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Flamboyant tree in full bloom

The temperature went up a notch in the past week. Nights are also in the 30oC, we had 45oC in the car coming back from a village on Wednesday. Humidity too is higher from 5 to 10% beginning of March to over 50% now. People seem to think that these changes are rather early in the season. In one the previous blog there is a picture of tree with yellow blossom. It is the first year that I see so many and with so many flowers. The néré tree (red balls flower) has a lot of fruits this year also. These are indication of a good amount of water during the rainy season.

Some comparison of costs between Netherlands and Burkina

I thought it would be interesting to compare prices of utilities and minimum salary between The Netherlands and Burkina. I am not sure if it has any economic value.

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The minimum salary in Burkina is 3% of the one in The Netherlands and electricity costs is 190% more expensive in Burkina than in The Netherlands. How can you develop a competitive business with such utility costs?

The costs of money from the bank can go up 15% annual interests versus the 5% in Europe. There is not much hope for development unless you are in a business that does not use much power but only manpower and if you can get loans from a social business institution.

Vegetable garden in Nefrelaye

We have been working with the villagers of Nefrelaye for a vegetable garden. The idea is to close about 1,5 Ha of land with mash wire, to drill a water well in this area and bring the water of the well into a basin with help of a pump powered by solar panels.

Villagers have the possibility to become member of an association that gives them the right of a 10m x 10m piece of land in the enclosure where they can grow vegetables during the dry season. It would not make them rich (we estimate that it would bring them about € 150 per year) but it is better than nothing and hopefully the young adults would stay in the village.

If everything goes as planned, the project could be running within 3 months.

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Meeting in Nefrelaye

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Women of Nefrelaye

Semaine Nationale de La Culture

Each year in Bobo, the cultural week is held. Each region comes with their dances, music, products. It is a very busy week in the town. There are several venues, a small one for the region, and then a bigger one what they call the « galerie marchande » (big market). This market has some stands, but you cannot reach them. The market is crowded with small vendors selling all type of Chinese junk. Not a very pleasant experience for me.

Mosquito nets at the windows of the LAP houses

Eugenie has been working very hard preparing frames equipped with mosquito nets to be installed at the LAP. On Wednesday we went there to install them. The carpenters who had taken the measurements had made some mistakes and the job could not be completed.

While we were doing this Odile went to a dry river bed in the village of Oualana. They are asking us for a bridge over this river. A lot of their fields are on the other side.

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 » Nature morte » in the dry marigot (river)

On the way back we had to find our bird of the week.

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Answer to last week question

blog 2014-03-30 10Papaya trees can be male, female or hermaphrodite. Only female trees give fruits.

In order to change a hermaphrodite tree to female tree you need to hurt him. It can be done by not giving it water or by piercing it with a piece of steel.

blog 2014-03-30 11A new way of transport seen in Bobo Dioulasso. Save on gasoline for the guy on the motorcycle.

Saturday we went fishing with Karim. He has a farm close to a river called the Kou. It was the first time he went fishing and he liked the experience very much. It was also the first time I really caught some fish in Burkina. We will go back.

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Proverb of the week

If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad…. »

Si vous croyez que vous pouvez, vous pourrez probablement. Si vous croyez que vous ne pouvez pas, il y a des grandes chances que vous ne pourrez pas. La confiance est le déclencheur qui vous met sur la rampe de lancement ….

Only 2 weeks more in Burkina before going back to The Netherlands. Time flies.

Amitiés,

Hervé

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