First thing I would like to do is thank all those people who prayed for me and also those who donated money to me so I could go on this trip.
WELCOME TO MOROCCO
First stop on our flight to Burkina Faso, Africa was in Casablanca, Morocco. This place was so uptight with security that even if you had forgotten to take off your belt or watch they would look at you funny. When we arrived there it was early in the morning their time and sometime in the night US time. When we got off the plane first thing we had to do was go through scanners and medal detectors. After doing that they stopped me and pulled me to the side. I was like great what did I do and what are they going to do to me? Turns out they had to scan my carry-on again because apparently something was suspicious inside my bag. They took my bag and searched it, all that was in there was an inflatable mattress, a change of clothes, some snacks, a deflated soccer ball, a pump and a pack of batteries.After picking up the batteries the security guard was like what are these things, and what do they do? I tried to explain it to him but he didn't understand so he said go ahead and be on your way.
So far an eventful morning turns into a even more eventful morning. We (the Africa Mission Team) are standing outside of the airport in Morocco waiting for the Atlas Hotel Taxi to show up when a local comes up and offers us a "free" ride in his "taxi". The group I was standing with were all scared because we didn't know what to say to this guy besides 'No Thanks' and 'It's not free'. Other than this strange guy telling us that he would give us a "free" ride he gladly welcomed us to Morocco. He said it very differently than what we would say it. He said it like this: 'Welcome to Morrrako" of course that is how it sounded to me. He left us alone after he welcomed us to his country and he went on his way trying to get people to go for a "free" ride.
We arrive at our hotel that we were staying in for the day because we had a layover until our next flight to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. We were told that we had two options, 1: Stay at the hotel and catch up on some sleep or 2: Go out and tour the city for about $25. I mistakenly chose option 1 over option 2. Why I did it was beyond me because apparently I wanted to sleep more than I wanted to be a tourist in a new country. I wasn't the only one who stayed back at the hotel who was a youth. So I get up in the room that I was assigned to and put my bags on the floor beside the bed and almost jumped right on the bed until I looked at the beds. They were both pushed together and I noticed that there was dried-up "man-juice" on the bed. I was greatly disgusted and tried to find another blanket but unfortunately there wasn't another one for me to use. So what I did next was pulled the blanket back and laid on the bed, scared that there was more.
The time had finally come to get ready to leave for the airport and get into Ouagadougou. We got to the airport and again the same thing happened to me with my bag. Again they let me through, and on the way to get to the plane we had to go through about 3-4 more metal detectors but i wasn't stopped after the second metal detector. We finally got on the airplane and got into the air, faster than what I was expecting. After getting into the air the flight attendants began to walk around and ask us what we want to eat, chicken or fish. It took me awhile to figure out what they were saying because it didn't sound like chicken or fish. "Chiken or feesh." they would say and I was like "Say What? Can you repeat that for me again." She said it again and I went with the chicken. Didn't really enjoy it as much as the lasagna on the flight to Morocco.
Ouagadougou a nice city where you can't take pictures of any building inside the city. We arrive in Burkina early in the morning at about 1-2 am and we have to go through customs to get into the country. This airport, no lie, is a barn. There is nothing electronically except for the computers and the lighting in the entire building. When we all got through customs we had to find our luggage. I looked and looked for mine but for some reason I couldn't find it. I went over and told Kenn that my bag was no where in sight, so he went over to Lynn and told her that my bag could not be found. So Lynn went over to the airport crew and told them that my bag wasn't here at all and if they found it to call her and tell her that my bag had arrived. She then turned to me and said "I'm sorry your bag hasn't shown up, if it does show up you will know because I will tell you that it has arrived. If it doesn't you'll get it next week, or before you leave."
We loaded up the van-bus and it was crazy in that vehicle. I don't know how we all could fit inside that vehicle will all of the luggage. The Mission House we stayed in was a nice little house that we stayed in just for the night.
The next morning we had to be up early so we could get to the city of Diabougu before nightfall, it was an eight hour ride. That ride was insane like the ride to the Mission House. It was the same kind of van-bus and same amount of space as when we first road in it although the seats seemed to be shrinking as the hours passed by. After stopping about 3-4 times we reached our destination in a small village.
We pulled up in the van-bus and saw a lot of little African children running towards the church, they knew something was going to happen because the van had arrived and it normally doesn't show up unless something is going to happen. The "new" people on the team were surprised to see all of the children following us. We got off the bus and began to unload all of our luggage, and to our surprise the Africans were helping us unload and we could tell that they wanted to help because they would jump in front of us just to get a piece of our luggage. After unloading all the luggage we set up camp on the hard ground, mostly rocks, and again the Africans came over to help us. After camp was set up it was time to eat the first dinner in Africa, Chili, it wasn't the worst nor the best chili I have ever had but it was food and was happy to have it.
Day 1
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| Camp Site |
After service ended at around 12, we were told that we needed to grab a quick lunch before we begin our day, working with children and youth. We were told we need to have at least two bottles of water a day, unless you are playing soccer than its at least 3-4 bottles of water. These bottles were not that small either, they were larger than the average American water bottle. When I was told at least two bottles a day I was like wow this is going to be a little harder than I thought. Only reason was because you have this big water bottle and if you forget about it then your not getting enough water and plus as the day goes by it gets hotter and hotter and your water becomes warm and undrinkable.
Playing soccer in Africa is a challenge in itself, because you are playing on rocks and one fall on them and you're done for the day. I fell but not as bad as my friend Andrew, he fell and his arm and leg were scraped up so bad that he was on the ground for a good 2-3 minutes. Andrew is a trooper though, he got up and washed it off with some water and got back in the game and played like nothing had ever happened. Another thing is that the African children don't wear shoes at all, and when they kick that soccer ball its like they beat that thing until it is in the air. You don't want to try to stop one of those with your chest because that will literally knock the breath out of you.
After playing soccer for what seemed like hours, we were allowed to go and rest from the day. So I went and sat down under a porch and talked with my friends about their day. It was funny to hear what some said the children did when they told them to draw pictures of things that God made, they said that many of them drew pictures of their family while others drew cars, trucks, motorcycles and buses. After talking about our day we sat around and listened to the children inside the church playing on the djimbes and surprised at how these children, around 5-10 years old, could play a djimbe like the leaders.
That night, was interesting because it was the first night of taking showers. In Africa showers are a whole lot different than they are in America. In America all you have to do is go in to the shower and turn a nozzle and you get water almost instantly, but in Africa you have to scoop out water into a bucket and pour it on yourself. It felt good especially at night because it had cooled off a lot and the water was lukewarm from the sun shining on it the whole day. After showers we had dinner and then another church service which didn't end until about 9:30-10 pm, but we didn't care because service shouldn't always have a time limit.
DAY 2
It was now Tuesday morning, time for us to get up and go eat breakfast. I took my Doxy before I ate breakfast because I thought Hey might as well get it out of the way and eat breakfast. Big mistake on my part! I was eating some instant Oatmeal, thanks Josh, when I started loosing taste of the oatmeal I knew something was wrong. I began to feel like I was about to blow chunks because my stomach was hurting and I could feel it about to rise up and come out. Sure enough I did go outside and blow chunks, I was lucky that we had doctors around so they could give me something to help stop the nausea. After that happened they told me to follow them to the leader house where I was told to lay down, but the place smelled like gasoline and they moved me back to the dinning area. If it wasn't for Mrs. Kim, Olivia, Taylor and Jordan I don't think I would have been moved into the dinning area, so I thank the four of you for that. After that I don't remember much except for sleeping most of the day and waking up around lunch time then falling back asleep. Also thanks to Justin for allowing me to borrow some shorts for the day/week because if it wasn't for him I would have roasted to death in blue jeans the whole week.
DAY 3
Wednesday had finally shown up. This was supposed to be my day to stay back at the camp and do childrens work but the day before was supposed to be my Clinic Day. So I got to go to the clinic on Wednesday and what a great experience that was. I got to see a bunch of people gather around to hear the Gospel before we began the clinic, and that service was phenomenal, even though half the time I didn't understand it because it was mostly in Dagara(Tribe Language). The clinic had begun right after the service had ended. We were assigned different jobs around the clinic, my job was to pray over the patients that came into the clinic.
Things began to move slower and slower as time went by. I began to see that we were backed up a bit so I walked outside to see what was going on. Around the back I saw wound care and feet washing, out over a little ways I saw Mickey sharpening tools for the African men and then I saw a group of children standing in a circle playing some games. I didn't know what the game was but it looked like 'Duck, Duck, Goose' but it was different. They were singing a song and a person would walk around with a shoe in their hand and try to stick it behind the person without them knowing, and if they didn't notice that it was behind them then they would get hit when the person came back around and they would then become it.
This looked like a game that I wouldn't want to play only because the fact that I don't know what they are saying and I don't want to get hit by some little kid because I didn't know that they stuck a shoe behind me. I found Mrs. Kim, along with Jordan and Olivia, playing with a different group of children only this time it was a lesson on how to play thumb wars. Once we showed them how to play they had the game mastered. I beat a few of them but then they came back and beat me at it. I was impressed with how fast they can master something no matter how simple it was.
I returned back into the clinic to see that there was a new patient sitting in there. I walked over to them and asked if I could pray over them, and they gladly accepted it. After I prayed with them I walked in the clinic to see what everyone else was doing; I walked over to TJ and talked with him about what it is like being a pharmacist and he basically told me its a bunch of counting and knowing how to put things together to make the medicine. I then saw that Preston was about to test a little girl for malaria, I knew that as soon as the needle touched her finger she would scream her head off. As soon as that needle touched her finger she blew up; I had to go and find a lolly pop for her to help her calm down, but she wouldn't take it from me so I gave it to the mother and told her that she should show her daughter that it was ok to eat the lolly pop.
After all was done at the clinic for the day we cleaned up, loaded up and moved out back to camp. When we got back it was almost time for service, we didn't have time to grab something to eat or take a shower before service. We had arrived just in time for service to start. After we all got done with worship it was time for me to go up to the front of the room and share my testimony. It was short and simple, but it seemed like it took forever besides the fact that it was being translated into Dagara. After service had ended, the people who had just returned from the clinic were allowed to go eat and get a shower before we had to clock in. After all that was done we sat around our "camp fire" and had a few laughs about the day. (Camp fire was normally a glow stick)
DAY 4
Thursday, the second to last day of our trip in Burkina Faso, was a great day. After service we ate lunch and went out to play with the children. When we showed up they were playing a game that was interesting in itself. I'm not sure what the game was called, but we Americans called it "Mosque(Moss-Kay), Basque(Boss-Kay)" or "Left, Right". The object of this game was to guess what hand it was that was held out at you by saying either "Mosque" or "Basque". This game went on and on until finally John Mark, the leader playing the game, finally took off his watch to make us think even more. A few more times he went around then he finally got out the first American, me, and I was glad to get out because it was getting hotter and my hands were sweating from holding these two kids hands.
We joked around after the game was over, Olivia won congrats to her, by saying crazy things like 'It's hot as Africa out here'. Of course everyone thought it was funny because it was true, we were in Africa and it was hot. What we didn't realize is that it was winter time to them when it was at least 100 degrees outside.
Once this day ended we knew we only had one more full day then a whole day of traveling back to Ouagadougou. Which none of us were looking forward to.
DAY 5
Friday, the last full day of our mission work, unfortunately arrived sooner than we wanted. We all loaded up the truck and bus with all of the medical equipment and went to a new village. Once we got to the new village we had to carry all of the equipment into the village because it wasn't vehicle accessible. We carried all of the equipment and set it up inside of the church.
We had another service right before we began the clinic. Again they gave out jobs but we had so many people there that it didn't matter if we had 3-4 people doing malaria testing or 4-5 people working wound care and feet washing. I got to help do malaria testing this time, but this time we had to go to the doctors to show them because the head of the council showed up to make sure that we were doing everything the way that they should be done.
The time had come for lunch and many of us ate inside the clinic because it provided us with shade, next thing we know TJ is looking for a woman who had just walked out of the clinic before receiving her medication. Next thing you know there comes people flying in saying "We need the nurses and doctors to come out here, there is a woman about to give birth." So all of the nurses and doctors grabbed all of their equipment that they had at hand and ran out to aid the lady giving birth. What I was told, the lady had already given birth by the time they all arrived up there to help her. This was a shock to all of us, not just the nurses and doctors, that this lady just gave birth and was walking back towards the clinic. She didn't need any of the medical things that we use here in America when giving birth.
This day slowly came to an end which was a good thing for us because that just meant that we didn't have to get everything together at that moment. I had received word that my bag had finally showed up but I wouldn't be allowed to get it until we got back to the Missions House We got our last shower and last dinner and our last "camp fire" for this entire trip and it was a "sad" moment for us all. When this was all done and over we went to bed.
DAY 6 (Last Day)
Saturday had arrived unfortunately. I was happy yet sad that it had came. I was happy because I was going home to see my family that I had left for a week and that I would be receiving my luggage that was missing. Although it didn't phase me that my luggage with all my clothes was missing I was glad to get it back because its great to have a fresh pair of clothes to travel home in, I washed my clothes every time I took a shower thus making them clean for the week.
We tore down camp and again we were helped by the African children and leaders. Once camp was taken down we got everything loaded up on the bus and had a special prayer meeting before we loaded up to go. We got done praying and told all the African leaders good-bye and loaded up the bus to head back to Ouagadougou.
Falling asleep on the bus wasn't as easy as I thought it would have been. Mostly from people talking and playing UNO behind me. I wasn't mad at them for being loud because I knew that I would sleep on the plane all the way to Morocco. Eight hours passed by faster than I thought because we arrived in the city what seemed earlier than what it really was.
We got to go shopping at the local market/mall and shop around. I went in and found what I was looking for, a djimbe drum. After buying that I was glad I got it but not at the time at which I did because I had to carry it everywhere inside of that shopping center. I didn't see much that interested me in the shop and I was ok with that because that just meant that I would have some "Monopoly" money as souvenirs. I use the term "Monopoly" money because this money is worthless in the States like the game Monopoly.
After shopping, we went back to the Missions House and waited for Lynn to return with the pizza. Again food in Burkina Faso is not the same as in America. They don't have pepperoni because its not 'Italian' so instead it was replaced with salami. When you are hungry you will eat almost anything until you start getting full and realize its not what you think it was, I thought it was pepperoni but it really wasn't.
Heading home was about the same as arriving in Morocco, and security was still the same. Again I thank you for your prayers and financial support that you provided. I will say that this experience has changed my life and I am greatful for having the family and friends who are there to support me in anything that I do.
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