crying naked in the dark with half-shaved legs

so apparently all the power outages are starting to get to us. One of my teammates was worried that the power would go out again while she was taking a night shower and we would just find her there crying naked in the dark with half-shaved legs...oh Africa you do have your quarks...so i got sick, had a nice throat infection for which I'm still taking antibiotics...Monday night we went out to dinner for my bday before two of the team members headed out, one back to the states the other to France, Israel, Singapore and most likely a stop in between...the restaurant had the AC on, normally that's a good thing...turns out when your sick it's not such a good thing, who knew you could be cold and get the chills this close to the equator...so a fever of 101.6 Monday night translates to a fever of 38.4 or something the next morning at the doctors office...that's right i went to a third world (2/3 world) doctor's office when i got sick...we're lucky, for some reason the small clinic that is literally on our street one block down is WAY WAY nicer than the hospital...to quote the Dr.s Bob from when they were here from Texas, upon their return from the hospital had this to say when asked, so how was the hospital? one of the Dr.s Bob said this "puhh, small chuckle" the other of the Dr.s Bob said "Yeah it uh...looks like the kind of place you don't want to go for treatment"...so we are lucky to have our clinic, pretty sweet the doctor was very nice spoke some English, but upon hearing that i spoke some french his English went out the window...got tested for malaria, 2500 CFA for that test, roughly $5, not bad...had to get blood drawn however, I've never paid so much attention to where the needle was coming from or going to before and after it was in my arm...oh happy day it came from a case and went to the trash, yay!...the doctor prescribed three things for my throat infection, the antibiotic, some pain medication, and vitamin C tablets...well we're roughing it/have little money so myself and the other teammate who was feeling poorly past on the pain medication, oh yeah that's right be impressed we're so hardcore (please note that the tone of this last sentence should be read as incredibly sarcastic)...so i took my birthday off from teach, normally that would be awesome and i could do fun things...but alas, i spent my bday lying in bed sweating trying not to swallow because someone, who shall remain me, said "naw we don't need to spend money on the pain medication"...it's loads of fun being sick in Africa when you're on a mission trip or doing volunteer work, want to know why? well of course you do...it's loads of fun because you're some kind of gift from God and everyone and their mother, brother, sister, Aida, the former prime minister's guard take it upon themselves to say or do something for you...so as i lay in bed thinking i wasn't going to die but still in enough pain to wonder if it would be the best alternative, Pastor Zongo burst into my room looking WAY to concerned..."Ben!" he said in a low whispered voice as his eyes nearly popped out of his head, "Ca-va?" to which i quickly replied "uhmahu" (no that's not Moore, i just couldn't realy talk)...Zongo "I gonna pray for you", to which i did reply "go for it"...keep in mind Zongo looks roughly like a life size teddy bear...he put one hand on my knee and the other on my shoulder, and if it had been a WWF wrestling match i think he would have thrown me through the window...why are there so many miracles in Africa, cause we don't have medical care, that and we pray...i was teaching the next day made it through with no problem and my throat gave out just in time to dismiss my last class...all my students took the class period they would normally have with me to make birthday cards (Hallmark ain't got nothing on my students with scissors, tape, paper and colored pencils)....upon my return to the classroom i was greeted by one class with a great rendition of happy birfday to you Misoure(t) Ben...aside from the adventures of sickness this week not too much out of the ordinary...a good lesson from Matthew basically says that i need to shut up because when Jesus sent out the disciples to do mission anyone who welcomed them welcomed the Lord, so I should just keep my mouth shut and be grateful I'm welcomed. Picture is of my birthday presents, a traditional hat called a "gaban" and a Burkina Faso national team soccer jersey, Go Stallions!

so...the Internet went down for a few days. up-dates go like this...one i could be/most likely will be moving to the Niger boarder to a town called Fada for three months, from oct. to Dec. so that will be cool...I'd live at a mission there...i would teach at a local secondary school in Fada...good news about that is there are lions and crocodiles, which means weekend safaris...I'm over the trash bag rice and have teetered on the edge of malaria and now attempting to not catch what is most likely strep throat...we had moto (scooter/small motorcycle) lessons, i almost killed myself and it was wonderful...pulled off a sweet jump landed it and managed to stop before running into the wall, good times...after that it got better but i need WAY more practice before trying crazy ouga traffic...watching how everything changes is loads of fun...the stupid light on the water filter changes colors, from red (meaning drink me and you'll poo for days) to green meaning here's some water (that is if the sink's not broken)...the water in the shower changes colors from water color to orange, even if i took a shower, got out and immediately took another shower the water would still turn orange...the tile floors changes from white to Orange every day...the rooms change from lights on to lights out, daily and if it doesn't happen it's just rather surprising...went to the international church of ouga yesterday, the one good line from the service was "why are there so many miracles in Africa? because we don't have medical care". The rest of the service was kind of painful, so i took like 2 or 3 hours to read my hymnal and sing songs in my room, that was WAY better. I ate guinny fowl the other day while we were visiting Fada, that was cool...we also bought like 30 guinny fowl eggs from a guy on the side of the highway...loads of people make their money from traffic on the highway...happily there were no birds in any of the eggs, yet...made a friend, his name was GIGANTIC SPIDER CRAWLING ON MY SHOULDER!!! that sucker was fast too, and he kept coming back so he had to be destroyed...our students along with the rest of the city can't figure out why none of us are married...not in a, "hey i can't believe no one's snatched you up" kind of way but in a more "you're not married? what's wrong with you? you're old"...my students like to offer up their sisters, which is nice, but NO. I make stupid jokes all through my class that no one gets, it's like they don't speak English or something...i think the measure of my success will be if they start picking up on the jokes, then i'll be happy...pastor zongo had a shirt made for me I'll be sure to get some pictures of that out...of course when i tried it on the first thing my friend Noel said to me was "you'll have a wife by the end of the day"...thanks Noel....French is getting much better, spending a bit of time talking with Noel (he's from Mali, sadly he leaves after the intensive on Aug. 14th) and our two guards...did i tell you our guards' names? cause they're John-Baptist (pronounced frenchly) and Emanuel, it's like some one's looking out for us or something...I'll drop some pictures in here they are of a storm coming in, the pictures are of the dust blowing in at about 1 in the afternoon...they start with loads of orange dust that block out he sun then turn quickly into, i suppose a squall would be the best way to say it.

peace

Ben

it's around the cawner, bye texas friends

Sometimes exactly what is said is exactly what you needed to hear. Four words from a girl stright out of high school from Texas named McKenzie, "you're an awesome teacher"...I almost cried...We pray so much here, it's amazing to see the effects and affects...I think I take it for granted too often in the states...today we prayed over Veston as a group, he's a young man from the Texas group who descided to stay (fresh out of high school), he called his parents and siad, I think God wants me to stay...from what I understand his parents are kind of helicopters but for whatever reason they aggreed to it and he's staying...then we prayed for the group flying home, one man down, blessings upon them and thanks for all their great work form helping us sand desks, assisting in the class rooms, deeting flies with me in the kitchen, to helaing the sick and just holding sleepy children in their arms...absolutely powerful and wonderful what this group did here and they are deeply loved, appreciated and will be missed (but at least the house is quiet now, yay/booo)...it's fairly amazing to see how we are becoming more of a family than just friends with our local friends the Zongos, Lazar, our guards, Noel, even our cook and ladies who help with cleaning the school...we are surpassing friends, we are beginning to share emotions, struggles, sicknesses, and frustrations...we are making each other laugh and we are making each other angry...happily familes do not need to get along all the time they just need never forget how they are connected
-peace

Pictures

Teaching my afternoon class, entertaining kids, helping the medical team, teaching my morning class

Tree by the church, storm rolling in, Pastor Zongo's church

Riding on the moto, Zongo's House, Lazo (lazR) and Zongo behind us riding through the village on the moto

Kids waiting for medical check-ups with their parents outside the primary school, Lazo (lazR) being himself, our translating friend sama he works for the US embassy and goes to Zono's church

The road to Rimketa, and the road out front of our house...good day with the med team out in the village, loads of fun...felt useful and now i'm tired...more pictures later

Peace

Trashbag Rice

YAY!!!!!!!!!! I got my bag the day after the last update...inside my bag i was greated by the smell of vodka...my bottle of hand sanitizer had broken, so all my clothes smelled faintly of alchohal...but that's way better than what my clothes had been smelling like. This week the mission team from Texas arrived. There are 11 of them here, they've helped us a ton with getting desks sanded and moved around as well as our IT friend Butch who just set up all this internet for us YAY!!!! There's alos a medical team of a husband and wife doctor dentist team. One nurse who happens to be the wife of Butch..., and six youth and the pastors wife and one baptist pastor from another church, dayrell, they are all loads of fun. Class started on Wednesday. I teach three classes a day between 8am and 4:30pm...I have two class rooms, both are outside, the one I use in the morning is on the second floor balchony and the one I use later in the afternoon is on the second floor back balchony (pictures tomorrow)...So i get to spend about 8 hours out doors at least 5 days a week...I spend my of my time in class wipping sweat off me and drinking water. The students I am teaching range in age from 15-18. We had nearly 200 studnets apply but could only allow in 126. They answered (in french) three questions, why do you want to learn English? If you could change one thing in the world what would it be? and what do you want to do for work?...I've got a lot to say about the answers we recieved from these questions, but for now let me just tell you that we selected some incrediably bright studnets...I teach the book in my class so it's a lot of reading out loud and trying not to be too boaring. My iron stomach finialy gave out, on the first day of class mind you...let me just say that eating trashbag rice, while tasty, was probably not the best idea. Before you start judging me saying "yeah no kidding it's trashbag rice, why would you eat it any way"...1. it was tasty, 2. it was cheep 3. everyone else was doing it, 4. the woman who cooked it looked like she knew what she was doing 4. she did, 5. it was really really good...so there...the thing is around lunch time people start showing up on the street with food they've cooked to sell. some people bring the food out in large pots as big as small children, the lady we bought lunch from brought hers our in two large trashbags, that's two large trashbags full of rice...this woman has a particularly large following (cause it's so good) so we took our plate from our kitchen walked down the street, around the cornor to the next block, stood in line, mumbled some french and mooree, something like rice with sauce please...then handed her about 5000 cfa (say-fa), trusting she would give us proper change and she did about 4500 cfa, which means that 4 plates of trashbag rice with sauce cost roughly 1 dollar....did i mention that at the time i ate the trashbag rice it was realy good? anyway trashbag rice is good, so there stop judging it was totaly worth it...we have picked up new helpers, our friend sedo, is a university of ouga student (the university has been on strike for over two months). Sedo speaks English, he helped us translate the application papers as well as call all the students who were accepted in one afternoon...that's over 200 applications that the four of us proccessed in roughly 8 hours the day before class started, crazyness!...tomorrow we finialy have a day off...I'm going to the village, Rimkita, where Pastor Zongo and Lazo (lazr) are from...the doctors are doing follow ups with members of the village (they have been working unbelieveably hard) but tomorrow is primarily for the students at the primary school...so yay for getting to play with kids all day tomorrow, i'm looking foward to a football match and getting rid of my beard tan...pictures tomorrow evening, why? because we have internet HAHAHA, absolutely insane...
peace

I smell a bit

So...no internet at the house just yet but soon then this will be better...I just spent a solid five minutes trying to figure out how to update this thing...the house is sweet but you'll have to wait for pictures yet again...I hope people who aren't on face book have found this like Mt. Herman peoples and OVUMC peoples Wesley people so Mom or Dad and let's say Andy or Nelson can you forward that information on. Our partners in crime here, Pastor Zonga (o?) and Lazar are loads of fun...the church was great reminded me a lot of a Korean Service, lots of praying out loud...we had tons of dancing and drumming, it was a little over three hours of service....Zongo asked me on the way to church if I wanted to preach, I declined for a later date so he made me do the benediction anyway...rain storms are one of the coolest things here, it's like a tropical storm or hurricane in gestation so that's pretty sweet...they come up out of nowhere and they are freezing cold compared to our 30 degree Celsius days...still no bag so I’m still in the same clothes I’ve been in for nearly two weeks now...I did get to borrow my friends clothes to go to the 4th of July party at the US embassy...we made friends and even found a bowling ally...I met people from the peace corps, bowling green state university (don't really know way they were here), the CDC, and of course the state department...it was a good time but there were more flies there you can even imagine, seriously don't even bother trying you won't even be close...registration starts the 13th and there will be a mission team of about 11 here from Texas arriving on the same day...they will have one Doctor and Dentist with them for the little kids out at the primary school...the primary school is a three room building...we got to go for the last day of class and the day after the last day for basically a meet and greet with kids parents...the vice mayor of Ouga (waga) as well as the minister of education were both there...Zongo will not let us sit anywhere but up front, so we had to sit with the mayor, the king of the village, the minister of education and some other high rollers for the whole ordeal, there were kids plays and singing with traditional dancing, and we had lunch after...again pictures later...Zongo also made us sit up front for church, and by upfront I mean behind the pulpit (I’ll do a better blog on church later)...we have a translator, his name is sama, he works at the US embassy, he's very useful because most of the locals just speak moree with one another especially at church...that makes it very hard on me to work on my French because when people talk to one another they speak moree not French...but he business language is still French so I’m trying...I’m going to see if I can get in a French class at the embassy or something...already the people who own the little shops near the house are asking if I can come by and teach English to them because they're too old for our program (hopefully if I have time)...we have ladies to clean the house/school and two guards for the house/school, all form the church...I’m having to get used to having people cleaning up for me and opening doors...basically they won't let us do anything, I feel like a china doll or something it's starting to get at my nerves...I even had to have a small military style push-up contest with Lazar yesterday, I think they think I’m sweating because I get tired of lifting stuff, that is not the case it's just frick'n hot here...the royal treatment I hope will stop soon or I’ll be down stairs at 2am washing dishes in spite of the royal treatment...I had to make lazar let me go last through a door today...I made him by shoving him through when he tried to wave me through...no one will let you lift a finger here, lazar is about the size of a broom stick but if we were all trying to move the actual house in a team effort he'd probably tell us all to back off and then do it himself...we have a sweet restaurant/ stand where we get cooked food, the best part is the food but it barely tops the name "La Fiesta"...it has been over all good times so far I do want to send you pictures I know my words will not do this place justice...this site will not let me put up pictures really but I’ll do one post soon with nothing but pictures so that should make up for some things...Happy birthday James, I’m in Africa or I would have called... bodka wenehnam, that's thank God in moore but it is surly spelled incorrectly...peace

I didn't bring any baggage into this new relationship, HA

Thanks British Airways, I love finding new ways to stretch myself. I thought only packing one bag for a whole year would be a good way to do that, being I only really had 5 t-shirts, 2 hoodies, 2 pair of jeans, 1 pair of kakis, some socks and underwear and not much else...but you losing my bag has helped out way more than that because I've now spent 5, plus at least tomorrow makes 6 days in the same shorts and t-shirt and flip flops. I've not really noticed, except when we visited the village to see the land for the university, which is currently mostly a cow pasture with lots of items that aren't black rocks, not to mention that worm that likes to crawl in through your foot, and the Horney bull that was wanting to have a go with this cow about 3ft from where we were standing (if Horney makes you uncomfortable, then just pretend I’m talking about his actual horns). Happily I have avoided all three. Despite your best efforts British Airways I'm having a lovely time. We have been staying in a hotel for these first few days while we worked out a deal for the house/school. No pictures yet (sorry) but you should see the lizards; those things are crazy, plenty of bats donkeys, one horse, some chickens and goats...nothing too exotic yet. This is defiantly a city, if you would like to know what it's like I'd recommend finding the busiest street you can think of and just walk right on the traffic lines...tons of scooters more cars than I expected. No trash service so it's a little dirty but really not bad, doesn't smell, the car exhaust most likely takes care of any other smell when you're driving. Our first taxi was awesome; we weighted it down so if we went over, I’d say about 20mph then the back of the car would scrape the ground. It was a lot of fun going over speed bumps, considering we would have to get out so the car could make it, so there we are thinking please don't drive off with what little luggage did make it. Restaurants are pretty sweet, we've eaten at some local places as well as a sweet Italian restaurant right by the US Embassy (and yes Andy there is ice cream). Coming back to the hotel at night the first time was a lot of fun, considering there were two gentlemen to meet us at the gate, one we had met earlier and the other I'd not seen before, but I did recognize him right away, yeah you know him too, he's that guy that sits at the gate of the hotel at night with rifle, he like a night guard but I was confused at first. Did get to spend about 24 hours in Paris on the way in...saw my old roommate and good friend Steven, we got to have lunch...I do have pictures of that so for now you'll have to settle for pictures of dreary old Paris.