Jour 4

Thoughts from Africa by Benjamin Lackey, who thinks he is french.

"In fact I am naming my first kid Nickeloden Laserface Lackey."

"I could live in this magasin."

"When I got in the shower, the floor turned black, even before I turned the water on."

"I teleport every 5 seconds, I just don't know cause I forget about it."

Today was kind of a 'laid back' day for the team, we were able to sleep in a bit and enjoy breakfast time before we went to work on the hangar again. Today we laid the support beams in the posts and cleaned out the magasin (or the storage room).

After lunch the team was completely spent but we were told we had to dig 4 more holes, which ended up being finished in 10 minutes and then we had a little bit of afternoon time to rest and nap. Which we very much needed.

Around 4:30 the 'Container' showed up. About once a year all of the missionaires on the field get the container, in which they have packed countless numbers of useful and sometimes very random items that will last them for the rest of there stint before they go home. The 'container' is a semi truck packed to the absolute max, as you can see.

This box required some creativity, it weighed 60lbs. short of 1,000 lbs. and was practically impossible or anyone to carry. Fortunately for us we had some very crafty burkinabe to help us out, it just shows you that you can use what you have to do what you need to do.

After the end of the day we had some time to eat and shower, this is Ben before his first shower in 4 days, if only you could smell him at this moment.....

As for day 4 it went by pretty quick with not a ton to write about, but none the less we did get alot accomplished and were able to serve the Wolters by helping them out on little projects around the house.

A new perspective

I wanted to spent an entry allowing everyone to see things through the perspectives of everyone else on the team and not just through my camera's lens. Here are some photos from everyone who is taking pictures or has put their pictures on the computer. Enjoy!

Courtney's Recent photos

dane and Barnabe, the house girls grandson

Scott's photos:

The girls at Dorcas house, worshipping.

the Bed's the girls sleep in, those are mosquito nets above.

A guy who helped us put in posts, he had an Illinois shirt on and that's where Scott went to school.

Ben sleeping in paris.

Some from Susan's Camera

Suzo working at the LAC

Gabi's photos

Brochettes and fries one night at SIAO.

First and probably only team photo.

Literally everyone but Gabi sleeping at the Airport...

arrival in Atlanta

Courtney's photos from the beginning:

a woman leading worship at church

kevin passed out on the plane

a little boy in sunday school

Dane entertaining us in Paris.

Courtney and I before we left Liberty!

I know this post was short and brief but hopefully you enjoyed seeing things through the other team members perspectives, and some funny shots of our time here so far.

Jour 3

Daily thoughts from Africa with Benjamin Lackey, who thinks he's french.

" That's my dream job, to be a gate guard here."

to dane, talking about when it's time to leave burkina: "Let's runaway, if you really did it I almost really would."

Today was an early departure for the team and a semi-long drive out to the worksite. Today we began a project out at the LAC. The LAC stands for Lycee de Alliance Chritienne, or the Christian Alliance School. This is one of the more developed projects we have here. On the land is housed a compassion center with 250 children in the program, a middle school with between 200 and 400 students, some of which live on the property in the dorms. There is also a church, a pastors house, the site of the Evision housing (for short term teams) a missionaries house, a huge soccer field, a basketball court, and the storage facility for Friends in Action, a Christian well drilling team out here. So none the less, this is a very busy and occupied piece of property. Our job today was to clear a straight line out of the brush and trees so that they could begin to build the new wall around the property. Below are some pictures of our work and the site.

These are some of the classrooms

Try aiming into that little hole everytime you need to use the bathroom, oh yeah and not to mention bearing with the smell....( you know what i am talking about)

One of my favorite things on this site is the Compassion center, in this picture you can see the new classroom/office that I raised money to build when I was living out here. When I left they had just begun drawing the lines and digging the holes for the foundation and now it's finished and houses 40 children every compassion thursday.

This is the other classroom/hangar I raised money to build, all in all I wanted them to have enough space to add 80 more kids to their program. This site is very special to me because it's where the little girl that I have been sponsoring for 5 years attends.

www.compassion.com (for more info-compassion day for the team to come)

Then began the work...

Machetes were our primary tool of labor for the day...the on looking Burkinabe thought it quite funny to watch a bunch of white people (more or less girls) trying to hack away at tall grass....

We also had to break through the old walls to draw a direct line...Ben is a monster!

Here is a little shout out to Camelbaks, what saves your life in the dry hot heat of Africa!

There was also a few trees to cut down, let's just say I should open my own tree service when I get back to America!

Susan rocked that wall today as well!

oh the destruction of our legs, ankles, shoes, arm pits, and well entire bodies was due to these little spurs that stuck literally everywhere on you. The 'brush' we were clearing was mostly spurs, you can imagine the annoyance.

Inside the Church! I loved walking in there with Courtney today as she said; "We have it all wrong in America, our churches are concerned with carpets, color, lighting, temperature, and smell and all they are concerned with here is worshipping God and growing in discipleship."

The private school (which is one if not the only private Christian middle school (potential high school) in all of Burkina and their recent addition is going to allow for them to expand into a highschool very soon. Schooling for children here rarely stretches into highschool so this is an honor for the students. (if you are interested in helping boys or girls (more importantly) go to school there is some scholarship opportunities, let me know-school is about $700 a year for boys to live on campus, and about $200 for girls who will have to live at home or elsewhere).

After working at the LAC we toured a few close by ministry sites, the one below is the site of the new team center, which will house probably triple or more teams and people than the guest house does now as well as serve as the apartments for interns and couples. (Probably where most of the team will be living at some point, as that most people, not just from this team but from many other teams with Franklin, desire to come back and serve here for atleast 2 years.)

And just after lunch our dear dear dear friend Virginie came over, she was the girl who helped us out at our house when we lived here. (It's normal for people to have house help, guards, chefs, and nannies here, mostly because there is very little means of work for these women and it helps to feed their families.) We were able to spend a little time talking and eating and reminiscing with Virginie, and she gave us the big news that she is expecting in April, check out another posting on Cultural norms for talking about pregnancy.

After all of that we headed to a huge artisan festival that is only in Burkina every 2 years (and we just so happened to be here the same week) to do a little shopping, eating, and enjoy some live african entertainment. (sorry no pictures from that, too many pick pockets and thieves there to bring cameras, just try to imagine thousands of burkinabe roaming around, selling anything they can outside of the building, even fried catepillars, which we all tried...not soo much a fan myself...and then walking into the buildings to find booth after booth after hundreds of booths full of art, jewelry, clothing, etc. anything people can make and sell. It was a fun experience for everyone.

and:

Just a fun and somewhat terriftying fact, as I sit here and type this right now the huge (probably 2 feet or more in size) rats are scurrying in the ceiling over my head, and I am being attacked by bugs, in my bedroom none the less. OH the beauties of Africa.

Avec mon coeur

I wanted to spend a little time talking about the trip and being back in Burkina. For everyone who has been reading my blog since the day I moved out here over a year ago you know this has been a long journey. A journey full of surprises, heartache, trials and triumph. Being back has been those same emotions (which were then drawn out over a long span of time) but on speed. The moment I stepped off the plane and could smell the rancid stench of rotting garbage and well body odor everything came flashing back through my mind. It's crazy to me how even some of the worst smells can trigger memories. It's hard to put into words what is going through my mind and what I am experiencing right now but my dear African adopted mother, Amy Nehlsen put it in the clearest way I can sum it up when she said; "it's like you're trying to balance 2 realities right now, one you have here and one you live in back home." I have seen this 'balancing', or more like 'clashing' of my 2 realities more evidently now that I am back than I had before while being home. I hate the fact that it's so easy to teeter across that line of remembering the poor and destitute, this life here, and living the life consumed (whether I want it to be or not) with myself back in the states. I remember that the hardest thing I dealt with upon arriving home was the fact that I didn't need God's strength the way I did here, where it was all I could do to get out of bed. This teetering on the line has been such a struggle this past year and I guess I didn't see it so much as I do now that I am back. Being back isn't like walking back into a fairy tale life though, as much as I wish it would be a dream come true it's more of a reality check in my life. Burkina is a very hot, very dry, and mostly miserable place and none of that was written into that fairy tale life I had dreamed of, BUT there is absolutely no where that I could dream of being more, and being back here is consistently confirming that in my life.

It has also been a blessing deeper than words can convey, to be here with people who are experiencing this for the first time. Now when I say blessing I don't mean it's been inspiring the entire time, though it has, but I often find myself catching myself in little annoyances as people gasp, awe, and gauke at this culture. It's in those moments though that I find little glimpses of that initial passion I had upon arriving here, and despite my annoyance I am seeing things just slightly differently, sometimes pretending to see them for the first time so that my awe of God's diversity doesn't fade with my conformity.

On another hand I have absolutely loved and cherished every single moment spent visiting with the people I became so close with of my time here. I can't convey the warmth my heart feels when I see someone I came to love or appreciate here, even people like boutique owners who I spent countless hours walking around their booths looking at things during my repos time (the 'nap' time here in Burkina is from 12-3 and I am the absolute worst napper on the face of this earth so I spent that time walking around stores at the only 'tourist place'). People like the compassion staff at my little girls' site who came running up to greet me and welcome me back, or the dorcas house girls who skipped half way across the property to come and embrace me and welcome me 'home,' and one of my favorite moments of visiting was with Virginie, the girl who helped us out at our house while I lived here, who became my dear dear dear friend and someone I love deeply. She came over to enjoy a little lunch with us and to tell us the big news that she was pregnant (thereby breaking the unspoken 'laws' of burkina, women NEVER say or admit that they are pregnant here in case they lose the baby, nor do they buy anything for the baby until after it's been alive for a week or 2, the infant mortality rate here is astronomical.) It's moments likes these that you can't plan for, these moments are the overwhelming kind that make it seem as if you had never left. These are the people that make you feel at home in a place so foreign, strange, and dirty that despite it all you never want to leave.

It feels like home to me, it feels like I'm back where I belong....