Whatever you do for the least of these...: Mahadaga

I had a GREAT week and a half that FLEW by in Mahadaga in south-eastern Burkina. Mahadaga is another SIM station that has some pretty amazing ministries that I wanted to see and be able to help out a little bit. I arrived Wednesday (March 25) and was there til Saturday, April 4.

Mahadaga’s main ministries are a Dispensary/Clinic and a Handicap Center for kids. It was started quite awhile ago, and the dispensary is now run by Burkinabe people (not the missionaries). They are hoping to do this eventually for the Handicap Center as well. Both stations have really great staff that love the Lord.

So we arrived in Mahadaga (12 hours after I left Ouaga) just before dinner- I traveled by myself to Fada, and then met up with two friends from SIM (Maria and Kristin). It was a long trip, but talked a lot with different people and luckily wasn’t too hot (if you consider 100* + not hot). One of the missionary families from Mahadaga picked us up from Diapaga (the buses won’t go there anymore because the roads are so bad- better now) and invited us for dinner. They’re so great, and have two young boys (maybe 3 and 1). Caleb, the 3 year old, speaks English and French and a bit of Gourmanche (language of the Gourma)- throughout dinner he’d say “REGARDE! REGARDE!! (Look, look!)” and “Comme ça (like that).” What an awesome thing (and of course difficult at times) to have your children grow up with such culture and languages! The family already had ideas of things we could do for the next four days!

The first day we hung around the station a bit and went to the market. Unlike Yako’s market day which happens every three days, Mahadaga’s market day is every Thursday and much less of a selection of Yako’s. It is a really small village that has not as much access to a variety of foods. Mangos are in abundance though!! The trees are EVERYWHERE! I don’t think I had eaten mangos ever in the States actually, and in Mahadaga I ate them at least once a day! We got a tour of both of the stations in Mahadaga on Thursday as well. Friday we ventured to Parc d’Arly. This was very similar to Nazinga! We saw herds of elephants, buffalo, hippos, “pumbas” (warthogs), and baboons. It was real neat!! Saturday we went to the waterfalls in the area. Unfortunately it was more of a trickle, but still really pretty. A great hike as well (I couldn’t help but think of the Lion King again with some of the dead/dry surroundings). Sunday was church- all in Gourmanche translated to French. Was actually very different from church I’m used to here in Yako. I couldn’t quite explain it, but it was different! The language is sort of similar to Mooré, but I still didn’t understand anything. Fulfulde on the other hand (language of the Fulani) is completely different. Sunday afternoon, the girls and I helped a bit with the kids club that a missionary couple does right next to the station. I enjoyed just sitting and watching and enjoying the kids’ singing and smiles.

The local market

Pumba!

Herd of elephants

At the waterfall

Beautiful scenery around the waterfall

One reason I was real excited to come to Mahadaga was because of the Handicap Center. I’ve really enjoyed working with kids with handicaps in the past, and was anxious to see the ministry in Mahadaga. I especially was excited about the fact that they have a school for deaf children! The problem I found was that the kids were all on a spring break until Wednesday. Thursdays they do not have school, so turns out the only day I got in the school was Friday. It was great though!!

Monday morning I helped a bit with the handicap center. I worked on some admin stuff to help out the director. In the afternoon I helped with a big project of organizing the pharmacy over at the dispensary. Tuesday Maria and I both went out with the “animateurs” who are basically the social workers for the handicap center. They travel to distant villages and do physical therapy for the kids way out. They have some whom they visit each week, some every 3 mos, and some every 6 mos. They talk to them a bit, talk to the family, ask about any important needs, and do therapy. We visited four kids- the first young girl had a problem with her arm, the next boy had some mental issues as well as a large hump on his back, the next young boy was blind in one eye, and the last little girl had some issue so that her balance was off and her walking was difficult. It was interesting to see the different methods used for each child. And wow was it great!! Tuesday evening Maria and I saw our first birth. We had asked if it would be possible and checked in with them Tuesday evening. It was incredible. I’d be interested to know how different it is from the States (though am definitely not ready to be in that position yet!). Culturally, one difference is that no one is in the room while the delivery is happening. They are allowed to be, but it isn’t cultural, so the poor mother lies there alone. Many other things I would imagine are very different. Such an incredible thing to see the miracle of God in a birth of a baby.

With Patricia, an "animateur" and our first visit

A normal village in Mahadaga

Wednesday I went out with Betty. Betty is an 80 year old woman here with SIM who began as a full-time missionary here in Mahadaga in 1954. She retired some point around 2000, and has been coming back every year since for 6 months of the year. WOW! When asked if she’ll come back again, she answers, “Well there’s still so much work to be done. I can’t finish yet!” She is such an inspiration and really has done incredible work here. Betty works with the Fulani people group. For more info on them, see http://www.sim.org/index.php/content/fulani. She has quite a patience and heart for them. I went out and, of course understanding no more than 2 words, just observed as she sat and taught the Fulani in 3 different villages. They are beautiful people!

A Fulani family

Betty!

Thursday I spent the day at the handicap center. I helped out/observed some of the physical therapy going on at the center. I made some new friends right away, Potaga and Lalaba (don’t know spelling of their names because they just gave me their sign names). I learned a lot about the center while there. One of the coolest things I think, is that the school of 250 has children who are deaf, children with handicaps, and kids considered “normal.” They are all in classes together and ALL learn sign language starting in the 1st grade. So my two friends- Potaga had a problem with her leg which she has in a brace, and Lalaba is deaf. Both speak sign language! They helped me a bit with remembering some sign- and I found that much of the language is similar to American Sign Language. They walked around with me a bit, and I saw the school for about 30 blind children as well! Thursdays are a “trade day” for the kids- no school, but they learn different trades (girls- sewing, tye dying, etc, and boys-carpentry, leather working, sewing). They were all very willing to have their pictures taken, and as every other child here in Africa, LOVED to see themselves and laugh about it. After siest, Maria and I went back to the center and I gave her a little tour as well, but not as much going on in the afternoon.

My new friends, Potaga and Lalaba

Some of the boys learning carpentry

Friday was my first and only day in the school. I was real excited and got there early to find a class to observe. I first went to Potaga’s CE1 class (3rd grade). It was so neat to watch- they sign everything and the hearing students often speak out loud what is being said so that all of the hearing students can hear it if they can’t see it for some reason. So compared to other classes, it is probably fairly quiet, though you still have the sounds of children’s laughter and normal class noises. The teacher was real excited to talk to me and see that so much of the sign language was similar (he’d sign a word from across the room and I’d say yes what it was or sign the word we use). Really fun! At their recess break at 10, I went to a CM2 class. It was the class of the director of the school (I don’t think most schools here have the resources to pay a principle or anything like that, so it seems that most often, the director is also a teacher). He had a meeting though, so left his class to figure out different math problems that were on the board. I was pretty impressed by how motivated they were even though the teacher was gone for over an hour. It was interesting to see that in this small class, I think only 3 were deaf while the first one I was in had probably half of the class at least that was deaf.

I went back after siest, anxious to see more, and went to a CP2 (2nd grade) class. It was also interesting, and the teacher was kind enough to walk me around and have each child show me their sign name (and he’s say it out loud). These kids were very loud even though I think many were deaf :) It was real great, and I was sad to have to leave as I had promised the director of the project I'd help with some inventory before leaving. As the kids left for home though, Potaga and Lalaba found me to say goodbye and were sad to hear that it was goodbye because I was leaving. I had a sadness about leaving even though it was just a short time I was there. Such an incredible week full of many great experiences.