Jan 28/04
A hot night.  Finally set up the fan to pull air in at the door & blow over us.  Had to get up every few hours to reset the fan timer.  As long as the bricks in the wall are warm the rooms stay warm.  Went shopping before dinner with the whole group except for the Haas who left early for Bobo.  Carmela bought a set of dishes she wants us to take home for her.  I bought a leather map of Burkina.  Looked at a bellaphone.  Found out that the half notes on the music scale are not included.  He only wanted about 250.00.  Saw them weaving cloth, making leather covered boxes, knives, mats and all sorts of things.  I also got to drive in Oaugau.  5 people in the car I was driving and the rest in Pauls truck.  I just had to follow Paul around.  At the first place we went to there was security we had to check in with before we were let in.  There were 4 police or soilders & they had a machine gun set up with an amunition belt loaded in place.  Paul said we should still lock up even with them there.   At 12:15 Paul took Carmela, Luanna & me back to the guest house to pick up our bags & take us to the STMB bus depot to take an air condition bus to Bobo.  It was a very pleasant ride.  The bus left at 2 & arrived at 700.  Got a taxi ride to our "air conditioned motel".  Hope to get a good sleep.  When we got to the motel we were surprised to see the Haas's.  They were to have stayed at a guest house close by but they had apparently over booked.  So they got a room at the same motel.  Had supper with them at the motel resturant.  Had pizza & ice cream for desert.  After supper Carmela & Luanna went to phone Rick & Daniel to tell them to phone us back at the Motel.  Boys doing OK but some one had broken into the shop & stolen a whole lot of tools.  Not good.  The women made arrangements to shop in the morning.  I'll stay at the motel till they return & then the Haas's will return to Tin & we'll spend some more time in Bobo & return to Oradara for the end of the day.  Sure is a different lifestyle out here from home.  The bus made many quick slmost stops for everything from cows & goats on the road to broken down trucks or slow trucks going up hill.  Made good time for a speed limit of 80 kph.  At the one stop the bus was surrounded by people selling stuff.  I expressed a desire for sesame seed cakes and Carmela had some for me at the window in less than a minute.  While shopping I saw small toy mortorcycles made from the tops of aerosol cans for tires, heavy wire for the frame & tin from cans to make up the rest of the bike.  A bycles frame with pedals had been set up to run a blower to get a fire hot enough to get steel hot enough to work with.  Where they were weaving old batteries & stones & gears were used for weight to keep the string tight but still be able to slide on the floor as everthing shortened up.  All in all an interesting day.

This bus is more or less like the one we traveled on from Bobo to Oradara.  Even to the goat on the roof.  Except there were two goats on our bus.  And it either did not have A/C or it wasn't working.  The buses were completly full, all the seats were filled and then they opened up folding seats into the aisle and filled those. We travelled in the evening and I thought that it would be nice and cool on the bus but as soon as we started moving the people shut all the windows.  It was a nice thought while it lasted.