For the past couple of days, Ben (dressed up as Santa Clause) and I have been going around to different places around the city to hand out candy to kids.

Compassion runs a program at a youth center near our house for more than 200 kids every Thursday. We came at the end of the program, and the kids just went crazy.










All throughout the city, there are kids who beg on the streets. The ones who are sent to do this by Isl. leaders collect money/food in red tomato paste cans. There are a few that hang out at this one corner in our neighbourhood, so we stopped here as well.










The day after, we went to a primary school where our friend Magdalena teaches. These kids were great. They kept singing thank-you songs the whole time we were there. Something interesting that I noticed was that some of the kids were chewing through the wrappers of the candies (we obviously stopped them when we saw what was happening). I'm still not sure if it's because they don't usually get much candy or if it's just because their parents always unwrapped it for them. but wow, just imagine a childhood without candy!

This past weekend, I went to Nazinga National Park with a few other short-termers - Ben, Magdalena and Hannah (as seen in the picture below) - along with a small mission's team from New Zealand. The Nazinga reserve is one of the best places in Burkina Faso to see wild animals like elephants, antelope, baboons, hyenas, crocodiles, etc...











We hired a chauffer to take us to the reserve... and UNsurprisingly, we had a few car troubles. On our way there, about an hour into our trip, we noticed smoke coming out of the steering column (which is never a really good sign)... so we pulled over and our driver worked his magic and soon we were back on the road. The next morning, the battery of our SUV died... so, reminiscent of Little Miss Sunshine, we had to push the car to get it moving, start the car, and then jump in.











When we got there on Saturday, we went on a tour of the park around dusk to try to spot some animals. Ben and I rode on the back of the SUV... which was alright, except for the fact that we got incredibly, incredibly dirty from all the dust that our SUV left behind...



















We took another tour at dawn the next day and we saw a lot of elephants, baboons, antelopes, deer-type of animals, tons of birds, etc... but the most amazing sight was right by our camp. As we were coming back that morning, herds of elephant were making their way through our camp towards the water hole that was nearby. We were literally 10m away from them! It was amazing!

On Thursday, we had a big party for all of these ESL courses to celebrate the end of the winter term. The term went great and I'm probably going to help out again next year. Here, you can see my entire class holding up their certificates.










Today, we had a big Christmas party for all of the SIM missionaries and staff in Ouagadougou. Ben, my roommate, loves Christmas... so a few weeks ago, we planned on surprising everyone at the party by inviting Santa Clause :P As you can see, the costume was modeled after the Grinch (from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas). It was awesome - he handed out candies to the kids and everyone just loved it. What we're planning to do this week is to go all over the community on my motorbike and hand out candies to all the kids on the streets (with him in his Père Noël suit).

Finally! It took 7 weeks, but the Birkenstocks that I ordered from eBay finally arrived in Burkina Faso! Yeah, 7 weeks may sound like a long time, but ... after the 6th week, I was seriously doubting that I would ever see them - so I was just glad that they arrived. My Nike sandals were already worn out after my first month, so I thought these would be a worthwhile investment since I wear sandals every day... and at $65 CAN I think they were almost a steal (considering that they were shipped to West Africa).

Yesterday I was invited to celebrate American Thanksgiving with a bunch of other missionaries. Americans seem to take their Thanksgiving a lot more seriously than we Canadians do, which means that I ate amazingly well (easily the best meal I’ve had in 3 months). We had roasted chicken (turkeys cost about $60 here), stuffing, apricot salad, mashed potatoes, sweet carrots, a big vegetable platter… and for dessert, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Mmmm. Again, the SIM family is really great in BF and that just makes things that much easier here.

I just uploaded the second crocodile video onto Google Video and updated the link on that blog post.

Last weekend I bought a used motto, or "mobilette", from SIM for about $200 CAN. It's got 110cc, 4 gears, and... it's fun to ride. It's good to have because now I can get around the city and go wherever I want to, and I won't have to depend on other people for rides.

We had a really great time in Togo. The MK's were really fun and the other SIM missionaries are really great as well. Here are some pics. The first is a group shot of everyone at the conference, and the second one is a shot of Dave and I at the top of a mountain that we hiked.













Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to a village called Piela to visit a few of SIM's main projects in Burkina such as the widows project, the milk for the malnourished project, and one of SIM's main health centres.

Going to Togo tomorrow to run some children's programs for SIM Togo-Benin's Spiritual Life Conference (a retreat for all the SIM missionaries in Togo and Benin).

Click here to see the chicken run away from the hungry crocodiles.










Click here to see me feed the chicken to one of the crocodiles.

I hope this isn't too hard to believe - there's a place about an hour away from Ouaga where you can get your picture taken sitting on a crocodile. Yep, This Is Africa. Obviously, when I was given the opportunity today, I couldn't pass it up.

So this afternoon, Robyn (a SIM missionary who is translating the New Testament into Fulfulde), Ben Steel (my roommate), Dave and I went to Bazoule, a village about an hour away from Ouaga, to get our pics taken with the crocs. The way it works is like this - you have to buy chickens to lure the crocs out of the water (you can see Dave holding the two chickens by their feet)... after that, you sit on it, take your picture, and then you feed the croc the chicken as its "reward". We ended up buying two chickens for 2000 CFA (~$4) and admission was 1000 CFA (~$2) each.










To lure the crocs out of the water, the guide would either throw the chicken on the ground and then quickly snatch them up when they came closer, or he would put the chicken on a stick and dangle it in front of the crocs. As you can see in the panoramic picture, it worked! We had about 10 crocs about 5 metres in front of us within 15-20 minutes! Click to enlarge the pics.









Alright, so here's the crowning moment....................................










I'll post some really amazing videos of our trip very soon.

Recently, work has really started to pick up... which is good because I really want to be able to contribute something to the work that is being done here. I'm in the office from 7:30-12:30 and 3-5:30 working on reporting for projects to the international SIM office in the US.

Every Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:30-8pm, I teach an advanced ESL class. At first, I was hesitant to do it because I really don't consider myself to be a good teacher (at anything, even basketball!) - I just know that I don't have that gift. But I decided to do it because I wanted to make the most of my time here in Burkina, and plus, I figured that this would be a great way to build relationships with people outside of the missionary community. During my first couple of classes, I used to get pretty nervous because I didn't know if the material I was teaching was really any good. But now, I really look forward to "English for Everyone"... not so much the teaching English part, but to the discussions that we have in class about our families, current events in the country and around the world, the Bible... At the end of every class, we do a 20 min Bible study. That's probably my favourite part of the class because everyone really gets into the discussion - they ask tons of questions and everyone is very comfortable sharing their thoughts (for the last couple of classes, we've gone overtime 20 mins!). I think that this is definitely one of the most meaningful things that I'm doing here.

Here's a picture of my class. From left to right - Edouard, Sambare, Roxane, Dieudonner and Lassan. Two other students, Alvine and Tiemoko, are missing. The classroom isn't actually that small, we just had to bunch together for the picture.

I got some more pictures of my trip in early September to Djibo. The first two pictures are from the ride up to Djibo. The rainy season was just ending, but the roads were still flooded in a few places. Luckily, we were in a truck so we didn't have any problems.

We stopped by this village on our way up. I think I finally figured out why the ponds up there were like this. The main detergent that people use for cleaning clothes is called Omo, and it contains lots of phosphates... perfect for algal blooms. and yes, that is a sandal stuck to the top of the pond.

These pictures were taken from another village close to Djibo. Something I remember vividly was that when we first got there, the people from the village were very nice and hospitable. They put out mats for us under the shade and gave us water to drink....except the water was very murky. Galen just told us to press our lips very hard on the cups and pretend to take a few gulps. I heard it was called the Friendship Drink, also known to my director as instant diarrhea :P We sat there for about half an hour to an hour, and it seemed like the whole village just stopped what they were doing and just stared at us the whole time. I'm not really sure, it might have been their way of being polite... or maybe they just wanted to stare at the white people :)

Last picture. A lady invited us into her hut to sit and talk. After 30-45 min, it started to get really hot in there... so hot that sweat was dripping off my chin and forearms. A few of us had to leave, and I went to go sit in the truck. Soon, a couple kids came up and started to point and laugh at something in the distance. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what they were so amused at. Finally, I figured out that they were just laughing at their reflections in the side mirror of the truck. That was a big reminder of how little these people have, as well as how much we take for granted at home.

Here are some pictures of my neighbourhood. As you already know, Burkina Faso is a really poor country. All of residential roads and "side streets" are dirt roads, with the exception of a few newly-built paved main roads (imagine these as the equivalent of a highway in Canada). The neighbourhood I live in is pretty rustic. Most houses look like the few that you can see in the pictures - small brick buildings surrounded by a low fences... some have electricity, some don't. So it goes without saying, my house stands out a lot... and everyone in my neighbourhood knows where the chinese guy lives.

For a long time I felt like my house stuck out like a sore thumb, until I visited a district called Ouaga 2000. It's basically a suburb of Ouagadougou that is being heavily developed for residential purposes... But the houses are gigantic mansions - they're bigger than any house I've ever seen, two to three times bigger than any house on The Bridle Path at Bayview+Lawrence. It's CRAZY. I'll have to take pictures next time, because I just can't describe it in words. And it's not just 5 or 10 houses, it's an entire district full of these houses. The oddest part is that you come out of a very poor area of the city, and then all of a sudden you're hit with all of these mansions. So from what I've come to understand, the rich here are very rich. And if you're wondering whether they care about the rest of the country, well I haven't found that answer yet. I know that many rich people in the country are muslims, and they donate a lot for the development of the country... so maybe. I'm going to keep looking into this.


A view from outside my gate. The building on the left with the roof is like a convenience store that sells very random but useful things (there are many of these types of stores around the city).
















This is the street I live on.















This is my house from the outside.

A couple days ago, Sibidi asked me if I wanted to go to a wedding this weekend. I had no idea who the bride and groom were, but he said that it was OK because at Burkinabe weddings, anyone who's invited can invite anyone else. So this morning, I went to the church service for the wedding. I'd guess that there were probably about 250 people there. Dave and I didn't stay for the whole thing though. The electricity was out in the church, so the fans weren't working... and as you can imagine, with that many people in a room, it can get HOT. It was about 35 degrees outside, so I'm guessing it was about 40 C inside. And we had been waiting there for ~45 min for the service to start because the bride and groom were running a bit late. Later, I found out that the service went on for another ~2 hours after we left, so I'm kind of glad that we left when we did. If I had known the couple getting married, I would have stayed. I hope they don't get offended though.

Here's a picture I took of the SIM Guesthouse. On the left is the SIM Office, and on the right is the guesthouse.

I've been fortunate to meet other short-termers here who are around my age. For the past three or four weekends, Dave, an American who just graduated from college, has been staying over at my place. He works at a place called the Village of Hope, a project designed for orphans and children who are in difficult situations. It's basically a little village (it's not really a village, they just call it one) that has a school, dorms, a health clinic, etc., which was started by a pastor of a church 4-5 years ago. It's a really great place and there's a big need for it. Since Dave works alone, it's understandable why he'd want to come into the city every weekend... and we get along really well. Another girl we hung out with a lot is Hannah, a young teacher from Australia. But last week, she left Ouagadougou to begin home-schooling the Ottosson's children in Fada N'gourma. She's incredibly nice and loves to cook and bake... which has been great for Dave and I :P

This is a picture of Dave, Sibidi, and I at a restaurant. Sibidi is 33 and he works in SIM office with me. We usually eat out a lot together, since he lives by himself right now and doesn't like to cook.

Culture

Now that I've been here for about 3 weeks, I feel like I'm starting to settle in. I used to feel self-conscious when walking down the streets or going into the market because everyone used looked at me because I was a foreigner, but now it doesn't bother me as much. But there's a few things about the culture that are still a bit difficult for me.

For the past 2 weeks, a young man has been coming on the weekends to ask for work. He's 20 and from Mali. On the first Saturday that I moved into my house, he knocked on my door and we started to talk. He told me that he came to Burkina to try to find a job as a guard, but he didn't succeed. He was asking for any work he could do around the house, but I had to tell him that I didn't need anyone because I had just moved in and already had someone to work for me. But I did offer to give him some food instead, and he accepted. Then, he started to talk about how sick he was and how he couldn't afford medicine. I told him that I wouldn't give him money because I didn't know what he was going to do with it. Eventually, he told me that all he needed was 500 CFA (about $1 CAD) for a medicine prescription, because he could get medicine almost for free at a Christian clinic. So I said "OK, I'll give you 500 CFA, but you have to return and show me the prescription". A couple days later, I found the prescription in my door. So I thought to myself that he might actually be legit. The next Sunday, he came again and asked me if I had received the prescription, and then he proceeded to show me the medication that he received from the clinic. He then asked for work again, but I had to tell him that I still didn't have any work for him to do around the house. Then he started to tell me how he was trying to go back to Mali to go back to his family, but that he needed money for the bus back. Again, I told him that I wouldn't give him the money b/c I didn't know what he was going to do with it, but I did offer him some more food and he accepted. The next day, as I was leaving to go to work at 7am, he showed up at my door with another guy. He said that his friend was leaving to go towards Mali that day, and if I could give him 5,000 CFA, it would pay for his transportation costs. At this point, I was getting really skeptical about his whole situation. After about 20 mins of talking, I eventually told him that I would give him 1,000 CFA for gas, and that if the other guy was really his friend, he would take him along. After that, he kept talking and trying to convince me to give him more, but I was starting to get frustrated because I felt like he was just trying to get as much money from me as he could (even though in reality it's really not that much). So after that, I told him that that was the only time I would give him money, and I wished him a good trip and that was it. I guess I'm still half-expecting him to show up at my door this weekend, but we'll see what happens. It's tough because you want to help, but you don't want to get "had" either (b/c that happens a lot here).

Another thing that bothers me is how when people see me (or other foreigners), they immediately see dollar signs. So if I need to get my bike repaired, it'll cost me more money to repair it. Or if I go to the market to buy vegetables, I don't come out with as much as someone else would for the same amount of money. It's not a big difference, and in the end I know I'm helping them out a little bit more so I don't mind as much, but it's just the principle of it all. So it's a bit annoying, but I know it's just a part of life here in Africa that I will have to get used to.

Djibo

I returned from Djibo last night and there's two things I'll mention in this post:

1) Djibo was a great experience because I got to meet Ken and Jocelyn Elliott, two Australians who came to BF in 1972 to create a hospital. Before I got there, Galen (the missionary who gave me a ride up to Djibo) told me that Ken and Jocelyn would be two of the most gracious and humble people that I could ever meet - and he was right. Throughout the 3 days I was there, both Ken and Jocelyn just wanted to serve us...they provided a great place for us to stay, Jocelyn cooked fantastic meals, and Ken would always try to entertain us if we were sitting in the living room... and in everything they did, they did it with a heart of servitude.

Ken is a surgeon, and he's the only doctor in the hospital. The hospital they started is pretty incredible - it's 300m by 250m (so it's a huge complex), they have 4 wards, plenty of beds, and it's also well-equiped (check out the "solar-powered" autoclave!). It's always busy there, and it's pretty incredible to see how much God has blessed them.





























2) Galen also took us (there were 2 american girls who work at an orphanage in a small city named Yacko + one other missionary in the group) to the animal market, where they basically just sell off goats and cows. Here's a before and "day-after" picture:















I just thought it was neat.

Djibo

For the last week, I've been doing a bit of work in the office. I found out that I'm going to be helping to do the admin work for all of the projects they have in Burkina Faso, not just the ones related to health. So various people have been taking me around the city to visit and learn more about the projects that SIM has established here.


I'm going up to Djibo from Monday to Wednesday. It's a small little village to the north of the city that I'm in. There's a medical surgeon who set up a clinic there. It's a pretty neat story and he was in the SIM video of BF that we watched during orientation, but I don't know all the details of the story yet... once I get back, I'll post something about it.