Don't know exactly how to best explain our status, but I know that it is better than we could have expected, solely due to God's amazing grace. I am thankful to share that we are well, healthy, happy and comfortable-ish! We expected none of those things, and the Lord gently prepared us for discomfort, illness, sadness and struggle- but we haven't been overcome by any of those yet.
Our home was lived in by fellow missionaries before us, so we have fans and screens. We are living in a small town where we will continue communicating in French, adjusting to the Burkinabe way of speaking French, and also transition into Jula learning. This has been the plan all along, but our heart really wanted to be closer to the village- God knows best for sure and we are delighted by the details that have fallen into place.
The community is warm and friendly. We live on a road that requires the vehicle that the Lord provided. The kids in our neighborhood wave when we come and go in the car, and just stare quietly when we walk around. If we sit outside, watching while the boys play soccer, the wee little ones come and just linger around- They speak Jula, so we can only greet them and smile. They stare straight faced. They do call out to us- calling us Tubabu (white person) when they get brave.
Each evening our next door neighbor sets up a homemade charcoal powered stove to fry sweet potatoes and sell to people in the neighborhood.
Everyone here lives in a courtyard, meaning homemade sand/cement blocks surround every residence. We live behind a block wall which is weird- but there is no alternative, and the word on the street is that if we didn't, we'd have sweet little faces pressed against the door to see what's happening at our house!
To answer some of the questions that may be swirling around:
Our guts have been studly- everything that we eat has been touched by a jillion people who haven't heard the public service announcements on hand washing, so we are thankful that only Jana and Aaron have struggled greatly with tummy troubles- less than 50% of us!
The bugs have been gentle to me-the biggest kill was a big camel spider,which is quite alien-like- see below! I only saw it in the morning, after it's smooshing... by one blow of a mighty flip-flop.
There have been a couple of camel spiders in the house (their bites hurt but they aren't 'poisonous'), one lizard in our room (but it barely counts cuz it was under 2" long) and otherwise we have been pest free. We have seen snakes now, but we've handled ourselves well- no extreme panic to report!
We are staying hydrated, with some good effort. We have a barrel that we fill with water from the sink. There is a filter fit to the bottom of the barrel by a hose, then it drips out clean drinkable water. We put it into 1.5 liter bottles and put it in our refrigerator!!! We were here 3 weeks without appliances, but are so thankful to have some things that help with daily living and keeping us strong and healthy! The stove is a typical range with an oven running off a butane bottle- it is not dialed in as it should be, so it makes me frustrated, but I trust that in time, we will learn to work together!
My biggest 'sticker shock' was at toilet paper- We picked up a 12 roll pack and it was $7.00. Fruit and vegetables are very affordable, and I rotate out with rice, pasta or potatoes, all of which are cheap and easy to get. We have eaten ground beef about twice a week, otherwise starch, fruits and veggies. We can get chicken, it's just expensive and more bones than meat. There are good french bread loaves here as well- America good that is...France spoiled us for French Bread, rightly so!
We've had one bloody fall when Megan tripped in a game of tag in the dark... She cleaned up well and didn't need stitches. It is a blessing to see the kids running and playing with other kids- worth some banged up knees, and arms, and elbow, and feet! Jana had a 24 hour flu thing that passed quickly, and Aaron fought tummy troubles well. We can easily go to the pharmacy and get an antibiotic or rabies shots or malaria test kits without prescriptions.
We've laughed way more than we've cried, we are accomplishing school and language is coming along! I am so thankful to be a homeschooling mom and have missed it dearly while we were in France and they were more independent study than homeschool. There is a huge difference for us between doing school at home and being homeschooled; learning as a family, becoming educated and growing in thought, perspective, wisdom and knowledge are a freedom that we are so thankful for!
