Back home on April 1st it is April Fools day. If I am truly honest I will admit I missed this tradition (although only a little bit!) on the 1st of April. That day I didn’t see any pranks or hear anything about April Fools. I suppose I missed the comfort of knowing it was there. Little did I know... Here the whole month of April is April Fools. In French it is termed Poisson d’Avril (literally translated Fish of April) and when someone pulls one they say “Gros poisson!” (big fish). So the fact that I didn’t hear anything about it on the first didn’t mean that by the second and third I wasn’t still hearing things.. The kids would come and tell me someone was waiting for me at the office, or there was a phone call for me but when I would arrive there would be no one. Silly things but the singsong of Poisson d’Avril sang through the air every time I made the mistake of trusting them! April 30 is the last day for pranks and so Liz and I planned our “revenge” for that night. We invited all the kids for a movie night to the house. Adiara even went out and told kids it was mandatory: she woke one up, and made one stop washing laundry to come for the movie! Once they were all here (okay we had 22 of 28 but that’s pretty good! It’s hard to get all our kids in one place!) we suggested we could explain to them what the movie was about. I started off by telling them the movie was about something they (the kids) all liked a lot. In fact it is something they do a lot. Someone interrupted me but one of our Abrahams (we have 3 Abrahams. This one is our oldest.) stopped them and told me to continue. I elaborated only a little bit more and then Liz pulled a drawing we’d done of a fish and taped it to the TV. She said “it’s kind of like this.” The kids gave her a blank stare “what do you call this?” she said “un poisson” they all said. And then all of a sudden a look of shock came across their faces as everyone went “un poisson?!” I said. “could you even say un gros poisson?” the room errutped with laughter. Abraham put his head in his hands, several of the kids were jumping up and laughing... It was quite the commotion.
But because the next day was a day off school, and it was May we showed a movie that day. This month is MainauDos (hand on back). Anytime sometime catches you not walking with your hand on your back they have free reign to slap you on the back. It’s not so bad though because often kids don’t do it, or you can figure out they’re planning to hit you before they do and get your hand on your back quick.
Saturday morning we welcomed Ruth back to the orphanage! Sunday morning Liz and I did a pancake breakfast for all the kids and as a welcome home Ruth breakfast. Liz and I made 65+ pancakes, homemade syrup and served pancakes with peanut butter and jam. It was so much fun. I think the kids finished off everything! We brought pancakes over to the babies and tantines and everyone seemed to enjoy them.
Below: two of our primary school aged boys waiting for their pancakes
The school year is coming to an end and our students face challenging exams. For our students in 3ieme(equivalent to 10th grade) and terminal (final year of school, like grade twelve) their final exams are a pass/fail exam. If they pass the exam they will pass the course if not they must repeat the grade. This is a very stressful time of year for them. Pray for them as they prepare for these exams.
While Ruth was back in the States many exciting things were put in motion for the orphanage. God made it very clear he is not done in Burkina Faso and he has lots going on here. Praise for the exciting things God is doing.
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