Last Sunday was election day in Burkina Faso for local officials like mayors. It took until Friday to tally the results and as usual, there was unhappiness among certain groups. There was an example of how politics have gone terribly awry everywhere in the world, including Burkina Faso. A man took out a very large loan to run for office. When the results were reported and he found out he was not elected, he sadly committed suicide. Its painful to see how much money is spent in political campaigns when people are starving all over the world.
Last week at Tabitha Center we began meeting on Fridays, as well as Mondays and Wednesdays. I had been given some material that had flannel graph figures to use while teaching the lesson. The lessons are all written in French and encourage the instructor to ask a number of questions to the audience. I began by telling the women (we have capped the number at 70) that since I don't know Moore, I wouldn't know if there answer was right or wrong. They laughed. But I reminded them that Suzanne (the pastor's wife that translates my French into Moore) would. And they laughed again. I was very nervous about this approach because I wouldn't be able to understand their answers, and I didn't know if they would respond. The lesson was about how a new baby fits in the family dynamics, and then asks if it is more important for the child to be healthy or to be taught good morals. I had no need to worry about them responding! They loved the flannel graph figures and the opportunity to voice their thoughts and feelings. One of the points of the lesson was how children learn bad behavior. There was an image of a father at a bar, the mother and father fighting in front of the children, and two women yelling at each other, and we talked at length about these examples. After we finished the lesson, our representative from Aceddes and Suzanne had an announcement for the women. Evidently the last time we met, one of the women had a large sum of money that had been given to her to give to her husband. It was rolled up in the top of her skirt, which many of the women do. Two hours after she left Tabitha Center she realized the money was gone so she returned to the Center and mentioned something about her neighbor sitting next to her when they were working and the insinuation that maybe she or one of the other women took the money. Suzanne asked the women to pray together that the money would be found. Immediately after saying amen, the room erupted in women yelling at each other. It took almost 10 minutes for me to get them to sit down and be quiet. I said don't you remember when we talked about I Corinthians 13 and how when you're angry, you deal with those involved with love and not with yelling at each other. And then I pointed out that we had just talked about how women yelling at each other was a bad example for their children, and asked if they thought they had just been a good example. They hung their heads and shook their heads no. We have women who are Catholics, Assembly of God, Muslims, Christians, etc. in the room. In this culture it is not uncommon for the women to yell at each other, and with the differing religions, not everyone believes that this is wrong. Although it was a very difficult situation, it was also a great learning opportunity about how to deal with situations like this with love, just like God loves us. And, oh by the way, the woman found the money at her home that afternoon.
Yesterday was a fair at the International School. We set up a booth to sell the products that the women at Tabitha Center are making. Someone asked if I was concerned if the product would sell and I could easily answer no. I know that God has blessed the work there over and over so I wasn't concerned. As it turns out, we sold more than I anticipated. Many people were intrigued by the fact that the jewelry is made from magazine pages rolled into beads. The women at Tabitha Center get better every day at rolling the beads, and creating the pieces of jewelry. They have been making hair scrunchies. Last week several of the women came to me and said they had created a new model for the scrunchie and what did I think. It was far better and more attractive than the model I had given them. They really take pride in what they are doing. Talk about exciting!!
The Dental Team that was recently here donated a large sum of money to Tabitha Center. One of the ways in which we are going to use the money is building a play area for the children. There is a baby tied to almost every woman's back with one or two toddlers in tow. We even have two sets of twins now. The play area will serve a number of purposes including taking down the noise factor (understatement!), and an opportunity to teach them about God. A team arrives early this week and they will be working on building wooden toys for the children. These kids don't know how to play, so we need toys that are as sturdy as possible to teach them. A team from my home church is coming out in February and one of the members of the team is the Children's Minister. We're working together to see what they can bring with them as well. Talk about exciting!
It was suggested that we have a Christmas party at Tabitha Center. In discussing what the program would look like, I brought up providing a meal so 1) how would the cost of the food be covered (there will be well over 150 people there with the women and children) and 2) how could it be prepared. The pastor's wife said Christmas is about being a family and remembering Jesus' birth so it's not necessary to be concerned about such things. She said we could have everyone bring their own meal and have a picnic and just enjoy being together. What wisdom! Talk about exciting!
I also found out that the Burkinabae people don't give presents on Christmas, but they do on New Years.
On a personal note, when I came to Burkina Faso I decided that how I looked didn't matter. My concerns should be around the people I was serving. And besides, I'm 60 now and no spring chicken! But my vanity won out over my intellect this week, so many of you have seen the new me without grey hair on a picture Betty Arnold posted. The woman who dyed it for me is a Burkinabae and her comment was that everyone has their time to go grey, but it wasn't my time yet (love that woman!). So thanks for all the kind comments. Sorry I couldn't be stronger about the whole vanity thing, but such is life!
