Burkina Faso

Until recently, the West African nation of Burkina Faso has not been in the news much, but its appearance has brought to my attention the name of its capital, which has been showing up in datelines as "Ouagadougou". This looks rather odd to English-speakers, and probably is quite confusing to people with no knowledge of French; if the territory that is now Burkina Faso had been colonized by the English, its capital would presumably be the somewhat more transparent "Wagadugu".

And this morning, when the daily article on the situation there appeared on the page of my morning paper, I said, quite spontaneously, "What's doing in Ouagadougou today?", which struck me after the fact as rather felicitous.