The Computing and Education groups woke up for a long day ahead of them. We headed to breakfast, enjoying a nice spread of cheese omelets, croissants, bread, jam, coffee, and tea. After our delicious breakfast we gathered together for devotions by Scott before packing up all of our bags and heading to the bus station. After a 6 hour bus ride, we made it back to Ouaga safe, in time for pizza and rice for dinner. Tomorrow, the Education group along with Doug are going out to proctor English exams for the locals. The Computing group will also be going to assess local computer work with John, evaluating what is necessary. We are so thankful for making it back safetly and are excited to begin serving the people of Ouaga this week! :)
Are You Ready? I Suppose....
Today I, Charlie, was able to see Yempabou for the first time this trip. He has grown up into a man in the year in a half since I have seen him last, but it was like we saw each other just last week. He and his family are doing well and I enjoyed conversing with him despite my limited language skills. When I asked him how his tricycle was holding up he said, as we expected, that there were problems with the axles, which Jean and I knew about and are prepared to fix. Please pray that problems that arise during our work on the tricycles can be solved quickly.
In other news… we went climbing up the ‘cliffs’ that look over the country in the late afternoon. Don’t worry parents it was safe, teams and locals do it all the time. The view from the top was incredible as we were able to see the end of the sunset over the country. It was a good team building time to figure out the best ways up and down and we all enjoyed the adventure (Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone she really climbed the ‘cliff’ with us it’s not just a posed picture).
And lastly we just came back from climbing the water tower at the station. As it turns out twenty five feet up in the air is the best place to see the stars. All five of the students (yes Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone Kate when with us as well) enjoyed the climb and star gazing. Morning will come the same time it does every day, but we will see it earlier than some would like as we need to have eaten, showered, and SUNSCREENED for the day at 7:30.
Good night from Mahadaga.
Got Dust… We Do!
Hello from the Mahadaga team.
Yesterday we spent eight hours in a very dusty bus from Ouagadougou to Mahadaga with a stop in Fada for a quick lunch break. From the windows we were able to see the country side of Burkina Faso as well as a number of small towns we passed along the way. A couple hours outside of Mahadaga we saw a group of Burkinabe men gathering up their cotton to transport it to the cotton mill. When we were five miles outside of Mahadaga, Dave, Kevin, and Charlie got a true cultural experience as they, like other Burkinabe men, rode on the top of the van and enjoyed saying Ca Va to all the children they passed. When we arrived at the compound we piled out of the bus and everyone was covered from head to toe in the red dust of West Africa, and our once black computer bags all have a reddish hue to them.
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| Left to Right: Jean, Kate, Charlie, Dave, Randy, and Kevin |
This morning we went a local church that was held in a small private Christian school right down the street from the compound. This particular church was in French, Gourma, and sign language and Flo translated into English for us. The beginning of the service consisted of worship and various choirs singing (our group included). The pastor spoke on sanctification. After the service was over, many of the people came to shake our hands and welcome us.
The KWHR Project update for dummies: After settling ourselves in Ouagadougou, we began working on fixing some of our software problems. We have managed to increase the brightness of our displays, debug the code of the function that keeps record of daily energy usage, and fixed some other problems caused by the coding illiterate… Jon Martin (cough cough). Just kidding. But really! Now that we have made it to Mahadaga, we plan to set up our test rig and begin installations on Monday (since Sunday is the day of rest… something we may have forgotten back in the US).
Thanks for all your prayers.
Love ya ma!
- Mahadaga Team
Mount Everest
With a relaxed morning and breakfast, the group in Banfora headed out in
two stuffed taxis to our site seeing destinations. We ventured down a dirt road, making a stop at the rice fields to take pictures of the landscape along with the local children who love pictures, especially seeing the pictures of themselves. The first stop on our
list were the "Domes"
Our next destination was the Cascades, the natural waterfalls of Banfora, and a much awaited swimming hole. We climbed to what seemed like Mt. Everest** in the middle of what seemed like the Sahara Desert***, to get to the Cascades, or waterfalls.
While there, a majority of us swam and cooled off in the water. With ham and butter sandwiches in hand, made by our hotel, the sunbathing and relaxing began. After a few hours in the sun, a few of us were sun kissed with tan lines but others (cough Lauren) forgot to apply sunscreen and now looks like a lobster, standing out like an American tourist (sorry Deb). For now we are relaxing at our hotel until our departure from Banfora back to Ouaga around noon tomorrow. We are hoping that the Mahadaga group made it there safely and will post when we hear they are!
**We were not actually climbing mount Everest, just something that seemed to be comparable to it
***Even though we are in Africa, we aren't in the Sahara desert. We are in a region of Africa called the Sahel, beneath the Sahara with similar scorching heat.
Teaching & Traveling
Today, Charlie, Jean, and Kate were invited by John, one of the SIM missionaries, to go to a short term Bible school with him to help teach students how to read and write their language. Sending two mechanical engineers and an accountant to help teach these students to read and write Fulfulde did not seem to be quite the norm for any of us, but after being assured we would be able to quickly learn and then teach, we hopped into a taxi and set off to our teaching adventure.We enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of this outreach and to see a different part of Ouagadougou. On the way home, we had quite the cultural experience with the Burkina traffic in the taxi. The remaining crew of the Engineering group Dr. Fish, Kevin, Dave, Charlie, Kate, and Jean will be heading out to Mahadaga tomorrow for the next two weeks.
Along with an exciting day for the Engineering group, the Computer and Education students, along with Scott, Angela, and Doug headed out to Banfora, part of western Burkina Faso. After a five hour drive to Bobo, we had a short time between the next bus to Banfora, where we browsed the local African markets making some cultural purchases and met a local who will be assisting us in our stay in Banfora. We appreciate all your prayers and support and can't wait for this next part of our adventure!
Gal-yam Visit
With an early morning and two teams heading to two different places, Angela went to a local bakery in the morning to get sweet bread and cereal for breakfast. The computing students then headed back to IMS to set up the security wires for the netbooks, along with some tweeks with the configuration of the network. While we were all away, Charlie, Jean, and Kate, ventured into the shops of Ouaga to purchase parts for the trike in Mahadaga.
Angela, Dani, Lauren and Katie headed to the outskirts of Ouaga where the Compassion center is located to meet Katie's Compassion child, Gal-yam. The center (located in a church) had 212 students enrolled in the program. These students meet every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for classes in hygeine, social/emotional development and Bible. Katie, Dani and Lauren were able to sit in on these classes and also taught the game "duck duck goose." Gal-yam was shy and seemed confused with the sponsor visit, however he was able to interact somewhat with Katie. She, and the others, then headed to a small boutique (aka a very small 7-11ish type store) to buy soap, oil, rice and cookies for Gal-yam's family. After buying these items, they headed to Gal-yam's house and Katie presented the gifts to Gal-yam's mother as well as privately purchased gifts for Gal-yam. She, in return, received authentic African/Burkinabe garb from his family. Overall, it was a great visit and very eye-opening to see the conditions in which people live in that are so different than our homes in the states.
Katie and her Compassion child, Gal-yam
Katie taught Gal-yam and his friends how to make fish faces!
Compassion children
The Education group with Gal-yam and his family
After lunch and a much needed sieste, the group had another lecture with a very deep and interesting discussion on salvation. Dinner was at local African restaurant, where most of us ate chicken or steak kabobs and peanut sauce over rice. Baobab juice (from baobab tree leaves) was the new drink of choice, however a few (Katie and Lauren especially) will never again try this African treat. Let's just say the wait was long, but the conversation was great. Once again, the rest of our evening consisted of card games and much laughter.
The students before our dinner at the African restaurant
Disney Princesses
Today was our first full day in Ouaga. With a new city to explore, we all took the first opportunity to get out of the guest house and enjoy the warm weather. In the morning hours, Scott, Jeremey, and Matt went to IMS to set up a network for their students, while Austin and Kara configured the 6 new Netbooks for the school. The other students had a relaxing morning, organizing more luggage and reading our course book A Hole in the Gospel. After a great lunch, The computing students, along with Dave, Kevin, and Randy from engineering returned to IMS to test the netbooks with the networks, and recommended wiring configuration for future installation of KWHR meters in the dorm rooms.
Besides all the hard work, we've been relaxing a lot and really enjoying the weather here. Many of us have gone to the store or market with Angela to practice our french, but despite our 'practice' there has still been a major language barrier. Je ne sais pas (I do not know) has become our new favorite phrase. We are enjoying our time here, having a lot of team bonding before the Engineering group (and Kate) head to Mahadaga with many different topics ranging anywhere from an hour long discussion of what your favorite disney princess is to the theology and logic of skipbo. We are so thankful to be posting almost every day courtesy of SIM, and we appreciate the prayers. Keep posted for day 2.....coming up next, One student gets to finally meet their Compassion child.
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