lost in translation: ouagadougou

i loved Lost in Translation. bill murray's greatness aside, it does a good job of capturing the sense of displacement, boredom and loneliness of business travel in foreign countries.


everyday i go from hotel to office to fancy restaurant for lunch to office to hotel to fancy restaurant for dinner to hotel. go to bed but lie awake unable to sleep for most of the night. getup. begin previous day's routine all over again. Lost in Translation meets Groundhog's Day, that's my life.


this is my second trip to ouaga for work. the novelty of being here wore off towards the end of my first trip, so now i'm counting the days until i get back home. this place isn't beautiful or charming. there aren't touristy sites or big, fun markets. i manage to get around only because i have a driver and a copy of a Rough Guide to West Africa. i really miss having a Lonely Planet right now. the LP is hugely flawed and i think it's been getting progressively worse each year but it's a reliable source of information about weird and quirky places that tickle the writer's fancy as well as the must-see tourist attractions. you can tell a lot about the writers of the Lonely Planet from the random details they focus on and their idiosyncratic writing. not so much with the Rough Guide.