Monday 1st May – Friday 5th May

By Cornélia Ilboudo and Michele Correa

Our second bank holiday of the trip was a mixture of intense exercise and relaxation. In the morning, six of us decided to go for a scenic bike ride to the reservoir. Although, the bike ride was very, very long; the views more than made up for it.  After a quick lunch (by quick I mean 2 hours), we cycled – very slowly back to the APIL offices to watch some films (or sleep under the fans for three hours).

Notre deuxième weekend férie a été un mélange intense d’exercice et de détente. Dans la matinée six d’entre nous ont décidé de faire une promenade en vélo panoramique vers le réservoir. Bien que le trajet ait vélo ait été très long la vue était belle. Après le déjeuner, nous avons lentement migre vers APIL ou nous nous sommes repose en regardant des films.

The press officers got to spend three days at an apiculture conference, learning all about honey and bees. On the first day, the meeting was heavily focused on the legislation behind apiculture. As most of the law solely focuses on agriculture, the presenter showed how various parts of the law could be applied to apiculture and why this was important for honey producers.

Les agents de presse ont participé à une conférence sur l’Apiculture qui s’est déroulé pendant trois jours. Le premier jour à porte sur la législation concernant la filière et l’importance de la filière pour les producteurs. Le reste de l’équipe quant à lui est reste travailler au bureau.

But for the rest of the team, it was another day at the office. With Bruce gone, we now had an animal shaped hole in our hearts but then out of nowhere – Tom the chicken (named after the great Thomas Sankara) like a knight in shining armor came to our rescue. Unfortunately, those few hours of glory didn’t last long as he decided to poo on the floor. So, we’re currently looking for a new animal mascot, any species will do.

Day two of the apiculture conference and we still hadn’t seen any bees. Instead we observed the creation of a five-year plan about the future of apiculture, that involved improving the production and exploitation of honey, creating a more competitive market, increasing the accessibility for everyone to various resources, create favorable conditions so that honey and its derivatives can be harvested more easily, reinforce the government administration + economic independence of employees in the honey industry.

Le deuxième jour de la conférence sur l’apiculture il a été question de la mise en place du plan quinquennal de la filière pour les cinq prochaines années. Il s’agissait de créer un marché plus compétitif et d’accroitre l’accessibilité aux ressources.

However, the rest of the team started to paint the shop. What started as plain yellow walls suddenly transitioned into beautiful red flowers, bees and moringa leaves. 

Le reste de l’équipe quant à lui a commencé à peindre la boutique de APIL. Celle-ci qui était en simples murs jaunes a été peinte donnant des fleurs rouges, des abeilles et des feuilles de Moringa.

Final day of the Apiculture conference and still the bees had alluded us. Instead the session involved seeing the five-year plan being reviewed and discussed.  Furthermore, a budget was created. Finally, to wrap up the day -   difficulties faced by people in the apiculture industry were discussed and then fed back to the minister.

Le dernier jour de la conférence sur l’Apiculture le plan quinquennal a été officiellement présente et un budget a été propose pour sa bonne réalisation. De plus les producteurs ont pu adresser leurs doléances au représentant du ministre de l’Agriculture qui était présent pour la clôture de la Conférence.

The end of the apiculture conference, meant that the press officers were finally able to join the painters. At this point, finishing touches were being added to the mural such as painting the bees, finishing the flowers and cleaning the inside of the shop. But the monumental task of painting the sign was still bearing over us.  This was a very nerve wracking time for all of us – will the sign fit? Was the logo at the right angle? Did it even look good? Luckily for us the sign looked amazing. So even though we had an exhausting week of staying late every day, it was all worth it when we saw how professional the shop looked.

La clôture de la conférence la veille a ainsi permis aux agents de la presse de rejoindre les autres membres de l’équipe pour la peinture. La boutique était presque terminée mais le panneau restait encore à être peint. Néanmoins le travail déjà abattu était déjà de qualité.