As a child I remember hearing sermons on how we as Christians are and should expect to be persecuted.  I never understood that -- no one made it hard for me to worship, my family was never threatened because we were Christians, I didn't fear any other religious group or ever expect to be harmed or killed because of what I believed in.  Today at Central Church my understanding changed with a resounding force. A man and his family from Niger were visiting and he told of the persecution there.  At the conference last week there were reports of pastors being denied land to farm and access to the village well in the villages they serve.  There is an upcoming election here that could change if and how Christians can worship.  They pray constantly about this (sometimes all night long) and ask God to guide their leaders   I know some of the native people that live here -- they are my friends -- and the understanding and realization of what might lie ahead for them is very real.  It is no longer just a far away place that I don't understand or know about that.

On a lighter note, if you are a cheddar cheese lover this is not the place for you!  We haven't seen any in the local market the month that I've been here and this happens frequently.  If some does happen to make it in, the price is unbelievably high.

Lessons in Patience

Today is the beginning of my third week in Burkina Faso. In those three weeks I have learned quite a bit, but know so little. Patience is not my virtue right now.  I want to know French NOW and I want to be working NOW.  I learned how to ask "how much?" in French. Yesterday I walked to an outdoor market not far from our house to buy avocados.  I was able to tell the women that I wanted avocados, but they didn't have any.  One of the women took me back through a maze of vegetable and fruit stands until she found a woman that had them.  The area was somewhat covered overhead so it was darker and flies were everywhere.  It was a little disconcerting at first, but I proudly asked "how much?" in French and when she replied I had no clue what she said!  Woops - need to work on the answer once I ask the question!   Daniel helped me this morning on the names of different currencies. Definitely something I will need to concentrate on learning.

I also drove by myself yesterday for the first time.  Although that doesn't sound like much, here I felt triumphant when I made it to my destination and back!  There are no road signs with the names of the roads, many of the dirt roads look the same, and there is no point of reference like mountains. There are so many types of vehicles such as bicycles, motorscooters, motorcycles, donkey-drawn carts - you name it!   I'm driving a 8 or 12 passenger van and am very thankful that back in the States I drive a Suburban . Next time I will venture a little further out.

We attended the Central Church again yesterday.  There was quite a bit of confusion because a woman who had breast cancer had died that morning.  She had no money, so the church was attending to her burial and caring for her four daughters.  The Youth Group was to have a meeting that afternoon, but it was cancelled so that they could dig the grave.  Since the woman had no money, her body had to be buried quickly to avoid costs for holding it to the next day.  It was very impressive to see the response of the group.



 

Introduction at the Tabitha House

The woman in front is Suzanne, the pastor's wife

Women at the Tabitha House

Betty Arnold and Dee Dee.

Tabitha House

Children of Sector 30

Yesterday, 9/12/2012/, John and Betty Arnold took me to Tabitha House to meet with Johasaquin, an Accedes employee who oversees the operation there. We were expecting to just meet with him, but as it turns out, the women of Sector 30 come to Tabitha House every Monday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. - noon so they were already there. In what seemed like a whirlwind moment, John, Betty and I were seated in front of the women and I was being introduced as the woman from America that had come to work with them.  It is hard - really impossible -- for anyone who hasn't visited Burkina Faso and Sector 30 to be able to understand the poverty.  They live in mud huts with no water, no lights, scarce food and where nothing is easy.  As I listened to the introduction and looked out over their faces, my first impulse was to get up and run!  I kept thinking how can I make a difference?  What can I do?  I felt totally overwhelmed.  But I heard a voice in my head saying "You can love them.  You can love them."  And I can certainly do that!  As we build relationships, and I learn more about their lives, ways for helping will come. 

I am always enamored by the children, so the pictures are a few that I met yesterday.  They are so eager to smile at you, shake your hand, hold your hand.  Most of their clothes were very tattered, so I can hardly wait to take out the pillowcase dresses that the women from Clay Church made!

There are three different languages that are spoken at Tabitha House - French, Jula and Moore (pronounced More-ay).  Betty is helping me find a young woman that can translates for me.  (It's going to be awhile before I can speak French fluently enough to communicate).  When that person is on board, then I will start going on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Worshipping at the Central Church Burkina Faso - September 9, 2012

This morning I had the awesome privilege to attend the Central Church in Burkina Faso.  I was first struck by how excited the people were to worship and how large the group was.  There are a lot of young people and as you can see in some of the videos they do a lot of singing and dancing.  What is really amazing as well is that the sermon is done in two different languages and the translator never misses a beat!  My French teacher attends there and he introduced us to his wife and little boy Sam.  The people were very friendly.  Afterwards I had the chance to have lunch with John and Betty Arnold.  They are great people who work very hard to spread God's love in this country.  It was a great day!

Claire cooks for us and
cleans the intern house

My roommates, Joanna and Susan

Burkina Faso!



Daniel Ouedraogo Salifou



My first day in Burkina Faso was spent setting up my room and in Orientation.  I share a home with two other women, Susan and Joanna.  There are approximately 10 of us on the team and we met to talk about what to expect living here and getting to know each other.  This morning I started language training with Daniel.  He is very kind and patient - the later being the most important! 


 

I was going to include a picture of our street and house but it has been raining for over 3 hours now.  At times this morning it was hard to hear Daniel because the rain was coming down so hard.  Most of the streets are dirt, so you only imagine what that means for trying to get around. 

One of the things I had forgotten about was the number of people here and how noisy it is.  At 4:30 a.m. the rooster next door starts crowing and the prayers from the mosque down the street blare over a loud speaker.  There is constant activity (except when it rains).  Many of our neighbors cook outside and spend most of their day and evenings out on the street or in their yards.  Goats are everywhere - just roaming around!

Just before I left, Janet Ross visited Clay Church and gave me several books to use while I was here.  She is a nurse who has travelled with teams to majority world countries to provide health care.  One of the books she gave me is called Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment.  One of the suggestions in the book is a simple compost toliet for tree planting.  Basically it's a moveable shelter over a shallow pit.  When the pit is full, it is covered with dirt and a tree is planted.  The toliet makes fertilizer for the tree and helps to decompose the waste.  I'm anxious to see if this is something we can do in Sector 30 with the Moringa trees.