118. Ouagadougou, Upper Volta

118.

Ouagadougou, Upper Volta:

I am actually walking down the main street in this city!

I have wanted to be in Ouagadougou ever since I heard that such a place existed -- probably because I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and always wanted to stay in a place with an even odder name!

There are lizards in this town, gray in color with bright red, yellow and blue racing stripes. There seems to be one in each of the dusty elm trees that border the broad main streets at just about eye level and there are more gray Peugeot motor scooters tearing about than I thought existed on this planet.

I have found a good cheap hotel room in town with a cool shower down the hall so I plan to stay a while to recuperate from the killer train trip up from the coast.

I cook all the food I eat and boil all the water I drink on the Optimus 8-R gasoline burning miniature stove that I carry in my backpack. I am not going to risk any of the local preparations in my present weakened condition.

I buy a blue enameled metal quart sized pot with a lid and a bail handle in the market square across from my hotel. The pot and most of the other manufactured articles for sale in the market are made in China There are no Chinese manufactured products for sale in the United States at this time to the best of my knowledge.

I take time to sketch and write and walk a bit every day and the Africans I pass on the street often greet me with a friendly “Bon Jour!”

I also stop by the American Embassy library for help in planning my route across the Sahara.

Some say it cannot be done but I have recently talked to three young VSO’s (Volunteer Service Overseas--a British organization like the American Peace Corps) who say that there are three possible routes across the desert: two toward Gibraltar and one toward Sudan.

The Sudan route sounds most promising to me because the others would make it necessary to either go on to Europe or to try to go through Libya, whose leadership at present does not like Americans.

My present goal is Cairo because another of my childhood dream places to see, are the ancient monuments and wonders of Egypt.

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