Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, Africa

Yesterday marked one month that I have been in Africa. It also marked the second day that I have felt 100% well for an entire 24 hour period since my arrival: A bad cold, allergies, indigestion, nausea and salmonella (yes, salmonella. The doctor assures me that it was a 'small' salmonella though - which is a revelation because I was unaware that salmonella came in different sizes).

I'm looking forward to our next adventure in Togo which should get underway in about a week. Franck, the ethnologist, has been doing his research and making contacts, Lyderic has been familiarizing himself with the camera and, well, eventually Cora and I will have something to do as well. When it's all said and done, we hope to have enough decent footage to put together a documentary on the animist/voodu practices of southern Togo and Benin. We have decided to base our operations in the town of Togoville (southern Togo, just east of Lome and just north of Lac Togo). It's big enough and close enough to Lome to have some of the comforts of modern technology that we are accustomed to, yet small and remote enough that it's not too tainted by contact with the big city and the West.

I feel like I am finally getting a handle on things...to a certain extent. My mind is still blown to bits almost every time I go outside the gates, but I'm beginning to make sense of things. I can negotiate the market and bargain for a better price for the big, fat cashews and hibiscus tea that I love so much. I know where the gas station is and I know to put gas/oil mixture in the motorcycle tank because the oil pump broke on our last road trip (very common with the Chinese motorcycles you find here). I know that if there is anything I need, I just need to ask and someone will know someone who can take me to someone who has what I am looking for. I know what the juice of the fruit of the baobab tree tastes like and, even better, I know how to make it. I've eaten caterpillars and drank millet beer out of calabasses. (I was sick before this, so I can't blame the salmonella on the caterpillars). There's still plenty of things that I haven't figured out and plenty more that I'm sure I will never figure out (for instance why it's OK for straight men to be physically intimate in public, like hugging and holding hands, but you rarely, if ever, see men and women even hold hands in public).