Brakina

… Is a Burkinabé beer produced near Bobo. The same company produces the local bottled water, Lafi. Lafi is pretty much my best friend, since apparently drinking the tap water would almost certainly make me sick. The main bummer with that is the fact that I can’t eat any raw fruits and vegetables if I don’t wash them myself … Which pretty much means that salads and raw veggies are off limits (given that I’m eating in restaurants, see previous pictures of the villa kitchen). 

Also, speaking of beer, I found this on my front “lawn”: 

It’s also funny, because beer and soda (Coke, Fanta) are kind of the social drinks here. Since I don’t like beer,  that leaves soda. So while living in France kicked my soda habit, living in Burkina is probably going to bring it back. Who’d have thought.

Last night I went to my first maquis, which is a bar/restaurant/dancing-on-the-weekend place. I had my first grilled chicken (with some sort of sauce that was delicious). It was really, really good. They also played lots of music that kind of sounded like French bachata, which I was then told is music from the Antilles (so I guess I wasn’t too far off). Some of the music is also a style known as “zouk” and there was also music from Mali.