You're never without help in Africa

We head out of this northern town to the village of Tepridjissi to film a group of women who raise fish for sale. The idea is to give women extra revenue so they can help provide for the family and thus run less of a risk that the children look for work and fall into the hands of children traffickers.

As we arrive at the fishpond, massive black clouds billow at the horizon. The women must have felt something because they weren’t anywhere to be seen. We decided to head back for shelter. Arriving back to the path, we discover the 4x4 vehicle axle deep in mud. Worse, the driver had closed the doors with the motor running and by some automatic system, the doors locked.

As the skies started to open up and the rain came pouring down, we all climbed into the back of the truck. Some women came walking by and asked us if they put their sacks of fertilizer in the back of the truck to protect them from the rain. After a while, a whole group of villagers were hanging around the truck, shivering in the pouring rain. We got out and broke a window to get in the cabin and the villagers helped out, lifting the truck and putting branches under the wheels. The path is now a stream, but after 20-30 minutes, we finally get the truck out of the mud.

The showers stopped our filming for the day, but we had a small adventure and got to share some time with some nice people in a little African village. You're never without help in Africa.

Dédougou, Burkina Faso: Not yet the economic opportunites of a city, but no longer the familiar support of a village.

Lightning illuminates the sky almost constantly. Thunder grumbles and every once in a while explodes as though it were right on top of you. The rain comes down not so much in droplets as in streams. It is the rainy season in sub-sahelian Africa. And it is during these short four months of rain when everyone must produce enough food to last the rest of the other eight months’ desert dryness.

A young girl doing her chores in the shade.

The road to Dédougou from Bobo Dioulasso is paved and pothole free. The toll is 400 FCFA or about 60 euro cents. The heavy rains have inundated some of the crops and the countryside is green with grass, trees and shrubs. Father Philippe, who is driving me to Dédougou has spent over 12 years in the region, speaks the language and knows what it’s like also in the dry season. “Everything is brown and dry,” he tells me. Along the way, there are no electric poles because the villages here have no electricity. They do have mobile phones though as we pass GSM towers every so often. “Usually, someone has a generator and can make a little business charging phones,” tells me Father Philippe.

Learning the land.

Here to do a story on an educational programme for underprivileged (living in the “developed” world, most would probably consider just about everyone here “underprivileged”) youth, I get the opportunity to follow Apolinaire, 16 years old, to his home in Dédougou. Burkina Faso is a Muslim country where men can have more than one wife. Apolinaire, one of eight children, introduces me to his father and “aunt” whom I later learn is his father’s second wife. His mother is in the fields. It is sometimes difficult to get the story right concerning family relations. It is his father, worried about Apolinaire who had left school, who got him into the education programme.

A young girl may have her life already planned.

Apolinaire is still quite shy with the white foreigner. Although most people speak pretty good French, communication doesn’t only depend on the language. There is a big cultural difference. My life must seem as strange to Apolinaire as his life seems to me. At 16, Apolinaire says he would like to know about this thing called Internet. Thinking about all those kids back home glued to a computer screen instead of under the shade of a big tree with the whole (or most of) the family, I wonder who has the better life.

Ibrahim makes the night rounds.

At night in the centre for the programme, I hang out with the crew on night guard. They have to keep an eye out to make sure a goat doesn’t get loose and go eat the budding crop or that a neighbour’s animal doesn’t venture into the school’s fields. As Ibrahim, 16 years old, makes tea over glowing coals, Bernard, 13 years old, beats the adult guardian at checkers and others prepare a meal of To (corn meal) with a sauce of leaves. In this town, not yet a city, but no longer a village, the stars and constellations fill the immense African sky. 

Burkina Faso ; Land of the Honest People

« Faso » in the Joula language means « country ». Burkina in Mouré means « honest » or in French, « intègre ».  So, Burkina Faso is the land of the honest people. Joula and Mouré are the two dominant languages of this land-locked Sahelian country. Marcel, the young man who cleans up around the church grounds where I am staying taught me that. The languages are very different. Marcel speaks those languages and very good French as well. Many Africans are polyglot learning the language of their neighbours as well as the former colonial language.

I arrived on Thursday from Paris to Ouagadougou, the capital. Alain met me in is well-cared for but ancient 2CV. I thought to myself, « are we going to drive all the way across the country in this ? » No, I just stayed the night at Alain’s bed and breakfast he and his wife built and the next day I took an air-conditioned, modern bus to Bobo Dioulasso.

Marcel shows a map of Burkina Faso.

Buses are a great way to meet people. Next to me on the sold-out bus, was Clément, a mechanic in a gold mine near the Niger border. He was going back to Bobo to visit his family. Clément seems to be a happy young man.  « They treat us well at the mine (owned by a British company) and I have a good salary, » he tells me just before his smartphone rings. Clement works 7 days of 12-hour shifts and then has 7 days off. He makes the all-day trip by bus every week instead of hanging out in the capital. « I don’t feel at home in Ouaga. My friends and family are all in Bobo. » He says he always looks forward to seeing the family and drinking beer with his mates. I have the feeling he probably gets more rest at the mine !

Clément may be one of the lucky ones. Walking around Bobo, many young men, even boys, ask me to come look at their necklaces, paintings and other souvenirs. Bobo has a cooler climate than the capital and is clean and calm. But tourists have stopped coming. « With what is happening in Mali, people are scared to come here, » laments Roger.

I am in Burkina Faso to do a story on a programme supported by the Foundation Follereau de Luxembourg to help underprivileged children learn a trade and get a basic education.

Mixed marriage, refugee rights and just a good day.

A beautiful day and no work to do. So I went for a walk in Nancy, France, a short hour and a half train ride from here. Off the train and a nice walk to Place Stanislas, the touristic heart of the city. Lot's going on there and a fine place to sit and watch. First, lots of noise from a wedding. There was a Moroccan group with a very long trumpet and drums. The couple looked like a mixed marriage. The kids will surely be very international!

From there, I walked to the other side of the square and saw the 24 hours of Stan: a student gathering where each faculty pushes around a float for 24 hours. They weren't pushing anything yet, but were getting sprayed with paint and water and basically making as much noise as they could! 

Next, back the the Place Stanislas, where a protest was beginning to protect the rights of immigrants in France. France has always been known as "Terre d'asile", a country of refuge. The participants are hoping that the new Socialist government will be more human toward those just seeking to better their lives. Maybe we should just get rid of borders all together and just live like humans?

Nowrooz in Tadjikistan

I am in Duchanbé, Tadjikistan to cover the Nowrooz festival. Nowrooz was originally the Persian New Year. As the celebration preceeds Islam, it is forbidden in Iran today, although most people celebrate it privately at home. Nowrooz is probably the most important holiday in any country which was part of the Persian Empire, all the way to Kazakhstan. But the holiday has been often falls victim to politics. Nowrooz was illegal here during the Soviet Union.

However, there are a lot of Iranian journalists here because Akhmadinajad will arrive in a couple of days. But they aren't covering the festivities. On the 25th, they will celebrate International Nowrooz here in Dushanbe, with 600 foreigners from some 30 countries. Many heads of state will be here including from Afghanistan and Pakistan. We are trying to get interviews with all these important leaders.

Long trip

Much better place to stay this time.

Just arrived in Haiti from Yeosu, Korea via New York. But the trip went well and I got to sleep a night in New York. Weather in Korea was windy with temperatures just above zero. It actually snowed for the first time this year in the captial, Seoul. New York's weather was beautiful. Would have loved to go to the city, but just had a few hours to sleep and back to the airport. This is the best time of year to visit Haiti. It is 30 degrees C with a light wind and white puffy clouds. We are here to do a story with the Red Cross. I will have more on that later.

Two years after the horrible earthquake. I haven't seen much yet, but the airport is looking much better. The parking lot where we slept two years ago, is full of cars. The tarmac is empty compared to two years ago when it was filled with aid boxes, big C-130 planes, soldiers and aid workers, not to mention journalists. The accomodations are better this time, staying at the Red Cross base camp on the other side of the road from the airport.

I wonder who my neighbors are?

I have been here to cover elections and filming in the city was dangerous because of a high crime rate. During the earthquake, though, I felt we could go anywhere, even places off limits before. People were more concerned with finding food and water than with a foreigner with a camera. I asked the driver how things were now. "It's dangerous again," he chuckled. In some sense, I guess that is progress.

Preparing the Fantastic

The site of "The Living Ocean and Coast" Expo 2012

We came to Yeosu on Korea's southern coast to film the preparations for World Expo 2012. It is still work-in-progress, but this 3 km2 site will be full of imagination and discovery. From Beluga whales to high tech laser, water and pyro shows to the largest pipe organ in the world, Expo 2012 will probably surprise even the most blasé.

2012 marks the end of the commitment period of the Kyoto Protocal and the 10th anniversary of the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development. The theme of the ocean and coast, man living with the ocean underlines the importance of respecting nature. The ocean is 71% of the earth's surface and 40% of the world's population lives on the coast or within 60km of the shore.

Nam Jae Heon and his Big O under construction.

The Big O with be a central attraction. It is an engineering feat combining the latest in pyro, laser and water technologies. A Californian company is putting in the entertainment side of the O and says there will be nothing like this anywhere else in the world. Mr. Nam, head of the Big O project says it is a delicate project. "The Big O is floating and we have to take into consideration a tide change of 11 metres and we have to think of the effects of bad weather," explains Mr. Nam.

So far 106 countries will be participating. We went to see the USA pavillion which will be huge. Philippe Cousteau will be the official US representative to the Expo. General World Expos happen every five years. In between, there are World Expos based on themes. Expo 2012 will be in Yeosu, Korea from May 12th to August 12, 2012.

Sunset over the hills and islands in Yeosu, Korea

Yeosu is a city of almost 300,000 people in the south of Korea. Fishing is maybe a traditional occupation, but the city is now a major port and the site of an amazingly huge area of large factories that light up at night with the same colour lamps making it look like a stary night on earth.

The city is gearing up for some 8 million visitors, mostly from Asia. I have often been to Korea and can only say it is a great place, so you can visit the Expo 2012 and take time to see the rest of this fantastic country. You can see our report on www.euronews.net/focus during the week of 19 December.