Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Update on Burkina Faso and Me!

Hi everyone,

After a crazy few days, things have calmed down. I was allowed to go back to my house last night and I had a good day at work today.

I want to tell a couple of quick stories and found that the best way to do this was in timeline form! (I’m not quite sure how that became the natural way I wrote this)

Sunday, October 26th: A friend of mine, that just finished her service as a Peace Corps volunteer, was biking from my house to hers and found the road blocked with university students burning things, throwing rocks, etc. One of the students came up to her and said, “It is alright, we aren’t mad at you, you are safe. I will walk you through the barricade.” He then takes her through the barricade and explains to her why they are protesting and how the aim is against political leaders, not foreigners. On the other side of the barricade, she got back on her bike and got home safely.

Monday, October 27th: Women hold a non-violent protest where they walk around with their cooking spoons to show their dissatisfaction with the situation (by the time they started this protest, I had left my house).

Tuesday, October 28th: Big protest, tires burned, over 200,000 (some estimates have it closer to 1,000,000) Burkinabe came. I stayed inside my friend’s courtyard, hanging out at her pool!

Graffiti against the referendum was to be to change the constitution. Literally: no to the referendum

Wednesday, October 29th: I move to the transit house, people are still protesting the referendum scheduled for the next day.

Thursday, October 30th: I watch from the roof of the Peace Corps office as they burn down the national assembly and as the protesters burn down big politicians’ houses across the city. It was really intense, but once again, they knew who they were aiming at.



Friday, October 31st: Went onto the roof with the two other volunteers that were in Ouaga to see a few more places burning. We hear motos coming down the street and see them all pull up in front of one house (not even the nicest house). They talk to the lady outside and she runs inside and comes out with her kids and the dog. By this point, there are about thirty motos outside. As soon as they come out, all thirty guys run in and loot the house. They ride off on their motos with everything from wood panels and mattresses to political party shirts (that they later burned in a public place) and the plumbing. We found out later that the house belonged to a former minister.
As the guys drove off with the stuff, they smile and waved at us.



Saturday, November 1st: Burkina gets its third president in 48 hours. The entire population of Ouaga comes out and cleans up the mess that was created in the two previous days.

Sunday, November 2nd: I go with the two other volunteers to get some more food at a little store nearby. All of a sudden two of the people that work there come running in yelling in Moore, “close the store, close the store!” Within two minutes, the staff had brought in the generator and everything they display outside and had pulled down the metal grates on the doors. They locked us inside as rioters and the army come flying down the road. We discussed how it was not a bad place to get locked inside; there were pringles, wine and AC! About ten minutes later, they tell us that they need to close and that we need to go home. They almost didn’t allow us to buy our food!
Somehow we had the worst timing of leaving the house as two other people attempted to announce themselves president at the national television station. 

Monday, November 3rd: A good quiet day. Everything seems to be getting better.

Tuesday, November 4th: The US embassy gives the all clear and I am cleared to go home. I remember that I had turned off my electricity and water, but had stupidly not cleaned out the fridge! Gross.

Wednesday, November 5th: Got back to work and everyone is so excited about their country’s future. When I asked a collegue of mine about his week his response was, “I had a week full of hope for Burkina Faso. The horizon looks less cloudy now.”

The main takeaway is that Burkina and I had a crazy last week, but thing are looking brighter!

Love you all,
Katie

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