Last weekend, I wanted to take another look at Ouaga 2000, the district of Ouagadougou where many embassy workers and people high in the government live. Here’s some pictures that I took:

It’s incredible, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen houses like these, even in Toronto. It’s hard to imagine that people live at this scale of luxury when so many others around the city can’t even afford to buy a box of matches to cook their meals with.

Lately, I’ve really been thinking a lot about the huge gap between the rich and the poor. If you’re white (that includes anyone who is not African), people know that you have money. And for the most part, it’s true. Embassy workers, businessmen, teachers at the international school, missionaries, etc. in no way live meager lives. Think about this. During my last English class, we had a discussion on the subject of health care. One of my friends is in his third year at the University of Ouagadougou studying to become a doctor. He told us that doctors make 100,000 CFA (just a bit over $200 CAN) per month. And that’s the salary for doctors – people near the top of the food chain. Imagine studying medicine for 7 years and getting paid $2,400 per year – actually, less, when you deduct taxes.

So this “gap” between the Western world and the national people is still having a big effect on my life here. People still see me as a dollar sign, and that makes it really tough to make friendships, to know who your real friends are, and to try to integrate into the Burkinabe culture. For example, just yesterday morning, I was walking to go buy a bun from the bakery for breakfast. On the way there, two kids, I’d guess around 15-16 years old, came up to me and said “Hey, champion, I’m a tour guide and if you ever need to go anywhere, just let me know”. I just nodded and told them okay... After I bought my bun, I started to walk back to the office… and, as I anticipated, the two kids just started to follow me and whisper “can you give me 100 cfa to eat, it’s not a lot to you, or just 25 cfa…” over and over again. I just said no, and kept walking. After a while, one of the guys started to yell “that’s not nice, you have money and you shouldn’t just ignore us”. I just shook my head in disbelief and kept walking. Did I have the money? Of course, what they were asking for was equivalent to 25 cents and 5 cents… but if I did give it to them, it would have just perpetuated the stereotype of rich white people and in reality, giving them charity money wasn’t going to help them in any lasting way. A lot of people here are still really great – but there are definitely some sour grapes in the bowl...

The reason why I really enjoy teaching English here is because I believe it’s a great skill that opens up so many more opportunities for the people here. It makes me think of Roxane, a girl who was in my English class last term. After studying English for a few years and doing her TOEFL tests, she got a scholarship to study in the US in January. She’s now at Southern Illinois studying English until her proficiency gets up to the level for her to begin studying psychology. I think that’s just amazing, and in a way I think it shows that investing in developing people will eventually, a long way down the road, help develop a country.