Fire!, honeycomb, and tô

As expected we had some interesting experiences on my first research trip. We did not quite reach our original destination on our first day. So we pulled off the road a ways and spent the night there, under the stars, on our mats. Kind of like camping without the tents and smores. In the middle of the night, I was sleeping sound as usual, David woke me up and said we had to move. At first I wondered if we were on someone’s land, although the area seemed quite uninhabited. Then David pointed and told me that a brush fire was coming our way. Sure enough it was, though still a good distance off. Fortunately we were in a large gravely area so we just moved further away from the grassy area. (Now, by grass I don’t mean bluegrass but a tall, brown, dead grass. We are coming toward the end of the dry season but at this point most of the country hasn’t seen rain in several months.) It seems the wind shifted at some time so the fire would not have reached us anyway. In some ways though we might have welcomed the fire since the temperature was around 70 degrees (according to my alarm clock thermometer). That seems extremely cold when the wind is blowing, all you have is a sheet for cover, and you’re used to the temperature being around 100.

It is hard to give you an idea of how bad some of the roads are here, but here’s a quick attempt. On this trip, most of the roads were in decent shape. Yet there was one section that took us well over an hour to travel about 20 miles. In the rainy season this road would probably be impassable.

During this trip we did not bring our own food but ate what was presented to us and what we found on the side of the road. By that I don’t mean road kill but whatever people were selling. That means we ate almost exclusively to (see note below **), rice, noodles, and some chicken (mostly to and rice). At one place, David lucked out and got the chicken gizzard. Another treat we were given was fresh honeycomb (not the cereal). This being a first for me I wondered how we would eat it. My first guesses were that we would lick it or suck on it. Nope. We followed our hosts lead and ate the whole thing. I now have a better understanding of what they mean by “bee’s wax.” It wasn’t terribly bad, but unfortunately I couldn’t stop wondering about what might be inside the comb. I probably don’t want to know.

**And for those of you who don’t remember or have never known what “to” is, it is the staple of most people in Burkina. I always struggle to describe it, but here goes. It is a dish with the consistency of solidified grits or soft play-dough, usually made out of millet, a grain they grow in abundance. It can also be made with ground up corn or sorghum. They always eat to with some kind of sauce, usually made from various vegetables. The to itself is usually quite bland, but what little taste it has is not pleasant, in my opinion. It is pronounced just like “toe.”