Dangerous Sunbathers...

The walk through the woods this Sunday morning was livened a little by a sunbathing crocodile.  So, they do come out and walk about, even out of the rainy season.  Also, our 'drain dwelling' friend further in town had found a new spot that drew a bit of attention.  It was easy, though maybe not wise, to get about 6ft from it.  Just as I said 'is it dead?'  it flicked open an eye.  Yah, yer trickster...

 

 

I have started to check the swimming pool for crocodiles.

Seeds are now in pots: tomatoes, squash, cannas and spinach.  Compost is doing its thing in a bucket and got very hot during the week.  There is always a sense of belonging and investing when making a garden.  Amid the ongoing speculation, we are glad of every pay cheque and will hopefully get some homegrown tomatoes before June.

SIAO, the massive African Art Fair is on.  I had big hopes and organised a bus trip.  

 

Rocks from Mali                             Recycling in Burkina Faso

It proved to be one big shop, spread over many many rooms!  There was little, but amazing, variety of fabric and carvings.  It was day 2 and some stalls were still not set up.  After a brief chat with a local Dutch accordion player today (yep, you read it right) the 'artists' as opposed to the 'crafts people' take longer to set up/pull their finger out.  They also don't like to open early in the morning, maybe lack of being commercially minded?  I may need to go again but this time later in the week and evening.  We came away with some lovely hand woven fabric and some bags made from woven recycled plastic. 

 

 Hopefully we can get the co-operative that weave the re cycled plastic fabric to come in to school.  Very impressive!  I hate the hard sell.  Nothing gets rid of me quicker than being hounded by stall holders.  At one point, I was beating a hasty retreat in broken French, reciprocated by the Ghanean stall holder-we both then realised and burst into laughter.  Both being fluent English speakers, we had a chat.  I even bought 3 tie dyed wrap around skirts as presents.  We plan to go to Ghana next October.  I did a training course there once and have always wanted to return.  Fingers crossed.

The locally woven fabric in Ouaga is just a cycle away.  

 

Check out the spokies

Also, I still want to meet relatives of two staff members who have relatives who weave.  This is a future project for me.  I need to turn our Cumbrian fleeces into something.  I have plenty of ideas and it will be great to see an unmechanised set up.  

Still yet to meet a buzzing group of contemporary artists.