So today I took a bus into Ouaga for a two-day meeting. Normally this is a fairly smooth trip- about 5 hours on a paved highway. I can get on the bus by standing on the road in the middle of my village and get off in the same neighborhood as our Peace Corps house in Ouaga. Today, about an hour or so into the ride, the bus stopped to let on a gendarme (beefed up police officer who wears a beret). I was sitting in the row behind the side door through which he entered, and noticed there was someone with him. The man started to sit down in the row across from me next to a woman with a baby when the gendarme directed him to the seat behind me. As he passed I noticed the man was wearing handcuffs and was apparently being escorted to another town with the police officer. There are motorcycles and cars for the gendarmerie here, but I guess sometimes convicts get to ride public transportation too.