What a Trip!

We're back from our trip to Burkina Faso. (Be sure to look at our web album! The link is on the right) We had a good time at the Nazinga game reserve where we met our friends and teammates, the Hauser's. We saw lots of elephants, antelope, baboons and other deer like creatures whose names I've forgotten. We were able to visit a demonstration farm near the capital of Ouagadougou and see some of the animals up close and personal including a waterbuck that tried to run Kate through with his horns from the other side of the fence. Thank goodness for chain link!

On our way from Ouagadougou to Bobodioulasso, the crank shaft in our engine decided to give up the ghost, so Damon and Brian towed it the remaining 238 kms to Bobo. They left the two pregnant women and their 7 children abandoned along side of the road in an unknown village. (okay, so we were at a bus stop but we like to tease them about it). Tabitha and the kids and I made the 4 hour trip by bus and arrived at the guest house, hot, tired, dirty, thirsty and very thankful to finally get horizontal.

While in Bobo we were able to meet some of the missionary friends that Damon made while he was there for Djoula language school last spring. The Schaeffer's, among others treated us to meals and a picnic on some rocks outside of town. It was good to finally get to meet them and spend some time with them.

From Bobo, we rented a car from the mechanic and headed to Banfora where the Hauser's live. They were gracious to not only open their home to us for a few days, but because of the car we ended up staying almost a week! While we were there, we had a lot of good meals and fellowship, a few games of The Settlers and were able to see a little of what their life is like in Burkina. In some ways it's similar to life here in Ivory Coast but in many others, it's vastly different. We were also able to visit a beautiful waterfall outside of their town and climb around on some big old rocks nearby.

The mechanic had told us that he thought the car would be ready to go by Feb22nd, so we hung around until then with our fingers crossed. When people began demonstrating over nation wide price increases, on Feb 19th, we began to get a little concerned since the mechanic wasn't able to work and order the extra parts needed. On Feb 20th, when they were still demonstrating, we began to think of alternate travel plans. Finally on Feb22nd, we boarded the 7 am bus for Bouaké and headed home.

The bus ride was extremely interesting and harrowing and definitely an experience I'm not sure I want to relive 7 months pregnant and with 5 kids in tow. Ü I won't bore you with all of the details but the trip, which usually takes 8 hours by private car, only took 7 on the bus, and that included a border crossing with 65 people and 6 stops including one that lasted almost an hour. Wow.

Friday night, the 22nd, we stayed at the former Baptist boarding school for missionary kids in Bouaké which is now the headquarters for the French peace keeping forces in Ivory Coast in "rebel" territory. We had a wonderful evening with the Ragsdale's, the only missionaries back in the area and then headed back to Abengourou on Saturday morning with our teammate, Henri who met us in Bouaké with the clinic's landrover. It felt wonderful to be back in our own home Saturday evening.

Sunday however, Damon and i the two youngest girls went to Abidjan to pick up our teammates, Bernie and Kelly Bledsoe who had been on furlough for the past year, and a new short term teammate, Elizabeth Sorenson, who is a nurse and will be helping us in the clinic for the next year. We were glad to see them and glad that they are here even though getting back on the road the next day wasn't much fun!

Now we're getting back into the swing of things here with school and the clinic and the Bible storytelling. Today, Damon is in the village of Bettié (3 hour drive) for a meeting with the church leaders. We are also trying to find parts for our car and figure out how to get them to Burkina so that the car can be fixed and Damon can go and pick it up before we need it to get to Ghana to have a baby. Never a dull moment around here! Ü

Speaking of the baby, the third toxoplasmosis screen came back negative so we're going to assume that toxoplasmosis isn't a concern for now. We haven't done a follow up ultrasound to check on the baby's growth but i have finally started gaining some weight and the dr was encouraged by that. We'll do another ultrasound at my next appointment on the 17th. Thanks for your prayers.