My ten glorious days with Bekah....

Bekah has been gone for over a week. For the past week I have been trying to formulate an adequate post detailing her trip...but each time I just come up short. It is very hard to put into words just how meaningful her time here with us was.

I've been replaying her visit with us. Reliving the memories we shared. The talks we had. Relishing in the memories. Bekah is one of my nearest and dearest. She is one of my most beloveds on this entire planet. So seeing her anywhere would have been special. Our time together is always treasured. But eish, getting to see her here, in Burkina, was particularly meaningful for so many reasons, and one of the reasons is this....

Me and Isaak chose this life for us. We knew that in accepting this life we would be walking it alone. Our family would not be coming with us. Our friends would not be following. We knew that in saying yes to God and following Him here, we would be leaving behind everything, and everyone else.

But then Bekah shows up at my door.

And all of a sudden we're not alone here anymore. All of a sudden someone we deeply know and love is here with us too. She is here in a place we ne-ver expected anyone from our lives to see firsthand.

She gets to see our lives with her own eyes, instead of through mine.

She gets to travel on our bumpy roads, look at our sky, hear our rain, walk on our red dirt, pass a sea of Burkinabé, absorb with her own ears the French and Mooré that has become so common to us. She gets to visit the orphanages we serve at, hug with her own arms the babies we've grown to love, eat the food we eat, worship at the church we now call home, find rest in the house God has given us to live in. She was able to witness our new life. Our new culture. Our new people.

She was here, in Burkina Faso, a place we never ever expected for anyone to follow us to. 

And yet she did. She got on a plane and in a day made the distance between us non existent. She made the world feel a lot smaller for a little while. She joined us in this life; this crazy African life that is now ours.

And it was one of the single greatest joys of my life so far to do life with her here for those glorious ten days.

And what a blessedly full and memory filled ten days those were. 

....here is a peek into the memories....

Friday morning, after I woke still shocked that she was here, we hit up our favorite local market and grocery stores and Bekah was able to pick up some Digestives, her favorite biscuit. I've never seen someone so happy to see a box of biscuits before! Oh African nostalgia!

Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to the time and when we were ready to leave to head home....this awaited us outside....

Friday is Mosque day for all the Muslims and around 1pm they start their prayers. Except there is not enough room in the mosques, so pray'ers will lay out their rugs just about everywhere all around town, including the grocery store parking lots. This is a picture of two lines of about twelve that were stuffed into this lot. Isaak wouldn't let me go up to the window to take a better picture...saying it was rude or something. =) So we had to wait until prayers were done before we could leave because they were blocking all the cars.

And then we had to slowly make our way through a crowd of hundreds of people who were all filing out of the mosques after prayer.

Welcome to Burkina....where you don't want to be caught downtown after Friday prayer time. =)

It would be moments like this....where I would just sit and smile and feel deep down thankfulness in knowing that Bekah was in the front seat, looking out the same windows, seeing my Burkina with me.

That night we do what we do every weekend....we had a slew of people over for dinner and games.

So Bekah was able to meet our African family here. We chowed down on Mexican and partook of the delicious tortillas Bekah brought us along with the refried beans and salsa! The kids thoroughly enjoyed the popsicles and we had a great time laughing and playing cards.
 
Saturday morning bright and early we headed to Yako. We took her to Sheltering Wings, the orphanage we love and support and partner with as much as possible, and introduced her to some of the incredible missionaries and interns serving there. And all those beautiful kids.

Bekah got to meet our hopeful little man, in addition to another little guy who stole her heart as well. As is the case here....these kids have a way of wreckin' some serious havoc on your hearts.....

Bekah's back was in so much pain following her flight all she could bare to do for the first two days was try to not move as much as possible! Luckily, you don't have to move to be able to hold babies and whisper prayers. Which we did plenty of at the orphanage that morning.

That evening we had our massage lady come to the house to give Bekah a massage, hoping it would help her back feel better. Which, it didn't! Ha ha! But it was worth a try. Then we took her to an Indian restaurant, one of our favorite restaurants in town.

Sunday we skipped church and went hiking at Monkey Mountain along with Fred and Nathanja.

This is a partial view of the "mountain" from the car window as we drove by. For reals, this is as big as they get in Burkina! It may not be super tall, but that mountain was no easy climb!

Here we are starting out. Of course there was no path, and the ground was covered in huge boulders and rocks with thick deep grass that would swallow your foot up to your knee if it slipped. 

Among our party of adults were Syd and Marvi along with little two year old Jake. None of us had ever been to Monkey Mountain before (which is so named due to the pact of Baboons that occupy this particular mountain), and so we had no idea what to expect as far as terrain. Well, it was too late to go back now! The kids would just have to keep up! Which they did! Man we got some troopers!

Once we got half way up, we stopped for a rest. I was carrying a big ole book bag full of my honkin' camera and lunch and water bottles, and right about now I was considering chucking it over the side of the mountain to lighten my load. It is one thing to hike up a mountain. It is another thing to "hike" up a mountain that requires you to climb over boulders and claw your wall over massive rocks on your hands and knees. Oh my gosh it was so much fun, but so so tiring!! And up over Nathanja's head on the right is the remainder of the mountain we had to climb. *Let it be known that gray does not  hide sweat very well. And I was sweating somethin' fierce by this point from just about everywhere by the time we got to the top.

 
Our awesome troopers! They did so great! I love the adventures we are getting to share with them while living here. I love that they now will have memories from their childhood that include hiking up monkey inhabited mountains in the bush of Burkina Faso.

Also equally awesome....is that Bekah was here to do it with us! Apparently she did this all the time in S.A....she and her friends would just pick mountains to climb and forge their way up them, creating paths as they went. So this was like coming home to her....getting to relive some of her favorite African memories.

Once we got half way, we looked out over the expansiveness before us, and realized that the sky was getting increasingly darker.

Probably shoulda paid a little closer attention to the doppler radar before we set out. Oh wait...we don't have that here, never mind! On the left side of the pic right where the sky meets the land, you can see a little blob of orange mixed with the deep gray. Orange sky means one thing here....dust storm. Which in this part of year is almost always followed by rain. And the rain is always accompanied by a brilliant display of thunder and lighting. So...we thought it would be wise to make haste and find some cover up on the mountain, because the wind was already starting to pick up. So we continued our ascent up the remainder of the mountain, which was slow going given all the boulders and rocks we needed to maneuver over. Right before we got to the top the wind was getting so strong we knew we had to find a place to weather out the storm, and luckily there was a decent rock covering close by.

I think it's safe to say that not everyone was as enthusiastic and excited as me and Bekah were to get caught in a storm on the side of a mountain! Oh my gosh, we were screaming and laughing and shrieking and giggling with delight!

Again, welcome to Africa, where a sense of adventure mixed with a little bit of crazy is key to happy survival!  You seriously have got to have some crazy stored up in you if you find being caught in a storm while hiking on an unfamiliar mountain inhabited by baboons...fun. Glad God made us both with just right right amount of crazy because we seriously were giddy with excitement!

Storms here have the potential to last for hours, so after a time we decided to take our chances and carefully walk back down the mountain. Me and Bekah were having a great time and would have been content to stay up there and get rained on all afternoon, but we had to think of the others in our group. So we set off. It was pouring sheets of rain when we set out but half way back down it turned into a drizzle. We were all completely soaked through from head to toe. And while the walk down the mountain wasn't nearly as physically exerting...we had to take extra precaution given the ice slick grass and mud we now had to contend with. But we made it. Bekah even found her self a little waterfall that she tried to slid down to no avail! Bah ha!

So so fun. Just crazy awesome that day was.

Monday me and Bekah woke up to the worst stabbing pains in our legs ever. And somehow Bekah convinced me that despite the fact that I literally could not even bend down....that it would help me feel better to go for a run. Uuum, it is not my experience that running helps you feel better. It tends to make me feel awful, which is why I avoid running like I would the plague. But yet, there I was, following Bekah down my street on the first run I've ever done since moving here! Another first! And last probably. =) I seriously hate running. But I love how she challenges me!

*And side note...the running did not help my legs feel better. That is a dirty lie that runners tell you to try to brain wash you into a becoming a runner junky too! Just sayin'. Exercising while in pain does not make your pain go away. It just adds more pain! =)

Tuesday we took Bekah to the U.S. Embassy for lunch. She had never been inside an embassy before...not that I did either before moving here. So we sat and ate and explored the few hallways we could access and then drove past the presidents palace and stopped at the Memorial for Fallen Soldiers monument. And later that afternoon we took the girls to their horse riding lesson followed by the watching of Mamma Mia that night at the girls request. I don't know if I should be proud or concerned that they know almost that whole movie by heart.  ( I think secretly proud. =) ) Not proud that Bekah has never seen it! Where did I go wrong?! She even fell asleep during it?! What the heck, how do you fall asleep during the greatness that is Mamma Mia?! How I ask?! I have failed, I have failed in our friendship for not getting her to share in my profound love for cheesy musicals. =)

Wednesday we went to the orphanage in town I serve at twice a week. It was here that her arms came to be nestled around the children that I have come to love in a deeply personal way. Me and Bekah met each other while serving overseas in Lime, Peru on a mission trip nine years ago. And I love, that after nine years, here we were again on a different continent this time, but serving together still. I love, that at the very heart of our friendship, is Jesus.

And in her desire to serve as Christ....her arms found Rosalee and Noah, Jean and Immanuel, and all the others needing sanctuary nestled close to her. Her love for Jesus and desire to bring healing through acceptance and closeness and affection....just oozes out of her. More than any physical comfort, these kids need arms to hold them, and reassuring words spoken over them...of which Bekah gives in abundance.

On Thursday we spent the morning and afternoon with Nathanja touring her PanBila sight and seeing all the work her ministry does and then going to her center for street girls and spending time with them.

These girls are living at the center for a number of reasons. But the driving factor that brought them here is rejection. Somewhere along their life they were rejected and left with no other options. No hope. No support. No future prospects. These girls...are fragile. They have been discarded by society and deemed unworthy. Disgraced and left to despair. And yet there they sat...in a circle among us....smiling and eager. We taught them how to play UNO, which was translated into three different languages, and before long all the girls were playing along, getting more competitive as the game went on and there sat Bekah among them, not knowing their language, but speaking to them nonetheless. I love, that at the core of her identity...is Christ.

She can not contain His character within her. It beckons to be released and shared. And it was with great joy that I got to witness, again, her selfless service to the broken, to the marginalized, to the outcast and unwanted. She sat among them, entering into their brokenness, giving them an opportunity to laugh and feel delight, and then reaching down deep into the recesses of her heart and pouring out prayers on behalf of every woman there.

Of all the things we do. Of all the adventures we have and memories we make together....there is nothing I would rather do more than to serve this world on behalf of Jesus alongside her. She glorifies Him well, that friend of mine.

*side note-upon leaving the center and driving home that afternoon....the car broke down. And I mean broke.down. The gas stopped working and then all of a sudden the car started slamming back and forth, to which I may have yelled, "it's gonna explode!" That's right. You can always count on me to stay calm in moments of stress! Ha ha! We pulled off to the side of the road and when we opened the hood the engine was literally thrashing back and forth. Uh, crazy! Thankfully people appeared out of no where, as is the case here, wanting to help, and seen as how I have yet to learn the French words for "engine thrashing back and forth"...I felt kinda inept at saying more than, "car don't work."

I was like, all spasing out and flustered because we were stranded, which is one of my biggest fears here due to the language barrier, the lack of USAA road side assistance, and the frequency of being in obscure places, and then it happened, and I had no clue what was up with our car or how we'd get it back and fixed....and I look over and there is Bekah, just having the time of her life taking pictures of it all!

Thankfully, we broke down about two miles away from Fred and Nathanja's house and he was able to meet us there. Also thankfully, one of the guys, who was a self proclaimed non-mechanic, scooted under the car and connected a tube he saw that was dangling loose. After that, the car drove fine, but Fred followed us back home just to make sure.

Disaster averted.

Just...another regular day here in Burkina.

That night it rained. A heavy rain. And we ran outside in the downpour and soaked ourselves silly. Burkina is hard and raw and full of deep pain and utterly exhausting. But it is also deeply beautiful. And it felt good to run outside, free and silly into the rain and laugh. I have found that laughter is essential to survival here along with small moments of delight found in everyday things. So we screamed and ran and jumped in the rain, and let the ourselves get refreshed in the belly ache of laughter and simple joys.

And then Friday rolled in. Friday was not my friend. Well, late Thursday night and early in the midnight hours of Friday morning I woke up sick. I went to bed at 11:30pm Thursday night and woke up at 1am and for the next 13 hours my body revolted against me in every way possible. Around 10am Friday morning I lay in bed, miserable from having just thrown up again when Bekah came in and asked if it would help me to relax and feel better if she rubbed my feet and hands and back. I told her yes, so she came back in with some oils and started rubbing my back and feet and legs, trying to sooth my weary body. Not long afterwards I had to retreat to the bathroom again to throw up and as I sat crouched in front of the toilet, my vision got all spotchy and I started to sweat, as happens when your body is in that condition. I crawl back to bed, and within five minutes, I notice that my palms feel like they have been lit on fire and are also itching uncontrollably. Next my back follows suit, followed by every inch of my body. I call to Bekah and when she comes in I tell her I think I'm having an allergic reaction. At which point I discover that she rubbed olive oil on my body when she was massaging me moments earlier. Within no time my body was bright red, swollen, and covered in massive welts from the top of my back to the bottoms of my feet. In addition to the burning sensation and uncontrollable itching.

So now I am sick and am also having a severe allergic reaction....because if I didn't know it before, I certainly know it now...I have a topical allergy to olive oil. ( I actually did kind of know before this...but that's another story). Bekah pries off my rings because my hands are swelling and they hurt from the pressure and then quickly has me take an antihistamine pill, which I fortunately keep down for 20 minutes, long enough to absorb. Which is good because I also drank some benadryl and threw that back up. After that she googles some home remedy methods for treating the welts and swelling and makes a baking soda paste and applys it all over my body to help with the itching. And then gets ice cold water and repeatedly covers me with wash clothes soaked in ice.

That is as close to torture as I ever want to come. If being sick wasn't brutal enough, to then have an allergic reaction, followed by having your entire body soaked in ice to compress your blood vessels to keep from going into anaphylactic shock...lets just say I never want to feel that absolutely miserable again. I have never ever ever been that sick in my life. It was just a whole 'nother ball field of bad.

Thankfully Isaak got me an appointment at the clinic at the embassy for the afternoon but I was so lightheaded and weak when it came time to move to get dressed...I couldn't stand up without getting sick and blacking out. Which is what happened. Thankfully Bekah was there to catch me and lay me on the floor, where I preceded to throw up and lay sprawled out unable to move. She literally had to get me dressed. I remember telling her as she dressed me,

"you're so good at this, look how great you are..."
To which she replied, "that's because I'm a nurse, didn't you know?"
"You're a nurse?!" I say, wondering how I coulda missed that crucial piece of information in her life.
"I totally have my CNA lisence, plus my dad's a doctor, " she responds.

Bah ha ha ha ha! I was not to sick to laugh. Oh my gosh, that was just the greatest line ever. I love her. I just love her. I love that even in the midst of the worst I have ever felt....we could still laugh and joke with each other. I love that when I was recovered, she made fun of me for being dramatic when I laid sprawled out on the floor! I love that I can laugh at her when she thinks having a CNA license warrants her to being a nurse!!

I couldn't drive to the clinic, obviously, so Bekah got to have a crash course in driving here in Burkina. Which, did not even phase her. Seriously, she is hard core my friend. She just delights in Africa and rolls with her punches and enters into her craziness and lets it become a part of her.

It was in that moment of seeing her drive with absolute sureness, the chaos and uncertainty of my deteriorating health, that I saw in my friend something new. She is perfectly at ease in moments of chaos. She has this remarkable ability to enter into unsure situations...and she functions with ease and just....a sureness, a steadiness. For someone who has a flare for drama as much as I do =) ...I found it quite remarkable how the Lord enables her to engage in moments of crazy and potential chaos with an ease and a sound sureness.

Once at the clinic my welts were starting to decrease thanks to Bekah's quick thinking. I was still swollen and red and ichy and on fire so I got stabbed with two shots and left to rest and be monitored. Finally, after an hour the iching and fire subsided and I was allowed to go home. I threw up once more for good measure and fell fast asleep upon getting to my bed. I woke up late that evening feeling better. Only Jesus I tell you. I was able to get up and join Bekah and Isaak in the living room and managed to salvage part of the day that was lost by being in their company without being sick. I can only attribute Jesus and his mercy and healing to helping me recover so quickly. I was in such bad shape it is a huge praise that he enabled my body to recover so quickly.

By Saturday, the next morning, I woke up feeling better, stronger, more refreshed. So we took full advantage of a birthday party the girls had that morning and we set off shopping on our own!

I took her to one of my favorite little stores. It is tucked down a little alley way and is full of all kinds of fun treasures. Particularly exciting pants like these! Nothing says cool like a crotch that hangs to the floor! I'm serious. I totally dig these pants. I want them. Afterwards we headed to my friend Annie's house where the girls were. As it turns out, Annie and Bekah share a common friend! Annie, happens to be good friends with one of Bekah's friends from college, they met each other while living in France at language school. Love when God makes the world small. When circles overlap in the most obscure places. Just cool.

Then that afternoon Isaak got into a motorcycle accident. Thankfully, he walked away just scraped up a bit. His bike on the other hand needed so TLC. But after some repairs it's back up and running.

It was also Saturday afternoon that we realized we had been robbed on Friday night. Someone took off the metal door to our shed, ran off with our chaise lounger next to the pool, and all of Isaak's tools.

Again, welcome to our life. Where in a single week Isaak gets in two accidents, we get robbed, I get heinously sick, we get trapped on a mountain during a storm, the car brakes down on the side of the road...and ya know...all the other regular life stuff. 

I am just glad Bekah was there to experience it with us all!

Later that night Isaak somehow convinced us to watch Top Gun with him because Bekah made the fateful error of admitting she had never seen it. FYI...never admit to Isaak that you have not seen Top Gun. He will be compelled out of his love for Tom Cruise to pry your eyes open, strap you to a chair, and force you to watch it until you can recite at least three lines from memory...." I feel the need...the need for speed." "You can be my wing man anytime" and "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

However, during Bekah's Top Gun initiation...we were really monitoring the countdown to the Catching Fire official trailer premier! Um, I can not tell you what a deep joy it was to get to watch that with her here!!

This is us as we watched it the first time! ha ha! I love having a friend who will hold my hand in excitement as we watch a movie trailer! We then rewatched it like 49 times, pausing at each scene to dissect everything we saw! Cool alert!!

Sunday, Bekah's last day with us, we went to church in the morning. And sure enough, the day before at Annie's house Bekah volunteered to lead worship because, well, this is Africa, and our little church is run by volunteers, and there were none that morning who were available to lead worship. And Bekah plays the piano and helps lead worship at her church...so it just made sense to her to help lead it here! When we arrived at church that morning we learned Annie had gotten sick the night before and was unable to sing. So Heidi stepped in to sing in her place. And there they were. Bekah and Heidi, with just a keyboard and a microphone, no bells and whistles, no flashy equipment, no extra instruments...they were able to draw the congregation into the Lord's presence that morning. All it takes is willingness. A willing heart....that's it. And God will use you wherever you're at with whatever you've got to draw others close to Him. It was just the loveliest morning.

That evening we attempted to play ultimate frisbee but the rain squashed that plan, so we went instead to Fred and Nathanja's to hang for a bit where we played a very intense game of Riff Raff. Ultimate frisbee's got nothin' on this game! Oh my gosh, Bekah could not even handle it! I love it!

And then we went home to finish out her final hours with us. Our last talk centering on spiritual warfare. Way to end her trip on an upbeat note I say! Ha ha!

And then I drove her to the airport. We sat. And talked. And prayed. Then came the time where there was nothing left to be said but goodbye. I squeezed her neck, walked her to security check point, and left.

I walked back to the car thinking, "that's it. Ten days come and gone. Just like that." It's crazy the way time moves. I remembered going to bed Friday night and thinking to myself then, "wow, we have ten more days of this!" I went to bed feeling her time spread out before me. It felt like a blessedly huge chuck of time, and that we would never come to the end of it. A week never seemed so wonderfully long. But we came to the end nevertheless. The week went by. Time has a way of doing that. Moving even when you don't want it to. Sneaking away when you're lost in play.

But she was here. My Bekah was here. Getting to experience Africa with her...well, was priceless. Getting to see her on African soil, in the land that she loves, was the sweetest gift. I didn't understand her love affair with Africa while she lived there. I didn't understand her burning passion for this continent. But I do now. She introduced me to this land. Before she ever came to see Africa through my eyes....the Lord allowed me to see it through hers. She walked before me, gently unfolding the glory of this land as she lived in the South. Telling tales of her life on paper. I read them from a far and distant place. I read them, detached and unknowing. Not able to comprehend the allure. The love. The need. The pain. The beauty. It was Bekah who first showed it to me. The Lord, using her life to draw me close to the one I did not yet know I'd live. But here I am. Living in Africa. And she was here too...living it alongside me.

Her trip was glorious and rich and full and it did my heart good to see my friend. It was just...so surreal. God is great. God is so so great. Oh how He loves us. Oh how he loves me. To bless me with a friend such as her.

Wonderful random memories....

watching lasik eye surgery online....so.nasty.

Bekah paying the toll at the péage and getting yelled at for taking her picture

Hook

drinking lemon grass tea and talking on the patio

walking through the market and artisnal village to buy fabric and trinkets

Marvelly's commentary on the mountain, "I'm good, I'm good. We're okay!"

"Don't worry, I've got my oils." Bekah's remedy for every ailment on the planet! Ha ha!

long talks in the kitchen

The Proposal

not being able to move because our legs hurt so bad

sneaking a picture in the embassy right in front of a camera

"I missed the smell of b.o. It feels like home."

eating dinner with Ruth, Latiffe and his new parents at Cappucinno

watching The Stoning of Soraya M.....eish, so hard.

Bekah getting the head of a q-tip stuck in her ear and her thinking it would stay in there forever!

lots and lots of Gilmore Girls

getting ambushed by swarms of mosquitoes while swimming

all the baguettes we ate

Always knowing what direction I'm going.

playing hide and seek and Disney headbands

all the laughing

the sleeping in

having time to talk about absolutely everything

listening to her share with me all that she's learning in seminary

praying together

and just...everything else. Everything that can't be summed up with words.