Meme une tortue peut se fatiguer de manger de la tarte aux mouches...

Roughly half of the TV I watch here is music videos. There are three (sometimes four) working channels on my host family's TV, and at any given time it's a fairly safe bet that at least one is devoting itself to music. Given the repetitive nature of most of these videos (the same songs are played every day), other shows have priority. When one of Alima's soap operas is on, we watch that. Unless there's a documentary or movie on that I was caught showing interest in; then we watch that... unless there's a soccer game on. Soccer is the top of the chain.

When the higher-priority programming is unavailable, music videos are the alternative to turning the TV off for a little while.

As someone who knows less about music than the average person, the main differences I've noted between American and Burkinabe music videos are that
1. There is more dancing in Burkinabe music videos
2. Songs are more likely to have a social or political message. I'm not quite sure how to clarify what I mean by this. I suppose through examples: the first time I watched some of these videos, back when I didn't understand any French, I was informed that one song was about war (I had gathered this from the video). The next song, I was told, was about rampant inflation. The next song was about worries the songwriter had concerning today's youth. Then there were a million songs in a row about love, just like in the United States, but that doesn't support what I'm trying to say, so I almost left that fact out... almost.

It's interesting to note that these two general ways in which Burkinabe music videos differ from what I'm used to - the dancing and the message - are often mixed with each other in ways that one might not have expected. The song about the urgent need for a better school system, for instance, is likely to have several close-ups of women waving their butts at the camera. Why not?

Invariably, I've identified some songs as my favorites. Here's my most favoritest Burkinabe song ever ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdPsJw5DVJA&feature=related . With the exception of dripping water, this song is pretty much the best thing ever. And the video has both. Suppose there were more than one dimension of time. Then this video would be the best thing in either ever. Or in ever times ever. Ever.

In case you didn't guess this, the purpose of my exaggerating about how much I like the song is to get you watch the video. Take a moment. Take, rather, 249 second-sized moments. Watch it.

The streets you see in the video are similar to the streets I live on and walk around on. So, thanks to this video, I'm no longer obligated to take and show you pictures.

The video isn't typical of what I see when I watch music videos here. This style of music doesn't really encourage the kind up-beat dancing that many Burkinabe music videos exhibit. But the singer, Victor Deme, is Burkinabe. I believe he's from Bobo (west of Ouagadougou). The song is in Jula, which is spoken by lots of people in western Burkina Faso, and also, it just so happens, my host family.

I don't understand the words either. In Jula, I can only understand and say the phrase for "I am drinking water." Incidentally, you might find it interesting, or perhaps simply obvious, to note that when learning a language by being forced to use it in order to communicate, basic necessities are the first things learned. Words like food, water, home, eat, drink, and sleep.