Tô: It's What's for Dinner.

Hello, Dear Readers! I am on a sort of vacation at the moment, in Burkina's capital city of Ouagadougou. My fellow trainees and I have been living it up for the past couple nights, as Ouaga has dozens of amazing restaurants: yesterday I had a hamburger, fries, and beer for dinner, and the night before that a group of us dined like royalty at a real Italian restaurant, gnoshing on gourmet pizzas (mine was goat cheese with capers and olives) and ice cream and sorbet. I also received my site assignment for when I finish training this summer... I will be moving out to a small village in the the south-east of the country, where I will then go about my work empowering the women and whatnot. This area is very near country borders with Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Niger - so the eventual vacations should prove interesting - and only several hours of bush taxi rides (don't even ask) from Ouaga for the occasional feast. Still, once I leave this city, I will need to get used to my usual diet here all over again, which for over the past month and a half has been spaghetti, beans... and tô. What is tô, you ask? Well, it's a little hard to explain, but the closest I can come to describing it is a hardened pudding made from millet (or occasionally corn). It's nigh tasteless, but it is The favorite national dish. Seriously, the Burkinabé love it. As for me, and the other Americans here, it's really hard to stomach, but we try to eat what we can of it and smile when it is offered to us -- which is all too often.

About a week ago, I wrote an article about tô for the Peace Corps trainee newsletter, Mana Wana, Nassara? (Mooré for "What's Up, Whitey?"), in the vein of my favorite satirical news source, The Onion. Although I don't think our training staff was that crazy about it, it got a pretty good response from the other trainees, so now I pass it onto you for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

WEST AFRICAN FOOD CHAIN DESTROYING AMERICAN CULTURE

The popular Burkina Faso restaurant chain McTô has recently expanded its global empire to the United States, opening new locations in several large cities. McTô, a leader in the West African food industries, emphasizes a fast and affordable menu; the most popular item on it being tô, a staple diet of many Burkinabé. In the last few years, the McTô corporation has been plagued with accusations of price gouging and monopolistic practices, but this has not prevented its growth in international markets. Already, McTô's influence can be seen in several American cities, such as New York, where lines of customers stretched for several blocks outside of the ( different restaurant locations, waiting for them to open. Burkinabé cuisine has found an eager consumer in the American youth population... but at what cost? Formal, nutritional foods, such as hamburgers, french fries, and Coca-Cola, are being neglected, in favor of mass-produced foods like tô and bissap*. The new trend appears to be wreaking havoc on the long-honored American family structure, and is not stopping at merely changing dietary habits: traditional, cultural American clothing such as jeans and thongs are being tossed aside, as teenagers instead embrace the pagne and the boubou. Groups of concerned older Americans are clamoring for the government to intervene, but when asked to comment, President Bush merely replied, "Laafi."**


* Bissap is another culinary product of Burkina Faso, and - unlike tô - is quite delicious to Americans. It's a drink made from hibiscus leaves, water, and lots of sugar. Think along the lines of fruit punch.

** Mooré, meaning "There is health," or "It's all good."