Ouagodougou

One of my wishes for while I am here in Africa, was that I would get to see more of the continent and country other than just the city of Niamey. I was able to fulfil part of that wish this month when I was able to accompany the school softball teams to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Burkina borders Niger in the South west, it is a landlocked country bordered by Niger, Mali, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Cote D’Ivorie. There were about 12 teams playing all from Niger or Burkina.

We travelled to Ouaga in 3 school vans with 6 adults and 21 students. It is approximately 400km from Niamey to Ouaga and took us about 6-7hours including time at each border for visa checks. The girls were in a guest house directly across the road from the international school where the tournament was going to be held. The final of the competitive division came down to the Sahel Suns, one of our teams, and another Niger team, the Nomads. 4 of who were fathers of the boys on the Sahel Suns team. The sons beat the fathers, and for the second time, as this was the same 2 teams that were in the final of the Niger softball tournament in October.

In between watching the 2 school teams play I was able to enjoy the pool that was on campus. I even worked out that I could swim then sit with my book and look through the fence and watch the games from the opposite side of the field. There was even the chance to do some shopping and see a bit of the city, which feels like more of a city than Niamey does, with a lot more motorbikes but better organised roads and traffic lights that work. The artisan village was fantastic with lots of very skilled people and I felt very privileged to be able to watch and find out how some of their art was created.

One thing that surprised me about Ouaga was that there was more of a Christian influence. In the supermarket there was Christian worship music playing over the P.A. (you wouldn’t find that even in England or Australia), and there were noticeably more big churches. The Christian population in Niger is less than 5% in Burkina it is closer to 10% but the difference is noticeable. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and now I have another stamp in my passport.