A Very Merry Christmas.

Since I left for Burkina Faso in 2005, I have spent each Christmas with the Hayslip family (Joel, Heidi, Jakob, and Silas) and Kate Royal; and although each year was still special in its own way, I hold this Christmas closest to my heart. For the first time since 2004, I am able to spend the holidays with my sister and parents. A very special Christmas indeed.

African Foosball Table.

Yes indeed - hand made right here in Ouagadougou - this is a foosball table that gets more use each day than anything I have ever seen! It takes a lickin and keeps on tickin. The boys really do love playing this game; and they are good at it too. I don't think I have ever won a game against them.

All moved out....

I don't know if I have ever posted any pics of the inside of my house on this blog; but in case you were wondering, "where does he live?" or "what does a typical place look like in Ouagadougou?" - Here it is. As of this week - I am all moved out and will be staying with a fellow missionary here in town until my departure. In the mean time, I will be listening to "I'll Be Home For Christmas" by Katharine McPhee (currently free on iTunes) because for the first time in FOUR YEARS I WILL be home for the Christmas!!!!! See YOU soon.

Counting down....?

(Taken on November 27th) This pic was taken just a few days ago; and now I find myself looking at the month of December, and like many of you out there, counting down the days until Christmas. Here in Burkina, we have an program that we simply refer to as "GAKAC" (pronounced 'gack - cack' ). It's an outreach/evangelical type program combined with - yes, you guessed - FREE GIFTS!!! Check up on following posts for more pics and hopefully even some video of the outreaches that will be happening this week and next.

Thanksgiving Day in Burkina Faso - a different perspective

(pictured above) Clustered in groups of 16, the tents provided by UNICEF provide temporary housing for just a few of the 100,000 individuals that were displaced as a result of the flooding back in September.
It's Thanksgiving day here in Burkina Faso; and there is a flood of thoughts that roll through my mind this morning as I reflect on how my perception of this holiday has changed over the past decade or so. There is a part of me that wants to put all that I am thinking here on my blog; but instead I am going to post a few pics from this morning's outreach to the camp pictured above.

Snack food in Burkina.

So I was thinking about looking up a bunch of stats on peanuts in Burkin, and then I thought, "Who really wants to read about numbers related to peanuts?!?!" What you are looking at above is an entire roof top (out in a little village called Zina) covered in peanuts. They were supposed to be drying in the sun, and they were until it started to pour down rain the following day! Peanuts are a huge snack food item here. There is a certain time of year (now for instance) where peanuts are found EVERYWHERE. Just in case you were wondering though - there are no honey roasted peanuts here. (which I absolutely love!)
Anybody want a peanut????

Focus BLoCK

I stepped outside of my door on Friday to notice an amazing cloud formation off on the horizon. The longer I looked at the sky, the more I realized just how unique the coloring was due to the sun setting on the horizon. I quickly grabbed my camera and tripod and jumped on the roof to get a better angle.

The above shot is purposefully over exposed as I was trying to get the people on the street lit up enough to see. (see pic below for much better colors and contrast) What hit me as I was taking shot after shot of the amazing colors and cloud formations was just how oblivious everyone was down below (as I was taking the pics from my roof top). I kept "ooo'ing" and "awing" at the clouds, trying my best to capture all the colors and formations with each passing minute; but when I finally paused for a sec to look around, I noticed a few kids starring at me from the street while everyone else was just going along their merry way. Not a single person that I saw that evening took the time to stop and look up - not one.

I think that is when it really hit me just how blocked my own focus had become at certain times over the past couple weeks. As I will be flying back to Washington state in less than 2 months now, there have been too many times where my attention has been locked on the future in anticipation what lies ahead, completely missing what was right in front of me for that particular day. Just today, I was thinking about arriving home and what I was going to do about a vehicle, what my first meal would be, whether or not Starbucks would be open around midnight when I arrive, who I would get to see, and on and on. It has become so easy for me to slip into this future focussed coma and disappear for an hour or so in the middle of the day.

Thank you God for the moments when the clouds roll in as the sun is setting and the sky simply grabs our attention and says, "HEY! Stop - and appreciate the beauty of moment for what it is.....stop - and appreciate today."