Katja

approaching premature nostalgia vol. 3

And the smells. In the morning, just when the sun is rising. The night leaving the dry shrubland soil. Something warm and soft, welcoming. Or when the sun is setting, the rich smell of the depressions. Wild herbs, something not quite like thyme, and sometimes the edge of a distant fire. I might be aContinue reading “approaching premature nostalgia vol. 3”

approaching premature nostalgia vol. II (November 12)

And later, for dinner: Vegetable stew on onions, pepper, garlic, tomatoes, cabbage, green peas and groundnut paste with rice, and deep fried tofu brochettes that we’ve started buying from a girl who sells them in the street. (They are all over the place here, the women selling different kinds of food from buckets – deepContinue reading “approaching premature nostalgia vol. II (November 12)”

approaching premature nostalgia (November 12)

While walking home from the market together with Elli, with bags full of tomatoes, onions and cabbage, I was struck by the feeling that I wasn’t done. We had just bought deep fried aloco with sauce (plantain in English, or food banana), a new favorite discovery of mine, and I got that nostalgic feeling thatContinue reading “approaching premature nostalgia (November 12)”

the market of Ouahigouya

It is funny, with the market here. It covers several blocks, and is partly made up of wooden stalls where they sell vegetables and other food, but also of rows of permanent cement structures. What makes it funny, is that about half of the market is made up of establishments dedicated to selling parts ofContinue reading “the market of Ouahigouya”

approach of the Harmattan

I might only be imagining things, maybe I’ve just gotten used to the heat, but it feels like it has gotten slightly colder here since we arrived. At least at night. The temperature in the evenings is actually quite comfortable, and at night I have to sleep in my silk sheets, not on top ofContinue reading “approach of the Harmattan”

skin protests

I’ve managed to develop a pretty nasty rash on my hips. It looks like a conglomerate of mosquito bites, but why would a bunch of mosquitoes bite me on the hips, and nowhere else? And how would they even get there? Most of the time I’m wearing pants, and when I’m not, I’m inside aContinue reading “skin protests”

some kind of normalcy

I walked home from the market today. We went there by car, but then Elli needed to go back to Reko to measure her lysimeters, and I decided to walk. Young men tried to talk to me in their mooré-heavy French, and I just smiled and walked on. I bought guavas and deep fried millet dough dumplings.Continue reading “some kind of normalcy”

fruitoshoot vol. 2

One of my last days in La Paz, Natalia and I bought all the fruits that we had been eating while we were there, and took photographs with them. We had a fruitoshoot. Now, with the little assortment of fruits that I came home with from the market, I felt I wanted to repeat theContinue reading “fruitoshoot vol. 2”

street art of Ouahigouya

They have street artists here too, painting on boring walls, giving more color to the cityscape.

a stroll through the town

Elli and Desiré left early this morning to go do infiltration measurements in Reko. Me and Helena slept in, until seven. Such a nice, slow morning. Helena was going back to Ouagadougou today, but before she took the bus we decided to take a walk through Ouahigouya, just to have seen something of it. AndContinue reading “a stroll through the town”