what do a race, coca, and mud bricks have in common?

Sorry to dissapoint! The answer is nothing more than I've taken picture of all of the above recently.


I thought I would break from my norm and do a blog entry in the form of photos I’ve taken over the past few weeks, and tell some of the brief stories attached to the photos as I put the photos up...

After the stormLast week Yako was hit by a ferocious storm. The wind and rain came so hard it was impossible to sleep through the storm (although it’s important to note the rain was coming down on our sheet metal roof so the sound was intensified.) and so I waited out the worst of it with the others in the house in the living room. There were times the wind was forceful enough to cause the roof to ripple above our heads, and the rain to come storming through our closed windows drenching the room. This is a picture taken the morning after the storm. The streets were wet and muddy and took a little longer to navigate for sure.

This is a picture of our three oldest babies, really the toddlers: Joseph, Ibra and Tinbnoma. We’d gone out for a short walk on the courtyard and while we were by the office Adiara decided to tell them they should race down the terrace. The races that ensued were heart wrenchingly adorable. Joseph ran each race, hands in the air as if he was winning, although he came in every race last. Tinbnoma giggled her way down the terrace and back, and I think Ibra took it very very seriously- perhaps that is why he won every race.

The toddlers have recently started calling my by name! I won’t deny that I enjoy it immensely. One morning earlier this week I walked out of the house and Joseph (in front of me in the picture) saw me coming across the lawn towards the play area. He jumped up from his perch on the step and yelled “Bitny! Bitny!” The older toddlers have made a game of calling my name out. It consists of them calling “Bitny” in unison, and then I respond with “Ibra, Joseph, Tinbnoma!” as fast as I can before they call Bitny again. Estelle (to the right in the picture) doesn’t talk except for rare occasions. Every so often she will surprise me with shockingly well enunciated words during toddler class, or randomly throughout the day. Un, Deux she’ll say and I’ll wonder why she hasn’t spoken at all for weeks and suddenly has decided to repeat after me as I’m counting... However on several different occasions this week she has looked up at me with her huge grin and called “Bity!”. I’ll smile at her, say her name, and she’ll just grin as if to say “yeah I know...”

Borromo and Dano

I had the opportunity to travel with Ruth, Miriah and Liz to Borromo and Dano last week for a short visit. In Borromo we looked into a type of construction they’ve been doing a lot of in that region but none of in our province. It is more sustainable (lower cost, local resources, the structure is long lasting and remains cooler in the heat) than cement block construction. I found the visit fascinating and loved learning a bit about how they construct the buildings and seeing the different ways they can construct them. To sum it up real quick the buildings are built with vaulted ceilings out of mud brick, and the dome shape gives it strength. After the mud brick construction is done a layer of mud and manure (or other coatings, you can use a variety) is put over the bricks to protect them from the rain.
Here’s a picture of one of the buildings from the outside.

And now the inside. (It hasn’t yet had the “protective coating”.)

And here’s the kids that followed us around on our tour of the buildings in Borromo once I’d taken their picture. They were adorable.

Yako Wins Provincial Soccer-Just a quick note here. A soccer team from Yako won the Provincial Soccer title for the year. The picture you see here is some of the celebrating.

Just two random ones from the past weeks to finish ‘er off:

A pig, enjoying the mud after the rain.



The Coca sign I always look for when taking a taxi in Ouaga (helps me know when I’m getting close to the guest house..) It says “A Ouaga on sait pourqoui on aime le Coca” so “In Ouaga we know why we like Coke”