Burkina Faso 2009 with Hunter Willis, Gail and myself with an ostrich at the zoo outside Ouagadougou. See how red Gail is? It was a hot day and she actually started to wander off at one time. As silly as I look in my hat from Chile I was fairly cool (sort of).Why did we return to Burkina Faso in 2009? Neither Gail nor I would have believed in late 2007 that we would ever return. We did not care for (understatement) the food, heat, nor mosquitoes.
We had planned to go with a team of 5 to Bolivia during August but Dayne Boyden was being led to return to Burkina. After prayer, we knew that we needed to return to Burkina. Dayne had to leave the team and by the time we were in Africa, he and family had moved to California. Two more of our now team of 5 dropped out only days before we left. Gail's eyes were injured and we truly knew that we were the Gideon team. Three people teaching three levels of English. No room for problems, by the world's standards. We left on Aug. 2 and expected to meet Hunter in Paris but he was not there. When we landed on Ouga he was not there to meet us and neither was Pastor Jeremie until I collected the last piece of luggage, and he showed up. We never panicked or questioned what God was up to.
One of the first people I met at the house was my very good friend Mr. Ky Michele that I met in 2007. I gave him this Richmond, Va. shirt.
Our first Saturday we attended a Christian wedding.
A little dirty girl had never seen a white person before and I held her on my lap until Pastor Jeremie said for me to put her down because she had things in her skin that could crawl out and enter my skin. Welcome to Africa.
The rain began and we all left near the end.The Pastor's daughter, Elielle, and I posed for a photo.
Everyone loves having their picture taken. Children will come running to us if they see a camera in our hands. We stayed in a nice house in the downstairs section with running water and electricity (we would loose it about once a day for several hours) and had a small AC unit in our bedroom.
Burkina, like elsewhere, is a land of haves and have nots. There were some nice homes in some nice neighborhoods and some people drove very nice cars and then only a short distance away people live in mud brick homes with no water or electricity. We would walk from here 3 round trips for a total of 5-6 miles a day to get to school and back. The Pastor's wife, Esther, would pick up Gail and drive her on the back of her motorcycle, like this.
If Gail and I had not gone to Burkina there would have been no school. But because we obeyed God, we were part of a 55 student school. Gail taught 24 by herself in day school. I taught around 11 or so in day school and Hunter had 4. We taught the morning classes from 8-12, afternoon classes from 3-5 and night classes from 6:30-8:30 ish. I only had 4 night class students and Hunter had about 12. We taught long days!! Here are some class pictures.
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Justine was one of my students and the only time her baby was quiet was when sleeping or nursing in the class (after 3 days of school the baby got sick and had to be hospitalized). Justine left school at that time. Her home collapsed in the big rain. 
Notice the sleepy students, a sure sigh of malaria. My night class at our house. 
Our walk to school was always eventful with everyone staring at "nassaria", white people. They were almost always friendly and if I would acknowledge them then they would respond in kind.
. One day, while walking past a group of guys, one spoke up and when Douda (the young man walking with me told me that he called my Obama, I had to laugh). Every time I walked by them after that (usually 6 times a day) we would call each other "Obama, Obama, Obama". Here I am seated with only some of them.
We attended two churches while there. I spoke twice in Pastor Jeremie's church and Gail prayed over the church. 
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After church on Sundays the fellowship visits members and we always draw a crowd of kids. 
One woman we visited had a small child burning up with a fever. Gail prayed for her and told her to cool the baby down with water, which she was not going to do because of fear of making it sick. Here she is. 
We visited a park where statues were chiseled in stone. Here are some pictures from there. 
Next a group of students also visited the zoo. It was the first time many of our students were able to go, even though it only cost them $.80 US. 
On or about 13 August, Gail fell and hurt her knee, Hunter contracted malaria and I injured my back (it was painful enough for me to spend a night in a clinic, the 2nd best hospital in Ouga). 
One of our new ministries in Ouga and the village of Targho is the formation of the ELCBF Medical Program which provides free generic drugs, a pharmacy, a doctor's office for the community and for over 200 chidren. This is a picture of the infirmerie actually on the school property.
Another new ministry is the feeding program where you can sponser a child for $100 a year, actually the monies go to aid which ever child is in need at that time.
All Donations may be made out to:
Commonwealth Chapel MEMO: Global Impact-Burkina Faso
and mailed to
ELCBF c/o Hunter Willis
1836 Park Ave.
Richmond, Va. 23220
Donations can be accepted online at: http://www.elcbf.org/
Join us in helping these precious people.
The school grounds with a look at the "bathroom" facilities.
On the Monday before we left on Wednesday, a rainstorm the likes of which Burkina Faso had not seen since 1919 struck. Although we were there during the wet season and rainstorms occured almost daily, like the one that changed our street to a stream
, this rainstorm was devastating. Roads and cars were swept away and the mud brick buildings in the surburbs just disolved and collasped.
This is a school homeless people had to temporarly move into. Over 150,000 were immediately on the streets homeless. 
The new church building had all 4 walls built but the rain collasped some and weakened the others so they will all have to be rebuilt. 
Our students, like all Africians, love to sing so here are some of their songs.
At graduation, the school presented Gail and I with these traditional hats. Pretty cool, huh? Kinda makes you want to join us one year.
What do these people do to earn a living? They try to eek out a living as best they can (Burkina is one of the poorest countries in the world and is the most illeterate country in the world). Many people sit by a road selling what they can, this lady sits outside the gate of the house we stayed in selling burnt field corn (it tastes that good , too).
During the day, also in front of the house we rented was a presser. He ironed clothes all day using an iron that opens up so he can fill it with hot charcoals. 
Kids.
