See you soon!

Today is our last day in Burkina.  We're staying at home for most of the day today, with visits starting in half an hour.  Alima and Mimi will be bringing us beans and rice for lunch and then we'll take them to visit with Joel and Andi's family as they'll be returning to Mali on Sunday.  Then Brigitte is coming after that to make us toe for supper one last time, as her farewell gift to us.  And students from our church here will be coming throughout the day, as well as coming with us to the airport to say good-bye.  Three weeks has been just the right amount of time to stay here in Burkina - enough time to see everyone and yet not too long without routine that we start tiring out.  Thank-you to you all for taking interest in our trip and we'll look forward to seeing you soon!

Danika- Nov. 28

This morning we went to our old cartier (neighborhood) to buy fish doughnuts. We tried to get gallettes too but we came too late, she was already finished. We had neighbors that we had visited the other day but the kids were still at school so we said hi to them and as we were going to Mimi and Alima's house to pick them up, we passed a galette lady. We got e few and tried them but none of us liked them except Kenai who would have eaten them all if we hadn't given them to Mimi and her mom but they said he could have some and he took handfuls at a time. We drove to the forest and payed to get in and then walked as far as the lake. We passed a river which you had to jump onto rocks to get across and some statues of animals and finally got to the lake. We looked for the crocodiles and finally saw one as he was swimming across to the land on the other side but when he got there we didn't see him because he blended in with the dirt. We only got the camera out by that time but we took a picture anyways and it looked all blurry and it actually turned out pretty good on the computer.
 
 We saw two more crocodiles after that and then started walking back when we saw a bunch of ant-lion holes. Mimi stirred one up with a stick and she found an ant-lion. It was very small and ugly. Alima stirred one up and found a huge one but it was still very ugly. I started walking on, not that it was boring or anything but I wanted to carry on. As I was walking I saw a huge millipede!

When we got back in the car we dropped off Mimi and her mom and went to the Banazaro's for lunch. We had toe.
 
After lunch Esther, Grace and I started walking to Elizabeth's house while the others loaded onto two motorbikes drove by Rebecca and the other by Rhoda. When we got to Elizabeth's house, she served us bean cakes with tomato sauce. It was Elizabeth's birthday party.
 
We drank bissap which is a strong red African punch and then Rhoda and Esther left and we called a taxi. Shortly after the taxi called to let us know that he was almost there so me and Elizabeth hopped on a moto and went to the highway to bring him to her house. When we brought him there we headed home just when Brigitte and Simone came. Simone was going to braid my hair. I had pizza and mangoes for supper while she was braiding. Kathe came later but Simone said that she wouldn't have time to do hers so she went home. She finished at about 7:20 and she had started at 6:00.

Ebenezar also came to take her hot chocolate and she went home.

Dictated by Asher - Nov 28

We went to the forest in the morning.  We saw a lot of ant lions.  You see little holes like the holes that are beside the hand in the picture.  Then you put an ant in it and the ant lion's jaws start spinning around to pull the ant down into the hole.  After that, you quickly grab a handful of sand and if you see a lump that moves, you've caught the ant lion.  You can see an ant lion on the hand in the picture.

After going to the forest we went to the Bananzaro's house (the family of our church's pastor, with five kids and one grandchild).  Me, Isaac and one of his friends went hunting.  We killed two lizards and three birds.  It was great.  Then we got on motorbikes and went someone else from our church's house. 

 

We had "gorgo".  It's green with beans and bean leaves in it.  Here's a picture of Elizabeth cutting in up.

Danika- Nov. 27

This morning we had oatmeal and mangoes for breakfast and went into town to a place called Artisan House. In french it is Maison d'Artisan. We bought a bunch of souvenirs like key-chains, bracelets and horn carvings. We headed out to Mimi's house again to find 4 of her old school friends visiting her. She said there were at least 20 others but they had all gone home. They didn't have school today because the elections for mayor are going to happen in the next few days so the government gave the students a couple of days off.
 
Alima had made bouille for us. Bouille is a breakfast Africans often have, made with millet. Mimi's friends went home and we visited with her and her mom and then went to Alison and Alan Dixon's house for lunch. They live in a bigger apartment in SIM, too. We waited outside for the Van Dingenen's to come pick us up. The dad, Peter (a missionary doctor) picked us up in his ambulance and we hopped in the back with Erinn and Alicia Watts, Jiska, Phebe and Lisabet Van Dingenen and Kathe Warkentin. We went to their house and went to the Chinese restaurant for supper with the other Warkentins.

Tany - Nov 27

We have the last days here in Burkina carefully planned to see as many people as we can before we leave this Friday night.  The kids and I had thought ahead to this visit, thinking of who we wanted to see and what we wanted to do, and by Friday we'll have completed the last things that were were on our list!
One of the most important things for me was to be able to visit with people from the Mennonite churches in Ouaga, Bobo and Orodara.  I already wrote about our first Sunday in Ouaga and our second Sunday in Orodara.  Last Friday we spend an afternoon and night in Bobo, and the church there planned a special supper and evening service for us which was very moving.  There was again opportunity for others to share about what Jeff and rest of our family meant to them and also for me to share about the past year and a half.  A number of young men that spent time with us in the Ouaga church and residence building are now in Bobo, as well as Pastor Siaka's family, so it was very meaningful to hear them share memories of how Jeff had touched their lives.  And then this past Sunday, the Ouaga church organized a "Question/Answer" evening.  They had many questions and concerns about how our family has adjusted since Jeff's death and about how we are doing financially and morally - again a very honest and meaningful evening with many friends.  The Burkinabe are very good at organizing opportunities for this kind of deep sharing in general, but especially the young adults with which we worked most closely are very honest and sincere in their desire to hear and learn from others' experiences and share openly of their own difficulties.  I really appreciate this about our friends here.
On a more shallow note, I have eaten all of the favorite Burkinabe dishes that I was looking forward to, with Alima and Mimi bringing us a bean and rice dish on Thursday and Brigitte bringing us one more toe dish on Friday, to eat together.  I was thinking that we'd have to get out to a Burkinabe restaurant just down the road for some toe, but we'll have been invited to people's houses more than half a dozen times to eat toe with them, so I'm fully satisfied.
And I've always loved the busy places here in Ouaga, such as markets in the morning and driving through the chaotic yet amazingly-well-organized streets and I've gotten to this many times as well.  It's been really great that we've been able to borrow Joel and Andi's car on most days to get around and see a lot more people than we would have been able to otherwise.
And lastly, I just love the relational way that the Burkinabe people have of interacting, doing daily chores (preferring to work beside the street rather than in the privacy of their own courtyard) living.  It just feels right to me to place so much value on other people and relationships and less importance on material things, time and personal schedules, and oneself.  So I have fully enjoyed just "being" here, where we've learned so much in past years.
In writing about what the kids were looking forward to during this visit, someone asked me what I was looking forward to.  So these are some of the things that we've experienced here in the last weeks, that are what I was most looking forward to.

Kenai - Nov 27

Here are a few pictures of Kenai's highlights and experiences:

Kenai and I would often go visit Mimi and Alima while Danika and Asher were in school.  Each visit, Alima would make Kenai Bouille - a breakfast broth made from millet, with little millet balls in it.  Burkinabe drink bouille with a small ladle, slurping the broth from the side of the ladle.  Kenai remembers very clearly having bouille at their house and was looking forward to reliving this experience.  This morning when we went to visit, Alima had the bouille waiting for Kenai...

 

 And here is the ingeniously created helicopter that Mimi gave Kenai as a gift.  It is sewed together with pieces of woven plastic.

 

 Kenai climbing in a mango tree...  and Kenai holding the turtle (actually a tortoise) that we got shortly after it hatched.  That was 4 years ago, and the turtle was then no bigger than my fist...

Danika- Nov. 26

Today Uncle Joel, Aunt Andy, Kathe and Micah took the day off school. I had slept over at their house last night and we picked up my family at our guesthouse. We went to a bakery and got fancy croissant pastries that you can get with chocolate, pudding and raisins in it or an ordinary croissant. We went to the market and got more slingshots and some fruit. We went to the tailor to pick up my skirt and drop off another piece of material for some more clothes. We went to Mimi and her mom, Alima's, house. We had known them before we came back to Canada but while we were still in Burkina, later on in the year 2010, Alima had been very sick. We were in Orodara at the time and she had to wait four days until we finally arrived in Ouagadougou. We helped her afford to go to the hospital and she realized that she and Mimi should go back to their family in Mali. So when we came, Mimi got permission to take 5 days off school. They got on a 19 hour bus ride to get to Burkina and arrived at 7:00 am this morning.

We went to the creperie for lunch. You order a crepe (crape) with whatever you want in it. I got tomato, cheese, onion with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I went back to Kathe's house because our friend Jessica was coming. We played tag, red light green light, we drew and then my mom picked me up and we went to the Hayslip's for supper. We played hide and go seek tag. See you!    

Asher - Nov 21 & 22

 When we were in Tin, we went on a walk and drew pictures and had a picnic.  The family where we were staying really liked birds.  The next day I looked one of their bird books and thought it might be interesting to draw some birds so I drew 6 birds and she gave me a picture of a baobab tree.  But we don't know how to turn the picture around.
 
We went home to Orodara and we jumped on the trampoline a bit.  Then Eleazar wanted to play with marbles so we played with marbles a bit.  Then we went to shoot lizards.  We got 4 little ones at the end.  He did not shoot any with the slingshot.  He either threw the slingshot at them to knock them down or he just grabbed them.  Then we went to Ton-ton (Uncle) Nicodeme's house for supper.  I helped him cut up one of their chickens for supper. Here's me and Danika, with Ton-ton Nicodeme and his wife Tantie Grace and Paulin's sister, Eve.
 

Tany

Hi!  We're back after our trip back from Orodara, with a one-day visit in Bobo, the 2nd biggest city in Burkina and the city where we lived for our first 4 months in Burkina.  The internet here at the Ouaga guesthouse has been down since Saturday, when we got back.  And now, Asher's blog isn't posting properly so I'm trying this one to see whether it'll work without pictures attached.  More later, when the internet connections allows...

Danika- Nov. 22

It is freezing here in Tin in the mornings! This morning we had tea and homemade banana bread for breakfast. Whenever we have tea, we play the sugar cube game. You balance a sugar cube on the rim of the mug and the youngest one there to the oldest pounds the top of the table with their fist, their knee or both. If anyone's sugar cube falls into their tea, the person who pounds it gets a point. When everyone's sugar cube is in their tea, whoever has the most points wins. We spent at least 2 hours drawing out of Paul and Lois' drawing books. They gave me one about how to shade in your drawings in nature. On Thursdays Paul is in a meeting with the old men of their community. They have it right in their courtyard. We went out there for lunch. We sat apart from the men on little stools and ate the rice with peanut butter sauce with our hands. We came back to Orodara with them because they were going to Bobo so we dropped them off at the bus station. We came back to the guesthouse and there were Bala's kids ready to play with us. We took turns jumping on the trampoline and playing marbles while Asher, Kenai, and two boys, Natanael and Elizar kept coming back with live margouillats (lizards) that they had got with their slingshots. They didn't shoot stones, though. They threw the slingshots at the lizards.

 
We went to Grace and Nicodeme's house for supper and we had toe.

Danika- Nov. 21

Yesterday we came to Tin, a very small village where Paul and Lois (our friends) live. We are staying at their house for two nights. Their kids are all either grown-ups and out of school or in university. (We didn't have Internet there so I'm doing this blog on November 23, but I'm going to pretend that this all happened today.) This morning we woke up before 6:00 am to go on a hike. We brought food along and sat down to have a breakfast picnic in a mango orchard. We had banana bread with Burkinabé cream cheese, and tea. We walked a little longer and stopped at a small stream and drew pictures of it or it's surroundings. We forgot our camera at their house so I don't have any pictures.

Danika - Nov 19

This morning we went out to buy breakfast by the road. We got shell-looking things called farrow. It is some bean dough that they put in leaves and steam it. Back in Ouaga everyone spoke a language called moray. We got to know it a little bit but here everyone speaks a different language: djoula.

The other day, Uncle Paul offered to take us on a moto ride. So the boys went first, then I went. We went on an airplane runway that is only used about once a year. We must of went 150 km/hour! 

 

Last night we went to our friend Paulin`s family`s house. Paulin lives in Ouaga, so he wasn`t there. Two of his sisters sleep in the house next to our guesthouse because our neighbors are on a trip. Pauline (Paulin`s twin sister) and Eve, Paulin`s sisters, invited us for lunch. We went early so we could help make the to. To (pronounced as toe) is a traditional food made from corn flour. It is a very tasteless food but with a sauce, very good. In this picture, we are taking off leaves from their stems for the sauce. The leaves are called ``dah.``

Tany - Nov 18 & 19

Life in the less urban Burkina is quite different than life in the big city of Ouagadougou.  Even though Orodara isn`t technically a village but rather a small town, it has still struck us and especially the kids in how different it feels.  It leaves the kids a little leery knowing that poisonous snakes and scorpions are more common here, and with a much lower rate of children going to school and learning french at school, we often have a difficult time finding a common language with people. 
But within the Mennonite Church here, we have gotten to know and really appreciate quite a few people.  Along with the village setting, comes an increased sense of ``old-style` hospitality.  Let me tell you about our day yesterday...
It takes only 7.5 minutes to walk to the church from our guesthouse in Orodara.  The service is translated from Dioula to French, so that everyone can understand at least one of those languages.  And because Sunday School is only in Dioula the kids prefer to stay with me during the sermon.  These two elements make the 2.5 hour service seem even longer to the kids since they understand only half of it.  The following picture shows part of the children`s choir singing on the left, with the adults behind them.
 
Within the church community, there were two babies born in the past month and one of which was a difficult pregnancy.  So there was a time of sharing and thanksgiving for these two babies.  Then, the father of a good friend of mine (Ebenezer, who is a University medical student in the Mennonite church in Ouagadougou) got up to share about how much we need to be thankful when babies are born healthy.  He shared about how his first wife and her baby both passed away during childbirth about 20 years ago.  This is why Ebenezer and her sister were raised by their father and as such are very strong-willed and vocal girls in a way that is more common among Burkinabe men than in women.  Then the pastor asked another woman in the church to tell the story of her miraculous healing from terrible back pains, which she did.  After this, the kids and I were welcomed and asked to share a little bit about our experiences in the past year, since Jeff passed away.  By this time, it was almost time for the service to end, so the pastor skipped his sermon and simply concluded the service by resuming how each of the mornings 3 testimonies, God worked in the midst of difficult circumstances.
Then...
3:00pm  20+ of the women from the church came to visit
4:20      We went to visit the family of a friend
5:00      20+ youth from the church came to visit
6:00      We went to visit the family of Paulin (one of the University students in our church in Ouaga)
7:30      We went for supper at Othniel`s sisters` house
9:00      Paulin`s twin sister, Pauline, came back to our house with us to visit
See what I mean about `village` hospitality...!
Here is a picture of the women who came to visit us:
 

But today (Monday), many people are at work or at school so things are less busy.  We had two visitors this morning and then went to Pauline`s house to help her make a toe meal for us.  If you look carefully at this picture, you can see the two poles that hold the pot in place (and she sits on the other ends of the poles to keep them from moving) while she stirs the thickened toe mixture back and forth.  This meal preparation alone accounts for why the Burkinabe women have such strong arms and backs, not to mention that they carry their water, wood, groceries, grains and much more on their heads while carrying their children on their backs.
 
This evening we went to visit the pastor and his wife, and then another family from the church.  We ate supper at their house - a rooster from their courtyard cooked in a peanut sauce, served on rice.  Oh, did I mention that last night we were served a rabbit from that family`s courtyard, cooked in the sauce!?  Many people raise chickens, goats, pigs or rabbits in their courtyards so that they can sell one when they need money or so that they can cook one when they have visitors.

This will be the last day for blogging, until Thursday night because we`ll be going to a much smaller village tomorrow where there is no internet connection.  There are two Mennonite mission workers in Tin with whom we`ll be staying.

 So until Thursday...

Asher - Nov 18

 We went to church in the morning.  Then I tride to shoot a big lizard.  I did not get one but the guard said to come.  He wanted to shoot a lizard.  He got one in his first shot!  Here we are with his lizard.
 
After the ladies that came left, I shot a lizard!  It was not very big so we didn`t cook it. 

Next we had visitores and visited people.

Tany - Nov 16 & 17

I needed to post these pictures from yesterday, when we went to Briggitte`s house (the woman who used to help us with some cooking and cleaning) for lunch.  Briggitte made us yam toe and palm sauce - my absolute favorite and was it ever delicious, especially eaten Burkina-style with the right hand!  Here`s a picture of two woman pounding the cooked yams to form it into `toe`, with Briggitte in the background. 


And of course, Kenai playing soccer with his good friend, Ebenezer (Briggitte`s son) which was the big event that Kenai was looking forward to.


Like Danika mentioned, today we traveled to the village of Orodara.  I found it amazing how a 2 hour trip to Calgary can sometimes seem like a long time to my kids.  Yet the kids were able to remain patient and content during the whole 9.5 hours of travel by taxi, bus and simply waiting for the next bus, just like they used to do when they were younger.  They seemed to know that you just go with the flow in Burkina.  It used to be the other women and men on the bus who would entertain Kenai as a baby, but this time we were able to take our turn to entertain the baby of the woman behind us, when the 4-month-old began tiring of the bus ride. 
Here is a picture of the kids during our 10-minute stop with our bus behind them.  During this stop, we hurriedly bought a deep-fried chicken, some grilled beef, stone oven-baked bread for our lunch, before our 10 minutes were up and we were left behind. 
 
During lunch, I was very impressed with Danika.  She can sometimes be fussy about what kind of meat she eats, but today she thoroughly enjoyed that Burkina chicken.  And that chicken is not easy to eat because it would be an understatement to call it `tough`.

And we had a great surprise tonight, when we realized that Jeff`s best friend here in Burkina, had delayed his trip to Ouaga just so that he could visit us here in Orodara.  So we had a pleasant evening, visiting with Othniel and other friends that came from Canada, USA and France for meetings.

Danika- Nov. 16

(Should have been posted yesterday...)
This morning we went downtown. We got bus tickets for our trip to Orodara tomorrow. Orodara is a small village. I am really not looking forward to the bus ride back especially. It is a 5 hour ride to Bobo, and a 1 and a half hour ride to the village. It is on the way back that I get sick because we have the one and a half hour trip first, then the long one. We are planning on staying in Orodara for one week, then coming back to Ouagadougou for another week. We are going to the bus station at 8:00 am tomorrow by taxi. In the evening we went to the zoo with our friends because they had a guinea pig that they wanted to exchange for a different one. We got a tour around, too. Here is a picture of the baboons that we saw, and the giant tortoises that were eating cabbage. Bye! Danika
 

Danika- Nov. 17

 I have been seeing a lot of donkeys back in Ouaga!
 
We arrived in Orodara this evening. We had rice and a peanut sauce with a salad for supper. Other friends including Paul and Lois, Rod, Sonia and Hippolyto were already at the guesthouse. On the bus ride to Bobo, I didn`t feel that great but to Orodara was better. After supper another friend came. His name is Othniel. See you! Danika

Tany - Nov 15

Here are a couple pictures of typical streets in Ouagadougou.  The first is of one of the biggest downtown streets and the second is what streets are like once you get farther away from the paved streets of downtown Ouaga.  On the side of the road are a little hardware booth, and then a little restaurant, selling tea or coffee and bread with fried eggs.  The little kids would much rather sit on the sides of the streets where other people are, than stay in their courtyards. 

Asher - Nov 15

We woke up and bot a breakfast on the street.  Then we went and saw some friends.  Next we pick up our neybours from the french school where we used to go and droped Danika off with her friend.  Me and my little brother played at our friends house.  We picked up Danika and got home and had visitores.
(Note from Tany about picture: These are little millet "pancakes" called gallettes that are also fried on the side of the street.  When we lived in Burkina we loved to go buy some of these in the mornings - $0.02 each and this lady was on the street beside our house.  She gave us permission to take this picture, but she was not very happy that she didn't wear a nicer shirt and head covering for the picture, by the way.)

Asher - Nov 14

I slept in today.  I woke up at 7:45.  We went and tried to shoot big lizards.  We did not get one.  Then I went on the computer for a little while.  We played in the sandbox a bit.  Next we played at our neybors house for a wile.  After that we went swimming and went for supper.
(Note from Tany about picture:  This is Asher and Kenai playing in the sandbox which is in the courtyard of our guesthouse.  Ironically, there is a bunch of toys in the sandbox but the boys played the whole time with sand, water, sticks and seeds - I love that!  Also, I quickly ran to get the camera once I saw that I could include the garbage "truck" in the foreground on this picture!)

Danika- Nov. 15

We had fish donuts for breakfast. The woman sometimes made sugary ones but she said she didn't make enough money off of them. She fries the doughnuts and sells them with small pieces of fish in them on the street. Here is a picture of it. I ordered my skirt to today at the tailor's. I went to my friend Agathe's place for lunch and the afternoon. She's my friend from France, that I went to school with.  On their computer we videotaped ourselves as if we were a TV show. We even made commercials! On the first setting I was the reporter and Agathe was a tree expert so she told the computer all about the mango tree, and where it grows. Our first commercial was advertising headphones. The second one was advertising an Iphone. We barely finished that one, because Agathe's big sister, Lila found out that we were using her cellphone and almost didn't let us use it for the commercial. You should have seen how many bloopers we had! On most of them, we either burst out laughing or messed up saying our words. I had to write down what I was going to say because I lost some of my french. Bye! Danika

Asher - Nov 13

Today we went to my cousins house for lunch.  We played a bit than whent to the market.  We bot 7 buttons, 2 slingshots, some cloth and a ribbon.  We also went to two peoples houses from our church.  It was awsome.

Danika- Nov. 14

We had lasagna for lunch. In the afternoon, we went to the pool across the road and met our friends Jiska and Phebe there. After swimming a little bit, we went to their house for supper. It was lasagna. We played hide-and-seek in the dark and then had cake that their big sister Lydia had made. We played for fifteen more minutes and then their dad took us home in his ambulance. I was really sweaty because the hide-and seek game was so much fun! See you, Danika

Tany - Nov 13

I think that I tired the kids out today!  This morning we went for a walk to find the ingredients for breakfast.  We were all looking forward to some freshly-baked french bread, dipped in tea (a typical Burkina breakfast) with fried eggs on the side.  So after walking down several blocks and visiting a half a dozen boutiques that were out of eggs, we found a little boutique that had eggs and all of the other things that we were wanting, including laundry detergent and mayonnaise.  The boutique was run by a young boy, probably not older than 12-years-old.  What struck me about the boy was that although he had probably never been to school, he was able to calculate the total of 8 eggs (100 francs each), 3 little bags of laundry detergent (75 francs each) and 1 small jar of mayonnaise (750 francs) in his head.  So anyways, we know where to go next time we're wanting eggs and bread for breakfast.
After being here 2 full days with our apartment windows left open to keep air circulating, our floor was covered with a thin layer of dust!  It's dry season so it's there's quite a bit of dust in the air, as you may well guess in looking at the dirt ground in our pictures.  So we swept and mopped all of the floors, chairs and tables along with the help of Joel and Andi's (my brother and sister-in-laws') babysitter who happened to arrive for a visit just at that time. 
Then we visited the Mennonite mission workers who just arrived in Ouaga, to fill much the same role that we had when we lived in Ouaga.  It was interesting to hear from them how the dynamics of the church/University Student Residence are changing as the numbers of students attending the church/residence grows. 
We got home in time for the kids to spend a couple hours playing with our Australian friends (the Watts family), which I later heard was a very loud, active and giggly time of playing hide and seek.  During this time, Moussa, who was the night-guard at our old house, dropped by for a visit. 

For lunch, we went to Joel and Andi's house for their "Burkina Surprise" meal, of Riz Gras with Aloco (deep-fried plaintain bananas -  yum!).  Then we went to the market that is right beside where we used to live, looking for cloth for a skirt for Danika and a hammer for Joel.  I knew approximately where to go for the hammer, but it took asking in five different hardware booths, which each one directing us to a different booth down the road, until we found a hammer.  So for $7, we'll see how many whacks that hammer can take.  The lesson learned:  Perseverance and patience will get you pretty much anything that you're looking for in Burkina, and you'll always meet a lot of friendly people along the way. 
On our way back home we stopped in at Briggitte's courtyard.  Briggitte used to help us with cooking and cleaning a couple mornings a week, and she always took special interest in playing with Kenai.  So she was delighted to see us (and especially Kenai!) and Kenai was delighted to see Ebenezer, her 6-year-old son for whom Kenai had brought a soccer ball.   Oh, and of course, Kenai was also delighted to chase and trap the little chicks that were running free in her courtyard, in a little cage!  Chasing and catching little chicks (or chickens and roosters if chicks were sparse) was always Danika and Asher's favorite past-time too, when we visited others' courtyards.
Then for supper, we went to the house of the Mennonite mission workers from France and had a wonderful evening laughing, preparing supper together and eating.  I think that there was more laughing just because Asher and Kenai were so tired and giddy, as we had only started making supper around 7:00pm.  But the family did have a great sense of humor, too. 
I think that tomorrow will be less full, but who ever can tell who'll drop by...?

Danika- Nov. 13

This morning went to our friends' house, Bruce and Nancy. Their kids were at school but they brought some stuffed animals and stuff to play with. They gave us homemade Kool-aid, homemade granola bars and seedy watermelon. Later in the afternoon, we went to the market to get a few panyas. Panyas are African cloth that you bring to the tailor to sew into an outfit. There are all sorts of colours and designs on that cloth! We will probably go to the tailors later in the week. On the way home we bought some cooked bean stuff called beigner, like you see in the picture. You dip them in a tomato sauce. See you! Danika

Asher - Monday, Nov 12

I went to the meat market and bought a slingshot and some parts to buld and fix a slingshot. we also bought some fruit. for a long time I tride to shoot Doves and really big lizards because they taste really good.The mangoes were exalent. I can't wait till tomorrow.

Danika- Nov 12

I am already seeing a big difference in my french. This morning we went to see the house that we used to live in. Apparently an Italian family is living in it now. Our old neighbours had moved away, too, but we saw most of them on our way out. Then we went to the market. What a busy place!! And, boy, something smelled like rotting fish! Anyway, we bought a few fruits and we each got a slingshot. Those slingshots are not good quality at all. I put a stone in, pulled it back and the elastic came shooting right out of its homemade, couchouc (cowshoo) socket. I really don't think I'm that strong! On our way back from the market we passed a mosque. It is quite noisy during the Muslims prayer time, especially at night. Here is a picture of it.    Au revoir! Danika

Tany - arrived in Burkina

In thinking ahead to this trip, I did not anticipate how royally spoiled we would be by all of our friends here in Burkina!  Here are some examples: Upon arriving at the airport, Agathe and her dad were there to see Danika, plus the Watts family (who Asher mentioned) but in addition were another 11 people that we weren't expecting, including another missionary family and a group of Burkinabé friends from our church!  Then today, we went to church this morning and were overwhelmed by the welcome, which included a special "welcome back" program in the afternoon followed by a meal that they had prepared.  Many of them will be dropping by our guesthouse in the days to come to visit individually. 
We had a great afternoon together with my brother and sister-in-law's family.  Danika's last comment before going to sleep tonight was that 3 weeks sounds really short now that she's having so much fun playing with her cousins and friends.
Otherwise, I have two good quotes for the day:  "When I flushed the toilet, it was really freaky!" - Asher's remark on the toilet's excellent water pressure, which almost splashed him.  "I want to sit on your lap, Mom, but don't touch me because you're getting me all sweaty!" - Kenai adjusting to the heat during church today. 

And here's a shot of our guesthouse room.  These two beds are beside kitchen/dining room area (behind me), and there are two more beds in a small bedroom off to the side, with an attached bathroom.  Very cozy!  Good night.

Kenai

When asked how the airplane trip went, Kenai says "Last time Air France had the 'Little Bear" movie.  I wish that they still had "Little Bear". "
When asked how he likes Burkina, Kenai says "I saw five lizards today!"

Asher - Nov 9 and 10

We woke up at 5:30am. We wached two movies before every one else woke up. Then went and got in the car. We got to the airport in toronto and met Oma and Opa.

On the first air france flight, we woke up at mid night our time. On the second airfrance flight, the movies I wached were The Lorax, The incredibles and ice-age 4. The most interesting part was playing with the Watts', our friends. We are living right next to them!

Danika Nov.10 and 11

Yesterday (Nov. 10) we waited in the airport for 5 hours in Paris. I was really tired because we had got there at 12:00 am (Alberta time). The plane ride was long enough to watch 3 movies on the airplane screen.(The Lorax, The Incredibles 1 and Ice Age 4) I actually learned something on the flight: I don`t like airplane food!! This morning I woke up to the scent of nutella and cream-cheese.  We had riz gras for supper. Riz gras is rice with a fish and cabbage sauce. Wish  me luck!  Danika

Flying out tomorrow

We're off to Calgary in a couple hours and will then fly out tomorrow morning, stopping to see the kids' grandparents and Aunt Sandy in Toronto for a 3-hour visit.  The full flight will take us 24 hours. 
Danika's best friend, Agathe (from France) is meeting Danika at the airport in Ouagadougou and is VERY excited to see her again. 
Once we get to the guesthouse where we'll stay in Ouagadougou, Asher is planning to make a mini mud hut (a crèche) in the front yard, like he used to make with his friends in the month before Christmas.  These huts are the Burkina version of the Christmas Nativity scene.  To make this, the kids use an empty sardine can to form the mud bricks and then let the bricks bake in the sun before using them to build the walls.  So we'll be eating lots of sardines in the first couple days there (well, Asher will be...! I'm going to be eating the Burkina corn-mush, called "toe", eaten dipped in a sauce.) 
And Kenai has already started reverting to the games that he used to play in Burkina - like pretending to be a meat cutter at the meat market.  He uses a knife (although he'd be much happier if we had a real machete) to hack off chunks of play-doh "meat" for me to buy from him. 
The meat market in Ouagadougou is one destination on our "to-do" list.  It's a bustling market of swinging meat cutters, loud and cheerful women selling fruits and vegetables, jostling buyers, hungry vultures waiting on the side for scraps of meat and HOPEFULLY some nice mangoes just waiting for us to pass by!  It's not mango season right now but we're planning to scour the markets to see whether we can't find some mangoes that are imported from a neighboring country.  Oh, and about those vultures - one of the first things that we need to do when we get to Burkina is buy Asher a slingshot so that he can practice his target shooting as we pass the vultures.  The plentiful little lizards that sun themselves on the brick walls of houses also make great targets.
So I think that we're ready, with many plans as to what we'd like to do in Burkina and who we'd like to see.  Enjoy your snow! ;)
Tany