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Bobo Dioulasso

We took a bus from Ouagadougou to Bobo Dioulasso. Just about halfway, the bus stops for a ten minute break. The vendors hone in on the passengers like hawks, or perhaps the appropriate metaphor is leeches, since it was hard to shake them loose.

Midtown Bobo Dioulasso. Bob is the second biggest city in Burkina Faso. Although it has around a half million people, Bobo feels like a small town compared to Ouaga, which has quite buzz to it.

Just in case you need to make a call...

The streets of Bobo, not far from the Central Market. In The Hague, Herve is one of the most sought after hairdressers in town.

Bobo has a wonderful old mosque, constructed of mudbricks covered with a thin layer of smoothed over cement. The wooden sticks serve as both scaffolding for repairs and decoration.

Inside the Bobo mosque

Just across the street from the mosque is 'Old Bobo Dioulasso', a well preserved part of town that retains the character of the village that has been there for hundreds of years.

Here, in Old Bobo, a woman is making dolo -- traditional millet beer. The taste is something like cider.

Our guide was insistent on stressing how the traditions were maintained in the old village. Here is one of the 'fetishes' in Old Bobo, adjacent to a scrawl celebrating Real Madrid.

It's not all so attractive, however. Here, women and girls are washing clothes in a dirty stream, just in front of a pile of trash.

A little girl shucks corn in the old village.

Bobo Dioulasso is well known for high quality music. Because it is not far from Mali, ther is a distinct Malian influence. Here at Le Bois d'Ebene (Ebony Wood), we heard a fine 'fusion' band combining traditional and modern instruments

The guitar player looked like he might be at home playing in a country and western band

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