Hello all!!
Well...it is the Monday before the Monday I leave on!...That means I have 1 WEEK LEFT!!
I must admit, it is a tad freaky!!...and I have all kinds of mixed feelings.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I will miss it all (and everyone) tromendously!!!
Yet I am SO excited to get home and see everyone again...To be able to tell them all about things here and about how great of an experience it has been!
Well...for now I have found that focussing on the moment is best and that I need to realize that I still have some experiences ahead of me!!
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to join a team that had been here for a week already in going to Fada N'Gourma (an other town about 3 hours drive away from Ouaga). Although we didn't see much while we were there, it was quite nice to just be somewhere else! I got to spend some time with Jen and Marcu Beader and I must say that it was FABULOUS!! they're both great cooks and a wonderful couple.
All was well until I managed to pick up AN OTHER stomach bug!!! that's 3 in 3 months!! how great is that!...luckily, they go away pretty quick...and they're a great weight loss tool!!
Now I am doing some translation for people and taking life easy until it's go time.
Thank you all for your prayers and support during my time here.
See you all soon!!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Please forgive me for how late this is!!
Oh my word!...
ok...so it not only has been OVER a month since I have written, but it is also now very close to my leaving Burkina (3 weeks almost exactly to be precise...)
So since I left you completely empty handed for so long, I will give you a brief over view of everything....and then I would ask that you comment with questions or any needs for further information and I'll then answer those comments in my next blog (which I promise won't be in a month!!)
Uploading pictures on here is also very time consuming and I'd rather tell you all that happened rather than wait on pictures to show up. I have online albums for each event, and I would love for you all to see them. I have comments beside each picture to explain what they are.
Since June 6th (it seems like forever!)...The preschool ended. We had our ceremony as planned (well...the third time around ended up being the right one...) and the kids showed their parents what they had learned. They then got some popcorn, candy and Bissap (a juice that is made from hibiscus flowers...) and they had a blast while their parents were stil inside being told about what the plan was for next year and all the boring parent stuff!...heh...Because I want to make sure I cover everything, I won't put pictures of the final event because you've seen the kids in other posts. I will allow our attention to turn to all the other things God's blessed me with doing in the past month and almost a half...
Right after the preschool work, I joined Stephane and Myriam Gigandet in working and PanBila2. The organization was first started by a Belgian couple who wanted to help the street boys of Ouagadougou. They then extended to PanBila2 to service young women in difficult situations. The girls are all pregnant or have recently had a child, and they are either stepping off the streets for reasons tired to prostitution, familial rejection, a bad marriage...name it...they've probably had a girl from that situation come through. It was a very big learning experience for me because I could interact with the girls and ask them questions. I learned incredible amounts about the culture, but also about how the law works here when it comes to who a child belongs to. In Burkina, the child belongs to the father. There were a few hard pills to swallow when I hear about how things were done and how poorly treated the mother was in the whole equation, and it spoke a lot to my "social-work student brain". There were times where I wondered why all the Burkinabe women just didn't revolt...but I guess that's not really an option. The Gigandets also taught me a lot because they've been in contact with the legal and health issues around PanBila2 for about 9 months now. I really enjoyed my 2 weeks there. However...in the middle of those 2 weeks, I was so fortunate as to go to a picnic organized together all the organizations servicing the young women who are on the Ouaga streets. The food was just a little more than my untrained body could handle and I got to get amoebas. They're just a stomach parasite really...microscopic...but they had my in bed with a fever and the runs for a whole day after the picnic and then pretty much out of commission the day after that. I have never been so thankful for the invention of antibiotics! Cipro made me all better...heh. So I could only attend the last 2 days of my second week at PanBila2 but I had a blast with the girls...
If you'd like to see pictures, please copy and paste the following link in your browser's address line and it will lead you to an online photo album of all the photos I have from PanBila.
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37026&l=96b56&id=509130270
So a short break in time, I went horseback riding with some friends I've made here one day after being just done at PanBila. Here are some pictures for you to look at if you would like (it's very hard to take pictures on horseback!!) I learned 2 things however. I don't like to ride French sattle...and i need to get more leg muscles so I can go along with the horse's trot! Enjoy the pictures :)
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37046&l=ea518&id=509130270
Ok. Next, there was an other 2 weeks time where I left Ouaga and had little access to internet (which also explains why I then got so pushed back...for here until now, I spent about 3 days maximum in Ouaga before moving to the next thing...it was quite exciting!) Yako was the name of the town I went to. There is an orphanage there that was just a whole amazing experience. God spoke to me in ways I had never realized he could speak to me before...and I enjoyed playing with the kids and the babies, but my interaction with the missionaries was also a huge blessing. Rebekah ended up leaving after our first week there because her time here was over and it was hard for me because it left a void...I had been with her almost every day...for every activity for the past 6 weeks. But before she left, she gave a lot of wisdom bits that I still cherish preciously. God taught me how to appreciate me quiet time with Him in the morning and I hope to be able to make is a solid habit to spend time reading my Bible and praying in the morning. The other girls who were there and the lady who founded the orphanage were also very wise and I learned a lot from them as well. Age does make a difference on you maturity...and life experience is something that once cannot replace by mere knowledge. It makes me excited about growing older! In Yako, I participated in a distribution of goods to sponsored widows, in bringing two boys (7 and 8 years old) to villages where they would either be with a parent or a member of their extended family who could take care of them for the summer vacation to see how they integrated, and I also helped out at a distribution for sponsored orphans. I was amazed by all the things that God is doing in the 46 children from ages 0 to 20 who are there and how well things are going considering the orphanage is only seven years old. I also went to great church services. The second one was a special service that actually lasted 6 and a half hours!! we left after 5!!....it was REALLY hard to sit there for that long...and although the worship was lovely even in its length, and that the "short" message before communion was meaningful, the pastor kind of lots me after he had been talking for an hour. Once he was done, I thought..."oh...ok it wasn't that bad...i can't complain...4 hours..." and then a prayer marathon began, where the leader used the microphone even though I thought he had a strong enough voice to project to the end of the sanctuary and back to the podium...it didn't help that the speakers were all somehow pointed in our directions and that we were sitting in the front row as special guests...but...It was a new experience, and I would trade it for nothing!
Yako pictures can be found at the following link:
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37033&l=b0a4b&id=509130270
I came back to Ouaga for a night, and headed out to Yimdi (an area also known as the village of hope) for the SIM prayer retreat. Amazing! I loved spending so much time talking to God and communicating concerns and requests as a whole missionary family. Those 2 days seemed very long, but it was a good long. I got to meet some people whose names I had heard but whose face were unfamiliar...and I also could spend some time with those I had already met from different parts of Burkina, and had clicked with. The pictures from that weekend are not the greatest because I was very focussed on the whole theme of the retreat....but enjoy anyway...
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37048&l=30b27&id=509130270
SOOOOO....we're getting a little closer to the present...A few days after we came back from the weekend, I was now heading out on a four day trip to Mali! a few things to point out...(I encourage you to see the pictures from this bit if none of the others because they have much detail attached to them and some are simply beautiful!!) It's a completely different climate!!, we dropped off a father/son team who went off to camp in the Dogon cliffs for a couple nights (the killed a snake and caught a scorpion just to show us....), The whole drive up is just full of beautiful landscapes and I’d have so many more pictures had I not been in a car going 100 km/h...We went to see Djenne, town with the world's largest mud mosque (and I must say it was quite impressively large...), we visited Mopti, famous for being the place were the Bani and Niger convolve (but the waters don't mix...it's the weirdest thing!...one of the pictures shows it well...), I got sick...AGAIN! but it was nothing big this time...a little virus that everybody I was with ended up getting. I was just the unlucky one to have in the day we were driving the 13 hours back in the car on the bumpy African roads!...but I should not say it like that because I am counting my blessings that it was nothing big...I was fearing amoebas again or worst...malaria...so...I’m all good now...Enjoy the pictures
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37131&l=96ca2&id=509130270
SO That's a very brief overview. Now I am in Ouaga for most of the time until I leave in 3 weeks (only!!) and I will make sure to keep up a little more. In a little over a week, I’ll be working out a VBS type program for a week which is exciting...and in the mean time...I’m trying to settle things out in my brain...trying to figure out what God's taught me....what I need to take home....in terms of both knowledge and luggage...(I’ve got a lot of African stuff I’m bringing back!!...heh...first time in Africa!...what can I say!)
Thank you all for you prayers and for all you support even when I fail at giving you any news.
God bless you all and I'll catch you later!!!
ok...so it not only has been OVER a month since I have written, but it is also now very close to my leaving Burkina (3 weeks almost exactly to be precise...)
So since I left you completely empty handed for so long, I will give you a brief over view of everything....and then I would ask that you comment with questions or any needs for further information and I'll then answer those comments in my next blog (which I promise won't be in a month!!)
Uploading pictures on here is also very time consuming and I'd rather tell you all that happened rather than wait on pictures to show up. I have online albums for each event, and I would love for you all to see them. I have comments beside each picture to explain what they are.
Since June 6th (it seems like forever!)...The preschool ended. We had our ceremony as planned (well...the third time around ended up being the right one...) and the kids showed their parents what they had learned. They then got some popcorn, candy and Bissap (a juice that is made from hibiscus flowers...) and they had a blast while their parents were stil inside being told about what the plan was for next year and all the boring parent stuff!...heh...Because I want to make sure I cover everything, I won't put pictures of the final event because you've seen the kids in other posts. I will allow our attention to turn to all the other things God's blessed me with doing in the past month and almost a half...
Right after the preschool work, I joined Stephane and Myriam Gigandet in working and PanBila2. The organization was first started by a Belgian couple who wanted to help the street boys of Ouagadougou. They then extended to PanBila2 to service young women in difficult situations. The girls are all pregnant or have recently had a child, and they are either stepping off the streets for reasons tired to prostitution, familial rejection, a bad marriage...name it...they've probably had a girl from that situation come through. It was a very big learning experience for me because I could interact with the girls and ask them questions. I learned incredible amounts about the culture, but also about how the law works here when it comes to who a child belongs to. In Burkina, the child belongs to the father. There were a few hard pills to swallow when I hear about how things were done and how poorly treated the mother was in the whole equation, and it spoke a lot to my "social-work student brain". There were times where I wondered why all the Burkinabe women just didn't revolt...but I guess that's not really an option. The Gigandets also taught me a lot because they've been in contact with the legal and health issues around PanBila2 for about 9 months now. I really enjoyed my 2 weeks there. However...in the middle of those 2 weeks, I was so fortunate as to go to a picnic organized together all the organizations servicing the young women who are on the Ouaga streets. The food was just a little more than my untrained body could handle and I got to get amoebas. They're just a stomach parasite really...microscopic...but they had my in bed with a fever and the runs for a whole day after the picnic and then pretty much out of commission the day after that. I have never been so thankful for the invention of antibiotics! Cipro made me all better...heh. So I could only attend the last 2 days of my second week at PanBila2 but I had a blast with the girls...
If you'd like to see pictures, please copy and paste the following link in your browser's address line and it will lead you to an online photo album of all the photos I have from PanBila.
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37026&l=96b56&id=509130270
So a short break in time, I went horseback riding with some friends I've made here one day after being just done at PanBila. Here are some pictures for you to look at if you would like (it's very hard to take pictures on horseback!!) I learned 2 things however. I don't like to ride French sattle...and i need to get more leg muscles so I can go along with the horse's trot! Enjoy the pictures :)
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37046&l=ea518&id=509130270
Ok. Next, there was an other 2 weeks time where I left Ouaga and had little access to internet (which also explains why I then got so pushed back...for here until now, I spent about 3 days maximum in Ouaga before moving to the next thing...it was quite exciting!) Yako was the name of the town I went to. There is an orphanage there that was just a whole amazing experience. God spoke to me in ways I had never realized he could speak to me before...and I enjoyed playing with the kids and the babies, but my interaction with the missionaries was also a huge blessing. Rebekah ended up leaving after our first week there because her time here was over and it was hard for me because it left a void...I had been with her almost every day...for every activity for the past 6 weeks. But before she left, she gave a lot of wisdom bits that I still cherish preciously. God taught me how to appreciate me quiet time with Him in the morning and I hope to be able to make is a solid habit to spend time reading my Bible and praying in the morning. The other girls who were there and the lady who founded the orphanage were also very wise and I learned a lot from them as well. Age does make a difference on you maturity...and life experience is something that once cannot replace by mere knowledge. It makes me excited about growing older! In Yako, I participated in a distribution of goods to sponsored widows, in bringing two boys (7 and 8 years old) to villages where they would either be with a parent or a member of their extended family who could take care of them for the summer vacation to see how they integrated, and I also helped out at a distribution for sponsored orphans. I was amazed by all the things that God is doing in the 46 children from ages 0 to 20 who are there and how well things are going considering the orphanage is only seven years old. I also went to great church services. The second one was a special service that actually lasted 6 and a half hours!! we left after 5!!....it was REALLY hard to sit there for that long...and although the worship was lovely even in its length, and that the "short" message before communion was meaningful, the pastor kind of lots me after he had been talking for an hour. Once he was done, I thought..."oh...ok it wasn't that bad...i can't complain...4 hours..." and then a prayer marathon began, where the leader used the microphone even though I thought he had a strong enough voice to project to the end of the sanctuary and back to the podium...it didn't help that the speakers were all somehow pointed in our directions and that we were sitting in the front row as special guests...but...It was a new experience, and I would trade it for nothing!
Yako pictures can be found at the following link:
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37033&l=b0a4b&id=509130270
I came back to Ouaga for a night, and headed out to Yimdi (an area also known as the village of hope) for the SIM prayer retreat. Amazing! I loved spending so much time talking to God and communicating concerns and requests as a whole missionary family. Those 2 days seemed very long, but it was a good long. I got to meet some people whose names I had heard but whose face were unfamiliar...and I also could spend some time with those I had already met from different parts of Burkina, and had clicked with. The pictures from that weekend are not the greatest because I was very focussed on the whole theme of the retreat....but enjoy anyway...
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37048&l=30b27&id=509130270
SOOOOO....we're getting a little closer to the present...A few days after we came back from the weekend, I was now heading out on a four day trip to Mali! a few things to point out...(I encourage you to see the pictures from this bit if none of the others because they have much detail attached to them and some are simply beautiful!!) It's a completely different climate!!, we dropped off a father/son team who went off to camp in the Dogon cliffs for a couple nights (the killed a snake and caught a scorpion just to show us....), The whole drive up is just full of beautiful landscapes and I’d have so many more pictures had I not been in a car going 100 km/h...We went to see Djenne, town with the world's largest mud mosque (and I must say it was quite impressively large...), we visited Mopti, famous for being the place were the Bani and Niger convolve (but the waters don't mix...it's the weirdest thing!...one of the pictures shows it well...), I got sick...AGAIN! but it was nothing big this time...a little virus that everybody I was with ended up getting. I was just the unlucky one to have in the day we were driving the 13 hours back in the car on the bumpy African roads!...but I should not say it like that because I am counting my blessings that it was nothing big...I was fearing amoebas again or worst...malaria...so...I’m all good now...Enjoy the pictures
http://redeemeron.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37131&l=96ca2&id=509130270
SO That's a very brief overview. Now I am in Ouaga for most of the time until I leave in 3 weeks (only!!) and I will make sure to keep up a little more. In a little over a week, I’ll be working out a VBS type program for a week which is exciting...and in the mean time...I’m trying to settle things out in my brain...trying to figure out what God's taught me....what I need to take home....in terms of both knowledge and luggage...(I’ve got a lot of African stuff I’m bringing back!!...heh...first time in Africa!...what can I say!)
Thank you all for you prayers and for all you support even when I fail at giving you any news.
God bless you all and I'll catch you later!!!
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