Final Hours

Its that time. The time we all dreaded and our families were all excited for.  After 3 weeks in the beautiful country of Burkina Faso, we are heading back to the United States.  It has been a blessed 3 weeks over here with many different projects accomplished and lives touched.  We are grateful for the opportunity and time we spent over here and are reluctant to go back to the states.  But, it had to happen and here it goes...

Depart Ouaga: Approx 9:20 PM (depending, its Africa time) (4:20 US time)
Arrive in Paris: 6:00 AM (minor stop in Niger) (Midnight US time)

Depart Paris: 10:50 AM (4:50  US time)
Arrive in Dulles: 1:39 PM (make sense? think time difference...)

Angela will have her cell phone on the way back from Dulles for students to inform their parents of our arrival on campus.  Our rough estimated time to be back on campus is 5:14 PM. 




Pray for the plane!
See you all in America :)










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Reunited and it feels so good

And after two weeks apart, we are ALL back together, safe and sound in the SIM guest house in Ouaga. The Yako group came back depressed from leaving the orphans.  The Mahadaga group came back dirty from 8 hours in a non air conditioned van.  But now we are all together for our final days, restarting our constant nights of card games.  Tomorrow we are off to church where we were invited to sing a song (good thing we're all education, computer and engineering majors).

From Ouaga, peace out.

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Cause its not grounded

As we, the computing group inherited more and more computers in Apartment 4 at the SIM guest house, it is apparent that our "stupid french outlets" comments are correct.  Nothing in Burkina is grounded, basically  promising a shock to your hand  as soon as you plug in a power cord for a computer. It doesn't hurt you, just startles you, and once you get startled enough, it gets annoying.  Tip of the day: wear shoes when you plug a power cord into an outlet in Burkina Faso.

In other news, we revisited our 6 French netbooks we set up for IMS in the beginning of our trip.  Scott ventured out with Pauline earlier in the morning (being gracious enough to let the students sleep in :) ) to finish the rest of the networking, along with caging the router.  Pauline drove back out to SIM to pick up the rest of us so we could meet the students studying at IMS, along with sitting in the class which our dear friend John was teaching. At the end of the class, Joel Gray an SIM missionary told the students how we had set up the netbooks for them in order to learn, along with us introducing ourselves in our french skills.  All of the students were endlessly grateful for our work at their school, most saying 'Thank you' in English cause they knew we didn't know french!


Diana then joined us for our afternoon, taking us to a local crafts street for some souveneir shopping.  It seemed though as soon as the white people entered the street, they all came swarming.  We are always told to barter for our items, most of the time leading to either a good deal or overwhelming purchase.  Though it was stressful, we enjoyed our shopping trip with Diana and her french speaking assistance. 

This evening we finally got to field test our Acer projector we fixed for someone here.  Slowly our viewing of movies has gotten more and more advanced, finally upgrading to a home theatre with a projector... :)




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Mahadaga Recap, Barbecues & Cheesecake


Hello world!
The Mahadaga team is still alive, just in case you were wondering. Here is a quick recap of all that’s happened this week thus far:
Sunday: While Doug and Angela were here, we hosted a barbecue for all the workers at the SIM compound and their families. We served some really good grilled chicken (though Kate claims she couldn’t find any meat on her chicken), rice, and even sugar cookies with Nutella that Angela baked. Overall, we all had a great time fellowshipping, eating, singing, dancing, and trying to communicate in 3 different languages (French, Gourma, English) all at once.
Monday: In the afternoon, we went with Betty, one of the missionaries, to a nearby Fulani compound to learn more about their culture as well as to purchase some souvenirs from them. It was neat being invited into their homes and seeing what their lives were like. In the evening, we went over to Djebo’s  (one of the guards here) compound to have dinner with his family. Djebo is a Fulani Christian which is still quite rare as most Fulanis are Muslim. We were served millet toh, gumbo sauce to dip toh in, and some mutton. We were able to hear Djebo’s powerful testimony and learn more about the difficulties of Fulani Christians. Please keep Djebo and his family in your prayers and they continue to witness to their relatives and other Fulanis in this area.
Tuesday: We didn’t do anything too exciting and had a regular work day. See technical update below for details on how our work is coming. In the evening, we hosted a prayer meeting for the compound and got to listen to Francois continue her story for Joel and Caleb (the Johnson’s sons). Randy really enjoys Francois’ stories!
Wednesday:  Charlie and Kevin went out on the mobilettes all day and were able to see firsthand the different types of things the physical therapists do, as well as to experience what it really means to be “in the middle of nowhere” out in the bush. Rumor has it that one of the guys was offered a wife and kids at one of the villages while out on the mobilettes.
Thursday: Jean went out on the mobilette and was able to meet several kids with cerebral palsy and watch the therapists do various massages and activities with them. The rest of the gang did work for most of the day. Kevin, Dave, and Dr. Fish went out with Brendon in the afternoon to help Brendon try to pull out a well drilling bit that…umm..may have broken off and fallen in a 5m deep well. As of now, the bit is still down there. We went over to Francois’s for dinner and had some delicious baked potato and cabbage casserole and brownies for dessert. Afterwards, Brendon came over for more card games and enjoyed a slice of Dave’s glorious Mahadaga cheesecake.
Friday: This is our last full day here in Mahadaga as we prepare for our departure to Ouaga tomorrow morning. We’ve got packing and cleaning up to do, in addition to a New Year’s party at the center this evening.
Technical update:
Accounting: After battling some French translation issues, Kate has completed her projects and so far has been assisting Jean and Charlie as an honorary engineer on the trike work.
KWHR: Kevin, Dave, and Dr. Fish have successfully installed 3 “working” meters now, 2 at homes in the SIM compound and 1 at the dorms for the blind students at the center. There are still a couple bugs to be fixed, including a problem they encountered with one of the components doing some funky things due to its sensitivity to changes in temperature.
Tricycles: Djebe’s trike is all complete with its new set of axles. Yempabou so far hasn’t had any problems with his. Charlie welded a footrest on Etienne’s trike yesterday, as well as getting Etienne some practice riding his trike out on the road. Etienne seems to be enjoying his trike and is making significant improvements in his ‘driving.’ Dieregou, the shop technician at the center, had surgery yesterday in Diapaga, a nearby town, and will probably be out for a couple of weeks. Though we don’t know much detail about his surgery, just pray for a speedy recovery from the surgery!
*Sorry, but I (Jean) don’t have any blog-worthy pictures on my camera. Pictures will follow…eventually.*


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I'm a walrus

Over the past couple days, the computing groups finished two projects: setting up Diana's computer lab along with installing a network at CMA.

On Tuesday we returned to CJFL (the school that Diana works at) to continue with our installations and software updates in her lab.  After a long day, Diana a joined us for dinner at one of her favorite local places, coincidentally a Chinese place.  The food there was so good, everyone left with fully bellys along with leftovers.


Wednesday was our last day with Diana at CJFL.  Kara, Austin, Jeremy, and Matt went to CJFL, while Scott went back to SIM Tech to assist John with the remainder of his computers.  We had a few machines at CJFL to fix up along with networking them and rearranging her lab.  With a prediction of only 3 computers hoping to be fixed, we beat Diana's wish fixing 13 out of the 19 computers there, even leaving her with extra ones because we didn't have enough monitors for the computers.


Diana was forever grateful for our assistance in the lab for her middle school girls to use.  While the students were finishing up at CJFL, Scott when back to SIM Tech to gather all of the specs from the lab computers, along with updating any software that was needed for the students and teachers at the school.


Early on Thursday, we headed over to a school that a few of the CMA (Christian Missionary Alliance) Missionaries work with. This school was a fairly nice school for the area that it was in, finding out that it was also a part of the Compassion children program.


We got their only needing to assist with the Ethernet cord going from one building to another, so while Scott and Larry drilled holes and worked the cord through, Austin, Jeremy, and Matt were replacing all of the tiles Scott and Larry took down.  Let's just say they are all thankful to be Computer Science majors (and BIS) along with kara there for moral support taking pictures of their handy work.  When the work was almost done, the children were on their lunch right outside the lab we were in and like every child in Africa, they were fascinated by pictures.  The children were so awesome to play with for the little time that we got to, we feel like the education majors :) Tomorrow we are revisiting our work at IMS to meet some of the students, along with going shopping with our personal tour guide Diana.  A well needed break!

Love from Ouaga






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Learning German while in Burkina Faso???

Yesterday, Lauren had the opportunity to teach 4th graders on the area of rectangles. Lauren had a lot of fun with this, and the kids also seemed to enjoy the 'human rectangle', where Lauren drew two large rectangles on the sand with a stick, and had the kids stand in the rectangles to determine the area. Angela also taught in a sixth grade class, on European colonization of Africa.

In the afternoon, one of our new friends from Germany, Anne, took us on a tour of Yako. We stopped at a supermarket, and stocked up on some food, such as crackers and candy. On the way back to the orphanage, we stopped to buy what we thought were peanuts, but they turned out to be a small fruit that is not very good. We ended our night by playing 'Pictionary Down the Lane' with Ruth, our two German friends, and Riddering family, which brought on many laughs. Dani, Katie and Lauren stayed up with Anne and Judith pretty late, being silly and telling jokes.

Today, Angela taught another lesson on measurement with the help of Doug. Doug enjoyed being a human weight, as the children tried to decide how they could balance him on a seesaw. While the adults taught, Dani, Katie and Lauren went on a fieldtrip to a nearby town with Ruth to see the mobile clinic. Unfortunately, by the time they got there, the clinic had already left. On a happier note, Dani was proposed to by one of the guards, but due to circumstances, Dani had to turn him down.

When they got back, the girls led some crafts with the kids with modeling clay. The kids enjoyed taking lots of pictures on their cameras and making 'fleurs' and 'serpants' (flowers and snakes) with the clay. Later this afternoon, the girls and Doug will be going with Ruth to 'la barrage', which is a man made resovoir. Hope all is well in Mahadaga and Ouaga!!!!

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Africa time; noun, meaning "nothing is on time, anything will happen, and things WILL change"

Hola from Yako!

We have arrived safely much thanks to Anne, a German student staying with Ruth in Yako, who bought our bus tickets/helped us with our French--basically delivering us in one piece. We were greeted warmly by Ruth, and another family who just moved to Yako with means to help at Sheltering Wings, the nonprofit organization Ruth helps to run in Burkina Faso, consisting of an orphanage and primary school. We arrived just in time to help distribute toys to the orphanage from Toys For Tots, a US Marine sponsored gift program. The children were excited to receive these gifts and it was a meaningful experience for us all.

Today we woke up bright and early (easy now Mahadaga, we were up at the crack of dawn with you--6:30) to prepare for Dani and Katie's lessons. They taught simultaneously in different classrooms; Katie taught multiplication by 3's to second graders and Dani taught the World of Dogs to both 3rd and 4th grade (let's just say there was a miscommunication...). Both lessons went well, however the language barrier was a definite obstacle. All-in-all, it provided a great experience for them to teach in another culture. Angela and Lauren are preparing to give their lessons tomorrow; however this is Africa and we are on Africa time so things may very well change. Prayers would be appreciated for their lessons, whenever they end up teaching them.

Another highlight of the day was visiting two other orphanages in Yako. Yako isn't very big, so having three orphanages is uncommon. All three of the orphanages were full. The other two orphanages were run by Burkinabe so it was interesting to see the difference between them and Ruth's orphanage (an American run program). Most of the kids were very welcoming to us and allowed us to hold, cuddle, and play with them.

Tonight we experienced a prayer/worship session under the stars led by kids from the orphanage. Although mostly in French with some English translation, it was moving to see the love for Christ these kids have. Many of the children were chilly and did not have jackets to wear. If anyone would want to donate small windbreakers (ages newborn to late teens) to the orphanage, please deliver them to any members of our team or send them to Angela directly (Box 3041). These jackets can be new or used. Even though Burkina is much warmer than it is in the US, it is currently winter and it becomes colder when the sun goes down. These donations would be much appreciated! Angela will be sending the donations to the orphanage on February 15th.

Our internet connection is extremely slow and unreliable so we may not be able to post again until we are back in Ouaga on Saturday. But no worries, we are all fine and healthy!

Goodnight from Yako!
And until we see you all again, we will be playing with the precious 19 babies in the orphanage :)
Love, Katie and Dani

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I want a friend like that

Over the past two days, a lot has changed for the Education and Computing groups.  On Sunday, we attended church with the Watts', two SIM missionaries along with their daughters.  Not only was the service in french, translated into moore (more-ay), but it was also 2 and a half hours long.  For the first hour of the service, it was primarily singing (in french), along with an introduction of the visitors aka us.  Luckily, Malcolm Watts was there to introduce us in french.  After the pastor's sermon, we took communion then were asked to come up to the front of the congregation in order for the church to great us.  Everyone in the church was so welcoming to us we were grateful to be allowed to worship with them on Sunday.  They even asked us to prepare a song for next Sunday......I hope they like Jesus loves me!

The remainder of Sunday was definitely a day of much needed rest.  We cooked, cleaned, read, did laundry and laid around until our pick up game of ultimate Frisbee at four!   The group consisted of people staying at the SIM guesthouse, SIM missionaries, CMA missionaries, and some of the ISO students.  This game was a lot more intense than some of us had expected.....leaving a few a bit sore the next day.


This morning we had an early rise, with Computing heading out to the Peace Corps at 8, and the Education waking up to say goodbye....then go back to sleep. Around 8, Diana came for us (computing) to head over to the school she works and lives at.  Diana is a member of the Peace Corps placed at an IT teaching position 20 minutes outside of Ouaga at a school for middle school girls.  As a boarding school, the girls pay a tuition along with living inside the campus grounds.  Once we got there we begun to assess.....and delegate.  Many of the computers were stacked high in piles in order for us to test.  Already beating Diana's hopes of two, we currently have 4 of the computers running with new software on them, hoping to fix more so they can have better computers for their students to use. 

The Education group left for Yako this morning to teach many different subjects at a local orphanage.  With everyone gone from the SIM guest house except for the computing group, we hope everyone is having fun at their destinations and can't wait to see everyone on Saturday!

from Ouaga, over and out.

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You still alive? Okay cool

For the past two days, the Education and Computing groups have been busy at work, leaving little to no time to blog because we are all exhausted.  Yesterday (Friday), we all had an early rise to go see the Mossi King, the leader of a large ethnic group throughout all Burkina Faso.  Every Friday of the week, the king is presented in front of his court, judging if there is a threat against the Mossi people, signifying it in either red or white clothing. 

After the Mossi King, the Computing group headed back to work with John, finishing up our lessons with the teachers and updating more software on their computers. The Education group observed kindergarten through 5th grade at the ISO. They use an American curriculum so it wasn't too different from a classroom in the states, however the classes were very diverse and although it was an English speaking school, not many of the students were native English speakers. We were able to observe how the teachers handled the mixture of students with different backgrounds.

On Friday evening, John welcomed us into his home for dinner with his family, along with his friend Daniel, his wife and child.  When in Africa, some things don't always work out, like driving to Johns house realizing the entire town of Ouaga was out of power (we just hadn't realized because SIM has a back up generator).  As we sat in the dark for a while, John ran around the house trying to get a generator working, also trying to fix the "stupid French outlets" in his house.  Eventually, John, Daniel, and Scott got the generator running so we could eat our dinner in the light. 



On Saturday morning, the entire team headed out to visit the Garibou boys, a local ministry lead by Kate Royal. Sons of families are given to the Mosque to learn the Koran, along with going out and begging for money.  If they don't come back with money, they are punished by the leaders of the Mosque. The Garibou is a safe haven for the boys where they play games, make crafts, eat, along with learning different stories of the Bible.  It was a great visit for the team to see how God was working through Kate to evangelize to the boys who have been dealt a rough life.



While the rest of the team was busy with odd jobs, Katie, Dani and Austin had quite the adventure. They originally prepared to go to a soccer match but when the plans fell through, they ended up being led by Michel (an employee at SIM) to the far outskirts of Ouaga in a taxi that was held together by thin string (there wasn't even a key in the ignition, yet it was running?). In these suburbs, families can buy a plot of land (for the equivalent of 60 USD) to make their home. They are in agreement, however, with the government that every few years the government will come to survey the land to determine where roads should be built. Sometimes, people's houses are destroyed because they are in the way of the roads determined by the government. Michel's area was surveyed recently and while he did not lose his home, his parents lost a significant portion of their yard. In the middle of these suburbs there is a large open-air market where Michel led Katie, Dani and Austin. They were also able to observe the collection and method of making clay bricks to build homes. Donkeys are used to transport the bricks, which are left to dry for three days before they are ready for use. A definate highlight of the trip was the amount of children who flocked towards us wherever we went. As mentioned in earlier posts, children LOVE to see their pictures. They were fascinated by seeing white people and would follow us around, even chasing after us while we drove away in the taxi! After what seemed like a 5 mile walk on dusty dirt paths, we visited at Michel's home before returning back to SIM.

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It’s a Hot Mess


KWHR Meter team wiring up meter #1


                On Friday, prior to our game park departure, the KWHR team narrowed our floating offset problem down to temperature fluctuations and successfully installed a meter in Brenden’s house.  YAY!!!  And Charlie and Jean taught Etienne, turns out he’s 10, how to drive his electric tricycle.  
We left for “Park W” game park in typical African fashion (2 hours behind schedule) with 6 people in the interior of a Toyota pickup with an additional 4 on a wooden bench laid across the bed of the pickup.  Randy, was given the place of honor (the front seat) due to his superior status as professor.  Our guide was very amiable and despite the language barriers, bruised buttocks, and cramped legs, we made it to the park in good spirits.  Before we ventured in, our guide showed us a map and pointed out the bore holes which were drilled to help retain water during the dry season.  Randy, with the utmost elegance afforded to the French language then asked, “Est-ce que l’eau etait ici avant du fromage?”  The dumbfounded looks on our guides’ faces made him realize he had just asked, “Was the water there before the cheese?” instead of “Was the water there before the bore holes?”  After the laughter settled, the real adventure began…
                Look!  An antelope!  Rumble rumble rumble… look a herd of water buffalo!  Rumble rumble rumble… MONKEYS!  And so our journey continued cruising at 35km/hr and slamming on the breaks every 10 minutes or so when someone would spot (or think they spotted…. Oops) an animal amidst the brush.  We saw warthogs, water buffalo, monkeys, baboons, eagles, mongoose, colorful birds, mini-antelope, antelope, and giant antelope (no really, like as big as a horse).  As the evening wore on and darkness blocked our vision, we sped up to reach “Point Triple” (called that because it is close to the triple point where Benin, Niger, and Burkina Faso meet), where we were to spend the night.  Randy made a joke that now that we have sped up a water buffalo is going to jump out in front of our truck, and no sooner had the words left his mouth than a huge water buffalo steps right out in front of our headlights!  Fortunately, we had an alert driver who braked with some room to spare.  Crisis averted.
Making an illegal border crossing at "Triple Point"
We made it to our destination and spend the night playing cards, eating a late dinner, and star gazing with zero light pollution… WOW!  After breakfast the following morning we hiked a bit and came to the triple point and became illegal aliens as we walked into Niger and Benin.  Then we piled back into the pickup for another mobile expedition.  We journeyed to places where the park installed the bore holes and pumps to scout and advise on potential solar implementation.  Along the way we saw more animals and stopped a few times to walk around and investigate the lion and elephant poop.  On one such stop I noticed some holes in the ground and decided to lie down and peer in with my flashlight.  Our guide quickly came over and informed us that those holes are homes for the crocodiles during the rainy season, but house warthogs now.  Close call. 






Face to face with a warthog... just kidding, it was empty.
 
                With sore rumps we returned to the SIM compound and were greeted by Angela and Doug!  Thoroughly satisfied with our experience, we were content to spend the rest of the night relaxing with cards, books, and blogging.
Mahadaga out,
Kevin and the team










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If you were a cupcake, would you wear makeup?

With the week coming to an end, the computing group was back at SIM with John teaching their teachers more advanced uses of word, along with an intro to excel.  We found that as soon as they picked up basics of word, they can use the computer in general with more ease and were able to discover more things with word and excel.  After we taught the teachers for the school in the morning, we went back in the afternoon to install Windows along with Microsoft office on some of the machines, updating a few from Windows 98 to Windows XP.  We have one more day with John, hoping to update and install the software on the rest of the computers we have that are outdate.

Katie, Dani, Lauren and Angela were able to go see Angela's Compassion child, Abby, at Abby's Compassion center. We were greeted warmly and offered the porridge the children would eat for breakfast (made of ground millet with some sugar). Let's say this would not be a preferred breakfast food among our group. Unlike Katie's Compassion visit last Thursday, the Education group did not observe classrooms. Instead, they played recess like games with the kids. Hand clapping games, such as Miss Mary Mack and others, were an exciting event with the kids. There is no better feeling than watching children smile, and they sure did at our hand games along with seeing themselves in our pictures we took. Once back at the SIM guest house, preparations were made for a lunch including Abby, one of her friends and her case worker along with Gal-yam (Katie's child), one of his friends and his case worker. Traditional American hamburgers, french fries and cupcakes were the food of choice and the kids enjoyed the meal. Decorating the cupcakes, playing with balloons, coloring, playing in the sand box (more like dirt/dust box), playing bowling and swinging were other highlights of the visit. This was a great opportunity for both Katie and Angela to interact with their own sponsor child. Gal-yam, Abby, and their friends enjoyed a goodbye gift of a balloon with a piece of dental floss (in place of string). Oh, the joys of simple things.

As we wrap up a productive week, we ask for prayers for Doug and Angela who will be starting their journey to Mahadaga early tomorrow morning where they will be until Monday visiting the Engineering group (and Kate).

Love you all and goodnight from Ouaga!

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Hacksaws, Buzzers, and Gift Shops



Bonjour/bonsoir from Mahadaga!
These past two days have been the typical breakfast by 6:30 mornings for Charlie, Kate. and I (Jean) to be ready to head over the center to get working by 7:15. The KWHR guys have been sleeping in a little later claiming to have everyone up by 7:20ish or so we've been told.
So far, Dave, Kevin, and Dr. Fish have made significant progress in debugging some of their software issues and have been able to start testing and prepping for installations on a couple different homes in this SIM compound. Because some of the equipment required to do some testing only worked on 120V outlets (the house the guys are staying in use 220V), the KWHR team asked around and found out that the Walsh's home had 120V. As the Walsh family is currently in the U.S., the KWHR team borrowed keys and decided to haul their equipment over there temporarily to get some testing with the meter done. More exciting news to come about the preliminary results.
As for the tricycles, a lot of progress has been made in continuing to implement the new axle design for the existing electric tricycles. Yesterday, after much clamping, cutting with hacksaws, hammering, tightening, wheel building, welding, etc., Charlie and Jean were able to successfully mount and install the new axles on Yembapou's trike. Compared to the old axle set, this new design has axles almost double the diameter of the previous design (going from 12mm to 20mm) in addition to incorporating higher quality hubs. Though this solution is not necessarily meant to be a long-term solution, as the hubs used are fairly expensive mountain bike hubs, we are hoping this should extend the life of the axles significantly, at least until we find a more sustainable fix for our problem. In addition to axle work, we were able to finish installing the battery pack for Etienne’s green trike which is now set and ready to go. Next week, we are looking at finishing up making a couple tweaks on Yempabou’s axles and then working on installing new axles on Djebade’s electric tricycle (built by the site team in the summer of 2010).
Etienne and Jean



On Wednesday Kate went out on a moto with one of the traveling therapists from the Center to do home visits. We made six stops out in remote areas, where children we visited were blind, deaf, had epilepsy, or cerebral palsy. All of the families were very welcoming, offering us seats in the shade while we were there. It was a very different and tiring experience but one that I’m glad I had.

 In other more cultural news, we were invited to have dinner with the Johnsons and the pastor of a local French church and his family. We experienced a traditional meal of toh (a millet or corn-based mush type thing which is a staple here in most African homes) and a tomato-based chicken dish to dip the toh in. We also had the opportunity to visit the gift shop at the center as well as the market to pick up some gifts and other interesting things. A tailor came by this evening to get measurements for people getting some clothes made. We’ll hope those turn out well.



This weekend we’ll be heading out to a game park nearby to check out some African wildlife!
Forever yours.  <3  Jean
Till next week...au revoir!

  

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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.

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Dust, dust, and more dust

The Education group had an early rise this morning for there 8 o' clock tour of the ISO, or International School of Ouaga, also known as our neighbors across the street (literally).  Doug, Angela, Katie, Lauren, and Dani were shown around the school by the Elementary principle, Angel Prince.  The ISO is an English speaking school, serving grades Pre-K through 12th with students from over 28 different countries.  As exciting as this was for everyone, Dani and Lauren really took interest within the school because they both feel called to work outside of the United States, teaching at a school like ISO. 

While the Education group was on their tour, the Computing group headed back to SIM to continue their work on all of the computers for John.  On todays list was manually cleaning the computers to rid them of all the dust that surrounds every inch of this country (or Africa for that matter). 

             

 We also installed new RAM in some of the machines to make them faster so the Students and Staff can use them with ease.  When we surveyed the computers yesterday, we had a few with some bugs, hoping to use our technical skills in the hardware to make the problems go away, but for two of our computers, it just wasn't enough.  Appropriate burials were held for Louise and Jack, the two computers that just couldn't pull through. 


After a great lunch and some reading, Angela, Katie, Lauren, Dani, Kara, and Austin talked to a missionary kid who is also a student at ISO interested in attending Messiah.  She enjoyed hearing about Messiah students personally rather than reading about it in a brochure.

When the computing students were out buying parts for the Netbooks for IMS with John,  Katie, Lauren, and Dani met an African women, Rebecca who taught them how to make a traditional African meal of vegatable sauce over rice.  First they went to the market, where conviently every one spoke moore (more-ay) so what little french they knew, did not help them.  Thankfully Rebecca spoke moore and they gathered up all of there ingredients.  The vegatable sauce included seven different vegatables: cabbage, onion, zuccinni, squash, tomatoes, carrots, and egglplant with parsley and garlic to taste, along with beef.  The sauce was served over rice and could possibly be voted the best meal we've had here so far.  In the end it was a great experience for her to share her recipe with us, along with us showing her the world of gummy bears, her new favorite candy. 



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Liver, Horseradish, Mustard, Sausage, Onions, and Cheese




Hello from Mahadaga.  Today was a day full of progress for the KWHR team.  I (David Allen) was able to quickly fix two major software bugs with our meter.  I have also made considerable process with the buzzer (the buzzer is a part the meters warning system.  It will alert the user that they are running low on power, and that they need to either shut off things or prepare for power shut down.)  I hope to have that wrapped up in the next day or two, which should complete my section of the software.  Kevin and Dr. Fish continued to work on the current sensor code.  They have made some progress with the theory, and hopefully they will be able to finish up and code their solution by the end of the week.  Finally, we’ve begun planning where and how we are going to install our power meters.

In other news, the other groups didn’t really do anything today… or did they?  From what I (Dave) can tell, Kate listened to music and played on the computer, Charlie took a shower, and Jean has been playing a lot of MineSweeper.  By playing on the computer I mean that she was able to break out 90% of the yearly budget into its corresponding months.  Showering and MineSweeper are of course African code for built two wheels and replaced drivetrain components for Yempabou’s tricycle. Charlie did take a shower and Kevin did as well and now they are clean---er.

This afternoon the group met today with Betty, who is a missionary here on the station that has been going strong in Mahadaga four around forty years.  She worked at the medical clinic as a nurse for a number of years before she felt the Lord calling her to witness to the Fulani, a predominantly Muslim people group.  She has built up a great reputation with the locals and was a wealth of knowledge concerning their culture.  Her prayer is that the Christian Fulani men and women be bold enough in their faith to attend church regularly regardless of the backlash they will feel from their Muslim family members and friends.

Thanks for all of your prayers. 

- The Mahadaga Team

PS. we miss yall too (and the hot showers)

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Bob, Willis, Sally and Louise

Today, the Education group was delighted to help administer English oral exams to the Burkinabe people. Trained by Allison and Ben (two of the SIM missionaries), Dani, Lauren, Katie and Doug learned how to proctor these tests. The oral exam consisted of twenty questions ranging from asking what the local's name was to what they would do if they were giving a million CFA. The purpose of these tests was to assess the English level of the people so they would be placed in the proper class. SIM teaches 12-week long courses to the locals for about 25 US dollars. It was interesting giving these tests because many of those in our group did not know French. Therefore, explaining that complete sentences were necessary became quite the difficult task. It was fun being able to interact with the local people of Burkina and learn a little about their lives. When asked where they see themselves in ten years, many had great aspirations to "become a teacher" or "become a big business man" or "become a good grownup." It's inspiring knowing these people, who are from such a different place than we, have similar goals for themselves as we do. It was also great to learn that they were so adamant and motivated to learn English.


The Computing group began their assessment (this word is used quite often in the CS world) for John, a local pastor who works as a teacher and administrator at the Ouaga Ministry Center. The computers that were being assessed are used in the English  and computing classes that are offered to the locals who are enrolled in the 12-week program. Like everything else in Burkina, the computers had a large amount of dust embedded in them, along with being outdated; some running Windows 98. As the computers were assessed, they needed to be identified to label the specifications of each computer, getting creative with names like Bob, Willis, Sally and Louise. For the rest of the week, they will continue to work closely with John repairing, cleaning and updating software and computers.

Below are pictures from our trip to Banfora:


 Katie enjoying sharing a picture with a Burkinabe child

Picture time along the road

 Burkinabe children
Yoseph, our random local guide we found in Bobo who showed us around Banfora

The guys on top of the Domes
 
Over and Out from the SIM guest house in Ouaga, Burkina Faso
 
ps. Shout out to those in Mahadaga. WE MISS YOU




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So Donkeys… Yeah About That

Today I, Kate learned about what I’ll be doing while in Mahadaga. The long and short of it is that I’ll be breaking down a yearly budget into a monthly budget with more detail to increase efficiency. I’ll also be taking an account at the Center that is kind of a junk account and organizing the information that applies to the Survival Gardens project at the Center.
In the morning the group had a tour of the medical center where we saw the administration buildings, maternity ward, dorms, and testing facilities.  The medical center is staffed completely by African men and women which was really neat to see.  After Flo finished showing us around the medical center Dale showed us around the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped.  They have grades 1-6 for both blind and deaf students as well as serving those with physical disabilities.  Charlie was able to reconnect with Yempabou, Jerrygou, and Borema (young men he had met in the summer of 2010). 
Dale explaining the the group the territory covered by the Handicap Center
In the afternoon the KWHR meter team of Kevin, Dave, and Dr. Fish took over our dining room table and claimed it to be their nerd cave; laying out their testing equipment and continuing to work on coding the meters.   Jean and Charlie were able to get two of three battery packs wired and working and will charge the third and final pack in the morning.  The tricycle group also met Etienne today.  He is a seven year old child who will be receiving an electric tricycle on Wednesday, more on him to come.
Etienne and Charlie
Good night from us and the Donkeys
- Mahadaga Team

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