Evening June 15th

The sun is setting.
We have left 100 km of Burkina Faso behind us today. Just outside of the village of Rakaye we spy a well kept compound. Not surprisingly our request to camp is met with warm friendliness and we are quickly accepted into the house. A place is swept for the tent inside the courtyard and we are given small wooden stools on which to sit and relax while taking in the evening rountine.
Our host explains that he is a chauffeur and also has a house in Ouaga. This farm is one of the four he owns and the curious shy children chasing each other about are a few of his fourteen.
The sun is setting.
The senior wife is cooking over an open fire, the boys are hearding the three cows into their pen and the older boy is sent with the donkey cart to fetch water from the river. The younger children continue to skip around us teasing each other with fruits held high over the smallest ones head.
The sun is setting.
These are the beautiful moments of rural life we had experienced in Ghana and now here in Burkina Faso. The wonder of these moments cannot be explainined by overwhelming generousity alone: our host driving his motto to the borehole to fetch us the trés bon water to bathe, the large meal of T.Z. and spinach stew or storing our bikes safely away in the hut. It is an openness with life, a complete sharing of home. To watch the small baby being bathed by latern light in the doorway of the hut and comfortably sleep surrounded by strangers in a courtyard under the stars.
The sun has set.