Sunday: A visit to the International Church of Ouagadougou
One of the local adult leaders that helped at the camp suggested that we go to his church. Given that it was an English speaking church, I was all in favor of attending the church. It had been awhile since I understood all that was happening, including the music and the message. The church was very good. Despite it lasting for nearly 2 ½ hours, the team was pleased with the service and all that we got from it. We also came across some people that we knew from camp. About five minutes into the service, Debbie, one of the girls in my group, taps me on the arm and sits next to me. It was fun to see one of the friends we made at the camp.
Monday: A Visit to the Larry Ebbert Medical Center
One of the ongoing Navigators’ projects in Ouagadougou is the Larry Ebbert Medical Center. The medical clinic is operated by Dr. Felix Kohol and his wife Nema. You might remember Felix and Nema from our first night in Ouagadougou as they had us over for dinner shortly after our flight arrived. They are missionaries from Nigeria and they have been in Burkina Faso since 2001. In 2006 the clinic was able to be opened to the public and it has been serving the neighborhood community since then. Dr. Kohol’s area of specialty is OB/GYN and his main focus is to improve the medical conditions for the local women during child birth. They also serve a variety of medical conditions for people who arrive at the clinic. There are additional part-time doctors who help with the patients. The clinic is not very large and we were able to see how they often put patients wherever they can fit a bed. On Monday Felix gave us a tour of the clinic as well as a brief history. Laura was able to spend some time with a few patients to gain an insider’s view as to how the clinic operates. They are starting to make plans to add a maternity facility to further enhance the medical services which they can provide.
Tuesday: Road Trip to Bingo
One of the villages outside of Ouagadougou is Bingo. Near this village, Joseph and the Navigators recently bought a five-acre parcel of land. On Tuesday we took a trip to see the land. While we were there the surveyors came along to properly set the designations as to the boundaries for the land. Joseph has a number of different visions for the land. One of them is to build camp facilities on the land so that future youth bible camps, like that which we attended last week, can be held on this land. It is in the early stages but it appears that the most successful people and organizations in Burkina Faso are well planned and patient. While the surveyors were working we took some time to share our lives with some of the other people which Joseph brought out to the land for the day. This included Laura and Emily sharing their stories as well as a long question and answer session where they asked us questions about the United States and our impressions of Burkina Faso. Having such open dialogues with the local people is something which we have not included much in our time here, and I think it would have been good to include more similar discussions. Eventually we all loaded back on the bus. On our way back from the land we stopped to visit two families in Bingo. Two of the campers from the youth bible camp came from these two families. It was fun to see the campers again, as well as meet their parents. A “Proclaimers Radio” (an audio bible running on multiple power sources) was given to one of the families as well as some other gifts. The visit to Bingo provided us a good opportunity to better understand what life is like outside of Ouagadougou.
Wednesday: Part 1 – A Visit to Baby Orphanage
Back on our second full day in Ouagadougou we attempted to visit a baby orphanage. When Emily and I met with the director it was requested for us to come back in two weeks, and for only 2-3 people come so as to not overwhelm the babies. We decided Wednesday morning would be a good opportunity and we sent Ryan and Laura to make the visit. When Laura and Ryan arrived, the lady in charge that morning was very receptive to them being there, gave them a tour, and encouraged them to play with the kids. Laura and Ryan also brought a number of gifts including small toys for the babies. They were only at the orphanage for about two hours but they returned excited with what they were able to experience.
Wednesday: Part 2 – A Mural for a New School
The big plans for Wednesday were to go out to a new school, which Joseph is helping to coordinate and run. The school is outside of Ouagadougou. The four classrooms are still in very rough shape but it will be another two months until the school opens so they feel there is plenty of time to work on them. Back on our first day in Ouagadougou, when Joseph told us about the school, Haley offered to paint a mural somewhere in the school. It was decided to paint a mural inside the secretary’s office of the small administrative building. That office has been cleaned up and there was a fresh coat of white paint on it from Tuesday. On Tuesday evening we met as a team to come up with a plan as to what we were going to paint. Somewhat surprisingly, my idea, one of the only ideas that I had, is the one that we decided to use. On Wednesday we stopped at a local hardware store to buy the paint and paint brushes. We then went to the school to paint the mural. Helping us for the day was Benoit, a camper who was in Haley’s group, and Benoit’s older brother. They had stopped in at SIM to visit us and they spent the day with us. The mural which we painted was a vine with some fruit and leaves painted along with it. With each fruit we painted the “Fruits of the Spirit” in English and French. The materials and equipment which we had were very primitive. In the end, Laura and Haley painted the words on the mural using their fingers. Much to our joy and surprise the mural turned out very well. We have now left our mark behind with this new school.
Thursday: Larry Ebbert Medical Center – Part 2
We did not get to spend as much time at the medical clinic as we would have liked on Monday. Felix invited us back for Thursday and we agreed. One of the early parts of our visit was to be a part of planting two trees outside of the clinic. Planting trees is a big deal in Burkina Faso as they are trying to do what they can to limit the expansion of the Sahara. They also like to have a “signifying moment” to commemorate our visit. Therefore, as a group we planted two trees. I’ll be honest, it was more of a ceremonial planting as most all of the work was done by two locals who are working for Felix. Pictures were taken with us moving the tree into the holes and filling the holes in with dirt. Felix has said that he will send us pictures in the future to show us how the trees which we planted have grown. Something similar to this was supposed to be done when we were out at the new Navigators land, but it did not work. Instead we are supposed to put our names on different trees and they will plant them for us in our honor. One of the main reasons for the return visit to the clinic was for Laura to be able to spend more time with patients. Things were slow enough at the clinic that she did not get to see much. The most notable work from the visit was having Ryan and myself spend about an hour and a half putting in a new tile sidewalk.
Thursday: A Visit to the University
The second half of our Thursday was to re-visit the bible study which we were able to spend time with two weeks ago, right before we left for the camp. This time the bible study was having an ‘end-of-the-year’ celebration with an emphasis on them bringing their friends to the meeting. Most of the two hour event was held in French, so I can’t tell you much of what happened. At one point Emily shared her testimony and her story with the university students. I then gave the teaching for the evening. Overall, I was pleased with how the teaching went. It was difficult to adjust to speaking with a translator. I had to keep my statements broken up into easy to follow blocks. I also had to limit myself from getting on a roll and rambling away. After my teaching and some other people sharing, we took pictures of everybody. Thursday evening was a classic example of the popularity that goes along with being ‘white people’. The neighborhood kids flocked around us and the university students wanted an endless series of pictures with us. The evening ended with a showing of the moving “Facing the Giants” as an end-event to their academic year.
Other information:
When we were about ready to play the movie at the meeting this evening, the power went out. This is not an uncommon occurrence. I would estimate that in the past week we have averaged about two power outages every day. Mid-morning and early evening appear to be common times, but there really is no predicting the power outage. Many places, such as SIM, have back-up generators which kick-in after the power has been out for more than a few seconds. However, even the back-up generator at SIM covers only a part of their facility. The apartment for Emily, Haley, and Laura is connected to the generator, meanwhile the apartment for Ryan and I is not. The power outages can last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. There is no predicting it. The potential for power outages is just something that one deals with in Burkina Faso.
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