I happened to attend an event in DC held by the Burkinabe president and got to know some ministers before coming to Burkina. During my stay, it was very helpful to know them, to know more about this country and have some close contact with government people.
The first weekend in Burkina, I could even join the minister’s team to visit Bobo to attend a ceremony. So I decided to have a weekend trip to Bobo Dioulaso and shared a car with Laundry and Gilles, bodyguards of the minister.
When I had not yet fully landed in Burkina’s environment, it was quite brave to go out of the city, travelling to Bobo, the second largest city and 5 hours driving distance from Ouaga. When the car entered the already darkening highway I must have had a scared look, surrounded by guys twice as big as me. (Both of them are as tall as my classmate Peter, and Gilles was even bigger than Eric White)
Laundry was a very considerate person and wanted to help me to feel better and told me, “don’t worry. There is one gun here and another one is there. If something happens, we will protect you”… I could not dare to reply to him that ‘Laundry… what I am afraid of is mosquitoes…’. The trip to Bobo started like this.
My friend laundry
After some hours of driving, I could stop thinking about mosquitoes and guns, and started to talk to Laundry. He is from a village near Kotanoe and joined the army 11 years ago, right after his middle school. He has been working for this minister for most of his army life since this minister used to be a general of the navy. Now he has two children and a house in Ouaga.
After getting to know him a bit more, I asked him “do you like your job?” But he looked at me with confused eyes for a second and told me, “there is no such thing as liking the job or not here. If you are lucky enough to have a job, you work”
To be honest, I was quite embarrassed by his answer. I came all the way to Burkina to do development work, but stupidly, I had not being prepared for this kind of answer. I just wanted to make up for myself being an ignorant foreigner or development rookie and told him, “I was just wondering if you are happy…” and he told me with a naïve smile, “yes, I am happy with my life. I bought a motorbike for my parents” I felt myself like Marie Antoinette who said that “if people don’t have bread, why don’t they eat cake?” and shut my mouth up.
The same day, Margo experienced a similar conversation. She asked a child, what do you like to eat? And was told that “there is no such thing as you like or not like here. If you have food, you are happy and you eat.”
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