Fam Jam

I've introduced you many times to my Burkina family.
Here then, is my family family.
They crack me up. They're an amazing source of encouragement and support. They're awesome. 

Two years ago today (January 4, 2009) I was headed to the airport for my first trip to Burkina. 

I wanted to bring a picture of my family with me. Unfortunately, I didn't think of it until 10 minutes before we left for the airport (and we didn't have a good recent one). A little worried about travelling so far away, for so long, the idea of not having a family photo made me a bit panicky.  (It's silly but it's also true.)

Just as we were trying to figure out how to set a timer and get all 6 of us in the photo, and then out the door to the airport, one of our neighbours knocked on the door. He was stopping by to wish me merry travels from his family to mine, but was more than happy to snap a few family photos too.

I was able to head to the airport, picture in hand, and nerves calmed.

It was definitely, a cool 'thanks God!' moment: He knew exactly what I needed. (Like he always does).

I've commented often on the fact that I simply don't understand time. This is no exception. So much has happened since that January day in 2009 that I can't hardly believe it's been two years. And yet, when I think about it, I can still feel the butterflies of my first time travelling to Africa. I can still remember stepping onto the tarmac in Ouagadougou and smelling the sweet, thick, Burkina air for the first time. It was forever ago, but it wasn't really. 

Moments in Rewind

This picture was taken exactly one year ago on February 10, 2009.

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe a year has gone by since moments like these, and then, days like today I can feel the time that has come between.

Calgary is full of beautiful moments, yet, my heart waits anxiously for more Burkina moments. I can hardly believe it is two and a half months until I'll experience more of these. More baby cuddles, more evening card games with the boys, more dancing with girls, more singing with the toddlers... many more beautiful moments yet to be discovered.

A Bientôt Burkina Faso

My final days and weeks in Yako at the orphanage were really blessed. I am so thankful for the special moments I had with the children. Thank you for all of your thoughts, your concern and most of all your prayer concerning finishing up my time here.

Above: a fun moment with some of the kids; Ascension decided he'd like to take some family photos, so we all piled on the steps and the kids started snapping pictures...

I haven’t been saying goodbye here, I have been saying either “a plus” (see you later) or “à bientôt “see you soon”. Goodbye perhaps seems too definite. I did say to the kids and staff at the orphanage that if we don’t see each other again here on earth, that together we will worship God together in heaven one today and forever. They all agreed, and it was a good reminder for me that when I am saying goodbye to my brothers and sisters in Christ I am not saying goodbye.
However that being said goodbye wasn’t easy. I didn’t expect it would be, but the knowledge it would be hard to let go of this place I have come to love so dearly, and the people I hold so near to my heart, didn’t make it any easier. The kids at the orphanage knew it was hard on me to leave and each of them had their own special way to express their love. Many of the boys drew me pictures of flowers and brought me notes or came over and talked with me. Therese, our nine year old, grabbed my hand yesterday and said to me “Viens, on va pleuerer” (come let’s go cry), because she’d be telling me all week how we’d both cry when I left. Her gentle way of telling me, it was okay and that she loved me, touched my heart.

Below: Therese and I.

I leave Yako with many memories and a special place in my heart for each of the children and staff i worked with. I was so very blessed in my time here.

Louer, Praise !
A Bientôt Burkina Faso.

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”

thoughts on time...

As June approaches (as it write it is 10:007 in Burkina so really it is just to say June is nearly here.) I have been doing some thinking. I thought I’d share with you a little of what is going on in my heart and head.
As my return to the world I left at home draws nearer I consider more and more the idea of time. I consider how much time I have left here and how quickly my time here has gone past. As I consider the idea of time I realise how little I really understand about it. I know that sometimes I goes unbearably slow (usually when I am anticipating something) and at times it passes so quickly I barely have a moment to reflect on it’s disappearance. As I think about the nature of time a passage from a letter written by C.S. Lewis comes to mind:
"Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did would the fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not been or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. (“How time flies! Fancy John being grown up & married! I can hardly believe it!” In heaven’s name, why? Unless indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal." -C.S. Lewis

I recognize that just as I am living currently in what I consider to be "two worlds" here on earth: Canada and Burkina, so two I struggle to be between two different temporal worlds. My body is limited by time: I am restricted by day and night, the passage of minutes, days, weeks, years... But my spirit is eternal and will have no end. And so it is natural that I feel this conflict of two “temporal worlds”. Time and eternity are undoubtedly a part of who I am.

Evelyn Underhill puts it so well when she says “Because we live under two orders we are at once a citizen of eternity and time. Like a pendulum, our consciousness moves perpetually [...]”
And so as I consider coming home to this other world I consider the fact that although perhaps time feels as though is passing quickly here, it’s because I am designed only part to be a resident of the world of time, but I am forever designed to be a resident of eternity where time has no meaning. Although for the moment I am a resident of two earthly worlds and I am navigating the fine balance of life in Burkina and life in Canada, I will for the rest of my earthly life navigate the balance of eternity and time. I will always struggle to understand why time escapes me, and why I cannot grasp it because my spirit is designed for something so much more magnificent where we won’t be bound to time. In heaven our vocabulary will be devoid of words like time-management, pressed for time, in a rush and I have to believe that will be magnificent.

Now that having been said once I’d thought all that through I assumed I was done with thinking. However, some nights later, I was thinking some more, and God was nudging at my heart. He reminded me that not only was my spirit designed as eternal and my body as temporal, but that all things are his. And if everything is Gods and he simply gives us things for our time here on earth, that means even our time here on earth is his. It sounds simple doesn’t it? I mean it really shouldn’t have taken me so long to piece the puzzle together. It was one of those things I knew, and God was reminding me (I find often those sorts of reminders are things we find we know, but God needs to remind us a lot..) Time, as much as I struggle with ‘des fois’, is a gift from God. He doesn’t owe me time here; he chooses to give me time here.

Tene

Last Monday (18/05/09) was a day full of interesting stories so here’s a quick update:

The orphanage received a huge gift Monday morning. A missionary family brought 350 Moringa trees to the orphanage that they’d grown from seed in their courtyard. We thought it might take our team a while to plant the trees (it was us four, their family of six and a couple of our staff) however, Adiara suggested we ask some of our school children to pitch in and was I ever amazed. Swarms of children flocked to the truck to unload trees: I’ve never seen trees fly into so many hands and then off to so many directions! We literally had to hold children back because they were so eager to help. Since our boys already had holes dug everyone split off into teams: the first watered the ground, second put in manouere, third filled the hole back in and the put the tree in and covered it. All 350 trees were planted in less than two hours! The Moringa trees will be a huge blessing to the orphanage. Sometimes they are called the “Miracle Tree” because the tree is so rich in vitamins. It has more potassium than bananas, more calcium than milk and more vitamin c than carrots. There is a whole list of other vitamins it contains iron and magnesium being only just a few.We will harvest the leaves of the trees, dry them and prepare a powder from it (the best way to get the most vitamins from the leaves) and add the powder to the children’s food. This past weekend we started including the Moringa Powder in the children’s meals. Although preparing a powder as we do is the best way to prepare the moringa leave you can prepare it various other ways. You can also eat every part of the tree including the seeds. The seeds can be used to purify water. Moringa powder can be used to treat malnuritrion, as well as help breastfeeding mothers ensure they are getting the nutrients they need to give their child what it needs. We watched a video Monday afternoon that showed some health clinics where they have been treating malnuritrion with powder made from the moringa leaves. I was amazed to see how much weight children would put on in just weeks of taking small amounts of the powder in their diets!I also saw a map of where the moringa trees grow contrasted to a map of where malnutrition occurs globally. Would you believe it the two maps were nearly identical?

It’s obvious God planned this tree to grow where the people who needed it the most would be able to get to it. (I recognise of course there remains a huge need to give these people access to the trees and to educate them on the benefits of using it in food preparation and how to prepare it. But it is there!)If you’re interested in more information on Moringa trees the website recommended to me was Echonet.org

Above: A newly planted miracle tree!
Below: This is a picture of a large Moringa. It was already growing in our courtyard and has depassed the size we would use for harvesting leaves. However it is perfect for cultivating seeds!

I was privileged to witness a rare spectacle here in Burkina Faso while tree planting! A perfectly circular ring appeared around the sun a little before noon. I was working outside near Jean and I asked him what it was. He explained it was in fact a rainbow.Jean and the kids told me they happen every so often, however it was Ruth’s first time seeing one and she’s been here nine years. So I felt privileged even if the kids say they aren’t that rare. It was beautiful. The children and staff seemed to hardly take notice of it. However we all stopped what we were doing and grouped near the house to marvel at the beauty of this world God has created.

I realise my pictures don’t quite capture the whole thing, so you’ll have to fill in the blanks for yourself. The inner ring is the sun, the next one was a really dark spot (almost shadow like), and then the outer ring was a magnificent bright light with hints of colour that I could tell were the colours of a rainbow.

Back in February when we had a team come in, we hired a local cuisinière to prepare some meal for us. Since then every time we are served riz sauce en patte d’arachide (rice with peanut sauce) Liz and I say “Oh this is good. But not as good as Samuel’s sauce!” So when we had a team coming monday we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a cooking lesson with Samuel. He showed us how to prepare his “famous” riz sauce. It was fun cooking lesson. He told us stories about his time in Cote d’Ivoire in between asking us to check the sauce so as to make sure we saw it at every stage of it cooking. We are fortunate in that Samuel’s sauce only takes 45 minutes (for him) to prepare. Depending on the individual’s recipe it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to all afternoon! He made sure to suggest lots of other veggies we could put in that aren’t currently in season or that we didn’t have on hand. I was thankful for all his tips and look forward to trying my hand at the sauce sometime in the future.




Finished (and delicious) product!

Tene: Moore for Monday

A few brief updates

Francois is a boy that attends the Sheltering Wings School here in Yako. Last Thursday he fell from a tree and fractured his femur. His mother brought him to the hospital in Yako where they determined it was broken and prescribed painkillers and antibiotics, and told him he would need to go to Ouahigouya for an X-ray as Yako does not have an X-ray machine. His mother couldn’t afford to bring him to Ouahigouya and so she sent him to a nearby village for traditional treatment.

I tagged along with Ruth and Innocent (the director of the school) for a visit to his house on Sunday. We had thought we would still be at the village but sometime Saturday or Sunday they brought him back from the village and to his home in Yako. He was laying inside on a mattress on the ground, and when we arrived his mother helped him sit up. His leg was braced with a stick and wrapped in heavy fabric. I could see that his in injured leg was very, very swollen. His arm was also swollen and his mother said the healer had been doing something to that as well, although it wasn’t wrapped or braced. Beside his leg on the mattress were cement blocks, they told us the blocks were to keep his leg from moving.Since the traditional healers can only do their best to put the bones in place and keep them there the children receiving treatment run the risk of their bones healing misaligned. Ruth has seen children crippled because of this. As of now Innocent believes things are going well for Francois’s healing but Ruth has asked Innocent to check on Francois again after his next treatment from the traditional healer, to ensure he is still comfortable with the level of care he is receiving. Should he not be SW would help Francois by taking him to the hospital for the Xrays (while still respecting the family culturally of course as they chose the means of traditional healing.)

A couple short stories:
The other night Liz and I went out to bring coffee to the night guard and do our tour of the courtyard before going to bed. We checked particularily on the primary school boys room because one of our boys has taken to sleeping outside in funny places. I understand his desire- it is HOT inside and so much nicer outside, however family rules are everyone sleeps in their own rooms (with so many children and girls and boys in the same courtyard the rule is a no brainer really). We observed he was not in his room and so set out to look for him. We started with where he’s been before: under the hangar, on benches around the courtyard, near the clinic and he was nowhere to be found! Then we were walking back towards the kitchen and I saw something. I motioned to Liz and she went “No!” I nodded. Once I got closer I couldn’t contain my laughter. He had pulled a mat up on top of the monkey bars and was sleeping up there! I had to reach up to poke him awake. He seemed surprised to be awakened but agreed to go sleep inside. What a kid! Sleeping on the monkey bars...

Thursday we had our first rain storm. By rain storm I don’t mean drizzle I mean downpour! At the time the rain started I was at the house with Therese, Ferdinand and Osseus. They stayed at the house until the rain ended, mostly I think because people just don’t want to go out in the rain! Therese and I went out for a couple minutes, because I was so excited for the relief from the heat but quickly we were wet and cold and wanted to run back inside. They helped me run around and shut windows. But we had no power so I tracked down a lantern and the three kids snuggled on the couch in blankets (I wasn’t that cold!). We did shadow puppets on the wall for a little while and then I pulled out cars and barbies for them to play with in the dark. Because of the noise of the rain on the roof we couldn’t talk to each other, but hey it was a fun rain shower! Friday the termites came out!(apparently they come out the night after the rain) These are not wood termites but another variety. There were hundreds of them clustered around each light and filling the pathways! They got through the front door and every few minutes we’d kill 5 or 10 until we managed to get it closed enough that weren’t coming in... And then as suddenly as they appeared they died.

Here’s a picture of Joseph and I taken fairly recently. He’s taken to shushing me if I ask him questions or to talk- not because he doesn’t want to talk but because he thinks going “SHH!” with his finger to his lips is hilarious.

Trust

I knew coming to Burkina Faso I would face experiences that would affect me in ways I can’t quite explain; experiences that simply aren’t done justice by my words or explanations. Simply put i'm at a loss for how to put things a lot of the time...

In a recent blog entry I asked you to pray for three babies. Salif returned back to the orphanage on April 29. He is healthy and looking very happy. Jules returned home just last night. I haven`t heard his official weight but I can tell you his cheeks look a little chubby. Pray for his health as he needs to continue to gain and keep on weight. He is now a year old.

Rosaline passed away April 30. She came to us very small and had been recieving treatment at the orphanage for a week or so before we sent her to the hospitall. She then spent three weeks at the hospital in Ouahigouya before the sickness became too much for her little body.

One of our staff members gave Liz and me the news. After speaking with him I returned to the house. I took some time to let myself cry. I prayed a simple prayer and in a moment of silence I had a profound sense of peace because I felt the lord say ``She is home with me”. I am not saying I don`t feel sadness about her death but I feel peace. For a reason unbeknownst to me God called Rosaline home to Him. I will probably never understand why He called her home, but God has not asked me to understand His reasons he has only asked me to trust in Him.

The day after her death Rosaline`s father and 2 uncles came to visit us at the orphanage. (Rosaline had been placed with us temporarily after her mother’s death and would have returned home once she was a year old.)The father and uncles live in a village 35km away from Yako. They rode their bikes in 45degree heat to the orphanage. The purpose of the visit was for them to give us their condolences and thank us for what we had done for their child. I can`t tell how the gentleness of their action struck a chord in my heart.

I had been praying through some of the prayers written by Lancelot Andrews through the month of April. I went back to this one that day and I have gone back and prayed through it several times since. Remember the Lonely:

Remember, Lord, all the infants, the children, the youth, the middle-aged and the elderly who are hungry, sick, thirsty, naked, captive or friendless in this world. Be with those who are tempted with suicide, who are sick in soul, who are in despair. Remember those who are in prison, all those who are under sentence of death. Remember the widows and the widowers, the orphans and those who travel in a foreign land. Remember all those who this day will work under oppressive conditions. Remember the lonely.

Gros Poisson and other brief updates...

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.

Just in case you aren't tired of my pictures yet!

Just a few more pictures from Djibo! Be sure to check out my two previous posts from today: A New Child Available for Sponsorship and Ya Souma

I've tried to split up the pictures by category like I described them in my post about Djibo so hopefully you'll have some idea what you're looking at!

The Touareg Village:

Just a sweet little boy at the village. Behind him is a baby camel waiting for mama to come back (I assume from the well).

Below: A shot at the well. One man would toss the bucket and guide the rope while the other rode the camel to pull the water up.

Above: Rice and Sauce at the Touareg village. Note the special spoons!


The Fulani Village:


A little Fulani boy. The french word for Fulani is Peul just for interests sake.

That's me! At the Fulani well. Below is a much better snapshot of the Fulani well you can see them getting a bucket of water, and the yellow container is an old oil can they have cut open to use as a trough.

Above: Niery (Fulani To) and Sauce. The Niery is on the left and the sauce is on the right. Niery is made from millet.
Below: Bouille (liquidy, sugary cream of wheat like stuff). You drink the bouille from those spoons. It is made from millet.

This is where we slept in Djibo:

The Djibo barrage:
What is fascinating about the barrage is Djibo (the desert!) has water, and Yako's barrage is dry. I thought it was interesting and wuite beautiful. It was almost like sitting beside a lake...

Below: The woman in this picture walked through the barrage with baby tied to her back. Once she was on our side of the barrage she stopped to take baby off and wash her feet.

This little boy and his friends came up to us while we were sitting by the barrage and sat down too. They just smiled and were happy to sit near us.

Ya Souma

This week has passed so quickly I can’t believe it’s already Friday afternoon! (Ya Souma is moore for it's good. It was a good week so Ya Souma)

Monday afternoon Liz and I set off for Yako. We walked out from SIM to the Chales de Gaulle to catch a taxi. The first taxi that stopped for us wouldn’t take us to the bus station for any less than 1500f (750f each) which although when you convert it Canadian dollars or American dollars seems like a very cheap cab ride, was outrageous for the distance we would be going and we knew he was trying to take advantage of us. We let him continue on his way without us and waiting for the next one. A little boy selling Kleenex at the intersection heard the exchange with the taxi driver and was sitting at the side of the road laughing at the price he’d suggested! The second taxi suggested the same price but we talked him down to 1000f (500f each, knowing anywhere between 400f and 500f was reasonable for where we were going.)We passed by the intersection in Ouaga that puts up the temperature on a big screen. I usually love passing by there because I never know what the temperature is until I see it. I was in for a big shock when I saw 49C! I realised of course it felt hot, but it wasn’t too hot and it was definitely liveable. I had to laugh though, 49C! When we arrived at the bus station the bus to Yako was ready to depart, so Liz quickly hopped on while I bought tickets. We could have got on without buying tickets and just paid en route but needed better change than we had so we paid at the terminal. Since the bus was ready to go there were no seats to speak of, and since we were taking the after sieste bus the whole isle was full too. We found spot on the steps leading down to the door and stood. Fortunately the ride is only 1.5hours and Mondays ride passed much quicker than it usually does (perhaps because I could see almost nothing..) When we finally got off in Yako Liz and I were joking that we hoped we ran into some of the kids on their way home from school because we had so many bags. We didn’t run into any of our kids, but a lady that lives near us stopped us on the road and asked us to give us some of our bags because she wanted to walk with us. It was so kind, and we had a nice chat with her for the walk home.

Back in Yako I’ve been splitting my time between working with the babies and working on things for the office. I had one really sweet morning with the toddlers: I was coming back from the office when I saw Ibra (like many toddlers he’s curious and he likes to take walks and we often end up chasing after him or calling him back...so I wasn’t surprise to see him walking away from the baby play area) he was walking ahead of Joseph and Tinbnoma and turning around to wave at them and call them forward. The followed me to the house. When they arrived on the doorstep I went to the door and looked out the three of them pulling themselves up on the step and grinning. “Children!” I said to them “when you come to someone’s you must say cock cock cock!” (this is the same as telling them to knock) They immediately all said “cock cock cock!” and I as I opened the door for them the three of them came rushing in. They had a great time sitting on the chairs, trading places with eachother and exploring a little bit the front living area while I finished up what I’d been working on. Then I took them over to the sink to wash their hands. It took a few minutes with each of them because they wanted to turn the water on and off a bunch of times, and I let them. Joseph discovered how to spray water by putting his hand right under the flow from the tap and soaked me. He laughed hysterically which made me laugh too, so it was all good. I gave them some peanuts to eat and then stood at the water filter while they brought glasses to drink water. Finally they felt they had enough water and wanted to sit at the kitchen to drink. The three of them looked so small sitting there I took a quick picture (above.)

Point of praise: We had another child’s paperwork and court proceedings finished this week and he was declared officially adopted! Ibra will be going home with his family very soon.

Points of prayer: We have three children in the hospital currently:
-Jules is back with Doctors Without Borders. He seemed to be improving and his weight had gone up to 5.8kg, but he got sick and his weight went down to 5.0kg. Pray he will overcome the illness that is attacking his body, and that he will be able to consistently gain and maintain weight.

-Rosalie our newest child at the orphanage is at the hospital in Ouahigouya. She has been at the hospital just over a week so we hope she’ll be ready to come back to the orphanage soon.

-Salif is our most recent child to go to the hospital. He left Tuesday evening. He had been sick since Thursday and had been receiving Malaria treatment here in Yako, when on Tuesday (the last day for his malaria treatment) he was still very sick it was determined he would be better treated in Ouhigouya.

Djibo

Thursday it took us just over 5 hours to drive from Ouagadougou to Djibo. Kongoussi (where Liz and I stayed for operation Christian child) was about our half way way point and the town name means ‘end of the road’, after seeing the road after Kongoussi I began to see why: the road after Kongoussi isn`t paved. We were constantly avoiding potholes (as well as goats and cows that seem to flock to the road as soon as a vehicle approaches) and driving over road that felt more like a washboard than anything else. However we were blessed with an overcast day and that in conjunction with a little AC kept the temperatures inside the car cool and the drive was pleasant.

When we were in Djibo we stayed with a missionary family that is working with the Fulani. They were wonderful and planned a full weekend for us. It was a perfect combination of out visiting villages and hanging out doing movie nights, or sitting and chatting learning more about the work in Djibo and people there. One night we even all cooked a curry which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Thursday afternoon we went out to a Touareg camp. The Touareg are not native to Burkina Faso they are a nomadic tribe but here in Burkina for the most part they are refugees from Mali. We drank tea with them and then rode camels. I enjoyed the camel ride; it was short but sweet. Camels are so much bigger than I thought they would be, and make the strangest noise (almost a cross between a growl and a purr- it’s a very guttural noise). After the camel ride we drank another cup of tea and then went down to the well. The well there is a very shallow well (only 30m deep) but it looked plenty deep to me: most of the wells are closed wells so I don’t get a chance to look down in them but this one I could look right down as they dropped the bucket (an old petrol container) down. They used a pulley and a camel to draw the water from the well which was fascinating to watch. After our visit to the well we had dinner with our Touareg “guide" Mohammed.

Above: A Touareg man, an behind him one of their homes. The refugees that have been in Burkina for a long time have built mud brick homes, but the ones that have come more recently have a shelter like you see in the picture there.

The Touareg were a fascinating group. I didn’t have the opportunity to interact much with the women but I saw a little of the difference in how the male/female relationships work in the work as opposed to other people groups in Burkina. The Touareg men will serve the women food first, the men will do work like drawing water, the men and women eat together- I like it a lot! For dinner we had rice and sauce and a small amount of guinea fowl. We ate with traditional wooden spoons and out of a communal bowl and of course when it started getting dark it just got dark because out in the village there is no electricity to speak of. After more tea Mohammed offered us camel milk. It was still warm but the warmth didn’t bother me (I thought it would). It was a creamy milk, I thought fairly comparable to cows milk and I thought it was very delicious.

Friday morning a few of us went on a tour of the hospital. There are 3 hospitals or clinics in Djibo but the one we visited is run by a missionary who has been in Burkina Faso since before it was Burkina Faso (Upper Volta then). I was amazed to discover people travel from the Ivory Coast to seek medical care at his clinic and during the dry season and does 100-200 surgeries a month (he is the only doctor at the hospital). Later on as a group we also visited the churches Fulani pastor. He told us some of his testimony and gave me insight to the severity of the persecution people here can suffer when they abandon their religion for the Christian faith.

Saturday morning we visited the Djibo hill. A short walk brought us to the top of the hills but gave us a beautiful view of Djibo and the surrounding areas. At the bottom of the hill is an ancient burial ground. It’s estimated the remains are between 500-1000 years old. The bodies were buried with clay pots and facing mecca. It’s been unearthed by rain and so we were able to see skulls and pots in the ground as we walked. It was interesting to see a little part of history.
Above: Our group at the top of Djibo hill

Next we visited a Fulani village. The village was 24km out of Djibo but it took us 45 minutes to get there because of bad road conditions. There is a man that attends the Fulani church that rides his bike in every Sunday to church from the village. He says it’s not so bad because he used to have to walk.The Fulani village looked tiny, but since they raise cattle mostly they live very spread out from each other and so we didn’t see everyone from the village. They had no shade to speak of in the village except for a few hangars they had constructed and one small tree. The village has two wells, one they dug themselves and one that was done for them by a group called Friends in Action. They took us to visit their well, showed us a newborn cow (an hour old!) and served us tea, niery (Fulani to) and bouille. The niery was made from millet as opposed to the to I’m accustomed to that is made from corn and so it tasted very different. I think I prefer the corn to, but the niery was fun to try and had a very funky colour (it was a little like eating playdo texture wise and colour wise, but the taste was something totally different althogether). Bouilee is a little like cream of wheat with sugar cooked into it. We drank it from large spoons out of a communal bowl and it was tasty although sometimes I wasn’t nuts over getting the lumps in the Bouille. We spent most of the time at the Fulani village chatting and sitting in a little mud hut they’d constructed. I was shocked to discover how cool the huts stay in the heat- the walls don’t radiate heat like concrete walls!The Fulani language and culture is very different from that of the Mossi and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn a little more about one of Burkina’s other people groups.

Above: The Fulani at their well. The previous picture was a typical Fulani home.

How can you pray?Pray for the Fulani. I learned of an upcoming meeting with some Fulani leaders in Burkina Faso. They plan to discuss pulling all Fulani children out of school. There are social facets to this but mostly this is a religious move. They fear that if the Fulani children are educated they will abandon their faith.Pray for those who are ministering to the Fulani. It is a true labour of love for the lord. It is a difficult job and the missionaries often see little fruits from their labour. Pray they will be encouraged.Pray that God will raise up people to work with the Touareg in Burkina Faso. Currently they are a large population here and there is no one working with them and ministering to them in Burkina.
Djibo was hot but I didn’t suffer from the heat like I expected I would. It was hot during the day but certainly bearable and at night since I slept outside it was cool and I slept wonderfully! Most nights I even needed a sheet because it got so cool (around 27C or so.) We drove back to Ouagadougou Sunday afternoon and today (Monday) Liz and I will take the bus back to Yako. Thank the Lord for safe travels on the road and for good health while travelling.

Easter and Updates

Easter

(The picture on the left was taken Easter sunday at the orphanage. Liz Adiara and I are all wearing our Assemblee de Dieu outifts.)
We went to church both Saturday night and Sunday morning. Saturday night a group recited the bible verses in moore. They entered and excited singing- it was quite a beautiful little production. Sunday morning Liz and I decided to take Tinbnoma and Joseph with us to church since they don’t usually go. (Ibra went home with one of the tantines for the weekend so really the three oldest toddlers went to church!) We rode over on the motos and Tinbnoma looked like she didn’t know what to do- squished between Adiara and me she just looked around and around as we drove. Liz told me Joseph was laughing! Tinbnoma was great throughout the whole service. We actually had to quiet her down because she wanted to chat with us! Joseph did well until part way through the service and then he started crying. At that point he went and sat outside with Adiara.
It was a surprisingly short service. I think it started “on time” around 9:30 and ended somewhere around 12:00. We expected a much longer service for Easter. For the special day Liz and I ate both lunch and dinner with the kids. Normally they eat to two meals a day, but they had macaroni for lunch and riz gras for dinner. We killed our goat (we still have 3 sheep) and Social Action donated some meat so with both meals the children got real hunks of meat (the to sauce always contains ground dried fish, which has nutrients but isn’t the same..). Needless to say they were thrilled!Liz and I baked vanilla cupcakes for dessert and handed them out with dinner. And after dinner we put on a movie considering they didn’t have school the next day and we thought it would be fun.
My parents had sent me a package and I’d requested my favourite soccer movie of all time. Victory! Sylvester Stalone, Michael Cane and Pelé are the three biggest names in the movie. I can’t tell you how excited our kids were. First Sylvester Stalone’s character came on screen and all the boys ooohed and someone yelled “Rocky!” then Pelé came out. One of the boys didn’t stop going “Le Roi Pelé” every time he saw him... During the final match of the movie the boys were so excited you could have told me they were watching the quarter finals and Burkina was playing. Lazar did a dance after one of the goals. Three of them stood up to watch because they were so anxious they couldn’t sit still. When the team scored again several of them jumped up and down and hugged each other... I enjoyed watching them more than the movie!
A few brief updates: Osseus –the new child I mentioned last week has warmed up well to the other children his age at the orphanage. The three of them all speak French with eachother and although every once and a while we catch people speaking in mooré at him it is not the problem I expected it would be. For the most part the kids understand he doesn’t understand and speak with him in French. Howeves Osseus is a CP2 student which is the only grade our primary school does not have. He has a spot at a school just a few minutes away. However he refuses to go to school. We have been working with him, in conjuction with our social worker and the social worker that brought him to the orphanage. He must start attending school. Please pray he will find the courage to face the new school- as difficult as it. Please pray for patience for our staff and the staff at the school as they work with him to correct this.
I took Jule to his weigh in last Tuesday (the 8th) since it was across town I strapped him to my back and hopped on the moto with our gatekeeper. He had put on 0.4kg since his last weigh in and I was really pleased as were the nurses! However later in the week he started to get sick again, and this Tuesday he was hospitalized again. Please continue to pray for this little boy. He has a long, tough battle ahead.
Liz and I head to Djibo tomorrow. It is up north and in desert territory. I am looking forward to the adventure but praying for strength in the heat! Please pray for good health and safe travels on the roads.

God bless

A plus!

B

Faso!

Above: Pictures of two children at our OCC distributions.

Below: A village we visited near Kongoussi. The mountain you see behind would not be found Yako, and so we found it very interesting and beauiful. Compared to the Rockies it's a hill, but it's still beautiful amongst all the flat flat land here!

Above: A WC (water closet. there is not water though). Most bathroom stops don't look like this at all, but i had to post this one because it was so funny! Note the picture below? I took that from inside before doing my business. All those kids gathered round to watch us go in and out of the 'bathroom'! Also note on the left, there's a donkey..

Above: Just recieved a shoebox, and already chowing down on the bonbons

Below: a typical school bell found in many of the villages we've visited

Above: These girls were enjoying the toys found in the shoeboxes. She needed me to explain how to use them, but then found them fun!

Above: drinking stop at a well. All the cows here have that big bump on their back, apparently it's fat storage.. I don't remember it being so pronounced on cows back home, but perhaps i just wasn't paying attention

Above: a little fulani girl at one of our disributions. She's adorable!

Above: a little boy at one of our OCC disitributions. he liked seeing his picture!