The Fair (11/04/2010)

So about 2 months ago, I heard rumors of a fair in my town. I didn’t really think much of it because often times this kind of thing is either false information or the ideas never actually take off. Well, as time passed, more and more people started talking about it. I told one of my neighboring volunteers, and he said it’ll probably be nothing so don’t get my hopes up. Too late, I was already expecting face painters, carnival rides, cotton candy and clowns…. haha just kidding!

Some time passed and the fair was out of my mind, when all of a sudden, my neighbor tells me, not only is the Burkinabé government going to construct a brand spanking new market for the fair, but the president is coming! I also found out that the last time they held a fair like this was in the 1990’s. So yea, it was a big deal.

Well, the week of the fair rolls around, and I’m still not sure what to expect, but I’m excited. The admin at my school calls a last minute (as usual) meeting for the staff. We find out that the school will be closed for not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 days to “prepare the town for the fair.” Prepare the town for the fair? Ok, why not.

The Tuesday before the fair, was the day everything would be closed to “prepare the town.” All I know is that I don’t have school, so I slept in haha. I get a call from my site mate, another Peace Corps volunteer, saying, “Sara! Get up! You have to get into town! It’s crazy down here!” Ok, I’m up and heading into town. Well, no kidding. Every single man, woman and child was out with a shovel, rake or broom cleaning the town. They were pulling all the weeds, cutting down branches, clearing the roads, and picking up the trash. And to top it all off, there were drummers there to “inspire” and “motivate” the workers. (Could you imagine the Borough of Downingtown announcing the town will be closed and everyone must go down to Kerr Park to help clean for Good Neighbor Day? HA! Yea right!) My other site mate told me later in the day that he went out to buy a broom for his house (just conveniently on the same day as all this), and they were sold out everywhere! HA!

So finally, Thursday rolls around… the day of the fair. I’m up early and excited. I put on my best clothes and head down to the mayor’s office for the opening ceremony. This, again, included drummers and a lot of important Burkinabé government officials. They also had a wonderful thing called bonbon glacé (a frozen yogurt and coconut popsicle-like thing). The ceremony is finished and we head down, along with about 1000 other people, to the fair grounds. When we arrive there, they aren’t letting anyone from the general public in yet, only the important officials. Well, as I quickly learned, I’m not the general public… I’m white. I got in with the important people, which included government ministers and people from the French Embassy. We wandered around to check out everything. It was amazingly organized and clean. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, in Africa that is.

I run into my bamuso (my adopted mother) wearing a full green and white “Burkina Faso and USA friendship” outfit. Well, coincidentally, I have the same fabric made into a dress. So, of course, I had to go home and change so that we were wearing the same thing. Now, if this were America, I would never be caught dead wearing the same thing as my mom (no offense, Mom). But, this isn’t America, it’s Burkina Faso, where it’s totally acceptable and encouraged to dress similar. So, now, I’m back at the fair, wearing the same outfit as my bamuso. HA!

I head around one corner, and there’s a huge mass of people surrounding one stall, so of course, I had to go check it out. When I get there I see three old men sitting covered in various furs, teeth and bones from different animals and that’s when I saw it. The thing everyone was there to see… an elephant head. It was humungous! You don’t realize how big these animals are when you’re at the zoo. The elephant was accompanied by a hippo head, a warthog head, and a full cheetah! It was quite something! (Sorry, I tried to take pics, but the men didn’t like that ha.)

The next thing I come across is the row of traditional medicine men. (Now, if you forget how fascinated I am with medicine men, please refer back to my blog about my bike accident.) Needless to say, I was really excited to check them out. Most of them were normal (well, as normal as any old, traditional medicine man will be) and selling various herbs and plants to cure everything from hemorrhoids to blindness. I asked about a couple of the plants they had, and as curious as I am about this stuff, I’m still nervous about taking any it myself. So, I continue down the row, when I come across one man that really creeps me out. So, naturally, I had to stop and check out his stuff. The first thing I notice is a pile of about 50 human teeth on a mat on the ground. Not only were they human teeth, but they were still attached to the root, as if they had been pulled straight out of the gum! Then, I look over, and he has a huge scorpion crawling up his arm! I tried to chat with him, but he didn’t speak any French, only Jula (the local language here). And, once again, I tried to take a picture, but he wasn’t having any of that. And the last thing I need is some weird African spell put on me because I took the picture of a traditional medicine man.

So, I’m back, wandering around the food section, buying some amazing bananas right off the stalk, when I get another frantic call from my site mate, “Sara! You gotta come over here! There’s a man with a monkey on a rope!” Apparently, there was a whole other section of medicine men that I missed, and one had a monkey! So, I had to go check it out, and got distracted on the way buying more bonbon glacé. I round the corner, and see another swarm of people, so I know I’m in the right place. And once again, I’m white, so I was immediately dragged to the front of the group by the medicine man. I’ve seen a few monkeys here and in Guinea, and none of them were very big. They reminded me of the little pet monkey that Ross (from Friends) had. This man had two monkeys, and one was really big. The little one was just sitting contently eating bonbon glacé, but the big one was mad, probably because he wasn’t eating bonbon glacé and was wearing a tee-shirt that said (in English) “Who’s my Daddy”. Anyway, I saw the monkeys, and it was fun, but nothing I would want to get too close to.

The chaos of the fair lasted for three whole days, and the whole while, everything in town was crowded and the cell phone reception was overloaded so I couldn’t make or receive any calls. But, all in all, it was great! I bought a lot of good stuff (which I will be sending home as Christmas presents), and ate some really good food! I saw an elephant head and some crazy medicine men. I mean, how many people can say that they’ve done that?

On a side note, a lot of my devoted blog readers have asked how my gym classes are going, and I proudly want to say that I was not chosen as the gym teacher! Thank god for the youth of Burkina Faso.