May 22 - Back in Holland

Back to Amsterdam. I was soooooooooooo tired at this point!
But my friend, Elizabeth, convinced me that if I didn't go to the Corrie Ten Boom Museum today, I would not get the opportunity to. So I slept a bit in the bus on the way. Here I am peeking out through the entrance to 'The Hiding Place.'


This hole in the wall was done when it was turned into a museum for the benefit of those who come to see it. The hiding place is just a small space behind the wall in this, Corrie's bedroom.

A close up of the plaque behind me (above).
Items used when the people hiding were required to be in here for a lengthy period of time. They had some crackers in the tin, cups with water and a potty.

Pictures of things the family and those fleeing the Nazi's would do when they didn't need to be in the hiding place.
Plaque just outside the entrance to the house.
Store front sign. The store is still run by a watchmaker, which was the Ten Boom's profession.

May 21

On our way to the Compassion office. When the man driving this mule & wagon saw that I had a camera, he motioned for me to pay him for taking his picture. For being the 3rd poorest country in the world, the people sure know the importance of taking every opportunity there is to earn money!
The guard at the entrance.
There are 3 sections at the Compassion Burkina Faso office: Sponsorship, Translation and Finances (I have to double check that).
And here are all the staff. Unfortunately, I cannot remember their names. But here they are:




This is Desiré in the middle. He was with me for all 8 hours that I visited with Christiane & her family. And the driving he did to pick us up & drop us off added at least another hour to his efforts! Thank you Desiré! You asked when I'd be back too ... I will say this much, God knows, but I am hopeful that it will be next year!




Mango trees at Compassion's office!
I was given a nice ripe one to take home with me (back to Pam's place). It was different than the mangoes I'd had so far, but unfortunately, I forgot to eat it before we left for the airport. Pam, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Let me know how it tasted.
At Pam's place sitting with one of the instruments that someone at this house plays (she wasn't there while I was, so I didn't get to meet her).
I just got back from picking up my outfit from the tailor. I sat in on the rest of the language lesson and then Maria showed me how to tie the piece of material onto my head. I had been without a hat up until then! Oops, I thought I would have found one earlier.
I had the opportunity to give a French Bible to the tailor and he was sooooooo grateful! I have been keeping in contact with him through Pam, because she will be using him from now on (he is very good at what he does!). She tells me that he asks about me when he sees her, and he has asked her for 2 more Bibles to give to friends of his! That is so awesome! Praise God!

This is Combary yentema (Combary is his last name, but that is what people call him). He is one of the guards that stays outside Pam & Kate's house overnight. He was very keen on getting some pictures with me before I left - perhaps to show his wife & child that this is the lady he told them about who came from Canada for only a short 5 day visit to Burkina Faso!?!
The resident Gecko at Pam & Kate's house.
I just had to get a picture of a palm tree before I left ... this is at the airport.

I met Steve at the SIL guesthouse. He is a missionary here, but he is on his way back to England to get married. His fiancé is in Cambodia until the end of May, so I got to be his personal delivery service ... he sent a little something with me to give Charlotte when I get there.
God is amazing! What a privilege to be useful in this way for this couple. The timing of the whole thing just boggles my mind! I could write about it, but then this would get too long, so I think I'll just let you ponder the love & timing of God in the lives of this couple! Wow!

Sunday May 20

We went to Desiré's church, The International Church of Ouagadougou. He picked Benjamin and the girls up and met us there. I didn't get to hear the sermon, which was in English with translation into French, because I went to Sunday school with the girls. That was in English too, but so the girls could understand, the leaders also translated the instructions into French and Moore.
The lesson was on the fruit of the Spirit. They asked me to draw their baskets and here they are drawing the fruit in the baskets.
The twins look like Tomboys - I love it! That fits my personality to a tee! We would probably get along so well if I got to know them better. (In front of the pulpit with The Boot).

At lunch, Desiré & I taking pictures of each other's cameras! He he he. It was funny that our cameras are identical - the only difference is, his (Compassion's) is silver and mine is black.

Hand washing before lunch.
Various meals:

When I ordered chicken, I didn't expect them to bring the WHOLE chicken! So, as you can see, it was not here that I lost weight! LOL.
After lunch. What a great time to be able to spend an additional 5 hours with them today! This is where we parted.
A consistent question to me was, 'when are you coming back?' (It came up a number of times while I was in Burkina Faso, not just from Christiane and her family).
Kate is Pam's roommate and she was preparing to leave at 6 the next morning for a week out in the field. She is a missionary from England with an organization that works with Muslim kids.

May 18 & 19

May 18 - Pam and her tutor, Maria. Maria is a nurse & I had the opportunity of speaking with her after the 1st hour of their tutoring session. She stayed for another 2.5 hours sharing her passion about health care in Burkina Faso and encouraging me to come and train the nurses, if I do return here to do rehab.
I discovered later, that no language learning actually took place in the 1st hour - Maria talked about the nurse's conference she had been to 2 days previous (therefore, the tutoring session that day had to be cancelled). So the sessions are usually hit & miss, sometimes they spend the whole time working on the language and other times other things prevent Maria from coming at all, or what happened on this day.
(temperature reached at least 45 degrees C today. I used the air conditioner for the 1st time tonight, my 3rd night here).
Entrance to the SIL centre.
May 19 - I took various pictures as we drove to & from the 'Artist's Village' today. Here's a taste of what Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, looks like.

One of the gas stations on the main road.
This was a great 'Kodak moment.' He's having a nap and found a great way to stay out of the 45+ degree heat today! (I used the AC again tonight, but that was it for the rest of my stay).
This looks like a church service, but it's Saturday, so I'm not sure ... ? (Maybe a 7th Day Adventist service?!?)
One of many mango stands.

Burkina Faso & Compassion Canada!

May 17 - Ascension Day, and also a very special day because I got to visit Christiane, the girl I sponsor with Compassion Canada! What an amazing day!

This 1st picture is one that Desiré - the Compassion staff member/translator/chauffeur/wealth of information (yes, a man of many talents! I learned so much from him about Compassion Burkina Faso) - took of me before I met her.

Here's a picture in the office at the project with Christiane and the teachers/staff that work there. What a blessing to have this suitcase full of medical supplies & gifts for them. There were over 300 toothbrushes, lots of bandages, examination gloves, sterile surgical gloves, gauze pads, fever remedies and a few Canadian & Danish flags. Oh, and I left the suitcase there too. A big thank you to everyone who helped me fill this suitcase! This certainly cannot fit into their little first aid kit, which was understocked! Not any more! :)
The great thing is that there is a nurse who will be starting to work here in mid-June! The timing was great for these supplies to arrive!
Some of the girls enjoying lunch at the project.
At home with Christiane and her family. She was very shy, but I was thankful to see her smile so much! Grandma and other relatives look pretty happy in the background too! :)

Family photograph. Left to right - aunts (1 with her baby), Christelle (twin sister), Faridatu (she is called an "older sibling." She is their cousin, but lives with them. I'm not sure what happened to her family - her dad and Christiane's dad are brothers), grandma, me behind grandma (hmmmm, what gave away the fact that I'm not a blood relative?!?! lol), Christiane, Benjamin (her dad).
It's a happy day ... except it seems hard to get a smile from the 'older sibling.' Maybe because I didn't realize at first that she was part of the family. I was only aware of 1 sister, so I thought she was one of the girls from the project who had tagged along.
Here we are in their house. This is the bedroom where they all sleep. It's a big bed (which I didn't get a picture of - probably Queen size), but I'm not sure how all of them would fit on it. I guess it depends on how many of the family members that I met actually live in this house.

Here is their kitchen.
2 boys in the classroom back at the school when Desiré and I stopped by again as we were heading back to the SIL centre. Those are blinds, not bars, by the way ;)
While Desiré talked to someone at the project/school, I took some more pictures of the surroundings. Here's the sign for the church that is in partnership with Compassion Burkina Faso. You can see the length of the building here. The arrow is pointing in the direction that the next picture was taken ...
So that sign was to the left of this picture. This is the entrance to the school/project and I suspect the church. Then there are 2 more walls to enclose the area where the kids play and eat. That seems to be the norm for all the houses too. Walls surround the houses. Usually there are gates that are kept locked too, but at Christiane's house, there was none. I'm not sure if they are to protect property or people or both, so I hope that Christiane and her family remain safe even though they don't have a gate.
Back at the SIL centre. Here are the guesthouses that missionaries stay at if they're back for a short period of time (or people like me who happen to be stopping by and happen to have made some connections with the right person). I stayed in the one at the back of the building to the left.

Here's my room (there's another bed too, but I didn't end up having a roommate). See the mosquito net over the bed? I only used it once, but it was too hot, and there weren't very many mosquitoes anyhow. Just above here is the fan!
Here is that beloved fan! Trust me, it was on ... even though it doesn't look like it's moving here!
And with the room came my own little Gecko - this must be the mini, indoor version. They are a welcomed guest in any room because they eat mosquitoes;)
Here is one of the bigger, outdoor models of the Gecko. They are always busy either running away from people, catching things (mosquitoes) or doing push-ups. That's what it looks like they're doing a lot of the time, whether on the ground or on a wall.

Here comes a group of kids that are shouting, 'Nasara!' which means 'white person.' Kids usually wanted to come up to Pam & I to shake our hands.

They are sooooooooo sweet!
And here comes their friend, as fast as he can.

The older ones are not as keen as the kids, but they still wanted to shake our hands.