I just got back from my less-than-24-hour trip to Bobo yesterday to see my friend Caleb. So here's the story... He's a pilot for Missionary Aviation Fellowship and is based in Bamako, Mali (it borders the western part of Burkina Faso). He emailed me back in February telling me that he arrived in Mali, but that flights to Burkina Faso were extremely rare... so I figured/accepted that I wouldn't see him while I was here. But then last week, he emailed me to tell me that they had a flight to Ouagadougou and that he could stay for a night or two here to hang out. But when I got back this past Thursday, he told me that the trip was cancelled and that he was going to Bobo instead (the second largest city in Burkina Faso). The next morning, at 6:45 am, out of nowhere, I got a phone call from a pastor in Bobo and he asked me to go to Bobo that weekend...So, I felt like it was sign that God really wanted me to go as well... so the next morning, I took a 5 hr bus to go see him... and I'm so glad that I did. It was great to just catch up with him and talk. It was really encouraging to hear what's been going on in his life for the past year, and I shared with him my experiences being here for the past year.

This is the hotel we stayed at!

Got back from my short 4 day trip on Thursday. The purpose of the trip was to visit a few of the different projects that SIM runs in the eastern/southeastern part of the country.

For the first two days, we visited three different cereal bank projects in three different villages. Our first stop was to Botou, about 7km away from the Niger border. The first picture is of our meeting with the people on the committee for the project (director, secretary, treasurer, etc.). The second picture is of the bed that I slept in. It's been really hot here - so hot that the Africans have been complaining more than I have! During the day it gets to be about 42-44 degrees Celsius. Everything is hot - chairs are hot, the water is hot... you're just always sweating. It's alright though because I think (I hope) that the rainy season is going to come soon.










This is a picture of the second village we visited - can't remember how to spell the name. The meeting didn't go well at all because the people here are doing a really bad job in managing the project. Probably going to try to find new people to run it in the future.










This is in Mahadaga. SIM has two really great projects here. The first is the Handicapped Centre, which helps kids with mental and physical handicaps. Francoise Pedeau is the director (first picture). She's an amazing person - there's about 130 kids in the centre and she knows every single one of them and their story of how they got there. She works 70 hour weeks and you can tell that she really cares about the children.

So, some of the children who are in the project are blind. The Center teaches these children how to read braille (second picture) and how to do mathematics (third picture). Plus, there is also a school at the Center for children who are deaf or have other physical and mental problems (fourth picture).


























The project has a few ways of generating some income to help fund the project. They sell dried mangoes (first two pics), carve wood (3rd), make handbags, embroider, sew, etc. The kids all learn how to do some of these things as well (sewing, how to carve wood...)




















This is David, a fellow short-termer who is from Switzerland. He came last September and is staying for a year. He's an orthopedist and helps to make fake limbs/motorized wheelchairs/leg braces for the kids. Pretty neat job...

Finally, our last visit was to a hospital that SIM runs in the village. It's a pretty big hospital but it's in need of a lot of financial help. They have a maternity ward, a center for malnourished children, a lab, an opthalmology clinic, etc...














So overall it was a great trip. The car ride was really long but I didn't mind it since it was air-conditioned. I really enjoyed staying in the villages - it's such a change from being in the Capital city. Things are so much more relaxed. We would have a meeting, then would just sit around, then eat, then sit around and talk, then eat some more... it was a nice change. Plus, the people were a lot nicer in the villages than in Ouagadougou. I still find that most of the people in Ouaga don't treat foreigners with a lot of respect, so I appreciated how the villagers kept trying to make sure we were fed and comfortable.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be going to Bobo-Dioulasso until Sunday. A friend of mine from high school (Caleb) is working in Mali as a pilot and will be flying into there, so I'm going to take the 5 hour bus ride to meet him.

Last Thursday, I helped run an all-nighter for the youth group's 30 hour famine with Ben (my roommate). Most in the group are missionary kids who go to the International School of Ouagadougou. Ben helps with the youth group every week, but I don't - I usually only go when they need help running special events. Soo... the all-nighter ran from 7pm Thursday until 7am Friday... so we had a 12 hour program planned for them. We played Cranium, had a dance competition, watched movies, etc. It was a really successful event because the youth group managed to raise more than $5,000. All of the money will be used to buy grain to distribute to the underprivileged in Ouagadougou.

I think about 40-45 kids were there... so it was a pretty exhausting night. These are pics 30 min before they broke the fast...










And this is the food that they broke the fast with...












From Monday-Thursday this week I'll be going to visit some village projects in the far eastern part of the country. It's gonna be a hot 4 days.........

Last weekend, one of the local workers for SIM got married. It's a very elaborate procedure here. The couple had to get officially married at the city hall, then went to church for another 3 hour ceremony. at sibidi's wedding, there were about 300+ people! after that, they have a reception (basic food, mostly just providing drinks for everyone attending the wedding). after the reception, i was told that Adele had to go back to her family's home and beg them to leave (it's just a customary thing that they do). but it sounded pretty unpleasant because they were saying things to make her cry, like "you'll miss us so much when you leave". Sibidi had to do the same thing as well.

Here are some pictures that I got from our Spiritual Life Conference back in January. The first picture is of all the SIM missionaries in Burkina Faso. The second picture is of everyone who works in Ouagadougou.

I started to volunteer once a week at a children’s program run by an organization called Compassion. Compassion runs a sponsorship program for the children, and each child in the program comes to this one-day camp/kid’s club every Thursday. It’s run at a youth centre close to my house (it’s actually the same program that Ben and I were at in December giving candies to). One of my friends in my English class is one of the leaders and he invited me a few weeks ago to come help.

So far it’s been great. There are 220 kids in the program, and a lot of them are orphans or come from tough situations. In this program, the kids play games, make crafts, take classes about hygiene, get help with their school work, etc… plus, they get a good breakfast and lunch.
The kids are really funny. The program is run by nationals, so I’m the only white person there. The first day I was there, we started off the day by playing games in the field. Literally, there were kids that just stood there and stared at me. By the time we got to the crafts though, they started to warm up to me. They started asking me a ton of questions and saying things like, “How come your skin is different from ours? I want white skin because all white people are rich”, “Is it true that all the white kids in school get their own desk? We have 6 kids sharing the same desk at our school”, “How come your hair is different from ours?” I just laughed. I know that I previously blogged about how there’s a gap between Africans and foreigners, but the way these kids were so blunt about it, I just couldn’t help but smile.

I haven’t taken any pictures in a while. I’ll bring my camera to Compassion next week to take some pictures.

Last weekend, I wanted to take another look at Ouaga 2000, the district of Ouagadougou where many embassy workers and people high in the government live. Here’s some pictures that I took:

It’s incredible, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen houses like these, even in Toronto. It’s hard to imagine that people live at this scale of luxury when so many others around the city can’t even afford to buy a box of matches to cook their meals with.

Lately, I’ve really been thinking a lot about the huge gap between the rich and the poor. If you’re white (that includes anyone who is not African), people know that you have money. And for the most part, it’s true. Embassy workers, businessmen, teachers at the international school, missionaries, etc. in no way live meager lives. Think about this. During my last English class, we had a discussion on the subject of health care. One of my friends is in his third year at the University of Ouagadougou studying to become a doctor. He told us that doctors make 100,000 CFA (just a bit over $200 CAN) per month. And that’s the salary for doctors – people near the top of the food chain. Imagine studying medicine for 7 years and getting paid $2,400 per year – actually, less, when you deduct taxes.

So this “gap” between the Western world and the national people is still having a big effect on my life here. People still see me as a dollar sign, and that makes it really tough to make friendships, to know who your real friends are, and to try to integrate into the Burkinabe culture. For example, just yesterday morning, I was walking to go buy a bun from the bakery for breakfast. On the way there, two kids, I’d guess around 15-16 years old, came up to me and said “Hey, champion, I’m a tour guide and if you ever need to go anywhere, just let me know”. I just nodded and told them okay... After I bought my bun, I started to walk back to the office… and, as I anticipated, the two kids just started to follow me and whisper “can you give me 100 cfa to eat, it’s not a lot to you, or just 25 cfa…” over and over again. I just said no, and kept walking. After a while, one of the guys started to yell “that’s not nice, you have money and you shouldn’t just ignore us”. I just shook my head in disbelief and kept walking. Did I have the money? Of course, what they were asking for was equivalent to 25 cents and 5 cents… but if I did give it to them, it would have just perpetuated the stereotype of rich white people and in reality, giving them charity money wasn’t going to help them in any lasting way. A lot of people here are still really great – but there are definitely some sour grapes in the bowl...

The reason why I really enjoy teaching English here is because I believe it’s a great skill that opens up so many more opportunities for the people here. It makes me think of Roxane, a girl who was in my English class last term. After studying English for a few years and doing her TOEFL tests, she got a scholarship to study in the US in January. She’s now at Southern Illinois studying English until her proficiency gets up to the level for her to begin studying psychology. I think that’s just amazing, and in a way I think it shows that investing in developing people will eventually, a long way down the road, help develop a country.

Wow it's been a while since my last post - sorry about that. Christmas at home was great...and because it was so great to spend time with family and friends, it took a little while for me to get readjusted back to life here in Burkina Faso. But now I'm back in the swing of things.

This term, I decided not to teach in the ESL program. It's a great program - really well organized and there's more students interested than we can accomodate - but I just found that I really didn't like teaching English grammar. The students would always ask questions that I didn't know the answer to - like, "why do you say two hundred instead of two hundreds?"

So instead, on Monday nights, a group of us get together (mostly those from my old class) to practice their English conversational skills through reading English newspaper articles, watching English movies, and doing Bible studies. So far the discussions have been great. Like last class, Lassane (a professor at the University of Ouagadougou) started to ask questions on predestination vs free will. Ya, it was tough, but we got through it. So I've found that this has been a really great way to build relationships with people and to keep in contact with my old class.

Other than that, it's starting to get hot again =/ The hot season starts in March and lasts until I leave...