Mangos!

Another week where you just don’t know how you’re going to juggle all that is required before you leave on a trip. Meetings, seeing patients, preparing a course, and hosting for a visitor from Dakar. But Saturday came and somehow I got it all together. The driver picked us up as scheduled and we drove the 6 hours to Ouaga.

The landscape is definitely dryer. Just three months ago, we saw lots of greenery and watering holes, gardens surrounding villages. Now, with not a drop of rain since then, the vegetation is crispier, many of the watering holes have disappeared, and it seems more desert-like in scenery; not as picturesque. But the cattle and goat herders continue on there way across the desert sand towards what little water remains. The boys splash in shrinking ponds. The villages are replacing their thatched roofs–many of the huts looked refurbished, if you can refurbish a hut. Small trees and shrubs have hay thrown up covering the top branches to provide shade.

Our hotel is very nice (La Palmeraie – The Palms), much nicer than Hotel Splendid where we stayed last time. Hotel Splendid had a bigger room, but the couches were plastic leather. Breakfast there is served in a superchilled dining room with curtains drawn against the view of the parking lot.

La Palmerie is all on on one level, rooms surrounding little garden courtyards with gardenias and boganvilla. Furniture is iron, tile floors, white walls with african art. More like a resort. French doors, a big window that opens out onto the garden, breakfast on the terrace overlooking the pool, piles of mango, croissants, fresh fruit drinks including ginger and: high speed internet. Woo-hoo!

The mangos this morning were like none other we had ever eaten; sweet yet flavorful with soft flesh the color of a blood orange. There is no motivation to go out and explore, but we are.