Delighted and honored by a visit from Mrs. Le Maire Rainatou Ouedraogo from Ouagadougou’s 3^rd District – which includes Rimkieta – and the delegation of 5 advisors who came with her, I want to share it with you in this new post….

We at FAR want to be a simple organization, concentrated on our work in Rimkieta, on our women and children, without losing our focus and low profile.  But there are some things that not only cannot be avoided, but rather they fill us with pride.

For instance, that the mayor of Rimkieta’s district responded to our request to see her regarding some issues we have pending with town hall by calling us personally to say that she would certainly receive us, but proposed coming to visit us in Rimkieta.

The visit was relaxed and natural, without any fuss about protocol.  So much so that the mayor tried to take advantage of the opportunity to “marry off” our “petite María” (as María Bacardit is affectionately known around here), to one of the counselors she brought with her!

The mayor and her 5 council members, among them the presidents of the “Commission d’Affaires Générales, Sociales et Culturelles,” and the “Commission d’Amenagement Territorial,” were very interested in how we manage projects, and were pleasantly surprised by the organization, order, cleanliness, seriousness and management of things, which they deemed “inhabituel et rare.”

As we are in the month of Ramadan, only the Mayor, who – like her counselors – is Muslim, was brave enough to go into the kitchen to chat with Leonie, Odette and Mariette, who were preparing “riz grass,” a sort of Burkinabé paella (if Valencians will permit me the analogy).  It’s Monday’s fare for the girls and boys and the FAR staff.  It’s only fair to say that the others did make the gesture of going in, but they got right out of there, as the wonderful smell coming from the stove was pretty hard to bear in the middle of a fast…

At the end of the visit, not before discussing the issues at hand – in particular our petition for plots of land in Zongo for the second Maternelle we are so excited about being able to start – I gave the mayor a small token by which to remember the visit: a bronze figurine of a working woman holding a child – symbol of FAR.

We are aware that our district is burdened with a long history of misuse of land.  Because of this, unfortunately, the department that manages the granting of land plots is at a standstill, to say the least.  It doesn’t even really exist, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get up and running in the short term.  But I’m certain that they were delighted with our work at FAR in Rimkieta, and they will grant us the land just as soon as they can.

We send our most heartfelt thanks to Mrs. le Maire and her councilmen, for their time and their supportive words and encouragement.  We hope the next visit will be in the future Maternelle in Zongo, for its inauguration!