Happy Birthday Burkina!

December 11th marked the 50th anniversary of Burkina’s independence.  To celebrate the day, there was a big parade in Bobo-Dioulasso and the government asked the Peace Corps to be apart if it.  Peace Corps recruited 25 volunteers to march in the parade, luring us with free transport to Bobo, free housing, “work-related leave” from site so as to not count as our allotted TAC days, and a promise of free meals from the 50th anniversary committee.  To march in the parade required 4 days of parade practice, so essentially is was a free week long trip to Bobo- Yes please , sign me up!  [Side note: there was originally a 2 day “International Volunteer Day” event that was to happen the weekend before the Independence day fete that called for 75 volunteers to attend, extending our stay in Bobo to 10 days, but the event was mysteriously canceled a day before our departure to Bobo.]

Those of us that had to travel through Ouaga to get to Bobo all met up Sunday the 5th around noon in Ouaga to endure the 5 hour bus ride together, almost loosing one during the one “10 minute” rest stop to grab dinner-to-go.  As the bus started to pull away all the Nasaras started yelling to wait and a white man took off running after the bus.  We got into Bobo after dark and were taken to “the apartment” where the rest of the volunteers were settling down to bed. The apartment is a 3 bedroom house that is located right across the street from the PC Bobo Bureau that apparently is empty and can be rented out.  Very convenient for us.  There were 3 double beds, all taken, and a pile of mattresses and Burkina-style pillows, which are more like couch cushions.  There was a dash to claim a mattress and floor space, but since it was late and not clear what was free, we scouted out tent space on the porch, snagged pillows and called it a night.  Would rather sleep in a tent outside then packed in like refugees on the floor, although it reminded me a lot of sleep at tournaments with the Ultimate team. 

Monday morning parade practice started bright and early, around 6:30 am.  “Practice” consisted of milling around near our designated parade spot, then being put in our marching lines- tallest to shortest both horizontally and vertically- but the Gendarmerie, followed by more waiting around and seeking out water and snacks, randomly being called back into our lines only to wander out again in search of shade, and then finally at around 11:30 we learned how to march.  We walked about half the parade route with sporadic Gendarmerie and other military men along the way screaming “Gauche, gauche, gauche, droite, gauche” and calling out those of us who were off and fixing our lines as we marched along.  Now the Burkina march step is a mix between a band step and a normal walk and very closely resembles the hyenas marching in the Lion King, including the swinging, straight arms.  After learning how to march, we were corralled back to our starting point and had to walk the whole parade route again, which was a 2 to 3 mile straight shot down the road to the football stadium.  We were told that practice would end at 11, and by the time we finished the first test run it was past 13:00 and we were all hot, thirsty, hungry and champing at the bit to leave.  Thankfully once we reached the stadium we were given water and told we were done for the day. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday’s parade practice wasn’t that much different.  Tuesday we refused to go so early, since on Monday we were one of the first groups there, only to be yelled at by the Gendarm in charge of us for being late, so Wednesday we settled on getting there between 7 and 7:30.  All the days consisted of mostly standing around, leaving our area to find food and shade, being told to come back and stand around, and then having a few “media” practices.  Before the actually parade the President and the media would drive down the road past us to their places in the boxed-in bleachers, and all the groups marching were to be standing at attention in perfect lines facing the cameras.  Naturally, this required several run-throughs each day where military officials would drive past us in hummers and correct our lines or tell us to take our hands out of our pockets or whatnot.  Then we would file into the road, usually have to back up a block or so, switch lanes in the road, then maybe back up some more, and then finally start marching towards the stadium, stop and wait for 5 or 10 minutes, march again, randomly switch lanes again (it seemed like the officials couldn’t decide which lane was the best placement for the marchers), pause some more, then as we approached the viewer’s stands and the band military officials would start shouting out “Gauche!” to get us in step, we would pass the important-peoples bleachers and then fall out of step as we finished the rest of the parade march and ended at the stadium where they gave us water and we waited for the Peace Corps car to rescue us. Lucky for us, Thursday was to be a full parade practice requiring that we bring no bags with books and music, which we had started to bring to entertain ourselves for the hours of just standing around, and had to wear the clothes-toed black shoes that we had been told were a requirement.  Who brings close-toed black shoes to Burkina Faso?  Only a handful of the volunteers had them so most of us had to buy hideous black, late 80’s style heels from the marche and Thursday’s practice was the debut of our fabulous new shoes.  Once we got there on Thursday we realized that almost none of the Burkinabe groups were wearing black shoes, only the American’s were fool enough to fall for that.  I was lucky enough to find black flats, but most of the other girls walked the second half of the parade barefoot and carried their shoes because of the blisters already forming.  

Saturday was the big show.  All the groups marching were given one of several 50th anniversary pagne designs and the group was to get matching outfits made.  For the Peace Corps, girls had simple completes complete with a foulard (traditional head wrapping) and the boys had simple outfits that looked like a pajama sets with white “International Volunteer day” hats.  Here is Josh and I modeling our parade gear, getting ready to head out for the parade.         Luckily there were a few girls that knew how to tie up the foulard, which was a whole pagne wrapped on our heads.  We arrived at the parade grounds by 6 am, before sunrise, and anxiously waited for things to get started while eyeing everyone else's outfits.  This is the Gendarm that was assigned to be our grill sergeant.  Thankfully he was really nice and patient with us.                

Here is a group shot before the parade activities started.  Corps De La Paix American looking snazzy in our matching completes.  Before anything started we were given water and a box of sugar cubes by the parade committee.  When asked what the sugar was for, they told us to eat it before the parade to help us march well.  Apparently the breakfast provided by the Parade Committee was a box of sugar.  We waited around until 8 when we were called into our lines, then waited another hour until around 9 when we were told for real to get in our lines.  Around 9:20 a convoy started to pass by, first an SUV full of military men heavily armed, then a few other cars with perhaps important people, then a green hummer with President Blaise Compaore standing in the back.  He didn’t wave like a beauty queen, just firmly stood and looked at us as he passed by.  He was literally about 15 feet in front of me, the closest I’ve ever been to a President or State official, it was kind of cool.  After his car was another SUV full of heavily armed men, one with his AK47 sticking out the window ready at a moments notice.  Once the President sat down in his seat, we filed out into the road and got ready to march.  This was almost exactly like practice- stand and wait, move back, wait, walk forward a bit, wait, switch lanes, switch back, wait- But everyone seemed to be in a joyful mood.  We were sandwiched between “the community of foreign people” and the “Lebanese Community” and the three groups traded off cheers, singing of our respective national anthems, and dancing as we waited for the parade to start.  We were even joined by a few festive parade goers like these boys who were decked out in full body paint and these women were in white face and came around to the groups to dance and pump them up.  There was even men on stilts.  For a second, it almost seemed like a fun parade and not the strict, military-esk parade that it was.                  

When the parade started it went exactly as practice had gone, including the pauses and switching lanes, but we all marched in perfect step before the president.  Once we got to the football stadium we tried to watch the end of the parade, but unfortunately we were more towards the end and didn’t get to see that many groups.  I tried to get photos of the more interesting groups before we B-lined to the Peace Corps car to take us home and out of the uncomfortable completes, but could only really get these two.  The first is of two Peuls girls.  The Peuls are knowen for being herders of cows and sheep and the women for selling the milk in calabashes,  so as the girls walked the carried the traditional stacks of calabashes on their heads.  It was really cool to watch, but unfortunately they were too far ahead of us to get a photo of them walking.  These men on horses were really interesting to see as well, all decked out in traditional dress.  I’m not sure which ethnic group they were, I couldn’t find their banner, but I’m guessing they were Peuls as well.  A few of the men had traditional drums on their horse with them and they all trotted to the beat of the drums, very cool.