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.

A Week in Retrospect

We've been here a week now and have covered a lot of ground, figuratively speaking. :) We are planning a trip today to a nearby retreat center run by the French. It'll be a nice getaway for Joel and Heidi and give us a feel for what little luxury they have around here.

Bob preached on Sunday at a SIM church in French. Pastor Joseph (standing beside Bob) translated into Moret with a lot of gestures and animation! Unfortunately, I had to miss out because of a stomach bug (ugh!), but I'm back on my feet today. Please pray that Bob doesn't go through that because he has to maintain a delicate balance of insulin and sugar in his system and this would definitely be a problem!

Here are some photos that I promised:
Blvd. Charles de Gualle is one of the main thoroughfares. You can see that the bikes and scooters have their own lane and red lights. That is not the case on other streets!

One photo is of an outside boutique. The streets are lined with these vendors showing their wares.

It's time for lunch, so we'd better head back to the house. I'll update you after we get back tomorrow.

Kids of Hope

Bob and I helped out with Kids of Hope this morning. It's a ministry to street boys who beg. They play games, hear a Bible story, and get a meal. They have averaged about 60 lately, and there were 49 boys today. They were to play water balloons, but God had other plans. It's the rainy season and the skies poured down on us, so no need for more water! The (red) baked earth is so hard that it cannot absorb the water, so it quickly turned into a lake in the courtyard area. We stayed under the awning on the high side as much as possible and watched the kids playing soccer in the rain, the "lake" and the mud. Someone said we should've played tug of war in all that mud! We ran to a drier area at the mission house during a lull in the downpour and the boys sat on the covered porch. During the story time you could have heard a pin drop, they were so engrossed. Imagine getting that many boys still and quiet in the States! They were a happy group and very friendly. A couple of the team members run this outreach every Saturday morning. They apologized for the craziness because of the rain, but we thought it was a lot of fun, and definitely out of the ordinary!

The rain has cooled things down considerably - at least for now. The boys were wet and cold. They are so used to the heat that any drop in temperature is cold to them. Some were shivering, and it was probably only 80 degrees!

I took some photos of the traffic, the motorbikes, etc., but forgot to bring my camera to upload the photos. I'll do that soon. We're going to Pastor Joseph's home tonight for dinner and meet his family. Tomorrow, Bob will preach. He decided to preach in French after all because it's easier than dealing with 2 translations. We sure are enjoying our time with Joel, Heidi, and Jakob!

More soon......

It's hot!

After traveling all night and not being able to sleep -- we tried! -- Bob and I finally fell asleep on the plane from Paris to Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso where Joel and Heidi live). So, my first view of Africa from the plane was when we were about to land in Niamey, Nigeria. We opened the airplane window and all we could see in every direction was red dirt. That's it! Different swirls of red dirt, but only red dirt. As we approached the little airport, we started to see some dots here and there in loose clusters -- they looked like freckles on the landscape. The closer we got to the airport, the more clusters we saw. They were small shrubs and tiny trees. All the buildings were short and square. Oh! In one place, we saw markings in the dirt that looked like crop circles, only they were straight lines that angled off of each other, etched deep into the dirt, but going nowhere. ???

When we landed in Ouagadougou (Ouaga), Pastor Joseph was there to meet us after we passed through the health card and passport checks. He works closely with Joel and Heidi on their children's projects. What a blessing! He speaks at least 4 languages and he got someone to help with the bags (which all arrived!) and got us swiftly through customs. There Joel and Jakob were waiting to greet us. I had to give Jakob a ton of hugs from everyone -- he patiently endured all that affection.

Impressions? There are beggars and street vendors everywhere always trying to separate you from some francs. There is no grass anywhere. However, there are definitely more bushes and trees here than in Niger! People are mostly very friendly, and the Christians are especially friendly and open -- they laugh and smile A LOT. There are so many people on bicycles and motor scooters, you wouldn't believe! -- second per capita only to China. Driving here would drive me nuts. They weave in and out, and there are no lanes on the paved streets, not to mention the dirt streets which are also full of kids playing. I'm going to take some photos and try to get them uploaded to show you what I'm describing.

Bob's diabetic supplies passed security, no problem. We're pretty much on the schedule here, but still need a nap here and there. The heat just saps you. We drink filtered water and Joel and Heidi's housekeeper (Germaine) scrubs all the fruits and vegetables with bleach before serving them. That's the norm for them. We went to the grocery store yesterday. Let's see...Cocoa Pebbles costs $13.00 for a small box! They don't sell fresh milk, you buy it in long-storage cartons (it was the same in France, so that was no surprise). Oh yes, toilet paper -- that universal necessity -- comes on tiny rolls about an inch deep. I didn't check the price. But what a wonder: they had caffeine-free Diet Coke in cans! Not cheap, of course. We bought 4 for special occasions.

Overall we aren't feeling any shock yet, but we've been cushioned by being with our family who also knows the ropes. Ah yes, we also sleep with an air conditioner in our room. We only run it around bed time, but they have a swamp cooler for the living area, so that takes the edge off the heat indoors. I'm speaking French just fine, but sometimes have difficulty understanding what they are saying to me because of their dialects and accents. But they understand me - at least those who speak French. Many don't have a large French vocabulary because they speak the tribal languages and only use French for basic needs.

OK -- I'll stop for now and give you an update in the next day or two. I'm planning to update the blog at least every 2 days unless we happen to be on a village trip, so keep checking back. Add your comments, too! I've already gotten some very useful information from the first comment - thank you! Thank you, too, for all your prayers and emails.

Prayer Requests:

• Continued good health
• Easing into the culture
• Relationships with the nationals we meet
• Bob - preaching this Sunday. He decided to do his first one in English with a translator.
• Opportunities to minister effectively
  

I haven't yet wrapped my mind around the idea that I'm actually going to Africa for three weeks. There have been too many other things to think about -- like packing up our apartment in Florida and getting all of our stuff stored, and driving to Louisiana and staying with my Dad. Bob and I have been so busy buying what we need to take (including suitcases to put it in) that I've had little time to stop and think about the actual trip. Maybe that's a good thing! I find that I'm majoring on minors, though. I think it's because my brain hasn't had time to settle down and do its normal job. Ha! It had better get busy because we leave in just 2 days!

I'm making lists as I think of things that I need to get or to do. Like....don't forget the passports!! At least tickets are electronic now and I don't have to worry about forgetting those. :-) Then there's medical supplies to consider -- how much do we put in our carry on luggage? Not that we have that much, but Bob's diabetic supplies are vital and we don't want to run into hassles with TSA. I've gone to their website and it looks like that will be OK.

Initial prayer requests:

• Safe travel
• Making all our destination timelines (we're driving from Shreveport to Houston to catch our plane to Paris. There we'll only have a 2-hour layover before catching our plane to Burkina Faso).
• Physical adjustments - esp. Bob with his diabetes to consider
• Our stuff kept safe in storage in Miami (no hurricanes, please!)
• Our pets: Neon (cat) staying with my Dad and his 5 cats..'nuff said. Cassie (dog) in a kennel for 3 lonely weeks.