Paris and Home Again

Wow! Cool, breezy days, warm showers, drinkable water, great cuisine, and French we could understand! What a contrast!! However, I'll take the people of Burkina Faso any day over the Parisians, tho' they are making more of an effort these days to accomodate the tourists. Many were downright helpful and friendly. Plus, the streets are much, much cleaner than we remembered.
Our time in Paris started off a bit rocky since we did not get any sleep the night before on our overnight flight from Ouaga. The hotel room wasn't available until 2:00 p.m., so that was a long time to wait for sleep! However, our teeny, tiny room was newly renovated and clean, and one block from the Louvre. After a nap, we headed to the Latin Quarter (Left Bank) for supper. What a joy to walk around my favorite part of Paris and cross the Seine during twilight. Sigh....

Thursday, we started early and walked all day -- at least 10 miles! Bob was a trooper. Paris energizes me and I can walk all day, no matter how tired I am to start with. I love Paris! Bob didn't know the city as well as I, so I showed him some of my favorite places and he kept saying what an amazing city it is. After taking a brief nap at the hotel, we headed to the large underground mall nearby and did some shopping (TinTin Books and DVDs) and ate at a bistro under the umbrellas in the rain.

Another change in Paris -- people dress more casually now. I know a lot were tourists, but many weren't. Plus, there are bicycles everywhere! They are really promoting bicycle use, and the people are responding. In fact, they have a system of rent-a-bikes that is phenomenal. There are bike stands about every other block and you can rent them free for the first half hour. We weren't sure we wanted to brave the traffic, so just walked.

Friday was a super day! We headed back to a hotel near the airport because our French friends were driving down to Paris to see us. Andre and Chantal Vanlaecke, the pastor and wife we worked so closely with and who were our best friends in France, came and spent the whole day with us. We talked nonstop for 6 hours! It was like we had never left -- we had so much to catch up on and share. (We left France 17 years ago!) It was really a wonderful visit.

By Saturday, we were ready to head home and be in familiar surroundings. Our trip was long and tiring. Is it just me, or have the airlines shrunk the seats and the space for feet????

Right now we're in Shreveport, Louisiana staying with my Dad. We're looking for jobs so we can get a house and move our stuff up here from storage in Miami. Please be praying for us. We aren't sure what our next step will be.

Thank you for reading my blog. I posted 3 entries today, so be sure to read them all! It's been fun keeping you abreast of all we are doing and I hope you will stay in touch with us.

Last Impressions

( Here's the pizza delivery!)

Our trip was fantastic - worth all the inconviences and hassles along the way. We were able to see Joel, Heidi, and Jakob in their home environment and better understand some of their struggles and frustrations, but also their joy in serving the Lord where they are called. This is a poor country and that is evident everywhere you look -- the meager food selections, the street beggars, the aggressive vendors, the lack of simple things we take for granted, power outages, heat, constant dust, cold showers, filtered water, bumpy dirt roads filled with potholes to dodge, the dreary landscape and concrete buildings. This was the city. (The village is so different, so we've been told.) These are physical things we'll remember, but mostly I'll remember the people.

We felt totally safe there (except maybe driving on the crazy main streets!) The people are honest and for the most part, friendly. The Christians are joyful and cheerful - moreso than the general population, I found. (There are no agnostics there. Everyone believes in the spirit world whether or not they are Christians.) The Christians are so incredibly humble, as I mentioned earlier, and generous. Everything moves in slow motion and the simplest things take much longer to do than you would expect. Stores close for lunch siesta. Relationships are important and families are close. Age is respected, even venerated.

The children are beautiful. The music is wonderful - I never heard any of their native instruments other than the rhythm instruments, but their rhythms for each song were intricate and well performed. All ages love to sing -- and dance -- with enthusiasm!!

If we get to go back someday, we MUST visit a village!

The Calvary International Team: Kate, Heidi, Joel, Tyler, and John the Cat

Filling in Gaps

I'm just now getting a chance to update this blog because I've been cut off from the internet for a while. I'm at a Starbucks right now. Thanks for your patience!

To fill in some gaps.....let's see.....I never told you about our time at Pastor Moise's home. Besides seeing the kids, this was the highlight of our time in Africa. Pastor Moise works with Joel and has a heart for children's ministry. In fact, the night he invited us to his home, there was a neighborhood kid's club in his backyard. First, I'll tell about the meal and then the children's meeting.

I don't think I've met men and women more humble than these pastors and leaders in Africa. Pastor Moise invited us for a meal and his wife and her sister served us like royalty. They live in a simple, two- room house with an outside toilet and their kitchen is in the older mud-house they built to stake a claim on the property. Their floor is cement and the women did a lot of the cooking outside in the open and brought us food in the living room. The food was quite good ....except we didn't take to the toh (ground millet) and its okra sauce. They obviously went to a lot of trouble and expense to have us come. The only light source was a propane lantern, so everyone else outside was eventually in the dark. We heard singing, so went to join the kids in their courtyard who didn't mind the dark. We brought the lamp with us. :-)

All you who are over 50, listen up! The Africans respect their elders!! They gave me and Bob (plus Joel and Heidi because they respect them so much) seats of honor -- they brought out their big living room chairs for us! After a lot of singing, they asked us to share something (on the spot!) with the kids. There was a translator for their tribal language. Bob shared, then I shared, the Joel. 4 muslim kids gave their hearts to Jesus right then and another boy came back a few days later to give his, too. We also did a skit -- and Joel and Heidi are superb at this! We sure enjoyed seeing them in action. Even Jakob got into it. Then they asked us to pray over them. The leaders knelt before us for prayer. Wow -- talk about humble! Then we were asked to pray for the children, and they prayed for us. These people know how to pray! We could learn so much from them, but they honored us. It's amazing.

I mentioned a fantastic restaurant we ate at on Friday night. Here are some photos. Each room is decorated slightly differently to fit a tribal style. The place is full of art and sculptures for sale. Great idea -- adds local atmosphere and promotes good artists. The food was a bit pricey, but very good. The room we were in had fabric on the ceiling and thick sand on the floor. Some of the longer tables you see are beds that are used in the villages. I must say, they don't look comfortable!

The day of our departure, it poured down rain about the time we were to load our baggage in the truck. We had to put it inside the truck and check it in, then come back as a family when there was more room in the truck. And wouldn't ya know....we got behind a funeral. It must've been an important person because it was going VERY slowly, and it was a LONG procession. Everytime we tried to get around it on a side street, we'd run into it again -- and it went the same route we were taking -- past Joel & Heidi's street. We thought we'd never get home and collect everybody to get back to the airport! But, of course, we did. :-)

Here's a belated photo of my African Dress. I took it in the States, hence the grass. :-) I never got to wear it in Africa because I was sick (again) the Sunday I planned to wear it to church. The African women wear them everywhere - not just to church, etc. You see them on their mopeds, shopping, and walking down the streets in their gorgeously designed dresses. (They don't wear them to do housework, tho'). My theory is that it gives them an outlet for artistic expression and adds color to their otherwise drab surroundings. It certainly does add color! My fabric is tame compared to many I saw-- some had big roosters or soccer balls. Even the men wear the colorful patterns. My tailor designed the top and skirt according to what I liked. I wanted a simpler design, but he wanted to add interest -- scallops, trim, train. According to him, plain is boring! Look how long they wear them, too!

Wrapping up our time here

Our visit here is almost done. We leave tomorrow night (Tuesday) and head to Paris for a couple of days. I won't have a chance to add more to the blog until we get back home in the States. While in Paris, we plan to visit some of our favorite sites and just "hang out" a bit, eat some good French food, and take a warm shower!! Our good friends Andre & Chantal Vanlaecke and Andre & Monique Desmet are driving down from the north of France to spend Friday with us. What a treat! We haven't seen them in about 15 years!! We catch a plane back to Houston on Saturday and will drive to Shreveport on Sunday.

I had another bout with upset stomach over the weekend which lasted Saturday and Sunday. I think I have a touch of dehydration, but am drinking plenty of liquids now. I'll have to get you caught up with some photos of the amazing restaurant we went to on Friday night (which was NOT the reason for my stomach distress!). I've never seen anything like it, as you'll see by the photos when I post them. So, be watching. It probably won't happen until next Monday, so please be patient and check back!

Family Stuff

Wow, it's already Friday and we only have a few days left. Where has the time flown? Since our market expedition last week, we have had lots of adventures. Let's see...
We went bowling, took Jakob to FasoPark (a little kids amusement park), went to Church - Bob preached again, ate an American meal at the Rec Center, visited a Pastor's home and joined in the neighborhood children's outreach, ate at a Burkina restaurant which had lots of Italian Food, and watched Poirot while enjoying ice cream at the Britisher's home. Oh yes, my dress is finished! I plan to wear it this Sunday.

Here's some pics of our bowling night. It's a nice, new bowling alley with 5 lanes and real bowling shoes. We had lots of fun. It was Jakob's first time to bowl and he had some lucky shots which boosted his confidence, but mostly they went in the gutter. He was doing better than I was, so I let him have my turns too. (My excuse?? I couldn't find the right ball - ha!) Afterwards we went to an ice cream shop. That was a big treat.

We had planned to take a day trip to the village where a team just finished putting in a much-needed well and see Africa as it really is, away from the big city. But, we've had some medical issues -- most notably with Bob's diabetes one day -- and so decided not to venture too far from home at present. They originally wanted to make it an overnight trip so we could experience the beauty of the landscape at night and see some tribal dancing, etc. I'm sorry to say that we just weren't that adventurous. We've had a lot thrown at us in a little bit of time, and weren't ready to jump in that deep yet. I know, I know -- we're here and we may as well go for it, and perhaps in another week we would've been ready, but things can seem more daunting now than they did when we were younger. Maybe it's just getting old....or maybe we just have more sense now. :-)

This photo is Bob and me with Pastor Jacques, where Bob preached on Sunday. It's a smaller church and began after an evangelism team came to the area and there were so many converts that they needed to start a church right away. Pastor Jacques oversees 5 churches and did his Bible Training in South Africa. In fact, he has just returned from a 2 year extended training time there. The worship was unique (to me). There was call and response singing with various percussion instruments, group singing, the youth choir sang, and then several people came up to sing "solos" of testimonies. Some were songs they knew and some were songs they made up themselves. Sometimes the ladies danced to songs. The men usually join in, but didn't today. It was so much fun! They asked us to share a song, so we sang "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" with the motions (in English). They loved it!

I'll put the photos of our ministry time with Pastor Moise on the next blog entry. I need to get this one posted! These last 2 photos are of their waste management company....a donkey cart. He comes by once a week and picks up their garbage/trash. The other pic is of a street vendor. I'm not sure from what tribe. Most do not dress in tribal clothes - they normally wear slacks and shirts. This gentleman did not speak French, but that put no damper on his persistence!

Shopping in Ouaga

What a mix of smells, sounds, and colors! This particular market is huge and covers several blocks with mazes of stalls. We only covered one trail and some off-shoots and were there over an hour. Some shopkeepers were passive, waiting as we looked around, but others were more aggressive and hawked their wares to us. Many let me take their photos and called their friends to come see them on my digital camera, but a few wanted money for the right to take a photo (which I declined). I bought some fabric for a dress (more later), some scarves ($1.50 each!), and Bob found some decent sandals. Raw meat and fish were laid out on tables and they would fan flies off of them periodically. One stall had a big pan of homemade peanut butter sitting open to dip from. Fat pigeons would steal grain from the open bins. There was a large pen with chicken wire which held about 100 live chickens for sale. I don't know if they butchered them or if you took them home to butcher them yourself. Next we went to Marina Market in the downtown marketplace. It is the largest of 4, and had a small selection of European foods -- at a steep price. Heidi wanted some cheddar cheese for our dinner. She paid about $1o.oo/lb. We bought some chips (all they sell is Pringles elsewhere), some real toilet paper, and a few other odds and ends. $35.00! Then we headed down the street to get some fruits and vegetables. Now that was an experience. As soon as we pulled into the parking space, we were invaded by at least a dozen women constantly tapping on the windows and actually throwing food into the truck for us to buy. We'd hand it back and tell them what we wanted, but they would keep trying to get us to buy more. Talk about aggressive!

I had to pick up some medication for my problematic stomach, so we went to an open pharmacy. Only a few are open during lunch time, and they rotate. The pharmacist (a woman!) looked at the laboratory analysis and then "prescribed" medication for the results. I go on Monday to get more comprehensive results and if needed, a doctor will prescribe more. It doesn't seem serious, but I'll know more details on Monday. So far, no parasites! :-)

On the way, we took Xavier, a playmate of Jakob, home. The nanny/housekeeper gave us a tour of the house, and it was palatial compared to the norm. The (American) Mom works for Catholic Relief Fund and they provide the house for them. It has an English garden in back with a waterfall and......grass!!

Later, with fabric in hand, we went to a tailor that Heidi has used before. These little shops are everywhere because the women take such pride in their clothes. You see them riding bicycles, motorbikes, and walking in their gorgeous dresses of vivid colors. Some are very intricate. Even some of the housekeepers dress nicely to go to work and change into cleaning clothes and change back when they leave work. Anyway, the tailor showed me photo albums of his work and I chose a combination of styles to which he added some scallops and borders. These tailors conceive these ideas in their heads and then just start cutting. It's amazing! He sketched the final design to show me, took my measurements, and then the haggling started. I admit, I don't like to haggle, but they make the initial price so outrageous (thankfully, Heidi knows where the cost should land), that you have to get them to come down. That took about 20 minutes! Then we had to negotiate when it should be ready. I'll let you know if it really happens. I can see why the simplest tasks we take for granted in the states would take all day here!!

L'Auberge Bouganvillier

Our trip to the retreat center was very interesting, to say the least! We started out on the main road and as we left the city, we took the perimeter road which was even more crowded. After a bit, we turned onto a dirt road which wound around with many forks and potholes. At times it was harrowing, and it was so bumpy that when we finally stopped, you wanted to sit very still until your insides quit shaking! Along the way we passed various buildings and dwellings. This one is a single-family dwelling, but larger ones constituted a small village. Guess what...I saw grass! We crossed a dam and there were rice patties on one side and a patch of grass nearby. Of course, it's the rainy season and there was more water there. I also saw pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, guinea hens, children playing, women working in their scanty fields, a mango grove, and a small woods. We got a feel for the countryside and it was nice to get away from the traffic and noise of the city.

We finally arrived at the retreat center and after our insides settled down, we went to our neat little bungalows. The center is owned by a Frenchman and has its own generators to run the electricity out in the middle of nowhere. We each got an air-conditioned room with a bed and a bath. Not bad! After the dusty trip, we all immediately jumped in the pool and cooled down. Since we were the only guests there, we had it all to ourselves! Bob and I slathered sunscreen on and didn't get a touch of sunburn.

We ordered our meals there, and they were well prepared, but the poor pintades (guinea hens) we ordered were more bones than meat and very tough. Otherwise, it was quite good and had nothing unusual on the menu. :-) After putting Jakob to bed, we played games in the a/c. However, the manager forgot to ask us how long we wanted the generators on, so when the timer quit, so did the a/c. That was in the middle of the night!! Joel hunted them down and got them to turn it back on after a couple of hours. Ahh.......




The Center is very relaxing and peaceful -- especially since we were basically alone! It is surrounded by plane trees, lilac trees, eucalyptus, and of course lots of bougainvillea in

various colors. They had gravel paths lined with large red rocks, and thatch covered areas where we ate and chatted. It was very charming, I can see why they hazard the tortuous trip to get there.