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...?