New Year in the Faso

Out with 2011, a complicated year for my humble patch of West Africa. In with 2012.

What does that mean for villagers? Excessive benedictions.

It is safe to say under most conditions in Burkina name-dropping God is not only possible, it is preferable. God is an active part of every conversation. I mean, the poor deity is attached to every other verb "giving," "helping," "curing," and "accompanying." It must be exhausting.

However, the New Year is the opportunity to come up with new, exciting and outrageous ways God can help the lives of your friends. New Year greetings usually begin with the standard "Happy New Year" and "I hope you are in good health!"

Then there are the personalized greetings. God might be curing a particular person with a particular illness, providing an ample harvest or granting a promotion.

The serious personalized greetings are sometimes followed by outrageous comical wishes (my favorite part). It might be a new motor cycle, a mercedes or that every dollar becomes a hundred dollar bill. There should be appropriate chuckling followed by the "wa-iee, wa-iee" or "aiee-yuh" sounds that are the Burkina equivalent of a verbal knee slapping.

This of course gives me great occasion to wish my PCV friends well in the most imaginative and ridiculous way possible. Among my wishes for my PCV friend Naeta were freedom from faux types, a unicorn,. a magical polar bear chariot, a world where equality is more than a buzz-word and a giraffe that lactates chocolate milk.

I can only wish you the same as you enter this New Year (maybe I'll add a semi-truck of glitter and a permanent personal entourage that coordinates with your outfit and strikes poses to punctuate your sentences). Happy New Year!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Airtel Burkina Faso.