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!)
Above/Below: these ones pretty much explain themselves, but the little ones getting their boxes..
Above: singing with the kidsBelow: 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!
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 
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