Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso is the second-largest city in Burkina Faso, located in the southern part of the country, about a five-hour bus ride from Ouagadougou. It is not as hot as Ouaga and has lots of places to eat, dance and meet friends. It even has a small shop that sells ice cream! The primary ethnic group in Bobo is the Jula group, whose language is also called Jula. (There is also an ethnic group called Bobo, but they are a smaller group found outside of the city of Bobo.)

Peace Corps Burkina Faso has done their training in Bobo for the last few years, so new volunteers get to know the town fairly well. And like Ouahigouya (where I lived), Bobo is a regional gathering point. Several volunteers are located in remote villages in the southwestern part of the country, and it can take two full days of travel for them to get to Ouaga. So spending just one day traveling to Bobo for mail, money and shopping is a real treat.

Parts of Bobo, especially near the downtown market, can be crowded and busy, and one can often find a few tourists. Other parts of Bobo are more like neighborhoods, with local street vendors, a few taxis, and people going about their everyday business, like this scene below near the education training site.

Click on a thumbnail image to see the larger photo.

	<A sign for a familiar American beverage (in French!) stands by the road to the huge stadium built for the African Cup of Nations international soccer competition in 1998. August 2001
A typical greeting among friends is one of the most memorable images of life in Burkina Faso.> Summer 2001
	< At the Grand Marché, Habibata sells painted and carved calabash items that her family has made. June 2001
The train station in Bobo looks a bit eerie as night falls.> August 2001
	<A cow herder poses during the morning drive to ...somewhere (I never figured out where they went every day). August 2001
Children play treet soccer near Mr. Bady's tailor shop.> Summer 2001

Madame TOÉ stands with her granddaughter Rosa in their Bobo courtyard.

(There's another picture of Madame TOÉ spinning yarn on the Art page.)

July 2001

mango tree etc in Rosa's yd-basic.JPG (468876 bytes)

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