Appearance VS Health

It is already December and Christmas is very soon !

December 8th was TABASKI, the most important day (holiday) for Islam like Christmas for Christians. Bobo is very islamic city and even Christans celebrate the day with them.

Each family sacrifices a sheep (if they are capable to get one) or a chicken and shares with the family members and relatives with recalling this year and wishing a better year for the next year.

I celebrated the day with a friend (from Uruguay) at my neighbor's house with having a meal and dancing with the family's kids and their friends who came for visit. (Usually girls stay at home to prepare food and entertain visitors.)

Besides, December 11th was Burkina's Independence day. At each city, there were parades or some events although I stayed at home to take a rest.

A part from that, while it is the cold period (winter) in Japan, Europe and North America, Burkina is now in very middle of dry season.

During the day, it is still 35-40 degrees while at night and early morning, it's about 20, which is very comfortable.

Since 2 months, no rain and harmattan (seasonal wind) blows sand and dust everywhere in the city.

What I always needed when I went out with my bike were...

1.　Straw hat to protect from sunburn

2.　(Sun)glasses to protect from sunshine and some dust

I must already look pretty strange with these two items.

But now, in addition to them,

3.　Mask to protect from sand and dust

As a result...

If I go out like this in Japan, police must stop me to ask some questions...

Of course I don't want to meet my friends when I'm biking like this !

But, with this look, less people scream at me "Chinese!" or "White!". I don't always like to be called in such way so I am happier:)

However, when I told this to a friend, she said to me "that's because you look so scary and they don't want to talk to you"...

Shocked....

Well, she is very right.

See, I show a huge smile under this full cover but who can recognize it ?

Anyway, my health is more important than my look !

The sand and dust is seriously terrible. We never know how many bacteria are in that!

Many Burkinabe put "eye"mask that we can get on the plane on their mouth.