A little from Ouagadougou and Kongoussi

above: One day we stopped recognizing the bus didn't have enough gas to get us to the next village and back. So went the van out to get gas for the bus and we all unloaded the bus. When we all got of the bus we played with the village children, tossing around tennis balls. I tried to take a picture with two little boys and voila! I didn't really mind though it was funny!

Above: heading home with shoeboxes

Below: opening shoeboxes

Above/Below: these ones pretty much explain themselves, but the little ones getting their boxes..

Above: singing with the kids
Below: girls reading their booklets before receiving boxes

Above: children coming to one of the distributions (it's more correct to say they were running to the distribution!)

When I last wrote, it was Saturday morning in Ouagadougou. I’ll try to quickly summarize my remaining time in Ouaga because quite simply it was an adventure. Then I’ll update you in my time in Kongoussi.
Saturday afternoon, according to plan, we went to see the FESPACO closing ceremonies. Etienne (one of the boys from SW who is attending university in Ouaga) went with us for lunch and then to the ceremonies. Etienne’s excitement was contagious; it was his first time ever being in a stadium let alone being to the FESPACO closing ceremonies. When our taxi pulled up he kept saying ‘this is my first time! This is my first time at the stadium!” The closing ceremonies were full of dancing, singing, people dancing on stilts and even French Firefighters doing acrobatics. It was quite the show. The actual awards part was a little slow, and since the speaker on our side of the stadium was cutting in and out it was hard to know what was going on. We left a little bit early in the hopes of being able to catch a taxi, but with so many people at the stadium it took a while before we managed to get a taxi (we actually walked a ways away from the stadium to another intersection to hail a taxi there..)Since we had plans to go to the 8:00 movie and it was nearing 7:00 we knew our time would be rushed getting back to the guesthouse and then to the theatre but we figured we could make it work. That was before we saw what the traffic was like with all the roadblocks in town! At one point our taxi went off roading of sorts (in the pitch black with oncoming traffic because everyone wanted to go the same way) with the hopes of avoiding a roadblock...Only to come out on the other side at another roadblock! So our trip took us a little longer than we expected, and we didn’t make it back our guesthouse before the movie. Instead we got out of the one taxi on the Charles de Gaulle and hailed another taxi in the opposite direction. After picking up Liz and I our driver stopped to pick up 5 more passengers. It meant I had Liz on my lap, there was a man on my right with a man on his lap plus one more person in the back seat and two more in the passenger seat! It was a tight squeeze but it was fine. We chatted with the men, who were all students at the University and so were happy to practice a little English with us. The film we saw was the winner of all of FESPACO. Unfortunately we were a little late so I never actually caught the name; but it was a very funny, sweet film. Sunday morning Liz and I went to an English speaking church started by some the missionaries here in Ouaga. (Most of the missionaries still attend the local churches but attend this church in addition). I was refreshing to know the worship songs (and even understand them!) as often at our church the songs are in Mooré. It was also simply less tiring hearing the message in my native tongue. (Hopefully that makes sense to you...It is simply sometimes just work to listen to the message being translated from Mooré to French and then to think about it and make sure I understood everything before the next round of translation comes round, or to try and fill in gaps if our translator gets cut off by an excited pastor..)
Soon as we were back at the guesthouse from church we packed up our things and left for the bus gare We left the guesthouse at 12:40, for the 2:00 bus. At the time we thought we were cutting things a little close as often the bus arrives ½ hour early to start loading. Fortunately we found a taxi quickly and made it to the gare not long after 1:00. We bought tickets and settled in to wait. Shortly after 3:00 our bus pulled into the gare! It was a long wait for a very late bus, since there isn’t a system in place to inform anyone as to which bus is going where when it arrives, so everyone flocks to bus and tries to get on. Liz and I ask a minimum of 2 staff persons and 4 other people before deciding whether or not we will get on the bus or continue waiting. In order to do this we have to pick up all our bags an prepare to get ont he bus, get in the group of people pushing to get on, and wait. Usually word gets around eventually as to what bus it is and after asking enough people we would get the right information. However more thanonce we were told be several people to get on the wrong bus, and were fortunately saved by someone else- or else we would have ended up who knows where. After asking enough people for the Kongoussi bus everyone at the bus gare knew which bus we were waiting for, but we couldn’t help it since we didn’t want to miss our bus! And since they all did know it worked in our favour because when our bus did eventually arrive several people let us know and the staff members came over and helped us get our bags on the bus and get seats. When we arrived in Kongoussi we hopped off the bus and started walking. Once we got a little ways from the bus gare, we started asking after Hotel du Lac, and people started pointing. We found the hotel no problem, thanks to directions from many people and one kind stranger who offered to walk with us and show us part of the way. For the week with Samaritan’s purse Liz and I were fortunate to join with TeamUSA, Joseph & his wife Kristy (Joseph directs Samaritan’s purse here in Burkina) and the Samaritan’s Purse National team. I knew my week with Samaritan’s Purse was a privilege but until I joined up with the team I was unaware how much of a privilege it was. Since Samaritan’s Purse works by putting national teams in place it is rare for teams to come from North America to do distributions. When a team does come the team consists mostly of SP volunteers. So for me to be able to join up with an SP team in Burkina was a huge privilege! We did distributions with the team Monday through Friday. Each morning started with 6:00am bible study, followed by breakfast at the restaurant du Rond Point. After breakfast we would head off to the first distribution. Some days we only did two distributions, some we did three.
Here’s how a distribution works: The national team was involved in a lot of the set up that I wasn’t-they’re great. Sometimes they arrived at a distribution area a little earlier than we did and were hard at work setting those up and unloading the truck when we got out of the bus. They set up sound equipment and speakers to play music for the kids, and set up roped off areas to better facilitate handing out boxes. Then they would start to unload the boxes. (Keep in mind some distributions we saw 2000 kids, and each shipping box holds approximately 14 shoeboxes. They moved a lot of boxes!) We’d help to open the big cardboard boxes so they were ready when we needed them, otherwise for those minutes we hung out with kids, or danced along to the music.. Lots of times we would along and just shake hands with the kids that had come out. I still find it hard to believe, but everyone on the national team told us some of those kids will always remember shaking our hands... Soon as boxes were unloaded the kids would start to come into the roped off area where we did the distributions. When kids came into the roped off area, they would be lined up by gender and lead by a member of the national team. All of them would be carrying their ‘Le Plus Grand des Dons’ booklets (The Greatest Gift of All). These are booklets that tell bible stories with lots of pictures, and tell about the greatest gift of all: Jesus. The team told us the kids consider the booklets a huge gift in and of themselves. Someone from the national team would always get up and tell a story. The first distribution it was in French so I can tell you it was about obeying. However after that they were all done in Mooré so all I can tell you is the kids enjoyed the stories! After that the kids learned to sing a song “Il y a de l’espoir pour toi” (There is hope for you). The song talks about how no matter what you’re going through there is hope for you found in Christ. All the kids raise their arms in the air and sing along. Someone would always pray and then we would begin the distribution. The kids would bring us their Greatest Gift of All booklets and we would mark them. Since each child only receives one booklet, when we mark off their booklet we ensure they will only receive one shoebox. The first person would usually mark it off, the second would hand them the box. Sometimes we would have a third person to hand the box to the person that would then hand it to the child. Then we would direct the child to head out. It was simple but enjoyable. Most of the kids understood what was going on and would wait for their box, and take it when we held it out for them. But some of the kids didn’t seem to understand the gift was for them. We would hold the box out for them and they would look at us, even when we would say ‘It’s for you!” they would just look. Gently we would take their hands and wrap them around the box, smiling and telling them Jesus loved them. Some of the children would even walk right past us! We would call them back to make sure they didn’t run off without their gift! After all the children received their gifts I would go out and wander around a few minutes. At one of the distributions a parent stopped me just to say thank you because all the children, and parents were so happy because of the gifts they had received. Sometimes I would meet children that were opening boxes and that was always fun! I loved seeing what they had in their box. Onetime I tried to explain to a little boy what Spongebob is. ‘A sponge with square pants...’ he seemed confused but he liked his gift anyhow. Other children asked me to explain: a slinky, a ball with suction cups on it, toothpaste (different brand names than they have here), candy canes (they had no idea what to do with them!), Pez... Often times children opted not to open their boxes at the distribution and instead chose to wait until they got home. I am told this is because sometimes older children will take what they like (perhaps not at the distribution but on the walk home), and so unless a child comes with a group of friends or a parent their box is better left closed. This is not always the case but since it can be the national team often encouraged children not to open boxes unless they were with a parent. Often one parent would load up their bike or moto with boxes for a number of children and ride home, while the children walked. We also saw children from one village fill a donkey cart with their boxes for the walk home. Many of the girls would wrap their shoeboxes in pagnas and carry their boxes away on their heads. Out of all the ways the children got their boxes home, seeing them carry it away on their head was my favourite. It made me think ‘yes, this is Africa...’ (perhaps that’s completely silly, but it’s honest at least). Sometimes children would find letters in their box and so I would I would translate their letter. Most of the letters were easy to translate but I remember one that was hard. It was a Christmas card with a dog wearing a Christmas hat and inside it said “all decked out for Christmas.” I tried to translate it like “Wearing these nice clothes and Wishing you a Merry Christmas.” I have never seen so many blank stares in my life! I had already explained that the card was written as if the dog was talking, but I did so another few times and then explained that it was a joke because Dogs don’t really talk, and it was silly that he was wearing Christmas clothes. Then the children all thought it was hilarious! Many times letters included return addresses and so (thanks to someone from teamUSA for the idea) I would take a picture of the child with the letter, and then a picture of the address, so when I’m back in Canada I can mail the sender a picture of the child who received their box. I think it will be a fun project... Monday, Thursday and Friday night the team did evangelism follow up. We were invited to go along, and the Monday night we participated by doing a short skit. The Thursday night and Friday night when we showed up at the field in the village where we were to do the evangelism it was 1. Completely dark, 2. Empty! There was no one there. However in no time at all, with some lights and music set up people started appearing. And people continued to appear all evening as the movie (a story about Jesus’s life, in French but translated into Mooré also.) played on. Thursday evening we went from 0 – 1000 people! Friday night we didn’t get a number count, it was slightly smaller than the group Thursday but it was still a fabulous turnout. My favourite moment from the evangelism nights was standing in the middle of the group Friday night as everyone was watching the movie, and just turning round and round watching as person after person appeared. When I looked in the distance I could see dots of light coming closer and closer in many different directions. Each dot of light, became clearer as it grew nearer, and usually each of them was either a child with a flashlight on a bike, or several children walking with just one flashlight. Many times I could see several lights coming from the same direction, and then I’d turn my head and see another light appear in the opposite direction. There are so many stories from the week how can I can’t begin to put them all up. Instead hopefully a few pictures will give you a better idea of what the distributions were like. ..
And suddenly after braving 45C+, after getting a bus stuck in the sand, after handing 21 470 shoeboxes our time in Kongoussi and the surrounding villages was done. It was time to come home to Yako. And although I loved my time in Kongoussi, with the team and OCC I was happy to be back here too. I did miss the kids and was happy to give the toddlers some hugs!

Please pray for Jules the 10 month old that has been having severe weight struggles. For a while he looked as though he was improving on his food supplements but he has not improved and Tuesday of this week was hospitalized with Doctors Without Borders. He is very underweight 5.11kg (approx 11.24lbs). He has slowly been putting on weight, please pray he will continue to put on weight and grow to be a healthy and strong.

PIcture below: Jules

some jolie photos, and that good 'ol list

Above: A picture of the most common footwear for a football match. They're white rubber shoes, and atleast once a game a player will lose his shoe while making a big kick.
Below: Watering the field down before the final match of the league game.

I have tons of pictures of random children from Yako, and tons of cute pictures of kids from the orphanage. This little one was at one of the soccer games we went to. The kids love to have their picture taken, and love to see their picture. Even more they love seeing video of themselves- they're astonished by it.

Driving in Africa is a little different than driving back home. This picture (although a little blurry because I took it through the winshield) is a small example. Note the bus on the left is being repaired, while the bus on the right has pigs and motos strapped to the roof.

This is a picture of one of the roads we take often in Yako.

As promised here is my list of February Observations
-When all the lights are out and it’s just the moon and the stars you still have a shadow, you can see people clearly and your shadow is perfect (not like when there’s a bunch of lights on and you have a couple shadows.).It is hard to find the constellations because everything looks different, but it doesn’t matter because there are so many stars to look at anyways. -There are always tons of people hanging around the wells. - You can’t find any real dairy products anywhere. Yogurt and milk are made with powdered milk. -Celine Dion is extraordinarily popular here! -Glass windows don’t seem to exist, just metal shutters. -Tone of voice doesn’t translate well between languages. Sometimes I hear people talking in Mooré and think they’re angry when they’re not because their tone of voice is different. -What we view as culturally normal is different here in terms of how people touch. Couples for example don’t touch at all, even to hold hands (except perhaps in Ouagadougou. They don’t in Yako!). But people of the same gender hold hands, or hug all the time. Grown men will hold hands with each other or lean on each other’s shoulder as an expression of friendship. Although sometimes I still catch myself being a little surprised at this, I recognize that neither the way we do things in North America nor the way they do things here is right nor wrong, simply different. -Many women have fake hair. They keep their real hair short and then put elaborate extensions, braids or put on short wigs. -Women paint their nails, but only the nails on their left hand, because their right hand must be clean for eating. -There’s a sound you can make that means no, a sound for yes and a sound for bad. It’s hard to describe not really a tongue click more sucking air through your lips. Twice is no, once is yes. Blowing air out means something is no good. I struggled with this for a while, but I got the kids to help me and I think now I can make the right sounds. It’s kind of fun. But they told me it’s the ‘lazy’ talk, for when you just are too lazy to say no, you make the sound. -In Yako market day is every 3 days, but in Ouaga it’s everyday. -Everything is done with the right hand because it is the clean hand, but only the palm of the right hand matters apparently. You can shake hands with someone and touch your left hand to their right, so long as the palm of your left touches the back of their right hand- this way their hand is still clean. -I saw someone walking fast on the road one day and realized how out of place that was. Everyone walks at a leisurely pace here, and comments on how fast us Nasaras walk! -The stop signs say ‘STOP’ not ‘ARRET’ as you would expect them to say. -Women don’t speak openly about being pregnant, and are embarrassed if you ask them about it. -A normal handshake is not firm at all. In fact I have been told it is offensive to firmly shake the hand of someone more important than you. They say to never ever, shake the hand of a chef firmly! When you shake hands after shaking you snap your middle against their middle finger. -All the lighting is fluorescent. -Instead of knocking on the door people say ‘kock kock’ or clap a couple of times. I thought this was strange until I went out on home visits and realized a lot of people don’t have doors to knock on. -Locks in Burkina take 2 turns to lock and 2 to unlock. You can mistake it for being locked because it sounds like it locked, and maybe looks like it, but you have to turn the key around another time for it to lock. -A lot of people here have scars on their face. When I asked about it someone explained to me it’s a tribal marking. Each group has their own mark, and so that’s why I see so many different types of scars. The mark identifies you to your village and someone told me can even be used like an identity card for travelling to Cote d’Ivoire. The scars are made by cutting the skin (usually done when still a baby), and then putting hot ashes into the cut. I find it extraordinarily interesting to note the different markings and placement of markings. This was a cultural thing I was not aware of before to Burkina.

This is a video from the fete for the chef i went to back in January. It's a short clip but might give you a feel of the sights and sounds of the celebration. Enjoy

Many Blessings!

Brittany

turn at the lion...

An overview of the Past while:

Saturday the 28th was a long but fun day! Since it was the last Saturday of the month we did our widows distributions. I helped Jean and Winessa prepare the sacks of grain and load them into the truck. The bags are not light at all. I can pick it up and carry it to the truck, but Winessa can pick it up and carry it on her head. I don’t know the exact weight of the bags but i estimate they weigh about 70pounds (give or take). (I think each sack is really a third of a full sack, and a full sack is 100kg... anyways). I neglected to wear sunscreen, which turned out to be a big mistake. It’s not that I didn’t think about it- I did. But I hadn’t put on sunscreen in probably a couple weeks, so I wasn’t worried about it. But I spent a lot of time in direct sunlight and by the time I was back at the house I was bright red all over. After a quick rest, and the chance to get some of the dirt off my face before heading off to a soccer match. Our primary school boys invited us to their game and we were happy to go support them. The game was in sector 4, which you would think would be beside us (sec tor 3) but it’s on the other side of town. It was a good 45 minute walk at the hottest part of the day. By the time we got to the field I was ready to take a nap! I noticed, however, there was no shade to speak of at the field and so was more than a little disappointed... Fortunately the boys decided to warm up near a big tree a bit of a walk from the field, so I sat down for a little rest while they warmed up.As the game started we found a place to watch, and decided to sit down since we were so tired. I thin the heat must make me tiered faster, because it hadn’t been a particularly long day. But soon as we sat down the boys told us we needed back, we were too close to the field. So up we got, and moved back. Then just after sitting down, Achille, one of the boys came to find us, requesting we come sit down by the goal instead of on the sideline.Maybe it’s just me, but cheering by the goal seems to be very African. Or at least I don’t remember people doing it at home like they do here. Huge crowds will cheer by their teams goalie (I would think they’d want to be somewhere else to have a better view of the game, but it’s really the place to be apparently.) The level of skill at this game astonished me. Don’t get me wrong, everyone here can play. But these kids are young, and playing a fabulous game of soccer. When they would head the ball, they would direct it towards a team mate, they would trap the ball with a single foot in the air... I watched amazed. These kids were playing on a dirt field (note the picture above) in bare feet, but they didn’t mind. Our team won 2-0 and each time they scored a goal they would run back to our goal, doing cartwheels and cheering all the way. After the game a huge crowd of children went running through the field and down the street cheering & dancing to celebrate the victory.
Sunday March 1Church was a blast! I chose to sit with one our girls Yolande in the congregation as opposed to my regular seat facing the congregation. It was so much easier to follow along with the songs when she was singing moore loud right beside me. And when all the girls in the row were dancing I followed along and danced like them too. (I figured I could either stand there and look foolish, or dance and look foolish, and at least dancing is more fun! And then too I’m making an effort to do as they do.) In the afternoon the final for the church league soccer game was on. Our church was eliminated the week before, but we decided to go anyways. We knew a lot of our kids would be at the game, and we thought it would be good to be there. The game was a huge deal! There were tents and seats set up for some guests. Liz and I had a seat- which was nice because we got shade! There was on opening ceremony before the game where several people gave speeches, and prayed before the match. Thenthe game started. Before the ceremony started I watched them watering down the field. At first I thought it was kind of funny, but then realized it makes a lot sense. When you play on a dirt field a lot of dust gets stirred up, and so watering it down keeps the dust down. After the match we were invited to dinner at someone’s house. I don’t actually know whose house we ate at, but we had chicken and salad as well as drinks. I felt bad when I knocked over my Fanta, but then I realized no less than 3 Burkinabe had spilled their Fanta too, so I wasn’t so worried. On the walk home from l’Eglise Centrale we saw some street vendors cooking little dough cakes. We stopped and bought a couple and they were so good we bought a couple more from the next one we saw. Each one costs 5cfa (about 0.01$), and they’re served with Puma (a hot powdered spice), and salsa like mixture. We also sat down for a while with one of the street vendors while she grilled up some corn on the cob for us. They grill it without the husk, until the kernels are turning black and then serve it to wrapped in the husk again (50cfa). Delicious!
Tuesday I woke up not feeling well at all. Thus far I have evaded all sickness, but I knew it couldn’t last forever. Fortunately I wasn’t violently ill or anything, just tired, headachy and nauseous. I spent most of the day laying on the couch reading, or journaling. Adiara taught me how to make yogurt, which was fun, and surprisingly easy. Adiara is our new roommate. She’s tons of fun to live with, and she makes great meals. So far we’ve done a combination of us cooking American style food, and her cooking African dishes. She prepared Pommes Frites avec un Sauce aux Tomates (French Fries with tomato sauce- best lunch ever!) and Riz Sauce (rice with peanut sauce). We’ve introduced her to baguette pizza (baguette with vache qui rit, dipped in tomato sauce. It’s our version of pizza when we have limited ingredients.) and a couple other dishes.

Funny things from this week:Liz and I painted the entire baby play area- and for three days later had sore legs from all the up and down/ squatting and standing. However the play area looks great with a new coat of paint. I killed a cockroach. No big deal but I’d never seen one before. I was easy to kill once I trapped it, but hard to trap- those little guys are fast!
Joseph (one of the todders) likes to play this game where he squeezes my nose, and then I say a word. I’ll only talk when he squeezes my nose, and he loves it. Tinbnoma this week, reached up and squeezed my nose and I said something simple like “oui” then she signalled for me to squeeze her nose. She copied what I had said. We played the game for a good while, she copying all the words I’d give her, even attempting to say her own name! After a while she’d even attempt whole phrases like ca c’est un arbe.

Yesterday (Friday) we traveled into Ouagadougou. We’re here for FESPACO (an international film festival) and also just passing through on our way to Kongoussi. So far Ouaga has been an adventure in an of itself, let alone the film festival. Since we took the bus in yesterday morning, we took taxis around for the morning. At one point the taxis that picked us up really only had space for one more person, but picked up Liz and I, which meant I had to sit on Liz’s lap until someone else got out. We went to Marina Market, which sells American food. There we were able to buy cheese, crackers, pita bread (little things that make meals a little more interesting!). When we came out we saw a lady selling strawberries so we stopped to buy a few. We met a friend of Ruth’s, a Burkinabe business man, for lunch at the American Rec centre. He invited us to dinner also, but we declined because we had plans to see a film that evening. He told us he’d set aside the day for us, and couldn’t he at least tour us around Ouaga a bit? We agreed. He took us to his shop, to see his house that is being built, to meet his sister, and out for chicken flambé with a friend of his. It was the funniest tour of a city I’ve ever had, but I felt it was probably very African meeting family and seeing those things. I appreciated very much his kindness in wanting to show us around.
We went to FESPACO last night with a friend of hers from SIM. We had directions there, but one of the things we had watch for was the Lion. “Turn at the lion” they said. So we watched for the lion. Turns out there were roadblocks set up and we had to park the car and get out and walk. So we were walking towards the lion (or so we hoped.). The lion by the way was a statue- just in case any of you were wondering what i was talking about. At first i misheard and thought the instructions were to turn at the LINE and i thought that was a little sketchy, but quickly realized my mistake.
We did make it there. I hadn’t really experienced Ouaga’s nightlife before at all, since I’ve spent very little time in Ouaga. Walking down the road was a funny introduction. The traffic is just as hectic as it is during the day, except you have to watch even more for motos. There were men walking up and down the street selling just about everything, even blow up pools (pre blown up for your convenience!). I saw a blow up chair in the shape of a teletubby even.We saw a film from South Africa (so it was in English- refreshing!). The theatre was outside, which was really interesting. At first I thought we were inside, but then I looked up and saw stars..
We have a busy day planned today. All things going according to plan we will meet with a friend for lunch, see the FESPACO closing ceremonies, and then possibly see another film this evening. Tomorrow we will go to church here in Ouaga and then get on the bus to head out for the town where we’ll be staying to do Operation Christmas Child. I’m really excited for what the week ahead has to bring. However at the same time this coming week is full of unknowns. All I know about this coming week is that we will be working with Samaritan’s purse, and the name of the hotel we are staying at. Everything else is a mystery. I trust God has great plans for this week, but please pray for the week. Pray for safe travel, and if we travel around to surrounding villages that travelling will go well. Pray for good health for me as well as everyone else on the team. Please pray for me as I minister to the children, and show them God’s love. Pray that language would be no barrier when I have the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

Many Blessings I’ll leave you with an excerpt from the Lorica. I read it recently and the whole piece is beautiful but the beginning part especially so. Here it is:
“I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to huard me. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise...”