a little reckless and painful but fun I guess! My bum is more painful than ever now, whenever I sit down.

Although, whilst enduring the pain, the ride there was pretty beautiful. We weren’t used to the quiet countryside at all in Ouaga, more used to hearing music everywhere, prayers, chickens, babies, cars, motos, everything really. I was really surprised when we were close to their home, there was so many donkeys and pigs! There was space everywhere as well, their yard has huge and so open. The house they lived in was not with a family either, but just two of the UK volunteers and a National volunteer. Isla lived with a family though, but on her own. Jade and Lauren had tiled floors, a kitchen, a living room, a bucket shower room and HUGE bedrooms with loads of big windows!! I felt like I was staying at a hotel anyway! We showered whilst we were there and had tea which was the usual, rice and sauce. It was so lovely of them to let us stay, and also carry us all that way on their bikes, I couldn’t thank them enough!

For the night Jade Lauren and Isla, plus the National volunteers had an idea to take us out clubbing! However, this club was no ordinary club. It was right beside their hotel, and the dancefloor was in an empty swimming pool, with loads of club lights and mirrors! Oh, I should mention, EVERYONE dances in front of the mirrors here, usually on their own. Sometimes it can get a little creepy and possessive the way they dance to themselves, but they’re not really bothered what’s going on around them so they are just comfortable. We had drinks, which consists of beer, only beer, which is called BRAKINA and is huge! They’re usually 700 cent which divided by 750 is like 90p in England. I can only handle about 3 at most of these! So we danced all night, to some English songs but mostly Burkina songs, which some I really like now and have in my head almost every day haha, like Hallelujah which an upbeat R&B club song here, with a dance to match!  I think eventually around 12, we thought it was a good idea to pop out a few drinking games haha and then we headed off home on the bikes again, but we had to leave one to Kelly, the team leader as she needed it for the next day. Isla, was an absolute babe and rid with me on the back again, both a little drunk, with no lights on the road hardly and a crap chain that kept hanging off ha!

I slept on a double mattress in the living room on the floor with NO MOSQUITO NET, because I was naughty and a little drunk. I sprayed all over though and thank god I WAS FINE with no bites! I had an amazing lay in for the first time, till 10am and woke up to donkeys and children running in from the street, to stand in the living room staring at me haha. Was quite a surprise but they all giggled and ran off. We lounged about, ate breakfast which was again the usual; bread. In the afternoon we arranged to go meet the others and take everyone to a Sculpture Park in Zinarae, which I was very excited for! So a bus took us out there, hired just for us and we arrived around 3pm. The place was really cool, had loads of art to see, from carvings in rock, to ceramic sculpture, all with a lot of history behind. Our guide only spoke French so Lauren did the translating. I remember one ceramic piece in the middle of a stone sculpture, with a carved drawing of a bull.  Around the ceramic plaque, there were paintings of faces covering the rock, all with different emotions. We noticed, the emotions were mostly cruel or comical. The significance of the piece was explaining cruelty towards animals from humans. It was one of my favourite pieces.

After a while of walking around to each sculpture, we noticed the sky was only dark grey clouds. It suddenly it chucked it down! We all got soaked pretty quick but carried on walking through the park. Towards the end, we found a little shelter for us all. I was drenched and just smelt like a wet dog. But, when it stopped we realised the smell in the air was so pleasant and almost serial. We could smell the Earth, the dirt and all the plants around us. It was nice, for a while before then returning to the 40 degree heat. To round up, that night we went for food and a drink again, found some planten/loco which is like chips, but its fried banana and tastes so sweet, it is AMAZING! I can’t believe we’ve never thought of it in the UK! We then called it an early night ready for tomorrow morning…

Throughout the night I was very cold! I couldn’t believe it but I grabbed a blanket and wrapped up FOR THE FIRST TIME! It was really windy outside, that windy it made the windows fly open around 3am when it woke me up. I slept like a baby after that but had to get up around 7am for work. L We visited Kabella in the morning and helped them prepare and gather all the stuff they needed for the event we were holding that afternoon in a High school in Zinarae. The school was huge, with loads of little buildings for each year and class. The court and yard around it was even bigger. We started putting up our tents and setting up with activities and then had to wait for the rest of the team to show from Ouaga. They all arrived on a coach and it was so lovely to see all my Tigoung Nonma team again, I ran to them and gave them all hugs! I noticed Emilie straight away as she always is best dressed! She makes every clothing she owns and always looks gorgeous. That day specifically was Bob Marley Day so she dedicated her dress and decided to design it with the inspiration of him and the Jamaican flag!

We continued doing awareness raising, with loud music to attract all the kids, team members on microphone to introduce who we were and what we had to offer them that day and presented what activities they could join in with. HSB had balance beans and an assault course using cups and buckets full of water but you had to use either crutches, a blind fold or socks over your hands to travel back and forth to collect the water. HSB ISD had blind football and table tennis with a bell inside the ball itself for them to locate where to kick and strike. Arche had football also and a unique activity involving being blindfolded and running with a string to hold onto. Tigoung Nonma and Kabella both had stalls with many products on show. TN had cultural monuments, toys, bags, jewellery, greeting cards, bronze key chains and clothing. Kabella had sheer butter, bags, key chains and jewellery. We had an awesome time with many kids involved, lots of dancing and taking part!  Around 4 we set off again to a basketball court ground where our Athletes with physical disabilities could play wheelchair basketball. This was rather fun and exciting to see for us all, we had the music playing really loud for everyone to come and we also ate our lunch there for the day with chika, which is another one of my favourite meals!

The whole journey was very tiring, as you can imagine in this heat and time pace of Burkina. I enjoyed it so much though. Getting out of the City, experiencing something new, seeing all the volunteers, meeting locals, working within our team and dancing and singing in general haha!! I’m gonna miss so many people when I go back home, they keep reminding me to come back soon which I’ve already promised!