Eating To:

Before and after of my bowl of To:

To the left is the kitchen where the children's food is prepared.

Below is a gecko we captured under my bed. Our gatekeeper heard Liz and I shreiking as we tried to capture him so he came in and picked him up(alive!) and carried him outside (after posing for a photo.

To


To the left is a bug I found on the outside of my bathroom window. He's totally harmless, but rather interesting looking. Plus I promised to upload some pictures of cool looking bugs for my cousin Jacob so here you are buddy!

Below I'm wearing one of my new african outfits. I'm standing with Therese and Liz.

It’s hard to believe but we’re already more than half way through February!
We bring coffee out to our night guard every night, and every Monday the guard tells us he doesn’t like Monday. I remind him it’s almost Tuesday and then he reminds me how fast time goes. It’s true: I can hardly believe how fast time can go by. While I’m on the subject I’ll fill you in a little more on what I do with my time here.
I’ve been working on getting a ‘Petit-Garderie’ started for our toddlers here. It’s a time for us to colour, sing, read etc. Basically we’re trying to get them active in different ways than they usually are so we can build their language and motor skills. It’s progressed to something one of the Tantis and I work on every morning Tuesday through Saturday with them around 8:00 (not an exact time when you have 4 or 5 little ones to get going in the morning. But that’s perfectly fine!). A lot of mornings I’ll stick around after that and just cuddle the babies, play with them and chat with them. Some of the littler ones are starting to pull themselves up and learning to walk which is really exciting for me to see! Recently I’ve been working (alongside some of the other staff members of course) with several of our little ones who are really behind. One of our toddlers who isn’t walking, and one of our babies who still struggles to hold his head up (he’s nine months old). We’re trying to focus on playing with them and loving them, but then working on building their muscles up. It’s a challenge, because the children don’t enjoy it however it’s rewarding when we see the team effort pay off. One of our little guys used to shriek whenever we tried to put him on his feet because he wasn’t used to exercising the muscles required to stand. After a lot of work (especially a lot of hard work put in by one of the Tantis!) he started smiling when we stand him up. The babies have lunch between 11 and 11:30 in the morning (it sounds early but they’re up in the morning by 6:00 so 11:00 for lunch isn’t so early). Often I help feed the ones that are old enough to eat solid food but struggle with not spilling half their food on the ground. Once everyone has eaten, been washed and had diapers changed the babies go down for nap and I head in for lunch and sieste. I usually don’t nap , but I do take sieste for some quiet time, journaling time, or just working on little things that I want to get done. If kids are around and not at school sometimes I just sit and chat with our kids during sieste. After sieste on a typical day I will go out and play with the babies some more until their dinner time (5:00). After dinner the babies go indoors and I usually head off to other activities. Mondays and Thursdays I read with our two CP1 students (first grade) around 4:00. Teaching styles are very different here and so even though both of the students are repeating first grade they can’t write their name or recognize simple words. We’ve been working on recognizing little words like LA LE JE TU etc. I then read them short stories and stop whenever a word comes up that we’ve worked on, and have them read that word to me. Tuesday and Friday evenings I read with one, if not more, of our primary school boys. We go through their French textbook, I have them read outloud and we work on making sure they understand what their reading. A big problem in their classes is that kids can read very well phoenetically but have very little comprehension of what they’re reading. Monday mornings I teach English to one of our Tantis. The Tantis are the caregivers for the babies and toddlers (tanti translates to Auntie.). Since it’s her day off she and I have some time to sit down and work together. This week was our first class so I really just had an opportunity to find out where her English is at and figure out what we’ll be working on for future lessons so I can prepare future lessons in advance.I will also be teaching English to three of our students that don’t have English classes at school. English is a required subject starting at 6ieme here and continuing to Terminale. But three of our students are attending a local sewing school where it’s not a required subject. Since the girls are still eager to learn English I’m happy to work with them on it. Monday evenings is either Mooré class or English class with Adiara. Every other week we spend an hour teaching the other our language. Even just the little Mooré I’ve learned so far has been a huge help, being able to greet people in the street and ask them how they are. Tuesday night is prayer night. The kids have complete control over prayer night, it’s a peer lead night. I’ve only gone to a couple of nights but I certainly plan to go more. We’ve tried to get them to continue in Mooré when we come, but often they’ll switch at the last minute to French. I feel bad that they’re switching languages just for us, but it has given me a good taste of how the night works. They sing songs, someone gives a devotional, and then they all pray.
This past week in brief:
Tuesday was Tô day. Liz and I went out and had lunch with the kids. It was my second time eating Tô and I actually thought it was pretty good. Maybe I’m crazy? It’s not a flavour or texture I can ever imagine craving, but I didn’t struggle to eat it all, I thought it was just fine. This time the Tô was hot which made a big difference, since the first time I tried Tô it had gone cold. The kids showed us to twirl your fingers the right way so the stringy sauce doesn’t drip as much. The sauce has a lot of Okra in it which is what makes it so stringy I think. And it’s really hard to get the strings to stop – which made me a bit of a messy Tô eater. We could have opted to bring out spoons, but ‘This is Africa’ and we decided to do as everyone does and eat with our hand.
Thursday I celebrated my 19th birthday. The kids all wished me a happy birthday a few sang to me, and they even sang for me at our Valentine’s Day fete (they sang in English none the less!). Depending who I talked to I was either really old or really young. Some of the boys at the orphanage are actually older than me so they determined that they’re my older brothers. Some of the younger boys told me I was really old if I had 19 candles to blow out! On the 13th one of the boys told me it was his birthday so Liz and I sang for him immediately. Afterwards I turned to him and asked “C’est ton vrai vrai anniversaire?” (your real real birthday?) and he says “No. That was December.” I made him sing to me because my vrai vrai birthday was the day before, but inside I had to laugh. Lots of times here I have to clarify things by asking if it’s vrai vrai. A vrai vrai sibling or just a friend? To me there is a big difference but there isn’t always in Burkina.
Today we saw a little sprinkle of rain. It’s mid dry season so it’s not too common although it happens. The cooler temperature with the rain and wind made it really nice to sleep last night. I haven’t had trouble sleeping yet but it’s only been 30C at the hottest.
We’ve had a busy house with lots of visitors. We’ve welcomed 5 girls from France here for 2 week visit. They brought along with them something like 200kilos of books (or some other absurd number!) and they’re setting up a library for the school. I think it will be a great resource for the kids at the school as well as our kids who will also have access to it.
Yesterday night Liz and I were sitting outside enjoying the cool breeze when all of a sudden all the kids were yelling and running behind the dorms. I got up thinking ‘it has to be something important, these kids don’t yell about geckos or spiders or toads..i wonder what it could be.” A snake . He was maybe a foot long, red and yellow, and dead by the time I got there. Apparently those kind of snakes aren’t dangerous at all, and most people would tell you not to kill them (they obviously don’t live in our house). After the snake was disposed of most of the kids went back to studying. I noticed a few of the younger boys hadn’t left to go back and study, but were just sitting at the table with the older boy that had discovered the snake in the courtyard. I suggested one of the boys go study and he told me he was too scared to go study. When I told him it was just a little snake and not harmful he just shook his head and said he was scared. I thought he was just trying to get out studying until he shot a couple feet in the air when one of the other boys poked his foot with a stick. Turns out not everyone is a l’aise with all the critters around here. It sure makes me feel better about jumping when my foot catches the side of a toad at night instead of hitting all solid ground..
Prayer:
I mentioned a little while about a boy we’d helped seek medical care. Please continue to pray for him, he’s out of the woods but he continues to need medical attention. Please continue to pray for our children’s adoption cases. Pray that God’s will be put first and foremost in all of them, whatever point the child’s case is at. Several of our young children have returned home to their families in the past weeks. It can be sad to see the children leave but it’s a selfish kind of sad because the children should be with their families, and so at the same time I’m excited to see them head off. It takes time for both child and caregiver(s) to get used to each other, and for the child to get used to new surroundings and a new routine. Some families tend to really struggle with this transition time. Please pray for this time of transition. Liz and I will be travelling this weekend along with some others from Ouaga. I’m looking forward to the short trip and excited about the possibility of seeing some animals at Wildlife Park here in Burkina. Please pray for good health and safety while travelling.
Praise:Our water tower went up this week, and a lot of plumbing went down! This means we’re very close to being off the city water and using exclusively our well water, as well as having water in all areas of our courtyard. We’re so thankful for the work that has been done this week towards this. The children here remain healthy! For several weeks I have been aware that there was a possibility I may not have been able to participate in the OCC distributions after all. As it turns out it appears we didn’t go through proper channels to apply to work with the team to Burkina in March. The director here in Burkina informed us it was possible he would not accept us as a part of the team. After many failed attempts to contact him, Ruth finally did get in touch with him and fortunately he told us it would be no problem and Liz and I are welcome aboard the team. I’m extremely thankful to still have the opportunity to participate.

That's all for now. Bilfou!
God Bless

The picture on the left is me with one of our toddlers Tebnoma. I tied a bear on her back in the same fashion women would tie a baby on their back. She seemed thrilled, and posed for a cute picture too.


A cute story...One day last week when it was still cold they were all wearing shirts with long sleeves. I noticed Estelle’s sleeves were too long, so I rolled them up for her. When I turned around the other four toddlers were pulling their sleeves down over their hands, and holding them out to me. I smiled, rolled up four sets of sleeves and patted the toddlers on the heads. Next thing I knew they all had their sleeves rolled down again and were holding their hands out waiting for me to roll their sleeves up again.
Fun things..Saturday morning Liz and I baked bread. You can buy delicious bread here in Yako, and everywhere I’m sure. But everything is made with white flour, it’s impossible to find anything whole wheat or anywhere close. So we baked our own bread using wheat flour, which makes a nice change from the baguettes we usually buy. (Saturday afternoon we were invited to a fete at the local sewing school. Three of our girls go to the school, and four of the other students are sponsored in some way by Sheltering Wings. We had no idea what kind of fete it would be so we didn’t know at all what to expect, but it ended up being a really fun time! First they gave a lesson on making a men’s pants pattern, and then they had a fashion show. It was so fun to watch all the different outfits come down the runway, and the different models too. I know a little about Burkina Fashion now, and more specifically Yako fashion. So I could pick out the more traditional outfits and those that were more fashion forward. I certainly took a mental tally of some of the pieces I liked for next time I visit our tailor. We were seated next to two local chefs. One of the chefs was obviously enjoying the fashion show immensely. When I could I would sneak a peek at his face, simply because his expression was so priceless! He had this huge grin, and was leaning forward in his chair watching with wide eyes. I’ve never seen a chef be so attentive at any type of ceremony!
The list
Since I have just finished my first month in Burkina I thought I’d share with you some of the things from my list. I’ve been keeping a list of things that are different here from back home, and I have a different one for each month. Here are a few of the things I have written down... You buy everything in a bag.: Yogurt, peanut butter, water, tomato paste, even oil. All of these items and more can be purchased in small clear plastic bags. When you buy vegetables you buy them by the stack. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers it doesn’t matter. They’ll be stacked in little pyramids and you ask how much for the pyramid. Usually they’ll be two different price points, one for small pyramids and one for the larger ones. You decide on how many stacks at what price you want and the vendor will select veggies for you. I did this by myself for the first time yesterday! I usually go to the same couple of vendors so I’m starting to get to know them a little, which I enjoy. And we always go to the same boutique, which I enjoy for the same reason. Everything you buy will be put into black ’sachets’ grocery bags. These are then disposed anywhere which usually means the road. The women can carry anything on their heads. You all know I’m sure they can carry water on their heads. How about stacks of logs and sticks? or trays piled high with strawberries to sell at the side of the road... And they do it while carrying a baby on their back. Okay, you’ve all heard it but I did note it on my list. Time is not counted the way it is back home. Time has a rather fluid quality here. Time is something you always have more of, not something we’re always losing. It still happens, but rarely now, that I think ‘but aren’t we going to be late?’. The answer is no. Here in Yako at least, the time an event is supposed to start is probably a good time to leave the house.Along similar lines perhaps? Business hours are guidelines. They’re your best shot at finding the business open, but never a guarantee. Sometimes this is more frustrating than others. I try to recognize that it’s just a difference from how things are done where I’m from, and how things are done where I am now; there isn’t a right or wrong. And so I think of it as an exercise in patience. Animals run around everywhere. Apparently all the sheep, goats, pigs and chickens have owners. And apparently everyone can tell which of them belong to who! To me they all just look like sheep (who by the way look nothing like our sheep. They’re not furry or fuzzy. I had to have lessons on how to tell sheep and goats apart because at first they all looked the same.) The sheep aren’t too intelligent, they always seem to find themselves in the path of your vehicle. The pigs seem to fare better, although I witnessed one eating a sachet the other day so maybe it’s 6 of one and ½ dozen of the other?There is a greeting here that reminds me of la bise (that’s the French greeting right?) except not at all. Confused yet? It usually takes place between two men. They either touch cheeks 4 times, (twice per cheek), or temples 4 times. I haven’t figured out when this is applicable, but it appears to be a greeting between close friends. Hmmm those are just a few from January’s list..

a few other snapshots..

Below is Tuesday lunch...

Above, on the left is the sheep skull. Everything we ate came right out of the skull. On the the right are the eyes. Yummy!

Mouton? Pour le petit-déjeuner? And other tales.

Last Tuesday at lunch time Liz and I had our first taste of our friend the sheep. Sheep soup, and meat (the normal meat!). The boys didn’t realize we wanted to eat with them, so they saved us a bowl. But we got there quickly and it was warm and delicious. They brought us water to wash our hands (always wash your left hand with your right), and then we dug in. The meat was delicious (sorry sheep!), tender, and well prepared. The soup was tasty, although I struggled a little with all the pieces of bone. The kids a eat the bones and then spit them out, but I wasn’t sure how to, or if I wanted to crunch on them. When we asked where the brain was the boys replied the sheep head wasn’t cooked yet and it would be that night. We of course were invited to dine. Later Tuesday afternoon I stumbled across Ascension and Aschille cleaning the head. They scraped the tongue to removed all the “salité” (dirt), and then started popping teeth out! The sound of that alone was enough to make my stomach turn..I didn’t see them skinning the head, but I know that was also part of the cleaning process before it could be cooked. We didn’t end up eating more sheep Tuesday night, but Wednesday morning... 7:05 my alarm clock went off. Seconds later I heard a knock at my door. Liz told me the head was cooked, and Ascension wanted to eat it with us before he left for school at 7:30. We looked at each other smiling and said “Well, this is Africa! Sheep head for breakfast it is.” So off we went in search of breakfast. We started off with the sheep brain. I tried a little piece; the brain agreed with me the least. It sent my stomach rolling a little, but I held my own, and once I told my stomach not to act out I had no trouble with the rest of the meal. Next came the sheep tongue which was absolutely fantastic! No lies. After the tongue I had some jaw muscle (slightly crunchy), some of the eye (very chewy, but agreeable) and then finished it off with more tongue.Without a doubt it was the most unique breakfast I’ve ever had. The Tantis were all watching as we ate, and the kids loved to hear us tell them about it. Some of them couldn’t believe we’d eaten it! They said we were the first visitors they’ve ever had that have eaten anything like that. A couple of the kids told me they can’t even stomach the brain or eye... I told them next time they “égorge” (literally means to ‘slit the throat of an animal, it’s incorrect French apparently to say kill) a sheep, maybe I’ll try the stomach, feet, ears and intestine. They were rolling in hysterics at the thought, but I was pretty serious.

A lot of the Burkinabés have difficulty pronouncing my name. A couple of times some of the younger boys have even called me by Evangeline, because they said it’s easier to pronounce. Tuesday Liz and I were sitting chatting with Ascension (our sheep connoisseur; he walked us through both meals). He told us about the Mooré language and about Botanique names. I replied “Botanique names? Like flower names?” Of course that’s not the case, but I tried. Botanique names are names that have true Mooré origins. After telling Liz and I about these he said he’d give us Mooré names. We said we’d love that! My ‘nom Botanique’ is Fasnewendé (if you want to know how to pronounce it just sound it out, Mooré is written very phoenetically.) Fasnewendé translates in English to ‘everything is possible with God”. Some of the kids still call me Brittany, but most have adopted my Mooré name very quickly. Even one of the teachers at the school called me Fasnewendé today. (And actually it seems almost more Burkinabé to go by two different names, as lots of the kids have more than one first name.)
Wednesday was also gecko hunting day. We don’t actually set aside a special day for hunting geckos, Wednesday was just a particularly good day for us three. I really didn’t like the thought of killing geckos at first, but I got over it quickly. They’re everywhere! And if we didn’t kill the ones that venture into our territory I’m sure they’d overtake it. And now that the warmer weather is upon us, the geckos are really coming out of the woodworks...Wednesday Ruth killed a gecko, I killed two (one of them jumped on the couch while Liz was reading and another ran across my feet. Eeew!)The last gecko we got was one of the big ones from my room. It took Ruth, Liz and I to kill him. Liz was our furniture mover; Ruth and I wielded the brooms. He took numerous hits before he went down (not normal). He lost his tail under my window (totally normal), and two feet (also pretty normal), but he kept running around without two of his feet (not normal), which meant he tracked gecko blood all over my floor, some of my bags and books (don’t worry I cleaned up well.) When we finally took him down we heard a knock at the door. My first thought was that we made so much noise someone was coming to ensure all was well. But actually it was someone to talk with Ruth. So I went to get the dustpan to sweep up the gecko. As I bent over him the supposedly dead gecko, his eyes opened and he stuck his tongue out right at me. Often the geckos flinch after we kill them, must be nerves or something, but this was different. I had a very stereotypical female response: I shrieked and ran right out my door. My door leads right into the living area- Hello visitor! Eyes wide, he looked at me like ‘what on earth is the matter with this girl?”. Ruth calmly picked the broom back up and went back to ensure the job was truly finished. Later when cleaning up I found the tail (when you hit the tails off, they fling around all by themselves- it’s pretty amusing the first time you see it), and one of the feet. I can’t say for sure what happened to the other foot: out of sight out of mind?
Thursday I started my toddler class. Two days a week I’ll be doing a mini preschool for the five toddlers we have here. We’ll be singing, doing story time, crafts and shortly I’ll be making some musical instruments (drums and shakers), and getting them to play along. I’ll be switching it up often, and trying new things to try and keep them stimulated. We’re hoping something small like that, in conjunction with some of the other work we’ve all been doing with them will have us seeing them talking soon, and those that aren’t walking mobile soon. It’s a work in progress still, trying to find things that work for the kids. They have very short attention spans, and aren’t used to things like holding a crayon.
Thursday and Friday Adiara and I went out to do some home visits for our sponsorship program. The purpose of these home visits was to determine whether kids were eligible or not to be a part of our sponsorship program. Finding the kids houses is the first obstacle. For some Adiara had done some background work, but for most we had their name, and which sector of the city they live in to go off of. From that we drive to the right sector and started asking around. Sometimes someone could give us directions, but more often than not a kid would hop on their bike and we’d follow them on the moto. If the child was little enough Adiara would have them crawl on the moto with us, almost in her lap. They’d point and she’d drive. It takes time to find all the kids but Adiara somehow manages to find the kids on her list every time we go out.
Saturday morning was our Widow distribution. I don’t know for sure how it works every month, but today the women received grain, dried fish and salt. Jean does the distributions usually, and a local woman goes with him to pray with the women. Today Liz and I tagged along and Steven, one of our boys too. I enjoyed it a lot. Meeting the women, and seeing how joyful they are, even when some of them are faced with really difficult situations.
It was a good opportunity for me to practice what little Mooré I’ve picked up too! I understand a few of the basic greetings. Whoever told me African languages are fairly simplistic has never tried to learn Mooré! There’s a greeting for good morning, a different greeting to use from noon-1, a greeting for good afternoon, good evening and goodnight. Etc etc. However Monday I started Mooré lessons with Adiara so I’m hoping soon enough greetings will be a breeze and we can move onto something more difficult. She will be teaching me Mooré in exchange for English lessons. I think it’s a great deal, and I’m really excited to learn more of the ‘heart language’ of the people.
Sunday we did attend the church soccer game. The other team didn’t show up so we won by default, but fortunately another team at the same field found themselves in the same predicament and so our two teams played an exhibition game. So we were still able to watch some good soccer! Sunday night we had a movie night with all the girls here. We had baked a cake with most of them earlier and then Sunday settled in to a night of painting nails, eating cake and watching Pride and Prejudice. It was a lot of fun, and a good opportunity for me to get to know a few of our girls better. We’re looking forward to some boys nights soon. Who knows maybe we’ll have them cooking too?
It’s early Tuesday morning here, and already past 30 degrees. We are most definitely out of the cold streak we were having. Lots of days by mid day we’re reaching nearly 40 degrees...It still cools down a lot at night though (maybe to around 20 or a little lower). The temperature gauge on my blog is not always accurate, or so I’ve been told. Especially since it gives the weather for Ouaga- and apparently when it’s cold it’s colder in Yako, and when it’s hot it’s hotter.. I'm enjoying the weather right now, and even starting to get a bit of a tan. One local told me all the sun is good for me- it bronzes me a bit and "i need that." haha.

Prayer requests? The continued good health of our staff and children. Please pray for one very serious that we saw yesterday. The child was not one of ours but we have helped him seek treatment- pray that he will recover fully.
Please pray for our children. Pray that the Lords hand in their cases would be evident.

Barka! Thank you!
For your continued prayers and support. God Bless.