Bangkok for a week

Just returned this past weekend after 8 glorious days in Bangkok for the State Dept sponsored annual CME (continuing medical education).  it is great they provide this for us because otherwise it would be very had to keep up our licenses. at first i was not that thrilled with going to Bangkok - initially we were supposed to go to Zagreb, which i have always wanted to visit and it is much closer. it took 2 days to get from here to Bangkok (with a 13.5 hour layover in Paris). Now that i am back i am only wishing i could return. It is certainly a post i would bid for once i have some seniority.

some highlights. amazing food both at higher end restaurants and the street food. it is relative cheap there. good city transportation and easy to get around. and the biggest draw - Thai massage. i had an amazing massage almost daily (6 out of my 8 days) for about $10/hr. if you have never had thai massage, i highly recommend it. it is a combo of deep tissue/sports massage and yoga. the little women climb all over the place and really get in there. after a week of daily massage, my body felt amazing - very centered and happy.

most of the days were spend in classes (of course we went there for a conference).  but i arrived a day early so was able to check out the huge weekend market (Chatuchak) with a fellow Portlander who i was in orientation with - the lucky dog...Bangkok was her first post. I went and visited the Grand Palace - the main tourist site and well worth the visit. Also the Jim Thompson house. One of the evenings we went out with some friends/colleagues to the Red light district. it was truly a sight. Prostitutes everywhere (they didnt like their photos being taken), and live shows. there were guys pacing around outside the clubs with a menu of shows - most having to do with women shooting things our of their vagina. We passed on that! but this area was also next to a huge open air night market, so got some more shopping in.

now for the photos...

The Grand Palace - it it actually a compound with many palaces and shrines. This is the entrance. many of the buildings are painted in gold leaf. others have intricate patterns of ceramic and/or mirrors. incredible

within the Grand Palace compound were a few lovely gardens with statues such as this one.

Temple of the Emerald budda - very famous temple. unfortunately no pictures inside. the Emerald budda was really small (maybe just under a foot tall), but encased if a very elaborate shrine

Street food - YUM! cost about $1.80 for a big plate of delicious food. This is in the red light district (one of them, Pok Pong i think is the name), so we got to sit and eat and be entertained by all the interesting human traffic passing us by.

Kayle and Lenore

Erawan Shrine - just near our hotel

It was all so civilized. it is hard to be back in Ouaga. I feel ready to leave...

Mask Festival (Festima), Dedougou

Couple of weekends ago we took a trip to the mask festival - a must see according to previous Embassy folks, so we had to check it out.  They were right! It is regional with participants from Burkina Faso as well as the surrounding countries. The performers dress in their traditional masks/costumes and dance and tell stories with music and acrobatics. it was fantastic. we camped at a retreat run by nuns. once again, an international group of us went which makes these trips all the more fun.

I have hundreds of photos (the Canadian Ambassador gave me all of his...he had a better camera). these are only a fraction...

They actually danced - vigorously - with these masks on!!

some of the groups had a amazing acrobatics. in this group the acrobats were the comic relief of the story being told by the rest of the masked dancers.

A dancer from a famous team from Bobo-Dioulasso

Otto was bored after the first hour or so...but he doesn't look too miserable here! Fortunately some other families came, so he and all the other kids could complain together about their boredom and how mean their parents were for making them sit through a few hours of amazing entertainment.

our lovely camp spot. Just before the town of Dedougou, a place called Centre Spiritual Alfren Diban. it was not easy to find, but once we did were were very happy to stay here. funny thing about camping in Burkina Faso, the locals just don't get it. the staff here kept trying to offer us rooms to stay in and in the morning when we went to pay, they asked us if the rooms were not nice enough for us and if that is why we slept outside. they didn't even know what to charge us, so we told them $4/tent. they seemed pretty happy with that.

Camping in Boromo

I am currently in Bangkok, but have really good internet now, so i better get a post or 2 in. I went camping at an animal reserve/national park - Bale - newly re-opened. The place we stayed (Kaicedra) was simple, with a platform that overlooked a river where the elephants are said to frequent. we went with a bunch of families and had a blast. They made us an amazing dinner on the spot (for about 12 people) - which is never guaranteed in Africa without at least 12 hour notice! i will let the photos tell the rest of the story...

Otto and Johann setting up camp

Yes, the elephants were this close!

Funny story about the elephants. it was about 10:05am the next morning, we were all packed up and ready to leave, when the camp hosts told us the elephants would arrive at 10:15. our friends who were with us had camped here twice before and had never seen elephants. so of course we all said 'whatever' but to humor them (and because it was only 10 minutes) we decided to stay. well what do you know, at exactly 10:14 by my watch, a huge herd (nearly 20 with about 1/2 being youths/babies) walks right through the far side of camp. Unbelievable. This is why you come to these posts - community and unadulterated nature.

I need a part time job...

So much to do and i never feel like i have time to keep up with the blog. i am 2 months behind. hard to believe our trip to Ghana was over Christmas.  lets see, to start with, i need to do a whole blog entry on Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan...that is my next post. but i am so busy trying to take in Burkina Faso, that i havent had the time to put something together. well, it will have to wait.

Since i last blogged we have visited out 'godparent' village Pousdoum which is about 40 minutes on a dirt road, in the middle of no where past a small town. Here is the information from the Embassy about our visit and the village:

Leslie and Otto visited their Godchild project in Pousdoum on January 25, 2012. Pousdoum is a small village of 315 people, located about 25 km North-West of Kaya, off the road to Kongoussi. There is no market or school in the village. The nearby school is five km away and so, children who cannot walk the distance hang around to take care of cattle and domestic chores. The village has one borehole with a feeble flow and women queue overnight to collect water for themselves and the cattle. Self-Help funded the construction of an additional borehole to provide the village with adequate supply of potable water.

A borehole company contracted for the job carried out the first attempt to find water and was unsuccessful. However, the village women sang, danced and danced happily for hours. They said they are so happy to be so lucky for, not only they have been selected for Self-Help funds, but also they have been blessed with a “woman Godparent”. They believe that this visit is a sign that water will flow with the next drilling. Speaking on the behalf of the village, Mrs. Martine Ouedraogo, the Second Councilor to the Mayor of Kaya said thank you to the Ambassador and to the American people for caring about a small village which is unknown to most Burkinabe

The important people in the village

Otto, currently not very happy about being here with me.

At the beginning of our visit, we sat here in front of the community and shared a cup of millet drink from this container with all the important village people. Otto was very brave and drank it when it was passed to him.

The site of the failed borehole

the current well/borehole

A view of the village.

One of the greatest things about this trip is that Otto really didnt want to go. he has this thing now where he gets a stomach ache if i take him to any place with the 'smell of Africa' or if it is obviously poor (like this small market in town). i had to drag him to this village. but half way through, he saw the kindness and generosity of the people and in the end, he was so happy he came and talked all the way home in the car about what wonderful people we met and what a great day it was.  of course getting his own chickens helped!

I also received this nearly 10lbs of peanuts from the women of the village.

The end of our visit with the villagers. Group photo!

On a daily basis, Otto and i talk about how lucky we are to be here. This village/project really teaches us the contentment (or maybe it is resignation??) and generosity of people who have very little. all we did was put our name on the project and drive out there. they gave us chickens, peanuts, dancing, a formal welcome, thanks and a wonderful meal. Truly humbling and makes one think about what we have been given in this world just by being born in the right place. but are we any happier? hard to say...  Their needs are overwhelming, but i hope to have taught Otto the importance of considering others that have so little (as he complains about being bored because i won't let him use his iPod or PSP 24/7). I think at this visit, he really got it, even if it was only for the afternoon.

Part of my blogging problems relate to the fact that my internet sucks and putting a post like this together takes forever!! but i will keep at it. i am headed to Bangkok in a few days for my annual medical conference - can't wait! hope to get another blog out while i am there, but most likely i will just have more photos stacking up.

The Door of No Return

In all of the slave castles/forts, there was a 'door of no return'. this was the door leading the slaves out of their captivity in Ghana (in truly ghastly conditions - not even acceptable for animals) to the ship that would take them across the Atlantic and off to their new slave owners in N and S America. I didn't know, but most slaves went to Brazil and the Caribbean. i always assumed most of the slaves came to the US. just looking at these doors made me feel sick - knowing that thousand of scared humans were shuttled through and their lives were stolen from them.

The door in the top photo leads out here (the guy in the black shirt is standing at the door). This castle sits on a cliff, so the slaves would be shackled and walked down beach where the ship awaited them.

This castle was right on the water - you can see how close the boats are to the door

The door is at the center of the castle

A re-focus on work

Things are back to 'normal' now with our many visitors gone and Otto is back in school. I have been very busy at work. We just had our first (very successful) Embassy Health Fair.  These are a pretty common event at posts - but having never done one it was a lot of work. since i cannot provide health care services to our local staff, this is my way to offer them something health related. We focused on cardiovascular health - had some booths that measured height and weight for BMI calculation and did blood pressure checks. We had a local doctor (cardiologist) come by and give an excellent lecture on hypertension, which is a huge health problem here. The mission staff loved it and i feel really good about raising awareness for our employees. unfortunately i don't have photos - I was too busy working!!

I am getting ready to start training people in CPR. I got my instructor certification back in September, but it has taken this long to get all the supplies to teach. Lots of people want to take the class. I figure i will be very busy for the next 6 months teaching. One of my nurses was previously an instructor, so i will work with her and then she can teach as well.

Although i really miss being busy seeing patients (i am still only seeing 3-4 a day if i am lucky), I do see the value of health education and at least that way i am able to interact with lots of people.  I miss having colleagues around.  My staff in the Health Unit has been great with jumping right in and being willing to teach as well.

Otto and I will be going out to our 'adoptive village' next week for the first time. The Ambassador has a program that provides funding for small village self help projects. The Americans at post are then able to adopt a village and be the face of the Embassy to the villagers.  We will go out and talk to the leaders of the village to learn more about the project and make sure things are coming along to get it started (our village is getting a borehole/well). Then we will go back a couple more times to check on the progress and when it is completed we will be there to celebrate with the villagers. I am really excited about this and it will be good for Otto to get out to the countryside and interact with a different set of people. I will definitely get photos of our visits.

Here are some random photos to keep your eyes and senses happy.

Anomabo beach in Ghana. i miss the ocean!

Another interesting (depressing) bit of slave history. The stones used in this castle are from 3 different countries - 2 of them European. this is because the ships coming over had to be loaded with an equivalent weight for the trip back...so they loaded them with stones for building castles when they made the trip from Europe to Africa. It was all cargo to them...

The kids are always interested in us (well so are the adults, it is just the kids have less inhibitions).

Happy Holidays!

Another busy month, it is hard to keep up with all of our adventures and have time to blog on top of that.  Otto's dad came for a visit - he was here most of the month. Since he came last year after we had just arrived (and were not settled...and didnt have the car), we really wanted to show him the Ouaga - Burkina Faso we love. It was a great visit.

First we went to Banfora - our favorite 3 day weekend destination.  Dave likes rocks too!!

Breakfast at the Canne Sucre (sugar cane) - the hotel we stayed at.

Climbing at Sindou Peaks

Our new best travel buddy. Jackson LOVES to go on road trips. He is an amazing climber-hiker.

Then for our big vacation we took a road trip to Ghana. What an adventure that was.  We initially had grand plans of driving all over the country. fortunately some friends were traveling at the same time and had the even better plan of just hanging out at the beach. that was the ticket. from our beach resort, we did day trips. we visited a few of the slave forts/castles and got a lot of history about the early slave trade (depressing!). On the way home we did a short safari at Mole - a beautiful nature reserve.

My only regret is that we didn't get a chance to go rock climbing. There is an active group in Accra that i found about on the internet. They meet every Sunday to drive 1.5 hours out of the city to a developed crag (there are 2). Sundays were our mandatory travel days and because it was xmas week, no one was around/available to meet us there during the week. Probably a good thing in the end for my shoulder at least - which is much better, but not 100%. 

The true adventure was the drive. It was long, their towns are much bigger than ours in Burkina and their people are a bit more aggressive. We did get 'arrested' once (better than our travel buddies who got arrested twice) - but it was mostly an attempt to hassle the foreigner and try to get a bribe from us. And of course as with all of developing Africa, the roads were often horrible (under construction or pot-holed).  i will let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Good bye Burkina (fortunately only for a week). We had such a great time traveling with our friends from the Embassy (the couple is also in the bike group). They have 2 girls a bit older than Otto, but they get along fine. It was fantastic to share the week with them - driving, exploring, playing games, sharing meals and laughing a ton. Ghanaian English is not the English we are used to (or were hoping for!). Many times i think they had no idea what we were saying. some funny quotes - when asking about the difference between menu items, we were told, "It's the same...but different" and when we asked if bread came with breakfast - they said, "No." So we asked what it came with and we were told (straight face and all), "Bread, eggs, coffee and fruit." These are memories i will keep with me because as is the case with Foreign Service, both of our families will be going our separate ways this summer. I love them dearly.

This was probably my favorite of the forts we saw. Fort Amsterdam. It has been partially restored and there was a very knowledgeable caretaker who gave us quite a bit of history with the tour. It was beautiful. Perched on a cliff overlooking the fishing village and coast.

Cape Coast Castle. this is the most well-known and touristy. The Obama's visited here in 2009. It was impressive. There was a great museum with lots of history in the castle. The dungeons are all intact and so painful to view. How can people treat others like that. I can't even imagine treating an animal like the imprisoned Africans were treated.

All the castles were just off the coast, so had beautiful views (and all we saw butted up against a fishing village). interesting bit of history. most of the captured and sold slaves came from North Africa and certainly N of the coastal countries. This is because the Europeans had to live side by side with the Ghanaians and even needed them for protections. So the Coastal Africans actually worked with/for the Europeans and were part of the slave trade business - crazy!

Fort Williams - about a 15 minute walk from the resort where we stayed (Anomabo). This just blew me away to see. All these fishermen working next to a castle...just going about their lives. The only disturbing-disgusting thing about this is that the inhabitants of these fishing villages use the sea and shore as their personal outhouse. the only problem is there is not pit or privacy. There were human feces ALL OVER the beach. The resort we were at was protected, but walk 5 minutes down the beach on either side and there were fresh piles of shit and it wasn't uncommon to see people squatting - they weren't shy at all. We figured these villages have probably been doing this for 100's of years.

Future fisherman.

Hiking in Kakum National Park. Alyson shyly hiding behind Otto. We skipped the canopy rope bridge walk because there were hundreds of other people there all doing the rope bridge walk and we could hear them screaming from where we were on our hike. Not a great way to see birds and animals - and it was about $25 per person to walk across it!!

Otto and Dave got into the beach thing no problem. Dave bought these machetes so they could cut open a coconut...just like the natives!

Camp Fire at out camp at Mole National park. Definitely a highlight. We were going to stay 2 nights, but left after one because the staff at the park had major attitude. The camp site was run down and dumpy...but they still charged us $25 for primitive camping. The last straw was a large (and scary in my opinion) baboon that kept stealing food off guests breakfast plates. Took food off Otto's plate twice - just jumped right on the table and wasn't one bit afraid when we tried to scare him away. And then we we asked the restaurant to replace the stolen food (they were doing nothing to shoo away the beast), they charged us for it.  We will take our business back to Burkina where people are so nice, friendly and helpful.

Mole itself was far from disappointing. We got to do a walking safari. The park is beautiful. We walked around for 3 hours with a very knowledgeable guide. and yes, were were this close to a bull elephant. i was very nervous at first, but our guide had been working in the park for 15 years and knows the individual elephants, so was able to teach us his cues. Very cool.

If you notice the hole in his ear - it is from fighting with another male elephant

Christmas eve - back at home.