The Spice of Life

So much has been going on lately and I have not been able to find the time (or the internet capacity for that matter) to catch everyone up, so here's a little time filler until I can write about some of the more serious things happening in Ouaga.

We recently had a "Game Night" for all of our friends who are in their 20's, we made lots of delicious food, and played Apples to Apples, Liar's dice, and Gender Bender.

Some of our friends: Above is Fred and Matt both here long term. Matt is drilling wells in the villages around Ouaga and Fred, along with his wife, work at the Pan-Bila ministry.

Also: Micheal and Tyler, Micheal and His wife are expecting a baby in February, they are living and working in Pissy. Tyler has been here for almost 4 years working with a children s outreach organization, focusing on the tomato can boys.

Two of my favorite people; Olivia (L) and Sarah, they both recently just arrived in Ouaga and are spending 6-9 months working out in Yako with Lynn Peters and her school and orphanage (where the Wired youth group will be going at the end of October).

Tiffany (L) who is pregnant, she is Micheal's wife and she is also a nurse, working at a clinic out in Pissy, and Susan (my dearly beloved roomie).

Sarah, my other favorite roomie and Natajina (with the horrid expression on her face, trying to avoid the camera) She grew up here in Burkina along with Fred and they are now married, working at Pan Bila.

Tyler and Fred discussing a gender bender issue.

Game Night also happened to be Tiffany's 25th Birthday, so we had a little party on the side! (It's unfortunate that you cannot see her 'candles' aka mathes stuck in the cake to look like candles)

On to some other interesting facts of life here in Ouage, everyday I find something new about the culture, wheter it be fascinating or horrifying there is always a surprise with each new day and below I wil tell you about a few.

It may not look very evident as to what this is in the strainer, but let me give you a little hint, when you want to use flour here it must first be sifted, because of those. Those are little worms, that turn into really disgusting bugs. One of those things I find horrifyingly fascinating.

One thing I have loved is watching the storms roll in, the other day when I was out at Dorcas house a storm began to come and what a phennoniman it was to watch it come in over the vast desert where nothing is standing in it's way.

It was beautiful to watch the lightning across the sky and the clouds billow in.

A horrifying event? Yes! As soon as we got to Dorcas house one day we noticed a huge commotion, apparently after calming everyone down enough to explain we discovered that there was a snake eating a lizard in the girls bedroom. After lots of prayer, and a few men the snake was finally caught, killed, and burned. Indeed it is true, there are snakes in Burkina Faso!