Thursday, July 29, 2010

Road Trip

Just last week I took a road trip with two of my fellow teachers at Sahel.  We drove about six hours to the southwest to Ouagadougou, the capital city of Niger's neighbor, Burkina Faso.  Now you may think that crossing a border wouldn't bring any significant change but here's a difference I noticed right away.  In Burkina Faso women ride bicycles. 


I can't recall ever seeing a woman riding a bike in Niger.  Motos, yes.  Bicycles, no! 

Then there were the taxis.   Niger's taxis are a combination of white and red and they are almost always Toyotas.  In Burkina, however, when you take a taxi you are likely to have the privilige of riding in a green Mercedes Benz.  Don't jump to any conclusions about riding in the lap of luxury.  Even a Mercedes Benz can be old and dilapitated!


Now let's talk about the motos.  
Motos here. 
Motos there. 
Motos everywhere.
Just look at this intersection that we are trying to make a turn in.


Then we would drive by places like this...


which you might think was a moto dealership.  In reality, these are all motos belonging to the people that work within this compound.  I'm not even sure how you would find the moto that belongs to you in all that mass.

All in all, I enjoyed the cooler temperatures, the frequent rain and the green everywhere but I was happy to hit the road home...


...to my quiet little city of Niamey.
Never dreamed I'd refer to Niamey as quiet!

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