December 9th: Our (what I thought would be) last day in Ouaga, Elli and Helena started by doing yoga by the pool. We were staying in Christina’s house, a Swedish acquaintance of Helena’s, and Elli and I had been placed in the pool house. It felt funny, in a way, that Elli and I ended our stay in Burkina Faso by sleeping in a pool house. I don’t know why, it just makes me smile.
Elli and I went out to the INERA office and said goodbye to Korodjouma, we visited one of the labs where Elli had left her soil samples, but they had no results for her yet. Instead, they promised that they would have them ready by the end of the week and send them to her by e-mail. Then we picked up Helena and went for some last minute shopping at the artisan market. Elli and Helena wanted to buy statues – and suddenly, among the Tuareg jewelry and carved wooden animals, my entire body started tingling. I felt like I was going to faint, and I had to sit down. I could barely move my muscles, and I almost felt like throwing up. I just wanted to lie down on the ground and not do anything at all. The mere thought of going back to the pool house, packing up the last of my things, sleeping and getting up at sunrise to catch the bus to Ghana made me want to disappear. My head felt like it was full of wet cotton. I just simply couldn’t deal.
I decided to stay in Ouaga for an extra two days, skip Tamale and go straight to Accra with the bus instead.
We had dinner in a nice, Moroccan restaurant. Having decided that I wouldn’t leave yet, I felt a lot better. Still exhausted, though, and secretly so jealous of Elli and Helena because they would get to go home tomorrow, to Stockholm. I was sick and tired of the constant tension of being in a strange land, with strange customs, and sleeping in strange beds.
December 10th: Saying goodbye to Elli in the morning felt so weird. We had spent almost every day together, most hours of the day, for two months. Shared the same bed. Adjusted to each other’s rhythms. We were classmates when we left Sweden, and not particularly close. What will we be when I get back to Stockholm?
I took it easy that day, ate real, Swedish köttfärssås for lunch, and then we watched the Nobel banquet through SVT Play together, Christina and I, drinking champagne.
December 11th: I had yet another freak-out about the bus trip to Ghana, this time about the length of it (24 hours to Accra!), the robberies that sometimes happen along highways in Ghana by night, the trickiness of border crossings, and having to constantly be on my guard, the loud movies, smells, engine breakdowns. I was panicking, I obviously couldn’t handle it.
So – I started looking for plane tickets to Accra instead. And there were two planes leaving Ouaga for Accra tomorrow. I just couldn’t buy any tickets because it was Burkina Faso’s Independence Day and consequently, all offices were closed. I would simply have to take a chance, go to the airport tomorrow morning, packed and ready, and just bet on my luck.
The rest of the day, I peeled groundnuts and watched Buffy.
PS. Christina in Ouagadougou is an angel. I just want to put it out there. She took us in and let me stay in her pool house when I couldn’t handle leaving, she fed me with spaghetti&köttfärssås and Kalles kaviar. Pure kindness. There. Now you know.
Katja Malmborg 