It’s hard to believe it’s already the afternoon of April 6th as I’m writing this! I can say cheerfully that I made it through March, month one of the hottest season!
To kick off April’s blog entry here’s my observations from the month of March:
-If a Burkinabé wants to call you but doesn’t want to pay for the cell phone call they will beep you. They will call but only long enough to make your phone ring for a moment and for their number to flash on your caller ID. -There is a ceremony for everything (or so it seems). Before a big soccer game or when a large gift is received a ceremony must take place. Here even a school inspection merits a big lunch for the inspectors and teachers. -Whenever someone is giving a speech they must address everyone in attendance before starting their speech starting with the persons of greatest importance and working their way down to Mesdames et Messieurs.. I have seen at some gatherings everyone that will give a speech receive a sheet of paper with the formal greeting written out for them, so they can assure they leave no one out. -If someone of importance is unable to attend a ceremony someone else will read their speech for them. -At gatherings when it comes to meal time, guests sit in rows all facing the same direction. Most of the time there is a table just for the front row (the honoured guests sit here).-Once you’ve eaten you get up and leave. Whereas in the Western world we’d consider it rude to eat and leave, here it’s not. If you’re at a function you can leave the function once you’ve eaten, if you’re eating at the table with Burkinabé you can get up from the table soon as you’ve eaten.. -When you leave you typically ‘demande la route’ or ask for the road-Taxi prices are per person and negotiable, not based on a meter. 400-500cfa is fairly standard but it can vary depending on the distance you need to go, and how far off the taxi drivers normal route you are going. I have not paid more than 750cfa for a taxi. Since you pay per person the taxi driver will fit as many people as they can into the taxi. They will stop for more people en route. I have been in a taxi with as few as two people and as many as seven people all at once. Seven people usually involves at least 3 of the people sitting on someone else’s laps. Liz and I usually take turns for who sits on the lap and who gets sat on J -Everyone here assumes I am either American or French. When they discover I am neither and I am Canadian they assume I must be from either Montreal or Quebec. A typical conversation goes “Americianne ou Francaise?” “Canadienne.” “Montreal ou Quebec?” “Ni l’un ni l’autre”This is returned by a puzzled stare and then a story about so and so that went to Quebec or Montreal.. -All the children share their food here. The toddlers will come up to me and try to give me peanuts or give me bite of their little cakes. This is because the Tantines and older children teach them to share and it is expected. I always pretend to take a bite and then they are happy, they take a bite and then offer another to me. They love to share their food!-If you need someone it’s perfectly acceptable to yell for them wherever you are and it’s their responsibility to come find you. You can yell from inside to someone outside, or across a courtyard to someone. (My assumption is this person must be younger than you and thus you have the authority to do so.) -The Burkinabé are very comfortable with silence. They will not be at all uncomfortable if you are walking or sitting across from them and no one is saying anything. I usually am good with it for a while, but am almost always the first to break the silence. -The Burkinabé never apologize for being late, even if they are late by African standards. If work starts at 6:00 and they arrive at 6:30 they will not apologize to the person that had to work overtime for them. Depending on the situation being late will warrant an explanation, but never an apology- it’s not done.
How are the children?Jules is back at the orphanage he no longer needs to be at the hospital. He is still receiving care for malnourishment and needs to gain weight. He has been struggling with fevers for the past week, which is difficult considering the extreme heat. It is a considerable amount of work to get him to eat his meal supplements and drink milk (he will not drink from a bottle and must be spoon fed). Sometimes he refuses to eat when he should and other times he eats very well. Thank you for your prayers, please pray for his continued healing.
We had one baby in the hospital in Ouahigouya this past week. Our fear was she had meningitis however thankfully she did not and her infection was treated successfully. Thank the Lord for our knowledgeable nurses who sent her to Ouahigouya and for the staff and Tantine who cared for her there.
We have a new child at the orphanage. He joined us just yesterday night and will be with us for just a few months while his mother finishes schooling. He cried most of yesterday evening and asked us to call his mom to come pick him up. pray for his time of transition that he would feel at home with the children and tantines here. Please pray especially that he will develop a sense of community despite the language barrier he faces: he speaks only French and when the children speak amongst themselves they use almost exclusively mooré although they are all capable of using French.
We have one little one going home soon! Her papers went before the court last month and she was declared officially adopted (30 days after the papers are done the parents can come pick baby up!). Praise God for a new family for our little one! Please pray for the children’s whose paper work is still in the process of being finished.
The older children have just gone back to school after congé. Some of them took the time off school to visit family (if they have older siblings, or a parent to visit). Some of our children don’t have someone to visit stayed here, and some were required to go to school even through the break. Pray for them as they head into the third trimester. School here is difficult and many of them face a challenging trimester and the possibility of not passing if they don’t do well this go around.
The past few weeks have gone by so fast I can’t believe it! I’ve spent lots of time with the babies, a little time out with Adiara doing paperwork at the tribunal. Adiara has also been very kind and been taking me to visit with her family every so often when she goes home to visit them. I have gotten to know her mom a little bit, and spent a little bit of a time chatting with her younger brother who is a student. Sometimes when I go over I sit with them and chat, one time there was a soccer game on which was exciting to watch, another time they wanted to watch a film so I watched with them, another time her mom pulled out the family photo album and they showed me everyone in the family. It was interesting but sad the difference here, so many times she would point to someone and say “that’s so and so, but he passed away...” A couple times I’ve had to with them; often I sit and eat peanuts with them. It’s been fun! Adiara’s mom told me in ancient times here when a village chief died they would bury him with his favourite wife, and the favourite wife would be buried alive! I don’t know about you, but for me that’s incentive enough to not be the favourite wife. Atleast be wife number 2 or 3 (Just kidding! Anytime sometime asks I tell them I will be the only wife my husband will have, he won’t have a second wife and I will not be wife number 2. Usually they get what I mean.) We spent a day in Ouaga getting grain for one of our sponsor children and picking up glasses for one of our children here. On the bus ride back I sat right near a guy wearing a UofA tshirt! I couldn’t help myself and asked him where he’d gotten it. He said he didn’t get it himself in Alberta, but then didn’t seem at all up for chit chat and turned around. I was a little disappointed but I found the whole shirt to be too hilarious to be disappointed long. How often do you see a University of Alberta tshirt on the bus from Ouagadougou to Ouahigouya?
This Sunday is Easter and I’m excited to see how our church will celebrate. I know they’ve had several meetings about the day already, and many people have been getting memory verses to recite. Usually each Sunday school group recites a verse but I understand now everyone will recite their own? I expect a longer service than usual, but I look forward to it anyhow. We plan to perhaps give our kids an extra treat and let them watch a film Sunday night since they have easter Monday off..
Next week I will also be travelling to Gibo! I am extremely fortunate to be able to tag along with a group that is going with SIM. Pray for safe travels and good health (it is much hotter where we are going, so pray that we will stay healthy in the heat!). I look forward to being able to update you about our time there.
The other day my morning bible study took me to Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”That morning I prayed that God would help me see Jesus not just in the children as I am serving but in the staff and anyone else that I might encounter during the day.
I asked God to help me see that it was Jesus I was serving. That he would show me to be patient when I didn’t feel like I could be, and that he would give me love when I felt like I couldn’t love. Sometimes I feel like it’s easy to know how to love the babies and the kids but I can struggle to love the workers when they aren’t kinds with their words or are demanding. ( I recognize there are cultural things I don’t understand too which can attribute to some miscommunications, but every once and a while I struggle when a tantine says constantly “Brittany do this, Brittany do that..”) Later that day I picked up a book I’ve been reading by C.S. Lewis. As I was reading I came across this: “Our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshops, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.”To me I felt the connection right away to what I’d been praying about that morning and what C.S. Lewis was saying here. And I saw it here in a different light altogether... It reminded me to think of Jesus not just as my savior but as the man who let all the little children come to him, who didn’t lose his patience when people found him at seemingly inopportune times, who loved the people that came to him anytime anywhere with questions and needs... He served. It’s funny how you can know something, but God will remind you of it when you lose touch with it for a short time. Of course I am here and serving for Jesus, but I am reminded now how much I want to serve LIKE Jesus.
To kick off April’s blog entry here’s my observations from the month of March:
-If a Burkinabé wants to call you but doesn’t want to pay for the cell phone call they will beep you. They will call but only long enough to make your phone ring for a moment and for their number to flash on your caller ID. -There is a ceremony for everything (or so it seems). Before a big soccer game or when a large gift is received a ceremony must take place. Here even a school inspection merits a big lunch for the inspectors and teachers. -Whenever someone is giving a speech they must address everyone in attendance before starting their speech starting with the persons of greatest importance and working their way down to Mesdames et Messieurs.. I have seen at some gatherings everyone that will give a speech receive a sheet of paper with the formal greeting written out for them, so they can assure they leave no one out. -If someone of importance is unable to attend a ceremony someone else will read their speech for them. -At gatherings when it comes to meal time, guests sit in rows all facing the same direction. Most of the time there is a table just for the front row (the honoured guests sit here).-Once you’ve eaten you get up and leave. Whereas in the Western world we’d consider it rude to eat and leave, here it’s not. If you’re at a function you can leave the function once you’ve eaten, if you’re eating at the table with Burkinabé you can get up from the table soon as you’ve eaten.. -When you leave you typically ‘demande la route’ or ask for the road-Taxi prices are per person and negotiable, not based on a meter. 400-500cfa is fairly standard but it can vary depending on the distance you need to go, and how far off the taxi drivers normal route you are going. I have not paid more than 750cfa for a taxi. Since you pay per person the taxi driver will fit as many people as they can into the taxi. They will stop for more people en route. I have been in a taxi with as few as two people and as many as seven people all at once. Seven people usually involves at least 3 of the people sitting on someone else’s laps. Liz and I usually take turns for who sits on the lap and who gets sat on J -Everyone here assumes I am either American or French. When they discover I am neither and I am Canadian they assume I must be from either Montreal or Quebec. A typical conversation goes “Americianne ou Francaise?” “Canadienne.” “Montreal ou Quebec?” “Ni l’un ni l’autre”This is returned by a puzzled stare and then a story about so and so that went to Quebec or Montreal.. -All the children share their food here. The toddlers will come up to me and try to give me peanuts or give me bite of their little cakes. This is because the Tantines and older children teach them to share and it is expected. I always pretend to take a bite and then they are happy, they take a bite and then offer another to me. They love to share their food!-If you need someone it’s perfectly acceptable to yell for them wherever you are and it’s their responsibility to come find you. You can yell from inside to someone outside, or across a courtyard to someone. (My assumption is this person must be younger than you and thus you have the authority to do so.) -The Burkinabé are very comfortable with silence. They will not be at all uncomfortable if you are walking or sitting across from them and no one is saying anything. I usually am good with it for a while, but am almost always the first to break the silence. -The Burkinabé never apologize for being late, even if they are late by African standards. If work starts at 6:00 and they arrive at 6:30 they will not apologize to the person that had to work overtime for them. Depending on the situation being late will warrant an explanation, but never an apology- it’s not done.
How are the children?Jules is back at the orphanage he no longer needs to be at the hospital. He is still receiving care for malnourishment and needs to gain weight. He has been struggling with fevers for the past week, which is difficult considering the extreme heat. It is a considerable amount of work to get him to eat his meal supplements and drink milk (he will not drink from a bottle and must be spoon fed). Sometimes he refuses to eat when he should and other times he eats very well. Thank you for your prayers, please pray for his continued healing.
We had one baby in the hospital in Ouahigouya this past week. Our fear was she had meningitis however thankfully she did not and her infection was treated successfully. Thank the Lord for our knowledgeable nurses who sent her to Ouahigouya and for the staff and Tantine who cared for her there.
We have a new child at the orphanage. He joined us just yesterday night and will be with us for just a few months while his mother finishes schooling. He cried most of yesterday evening and asked us to call his mom to come pick him up. pray for his time of transition that he would feel at home with the children and tantines here. Please pray especially that he will develop a sense of community despite the language barrier he faces: he speaks only French and when the children speak amongst themselves they use almost exclusively mooré although they are all capable of using French.
We have one little one going home soon! Her papers went before the court last month and she was declared officially adopted (30 days after the papers are done the parents can come pick baby up!). Praise God for a new family for our little one! Please pray for the children’s whose paper work is still in the process of being finished.
The older children have just gone back to school after congé. Some of them took the time off school to visit family (if they have older siblings, or a parent to visit). Some of our children don’t have someone to visit stayed here, and some were required to go to school even through the break. Pray for them as they head into the third trimester. School here is difficult and many of them face a challenging trimester and the possibility of not passing if they don’t do well this go around.
The past few weeks have gone by so fast I can’t believe it! I’ve spent lots of time with the babies, a little time out with Adiara doing paperwork at the tribunal. Adiara has also been very kind and been taking me to visit with her family every so often when she goes home to visit them. I have gotten to know her mom a little bit, and spent a little bit of a time chatting with her younger brother who is a student. Sometimes when I go over I sit with them and chat, one time there was a soccer game on which was exciting to watch, another time they wanted to watch a film so I watched with them, another time her mom pulled out the family photo album and they showed me everyone in the family. It was interesting but sad the difference here, so many times she would point to someone and say “that’s so and so, but he passed away...” A couple times I’ve had to with them; often I sit and eat peanuts with them. It’s been fun! Adiara’s mom told me in ancient times here when a village chief died they would bury him with his favourite wife, and the favourite wife would be buried alive! I don’t know about you, but for me that’s incentive enough to not be the favourite wife. Atleast be wife number 2 or 3 (Just kidding! Anytime sometime asks I tell them I will be the only wife my husband will have, he won’t have a second wife and I will not be wife number 2. Usually they get what I mean.) We spent a day in Ouaga getting grain for one of our sponsor children and picking up glasses for one of our children here. On the bus ride back I sat right near a guy wearing a UofA tshirt! I couldn’t help myself and asked him where he’d gotten it. He said he didn’t get it himself in Alberta, but then didn’t seem at all up for chit chat and turned around. I was a little disappointed but I found the whole shirt to be too hilarious to be disappointed long. How often do you see a University of Alberta tshirt on the bus from Ouagadougou to Ouahigouya?
This Sunday is Easter and I’m excited to see how our church will celebrate. I know they’ve had several meetings about the day already, and many people have been getting memory verses to recite. Usually each Sunday school group recites a verse but I understand now everyone will recite their own? I expect a longer service than usual, but I look forward to it anyhow. We plan to perhaps give our kids an extra treat and let them watch a film Sunday night since they have easter Monday off..
Next week I will also be travelling to Gibo! I am extremely fortunate to be able to tag along with a group that is going with SIM. Pray for safe travels and good health (it is much hotter where we are going, so pray that we will stay healthy in the heat!). I look forward to being able to update you about our time there.
The other day my morning bible study took me to Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”That morning I prayed that God would help me see Jesus not just in the children as I am serving but in the staff and anyone else that I might encounter during the day.
I asked God to help me see that it was Jesus I was serving. That he would show me to be patient when I didn’t feel like I could be, and that he would give me love when I felt like I couldn’t love. Sometimes I feel like it’s easy to know how to love the babies and the kids but I can struggle to love the workers when they aren’t kinds with their words or are demanding. ( I recognize there are cultural things I don’t understand too which can attribute to some miscommunications, but every once and a while I struggle when a tantine says constantly “Brittany do this, Brittany do that..”) Later that day I picked up a book I’ve been reading by C.S. Lewis. As I was reading I came across this: “Our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshops, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.”To me I felt the connection right away to what I’d been praying about that morning and what C.S. Lewis was saying here. And I saw it here in a different light altogether... It reminded me to think of Jesus not just as my savior but as the man who let all the little children come to him, who didn’t lose his patience when people found him at seemingly inopportune times, who loved the people that came to him anytime anywhere with questions and needs... He served. It’s funny how you can know something, but God will remind you of it when you lose touch with it for a short time. Of course I am here and serving for Jesus, but I am reminded now how much I want to serve LIKE Jesus.
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