A weekend to remember

Finally we got out and about. Rented one of the embassy cars on Friday (we have a 1/2 day at work) and went to the 'Beach'. It was loads of fun - a place called Loumbila Beach.  The Beach is a little get away about 45 minutes from town that is on the edge of  huge reservoir. we took out a paddle boat and swam in the 'lake'. no sand...but no crocs or hippos either (thank goodness). One of the best parts for us was just the drive - we got to see some of Burkina Faso.

Yesterday (after significant pressure from moi), the Embassy let a large group of us newbies take the embassy bus on an adventure. We went to Bazoule - a sacred crocodile park. These crocs live side by side with the villagers - and do not eat them (the kids will even swim with them). The people believe they are sacred and brought water to the village long, long ago. when a croc dies, they give it a proper burial. there are just over a 100 in the area.  well, no matter how 'safe' the crocs are, i still wasnt getting as close as Otto did.

Otto also fed them a chicken (from the end of a stick) and the video of this will be on his blog - there is a link for it on this blog.

Here are a few girls that we encountered on our way to see the crocs, who were out gathering fruit.

And did i mention there were LOTS of crocodiles!!

After the crocodile park, we went into town for lunch at a very good Lebanese restaurant. after that were were all pretty exhausted, but we still had the bus for a while longer, so we went to the Artisinal Village. I'm sure we all slept well last night. It was also very nice to spend some time out of work with my colleagues and their families.

Today was grocery shopping day. It was a true adventure today because we went to one of the main fruit and vegetable stands - normally we cheat ourselves out of the African experience and go to a single gal at a side market and that way we dont get swarmed by tons of produce vendors.  I have to admit, it was fun to be in the midst of such high pressure sales. the great thing here is that people are honest and are not trying to rip you off (obscenely anyway, i am sure they make an extra 20-30 cents off of us). we also dont have to be overly worried about pick pockets and thieves.

We let Otto open his main xmas present from his father and I - we finally broke down and got him Lego Mindstorm. he is in heaven. we wanted him to have a chance to play with it while here with his dad and since he doesnt have school next week, they will need something to keep them occupied.