Boris in Burkina Faso: La Guinguette

Well, we’ve been in Burkina for a month now, it was time Alanna, Aimé our neighbour and I took a few hours on a Saturday to take pictures and visit the area…

We went to La Guinguette and visited nearby Dinderesso, a small village, at the end of the paved road, 15 km from Bobo, hence easily accessible, it has been blessed with many gifts.

Photo: Dinderesso

A natural one first: La Guinguette. Dinderesso surroundings are home to an underground water source gushing out year round, feeding a river, side by side with a second stream, altogether quenching the thrust of the half million Bobolais all year round. This site of course has some mystic to it. It is precious and luxurious, quiet and peaceful. Its shade has harboured tea drinking locals for many years and tourists now for a few. Great things need great care, and so a project was put together by caring individuals to manage the park, La Guinguette, in a participatory way. Delegates from the village now take turn to administer, guide visits and tend to the souvenir shop, says Rémi Ouattara, our host for the day.

Dinderesso also has a well! A nice, concrete and metal construction enjoys the shade of a giant mango tree, in the center of the village. It was built by a project that felt, in consultation with the locals, that having access to safe drinking water right in the village was a good step towards great health.

And a grain storage unit! A nice, concrete building just outside the village, administered by at least six villagers, has offered for three years now the benefits of not having to transport the cereal to the next village. Women are grateful to the project that organized the construction of the facility for the walking hours they save every year.

Slightly outside of the village, a nursery! Built by Luxembourg, it offers a space for the pregnant women here and for the newborn. Probably a great step toward reducing infant mortality in the village when 105/1000 is the national average.

The list stops here, but I hope that you are at least questioning how a village gets to receive that many gifts all at once. Why not though? Jeffrey Sachs is creating his millennium villages; they get everything they need to grab the first rung of the development ladder. Why not Dinderesso?

What really made me feel strange was the constant asking. Almost everyone in the village asked us for money. Our guide Rémi kept suggesting what they needed next: traction animals to plough their fields. Two hectares ploughed per day by one ox. He was good at asking.