FASO PARC

Who would have thought there is an amusement park in Burkina Faso? I
definitely didn’t, so when we heard about faso parc, of course we had
to go and see if for ourselves. There are only 5 kids left at the
orphanage for the summer and not much to do in Yako, so we decided to
take the kids on a day trip to Ouaga. The plan was to leave early that
morning in the pickup truck, spend the day at Faso Parc, get lunch
from a restaurant in Ouaga, and head home. But nothing in Africa goes
as planned. By 8:30am everyone was loaded in the truck and wearing
their nice clothes. I’m not sure if my favorite outfit was Achielle’s
with his nice sneakers, scarf, baseball cap, and murse or Biba’s with
her clip-on plastic earrings, fancy dress, and dora the explorer
clutch purse. Anyways, so we were all waiting in the truck, super
excited, looking like divas, and the truck won’t start. After about 5
minutes, they decide to call the mechanic and we all get out.
Apparently someone had just bumped something because when our driver
got back in it started right away. It was a little later than we had
planned, but we were on our way!
First, our driver took us to the national forest, which is not where
we told him to go. Then, when we finally did make it to Faso Park, we
were told the place had been rented out so we had to wait until 3. It
was only about 11 then we decided to go back to the National forest
instead. There was a zoo there that a tour guide took us through and
we learned lots of interesting things. For example, apparently if you
feed wild animals cooked meat they become tame, so the zoo cooks the
animals food and serves it with rice. Also, the reason tortoises live
to be 150 years old is because they’re vegetarians. So Kenzie, I guess
you’re going to be pretty old. I’m no animal expert, but I must admit
that I was a bit skeptical.
The tour only lasted about 30 minutes so we decided to go back to Faso
Parc and try again, but now it was closed for sieste. They told us we
could come back after sieste and by this time we decided we might as
well wait. So we found a good Burkinabe restaurant, ate some rice, and
went back yet again to Faso Parc. Time works different here, so when
they said it opens at 3 that meant the workers will start to get here
around 3:15. But, eventually we made it in. The rides were like rides
at a carnival and about half of them worked. But they did have working
bumper cars, go kart-ish things, trampolines, paddle boats, and a
carousel and the kids had a great time. We had to leave by 4 to be
home in time for dinner but we had a fun 45 minutes.
I think I’ll wait until I’m home before trying to go to an amusement park again.