Recent events: FESPACO and Women's Day

Mostly just an excuse to show off pictures of my new stuff.

Typical table setting at my house, featuring the new calabash.

I've partaken in a few events going on around Burkina lately. The first one was FESPACO, which is Africa's largest international film festival, taking place in Ouagadougou once every two years. I happened to be in Ouaga at the same time for a training, so I got to stop by some of its events.

I only saw one movie, a Moroccan film called Les Chevaux de Dieu, or Horses of God. It was based on real events of a boy born in a Casablanca slum, and how a series of unfortunate events in his life eventually led him to become a suicide bomber. The movie didn't come with any kind of description besides its title and its country of origin, so it was a little more intense than I was expecting. Still, it was quite good. It was also the first time I'd been to a movie theater in Ouaga. The screening took place at the French Cultural Center in a big open-air theater. It was pretty cool, except not temperature-wise, because I was sweating the whole time even though the movie didn't start until 6:30 pm.

Accompanying the movies during FESPACO was a big international artisan fair in the city. Last fall there was an international art fair called SIAO that I wasn't able to go to, but supposedly it was pretty similar. It was a little overwhelming how much stuff they were selling, but I got some nice things that I'm really pleased with. I wish I had taken pictures of the event, but I was worried about getting pick-pocketed so I left my camera at home. Pictured are the carved calabash bowl and the new dress I got there. I also got a green dress outfit, a bronze bracelet and ring, and fabric to make a shirt with. I saw a lot of other things that I really liked too, but I had to cut my spending after awhile, especially since they bump up the prices at those kinds of things. I hope there will be another fair like that before I leave the country.

Gender-themed English club. SEX

March 8th was International Women's Day. It's a national holiday in Burkina, so we didn't have class. The day before, we had a women's day-themed English club featuring some interesting discussions with some of the kids.

Women's Day outfit

For Women's Day, everyone who can afford it celebrates by buying the special pagne fabric that they come out with annually and getting a new outfit made. I liked the holiday because everyone was well-dressed. Also, in a reversal of the normal gender roles, men are supposed to cook for their wives. I thought there was also going to be other stuff organized around my village by the mayor's office, but it was kind of disorganized this year. In the end, I just ended up getting drinks with the tanties (aunties) from my village, or the Big Mommas as I call them, who make up the narrow slice of women that really have any social power in Burkinabe society.

The tanties/Big Mommas

Later in the day, I had some interesting discussions with some of the other young teachers from my school. Turns out that a lot of men who I thought would have at least moderately progressive views were still a lot more traditionalist than I imagined. Maybe "traditionalist" isn't exactly the word I'm looking for. Just plain ol' anti-feminist. Anyway, it's not easy to be a Burkinabe woman. Respect to the tanties.