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Well im back in Ouaga now, waiting on my visa for Ghana. Since my last entry, on Tuesday last week I had my last night in Ouaga before heading for Gorom Gorom.That night I bumped into a couple that Greg and I met in Mopti, Lot and Jamie.So I went out to dinner with them and we swapped contact details as we will be in Ghana at the same time so will probably see them there.On Wednesday I got the bus to Dori, met a couple of German girls on the bus, we got to Dori at midday so we thought we would try and find a bush taxi to Gorom Gorom that afternoon.Then I think every single guide in town, and there were a lot of them, approached us trying to sell us camel trips to the desert.I wanted to do a camel trip from Gorom Gorom, not Dori, so I declined their offers and went off by myself to find a hotel.The german girls decided to go with them to the desert that night.On my way to finding a hotel I was followed by so many guides, I have never had such a hard time with them before, it was so frustrating!They try and get you to do what they want you to do, not what you want to do.I gave in and let one of them take me to a hotel on the back of his moto, only to find the hotel full, so I made him take me back to the centre of town and went to the hotel I was originally planning on going to which had rooms available.I could not walk out of the hotel without being harassed by guides so I stayed in the grounds for a couple of hours then ventured out later in the afternoon to have a look at the market which was quite interesting and I took a few photos and was not hassled too much.The next morning I went and got a bush taxi at 6am, although it didn't leave until about 7:30am, it was a very slow and bumpy road for 2 hours to Gorom Gorom, on arrival again, the guides!I told them I wanted to go to this particular hotel that is recommended in the lonely planet so I could drop off my bag and stay there the night.They said ok and we started walking, we got into what seemed like a residential neighbourhood and I asked if we were almost at the hotel, that was when they told me that the hotel was full but I could stay at this guys house and he would take me out on a camel tonight, I hadn't even told them I wanted to go on a camel.So I went to the house and looked at some photos cause I did want to do the camel thing; but then when they tried to charge me the equivalent of 110Euros for one night (which is way too much) I decided I wanted to find the hotel as you can arrange camel trips from the hotel and I figured id probably meet some other travellers there that I could get some advice from.So after much discussion they agreed to take me to the hotel, so we walked all the way across to the other side of town in the scorching heat, and me with my pack on, and the guy took me to a completely different hotel that was deserted, the only person there was a guy sleeping under a tree.By that point I was so fed up with these guides all telling me different information and not knowing who to believe and all trying to get me to go with them that I just told them I was going to the bus station and getting a ticket back to Ouaga for that afternoon, that created a big fuss with them all saying "No!! Alyssa, I think this is no good for you!"I just ignored them and got my ticket for 3pm that afternoon and gave up on the idea of the camel trip, it was just too hard and I didn't feel like I could trust any of them!I was able to leave my pack on the bus then I finally went to the market.The market is really amazing, it is held every Thursday and people come from all over the region to trade in all sorts of goods, there is nothing there for tourists, it is a proper traditional market with people from all different ethnic groups.It was so interesting to see the traditional dress, especially the Fulani women who looked amazing, they wear metal rings all though their hair and they have black scars on their faces for decoration.I walked around the market for a good few hours, I took some photos but I felt a bit uncomfortable asking to take photos of the women, a lot of them don't speak French so it is hard to communicate anyway, and a lot of them would just stare at me in stunned silence when I greeted them.Some of the people come to the market from so far that some of them have never seen white people before.I did ask to take a photo of one Fulani woman, but what a mission that turned in to!I ended up with a massive crowd of people around me and the main girl who was doing the negotiating with me wanted me to pay 1000CFA for a photo which is way too much, I offered 300, which I still thought was a lot for a photo, and they all laughed at me so I gave up and walked off.Negotiating prices for things here gets really tiring after awhile but im determined not to give in and knowingly be ripped off.There have been a few times when ive paid for something and later thought it was too much, then had my doubts confirmed by someone, but by then its too late and theres nothing you can do about it so you just get over it, but when you are in a situation and you know they are blatantly cheating you out of money because you are a foreigner and they refuse to bargain with you, then that is really frustrating.I did buy a few things at the market, just little things like some dates, and bissap juice (a local juice made out of the flower from a hibiscius plant) and the people I dealt with were very honest which was a nice change.I bumped into the 2 German girls that I had met on the bus to Dori the day before and asked them how their night in the desert was, apparently they never got to go to the desert and they lost some money, so I was very glad with my decision to not do the camel trip.At the market there was a separate section for the animal market where they traded goats and cattle, I sat in the shade and watched the deals being made for awhile which was really interesting, I have never seen goats be so resistant to go to market, but when you get to the meat section of the market you can see why, they had fresh skins with blood on them and they were hacking away at the carcasses with machetes then cooking them up on barbeques, there were horns and hoofs lying in piles next to the skins, it was pretty gross.There was also a spices section of the market and a clothes section, a pottery section, an electronics section, a motorbike section.But the most interesting thing was the people there going about their business, it was quite amazing to see.At 3pm I went to the bus and left Gorom Gorom, I decided I didn't want to go back to Dori and be hassled by all those guides again so I went about 40km past Dori to a town called Bani, on the road to Ouaga.I met some Spanish people on the bus and they recommended a good place to stay, I got there at night and a guy greeted me as soon as I got off the bus and he was the guy recommended to me.So I jumped on his moto which was the most comfortable moto I have been on yet!!He actually had a padded seat for me to sit on rather than the metal frame which can become quite painful after awhile! He took me to his hotel, which was extremely basic and only had 5 rooms with an outdoor squat toilet and bucket shower.I was the only person staying there so I think I got special treatment.He got a girl in to make me some dinner, I wanted to sleep on the roof because the night sky was incredible, so he put a mattress up there for me and made me some African tea after dinner which we drank on the roof while trying to converse in half English half French.He was really sweet and when I said I wanted some water we jumped back on the moto and went back to the main road to get some, I loved riding on his moto, it was so comfortable and the breeze was sooo nice!!I had a great sleep on the roof apart from being woken up by the occasional donkey and the muslim call to prayer, then the roosters started crowing at about 2am, but the night sky looked so amazing, there were no lights in the town so it was very dark.The next day the guy assigned 2 young kids, they must have been about 5 or 6, I think they were brother and sister and they were sooo cute, it was their job to take me around the 7 mosques in Bani.The guy took me to the Grand Mosque which was amazing, then the kids took over from there, they basically just followed me from one mosque to the next and posed in my photos, they were so cute!!After that I went back to the hotel and sat in the shade while the guy blasted Phil Collins from his solar powered stereo and at noon he took me back to the main road to get the bus back to Ouagadougou.Got to Ouaga later in the afternoon and checked into the hotel I stayed at last time, which is very conveniently located close to 2 bus depots.I dropped off my bag then went to one of the depots to buy a ticket to Bobo-dioulasso for the next day - Saturday.When I got to Ouaga last week I didn't think I would go, but I thought id go somewhere for the weekend otherwise I would have to spend a whole week in Ouaga waiting to get my Ghanian visa.That day was the end of Ramadan for all muslims and the streets were deserted, it was really weird walking around and there was hardly anyone anywhere, not even any taxis!!!While getting my ticket I met an American couple so we went out for a drink, they were heading to Mali so wanted lots of advice.The next morning I got the bus to Bobo, then went out to a hostel that is on the outskirts of the city called Le Zion, it is a great place with a local artisans workshop, a recording studio, a big shady courtyard and live local music on the weekends.I had plans to explore Bobo that afternoon but I was exhausted so ended up sleeping!!I did go for a walk around the community though and people there were so friendly, and the best thing was, no guides approached me!!That night in the bar I met Kimberley from Canada and Sylvia from Italy, they work in Ouaga and had come out to Bobo for the weekend, so I had dinner and a few drinks with them.They had live music playing which was really good, they had an African guitar and some kind of flute, im not sure what it was, the music was fantastic!!On Sunday Kimberley, Sylvia and I decided to go and explore Bobo together, we went into town to the Mosque and were immediately approached by a guide, he took us inside the mosque and on a tour of the surrounding neighbourhood, which is the oldest in Bobo.We visited a local brewery where they were making millet beer, it tasted like maple syrup.After the tour we had lunch at a pattiserie then the girls had to take a bus back to Ouaga that afternoon, but they invited me to stay with them this week when I got to Ouaga.The guide that took us around had told us about a funeral that was happening that afternoon in a village just outside of Bobo, so I met up with him at 3pm and he took me out there.Funerals here are huge parties where everyone has fun, anyone can go including tourists, I have met a few people that have told me to go to a funeral if I get a chance so I decided to go to this one and I am so glad I did!The village was really small and centered around the biggest baobab tree I have ever seen, it was huge!!!!!There were drummers walking around the narrow streets and everyone in the town was following them, and people were singing and dancing and laughing, and there were these guys all dressed up and covered in grass costumes and they would dance about and whip anyone that came to close to them with branches off trees, it was amazing to watch, we followed the crowd around the village and watched the dancing, I took heaps of photos!We stayed there for about one or two hours then jumped back on the moto and went to the house of this guy from Holland who spoke English, so we sat on his balcony and drank some bissap and chatted for awhile, then the guide took me back to Le Zion.On Monday I got the bus back to Ouaga and Kimberley met me near the bus depot, I went back to her and Sylvias place, they have a nice house in a really quiet neighbourhood but still close to all the action, they are really nice, Sylvia works for the UN and Kimberley is working in a hospital and doing work for her thesis, so I am going to stay with them until I can get the bus to Ghana, which will be on Friday.Today I am meeting them for lunch at the Centre for American culture, apparently they have a pool there so I have brought my togs, a swim would be soo nice!!!This morning I dropped my passport off at the Ghana Embassy and I have to go and pick it up tomorrow afternoon, the bus to Ghana doesn't go on Thursday so I have to get it on Friday.
It has been a big weekend here, on Friday it was the end of Ramadan for all muslims and on Monday it was the anniversary of 20 years since the current president (Blaise Comparae) came into power and Thomas Sankara was shot (by Comparae - they were best friends), Thomas Sankara was a revolutionary, people call him Africas Che Guvera, so it was interesting as some people were mourning Sankaras assassination, and others were celebrating "20 years of progress and democracy" by Blaise Comparae.He must have handed out so many t shirts, because everyone was wearing a shirt with a picture of him on it.There has been elections in the last 20 years and each time he has been voted in, but 80% of the population are illiterate so he just hands out t shirts and gets their vote, the opposition party is very small.I was going to use the internet yesterday but we found out that the internet in Burkina Faso had been sabotaged, so since Thursday last week there had been no internet!!Luckily its up and running today.Well my time is running out on the internet so better go, I will put my photos up either later today or tomorrow.
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