yesterday.

29.10.15


the sun is hot on my face as i walk out our gate and the little one's cries of, "tubabu musso" meet + fill my ears.  everyone is still in their blue checkered school clothes, clutching some kind of food that they snatched to eat before dinner, just like every other kid when they get home from school.  some proudly show me their guava while showing off their new french words.

a little one comes shooting out the courtyard to my right, sporting only his little, black shorts and makes a beeline for me, grabbing my big, light hand in his small, dark one as soon as he reached me.

"you going to see your mom?" our neighbor asks
i agree in the affirmative, and lift the camera on my shoulder out of reach from little hands.  "photo taa, tubabu musso, photo ta" : take our picture, take our picture.

i skirt the lake of mud and trash in the middle of the road that is quickly eating up the small pathway around it.  and i hear confirmation that mom is there even before i see her.



the kids are playing with the small ball that she brought for galilou and he is contentedly sitting on her lap watching the goings on around him.  

with more white people more kids always come, it's only a matter of time.  so now with the two of us, mom and i, sitting in the small open courtyard sitting under the tree; the kids come.  and shy smiles and toothy grins begin as the camera comes out.  

 and as i have eight pairs of hands on me clambering to see their picture in the camera screen, i'm amazed at how strongly the Lord has knit my heart with the burkinabé people.  

 i don't always like what they say or do, or how they treat me.  i get frustrated and annoyed.  but just like i would if i was anywhere else in the world, no matter what language i was speaking or who i was living life with.  

 but through all of it He has given me a love and heart for each of these faces and so many more. 



summa' time.

22.8.15








summer came and went + brought things unexpected and held things back.

the rain came, but never truly, leaving the fields under watered.  the signs of a hard year ahead are every where when what should be head-high corn, is not even waist high. 

there was our church's vbs and then (as a friend put it) "mk bonding time", which translated to games of mafia and eating bowls of pudding.  

the textbooks got more of a break than they were supposed to, but that means that there was more social time and all-day-in-your-pjs movie marathon days.

but now it's time to dust off the books for the last 4 month hurrah of high school.  friends go back to boarding school and we set our clocks for when christmas break comes around.  all the countless draft posts with bare their raw, tired faces to the light of day and the stacks of neglected photos will be shined and shown.  

summa' time is over and fall is rolling in.  stay strong, my frends…  even in the face of calculus.  

the day the rain came back.

2.6.15




 

the rain came back with the smell of hope + with a crack and grumble, the sun was swallowed while the sky opened and the dry, parched ground drank it's fill until the water ran along the surface and filled the dips and swells of the land.  in what seemed like the blink of an eye new, green life pushed up through the earth and brought with it the reminder of renewal and life.  

The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, 
to send rain on your land in season…   
Deuteronomy 28:12