The Wilds

So a while back, I was told that there are crocodiles in the area. Ha! The closest thing to crocodiles I have seen are the countless number of little lizards which crawl over everything outside and are especially found of racing across my porch and clinging to my house in the midday sun. As you can see in the photo to the left, they are everywhere. They are also completely harmless, like 99 percent of all African lizards, and although quite annoying, they definitely cannot be confused with its larger and more fearsome cousin. But finally, after so many people have said they exist, I have proof. I have seen my first ¨wild¨ African animal (if you don't count the lizards and birds). A few weeks ago, I was brought to the local dam about 1km from my house by a fellow villager. When we arrived, he pointed across the water to the other side. ¨You see? There they are!¨ I, of course, looked across the water only to see a flock of birds along the bank, but as we rode our bikes around to the far side, it became more apparent. We do have crocodiles here! We saw about six that day (out of about 50, they say), lounging out along the shore, most probably between five and six feet in length. Of course, my village friend wouldn't let me get anywhere close to them, so obviously I had to return a few days later to move in closer to the crocs and snap a few pics. All the men working at the dam watched with concern as I inch my way closer and closer to the animals. Apparently in a nearby dam, two women drowned in the water last year and the crocs ate their bodies afterwards, so I'm sure the men didn't like me moving in closer, but I kept a good running distance in case the need presented itself (it didn't, thankfully). Many crocodile ponds here in Burkina and across West Africa are sacred, and while I haven't heard them talk about these crocs as such, I am sure everyone respects them enough to keep their distance.

In other news, I have one last photo to share with you to give you a better picture of where I work. If you have followed this blog, you know that I work with a group called CoGes (Comité de Gestion), as well as with the local health clinic, called the CSPS, here in Aorema. In the photo here to the left, you can the four buildings that make up the CSPS. This picture is taken right by my house, so you can see how close I am. From the left, we have the maternity in the distance. The next building is where patients can stay if they need to spend the night to be observed. It also houses our abulance (rare for a CSPS), which costs 10,000 CFA to use (roughly $20). The next building is the main building, where the office of the head nurse is located and where patients come for consultations. The last building on the far right side is the pharmacy where they store and sell around 80 to 100 different medications most commonly needed. The metal pole that you can see is for electricity, which we have yet to obtain. They usually put in the poles and the lines long before they actually get around to dishing out the juice, but perhaps at some point while I am here, Aorema will get electricity. The cable that you can see goes from the CSPS to my compound, so if Aorema does get power, it appears I would be able to get it too. It would be nice to have a light at night and an electric fan when it's hot. Until then, it's candles and hand fans.