SIAO and Reformation

Today was the long awaited visit to the SIAO festival...don't ask me what it stands for! SIAO is a BIG thing here in case you couldn't tell by the water bottle! Yeah...BIG!!! :) We thought it would be good to get an early start before the sun scorched us and before all of Ouaga came. We picked up the other K-1 teacher and her husband along the way and arrived at 8:45. The gates didn't end up opening till 9:00 and the actual buildings didn't open till 9:30. So, we were pretty toasty by the time we even began. Therefore, our first stop was the one of the two air conditioned buildings. There are four main buildings, and about 100 stands in each. Countries from all over Africa are represented. Basically, a piece of heaven for me. The air conditioned buildings were more "classy" and had fewer booths with higher priced items. The other two buildings were mass chaos with people everywhere and some aggressive African sellers. I loved just watching all the people and looking at their beautiful things they brought to sell from their country. A lot of things were similar throughout the countries, but each had specialities....like leather or silver jewelry or sparkling clothing, etc. We managed to cover the four buildings in two hours. I could have easily spent 6 hours more there and LOTS of money. I love most African jewelry...my new weakness. (I think even more than Magnum Bars)! My French is horrible, but I practiced a few market phrases the other day so that I would be able to make some purchases on my own. I did find one necklace and bracelet set that I didn't think I could live without. Later this week, I hope to go back.

After shopping in the heat, we were all worn out, so we came back to the house with the other family and had a feast for lunch. We then just sat around and socialized for hours, Burkinabe style...even though Americans and Canadians made up the room. I just relaxed the rest of the afternoon and thought of ideas for this evening's costume.

Costume you may wonder. Well, the youth group had a Reformation Party tonight to celebrate the anniversary of Martin Luther King's thesis. So, everyone had to dress up as a Reformer. We had Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, 3 Blind Mice, Pink Panther, a baker, and others that weren't really Reformers but dressed up and myself as Alice Paul. Last year I learned about her involvement in the women's suffrage movement and was very intrigued by her. So, when I googled women reformers tonight, she was one of the options. Not as fun; however, a good choice. I don't think that there was one person who really knew who I was, but since they hardly know me, most of the kids just smiled and acted like I was someone. It was a fun night with several messy games that reminded me of my days in youth group. Kids had mummy wrapping contests with TP, they carved watermelons, they chugged Coke...and threw up, they played Pin the thesis on the wall, and the messiest...bobbing for gummy bears in cooked rice. I laughed a lot and enjoyed getting to know some of the kids.

Well, that was pretty much today, and I am really tired!