What do I know about this country?

Bobo was beautiful. The city is so green and full of live music. This live town was full of diverse people from different villages who gather here to sell their crops in Grande Marche and many tourists who cross West Africa. We went to a nice bar with West African dancing and had a good beer. We could also see most of the touristic spots which lonely planet recommended. Hippo lakes, Banfora…

And we arrived at a small village where one of the ethnic groups lives. There are no such things as electricity, a water system and roads. People live in traditional houses, which are less than 2 meters in diameter, without windows or chimney. There is no TV, no shower… no anything.

But there was everything. There were handicraft artisans, women who make rice cakes and corn beer and happy children playing with chickens. They are located on the top of the rock hill, which protect them from invasion. They have several places for different kinds of ritual ceremony and a person who is in charge of the ceremony. They have their own rule and customs. They also have a village wide dance party.

When I was in DC, I felt that I knew everything about Burkina after reading more than two boxes of documents, from its fiscal stability, debt analysis, export promotion strategy, growth diagnosis, the impact of exchange rate on recent cotton exports, employment study, gender issues, poverty profile, recent food price crisis, and so on.

But, the way people live here is so different with the ways I know. I just felt that I don’t know anything about this country.