Dear Susan

Here's a letter I was planning to send my sister, but again for same reasons I'll post myself.

Dear Susan, 1 June 06

I want to tell you of my 1st concert going experience in Africa. It was a doozy. I heard about the conert from my villagers and how huge it was gonna be. The name of the artis is Alpha Blondie and is supposedly 2nd in importance in regga to Bob Marley, at least to the Africans. He's from the Ivory Coast and has been singing for the ast twenty or so years, but this the 1st time I've ever heard of him. Well, unbenownst to me about a 1/4 of the music that I've been hearing is by this dude.(kinda like the Bahamas, there is music blaring somewhere near you at all times).
Well, I had no real intention in going until my fellow volunteers had plans to go and do some work on the same project as me while in Ouaga, so I changed my mind.

The concert was on the 25th of May and we met up in Ouaga around 3pm and the went out to eat and meet some other local rasta friends, then go to the concert.
Our meal was pleasant to the fact our party was made up of 5 volunteers and 4 rasta friends we have met and known from previous outings.
We headed to the Stadium(soccer stadium) and arrived amidst chaos. Hawkers of tickets galore and veners of all wares waiting outside for our money. this scene wasn't too crazy becasue most everyone had a place to go , inside the stadium. Thankfully, instead of cars, there were thousands of motorbikes and scooters coverig the area surrounding the stadium.
Ticket prices varied from 1,000cfa(~$1.80) 5,000cfa(~$9.00), to 10,000cfa($18.00). we decided to stay native and paid for the cheap seats. The difference in placement went from the stands, the stands with seats, and sitting in the soccer field next to the stage. Obviously the majority of Africans paid as we did and most of the people sitting on the grass next to the stage paid $18 to sit next to a white person. I thik our group, beside on other white dude we saw, wre the only Nasar's not sitting in the grass field. I would have liked to touch the grass of the field just once, but I didn't want to pay 10,000cfa to do it. In relative currency, 1,000cfa could be thought of as $10, 5,000cfa as $50 dollars and thus 10,000cfa as $100.
Anyhoo, there was 30,000 people in the stands when the 1st act came on at ~8pm. a succession of about 10 local artists came on and off for the following two hours, playing their most popular songs and quickly departing. The stage placement was off centered towards on goal. Facing the opposite mjoriey of the cement built stadium. This wuld have been fine if they had more than once set of speakers. and maybe a video screen to watch. The police force was very evident in their presence showing their force in #'s and attitude. They controlled all doorways and stood gaurd along the running track surrounding the soccer field.
The field was maybe a 1/4 full, the entire concert, so the was about 50 yards of empty space between the people in the stands and people on the field and stage. The 4 main speakers were all near the stage, so from where we were sitting , we could carry on a decent conversation without raising our voices. The local artists recongnizing the vast space between them and the majority of their fans would make an Olympic style victory lap around the stadium during their one or two song program, pretty much forgetting that their wireless microphones didn't work that far from the stage. Nonetheless, it kept the crowd interested and was a nice gesture.
Alpha Blondie finally came on a little after 10 pm and played until about 1130pm. He had an actual horn section and everything. His band rocked.
The thing that was really cool about the concert, was the crowd. Yep, there was plenty of weed being smoked, and nope not by me. I loved watching 30,000 people dancing to abandon. It was cool and nothing like the reserved concerts of the U.S. Everyone, except my of course, knew all the songs and sang them right along with him, that was fun too.
The stuff that sucked was the door gaurds. Me and kelly got up to find a restroom outdoors, but they wouldn't let us leave the stands. No one was allwed to leave until the concert was over. Nice theory for crowd control, right? OMG! So waht do think people did. The all pee'd on the stairs next to the exit dors. Right there, next to the gaurds, in open view. Needless ot , I held it to the end. However, whenevert the mass exodus began, almost everyone slipped and slid on all the piss covering the stairs of the exit. I was so mad. O was cussing in English at the ridiculous idea oforcing people to do that. Ugh. Sometimes Burkinabe's can be too much. 30,000 people's piss covering the exit flooring of all the exit stairs of the stadium. What if there'd been a fire? Utter fools.
Anyhoo, the slip and slide exiting was just the beginning of the fun we were about to face on trying to leave at the same time as all the other Africans. All I can say that it was most literal use of cluster-fuck I have ever seen. Envision 20 or so thousand scooters, cars and taxi's all leaving at the same time w/o any traffic control. I was climbing over scooters while people were riding them just to walk away from the stadium.
The crush of the crowd excerbated the chaos as there were no sidewalks. I kep all my valuble in one pocket WITH MY HAND IN THAT POCKET to fend off pick-pockets. That didn't deter them at all. I had one person, durig a particular crush of the crowd, try to dig AROUND my hand to get in my pocket. Needless to say I didn't take kindly to that so I ended up shoving about 4 people away from to gt him out of my pocket, yelling at the same time, "Pas me touchez!" (Don't touch me). That was undrestood and someong yelled "Voleur"(thief) and one of the shovee's scrambled away. Thankfully, the crowd thinned out and we found a blessedly cheap taxi ride back to our hostel.
To be caught as a thief in this clture can be life threatening to the thief. It's a serious offense and the locas take it personally. Sometimes, chasing the offender down and beating them to death. Many times an accused thief will run directly for the police station just for protection from the angry mob following him.
The reason I didn't yell, "Voleur" was because I'm white and the race relation would have made me seem racist. Anyway, nothing of mine or my friends were stolen that night. What a night and what a letter, but I wanted to give you the best impression of the concert and events I could.

hope you enjoyed it.
Take care.
L