SIAO is here!!

Before we moved to Burkina Faso one of the things we were greatly looking forward to doing was going to SIAO (Le Salon International de L Artisanat de Ouagadougou) in October. SIAO is one of the largest and most important art trade shows on the African continent held every other year. And it takes place in the city that we live in.....what are the odds?! So awesome!

Vendors come from all over the continent for ten days to sell their art and it is a huge boost for the economy in this very struggling country. 

You can pay for two different admittance. One ticket will get you into the "air conditioned" buildings, and the other ticket will let you walk through the artisans set up outside.

It really is just like an American fair, like Arts in the Heart of Augusta that we would go to in GA every year. Or any other one in any other city in the states. There is food, and vendors, and music, and people. The only difference is that they are all African here. Selling African food and African art with African music. Otherwise completely the same. :~)

So we set out yesterday to experience the grandness that is this fair, leaving the kids at a friends house and headed out with a group of friends to shop for a few hours.

 

Isaak enjoying some refreshment. It's called Fandango. And it comes in a bag. So gross. The ingredients are literally water. And sugar. It's like adding a pixy stick to water and drinking it. But dude they are so cheap, about $.25, and in 100 degrees even cold sugar water is refreshing (except for me, I did not drink that. I have no desire of becoming a diabetic).

Our group stopping to drink some freshly squeezed pineapple juice. The thing with glass bottles on this continent, is that regardless of whether you buy a drink in a glass bottle, you can not just walk away and keep that bottle. You must drink it there and give it back. Your money only covers the cost of the fluid actually inside. Because they reuse your glass bottle for the next customer. Everything is recycled here!

Me and a gal from Ghana. We stopped by her booth to buy some clothes. I picked up a really cute skirt and dress and Isaak got two shirts (one of them seen here, so very African of him!) Obviously there are no dressing rooms to try on the clothes so they just took the dress I was looking at and all of a sudden my arms were in the air and two ladies were pulling that thing down over my head on top of my clothes! Ha ha! She was so tickled that we bought clothes from her she asked for a picture.

Some of the stuff was....very different. A very wide range of styles, as seen in the chairs with the people feet. African's like some different stuff. I, personally, would not buy a chair with weird people legs, but hey, kudos on creativity!

Most of the stuff was really cool though. Tons of masks, and sculptures, and jewelry, fabrics and clothes, art work, all kinds of nick knacks, baskets, and furniture. I picked up some kid sized purse/backpacks from Madagascar, a change purse from Togo, some Touareg earrings from Mali, and some clothes from Ghana. Shopping success!

We stayed for three hours and only saw half of what was there. By the time we left the concerts were starting and a lot more people were starting to come in. It'd be fun to go back in the evening and experience it then...but at this point, I just want to go back again! Love that one of the first things we learned about this country after finding out we were moving here....we got to do! What a fun time.