Burkina Faso Site Team 2010

Last Post

2010-07-25T16:45:00.003-04:00

Our days in Ouagadougou have been good. You can see some typical scenes above that we've been seeing a lot. The weather has been about perfect; breezy and in the mid-80's. Saturday, we slept in for the first time in a month, then headed out to the Grand Market in the center of town for some (chaotic) shopping. White Americans cannot shop incognito here, nor can we window-shop without the assumption that we intend to buy. In the afternoon, we worked on report-writing and dealing with some luggage issues. Unfortunately, the 6-ft. water pump that I (Angela) brought out to Mahadaga on the bus didn't fix the problem at the school there, and now that pump plus the original one need to get back to the states to be returned. I'll have a strange assortment of luggage as I travel through Paris & Iceland on my way home.

We attended the International Church of Ouagadougou this morning; a 2.5 hour service in English with French translation. It was a full house of about 100 people, and although we expected to see white faces at an English-speaking church, we were the only ones. It was nice to worship in our native language and to hear a good sermon about treating each other well and avoiding gossip. We snacked instead of lunch and read, wrote, walked, and did laundry in the afternoon.

The last two nights we had dinner at the Verdoyante restaurant, a place that is frequented by international expatriates from all over the world and is known for excellent pizza, lasagna, and ice cream. Between the three of us and two visits, we tested it all and pronounced it delicious.

This will be our last blog post, assuming no significant travel delays. Bethany and Katie leave tomorrow (Monday) evening for the airport and I depart Tuesday night. By Wednesday evening, we should all be home!

On the road again

2010-07-23T16:49:00.000-04:00

After an 8.5 hour van drive Bethany, Dr. Hare, and I are comfortably settling into Ouaga for a few days. The missionaries and some local Burkinabe students (even one of our kids at the Center who lives very far away, is blind, and walked by himself to our house with moments to spare) came to see us off this morning at 6AM. It was difficult to say good-bye and leave those we have grown to love, but we are encouraged that through prayer and e-mail we will continue to partner and say intouch with them. We are super thankful for the non-rain-filled but cool travel day!

For dinner, we headed over to the International School of Ouagadougou... so nice not to have to cook or clean a meal! So with Burkina stlye American food, including chocolate milk shakes, in our stomachs we are almost ready to call it a day. We all shared laughs as the waiter miss-understood Dr. Hare as he brought out double the food Dr. Hare ordered. Four plates and two drinks later, Dr. Hare announced that she had eaten tonight's dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. ;) Bethany and I did help her out a bit with the fries. ;)

Due to the incredibly slow and sporadic internet here, we plan to blog again either Sunday or Monday before we head to the airport Monday night (Bethany and I fly out in the early hours of Tuesday and Dr. Hare later on Tuesday). From now until then we will be walking around the city, possibly biking to a small park, working on our project documentations for future teams, exploring the Ouaga market, interacting with the missionaries here in Ouaga, and attending a church on Sunday. Although we will all miss not working with the kids tomorrow (they are use to a half day on Saturdays and we continued that schedule) we are looking forward to not setting an alarm to be ready by 6AM.

So thankful for each one of you! Praying that your evening is filled with God Sightings!

Katie :)

Last Day in Mahadaga

2010-07-22T14:00:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow we, the 'American whites', as the children call us, will leave Mahadaga and be replaced by a team of 13 'French whites' who will be refurbishing the school library and operating a summer program similar to ours but nonacademic.

At our closing party, the children saw their photos and heard themselves talking on the big screen, famous for a day. We must have shown our little 9-minute slideshow 5 or 6 times, once for the school director, Francoise, and a few parents who could make it. One mother cried as she heard her son, who does not like school because he can't yet read at 10, speak proudly about his life and plans. We watched the rest of our movie, ate popcorn, and took a short hike to the cliffs to play. The children were thrilled literally beyond words to receive our gifts to them; a pad of paper, one sticker, a ruler, pencil, bright eraser & sharpener, chalk and a sponge, one M&M each, an empty bottle, and a small photo of them at their home. Youmanli (the same boy who can't read) asked our translator, 'Why are they giving us gifts? They came to teach us; we should be giving something to them!' Abraham, our little singer and dancer, made plans on the walk home with me to come with me to the States. He spoke very seriously; he checked with both of his parents (but admitted he didn't ask his sister), and they gave him permission to come, as long as he is back here by Sunday :).

Tomorrow we leave bright and early, in a private van, for Ouagadougou, where we'll have a few days to type up our notes, do some shopping, and enjoy some local restaurants. The staff and residents here have prayed for our safety in our travels and in fact the van driver takes advantage of a military escort that is available for large vehicles. So we are quite confident that we'll be in good hands as we travel.

Next post from Ouaga - -

-Angela

Final days in Mahadaga ...

2010-07-21T17:48:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning, I (Bethany) went out with 2 of the physical therapists from the Center, Patricia and Diazibou(?). I was looking forward to the opportunity to see the work that the physical therapists do in the bush, but slightly sad about missing one of the last days with the kids. They have come to mean so much to us, and it is always good to have many hands on deck at the BSEP. However, Dr. Hare and Katie let me go out to the bush, so Meya and I went out bright and early.

I seemed to attract small adventures, right about from the start. In the first minute of driving, Diazibou stopped at a "gas station" (table with clear glass bottles filled with a litre of gas) so I got off the back of the moped. I was NOT expecting him to pull away just as soon as I stepped off, though (apparently he didn't need gas after all...). As he started down the road I realized he didn't know I wasn't on the back, so I started laughing. There was another moped from the Center at the same "gas station" so they said they'd chase him down. He ended up coming back a minute or so later, though, after Patricia saw I wasn't on the moped. We all had a good little laugh together and set off. But before leaving Mahadaga Patricia needed to buy cold water so we stopped again, and this time Diazibou's moto wouldn't start (until someone nearby tinkered with it)! I told him it wasn't my day for moto's...but somehow we made it out of Mahadaga.

After a 20 minute moto ride, with a nice cool breeze, we made it to the first house. Palamanga, a 3 year old with a crippled right hand, was a happy boy when Patricia played with him to assess his motor skills and gave him a massage. Meya gave him her notebook and a pen to see if he could draw, which was cute. Our second home was to visit a 12 year old girl who also had a crippled hand. She lives with her 2 older brothers (who are both 20), and that is it. Patricia said their dad died and their mother, who is from Togo (a country to the south of Burkina), abandoned them. I was completely taken aback and impressed with these 3 youth. I didn't understand much of the conversation, but I caught one word "ligiendieli", which means church in Gourmanche. Afterward Patricia explained that the church was the last hope for these youth, since they (unlike many Burkinabe) do not have any extended family in the area to help support them.

We left in a little bit of a hurry since the sky and wind was threatening rain. I held on tight to the back of the moto as we drove toward Mahadaga. After a bit, the rain started. And suddenly I heard and felt "rrriiippp"! The left part of my skirt was "eaten" by the moto! Diazibou didn't realize anything, so we kept going for a bit. However, soon Patricia honked her horn to stop us. She had a second piece of fabric that she was wearing and she gave it to me to wrap up in! Yay mothers who are thoughtful, observant and prepared! I couldn't help but laughing as she untwisted the fabric from my skirt from the moto...quelle chance!

This time as we started off again the rain was coming down more heavily. Soon the road was quite slippery. All of a sudden, I felt the moto moving at a weird angle and I realized Diazibou and I were falling. It was slow and graceful, though, I basically just stepped off of the back of the moto. As I looked behind me, Meya and Patricia had just fallen too, though they got a little muddier in the fall/slide! Meya and I started laughing and running and sliding in the mud. I think this eased the physical therapists...maybe they thought we were worried after having fallen...

About 10 minutes later, my goosebump-covered self arrived at my home. I changed into my fleece jacket and made some hot chocolate. Soon Daniel, Katie and Dr. Hare arrived from the Center and we swapped stories about our mornings. One of the highlights of their morning was the success of the breakfast we brought for the kids: edible playdough! (1:1 ratio of PB and powdered milk!!)

Today was the last real day with the kids, which is kind of hard to believe. We have done so much with them, and gotten to know them all! Sometimes the bonding has been through hugs and holding hands as we walk along the road, or making fools of ourselves singing and dansing with them. In any case, it has been good. Even the ridiculous things they say, their requests for empty water bottles/watches/etc, and when they come peek in our windows in the afternoon will be missed!!

But we do have one more day. Tomorrow is the "fete" (party), including gifts. Not all of the gifts they have asked for, but of course we brought a little something for each of them. And we have been dutifully saving our plastic bottles to hand out too, since those are so special! We will also show them the culmination of the digital photo book project. After writing sentences in their spirals about their life at home, their favorite things to do and eat, and then visiting their homes to take photos, and recording their voice to provide sound, we have put together a digital photo album entitled "The children of Mahadaga" which will be shown for the first time tomorrow. Hooray!

As my power and internet allottment is about to end, I will bid you all a good night. Thank you again for your prayers and support during these past few weeks. If we don't get a chance to blog tomorrow, it's probably because we're having a great time packing up the house. We (everyone at the SIM station) also have a dinner with the French team that is arriving tomorrow from Ouaga. So we should be busy, which will hopefully keep us from being sad about saying goodbye to everyone. Please keep us in your prayers Friday as we travel by van to Ouaga, and then spend a few days (till middle of the night Monday-Tuesday) before flying back to the US.

Blessings,
-Bethany

Recording Studio

2010-07-19T14:39:00.002-04:00

Today was a hot day; back to normal for Mahadaga after a cool spell. In school, the children came individually to our makeshift recording studio to record their voice saying the sentence they wrote about themselves. Each child was very excited; even the shy ones that we were afraid would clam up in front of a microphone did fine. The kids also spend about an hour of the schoolday filling planting bags to plant a line of hedge trees near the road of their school. We did some rather challenging math, chart, and map-reading activities, then gave the kids a break and saw twenty minutes of ‘Horton hears a Who’ with a French soundtrack. At our closing party Thursday, we’ll bring popcorn and watch the rest.

We’re off to dinner at Francoise’s home after an afternoon of working on lesson-planning and matching photos to text and sound. A good workday, and I’m sure we’re off to a nice meal!

-Angela

A person's a person no matter how small!

2010-07-18T17:34:00.004-04:00

This morning the three of us (Bethany, Dr. Hare, an I) went to church… Bethany and Dr. Hare to the French speaking church and I accompanied Francois to the Gourma church. It is strange to think that today was our last Sunday worshiping with our brothers and sisters here in Burkina.

After lunch we were greeted by some of the children from the summer program peeking their heads into our door. We planned on helping Daniel, a local Burkinabe student, who plays games with the children from the French church on Sunday afternoons and word got around fast! With children’s hands in ours (and a few extra leading and following), we hiked up the cliffs in our back yard and played various children’s games. What a joy it was to see all different ages jumping, singing, and swimming together!

This evening I headed over to the Walsh’s for the children’s movie night carrying in my arms a personal favorite from home… Horton Hears a Who (thanks mom for sending it as a surprise!). Although there were some suspenseful parts, in the end everyone walked away with smiles on their faces with the reminder that “A person’s a person no matter how small”. The kids here in Mahadaga have clearly grasped that concept, and I am so blessed to be learning constantly from their caring hearts!
Looking forward to another day with the children at the Summer Enrichment Program! Always an adventure as we learn new things about them each day!

Praying that your night is filled with God Sightings!
Katie

Fun visits

2010-07-17T17:26:00.007-04:00

This morning we arrived at the Center to an eager group of children, who squealed delightfully when we pulled into the school gate. They knew we were going for a ride (continuing to visit houses; this time to the “left” of the Center, which is more or less “north”). However we realized we had 4 adults (the 3 of us from Messiah plus Daniel, one of our aides, who was going to come and help us efficiently find the children’s homes) and 14 or more children! This was going to push the limits of even Matt Walsh’s rhino.

After a few obliging children who were willing to stay back with Dr. Hare to play in the library (some of the ones we visited yesterday), we set off. I (Bethany) drove to the Center but let Katie skillfully take the wheel as we headed off for our photo taking adventure. I perched somewhat precariously in the back and made sure everyone was okay. Only my shoe fell off…but it was retrieved :)

We visited many houses today (about 10 homes in 3.5 hours), and it was a great opportunity to see the kids’ families (often older siblings and parents came in from the field for a family photo) and where they live. It was interesting to see the range of animals (goats, chickens, dogs, occasionally a cat, and once, a monkey!), gardens/trees, and huts/houses. Sure, we could tell which of the families had more money than others. But there were some similarities between all the compounds (their home/compound was an enclosed circular-ish area with several small huts, benches/chairs out in the open, a fire pit and various pans for cooking, and huge plastic containers for water). The girls often posed by the cooking area or with an empty water jug for our photos.

Every child seemed happy to have us come and take photos at their house. But Abraham, our young comedian (often inadvertently) was the only to do the “happy dance” after we left his house. Katie even got a video, which was great, although Abraham’s “c’est bon! C’est bon!” was drowned out by our laughter!

Thanks to Daniel, we were able to convey our project to the families quite successfully. Many parents did not speak French, and Katie and I happily greeted the families in Gourmanche [“Good morning!” (n faanda) “How is your family?” (adem pote) “How is your work?” (a too na te)] but then we were out of things we could say. We very much appreciated Daniel’s help in communication, and also definitely in finding the homes. Some of the children live well off the road, so Katie and I were appreciative of the Rhino and quite impressed with the amount of walking these children do every day.

We don’t believe in abiding by the rhino’s recommendation/rules of 2 passengers and keeping all arms/legs inside the vehicle. Instead we gave the children a ride toward their houses at the end and then bid them adieu for the weekend.

Next (on Monday) we will be recording the children saying a few of the sentences they wrote about their life (i.e. their chores/work at home, what they like doing for fun) to put on the picture frame that will be left in the library this Thursday when we leave! As of right now, we have begun the images and sentence captions for the photo album.

This evening we were able to relax at the Walsh’s house. In celebration of Francoise’s birthday, we had a delicious chocolate cake. Julie cooks so well, and the lasagna for dinner was above and beyond what is expected in Mahadaga. After a few years of living here, Matt and Julie have figured out ways to adapt their favorite dishes to life in Mahadaga. Or, in the case of lasagna, how to cook a sauce and cheese (ricotta and mozzarella) to make a normal lasagna here in Mahadaga! We were well hosted this evening, and personally I was very excited for our Dutch Blitz game after dinner...a nice end to a good day!

Keep us and the children we are working with in your prayers. We (Katie, Dr. Hare and I) are still happy and healthy. After visiting the children's houses I have been thinking a lot about how different our lives are, and we know that some children in our program have very difficult lives (depending on how loving, helpful, etc. their parents are). So we would appreciate prayers for them, and for us as we live amongst them for such a short time and wonder what the future holds.

God bless you!
-Bethany

We are the handicapped: Life is good!

2010-07-16T15:27:00.005-04:00

Today the three of us in Mahadaga began our visits to the homes of the 18 children in our program. Matt Walsh was kind enough to lend us his Rhino 4x4 vehicle, and Katie was thrilled to take the wheel. With about 10 excited children in and on the vehicle, we headed out, with Diabidi leading the way in her brand new electric trike that the guys completed two days ago.

As we drove, Abraham, a 7-yr. old boy with very low vision, sat in the middle of the front seat and sang at the top of his lungs, "We are the handicapped children; Life is good!" (Nous sommes des enfants handicapes; C'est bon!) When we got near each home, we all piled out of the Rhino and walked down the small trail to their home, the kids happily arm in arm or hand in hand.

At the home, we took 3-4 pictures, letting the kids choose the shots. We've been working with them to write sentences about their daily life, and this week they will read these into a microphone and create a digital picture frame that shows and says a little bit about their life.

Back in the states this August, we'll publish a book with these images and sentences and send each kid a hard copy. These are kids that the world rarely spotlights, so this is truly their day and their story.

We do miss the guys who are now on their way home. But, for the first time since my arrival in the country, my alarm setting this morning began with a 6 rather than a 4 or 5! And there are fewer dishes to wash, more time to plan, care packages from family for Katie and Bethany, and the missionaries have graciously invited us to dinner in the next few days (real lasagna & birthday cake tomorrow!). So although we miss all the sandals outside the door, we are grateful for all we still have here.

Service is a Gift

2010-07-16T13:49:00.010-04:00

The mobility team, John, Mike and I have returned to Ouagadougou for our flight home. We came yesterday, to allow an extra day for travel in case rain or something else, and it is a good thing because it is raining now. Nearly every rain here is like the hardest rain our friends in America have ever experienced, bringing 20 to 30 degree drops in temperature, so most things stop when it rains. I am reminded of a time when e-mail went out for an entire afternoon at Messiah College: I was not “productive” but enjoyed that afternoon immensely.

I have just now been sorting through photos, deciding which ones to use in this post, and found myself deeply moved to see again the faces of our friends from the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped and the Mahadaga community. They are beautiful faces, each reminding me of struggles and kindnesses shared together. But not everything here (or anywhere) is beautiful. Something that makes my African friends at the Center so attractive to me is that they are the faces of people who bring hope and love to the unlovely.

It also rained on the day I rode out with the physical therapists, so we saw only two children. The first was a darling little girl with Down Syndrome. I was on assignment for SIM to take photos of the work, and thought how fortunate I was be taking photographs that might move Americans to compassion and generosity. The second child, however, was less attractive. She was epileptic, and her face was scarred from falling frequently into the fire. Among people of animist belief, epilepsy is also associated with demonic possession, because of the seizures. Few epileptic children are loved or cared for, and few live to become adults. I learned later that many handicapped children are covered in filth when they are first discovered, bathed, fed and perhaps held for the first time since birth by the staff of the Center.

Thinking of my own first reaction to a less beautiful face, and about how friends in America might respond to this second child, I wondered sadly if one must be beautiful to be loved? And then I remembered: “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:3, TNIV).” True love is indiscriminate in its generosity to people, life and all things that God made and declared good. He made us to give and receive love, but we and the world were broken by sin so that without God our love has become self-seeking. The love given by the staff of the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped to those found unlovely in the world's eyes is not self-seeking. Surely this is a sign of God’s Kingdom breaking in upon us through lives that have been restored to health by our Maker.

The team has been studying, “When Helping Hurts: How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor And Yourself,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Corbett and Fikkert note that one of the biggest mistakes wealthy Christians make is to associate poverty with a lack of material resources, and so we respond primarily by giving material resources. The poor, however, describe poverty primarily in terms of inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, social isolation, and voicelessness. The authors argue that unilateral material giving or doing for others is appropriate only in response to crises that leave others powerless to help themselves. Other giving that is apart from relationship contributes to the poverty of inferiority, powerlessness, and humiliation of the economically poor, while also encouraging the often “subtle and unconscious sense of superiority” of the economically rich “in which they believe that they have achieved their wealth through their own efforts and that they have been anointed to decide what is best for low-income people”.

Many have experienced satisfaction when they have helped others. Do not do for people what they can do for themselves, however, is the heart of Corbett and Fikkert’s message. It is an important message, but how to judge when others are able to help themselves? The authors suggest that the materially poor will know best what to expect of each other, and that being asked for help is no proof that the ones asking are incapable of helping themselves. This analysis made me feel like I am supposed to have everything, but am only to share with others those things that I judge them incapable of getting for themselves. Yes, I understand and embrace the principles of empowering others and avoiding paternalism, but sometimes when a human being asks for water, or food, or healing, or to be visited in prison the right thing to do is to meet that need. There is no principle of reason or logic that can help us know how to respond in love to every instance of human need, but the Holy Spirit knows what is best and will guide us when we listen to Him.

I have to admit that helping done to others is easier than helping done with them. Those who come to Mahadaga with the Collaboratory learn this. No one gets to come here and enjoy the pleasures of helping without also sharing in some small way in the sufferings of the people. We also get sick from the water and bit by malaria carrying mosquitoes. Endless requests to buy from hungry artisans forever waiting just outside our doors, and requests for food, and requests for money for medicine, and the stress of trying to know when to buy and what to give, are a small sharing in the sufferings of material poverty. Our frustration with construction materials that are always the wrong size and parts that are always failing is sharing in a small way with the suffering of living in the place that receives whatever goods cannot pass quality inspection elsewhere. None of this is easy. It does not get easier with time.

For me there is no “us” with everything and “them” with some things. The materially wealthy and materially poor are all made in God’s image, we have all been impoverished by sin, and we all have some things to share. We need each other. My friends in Mahadaga teach me lessons I need to remember nearly every day. They teach me to value relationships even though they cost me productivity. They teach me to be patient with the brokenness of the world, even when I am dissatisfied with it, just as God is patient with me. They teach me that failure to accomplish a big deal in the eyes of the world is not failure. How could it be? I am certain that God does not categorically count the materially poor as failures. They challenge me to aspire to be a big deal in the Kingdom of God, and to be a faithful steward of all that God has put into my hands.

I leave you with this photo of Diabidi sent to us by Francoise. Diabidi is a young woman who received an electric tricycle this year. Francoise says "she is "doing well and very happy". This photo makes us happy too. Yempabou, a young adult with cerebral palsy, and chief beta tester for the Collaboratory electric tricycle designs, is another new tricycle recipient. Handshakes are important to greeting saying farewell here every time you see someone, even if you see them more than once in a day. There are a lot of handshakes in Africa, and Yempabou is no exception. Because of his disability, however, I must always work a little harder to connect with Yempabou’s hand. Are we helping Diabidi and Yempabou, or are they helping us? Yes!

This blog post is the last for Jon, Charlie, Justin, Alex, Mike, John and David. Today has been a day of preparation for departure, and shopping for remembrances from our time here. When I first came to Burkina Faso I used to bring money to buy things for myself and friends and family, and I’ve bought a few things this time too. Lately I have been more excited about budgeting personal money to give away, and about “shopping” around for the best Kingdom investments I can find. What a blast! Thank you to our families, friends and other loved ones for all you have done to support and encourage us. We love you.

- David

Arrived Safely!

2010-07-15T18:12:00.001-04:00

The Mobility team, Dr. Vader, Jon, and Mike all arrived safely in Ouaga. We made excellent time and the trip only took 8 hours and 40 minutes. This evening we spent the time relaxing and tomorrow we will spend the day shopping before we fly out very early Saturday morning!

Good times and Good byes

2010-07-15T10:58:00.001-04:00

One thing’s for sure, Burkinabe people know how to throw a great “good-bye” party! Yesterday afternoon (after all the guys finished up their projects) we all went back to the Center for a good-bye and thank you party hosted by the Center for us Messiah students and faculty as well as for the teachers who are now on summer break and no longer at the Center. It was filled with many laughs from hilarious games and skits; great time of singing and praying together; a very encouraging message from the director, Ontieni, who compared our team to the Good Samaritan (although I think it would be safe for me to say each member on the team sees the people that make up the Center as Good Samaritans); pictures outside afterwards, and of course the Burkinabe favorite… Fanta (orange soda)! It has been such a blessing to get to know, meet, and share meals with some of the incredible people that make up the ministry at the Center. Their active engagement in furthering God’s Kingdom by serving the “least of these” in Mahadaga is incredibly challenging and encouraging to see. It was difficult for everyone to say “good-bye” to our newly discovered brothers and sisters in Jesus but looking forward to seeing them all again someday!
The party continued that evening when we went over to the Walsh’s for home-made chocolate chip cookies and ice cream that some on the team described as “good enough to die for” (cold, creamy good-ness), and a short worship and prayer time before the guys began packing.

Good-byes… so not a fun thing and so many in a row! I don’t know how the long-term missionaries here do it so often. The guys left this morning at 6:30 for their long journey back to Ouagadougou before headed back to the States. They are all loaded up with Nutella and peanutbutter sandwiches which should fill their bellies up until they arrive tonight in Ouaga. It was hard to see them leave… can’t say I’ll miss the random bugs that were brought in and show-cased in and around our house, but will for sure miss our team meals, discussions, and adventures!! It has most definitely been beyond wicked awesome to spend the last few weeks all together and looking forward to seeing everyone again in the fall! What an incredible team!

Dr. Hare, Bethany, me, and 2 Burkinabe individuals just finished up another day of the Summer Enrichment program for 15 students from the CAH. We all had a great time doing our different math and literacy centers and playing with them outside for recess. They are all such a joy to be around! Dr. Hare, Bethany, and I will be visiting the children’s homes in the next few days to see their lives outside of the Center and to create a digital picture frame story about their lives that will be kept in the library for them to see whenever they want. I am so looking forward to seeing and meeting the families who have been caring for and loving the children that we have grown to love and care for as well!
Super thankful for each one of you… we wouldn’t be able to be here without your continued prayerful support! Praying that today is filled with many God Sightings for you!
~Katie

Africa From The Back Of A Mobilet

2010-07-13T17:40:00.006-04:00

Today I had the privilege of going out into the bush with the therapists. It was an experience that I will not soon forget and could talk about for quite some time. There were two therapists who drove, myself, two girls going back to their respective homes from the handicap center, and six bags on two mobilets. To say the least it was crowded on my 125cc mobilet. A mobilet for those of you who do not know is a generic term the team uses for any scooter, dirt bike, or motorcycle used in Burkina Faso. When I arrived in Mahadaga I thought that there could not be a more rural place… man was I wrong! In America there is an expression saying one lives out in the boondocks if the directions to their house includes the saying ‘turn off the paved road’. However, were I went today the directions included ‘turn off the dirt road onto a side trail big enough for an ATV or four wheeler to drive on’ then ‘turn off that path onto a goat trail’. ‘When you see the dump truck stuck in the mud turn down into the stream because the road is impassible’ and finally ‘follow the man on the bike through the millet field because he knows the way’. Now that is true country living… and I loved every minute I spent on the back of my mobilet.

There where a number of things that stuck out to me as we drove along. The first was the beauty of God’s creation. To look up into a perfectly blue sun lit sky with the wind blowing in my face would have been enough by God did not stop there. Trees and bushes of every variety, birds singing and flying above, donkeys and chickens lined the road, and cows blocked it. Secondly, the people that we met where so generous and so inviting. In Africa it is customary when a guest arrives to offer them water, and with out fail every home we visited I humbly accepted the bowl of water, milk, or fermented toe set before me and graciously put it up towards my mouth and acted as if I drank some. The clients that we visited were so grateful for the work of the therapists and showered us with pleasantries and greetings, to which I replied “LAFIA”. At two of the home we visited we were give a chicken. What were we to do with two live chickens so far from the handicap center but to tie its legs together and hang them from the handle bars? The leg of the chicken that was given to me tasted amazing tonight just in case you were wondering.

One of the little girls we visited today had braces on her legs to correct her bow legged stance. When we walked into the compound we were greeted by the mother, grandmother, and the four bothers and sister of our patient. We were seated in the shade on one side of the circular compound comprised of six or seven mud huts with straw roofs. It was not very long until she walked out of one of the huts wearing her plastic full leg braces. She hesitantly sat down on the mat in front of the therapists and they started her treatment. They removed her braces and helped her mother rub oil onto this reluctant young girl’s knees. After the oil was rubbed in the therapists started to massage and stretch the muscles in the leg and knee. At first there were a few whimpers, but as the stretching became more intense so did the cries and tears. She was clawing at the mat and fighting the therapists who were trying to help her. Not sitting still when asked and rolling onto her stomach when she was placed on her back. Her cries intensified as the procedure carried on and she was not at all happy or pleased with the work that was being done to better her life.

I tell you this not to disturb you, but to try to paint a picture for you of what was happens daily in rural Africa and draw a parallel to a the Christian lifestyle. This little girl needed help from someone to be able to walk correctly. If she did not receive the treatment from the handicap center she would go thought her life bow legged and as one could guess that is not a good thing. We as sinful humans need help as well. It is impossible for us to be in community with God as a result of our sin. The Bible is very clear that the consequence of our sin is death. Something must die to pay for our sin. It is at this point that we are given help. Jesus, God’s son, humbled himself to be born a man, lived a perfect life, died a sinner’s death He did not deserve, and three days latter rose from the dead. In His death and resurrection Jesus took the punishment for our sins. Jesus helped us just as the therapist helped the little girl. Her life is going to be vastly improved due to the treatment she is receiving from the therapists. If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved and you can start a new and better life centered on a relationship with God. This litter girl is getting a second chance on life, a better life as a result of the work done by the therapists. In the same manner you have the opportunity to have a better life in Christ.

This relationship with God does not mean that life is going to be a cake walk. Just as the little girl was crying out in pain so to might our live be filled with pain as a result of Christ. However, we know that a life with God leads to an eternity of joy while the alternative only leads to eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. We can find comfort in Jesus’ words in Matthew when he says "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven…” Right now it might look like there is no hope. The pain of the therapy administered by God might be excruciating; however, rest in the knowledge that His will is perfect and He has your best interest in mind.

God Bless.

Your brother in Christ and a fellow child in therapy,
Charlie Kimpel

Dinner and a Movie

2010-07-12T17:47:00.003-04:00

Today was another work day. With our departure right around the corner, this is definitely crunch time. Unfortunately, crunch time means stress, stress means a weakened immune system, and that can lead to fatigue and illness. Three of us were feeling that this afternoon, but a nice nap seemed to get everyone back on their feet. As far as the rest of this post goes, it will be kept brief, so that I can actually sleep tonight and fight the rest of my fatigue.

So here's the quick breakdown of project updates:

The trikes are coming along well, but definitely have lots more to do. Today we started to outfit the third electric trike for Kampadelemba's sister's. We took some measurements and got all of the controls made up accordingly. We still need to mount the controls on both that trike and Malijua's. We've also been keeping up with Yempabou's trike, monitoring any issues he has had with it. Aside from a few extra features Yempabou has asked for and a mis-sized tube, his testing has gone well.

Unfortunately, due to Justin and I missing a bit of the afternoon, not much else was accomplished. The next day and a half will be rather strenuous.

The education stuff seems to be going well, from what I've heard. The kids have taken a fascination with the idea of snow, so tomorrow the plan is to have a mock snowball fight. Aside from that, I haven't heard of any recent fights or other problems, so I'm assuming things are going well.

Biodiesel is looking promising. Mike has been brewing up batches of oil and tomorrow, I believe, he'll be pioneering the press.

Tonignt for dinner we had the Burkinabe Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped and his wife over. It was good. Afterwards, Fransoise and Matt joined us and we watched a brief movie on the center. We then discussed the work of the center with everyone.

-Alex
mobility team

A Cool Day in Mahadaga

2010-07-11T07:11:00.011-04:00

Last night we had some rain early in the evening and it brought with it cool weather. This morning we woke up toa very "cold" Sunday in Mahadaga, with temperatures only in the mid to upper 70's. Apparently last night the missionaries were sleeping with quilts and blankets and many people had hats and coats on today. Personally I (Mike) have very much enjoyed the cooler temperatures but last night I must admit that I had to turn my fan off because I was a bit chilly. Based on what I've read in e-mails from friends and family and on Facebook, it has been very hot back home on the east coast with temperatures reaching 100 F and higher. We are thankful that God has blessed us with this cool weather during our time here in Burkina Faso.

This morning I attended the French church again with Angela, John and Jon. The church meets in a classroom at the school adjacent to the mission compound. Last week was children's Sunday and the kids lead worship which was awesome. The church was packed last week and there were no free seats. This week was very different. There were a lot less people and Matt thinks that is due to a few different things. With so much rain the last few days, a lot of people are spending time working the fields to plant crops. It was also a cold day here like I said above and mothers have trouble getting their children up and going on mornings like these. The school at the Handicapped Center also closed for the summer this week so a lot of the teachers and their families as well as the children from school who normally attend were not present. But even with lower attendance, the singing and the preaching were still very powerful. Even though I don't speak French, it is still very easy to feel God in the worship at the church. Today's message was about what it means to be children of God. The pastor, who was not the regular pastor, gave a great sermon about leaving behind our old ways and embracing the Spirit of God to become new creations in Him. He also spoke about what it looks like to be a child of God and gave several examples of how people here have known that others are Christians because of the fruit of the Spirit being seen in them. A very special aspect of the sermons is that they are translated from French into Gourma for the local members as well as to English for us. It is amazing to see and feel God working here in Burkina Faso.

Over the last week I have had the opportunity to do a lot of biodiesel related research and work here at the mission center. In preparation for this trip I designed and built a small biodiesel test processor that would fit into a duffle bag so that Matt would have a system to use for research here in Mahadaga. The system made it here in one piece and I assembled it and tested it with very good results.

(The biodiesel test processor on my make-shift work bench.)

Matt was able to get me all of the materials (oil, alcohol and catalyst) to try to make a batch of biodiesel but I quickly ran into a road block with the oil. The oil that Matt got me contained a lot of moisture and was also not degummed, both of which hinder the biodiesel production process. I expected this and was able to degum a sample of the oil using water and citric acid (lemon juice) with good results. However the oil still contained a lot of moisture so I spent a good amount of time heating it to remove the water. It is very important that there be little to no water in the oil before the catalyst is added or else you will make soap instead of biodiesel which is exactly what happened in my first attempt. This first test batch immediately turned to soap. Knowing this I should be able to remove more water from the oil and hopefully get a good sample of biodiesel before we leave.

The key to good biodiesel is starting with good oil and producing good oil is the first step in our biodiesel work here. There are many crops here that can be used to produce oil, but that main crop we would like to focus on is Jatropha. This is a tree like plant that grows very well here and it produces a seed that has a very high oil content. After it matures the seeds can be harvested 2 to 3 times per year. The beauty of Jatropha is that is grows almost anywhere here, it only needs to be planted once and it is not a food crop, the oil is not edible. The goal is to have local people begin growing Jatropha and then buy the seeds back from them to then press the seeds and produce oil for biodiesel.

(A young Jatropha plant growing at the edge of Matt's garden.)

The first step in this process though is learning to press the seeds into oil, which is what I spent most of yesterday doing. I do not have a lot of experience with pressing oil but I do have a little and that was enough to give it a try here. We began this adventure by drying the seeds over a charcoal fire. The seeds were heated for 15 minutes over the fire to reduce the moisture content and hopefully increase the oil output.

(Our seed drying system.)

After the seeds were thoroughly dried, we began using a press that Matt had purchased to try to press the oil of of the seed. This took a few hours of fine adjustments to get it right but we ended the day with a steady flow of oil coming out of the press! There is still a lot of work to be done to perfect this process but we are making progress and God is blessing us with good success.

(The oil screw press we use to extract oil from seeds.)

This is our last week in Mahadaga and we (the mobility team, Dr. Vader and I) will be leaving early Thursday morning to travel back to Ouagadougou to begin our journey home. As we begin this week please pray that we would be able to get all of our work done and still enjoy the last few days here. This is crunch time for our projects and we pray that God would give us peace as we wrap up our work. We have a lot of social activities in the evening with our local friends so we are going to be pretty busy this week. Also pray that God would continue to bless us with good health and safety.

As always, thank you for your support and prayers.

God Bless,

Mike

A Blessed Day

2010-07-10T15:46:00.003-04:00

From my perspective, today was an all-around success. This morning included a productive morning of work for the different projects. The mobility team spent the morning fitting an electric trike for a new client named Malijua. He has very limited mobility, able to move his arms and legs but not strong enough to support himself. He stopped by on Friday to test out a very rough fitting of his seat and controls, and today the team redesigned the seat to fit his preferences and needs.

The education group also had a good experience with a new technique in their classroom. Today they tried using stations at different places in the room that focused on literacy, numeracy, and free-time activities. Groups of 3-5 students then rotated around to the different stations. This model worked well and the students were very well behaved.

Mike also got to do some biodiesel work as well. He spent the morning roasting and pressing Jatropha nuts to extract oil from them. Although it was slow going, he eventually reached a point where he was pressing cakes that came out dry and squeezing out a fair amount of oil.

After lunch, we had an excellent discussion on one of the articles we read for the trip, The Theology of Consumption or the Consumption of Theology. This article was discussing the effects of consumerism on American culture. It was very interesting to discuss the rather vast influence that consumption and advertising has on those of us who live in United States. A quote that summarizes this article well is that much of the world "consumes to survive" while we border on "surviving to consume." While these types of discussions often end in feeling overwhelmed and guilty, I was actually encouraged by some of the things we discussed. We may not be able to change industries or cultures as a whole, but we can have an influence on our local spheres and groups. Just simply being aware of the strong influence of consumeristic messages acting upon us is the first step to changing our habits. Simple steps such as generous giving or thinking twice about what we "need" can make a worthwhile difference in our lives.

I (Jon) believe this discussion was especially encouraging for me because I have been trying to understand exactly what to do with this experience once I return to the States. I still have two years of school left before I can consider the possibility of coming back or becoming involved in a company. This gave me some beginning points for changing my own habits. I have realized that I need a whole lot less to be "comfortable" than I thought I did before. By limiting the amount of things I consume or by choosing the products I buy more carefully, I can begin to change my attitudes and habits for the rest of my life. Not all responses will be the same, but this seems feasible for me.

After our discussion, most of the team embarked on an epic hike with the Walsh family. We piled into their car and drove several kilometers down the road before we set off across the countryside. After getting slightly lost in the maze of large boulders along our way, several Burkinabe young adults managed to point us in the right direction. It was kind of like being in the middle of The Swiss Family Robinson film. We crossed several creeks, bushwacked our way down a small path through dense undergrowth and eventually emerged in a small slice of paradise complete with a waterfall splashing into a large pool. If you haven't noticed yet, our team loves waterfalls. After picking our way around the pool, which was rumored to contain crocodiles, we arrived at its base and several of us climbed up into the waterfall. It was so refreshing and exciting to stand under the pounding surge of water after our long trek in.

To cap off the evening, we had a beatiful hike back out to our vehicle through awesome countryside filled with small ridges on the edge of the plain. I loved having the chance to look out across the plain as we topped one of the rocky mesas. No towering buildings to be seen or jet streams in the sky. As we arrived back at the Mission Station, the entire sky turned a pinkish orange hue. It was a wonderful capstone to the beginning of our day of rest.

Tonight we are relaxing, watching a movie and making homemade doughnuts. It's seems weird to think that we will be leaving Mahadaga in 4 days! I have been both challenged and encouraged by my experience here. Not only has it given me a glimpse into a new perspective on life, but I have also found that I somewhat enjoy living here. Even though I miss some things from home, I am definitely enjoying my time here.

A Glimpse of the Education Work

2010-07-09T18:16:00.004-04:00

Hello from Angela (now happily in Mahadaga, healthy and glad to be with the rest of the team)

Take a look at the two pictures below if you'd like to understand the crux of what the Education group is working on during this trip. The first one shows the work of a boy, about 8 years old, who used Cuisenaire rods to fill in a puzzle that looks like a giraffe. Cuisenaire rods are a teaching tool; wooden rectangular blocks of different colors; each color is a different length from 1 to 10 units. Children learn grouping with these rods. The picture illustrates that this child, named Eleazar, knows how to use grouping to complete his task efficiently. Notice that he tried to use the longest rods possible to fill in the spaces.

The second picture below shows the work of another student on the same task. Mireille is her name, and she did not really complete the giraffe, because she was intent on using the white, unit-length rods. She is not as comfortable with grouping, and despite my suggestion that she could make more progress if she used a yellow rod, for example, in place of 5 white ones, she continued using the unit rods. It is difficult to create a giraffe this way, because the small white rods jostle around more than the others when someone bumps the table! Eventually Mireille gave up on the task and just began to play randomly with the rods.

Many children in African schools have a rote understanding of the concepts they learn (they can recite '5+3=8' for example), but they are lacking the conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas that is necessary to use concepts like grouping to solve problems efficiently and progress to harder courses. This learning weakness prevents some adolescents from successfully completing an apprenticeship for their chosen trade. Mireille is learning sewing and wants to become a tailor. To do this, she will need to be able to group measurements and materials in many different ways. She knows a lot about sewing, as she was proudly explaining to me during a recreation break, but she is in our program because she's having difficulty passing her entrance exam into middle school.

In the Burkina Summer Enrichment Program, Bethany, Katie and I are working with a group of about 15 children for four hours a day, 6 days a week, in the library at the CAH. Our goal is to build abstract thinking skills through literacy, geography, arithmetic, geometry, and measurement activities. We came with about 50 activities prepared, and now we're modifying them as necessary to match the abilities of the children. The toughest part is working with 6 children who are blind or almost blind. Fortunately, all of the children are (fairly) well-behaved and really want to be there.

Our other team projects are moving along. John, Jon, Charlie, Justin, and Alex worked hard today at the CAH shop. They completed Yempabou's tricycle, continued building a prototype of the new frame design, and helped Matt install a new water pump at the Center. Unfortunately the new pump hasn't solved the problem there, so the Center still has no water. The team has running water, though, back at the guesthouse compound. Mike spent the afternoon purifying a sample local cooking oil for biodiesel processing. Randy Fish flew to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia this morning and should soon be in Zambia for a week.

Everyone is doing well. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. With one week to go for most of the team, time is getting short for much of our work. It is flying by quickly, with lots of joy and good relationships, and we pray that we can finish our time here well.

A demain,
Angela

Graduation Ceremony

2010-07-08T18:07:00.002-04:00

The team was lucky enough to witness the graduation ceremony for the school at the Handicap Center today. Today marked the last day of school for the students at the center after ten straight months of school. Most of the students at the center (there are about 250-300 total I believe) live with host families in the area for the duration of the school year, so after today they head back to their actual homes and families until school resumes in September. Today the students and teachers hosted the ceremony for an audience of staff, some parents that had arrived to pick up their children and our team.

The ceremony started off with some singing (as with most everything in the African culture, as far as I can tell) and then lead into the different groups of students showing a skit, song, or skills they had prepared. Some of the skits included students pretending to be teachers in a class of their peers and almost every skit mentioned the importance of the parents encouraging their kids to come to school every day and helping with their studies. One student (I believe he was in 2nd grade) put it this way: “The wind is very powerful, but it cannot blow away a stone by itself.” He then went on to show that the role a parent plays in their child’s education is an important one.

Most of the skits included humor (most of our group did not understand what was being said, but the reaction from the crowd was self-explanatory) but had an important central moral to the story. One of the skits showed a group of handicap students that were not helped at other schools were given a chance at the handicap center. The students were able to obtain a great education and went on to be a doctor and nurse, helping people in the community.
Some other demonstrations included songs, showing arithmetic skills or French grammar skills, or how blind students were able to read braille. Some of the parents watching the ceremony did not believe that a blind child could read because they had never heard of braille before. The ceremony ended with gifts being awarded to the top students in each class as well as thanks being given to the teachers and staff who help to run the center. All in all, it was a great experience to see how the work of the local teachers and staff at the handicap center had paid off over the last then months and it was great to see that they were recognized for their time and efforts.

In an earlier post, we mentioned that the mobility team was having some trouble with the material available at the center for us to work with while manufacturing the trikes. The tubing we normally use has walls that are thick enough that the tube can be bent in a hydraulic bender here at the center. (This saves time and money, avoiding cutting and welding the metal at 90 degree angles for every necessary turn on the frame.) However, the tubing that was available had very thin walls, so that when we tried to bend it the tube would crumple and was not able to be used. We tried filling the tube with sand while we bent it to keep the walls from collapsing which had some success and some failure. What we ended up doing however was taking old trikes that were not being used any more because of broken parts or outdated models and cut them up for spare material. We were able to get some good thicker walled sections that we welded together and bent up for our new uniform frame design. We got enough material to make 2 more trikes! (Which brings us to a total of 3.) We have two trikes painted, one of them should be ready to go by the end of tomorrow, and one more that is bent up and ready to be welded together using a fixture Charlie made before the trip. Yempabou, a man who works at the center that uses an electric trike and puts tons of miles on his, will be getting the first trike that we crank out. He puts a lot of wear and tear on his trike so we can get the most feedback from him on our new design. We moved Yempabou’s seat off his old trike (a previous Collaboratory electric trike design) onto the new uniform frame trike and plan on using his old trike, fitted with a new seat and some modifications, for the man who lives out in the bush who we visited last week. That way this man gets a trike that we have gotten plenty of feedback on and Yempabou is right at the center to offer us feedback if need be for this new design.

We were glad to see Dr. Hare walk in the door tonight and join us for dinner! She arrived safely from Ouaga this evening with stories of some crazy adventures on the way here as well as with some extra groceries for the team. She will be joining Bethany and Katie as they officially kick off the Summer Enrichment Program at the center (they will have more students join their class now that school is officially out). Katie and Bethany have had a great time teaching the students in their class so far and have learned a lot themselves working with the handicap children. The stories they have are encouraging and fun to listen to at the end of each day.

Finally, we ask for prayer for a short term missionary who is staying in the same compound as us. Demarise (I definitely did not spell her name correctly) and Rachel are two Swiss short term missionaries who came with us from Ouaga to Mahadaga, though not a part of the Collaboratory, when we met them at the SIM compound in Ouaga. Demarise is very sick now and needs to go back to Ouaga to get some more help there. We pray for her returned health and a safe trip back to Ouaga. We also are very thankful Dr. Hare has gotten to us safely and are very grateful for the successes we all have had as a team working on our projects throughout the day. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Justin

Projects Status Update

2010-07-07T18:30:00.010-04:00

All Collaboratory teams preparing for service discuss the importance of humility. Individual team members are invited to the team, each other, so that the team may collectively serve others. Those who lead are asked to be first in readiness to take on humble but necessary tasks. Perhaps the mobility project team was thinking of this when they asked me to paint tricycle frames. I was ready, and gladly dug my pre-stained but clean painting clothes from the suitcase. I like painting. It allows me to make a very small but visible contribution to the excellent work of this team, and I always end up with patches of paint, fire engine red this year, that I get to wear like badges of honor on my clothes, hands, and wherever else the paint decides to go.

It is very encouraging to see the bent frame design introduced two years ago flourishing in the community, and the new chain tensioners. This year’s new universal frame further reduces the number of costly welds required to build a tricycle, and enables local fabricators to master one frame and make both hand and electric powered tricycles. A new welding fixture is also contributing beautifully to quality assurance, assuring a well aligned frame every time. This afternoon I painted a second frame, and I understand two more are in the pipeline.

Although the systems and form design of the tricycles are nearing completion, there is still much important work to be done. We still do not have a reliable local supplier of square metal tubing, or an alternative a means of accommodating variability in tube wall thickness. There are also still too many mechanical failures too early in the life of a tricycle. A new double-rim wheel design, and more quality control during wheel fabrication, should increase the lifespan of wheels; but we have discovered that the splines are wearing too quickly in the sun gear of a planetary gear system that is the heart of the transmission.

We are pleased with progress so far this year, but success will come when persons with disabilities are mobilized all over Burkina Faso. The Collaboratory does not aim to provide all these tricycles. Rather, with our Burkinabe and SIM friends, we are creating and refining a design that local people can build, and that local businesses can get behind because the design is self-sustaining in the local economy. This takes time. I am reminded that the most reliable and relatively (in the N. American economy) affordable automobiles that serve many today are the result of years of incremental, mostly unglamorous, but steady improvement. Praise God for the generations of Messiah College students, past, present, and yet to come, who have shaped and believed in a Kingdom vision for the mobility project, and sustained it with their labor.

When I am not managing team logistics or leading our class discussions I share the task of team photographer with Justin. I can’t say this is a humble task because I enjoy it too much, but it is work that his enabled me to serve the Center for the Advancement for the Handicapped by growing their portfolio of images that tell their story, and to do the same for our team. I have especially enjoyed visiting the Bethany and Katie’s classroom and the Burkina Summer Enrichment Program (BSEP) with my camera. BSEP is a project of the Education Group of the Collaboratory, whose work is to promote literacy and the development of abstract thinking skills among children and families in communities where lack of education is an issue of justice. This summer they are nurturing math and language literacy skills in an integrated classroom where more than half of the students are either blind or deaf. Bethany brings strong French language skills, and Katie is a capable communicator in sign language.

Jon and Matt (former Collaboratory member and a principle contact for us with SIM) enjoyed success yesterday in beaming wireless internet from the mission station to the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped. This was the work of West Shore Evangelical Free Church in Mechanicsburg, PA. The West Shore team included Collaboratory advisors Steve Frank and Harold Underwood. It was satisfying to make a very small but important contribution to this project, and to think about how internet access will help the administration and educational work of the Center. At prayer meeting tonight we learned there was a successful Skype call from the Center!

Mike continues his research into bio-diesel production as a potential opportunity for job creation and to keep more of the money spent on fuel in the local economy. Tomorrow he hopes to experiment with an oil press. He has also served a team video man, capturing and archiving important documentation footage for the mobility and BSEP projects.

I am deeply grateful to God, the people of Mahadaga, Burkina Faso, this team, to all the people in the Collaboratory who have worked on our projects and helped send the team, and to the many friends who are praying for us and who supported us financially. Thank you all for the gift of the opportunity to serve in Burkina Faso this summer. We are here to bring the Good News about Jesus in word and deed. This blog post has focused on good news about our projects. There is much to be celebrated. Looking ahead, however, in my third and final blog post next week I will share how helping is not easy. We stumble, and learn that good intentions are not enough. This too is part of our story.

Among the readings and discussions undertaken by the team are several chapters from the book, “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Steve and Brian do a great job of capturing a number of the core instructions we give to Collaboratory teams, one being that true service is something done with others, not to them, for mutual benefit. Such service requires deep humility: a readiness to receive as well as give, to seek out the wisdom of the local community, and to begin to work by discovering the good that God is already doing in a place. Help given in ignorance and without relationship can and often does do more harm than good.

When I write next week I will reflect on what we have learned about helping without hurting. Until then, I encourage you to think about these questions: What is poverty, and who are the poor? Is poverty the absence of material wealth, or is it something else? Do those of us who are materially wealthy carry other burdens of poverty?

Again, thank you for praying for us. Please pray that we would grow in faith and obedience to Christ, and that we would serve well. Please also pray for Angela Hare, advisor to the Education Group and BSEP, as she travels to us. Angela showed up for the bus ride to Mahadaga this morning only to learn that it was canceled. “Come back tomorrow,” she was told. We love Dr. Hare. She also has cheese and chocolate with her!

Blessings in Christ,
David

A long but rewarding day :)

2010-07-06T19:35:00.001-04:00

We have been getting used to trying to conserve water and energy here on the compound, since the water pump (to fill our water tower) and electricity are solar powered – and it has rained some and been cloudy a fair bit since we’ve arrived. However…this morning we awoke to find NOT A DROP of water in our faucets! Katie and I (Bethany) looked on the bright side, and decided that one of the pros was that we didn’t have to cook anything for breakfast! As a group, though, we were a little concerned about our near future (food/drink wise). Nevertheless, we made it through breakfast (bread, PB, jelly) and devotions, and set out to work like usual (with half-filled water bottles).

Katie and I had a pretty good day at the BSEP. Starting this week we have had the three older girls from last week (who we are starting to get to know better!), as well as 5 blind or low-vision children from 2nd through 5th grade. Today we also had a younger sister of one of the older girls, so it was quite a range of kids and abilities! This was enough to keep Katie and I on our toes, for sure. It will be great having Dr. Hare, who speaks French and has been doing education for longer than Katie and I, starting on Thursday. In the mean time, Katie and I are coming up with various educational games and activities, as well as trying to find what kind of things they are used to in their class/culture. To keep it fun, we play games and try to learn Gourma (and teach them a few words in English)!

The guys (engineers) have been working hard on their trikes, and Yempabou’s is almost done! (Still drying, thanks to the humidity.) Another is ready to be painted, and 2 more are ready to be welded…which (according to them, since I wouldn’t know any better) means good progress. Yay.

As we were walking back for lunch, Katie and I were imagining the worst (still no water). I concocted my “dream sandwich” of the moment – PB, banana, honey and cinnamon! However, Matt (and the generator) pulled through and we had water. Meya (Matt’s younger sister who is staying in Mahadaga for awhile) made us rice with lentils. Yummy!

This afternoon, after a sieste that always seems to go by too quickly, we went back to work. The day had more good things to come, though. Walking home from the Center to our house – about 15 minutes of a walk – was filled with pleasant greetings/exchanges with people we pass. We received many smiles when we said “ca va” to the children and “n juada” to the adults (the “good afternoon” greeting in Gourmanche). Sometimes the conversations were slightly longer, but mostly we were just trying to be polite and greet people. We are learning that greeting people is very appreciated in the Burkinabe culture.

After a delicious dinner (John’s “famous” mashed potatoes, some ground beef we brought with us from Ouaga, and veggies), we had a class discussion. It was great to discuss “When Helping Hurts”, and hear what we were all thinking and learning about our perspective as it relates to serving others, poverty, and Christian faith.
I had just gotten to starting the dishes when Katie summoned me into the living room. This meant, I quickly concluded, that someone came in to visit us. I have been practicing to be a translator  (never a bad thing)! (Except for earlier this evening, right after I put food on my plate, and I had to go outside with our advisors to talk to a person who was coming and indirectly asking us for money to go get an operation…and we had to say no politely…). Anyway, it is a part of African culture to come visit and greet people one knows, or ask for money from people who are “rich”, so it’s just a part of a typical African evening to have people coming by. Somehow their visits didn’t disturb our class discussion time (although now I’m remembering that the woman selling bananas interrupted our devotions…).

A final fun part of the evening was the couple of us who stayed up in the main house (where Katie and I live, but we all meet to eat, talk, etc.) a little later than some. Demarise came over (one of the Swiss girls who is here for a couple weeks), and we roped her into a game of “extreme” UNO. She and her friend taught us UNO with many extra rules (pass cards, slap the pile, etc.) a few nights ago and we liked it a lot! Afterward, we spent time talking about funny moments in Africa, and more serious things like how the life of people here is difficult (and very different) in many ways.

So overall, it was a LONG day (it might show tomorrow, but hopefully not!), but full of many good conversations and interactions with people. I think we all have many things to think about.

Keep us in your prayers, especially for our work, and that we can build relationships with the people here so our work will last even beyond our departure (which is coming close, in a way).

-Bethany

To (pronounced: toe)

2010-07-05T15:51:00.006-04:00

Today we lost Dr. Fish. In order to evade our dinner tonight of To (pronounced: toe), Dr. Fish fled to Ouaga. He headed out for the bus this morning around 6am and as of around 7:30pm, when we last heard from him, he was still about 20km (12.4 miles) out. From there he'll be heading out on the rest of his journey throughout Africa.

In other news, tonight's dinner was quite the experience. To is ground millet (a grain I recall feeding to our pet birds as a child) in paste form. Upon this gelatinous mass, it is recommended that you apply a generous coating of mystery sauce. It is as very different taste and texture than we were used to. Some tried to cover up the flavor with salt and pepper, honey, and even jelly. The honey almost worked for me, but it is definitely a part of Africa that I will not miss.

Imagine a texture somewhere between jello and mashed potatoes that refuses to mash, but only cuts and jiggles. The taste of To is rather plain, but completely masked by the sauce. Apparently there are many different types of sauce, and the one we received was a rather strong Gumbo sauce made with Baobab leaves. It's actually a very common food around here and people that have grown up with it really enjoy it. I am willing to give them my extras.

I'll stay on the food topic, and briefly mention some of the other local dishes we've gotten. Aside from tonight's Fear Factor-esque challenge, all of the food has been great. We've had a variety of pasta and grain dishes that have been very good. Usually they are topped with an equally good sauce, ranging from peanut sauce to sauces containing chunks of goat. There have also been some rather tasty brochetts, which are basically just kabobs of seasoned meat - a wonderful manly meal.

Aside from the food, all of our work has been coming along very well. Since I've been working with the trikes, I can update specifics on that beyond "coming along very well."

For the past few days, we've been working on the first of the fleet of uniform frame trikes we will be making here. This will be an electric trike for Yempabou, a young guy maybe in his early 20s, who gets the most use out of his trike. The plan is to finish it up tomorrow afternoon, after the paint dries. Until it dries, we'll be working on some of our many other trikes. Originally the plan was to make one hand-powered and one electric trike, but it now looks like we'll be making as many as three electric trikes and one hand-powered trike. Hopefully we'll keep getting faster and faster, so that we can meet the high demand.

That is it for today. I'm sure many other things have happened, but, personally, I am still traumatized by the To. It's one of those experiences that you can remember for years.

-Alex
mobility team

Sunrise, Waterfall, and Pigs In A Blanket

2010-07-04T17:35:00.003-04:00

Last night Justin and I decided that this morning would be a good morning to see the sunrise. When our alarms went off at four we looked at each other asking one another if we were really ready to be up…? No we did not want to be up, but we were so we put on our bug spray grabbed our flashlights and journals and headed out. By 4:28 we were at the top of the cliffs and the view was amazing. The half moon and the few stars that were still out gave us enough light to see the valley bellow. By 4:36 the rosters were crowing, the dogs were barking, and the donkeys were going at it like there was no tomorrow. The sunrise came around 5:15 and it was an amazing sight. Justin and I made the fifteen min walk back to the compound and fell asleep briefly before waking up to go to church.

This morning the group slit up and went to two different churches. I had the privilege of going to a local Gorma church and it was a wonderful experience. It was a one room church and had people crammed into it, standing in doorway, and looking in the window. The worship was outstanding… did not understand a word of it, but enjoyed every minuet of it. What’s more is the congregation seemed to really enjoy the two worship songs we sang for them.

After lunch and a nap the team pilled into Matt’s truck and followed Francoise’s truck filled with kids from the handicap center down the road to a waterfall. Once we arrived we parked the trucks on the side of the road and all pilled out. We all took the hands of the on or two or three children and started the ten minuet walk to the falls. The kids had a great time playing, splashing, and swimming in the water. After a while the team hiked back into the woods to a second latter water fall. Hiking up to the top of the falls was so fun and the view from the top was amazing. Dr. Fish decided it would be fun to follow his student’s example and work his way out onto the ledge under the falls. Unfortunately, he was not as nimble as us young kids and slipped and fell into the water. His escapade lead to a series of jumps, splashes, and doggie paddling back to shore.

Seeing as it is the Forth of July, the cooks, Justin Jon and I, decided to make an American picnic in the heart of Africa. As we looked around the kitchen and decided to cut up come cucumbers, boil beans in salt and pepper, make some laughing cow Mac and Cheese, and top it off with yes pigs in a blanket with home made doe. The dinner was a hit with every one and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

We are all having a great time building relationships with one another as well as with the Africans. The project work is going well and we will be starting up again tomorrow. Today was the last day Dr. Fish will be in Mahadaga as he will be leaving for the next leg of his trip tomorrow. If you could be praying for his travels as well as Dr. Hare’s we would really appreciate it. Please pray for the continued good health of our team as Dr. Vader was not feeling the best this evening. Also pray for our clients and our interaction with them. Thank you so much for all your prayers.

God Bless,

Charlie Kimpel

Raising the tower!

2010-07-03T13:39:00.005-04:00

Today is our first full Saturday in Mahadaga, marking our first full week here. Unlike at home, Saturday is just another day of the week and work and school happen just like they do during the rest of the weekdays. So our team was up at the usual time for breakfast and made their way to the handicapped center before 8 AM. The education group continued their work with the summer enrichment program and from what I gather, spent the better part of this morning working with a group of blind children. The mobility team is putting their finishing touches on tricycle #1, which only requires a few more welds and some paint before the final product is assembled and ready for use.

Dr. Fish, Dr. Vader, Jon and I (Mike) stayed back here at the mission center today to help Matt complete some work on a communications tower that is going up to help the mission compound communicate with the handicapped center as well as the medical dispensary across the road. Each of the other locations has a similar tower that allows the three to share wireless internet as well as communicate with the main server at the handicapped center. Our work this morning involved reprogramming the router on our tower, which Jon did a great job with, as well as connecting some of the support cables and other accessories required for the system to function. Our work hinged on Matt’s guidance but unfortunately he had to leave us for a good part of the time to address some issues with the water pump at the center. We did as much as we could and waited for Matt to return.

The team came back together for lunch and we ate leftovers from the food we’ve had over the course of the week. It was a great combination of some traditional African food and our American creations! No one left hungry and we were able to get rid of the leftovers before they went bad. The rest of the day was free after lunch, except for a class session. During this session we had great discussion on what missions work should be and how a group or individual should handle the failure of a project or initiative. Dr. Vader asked some very thought provoking questions and lead an excellent discussion. After this time, the team was free for the rest of the day, so we did get part of our Saturday off to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather here. Since our rain yesterday it has been fairly cool and breezy. Though this weather in enjoyable, the missions center is powered by solar panels so we really need the sun to come out nice and strong to produce power for us.

As far as I can tell, most of the team took the afternoon to nap or relax which was very much needed. I personally took a long nap and awoke to find most of the team working with Matt to put the finishing touches on the communication tower and get it ready to be hoisted into its final vertical position. It turns out that most of the group had been helping for a good part of the afternoon to get the tower ready and I felt bad for sleeping during that time.

Once I was awake again I jumped right in to help get the support cables to the right length. After about 20 more minutes of prep the tower was ready to be lifted using the hoist on Matt’s ATV (the Rhino). After placing everyone at strategic (and safe) points to guide wires, Matt began to pull on the tower with the hoist and it slowly began to rise. This was a very special event to be a part of. As the tower slowly rose and eventually reached the vertical position the support wires were tightened and the tower was up.

It felt like this was our 4th of July fireworks a little early.

God has truly blessed us in our first week here in Mahadaga with safety, great experiences and the opportunity to do the work He has for us. We are constantly seeing His hand everywhere around us and appreciate your prayers and support. Some items that you can pray for in the upcoming days include:

1. Safety for Randy and Angela as they are traveling. Randy will be leaving us on Monday to return to Ouagadougou to do further work there and Angela will be traveling from France to Ouagadougou and eventually to Mahadaga over the course of next week.

2. Continued health and safety for the team. Everyone is dong great and is in good spirits and we know that is from God. We pray that as the days and weeks go on this continues and our team stays fun and lively.

3. Continued progress with our projects. Each team has made significant strides in moving forward with their work, overcoming minor delays or obstacles here and there. As we continue to move forward we pray that God would help things to go smoothly and help us to know how to overcome obstacles.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support. Your prayers are being heard and God is blessing us more than we can imagine.

Mike

BSEP

2010-07-02T11:47:00.002-04:00

With all our team members back to their healthy selves, a good three hours of rain (thanks so much for praying with us for rain… so crucial for the growth of the crops for the people here!), food in our bellies, and lots of laughs shared even just today, we have much to be thankful for!

Monday was the first day of the BSEP (Burkina Summer Enrichment Program) that Bethany and I are running for some of the children at the CAH (Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped). The program is not in full swing just yet because school is in session this year for most of Burkina until next week, including the CAH. The three girls that are in the program right now have finished school for the year due to their end-of-the-year exams to see if they could enter the next grade. 1 of them passed, the other 2 did not. Their ages are 11, 13, and 14. It has been such a joy getting to know them and their culture more, in addition to helping them improve on their math, literacy, and geography skills. Due to my lack of French-speaking and French-comprehending I have not done much teaching up front, but Bethany has done INCREDIBLY! She is so patient when she has to re-explain concepts to them, assesses during the lesson what should be adjusted, speaks tremendous French that all 3 girls understand, and shining Jesus’ light amazingly! It has been so great assisting her and being with the kids. We have been learning a lot about what they enjoy doing, what they struggle with, and what to work on in the classroom.

It has been so much fun introducing them to new math and literacy games and activities that they enjoy and even ask to do during their break time. Starting the middle or end of next week we will have around 10-15 children from the CAH in the program, many of whom will be deaf. It has been great practicing signing with some of the children and learning new signs from some of the teachers at the CAH.

The other night after dinner everyone on the compound got together at the Walsh's house (full-time missionaries here and Messiah Grads) for a time of worship through song (in French and English), Bible story for the 2 children, hearing Dr. Vader's testimony, and some more French and English singing. Such a great encouragement for everyone!!

Last night for dinner we had a picnic of French baguettes, peanut butter, jelly, and Nutella on top of the cliffs followed by star gazing on top of the water tower on the compound. The stars were wicked bright as there are no other major lights for miles and miles to compete with. Just spectacular!

It has been so great having local Burkinabe visitors in the afternoon and evenings stop by just to “bring greetings” and share a meal together. I am constantly amazed at the thoughtfulness and investment in relationships that is so prevalent in this culture.

Through our interactions with the local people and experiences with the culture, the furthering of God’s Kingdom is so evident here in Mahadaga! Thank you all so much for your prayers! They are so appreciated! Know that we are praying and thanking God for you all as well!!

Into the Bush

2010-07-01T17:13:00.003-04:00

Before coming to Burkina Faso, I thought I lived in the middle of nowhere. I'm on a little back road on the edge of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania surrounded by Amish farms. Then we flew into Ouagadougou and I realized that some people live on dirt roads in rather small houses. It was even more of a glance into the past when we arrived in Mahadaga a couple of days ago. The houses were even smaller, made out of adobe bricks and everyone lived along a dirt road. But I finally understood the term "country livin" when Alex and I (Jon) rode into the bush on Wednesday morning.

First thing in the morning, we hopped onto the backs of two mobilettes (a term for the small motorcycles or scooters that everyone uses to get around here) and rode off into the unknown. We were traveling with two of the physical therapists that work at the Handicapped Center as they did their rounds of home visits. The farther we went, the smaller the roads got until we were driving on walking paths that were barely wide enough for people to walk single file. It's a good thing our drivers were local and knew the area because there are no such thing as road signs around here, just hundreds of small paths that criss-cross across the fields covering the countryside.

All of the homes we stopped at were rather similar. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them but I will try to briefly explain what they were like. The homes around here are small walled compounds. Generally, there are about 6-7 small huts, either round and constructed with adobe brick and thatched roofs or rectangular concrete walls and tin roofs. These huts are situated in a circle and walls connect them either made out of adobe brick or sticks woven together.

It was somewhat amazing to walk into these homes and realize that people still live in this way the same as they did several thousand years ago. Carrying water from a well, growing all their own food, and really just surviving off the land. It's a far cry from the situation I am used to living in.

As we entered the homes, we would be seated in the shade of a tree as the patient was located and bathed before the therapy. We were also offered water at several of the homes. This is a common form of greeting guests and saying, "Welcome" in Burkinabe culture. Needless to say, we could not refuse the water for fear of offending our hosts despite the fact that it was brown and had dirt and grain floating in it so we politely raised the bowl to our lips and feigned drinking while hoping that no one was watching too closely. I appreciated the welcome but figured they would not enjoy knowing that I got sick from their hospitality either.

It was neat to also observe the dynamic between the families and the therapists. When we arrived, the families were often summoned in from their work in the fields and would come sauntering in at the typical Burkina pace (it’s too hot to move any faster). Chair or small wooden stools would be summoned up from various places so that we could be seated and a mat would be laid out for the patient to sit on. Greetings would be given and if the patient was a child the therapist would play around with them for a minute or so before beginning.

Most of the patients had epilepsy (at least that was the diagnosis) and had limbs that needed to be massaged to restore the range of motion. As the therapists worked, they would chat with the adults in Gourma (one of the local languages) and Alex and I would sit and observe. It was all very relaxed and somewhat joyful. The patients were often in high spirits despite the sometimes painful stretching and the families were happy to see us. When we were done in one place, we would bid our farewells and head off to a new location which was an adventure in itself because my mobilette kept stalling and I would need to hop off the back and push it so the driver could pop the clutch to start it.

All told we visited 5 different patients before returning home. Throughout the year, these therapists travel thousands of miles across bumpy dusty paths and still would not be able to visit all of their clients as often as they would like.

Today Justin and Mike went out and tomorrow two more people will rotate in. Until then, Bonne nuit!

That's Amazing

2010-07-01T13:52:00.005-04:00

You would think we came for the food, the way our team responds at mealtime. First bites rarely fail to produce a sigh of satisfaction or a “that’s amazing” from at least one of us. What culinary delights qualify for such praise? Recent successes include rice and peanut sauce, sliced cucumbers with salt and pepper, and raspberry Jell-O.

By any measure I am a blessed man, but like many Americans I struggle to live with the thanksgiving and deep gratitude that my situation warrants: gratitude for knowledge of God’s love for me, for family and friends, for my church, for good work and ministry, for material comforts, and the list goes on. At home in the US I am more likely to grumble than give thanks for mediocre food and cold showers, but here we thank God daily and with utmost sincerity for these things.

I would have to say that my African friends complain less and show more joy in life, in general, than I or my American friends. My African friends are poor. Their children die or become disabled much more frequently than in wealthy countries. If it does not rain more soon their crops will not grow and they will go hungry. Even so, they have time for each other and love to laugh. My African friends are not as impoverished as my American friends by loneliness. Africans are about the hardest working people I know, but (and I can’t explain this) they are not busy.

Perhaps the busyness of the wealthy comes from the illusion that with just a little more human effort we might achieve certain cradle-to-grave material security and avoidance of harm. Things are good for me in America enough of the time that I take “good” for granted, and grumble even at its small absences. We are tempted to obsess over every disappointment, to worry over every possibility of disappointment, forsaking the thanksgiving and joy that can be ours today in vain pursuit of a self-defined perfect day tomorrow.

Africa shatters the illusion of human control over the world, freeing our team members to be amazed that God’s goodness is continually breaking through the brokenness of the world; freeing us to practice generous stewardship over what God has given us. When we stop thinking of our material wealth and political freedom and power as ours alone, and cease using these assets in vain effort to secure for ourselves what only God can provide, we are freed from the endless busyness of self-centeredness to look upon the world with compassion, to speak and live out the Good News about Jesus.

Thank you to all who are praying for the team. We are thankful that Justin, Mike and Randy are restored to good health. For years I thought teams like ours focused too much on “self centered” prayers for health and safety, and did not pray enough for the people around us. This week reminded me that to bring good news to others is also to share in their sufferings. Our team takes many costly precautions to stay healthy: better housing, different cooking, bottled water to brush our teeth, and Cipro (an antibiotic) in our suitcases. Even so, it is difficult to prepare food in this environment and not have some risk of contamination. The people in Mahadaga live with this every day, and for now so do we. We must pray, for ourselves that illness will not hinder our ministry, and for the well being of all those for whom this is a constant reality, for those who do not have a ticket to America in their pocket.

Please also pray for encouragement and perseverance. We are thrilled that yesterday Bethany and Katie began their Summer Enrichment Program with children from the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped; and that Mike was able to build a bio-diesel reactor for the testing of various oils available for fuel production. Matt Walsh, an alumnus of the Collaboratory and now a leader of the ministry here, has planted Jatropha, an oil bearing plant that does not compete with food production for space.

For the second visit in a row, however, we learned that the wall thickness of the tubing acquired by our partners for the tricycle project is too thin. As we wrap up the design phase of this project, and with so many people waiting to take charge of their own mobility, we must solve this material supply chain problem. Charlie, Alex, Justin and John have maintained good spirits in spite of this setback, and are working hard to develop a temporary solution. We are glad to see that others groups in the US and Europe have recently contributed good innovations in mobility technology for the developing world, but without a long term commitment to work and struggle in a community there is little hope that innovation can be made sustainable in the local culture and economy. Please pray that we will persevere.

I leave you with something beautiful that I saw in Chad while visiting my son on the way to Burkina Faso: The offering on a Sunday morning came at the end of what for me was a long and hot worship service, one where I struggled to pay attention. Each believer left their seat to come to the front with their gift, circulating into the center to form a giving line and then back around the outside to return to their seat. As the offering proceeded the people in line became more animated, and the music more energetic, until something very close to dancing broke out. It was as close to a Conga Line as I have ever seen in worship, a party to celebrate God’s goodness through generosity.

It was not lost on me that these partying Christians are among the poorest people in the world living in a country torn by civil war. I remembered what Jesus had to say about the widow’s mite. May we who have so much be encouraged to not be outdone in generosity among the brothers and sisters in Christ, whether in the sharing of wealth, or time, or deeds.

-David

Carnival!

2010-06-29T17:47:00.003-04:00

We started off this morning with another nice oatmeal breakfast and got an early start at the handicap center. Today the handicap center hosted a carnival for 250 – 300 kids and students of the center. There were 30 “stands” set up around the compound, each with a different attraction or game. Our team ran three games found around the carnival: throwing tennis balls at a pyramid of tin cans, launching objects out of catapults at targets and shooting BB guns at tin cans stacked across a wall. (These were the only games that involved “shooting things”, the rest of the games ranged from opening a book to a certain page while wearing boxing gloves to filling balloons full of water.)

Alex John and I ran the BB gun stand at the carnival and had a great time. I will note a couple interesting experiences, though. The handicap center offers a school for blind children and they of course wanted a turn at each station. So we had many blind children coming up and asking to take part, while we guided their hands and helped them aim toward the stacked tin cans and let a few shots go. (A couple of the blind students were great shots!) We had to convince the kids not to shoot the lizards running behind our set up of cans a lot of times too. Other than that, keeping lines full of excited children who don’t speak English organized kept us busy all morning.

After lunch, the Mobility team had a great opportunity to go out into the bush and see a man who could potentially use an electric tricycle. We had about a 30 minute trek out into the villages with a truck full of a mixture of therapists, translators, students, Yempabou (an African man who uses an electric trike now and has been a great help giving us feedback and updates with the tricycles), and his big electric trike.

We arrived at a small compound of a man who was in his 30’s and got in a motorcycle accident. When people found him, they threw him in a truck and drove him to the nearest “city” (the roads are very very bumpy). When they got there, they pronounced him paralyzed and sent him home without taking any x-rays or anything of that nature. He was left to sit at home with his family, unable to eat or move or do anything by himself. He has now regained some movement in his legs and can move his arms pretty well, but still cannot walk or even crawl on his own.
The therapists we traveled with have been working with this man for quite some time now, and we were brought out to see if he would like an electric tricycle of his own. After a lot of talking in French and Gourma (the native language), Yempabou let this man try out his trike and ride it around the compound for a little bit. The man’s house is about 30 yards from the road with a dirt path serving as a drive way of sorts. The man road up and back a few times with a huge smile on his face. After some time, one of the translators told us that he had not been to the edge of this road in 3 years.

After some more talking and logistics of taking down measurements for the man’s trike, we headed back to the handicap center to call it a day. This experience was just amazing to me, to see that one small project can make a complete change in this man’s life. Without mobility, he was left to sit around his house with no purpose. That trip out to the bush was just a real encouragement and was very inspiring.

Other than that, Dr. Fish joined us for dinner tonight and is feeling a little bit better (though still not back to full health yet) so thank you for all your prayers. We ask for continued prayer for our clients, working through the language barrier, and continuing our work throughout the trip.

-Justin

Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped

2010-06-28T15:53:00.003-04:00

This lovely Monday morning began with another yummy oatmeal breakfast, followed shortly thereafter by devotions. Working through the Sermon on the Mount has been meaningful, and this morning I was especially encouraged by the verse we were studying today (Matt 5:6). Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, which led us to talk about striving for right relationships and depending on God, seemed relevant for our time here. Relationships are a really big part of the Burkinabe culture, and I think we are learning a lot of good things about that (and trying to experience it in our somewhat limited language skills!).

Then we walked down to the CAH (Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped) for our tour with Matt Walsh. It was incredibly inspiring to see everything the center is involved in (even after having seen the center and had the tour when I was here in Jan '09). Our first stop was the garden, where they have plans to plant many fruit trees, have goats for loan to families of handicapped children that are in need, and start a model garden for the community members, students and apprentices to learn from. The potential for the community and handicapped children/families is huge.

Next, we got a tour of the buildings (all of which have been built in the past decade!) - the school, library (noteworthy for Burkina), physical therapy rooms, and where they make the prosthetic legs, braces, trikes, etc. It was quite meaningful to see where and who actually does the work we have heard so much about during our time with the Collaboratory at Messiah College.

Our welcome here is warm. The Messiah College teams have been coming for many years, thanks to Dr. Vader, and several of the full time missionaries here were once Messiah graduates. Also, our welcome was QUITE warm on the actual weather front; today was sunny, around hundred degrees and 100% humid! We're drinking well, though, and hopefully starting to adapt!

After lunch and a brief sieste time, we all headed back to the Center to begin our work. Katie and I (Bethany) observed in a 3rd and 4th grade class. We learned some new signs since the teachers at the CAH teach in French and sign simultaneously, since many of the students are deaf. They ended class half an hour early (leaving the students working in the class) to have a brief faculty meeting about the "carnival" tomorrow. I enjoyed seeing the teachers and staff all together and hearing the plans for the fun tomorrow. A few of us (John Meyer, Alex, Katie and I) will be helping out with a few of the games, so that should be fun!

The engineers working on the trike project spent the afternoon unpacking their tools and starting some initial preparations and welding - with the help (at least onlooking) of many children at the center.

As our French and/or Gourma and/or sign language greetings, words and phrases are slowly increasing, but the children and people here are very polite and excited about our meager attempts. It is going to be good to spend time getting to know the people and culture here!

-Bethany

Scorpion Hunting and a Host of Other, More Logical Thrills

2010-06-27T18:24:00.005-04:00

The past two days have been full of excitement. We started Saturday off with an 11 hour trip to get from Ouaga to Mahadaga and ended today (Sunday) with scorpion catching!

Saturday:

The day began bright and early, with breakfast at 5:30, planning to leave around 6. We didn't get to leave until 7, but that ended up not making much of a difference. Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves in a nice little storm, slowing down our pace and potentially washing out the dirt roads to come. For lunch we stopped at the SIM compound in Fada, taking our time to relax while the end of the storm passed.

After lunch, we continued our voyage to a checkpoint along the road. At the checkpoint we waited a brief time until a caravan of travelers was gathered to proceed further down the road. At this time, we were also joined by ...let's call him the mute man (for he spoke little, if at all), to help us navigate the road ahead. Added to the 10 people from Messiah, 2 Swiss girls going to Mahadaga, and our two drivers, we had quite the party to pack out the van. Then, just before our nicely paved road ended, we dropped off the mute man and thanked he and his boss for their aid.

Next came the dirt road - the exciting part! Not knowing what the stom had done to the road, we did not know what to expect. Though most of the road was fine and intact, we did get to cross some streams and traverse a flooded dam. It was pretty sweet. Eventually, after a little while later, we arrived in Mahadaga!

The rest of the evening consisted of unpacking, eating at Matt's house with his family and the other missionaries there, and then watching the end of the USA vs. Ghana world cup game at the pastors house. Though it was a disheartening defeat, it will still be pretty cool since that means that Ghana will continue on (If you're not up to date on your African geography, note that Ghana is directly south of Burkina Faso - hence, their victory is also a big deal to those in Burkina.).

Sunday:

Sunday began with some unpleasant news. Though a majority of the team had survived the trip unscathed so far, we awoke to find that many of our colleagues had fallen ill. The diagnosis: Malarone (malaria medicine that doesn't always sit well with everyone. The sick ones will be switched off of it once they're better.). After a check up by one of the missionaries, it was decided that they would pull through and that a little prayer and some sleep would fix them right up (so don't freak out over people being sick - we're in Africa, it's going to happen. Just shoot them a little prayer - don't lose sleep over it.). So yeah, since Mike is now feeling better, we're pretty confident that Justin and Dr. Fish will perk right up in no time.

So after deciding that we were going to leave the sickly bunch fend for themselves for the morning, we headed to church. The message out of Revelation - or as it is literally translated from French and/or Gorma, apocalypse - and was about perseverence to the end and remembering who our first love is. It was a very interesting message with lots of world cup references and four languages. The pastor preached in French, while the assistant pastor (or maybe just a buddy) translated to Gorma, another man translated to sign-language, and Matt tanslated to English.

After church, we had lunch. PB&J sandwiches aren't really too exciting, so I'll spare you what you are all too familiar with. Later in the afternoon, however, things got exciting again! A small expedition set off to conquer the cliffs behind the compound. Part of the group (Bethany, Jon, and Katie) took the slow route up the path, while Charlie and I (Alex) scaled the face (and by "scaled the face," I mean it was more of a steep rock formation than what you would call a "shear cliff". Really, the biggest danger would be those eagles that pick goats off of mountains, but I don't think they have those here ...so it wasn't dangerous.) When we got to the top, we found some children and Mia, Matt's sister. When we finally met up with Bethany, Jon, and Katie, we headed to find the water. When we found the water, we also found more children. They were all there to bathe, but took a short break to marvel at the blinding light reflecting off of our pastey white skin. It seemed the longer we were there, the more of them showed up. By the time we had gotten back down to flat land, there were maybe like 100 of so little kids following us around. We got to practice our broken French for a while and take pictures of all of them until it was time to leave. Also, it may be important to note that bulls actually do charge red swooshy things, like Mia's skirt (once again, no one was hurt... nor was the bull).

When we got back, the pastor came over to pray for the ill and meet all of us. After that, it was time for dinner. Katie and Bethany wanted to try out this African peanut sauce stuff, so I gave them a hand. We ended up making the exact amount, since multiple people came back for seconds. Also, we had a guest for dinner, Daniel, a local, college-aged Burkinabae.

After dinner and cleanup, Daniel agreed to help us find some scorpions. We found a UV light, so we headed out, empty peanut butter tub in hand. After many attempts to find one under a rock, we found a nice big one hanging out under a rock (it reminded me of this time in high school when one of the janitors smashed my one teacher's pet scorpion). Fearlessly, Charlie scooped up the scorpion, in his bare hands, sternly telling the scorpion not to sting him (actually, he just used a couple sticks and chop-sticked it into the tub). Then, on our way back, we found two more scorpions. Though one was too small to be worth saving, we did get some sweet pictures (perhaps you'll see one later...). Oh, and, lucky for us, Justin missed out ...so we have a legit excuse to do it again!

This coming week:

This will be real brief, because I'm really tired... Also, it'll just be for the mobility guys, because I'm not 100% sure what everyone else is doing.

Tomorrow (Monday) most of us are going for a tour of the handicap center.

Tuesday everyone will be helping out with a carnival that the center is putting on for the kids. The mobility guys will also be heading out to visit a potential electric trike client.

Wednesday, I believe, we start our trike work.

Prayer and such:

Justin and Dr. Fish are still feeling under the weather. It would be cool if they got better.

Continued safety for everyone

Continued acclimation to the weather (The heat and humidity is hard to adapt to. Apparently the rash over my hands, arms, feet, and lips is a heat rash... it's super annoying.)

Project work

Thanks again for your vested interest in our team. Your support has gotten us this far, so prayers to get us the rest of the way would be super awesome. Also, keep checking the blog. There are many exciting things going on here and it'd take an exorbedant amount of time explaining all of the details within the blog as well as those left out, upon our return.

-Alex Brubaker, Mobility Team

Leaving Ouaga

2010-06-25T17:45:00.006-04:00

(Morning) - What’s flat round and has small brownish black things in it? I don’t know for sure but we ate it this morning for Breakfast and it was delicious. Life here in Ouagadougou continues to be an adventure. However, now that we have been in town for two days and are starting to feel comfortable, it is time to move on. Tomorrow morning at 6AM it’s off to Mahadaga. Last night and today we spent time making progress on the various projects that brought us to this fascinating country. Over lunch yesterday we asked the missionary, Robin, who is translating scripture into Fulfulde for the Fulani people if there was anything we could do to help. Last night he recorded three chapters of the book of Matthew in Fulfulde for us to work with when we get back home. The plan is to see if we can use this as a starting point for making an audio version of the Bible for the Fulani who can’t read. The education group is busy translating some children’s books from English into French so they can read them to the children in the school in Mahadaga. The mobility guys are out now buying bike parts that were too heavy to bring with us. I’m sitting at the table now with the KWhr meter in front of me. I plugged it in to make sure that nothing was trashed in transit. In fact something that was NOT working when we left is working now. Looks like the “shake it” technique of getting electronics to work is still the best approach. Mike is the only one not working on his project. He claims this is because the Biodiesel group did their work ahead of time but I think he is just lazy.

(Evening) - Well it is late and we have an early day tomorrow so I’ll keep this last bit quick. Tonight we were all invited to the home of John, a pastor in Ouagadougou who also runs a school teaching high school age young people computer literacy classes and English language classes. This helps them to be more successful economically and provides an outreach opportunity to share Christ with them. John borrowed a friend’s car and we made two trips to his house to get the whole team of 10 to his house, 6 at a time in a small car.

Thank you for all of your prayers for our group. We are enjoying each others company, getting to appreciate the local people and feeling amazed at the way God works in so many ways in so many places. - Randy

Ouagadougou

2010-06-24T17:28:00.004-04:00

Hello Family and Friends,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for covering this team with your prayers. The nine of us who traveled together from Messiah have made it to Ouagadougou where Dr. Vader was waiting for us. Throughout our travels I have noticed that the western concept of the waiting in line does not hold the same weight in Africa. We as a team need to continue to remind our selves and one another that ‘different’ does not mean ‘bad’ it’s just ‘different’. We should not judge, but rather accept, adapt, and love.

One thing we need to adapt to is the time difference. When we finished our 36 hour marathon and touched down in Burkina Faso it was 1:57 am local time. By the time we got off the plane, went though customs, and collected all of our luggage, (every bag we checked made it) it was LATE of EARLY however, you want to think about it. A good number of Burkinabe men were eager to pile the bags into our pick-up truck. After we exchanged pleasantries in our broken French and their mumbled English the men asked for American money. We gave them a few coins we had left in our pockets and were on our way towards the SIM compound.

On the way to the compound I noticed there where a number of elderly women sweeping the road. I asked our SIM driver and a local missionary what they were doing. He explained to me that these women would sweep the road for money so they could purchase food. They would earn around 1000 fca which turns about to be around two dollars a night. When we arrived at the compound we placed all of our luggage in an alcove by our rooms climbed under our mosquito nets and quickly fell asleep.

Breakfast was at nine and consisted of fresh bread and a variety of jams that were purchased at a local grocery store. After washing, bleaching, drying, and putting away the dishes the team met together for a brief discussion of the do’s and don’t in Burkina Faso. We talked about the water, clothing, and the customary greetings of the Burkinabe culture. The team was informed about the local customs of entertaining guests and the hazards of giving one’s email away.

After the meeting there was a short period of rest followed by lunch. An Australian missionary who is working on translating the Bible into Fulfulde, a local dialect, took us to his favorite local restaurant. The team had the choice of noodles and sauce or rice and sauce. One could not go wrong with either of the two choices. Our meal was served with freshly baked bread as well as baobab juice. The juice was the consistency of a thin milkshake, had the coloration of chocolate milk, but had a very distinct fruit flavor. This fruit juice was tasty; however, I was glad I brought some water from the mission with me.

The walk back to the SIM mission was not to long and over dirt roads. Compounds lined each side and when it came time to crossing the intersecting road it reminded me of New York City road crossings. There were children playing with a partially deflated soccer ball and men working on mopeds (which are everywhere). Women were selling fruit which they were carried on their head in huge baskets, and people were calling out ÇA VA all around us.

When we returned to the compound we had roughly an hour and a half to rest, journal, shower, and chill before we headed out into the market place to purchase some food for our time in Mahadaga. The group split up into three groups each with a list each with a different store in mind. Prix-Bas was the name of the store that I went to and it had a little bit of everything. When we walked in we picked up a basket and started to look for the things on our list. In was not but a minute until one of the women working in the store had taken our basket and was following us around helping us find the things we could not. Once we paid a man put our groceries on his motorcycle and followed us for the ten minute walk back to the compound.

Tomorrow is filled with shopping, shopping, and more shopping. Not only do we need to finish picking up groceries that we did not get today, but we also need to purchase supplies for both the tricycle and summer enrichment programs. Please be praying for us as we attempt to communicate effectively the parts, supplies, and food that we need. If you could please pray for; patience in trying to find what we are looking for as well as success in the necessary supplies. On Saturday we will be driving to Mahadaga. We need your prayer for a safe and quick journey, as well as the health and unity of the team as we will be in a hot van over bumpy roads for a long time.

Thank you once again for your prayers.

God Bless,

Your brothers and sisters in Christ who are half-way across the world,

The Summer 2010 Burkina Faso Site Team

Bright Eyes

2010-06-23T12:41:00.001-04:00

Ok… so maybe that wouldn’t be the best description for when we walked off the plane this morning/afternoon, but after traveling to the free hotel provided by Royal Air Morocco due to our 10 hour layover; a delicious free lunch of salad, rice, and meat that tasted like chicken; and a walk to the roof of the hotel, our eyes are more open and ready to take in the sights around us in Casablanca, Morocco.

Staring out at the busy Casablanca street below, it is amazing that this country is just a few countries north of Burkina and so drastically different! We are all excited at the reality that we are over half way there!

We are so thankful for the safe and uneventful trip from Messiah to JFK (Thanks so much again Deborah and Bob!) and from JFK to Casablanca (filled with many laughs and great conversations), food in our bellies, and a few hours of sleep! Thank you all so much for your prayers, they were most definitely felt!

In just a couple of hours we will be headed back to the airport to continue on to our final destination… Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso! Your continued prayers are so appreciated as they made the world of difference for our traveling so far. :)

Stay tuned for more perspectives on our time together as a team, interacting and continuing to invest in the lives of our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus! So excited to be partnering with you all!

~Katie

Less than 24 hours.

2010-06-21T21:24:00.002-04:00

About this time tomorrow we will be boarding our plane to fly out of JFK airport in New York and begin the first leg of our trip to Burkina Faso! This first leg is an overnight flight to Casablanca, Morocco where we will have a fairly long layover before we continue on to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. We'll spend a couple days in Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso) gathering some local supplies and then continue on our journey to Mahadaga, which is a 7 hours bus ride on a good day (when the bus doesn't break down or get flat tires). I think we are all very excited to begin this journey! Please pray that God would provide us with safe travels and flights that are on time.

On Saturday the whole team came back together for the first time since May and we've been enjoying our meals together and doing daily devotions as a group. We are working through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, which we will continue during the trip, and God has been blessing us immensely. Studying the Beatitudes has been a great way to prepare ourselves for the work that we are planning to do on this trip. Please pray that God continues to bless us as a team and keeps us in good spirits.

The last few days have been spent finalizing the details of our projects and making sure that all of the necessary supplies and materials are ready to go. The Mobility Team has finished the preparation for their work with the new tricycle designs, the Education Team is prepared for their work with the Summer Enrichment Program, Dr. Fish is prepared to test the new Kilowatt-Hour project and the Biodiesel Team has developed a small testing reactor for use in Burkina Faso. Today we spent the day packing our bags and making sure that they are all within the size and weight restrictions of the airlines. After hours of meticulous packing, our bags are organized and ready to be loaded into our vans tomorrow. Please pray that all of our bags will arrive with us in Ouagadougou.

This is my first trip to Burkina Faso and I am extremely excited to see what God has in store for us on this trip. Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Biodiesel Team Advisor,

Mike Zummo

Glancing Ahead

2010-06-17T12:06:00.008-04:00

Only 5 more days until we fly out of the States and embark on our journey! The time has definitely gone quickly. On Saturday, Katie and Bethany will be coming back to campus and joining the rest of the team who has either remained on campus or has come back early to finish up project work. Then it's packing and last minute details until we fly out of New York on Tuesday evening.

I wanted to give everyone a quick preview of what our communication plan is during the trip. We will try to update the blog daily with our trip activities and insights, but sometimes communication is a little spotty. Please do not get worried if you do not hear from us for a couple days. Chances are, something just went wrong with the internet or email. Also, if you know someone on the team and they promised to contact you, please refrain from calling the Collaboratory or Messiah College if you do not hear from them for a couple days. In this case, "no news is good news" because in a very serious situation an advisor or someone from SIM (Serving in Mission, the organization at the Handicapped Center in Mahadaga) will drive to a nearby town and contact the Collaboratory. However, in the past we have not had any problems except minor illnesses. SIM does an excellent job of taking care of us and family and friends should assume that this is still the case even in the absence of an update.

But enough of this talk of illness and emergency! I'm (Jon) personally getting very excited to just go on this trip and be there and experience the intrigue of a new culture and approach to life. I believe that God is present with us and will be watching over us. We are going in the faith that He will work through this trip and bless our time there with our partners and the people in the community.

I also wanted to share some pictures that were taken when the Education group was there in the past so that you can begin to have a better picture of some of the things we will be experiencing.

Camera-shy: There's no such thing as an unfriendly Burkinabe child around a camera! These kids are on the village road between the CAH (Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped) and the town center. Collab teams walk this road several times a day; about a 10-minute walk with plenty of small friends.

Trio of Friends: These three young women are some of the deaf students at the CAH school. Every teacher both speaks and signs the lessons. Notice how attentively these girls are watching.

Lunch Pails: These colorful lunch pails probably contain some cooked millet (looks like cream-of-wheat mousse!), peanuts, and a bottle of water flavored with baobab fruit. The children are able to go home for the 12-2 lunch break, but many have too far of a walk and relax at school.

At Work in School: At the CAH school, children are in classes of 30-50 kids, each with a slate and small pieces of chalk and a sponge. When this child finishes writing her sum, she will hold it up for the teacher to see.

Welcome!

2010-06-03T14:46:00.002-04:00

Welcome from the 2010 Burkina Faso team! The summer seems to be whipping by as our departure date draws closer. For Dr. Vader, it is even closer since he will be leaving on June 9 to visit his son in Chad before meeting up with the team in Mahadaga. For the rest of the team, we still have a little over 2 weeks to finish up projects, pack, and complete our preparatory readings before we leave on June 22.

Between now and then, people will begin returning to Messiah's campus to wrap up the lose ends on their projects and hopefully have everything ready to go by the time we leave. The team will begin officially meeting together on June 19 to complete our last minute travel arrangements.

But taking a chance to step back and absorb the actual experience of this trip is important. On May 11 and 12 our team had the opportunity to go on a short retreat to begin to prepare ourselves for the journey ahead. This included information on what to bring, what the in-country expectations are like, and functioning together as a team, but it also was a chance to reflect on the spiritual aspect of our journey as well.

Some of the things we were encouraged to consider before we left were questions such as

How is God already at work in the places to which we are headed?
What are some of our own areas of weakness or vulnerability that God may work on during this trip?
What are our individual testimonies which we can use to share God's blessing with others?
How can we receive God's blessing from the people whom we will be serving?

This list isn't exhaustive and in no way will we be able to prepare ourselves completely for the experiences we are going to have. But we can begin the process of allowing God to soften our hearts to receive His guidance as we embark on this trip. We value your prayers as our supporters and greatly appreciate the care and encouragement that you will be able to offer us through them.

Some specific prayer requests at this point would be for smooth preparations, both with travel and projects as the deadline approaches. Another is for encouragement leading up to the trip. For some this is our first time traveling to Burkina while others may have been there on several occasions. So prayer for peace of any jittery nerves is another request. Finally, we ask for God's hand to be present in our work and relationships so that we can be testimonies of His hope to the world and can be prepared to share our own stories of His love with those we meet.

Your team's blog coordinator,
Jon Martin