The Gibsons online blog

As the Djibo pastor and I drove though Kongoussi we knew that the smooth ride was just about to come to an end.  Not having visited Djibo for five months I had nearly forgotten how bad the road dirt could get on the northern side of this provincial town.  To drive on it you wouldn't think that it was the main road to the north of Burkina servicing both one of the countries larger gold mines and the largest cattle market in Burkina. 

For a long time Djibo has always felt like a forgotten town, only visited when absolutely necessary.  For me, however, it's always a little like coming home in a strange kind of way.  As we drive though the streets heading into Djibo town people do double takes and then wave frantically.  Familiar faces, sights & smells... very happy to forget some of the smells though.

Although the trip was only a short visit it was packed with greeting and visiting friends.  Being rainy season it's often hard reaching some of the outlying villages and so, on the Wednesday morning, I headed down to the cattle market.  It's the one day of the week when the bush comes into town.  As I made my way through the livestock, some with precariously long horns, I gained fresh incite as to why the hunted have eyes on the side of the head and not the front as I make every effort to avoid being impaled by one of these magnificent beasts.  

It was an absolute thrill to be able to catch up with Fulani friends from outlying villages as we joked and chatted in the midst of the jostling cattle.  By the time I left it was midday and I had run out of water and beginning to feel the effects.  The afternoon was spent visiting more friends and by the time Thursday afternoon came I had acquired a travelling companion for my trip back down to the capital.

Muhamed is a Touareg friend I have known for many years, and as we headed back down the poor excuse for a road we talked West African politics, Tuareg uprisings and Al-Qaida.  An interesting conversation as we switched between French and Fulfulde as we searched for a fuller vocabulary to express ourselves.  An interesting conversation as we exited the Sahel region of Burkina Faso.

Having read this article by a good friend I felt it right to place a link on my blog. The blog highlights an incident that has taken place in the town of Djibo where the result of carless transportation of toxic chemicals by a gold mining company has affected the population surrounding the town in no small way, so please read on.

I'm thinking it is probably about time I placed more entries in my blog as it's been a long while since I last wrote. Time seems to have flown and life seems to have taken on a number of changes one of which is our daughter now being at boarding school along with her big brother leaving just Sam at home with mum & dad delighting in the fact that he now has his parents' undivided attention with his siblings gone for a few months.

In a few days we will be saying our farewells to our two oldest as we head back over the border, making our way back to the Big Mango (Ouagadougou). It is such a contrast to living in Djibo and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. Sometimes it feels as if one has taken the finger off the pulse a little, a slight sense of detachment after living so close to the Fulani for over eight years. But I guess you can feel a sense of detachment from living in most capital cities. Anonymity is always one of the snares of city life but it does make it all the more special when we visit our friends in Djibo where people know who we are and we know them.