Then this is it...

Ouahigouya, June 15 2006

In search of that one and only particular corner of the globe that can satisfy our insatiable hunger for what is different ? Looking for that last safe spot on earth, having learnt not to look for it within the lion’s hole, our spot is definitely one without mp3-murderers, kidnapping epidemics, gunfire nor extreme right skinhead lunatics ?

Maybe we found it. Anyway, it is about time to let you know where we are hanging out. Take the globe (or a smaller replica of it), draw a line from the wonderful half-island Haiti to the West, then draw another line from the unexplainable hallucinating b-place (as in birthplace, Belgium or maybe even Brussels). Draw this line to the South. Then stop at the intersection of both lines. If you did not make any mistake, you should have arrived … no you have not. You forgot to take into account the effect of the Harmattan wind, didn’t you ?

Well we didn’t when the awesome kidnapping wave kicked us out of the Caribbean. South lurked Colombia, North the U.S., so we thought why not trying East ? (but weren’t there supposed to be beaches, coconut trees, tropical rain forests… ?)

Anyway, welcome in Ouahigouya !

This is almost the middle of nowhere. Or more precisely, this is the chief town of the Yatenga province in the North-East of Burkina Faso, not far from the Malian border. Here, water is scarce, just as trees and food. Imagine the flat bone-dry landscape : red sand as far as eyes can reach, a tree here and there, mossi houses, and yes a water well, there even a barrage lake… but mind the crocodiles.

Nevertheless, you are very welcome here. Especially when longing for an extra-ordinary break. JUST ASK.

What are we doing here ? Well, Wim is imagining kidnapping scenes everywhere. He wants to make a movie, or at least write a book. Meanwhile, he is inexhaustibly undertaking motorcycle driving attempts in the sandy gullies of the areas (No, he is not preparing for Paris-Dakar as you are probably thinking, the fierce sun hit him badly but his brains are not totally out of order) and thinks of integrated valorisation of water points in correspondence with people’s needs. Or whatever.