On Saturday evening I dropped Raksha off at Dakar airport at midnight, and then a few hours later I was back there to fly out myself to the capital city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. I arrived mid- afternoon in blistering heat and then a short drive later was in the downtown hotel. A quick swim in the pool quickly cooled me off and then set off to have a look around town. First impressions are that Ouagadougou ('Ouaga', pronounced 'Waga') is much quieter than Dakar, it has the feel of a relaxed town rather than a bustling city like Dakar. Burkina is one of the world's poorest countries - its 177th out if 182 countries in the UN Human Development Index. However Ouaga doesn't feel any more run down and poor than many other cities in the developing world and there's a lot less hassle from street vendors and beggars etc. than you get in Dakar. The main roads are busy (and well maintained), but not choked, and once off the main roads its all very quiet and peaceful.
On Monday morning I was picked up by he UN driver to take me to the office - about a two minute drive, so I think I'll be walk it from now on. It's so hot here that they have a long midday break, from 12.45 to 3pm - it makes for a long day overall, but its very nice to be able to really relax at lunch time, rather than having a quick break and straight back to work.
The main purpose of my visit is to find out more about Food Voucher Programmes and I'm hoping to be able to go and see vouchers being distributed in the next couple of days. I'm working with the head of IT here in Burkina on a proposal to use mobile phone or radio technology to support these programmes, so it will be really useful to see how they work at the moment.
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