Burkina Fasso continued

I left off at my my newfound friend's father's stall. Inside were an array of copper statues wooden figurines, masks and jewelry. He picked up an instrument that looked like half a sphere withe metal prongs attached on four pieces of metal that form a box. In the middle there was a little hole. It works by pressing down on the little metal prong to make sounds that somatic resemble a marimba. I decided to buy this and a nice carved mask as gifts for people. I spent most of my money on this despite bargaining because i felt that it was understandable after the man had helped me get there. Next i was ushered into another man's stall to look. I informed them all that i had no money and then i left ( i was becoming a little overwhelmed by all the people) after getting some directions from the man who had helped me get there. Of course, i was only half paying attention and he was speaking in rapid french so i proceeded down the street and then stopped and decided i was lost. i asked two young boys if they knew how to get to a little circle with a big metal globe statue in the middle called Place des Nations Unies. They didn't but some other people passing by did and it was arranged that one of them would escort me there ( Burkinaube's are very nice people as you can tell). We had a broken conversation in french about basic things such as our ages and whether or not we went to school. He was carrying a cart which he later filled with jugs of something. Along the way we were joined by two other men. I think at first they were concerned but then they realized iw as in no harm. One insisted that i come look at his shop. i said i had to meet some friends at La Place des Nations Unies (safety precautions felt necessary at that point because it felt like i was ignoring all he others) Eventually , after i promised i would come back Friday he left. The other man stayed. I'm pretty sure i confused all of them,, but eventually the realized i wasn't french, Spanish or any other form of European and i told them i was American. Anyone else who has recently traveled overseas (including my friend Cameron who is currently in a State Department Program in China see here blog here ) may not be surprised that they're first response was that of " Obama, il est bonne non?". I assure them that Obama was good and then we realized that we'd been heading the wrong way so we turned around. Eventually we made it so i could see the globe and i began to try to get rid of them because i'd always been warned not to tell people where you lived. I managed to get rid of my original helper by thanking hima nd offering the few coins i had left. The second one ended up with my phone number a water bottle and made it all the way to the hotel. It was around 1P.M by the time i ot back to the hotel and i decided that was enough out tme for that day. Basically i did little exercise, read a lot and then went for a very short walk and eventually went out to dinner at a place run by nun's. We were there pretty late and even got to here the nuns sing Ave Maria, which was beautiful. That was all for that day. My next post should have photos of the crocodiles i saw at Les Crocodiles Sacres de Bazoule Until Then Katie