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...
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