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My name is Nianga Thiam

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I am Senegalese, living in Burkina Faso

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I'm a restaurant owner. I was born here.

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After 1998 I started in a restaurant.

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After high school I got a degree in computer science.

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That's when I realized there aren't any Senegalese restaurants in Burkina Faso.

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So I decided to open my restaurant slowly.

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I started with 2 kg of rice from the thiéboudienne

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that we were preparing at home. I was reselling it.

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So that's how I started little by little.

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Today we have two restaurants.

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After high school, as I said before, I got a degree in computer science.

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My father's business went bankrupt.

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So it was then that I decided to go into the restaurant business.

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I needed to work.

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That's when I decided to start, little by little.

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That's when I decided to start, little by little.

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I prepared small portions

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I ran around everywhere looking for customers.

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I invited friends to my house to taste my dishes.

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They said it was good.

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So next we started up the restaurant.

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I had to hire couple of people to help prepare the meals

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We make Senegalese thiéboudienne and mafe

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which is peanut butter and tomato sauce

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and we make Arabic couscous, gumbo, salad, spaghetti, as well as tô,

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which we make in the evening, with gumbo sauce and sorrel sauce.

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That's in the evening.

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Dishes cost 700 francs (about $1.12)

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Except for tô, which costs 100 francs per ball (about 16¢)

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The customers say the restaurant is good, and it's clean.

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We received a food hygiene prize three times.

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It wasn't my dream to start a restaurant, I wanted to finish my studies.

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But after all, my life changed and I decided to do something else.

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I want to show people it's not just school

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that is the only path to success in life.

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Of course it helps us

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But if you have something else to do, you can do it

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Today we have more than 30 employees

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My family is very proud of me.

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It's really thanks to this that I have supported my brothers and sisters in their studies

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I have one brother who is an entrepreneur

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They are proud of me.