Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Any questions?
Just another chance for you to ask any questions you have! Please leave a comment if you'd like to know something specific about my time in Burkina, the culture, etc! No question is a bad question :)
Hair do's
So when I arrived in Burkina I had NO idea that the majority of the women's hair was fake. Yup, that's right. The beautiful braids and length are extensions. It was explained to me that because of the dryness and the heat year round, their hair is very dry and breaks easily. The funny part of this to me was when they would ask me if MY hair was all real. Just as I assumed (from being with people with mostly natural hair) that their hair was real, they assumed (from being with people with mostly fake hair) that my hair was fake.
I had seen the girls braiding each other's hair and doing simple stuff but never much of the extensions. The week before I left Burkina, I stayed with my friend Adiara (the orphanage social worker) and her mom in their courtyard. Adiara was going to visit her fiance the next day so she was re-doing her hair that night. I went with her to see how it works.
(all the choices of hair)
WOW was it interesting :) Of course took a ton of time...
The first step was taking out her old extensions- they are creative with what they have (and with the lack of money to afford other things) and use a razor blade to cut out the extension ends.
Adiara had chosen short straight hair with a bit of color in it so the hairdresser- starting at the base of her head- literally sewed with needle and black thread the extensions into Adiara's hair.
It was then cut and styled and walah! FINI!
Such a fun and definitely cultural experience :)
I had seen the girls braiding each other's hair and doing simple stuff but never much of the extensions. The week before I left Burkina, I stayed with my friend Adiara (the orphanage social worker) and her mom in their courtyard. Adiara was going to visit her fiance the next day so she was re-doing her hair that night. I went with her to see how it works.
(all the choices of hair)WOW was it interesting :) Of course took a ton of time...
The first step was taking out her old extensions- they are creative with what they have (and with the lack of money to afford other things) and use a razor blade to cut out the extension ends.
Then it's all combed out and product is put in.
From there it was braided tightly to Adiara's head using a few small extensions just to make it long enough to hold the braids together.
Adiara had chosen short straight hair with a bit of color in it so the hairdresser- starting at the base of her head- literally sewed with needle and black thread the extensions into Adiara's hair.
It was then cut and styled and walah! FINI!
Such a fun and definitely cultural experience :) Update on Ouagadougou (really late-sorry!)
Hi all!
I know it has been awhile since I last wrote- still getting back into things here. I have a few more things I want to blog about even though my time in Burkina is done for now. Sooo I hope these few things are interesting to you and give you more of a taste on my time in Burkina. I am also planning on having a gathering some point soon just to fill everyone in now that I'm back. I'll keep you posted on that as well. Here's an update about the flooding in Ouaga. If you didn't get that email from me just before I left Burkina, let me know and I'll forward it to you. This is an email from a SIL missionary (Bible translating) from Ouagadougou. I think it was about a week after the flooding so it is probably a bit out of date, but it will give you an idea of what was going on. Please keep praying as I'm sure there are still many issues with school starting and people living in the schools.
A servant for Him,
~Liz
Dear Friends:
The headline of the weekly paper tells the story: "Ouagadougou received a deluge of rainfall, where was Noah with his ark?"
I want to send a quick update on what is happening here in Burkina, so that you can continue to pray for people impacted by the massive flooding that occurred in Ouaga on Tues. this past week. Here are a few details that will give you a glimpse of the situation today:
-of Ouaga's population of approx. 1.4 million people, at least 150,000 have lost their homes... either they collapsed or washed away, or have partially collapsed and are no longer safe for habitation; some may be repaired once the rainy season ends;
-of the 150,000 people displaced approx 110,000 have found temporary shelter in schools and churches; school should resume the first week of Oct, so alternate housing for many, many people needs to be found by then;
-an estimated 20,000 people have re-located to stay with relatives in rural villages, and a large portion of these will be children; faced with the cost of finding rental housing or rebuilding, one can easily imagine that there will be a lot of children who will not be returning to school as planned, because their parents simply cannot pay the school fees, nor find housing near their schools in time to begin the school year;
-following assessment, it has been concluded that there is almost nothing in the way of medical equipment that remains usable in the Yalgado Hospital, which is the main hospital of Ouaga; efforts are being made to have people treated in private clinics or hospitals if possible;
-regular intermitten electricity cuts are occuring throughout the city, while work is underway to repair damage at an electricity generating station;
-the city water supply has been declared safe, and cleanup continues in the canals that were inundated during the rain which continued for 10hrs without stopping on Tues- massive amounts of sand, gravel, topsoil, debris and every manner of household stuff was washed into the canal system, and in places the cement walls of the canals themselves washed away;
-the President of Burkina yesterday has called for the leaders of major churches and development organizations to meet with him on Mon. morning, to determine what efforts can be undertaken immediately to help the less fortunate in our city; Pastor Karambiri of the church I attend is among those asked to come, and a general church meeting has been called for Tuesday evening, at which time action plans will be initiated; we have been asked to bring blakets, clothing, non-perishable food, basic necessitites, building supplies, and money;
-it seems nearly all the Burkinabe employees who work at the SIL Centre have suffered damage to their homes; a few are a complete loss, others have one wall down, or the house is ok but the courtyard wall has collapsed, etc
-while international news sites indicate that flooding happens in various parts of W. Africa every year, there has not been a rain like this one in Ouaga in nearly 100yrs.
As I looked at photos of people wading in water trying to get away from their inundated homes, it occurred to me that none of them would ever have waded in water before in their lives! People don't walk around when it rains, they seek shelter and wait until it stops. As a result, they had almost no clue at all of the power of moving water, let along raging, gushing streams when water got deep enough to find a way to escape. In the neighborhood where Boureima and Berenice live, one family's courtyard filled up with water, and when they were up to their knees in water in the house and knew it would collapse, the grandmother hoisted the baby onto her back and tied it there, then took the toddler by the hand, and headed off to wade through the water hoping to find shelter somewhere. However, she was not prepared for the force of the current as she moved into the stream that was racing towards a ravine, lost her balance, and all three were swept away by the rushing water! At the edge of the city, along the main highway that goes south from Ouaga towards the Ghana border, an entire neighborhood was washed into a deep ravine, and a number of people are unaccounted for.
Some roads were submerged under 1-2m of water, and many roadside vendors lost everything they had to sell, or it is damaged beyond recovery. The iron bridge that crosses the canal behind my house was completely covered with water, not even a ripple to let you know there was a bridge there. At the SIL Centre, the basement storage room where colleagues pack their belongings when they go on furlough was inundated, and there is major water damage to personal effects; especially reference books used in Bible translation are a great loss, both financially and for ministry.
There is an aspect of this natural disaster that you don't grasp from the statistics and photos on TV: the stinking smell of the aftermath. So much rotting stuff! To drive along streets that were flooded is nauseating; even though the water has receded and cleanup crews have swept away the silt and sand, the stagnant water still standing grows green and foul.
Where there is tragedy, there is also triumph. People are reaching out to help each other, making room in their homes and sharing whatever they can. And while people begin making repairs or rebuilding, we continue to ask the Lord to withhold the rains for a few more days, to give ground and cement a little time to dry.
I have several prayer requests to share with you:
-please pray that the Christian community will rise to the occasion to demonstrate the love of Jesus in practical, tangible ways;
-praise the Lord for government leaders, including the Prime Minister who is a believer, that they will find favor in the international community to bring aid to those in need;
-please pray for relief that will make it possible for children to resume classes in Oct, and that suitable homes can be found for the masses of people presnetly living in the empty school buildings.
I know it has been awhile since I last wrote- still getting back into things here. I have a few more things I want to blog about even though my time in Burkina is done for now. Sooo I hope these few things are interesting to you and give you more of a taste on my time in Burkina. I am also planning on having a gathering some point soon just to fill everyone in now that I'm back. I'll keep you posted on that as well. Here's an update about the flooding in Ouaga. If you didn't get that email from me just before I left Burkina, let me know and I'll forward it to you. This is an email from a SIL missionary (Bible translating) from Ouagadougou. I think it was about a week after the flooding so it is probably a bit out of date, but it will give you an idea of what was going on. Please keep praying as I'm sure there are still many issues with school starting and people living in the schools.
A servant for Him,
~Liz
Dear Friends:
The headline of the weekly paper tells the story: "Ouagadougou received a deluge of rainfall, where was Noah with his ark?"
I want to send a quick update on what is happening here in Burkina, so that you can continue to pray for people impacted by the massive flooding that occurred in Ouaga on Tues. this past week. Here are a few details that will give you a glimpse of the situation today:
-of Ouaga's population of approx. 1.4 million people, at least 150,000 have lost their homes... either they collapsed or washed away, or have partially collapsed and are no longer safe for habitation; some may be repaired once the rainy season ends;
-of the 150,000 people displaced approx 110,000 have found temporary shelter in schools and churches; school should resume the first week of Oct, so alternate housing for many, many people needs to be found by then;
-an estimated 20,000 people have re-located to stay with relatives in rural villages, and a large portion of these will be children; faced with the cost of finding rental housing or rebuilding, one can easily imagine that there will be a lot of children who will not be returning to school as planned, because their parents simply cannot pay the school fees, nor find housing near their schools in time to begin the school year;
-following assessment, it has been concluded that there is almost nothing in the way of medical equipment that remains usable in the Yalgado Hospital, which is the main hospital of Ouaga; efforts are being made to have people treated in private clinics or hospitals if possible;
-regular intermitten electricity cuts are occuring throughout the city, while work is underway to repair damage at an electricity generating station;
-the city water supply has been declared safe, and cleanup continues in the canals that were inundated during the rain which continued for 10hrs without stopping on Tues- massive amounts of sand, gravel, topsoil, debris and every manner of household stuff was washed into the canal system, and in places the cement walls of the canals themselves washed away;
-the President of Burkina yesterday has called for the leaders of major churches and development organizations to meet with him on Mon. morning, to determine what efforts can be undertaken immediately to help the less fortunate in our city; Pastor Karambiri of the church I attend is among those asked to come, and a general church meeting has been called for Tuesday evening, at which time action plans will be initiated; we have been asked to bring blakets, clothing, non-perishable food, basic necessitites, building supplies, and money;
-it seems nearly all the Burkinabe employees who work at the SIL Centre have suffered damage to their homes; a few are a complete loss, others have one wall down, or the house is ok but the courtyard wall has collapsed, etc
-while international news sites indicate that flooding happens in various parts of W. Africa every year, there has not been a rain like this one in Ouaga in nearly 100yrs.
As I looked at photos of people wading in water trying to get away from their inundated homes, it occurred to me that none of them would ever have waded in water before in their lives! People don't walk around when it rains, they seek shelter and wait until it stops. As a result, they had almost no clue at all of the power of moving water, let along raging, gushing streams when water got deep enough to find a way to escape. In the neighborhood where Boureima and Berenice live, one family's courtyard filled up with water, and when they were up to their knees in water in the house and knew it would collapse, the grandmother hoisted the baby onto her back and tied it there, then took the toddler by the hand, and headed off to wade through the water hoping to find shelter somewhere. However, she was not prepared for the force of the current as she moved into the stream that was racing towards a ravine, lost her balance, and all three were swept away by the rushing water! At the edge of the city, along the main highway that goes south from Ouaga towards the Ghana border, an entire neighborhood was washed into a deep ravine, and a number of people are unaccounted for.
Some roads were submerged under 1-2m of water, and many roadside vendors lost everything they had to sell, or it is damaged beyond recovery. The iron bridge that crosses the canal behind my house was completely covered with water, not even a ripple to let you know there was a bridge there. At the SIL Centre, the basement storage room where colleagues pack their belongings when they go on furlough was inundated, and there is major water damage to personal effects; especially reference books used in Bible translation are a great loss, both financially and for ministry.
There is an aspect of this natural disaster that you don't grasp from the statistics and photos on TV: the stinking smell of the aftermath. So much rotting stuff! To drive along streets that were flooded is nauseating; even though the water has receded and cleanup crews have swept away the silt and sand, the stagnant water still standing grows green and foul.
Where there is tragedy, there is also triumph. People are reaching out to help each other, making room in their homes and sharing whatever they can. And while people begin making repairs or rebuilding, we continue to ask the Lord to withhold the rains for a few more days, to give ground and cement a little time to dry.
I have several prayer requests to share with you:
-please pray that the Christian community will rise to the occasion to demonstrate the love of Jesus in practical, tangible ways;
-praise the Lord for government leaders, including the Prime Minister who is a believer, that they will find favor in the international community to bring aid to those in need;
-please pray for relief that will make it possible for children to resume classes in Oct, and that suitable homes can be found for the masses of people presnetly living in the empty school buildings.
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