Burkina Faso 2016

June 3rd, 2016

Today brought more activities for the group.  We decided to take this day to revisit the village of Tankiedougou and to experience the Infants in Distress program that Stream in Burkina Faso sponsors on the way.

11:00am

We arrive at a village on the way to Tankiedougou to hand out supplies for infants in distress.  This is a very mobile clinic where infants can receive medical screenings and formula and supplies to aid in proper nutrition.  My hats off to the ladies that run this part of the ministry.  Luckily, we had several nurses as part of our team, so they were able to assist in the medical screens.  After the screenings, a couple of members of our team spoke and we prayed for all of those in attendance.  Great “pit stop” on the way to Tankiedougou.

Infants in Distress Ministry

3:00pm

We arrived at the village of Tankiedougou.  The village children were still in school, so we stopped by there.  We had a few things for the kids and hoped they enjoyed them.  Great time to visit and Megan put on an impromptu football (or as we call it, soccer) clinic.  The kids loved it and we really enjoyed talking to the teachers and seeing the kids at their school.

Village School

From there we went back to the well site and were greeted by a ton of people.  Everyone was still very happy to see us and we actually were taken on a “journey of the water.”  Some women were at the well to get water for the day and we watched how they filled their containers, put them on their heads, and carried them back to their homes.  Quite the journey.  Afterwards, one of the women to a group of us to the village center and decided to buy us all a round of Dolo as a gesture of appreciation.  Dolo is a grain alcohol that have very little alcohol content.  Less than those little wine coolers you can find in stores.  I think they told me the alcohol content was around 0.5%.  So…it takes a lot of Dolo to get one tipsy.  A feat that I believe our benefactor…and the rest of the village… was trying to accomplish.  Evidently, it was happy hour.  The drink was served to us in gourd bowls.  They then proceeded to come around and scoop out an bugs with a strainer.  It had kind of a fruity smell and taste.  My thought was, “Just drink it and be nice.  Don’t disrespect them by not taking this gift.”  Several members of the team chose not to drink, but I chugged it.  And every time I drank, they filled me up again.  And I couldn’t say, “No, thanks…I’ve had enough.”  I finally figured out to just not drink the last round.

Once we left, we made our way back to the rest of our group and headed back to the compound.  It was a great time in the village.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnv4gNQnyfE