Teaching and Camel Riding

The Computing team once again was working with John at SIM, but this time instead of doing what they're best at, fixing computers, they were teaching the teachers at SIM the basics of how to use computers.  We split up the sessions into two with Scott speaking in the first session on files, folders and organization, with the second session being intro to Microsoft Word, lead by Kara and Austin.  The teachers at the school had different skill levels on the computer, ranging from no experience at all to moderate use.  They all enjoyed learning about certain things they could do on the computer, especially when using a word processor.

The Education group went to visit Joseph who runs a school in the outskirts of Ouaga. He is a Burkinabae man who moved to Oklahoma, but after being called by God to come back to Burkina to spread the gospel he fully trusted the Lord and let Him lead the path of the next steps of Joseph's journey. He then started a school with 12 kids on his porch, which grew into a school made up of 240 students. His testimony was such an inspirational story of faith in God and how he spreads the Word in a dominantly Muslim area. Even after being threated with machetes from a group of Muslim elders, he is able to still be a Christian leader in his community. We were all so inspired by his story and want to donate money/supplies to him and his growing dream (the school). After a tour of the school from Joseph, the team was delighted to find two camels approaching them on the road. Katie and Lauren tried to ask the men riding the camels if they could take a picture of the camels, however, because they only speak French, and the girls know up peu French, there was a major language barrier. Finally, with the help of Joseph, the girls learned that they could in fact take pictures, and that they could sit on the camels if they wanted. Dani got on the camel with the help of Joseph, but before Katie and Lauren could, we were told that we needed to pay. We were able to get some great photos of Dani on the camel before we had to leave.