Featured Child

If you have gotten onto our website lately you’ll see we have another child for February/March sponsored. Praise God, a family friend responded to the last child and we already needed to add a new one to the website! So for February and March our new featured child in need of a sponsor is Fatimata. Please contact me or shelteringwings@charter.net for more info!

Fatimata was born in 1997. She lives in Sector 5 of Yako, Burkina Faso. Fatimata’s father died 4 years ago. Her father had two wives and 12 children. Fatimata lives with her mother.
Fatimata has four siblings who are married. One of Fatimata’s sisters lives with the family- she was married and has three children, but the husband is deceased. Fatimata’s brother lives in the same courtyard with his wife and three children, but they have a separate house. Many of her other siblings live in the Ivory Coast. The home that Fatimata, her mother, her sister and children live in is a very small, mud-brick, one room house. Fatimata has to walk to a nearby community water pump to fetch water for the family as they have no running water.

Fatimata attends the Sector 5 School and is in CM 2 (comparable to 6th grade). She likes math and this past trimester, got a 5/10 average (3/10 is needed to pass). She walks to school every day. For fun, Fatimata enjoys playing a game called Marraine- a game similar to hopscotch. At this time, Fatimata is in good health.

Sponsorship program

On our new website, each month we will be featuring a new child for the sponsorship program. This child will be one that is not currently sponsored but is in great need of sponsorship. If you are interested or know someone that is, please be sure to contact us. If the child has been taken in the time we put the info up, we have MANY more children to choose from.

As I said in a previous post, the sponsors commit to $25 per month which pays for the child’s school fees, some clothes and distributions of food and other necessary items throughout the year. The children will often write letters to their sponsors, as well as if the sponsors want to correspond. We of course do the translating from French to English :) There is more information on the website about the program, as well as letters that children have written and stories of some of our sponsored kids.

This really is a great program that can help so many of the children in need in Burkina Faso. We currently have about 150 children being sponsored, but every day we get requests for more sponsors. Even today, we had a grandmother bring her granddaughter (orphan of both parents) to the gate of the orphanage to ask for aid.

We’d love if you’d prayerfully consider being a part of our sponsorship team!

A servant for Him,
~Liz

This month’s featured child:

Issouf was born in 1999. He lives in Yako, Burkina Faso. Issouf’s father died when he was 6 years old. His father had two wives and 15 children. Eleven of the children are children of Issouf's mother. Seven of them have died due to illness.

Issouf’s mother does not work and does not have the money to care for her children. Issouf is the second youngest child of his mother. He has two older brothers, one younger brother, and one half brother (of the second wife) that live with him. They all try to find odd jobs around Yako as well as beg for money to help support the family. The home that the family of six inhabits is a mud-brick, one room house. It is no bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet. There is no electricity or running water and he has to walk to a nearby community water pump to fetch water for the family.

Issouf attends the school at the orphanage and is in CE 1 (comparable to 3rd grade). He likes to read and this past trimester, got a 4/10 average (3/10 is needed to pass). He walks to school every day, and it is approximately a 20 minute walk. For fun, Issouf enjoys playing soccer with his friends. At this time, Issouf is in good health.

New Website!

Our website has been updated! It can be found at the same address (www.sheltering-wings.org) but has a new look and organization! Be sure to check it out and let us know if you have any questions.

A servant for Him,

~Liz

Food in Burkina…

WARNING- not for the weak of stomach :)

So many of you have asked what kinds of foods I eat here in Burkina. Up until today (1/28) I would have said nothing too out of the ordinary. There are some different kinds of foods I’ve tried, but here at the orphanage Ruth, Brittany, and I usually cook things that we’re fairly used to. It of course tastes a little different from home, but overall it has been fairly “normal.”
The main food that everyone eats here is “To.” Our kids eat it for almost every lunch and dinner, and in the villages, it is the main food. The base is a sort of cream of wheat only much firmer. It’s made out of the grain Millet. The sauce varies, but the common one is a very interesting stringy green sauce primarily made of orcre. For our kids, we try to put tomatoes, onions, peanuts, chicken bouillion, dried fish, etc to add more nutrients. I HAVE tried this creation, but have to say that it is NOT my favorite food. The texture is what gets me I think.

The millet/corn part of To

Some of my favorite African foods that I’ve eaten are Benga, Riz gras, Ingham, Arachides avec Sucre, and Bissap. Benga is a beans and rice creation, very yummy. Riz gras- they do a lot of rice and rice and sauce meals. The main one are riz gras and rice with sauce (peanut sauce or a tomatoey sauce). I especially like Riz Gras because the sauce is sort of mixed in and absorbed by the rice. Mmm… Ingham is a sort of starchy potato. I’ve had it in a tomato sauce which is really good. Arachides avec sucre- sugared peanuts, simple, cheap, and YUMMY! I got a lesson on making them and it’s easy! And finally, Bissap. It’s a purple drink- best frozen- that they make out of the leaves of a tree. Sometimes they add ginger sometimes other random things. The Burkinabe especially like to drink it for holiday meals, though you can find it being sold on the street in most places.

Here at the orphanage, we eat a lot of rice and lentils. We don’t have a lot of access to meat (here in Yako, we never really know when it’s killed so is not so safe to eat), and fruits are very hard to come by (really difficult for me!). You can buy veggies, but it just depends on the season for what’s available out in Yako. We try to be creative with what we’re cooking, and it helps that Ruth has accumulated lots of spices and soup type of mixes to use with things.

So that’s the simple version of what I eat.

Now the interesting part… Monday night we saw a big group of our kids gathered in the back of the courtyard. We wondered what in the world they were doing, and thought they had maybe snuck in an animal to try to raise or something similar. Brittany and I went to check it out and found that they had killed one of our sheep who was sick. Wow. So Brittany and I watched as they were cleaning out and sorting what parts they were going to eat. We soon found that they eat almost everything! Why waste? We watched as they emptied the stomach. GROSS! They were pretty impressed though, that we wanted to stay and watch (a few days before, we wanted to watch them kill a chicken, but they told us we wouldn’t like to see it). We asked if we could eat with them, and very surprised, they answered “of course!”

Sooo yesterday, they saved us a bowl of the “soup” they made with big pieces of sheep in it. Very yummy! We asked where all the other parts were though- especially the head. They had told us they eat the parts of the head, and were saving it for last.

This morning, one of our boys, Ascension, caught me at 6:30am when I went out to run and told me to come over and eat the head after running. Mmm… Breakfast! After I ran, I got Brittany, and we nervously went out to find a bowl full of … Well, parts of the head. Ascension showed us the brain, and nervously Britt and I took a small piece to eat. Not an awful flavor, but the idea of eating a brain made us a little nauseous- I thought Brittany was going to throw up at one point! :) Then came the eyes… *HEY, you asked what I eat! Sorry if it’s too much detail!* Ascension just popped one in his mouth and ate it. Wow… I took a tiny bite- I won’t give you more details about it unless you ask, but it was definitely interesting. Finally, the tongue. I actually really liked the taste- it was much more like a meat than the other things. I think Ascension was happy to show the white girls how to eat the head, and probably knew that we’d only get a few bites in so he’d have to finish it. It really is a delicacy here! What an honor that they saved it for us to try :)

So now, not only can I say I ate sheep- and many parts of it- but I can say I ate these very interesting parts for breakfast. Mmm. Bon appetite!

A servant for Him,
~Liz

Me with Goat Soup

Confusion about what parts we were eating- Ascension laughed the whole time

Playing with my food- sorry Mom!

Before eating a bite of the eye- my stomach wasn't smiling

Me with the tongue and Ascension, laughing again, with the jaw

Random photos!

Here are just some random photos of life here in Burkina... Enjoy :)

Typical village- mosques everywhere as well

On the road in the bush

My first African wedding- it was a surprise to see smiles on their faces because for weddings here the bride and groom are not allowed to smile. It is after all, the most serious decision of their lives!

Traditional dancing done at a party for the Chef of Yako for the New Year

A young girl on the street in Yako

Two of our toddlers- Ibrahim and Joseph- who are quite characters

Me and one of our girls, Barkewende (in Moore means "thank you God")

Our toddler, Tebnomah

One of my favorites- one of our boys, Aristide, and baby Deborah. The kids are all so good with the babies!!

More thank you's!!!

Thank you to Mrs. Hunter at Manistee Middle School for the globe for our primary school here at Sheltering Wings, as well as the generous donation from the Adventure Learning at MMS!!

Thank you to the Smith family and the Nyitray family for your donation of pens for our school!

(both pictures are with our school headmaster, Innocent)

Happy New Year!

As I said in the last blog, our plans changed a bit from traveling to Benin/Togo to traveling to the west side of Burkina Faso for our New Year’s break. So, on the 29th, I headed off with three other short term girls to Banfora and Bobo Dialosso. Kristin and Christine are from Canada and Maria is from Germany. Kristin has been here for 5 months working in Ouaga with a music ministry and at an orphanage and will probably stay another few months; Christine arrived in Burkina a few days after I did and is working in Fada as a teacher for a missionary family’s children for 14 months, and Maria has been here for 5 months working in Ouaga with children’s ministries- teaching in two schools, visiting a hospital, etc- and heads back to Germany in May. We had a really incredible time filled with MANY adventures. We learned even more about what it means to be flexible and patient and adapt to what is going on around us. I have a feeling my family and friends will get a bit annoyed with me when I return with this new sense of time ;)

Banfora was absolutely gorgeous- so green!! We had one very full day of visiting three different spots in the outskirts of Banfora. We first went to Tengrela Lake- it is known for its hippos (were lucky enough to have one hippo spotting!). We then spent most of the day at a waterfall climbing, swimming (safe to swim in the moving water!), and eating our African lunch of baguettes with sardines and veggies (which we forgot a knife to cut up :) ) and fruit. Finally, we went to the “Domes” which were absolutely beautiful rock formations. We were able to climb them and look over the incredible green scenery of palm trees and sugar cane fields.

Bobo was more of a city setting (was the previous capital of Burkina Faso) so we toured the city a bit and did a day outside of the city (looking for a lake we never found, but had an awesome village experience instead). We also spent New Year’s in Bobo. We were all a bit tired so were not going to do anything special, but there was a church behind our guesthouse that we ended up going to at about 11pm. I am SO glad that we did because it was an awesome experience. As I sat there singing with everyone, and then at midnight dancing and singing through the church, I realized what an incredible thing it was that I was in Africa celebrating the new year with my African brothers and sisters in Christ! A young girl grabbed my hand as we danced, and I was just overwhelmed by the idea of us being able to celebrate the beginning of a new year in this way.











Hippo!

On Tengrela Lake!

The Waterfall

The Domes

New Year's Eve

Looking for the Lake!

So now I’m back in Ouaga, rested up a bit, and am heading back to Yako tomorrow to get back into things. I really do miss the kids- even after just two weeks! Thank you everyone for your prayers for our trip- we really felt them and knew that God was looking out for us on many occasions!!

I pray you all had a fantastic new year celebration and are now able to begin the year ahead with a renewed vision and excitement! I learned here what it means to truly be thankful for another year- it really is a blessing here to live another year with the life expectancy so low and death rate for babies so high. Another year is quite a thing to celebrate!

A servant for Him,
~Liz