two surprises in one day!

Today there were two surprises - one good, and one not so good.

First, the good surprise - starting with a bad one a few days ago. When I arrived at the airport in Ouagadougou, I was informed by the health inspector that my yellow fever shot had expired - and sure enough, it had - four years ago. Well, there is a protocol but I didn't know that, and my limited French didn't give me a chance to find out what it was. The first step was the confiscation of my yellow vaccination booklet - just gone! Okay, I'll have to get a shot and a new booklet.

Today I went to the one place in Ouagadougou where international travellers can get vaccinations, a nondescript place that announced 'vaccinations' as one of several services provided - and then listed the vaccinations available, but on a sign so old that the paint had disappeared and all that was left of the names was the slightly less discoloured places where the paint had been. Hepatitis was the first one, now listed in a ghostly white that didn't bode well for any travelers fated to enter.

We parked, we found the service window, figured out how and whom to pay, and whom to talk to, and who would give the shot. After some seamingly meaningless questions about which flight I had come in on, a woman reached into a box and pulled out my confiscated yellow vaccination booklet! I guess people frequently arrive without the required shots, and the airport delivers the yellow booklets to the one place we have to go to get vaccinated. Good surprise!

And, yes, the needle was in its original packaging before he used it.

Then it was off to the Nigerian Embassy to get my Nigerian visa. However, we had recieved false information - yes, it was true that a non-Burkina citizen could get their Nigerian visa here - but only if they were a 'resident' of Burkina, not just a 'tourist'. This was NOT the information we'd been given earlier. So, after several phone calls it became clear that I'd be going to Benin to get my Nigerian visa (assuming that the information we'd now been given was accurate).

Anyway, the work in Burkina will close tomorrow with recommendations for the accounting and administrative staff - as always, good work is being done, but there are a number of details that need to be corrected to improve the accuracy of the reports, the efficiency of the work, and the quality of information for management decisions.

Next time from Benin (a new country for me - #45).