It’s hard to believe but we’re already more than half way through February!
We bring coffee out to our night guard every night, and every Monday the guard tells us he doesn’t like Monday. I remind him it’s almost Tuesday and then he reminds me how fast time goes. It’s true: I can hardly believe how fast time can go by. While I’m on the subject I’ll fill you in a little more on what I do with my time here.
I’ve been working on getting a ‘Petit-Garderie’ started for our toddlers here. It’s a time for us to colour, sing, read etc. Basically we’re trying to get them active in different ways than they usually are so we can build their language and motor skills. It’s progressed to something one of the Tantis and I work on every morning Tuesday through Saturday with them around 8:00 (not an exact time when you have 4 or 5 little ones to get going in the morning. But that’s perfectly fine!). A lot of mornings I’ll stick around after that and just cuddle the babies, play with them and chat with them. Some of the littler ones are starting to pull themselves up and learning to walk which is really exciting for me to see! Recently I’ve been working (alongside some of the other staff members of course) with several of our little ones who are really behind. One of our toddlers who isn’t walking, and one of our babies who still struggles to hold his head up (he’s nine months old). We’re trying to focus on playing with them and loving them, but then working on building their muscles up. It’s a challenge, because the children don’t enjoy it however it’s rewarding when we see the team effort pay off. One of our little guys used to shriek whenever we tried to put him on his feet because he wasn’t used to exercising the muscles required to stand. After a lot of work (especially a lot of hard work put in by one of the Tantis!) he started smiling when we stand him up. The babies have lunch between 11 and 11:30 in the morning (it sounds early but they’re up in the morning by 6:00 so 11:00 for lunch isn’t so early). Often I help feed the ones that are old enough to eat solid food but struggle with not spilling half their food on the ground. Once everyone has eaten, been washed and had diapers changed the babies go down for nap and I head in for lunch and sieste. I usually don’t nap , but I do take sieste for some quiet time, journaling time, or just working on little things that I want to get done. If kids are around and not at school sometimes I just sit and chat with our kids during sieste. After sieste on a typical day I will go out and play with the babies some more until their dinner time (5:00). After dinner the babies go indoors and I usually head off to other activities. Mondays and Thursdays I read with our two CP1 students (first grade) around 4:00. Teaching styles are very different here and so even though both of the students are repeating first grade they can’t write their name or recognize simple words. We’ve been working on recognizing little words like LA LE JE TU etc. I then read them short stories and stop whenever a word comes up that we’ve worked on, and have them read that word to me. Tuesday and Friday evenings I read with one, if not more, of our primary school boys. We go through their French textbook, I have them read outloud and we work on making sure they understand what their reading. A big problem in their classes is that kids can read very well phoenetically but have very little comprehension of what they’re reading. Monday mornings I teach English to one of our Tantis. The Tantis are the caregivers for the babies and toddlers (tanti translates to Auntie.). Since it’s her day off she and I have some time to sit down and work together. This week was our first class so I really just had an opportunity to find out where her English is at and figure out what we’ll be working on for future lessons so I can prepare future lessons in advance.I will also be teaching English to three of our students that don’t have English classes at school. English is a required subject starting at 6ieme here and continuing to Terminale. But three of our students are attending a local sewing school where it’s not a required subject. Since the girls are still eager to learn English I’m happy to work with them on it. Monday evenings is either Mooré class or English class with Adiara. Every other week we spend an hour teaching the other our language. Even just the little Mooré I’ve learned so far has been a huge help, being able to greet people in the street and ask them how they are. Tuesday night is prayer night. The kids have complete control over prayer night, it’s a peer lead night. I’ve only gone to a couple of nights but I certainly plan to go more. We’ve tried to get them to continue in Mooré when we come, but often they’ll switch at the last minute to French. I feel bad that they’re switching languages just for us, but it has given me a good taste of how the night works. They sing songs, someone gives a devotional, and then they all pray.
This past week in brief:
Tuesday was Tô day. Liz and I went out and had lunch with the kids. It was my second time eating Tô and I actually thought it was pretty good. Maybe I’m crazy? It’s not a flavour or texture I can ever imagine craving, but I didn’t struggle to eat it all, I thought it was just fine. This time the Tô was hot which made a big difference, since the first time I tried Tô it had gone cold. The kids showed us to twirl your fingers the right way so the stringy sauce doesn’t drip as much. The sauce has a lot of Okra in it which is what makes it so stringy I think. And it’s really hard to get the strings to stop – which made me a bit of a messy Tô eater. We could have opted to bring out spoons, but ‘This is Africa’ and we decided to do as everyone does and eat with our hand.
Thursday I celebrated my 19th birthday. The kids all wished me a happy birthday a few sang to me, and they even sang for me at our Valentine’s Day fete (they sang in English none the less!). Depending who I talked to I was either really old or really young. Some of the boys at the orphanage are actually older than me so they determined that they’re my older brothers. Some of the younger boys told me I was really old if I had 19 candles to blow out! On the 13th one of the boys told me it was his birthday so Liz and I sang for him immediately. Afterwards I turned to him and asked “C’est ton vrai vrai anniversaire?” (your real real birthday?) and he says “No. That was December.” I made him sing to me because my vrai vrai birthday was the day before, but inside I had to laugh. Lots of times here I have to clarify things by asking if it’s vrai vrai. A vrai vrai sibling or just a friend? To me there is a big difference but there isn’t always in Burkina.
Today we saw a little sprinkle of rain. It’s mid dry season so it’s not too common although it happens. The cooler temperature with the rain and wind made it really nice to sleep last night. I haven’t had trouble sleeping yet but it’s only been 30C at the hottest.
We’ve had a busy house with lots of visitors. We’ve welcomed 5 girls from France here for 2 week visit. They brought along with them something like 200kilos of books (or some other absurd number!) and they’re setting up a library for the school. I think it will be a great resource for the kids at the school as well as our kids who will also have access to it.
Yesterday night Liz and I were sitting outside enjoying the cool breeze when all of a sudden all the kids were yelling and running behind the dorms. I got up thinking ‘it has to be something important, these kids don’t yell about geckos or spiders or toads..i wonder what it could be.” A snake . He was maybe a foot long, red and yellow, and dead by the time I got there. Apparently those kind of snakes aren’t dangerous at all, and most people would tell you not to kill them (they obviously don’t live in our house). After the snake was disposed of most of the kids went back to studying. I noticed a few of the younger boys hadn’t left to go back and study, but were just sitting at the table with the older boy that had discovered the snake in the courtyard. I suggested one of the boys go study and he told me he was too scared to go study. When I told him it was just a little snake and not harmful he just shook his head and said he was scared. I thought he was just trying to get out studying until he shot a couple feet in the air when one of the other boys poked his foot with a stick. Turns out not everyone is a l’aise with all the critters around here. It sure makes me feel better about jumping when my foot catches the side of a toad at night instead of hitting all solid ground..
Prayer:
I mentioned a little while about a boy we’d helped seek medical care. Please continue to pray for him, he’s out of the woods but he continues to need medical attention. Please continue to pray for our children’s adoption cases. Pray that God’s will be put first and foremost in all of them, whatever point the child’s case is at. Several of our young children have returned home to their families in the past weeks. It can be sad to see the children leave but it’s a selfish kind of sad because the children should be with their families, and so at the same time I’m excited to see them head off. It takes time for both child and caregiver(s) to get used to each other, and for the child to get used to new surroundings and a new routine. Some families tend to really struggle with this transition time. Please pray for this time of transition. Liz and I will be travelling this weekend along with some others from Ouaga. I’m looking forward to the short trip and excited about the possibility of seeing some animals at Wildlife Park here in Burkina. Please pray for good health and safety while travelling.
Praise:Our water tower went up this week, and a lot of plumbing went down! This means we’re very close to being off the city water and using exclusively our well water, as well as having water in all areas of our courtyard. We’re so thankful for the work that has been done this week towards this. The children here remain healthy! For several weeks I have been aware that there was a possibility I may not have been able to participate in the OCC distributions after all. As it turns out it appears we didn’t go through proper channels to apply to work with the team to Burkina in March. The director here in Burkina informed us it was possible he would not accept us as a part of the team. After many failed attempts to contact him, Ruth finally did get in touch with him and fortunately he told us it would be no problem and Liz and I are welcome aboard the team. I’m extremely thankful to still have the opportunity to participate.

That's all for now. Bilfou!
God Bless