Extreme Home Makeover: Aisha is in Burkina Faso Edition

I smell like gasoline.  Yes, you read that right…The smell of me is making me nauseous.  I washed, but the smell is still there.  I am sure that the people sitting in the internet café with me right now are wondering if someone just spilled gas when they went to the gas station.  Please let me explain…

I got some tables made so I can have counter space in my house.  Here the norm is that everything you buy, you must be prepared to haggle and discuss the price.  It is a fun sport, when you feel like doing it.  Last week I didn’t feel like it.  The guy who made my tables and is currently making my book shelves and I debated about the price for a good 20 minutes.  Finally, I asked him, will the furniture be varnish included in the price?  He told me no, but if I wanted to add the cost of the varnish and the oil to thin is out, I could feel free.  I decided against it and said just make the stuff and I will varnish it myself.  Why not?  I have done it before.  Here is where all of my troubles began.

So the other day I went to the market to buy some varnish and the person who took me to find it insisted that I get some sort of oil to thin it out.  My options were essence, or petrol.  I should look it up and find out what exactly essence is in English…but I am most certain it is gasoline…and well petrol, I don’t know…it is somewhere in the family.  I don’t know the difference between the two, but I decided on essence because the station was directly across the street from boutique where I bought the varnish.  Yep!  Just like gasoline is came out of the pump like when you go to the gas station.  Looks like it and smells like it…essence is gasoline. 

Continuing with the story…I mixed some essence  with the varnish in an empty tuna can and stirred it with my paint brush.  I think I added too much because well, heck, I didn’t know how much to add in the first place.  I just wanted to varnish the furniture!  As I smoothed the varnish and gasoline mixture all over my table and continued to inhale that nauseating smell, I thought…”hmm…if this is the table I am going to put my gas stove on, is this really prudent to douse the entire WOODEN table in GASOLINE?!  Probably not!”  Then I started thinking that maybe people cut it with oil so that the varnish will last longer and they can use it on more than one item.  I do recall when I was buying it that the guy told me not to get too much because I could make it thinner with some sort of oil.  After reflecting, I decided then to no longer use the gas mixture, well because in terms of infrastructure, I can’t quite think of the last fire station I have seen in all of Burkina…let alone in my small town.

I finally finished varnishing my two tables.  (One if for my stove and the other is for counter space.)  I used the entire liter of varnish and have none left for my two large shelves that will likely be delivered to my house this weekend.  I have to buy more varnish and on top of that, as I finished up the last table I noticed a nosey little fly decided to get stuck and die on my first table!  I guess the moral of the story is, just pay the extra cost for labor because at this point I have to buy more varnish, figure out how to get the fly off without smashing him into the varnish and I smell like gasoline!

Stay tuned for the next episode…