Fun articles

I've been lookin on the BBC site for a few articles on Burkina and thought it would be fun to share a few with you!

ALL over Burkina you see "motos" which are moped type of bikes. I rode on them all the time when going to the villages. I found very quickly that many times this is the ONLY way of visiting a lot of the ares we went to.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5242692.stm

(me on a moto after the visit with Adiara- a very common sight (minus the backpack))

Another interesting one... Birth certificates were a HUGE issue in Burkina. You can ask me more about this if you'd like. This article is a good summary of it and a great movement to see going through Burkina right now!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8038125.stm


I'm really seeing the importance of global awareness after this past year, and think that I (as well as all Americans!) should be taking more interest in what's going on outside of our country. Ask my sister about human trafficking!!

I'll try to put up more news articles about Burkina as time goes on- especially if I can tell more stories to make it relate more :)

Thanks for reading!
~Liz

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.

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.

My grandpa

Hello friends...

Just an update about my grandpa. Yesterday evening at 6:22pm my grandpa (or known as "Bopa" to my siblings and I) went to be with God... It was an incredibly difficult time leading up to it and we feel blessed to have had the time we did to say goodbye. Of course, it is never easy though- no matter how much time we're allowed... We're figuring out funeral details and everything else right now... Thank you so much for your prayers since he was diagnosed up til now. Please continue praying for our family in this tough time. There will be an empty spot that can never be filled- he was an incredible man and it has been truly amazing to see how many people were touched by his life.

Many blessings to you and yours,

~Liz

Greetings from... Manistee!

Yep, that's right... I'm home! I know I have basically fallen off the face of the earth, but life has been a bit hectic since getting back... Practically the minute I got home until now I have spent with my family and grandparents. My grandpa's health has taken quite a turn and I'm trying to get every bit of time I can with them/helping them. I can now see why I was supposed to leave Burkina when I did- God knows I would need time with my grandpa. So now I'm looking for a job and doing what I can around here. I'll be updating my blog as soon as I can with info from my last bit of time in Burkina as well as what's going on now. Please stay tuned for more stories and to hear more of what God is doing in Burkina!!

A servant for Him,
~Liz

Time with the kids...

This past weekend Miriah and I took a weekend to go to Ouaga and visit some of the kids who are staying there with family. We got to see Evance, Ascension and Ange. It was an incredible time! We first visited Evance’s family courtyard then went with him to Ascension’s family. Both of their courtyards were PACKED full of people- most all relatives- and people constantly in and out. When we arrived at Ascension’s, we found that his aunt was expecting us to stay there. We had no idea, haha. Very Burkinabé. Soo after much deliberation about bus schedules, a reservation we already had at SIM, and our plans for how to see everyone, we decided to stay. His aunt made us great food and took good care of us.

While Evance and Ascension went to go pick up Ange, they left us sitting in Ascension’s courtyard with his family for about an hour and a half. Miriah started braiding one of the older girls’ hair which then got ALL of the little girls interested and we were soon surrounded with five little girls pulling on our hair and braiding. Finally the older girl shoved them all out of her way and said she actually knew how and worked on my head. :) First time I’ve gotten it braided since being here. We weren’t sure how much time we had though so I just got a little done. And WOW they must have tough heads to do that all the time- it hurts!
We went into town and hung out a bit. We then went to a movie!! It was a film from Ghana and was real interesting- interesting meaning a bit odd. It was called “Her Excellency” or “Son Excellence.” The funniest part I think to Miriah and I was that through the whole movie, right in the middle of everything, were big block letters that said “PREVIEW,” which to us meant that the movie hadn’t actually been purchased and we were watching a pirated version. Haha. The theatre was real neat- as with Fespaco, there was no roof so we sat under the stars. You could pay 300cfa (about 60cents) to sit on cement block benches with no back or 500cfa ($1) to sit on benches with backs.

Once back at Ascension’s, his cousin asked if we wanted to have tea. The men here all make a tea similar to chai that’s really good. It also takes an hour to make. We didn’t get to bed until real late. Slept in a room three of Ascension’s little cousins- one of which talks in her sleep in Mooré. I actually understood a little! The next morning we hung out in the courtyard and had more tea. Ascension’s aunt made us a traditional breakfast which is sort of like the toh with a very spicy sauce. Definitely not something I’d think of for breakfast. It wasn’t bad but was a bit of a shock to my morning senses (especially seeing half a fish in the bowl when we opened it). (Got in a taxi with all five of us and another woman... A bit crowded!)

We went into Ouaga again after breakfast and on the way, stopped at a boutique and bought water. To our surprise there was cake in the cooler in the boutique. We bought a piece (convenient!) for Ascension’s birthday. We sang to him on the public bus (not many people there) while waiting for a new bus to arrive because the first was broken. He was surprised! Once in Ouaga we went to the American Embassy for lunch and Ange and Ascension had hamburgers for the first time! We then wandered a bit in Ouaga and found a fabric to thank Ascension’s mom. We sat there and let the boys argue over the design for probably 10 minutes- they know her (and African mothers) better! We then turned to the woman sitting next to us on the bench and asked her what one she’d choose. She picked the one I liked!

Just hung out until it was time for our bus to come and then headed back to Yako. It’s really sad to think this was probably the last time I saw them before I head home… What a great thing though, to bed able to visit them and spend two great days in Ouaga!