A new addition....

I have been saying since Chief died almost a year ago now, that we were not getting another animal until Anna passed. I don't care if that was twenty years away. It was just gonna be her. I didn't want to introduce another animal into the house with Anna being so old, and moving, and on and on and on. 

I was firm. No animals. Don't ask because you know the answer will be "no". I mean it. Capisce?

Meet Amira. Our newest addition. She came home on Thursday.

Clearly I lost our "no more animals" argument. I'm not sure how. Oh wait, yes I do...and all fingers point to that man. Isaak should not be allowed to look at pictures of kittens, because he's just a big ole softy and can not resist him a little cutey kitten. He affectionately calls her, "little lady". And the fact that she is a spitting image of Chief only melted his heart for her more. 

And of course these two are smitten. If Amira doesn't forget how to walk it will be a miracle. Poor cats feet never touch the floor!

Anna is less than thrilled, but I figure she'll either get over it in time...or hide under the bed for the next twenty years. 

So, looks like we're back to having two cats. I gotta admit...she's pretty darn cute. And as long as she stays away from plastic bags we'll get along just fine. 

Arbollé village

We drove to a little village named Arbollé, which sits an hour outside of Ouagadougou, just a couple days before Christmas. It's in this little village that the Ambassador's "Self Help" program has invested in a small business that will employ 173 women in an effort to provide them with meaningful work that will enrich their lives and that of their families. For every one of these small businesses that the Ambassador funds, he asks for volunteers to "adopt" or sponsor that specific program and go and visit the site and usher in pride and encouragement for their success in starting something that will hopefully change their lives.

So we went. As did almost the entirety of this little village. They came and gathered and watched.

They played music and sang.

The dedication ceremony lasted about two hours with lots of talking and thank-you's and music pieces where the women would come up and dance.

They danced and danced in celebration of their success. Oh how African's love to dance.

The small business that these women now run is a Shea butter soap making business. 

1st. They take the Shea nuts and roast them in this little oven. The nuts are placed inside the cylindrical device sitting inside the top of the oven and the women take turns cranking the cylinder by that handle, turning and turning and turning the nuts. Sticks are lit and a little fire starts on the ground on the bottom inside the "oven".

The roasted shea nuts are then collected, put into bowls are brought inside this little building...

...where the women sit and crush the nuts....

Marvelly and Sydaleigh had a go at pounding the nuts for a while. They had a blast but after five minutes they were tired and let the ladies finish up.

The nuts are then put into a bowl and poured into the press. This press is what the Ambassador specifically funded. As these presses are quite expensive, around $6,000, it would have taken a lifetime for them to save the money needed to purchase this on their own. But now, through this machine, the women of this village are able to earn a reliable income.

Once the nuts are placed in the machine the women take turns cranking this handle up and down until this chocolately looking oil is extracted from the nuts. 

We all had a go at the press.

The girls had fun with it.

After they extract the oil they boil it and then do something else....to make it look like the stuff in the first bin. After it looks like that they remove the chunky stuff (I'm so technical, I know) and put it in the third basin. There are a couple more steps involved after that in order to make it into soap. It's a very long, multi-stepped process, but these ladies have it down to the science and know exactly what to do.

While we were inside touring the process they offered us these, things. It is some kind, of thingy. It's made from a tree. A really funky almost dead looking tree. It's very sweet. And it doesn't exactly taste bad...just different. I wouldn't even be able to describe it better than this, just something you have to taste to know.

After the ceremony and tour we drove to another building a block or so away where they fed us lunch, chicken and potatoes, and presented me with this gift.....

a panaya (pahn-yuh), which is basically a piece of fabric that you can use to tie around your waste and use for a skirt, or bring to a tailor and make into a shirt. This, of course, was to be tied around my waste for skirt wearing purposes.

You'd think it would be easy, to wrap a piece of fabric around you and make a skirt. I mean, that's all they do. It's not complicated. Unless you're me. Then wrapping a piece of fabric around your waste so it doesn't fall down is all of a sudden like trying to figure out the complexities behind rocket science. Denise had to help me. I'm surprised I learned how to feed myself, this is even easier than that.

Very Burkinabé of me.

Now I just need to ride on a bicycle with a baby wrapped to my back, while balancing a gigantic metal bowl on my head, with massive bags hanging from each handle bar, all the while I'm peddling through near death traffic in 100 degree heat for 20 miles.

No problem. I can totally manage that. Just as soon as I figure out how they keep those dang skirts from falling down....

It was a wonderful afternoon. We felt so blessed and welcomed. It was so moving to sit and watch these women dance with such joy and enthusiasm. They could not be held back. They could not stay sitting. The music would start and they are just compelled to stand and respond to the music. They would be betraying the way they were created if they did not dance. The music is in their blood. They can not be separated from it. It is a part of who they are.

And it was such a thrill to come and celebrate along side them their accomplishments.

And share in their joy.

And I just love Africa so. The colors. My gosh, the colors, they are everywhere. Everything is in color here. The weird metal finger instruments that they play. The dancing. The endearing and enthusiastic way that they dance and kick up dirt, and close their eyes to feel the music. I just love it all. The eagerness to shake your hand and say hello. Their desire to teach you and welcome you into their world. The pride they have in their way of life.

Everything we do and the more that we learn about the people here and their culture...we grow more and more in love with this place.

*we totally ended up being in the local paper from our day here! There was an article about the women's business and then a picture of Isaak at the press as they discussed the Embassy's involvement in this initiative. They called us the "Murvelly family".

Like I said...totally love this crazy place.

Biker chic.

What can I say? The girl likes to ride her on daddy's motorcycle.

And she told me the other morning that she had a dream about riding on it again.

You never know the funny things that your kids are gonna like growing up! Hopefully she won't get any ideas about planting her bum on the back of a boyfriend's bike and just sticks to riding with her daddy!

She's definitely my little biker chic.

Thoughts on the situation in Mali and living in ignorance.

I'd always been interested in world affairs. But being interested in something, and actually caring about something I think are quite different now.

I was interested. Before I moved to Burkina Faso I'd read what was being reported around the globe. I wanted to stay informed. Much like many other people I suppose. We read our newspapers. We watch CNN of Fox news in the mornings as we drink our coffee and get ready for the day. During lunch breaks we get online and go to our favorite news source.

We read what they tell us is important. We read what they show us. And that's usually it. If there is news happening else where in the world, we generally wouldn't know, because it exists outside the links we include in our daily lives.

And to be perfectly honest most people who read the news don't really care about it much anyways. We sigh and say "how terrible" and then click over to the next thing vying for our attention. Because it doesn't affect us. So long as our life and our world continue to function as before we feel very little need to let outsider news actually affect us. To stir us.

I remember when the tsunami hit Japan in March 2011, almost two years ago now. I remember following the news, glued to the reports of lives lost, uncomprehending damage, and then reading in awe of how three nuclear reactors were suffering meltdowns. It seemed like the world waited, on edge, to see how this story would continue to play out. And then one day I remember sitting down to my desk at lunch, and getting online to read the days reports on the developing nuclear crisis....and there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. No updates to be found. I thought to myself, "It's been one day, surely the crisis hasn't been averted! Surely the reactors are still leaking, surely there are still ongoing search teams for survivors. Where is the news?!"

But there was none. And everyday after that there was none either. After four weeks what happened and was still happening in Japan became old news. T.V. and newspaper editors move on and want reports of something fresh and current. And eventually people forget. They stop caring. They stop wondering. They avert their attention to whatever else it is that our society deems more news worthy at the time. And I am no exception. I'm no better than anyone else. I would read and then forget. I would forget and not really care, if I'm being honest, because what I read about doesn't really have anything to do with me and my life.

And even if we don't outright think that way...our lives dictate that to be truth.

It's not an American thing. It's a human thing. I can't sit here and blame American's for being self-centered because the whole world is that way.

Most people care only about what affects them. Most people rarely take notice of the suffering and crisis's in the rest of the world because it doesn't affect their life. We all have own jobs and families and hobbies and friends and burdens of our own. We have our life, and if something happens outside of that circle...we generally pay it very little attention, or at least enough to alter the way we live.

Since moving to Burkina I've been trying to change that tune in my life. Despite the incredible poverty here it would actually be quite easy to live blinded to it all. I see a lot of people who do it. They live there life for them and pay no heed to the suffering right under their feet. It would be easy, all too easy, to keep ourselves locked up inside our 8 foot wall, leave to go shopping, and spend our time socializing with others like us. It would be very easy to waste these next two and a half years and never let my life be altered to the suffering I see.

But I can't do it. I'm compelled to be altered. I'm compelled to see and to do and to take notice. I'm compelled to live an altered life and not just care in theory...but to care in reality. To do something. To see and not forget. To read and not be numb. To recognize that there is a world outside of my own and I can either choose to enter into it...or keep living unaffected by it.

Because regardless of what we may think....what happens in this world outside of our own lives still affects us. In some way or another it affects us. We may not see those effects this side of eternity...but we will someday. Our fellow human beings are being sold, raped, beaten, tortured, persecuted in the most barbaric forms, dying of hunger, dying of preventable diseases, being wrongly imprisoned, being orphaned, and widowed all over this earth. And it's in our power to take notice. It's in our power to step out of our circle and reach into someone else's.

There is a war currently going on in Mali, our neighboring country. The rest of the world may not call it a war, but to the Malians in that country and the others fighting with them, you can better believe...it's war to them.

There are soldiers and bombs and tanks and fighting to the death.

Northern Mali is the largest territory held by Al-Qaida. The same Al-Qaida we have been fighting against in Afghanistan. They have moved in and won't be moved out without a fight. A fight that is currently happening right now.

And Burkina Faso is not removed from it all. The effects of this turmoil have been reaching in for a while and as easy as it may be to pretend that it doesn't affect our daily lives and keep on living in the delusion of our privileged world....reality knocks and I can not shut her out. We have friends with the embassy here who were previously stationed in Bamako and evacuated last year when the coup happened. We know many missionaries who were evacuated from northern Burkina since we moved here and are now living in Ouaga because the north of our country is now too dangerous. There is a refugee camp not far out of the city where people displaced by this crisis came flooding into the country to take shelter. Our friends run a ministry there weekly to serve these homeless people. Isaak is working till past the girls bedtime because his job demands his attention to this issue.

There was an attempted coup in Burkina last year before we moved here and one of the things they have told us is to not be charmed by the calm. Things can turn ugly fast. It takes but one little spark to set a city on fire.

I love it here. I absolutely love it. And I don't live in fear despite the chaos happening in many other West African countries surrounding us. I don't live in fear despite the threat now present in our own country.

But I don't live in denial either.

Now is not the time to live in the denial that the suffering happening around us does not affect us, or should not affect us.

There are many who willingly live in a happy case of denial and don't even watch the news or read the paper because it's all just "too depressing".

Wake up people. The world is depressing. Closing your eyes to it all doesn't change that fact.

Now is not the time to be charmed by the calm. Not is not the time to be ignorant and keep living unaffected by the suffering around us and throughout the world. It doesn't matter where we live...chaos and war and persecution and suffering are just a knock away from all our lives. Now is the time to prepare for it. Now is the time to reach out and take hold of the hand of someone living through it.

Take notice world. That white picket fence is an illusion. 


*Good articles on the situation currently happening in Mali can be read 

HERE: Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali
and
HERE: France will deploy 2500 troops in Mali.

What a joke

You, Jimbo, say that you are a Christian and love Jesus and have a heart for Africa. Yet you come here, spend exorbitant amounts of tax payers dollars to be on the ground for less than 24 hours, and engage in nothing outside of your own personal interests.

You have made headlines for toting the Jesus card and making multiple trips to Africa, all on the US Governments tab, for what you describe as advancing the political philosophy of Jesus. But what have you done? Really, I'd like to know.

For a man who claims to have a heart for both Jesus and Africa...what have you done in support of either?

Who have you shared the redeeming love of Jesus with on this Congressional Tour? What part of Ouagadougou did you visit to see how people in this country live?

For a man that claims to love Jesus and Africa you spent the entire time that you were here exploiting your position of power in the US Senate. A position, lest I remind you, that was given to you. Given to you by the voters, but ultimately by God. And you take your leadership and abuse the power placed in your hands. You exploit others to feed your own interests. You demand that nearly the entire embassy personnel be at your disposal. You bring obscene amounts of luggage for what I can only imagine would be to carry your obnoxiousness. You meet with no one. Your interest in Africa only extends as far as your own agenda takes you. You don't see. You don't know squat. You come and take and fill up on your sense of entitlement. You are self-indulgent and only care about gorging your own inflated ego.
 
Now that's some serious diva b.s. if I've ever seen any.

But hey, you're a "Christian" so it's okay right? Idiot.

Jesus didn't come to be served, Jesus came to do the serving. And when you live to feed your own selfish appetite, you cheapen the work that Jesus did on your behalf.

Don't come here under the ruse that it's to advance Jesus' mission and rally support for others to jump on your so-called Africa lovin' bandwagon.

Actions speak louder than words ever will.

And you've done nothing, except spend a whole lotta money that wasn't yours. And waste a lotta people's time for something that wasn't admirable or noble.

And it's people like him that we vote for to represent America throughout the world. Well, no wonder the world hates us so much. People see us as a bunch of egotistical, selfish, narcissistic twerps.

What a joke.

What.a.joke.

Stuff like this makes.my.blood.boil.

New Year's "goal"

Since having kids....I don't do goals. Or resolutions. Or basically anything that requires any kind of long standing commitment out of me. That sounds horrible. But since having kids the reality of committing to something long term is just a sweet hallucination.

Kids don't make it easy to commit to things.

Before I became a mom I was really good at doing things everyday like...

going to the gym every single morning, no exceptions
taking a shower
brushing my hair
putting on deodorant
cleaning the house
keeping my desk organized

Now, oh now...those days are history.

I am lucky if I get a shower and remember to put deodorant under more than one arm.

I have not seen the bottom of my desk in six years. Half the stuff that's on it belong to the girls.

Brushing my hair? Um, there are days when I don't see another living person besides my kids and I'm not about to be bothered fixin' up my hair and in the event that I get ambushed by uninvited guests...I've got hats to cover that now thank you very much.

If I try to get disciplined and decide my lungs would be grateful to not be huffin' and puffin' from bending over to carry the bread out of the oven, the girls decide that they are gonna randomly start waking up at the exact time every morning that I've dedicated to exercise. Or, I end up moving to a third world country where there are no gyms. And going outside to run only further results in my lungs revolting against me because I'm stuffing them with dirt.

So I decided that I am just going to ban commitments from my life...until the girls grow up and think I'm a whack job and don't want to be caught dead with me and I'm faced with loads of free time.

The problem is this. Sydaleigh is now seven and in the first grade and Marvelly is approaching five and going into Kindergarten next year. Those aren't problems actually. The problem is that the girls are actually getting more independent. Okay that's not a problem either. The problem is that my old problem of never being able to commit to anything longstanding because the girls monopolized so much of my time is becoming less and less of my life. I'm regaining some time again. I can go for some good chunks out of the day where they entertain themselves....SWEET JESUS IT'S A MIRACLE! I'm blogging in the middle of the afternoon. What.is.up?!?!? Granted, now that I write that someone is bound to have an emotional breakdown and need me, but hey, I'll take as long as I got!

Okay so the problem, for the love of Jesus can I get to the problem?!

....is learning to re-train myself to be disciplined and a good steward with the personal time I get here and there throughout the day.

So. I've decided to revisit this whole "goal" thing.  It's not a resolution. That word sucks and just invites failure. I am setting a goal. A goal is something that I am aiming for and trying to achieve. A resolution is something that you are determined to do. Well, I'm sorry but lets face it, regardless of whether I'm determined to do something doesn't mean squat if Life shows up and decides to hijack my day. And I am well aware that these two words may in fact be exactly the same, but in my head they are different and that is what matters.

I'm setting a goal.

My goal is this...

to read the bible in its entirety this year.

Whoops, I just laughed at myself a little bit. Not sure what I'm thinking setting a goal like that. Except that the Holy Spirit has been all up in my grill convicting me to get more into the Word because I've been slackin' and three friends in the past two days have encouraged me to do this. So, I am.

It seems crazy. Crazy in that I might as well be trying to train for a marathon...or learn to sew a quilt! That kind of crazy. I mean, people who run marathons for fun are just flippin' mad. Why would you do that?

Anyways, back to the bible. That is my goal. To read it through. Not sure I can do it. As a matter of fact I know that I can't. Like, for sure can't. I am the girl that reads her bible and gets sidetracked after reading only two verses, and has to sit and ponder and journal about ten words. Ten words. Some days that's as far as I get. It took me six months (oops, I lied a little bit, more like nine months) to read through a six week study through 1&2 Peter. Because every ten words or so I'd have to stop and write and think.

The bible in a year?! That is 66 books! It took me nine months to read through two!

I'm doomed.
Totally doomed.
Thank goodness this is just a goal and not a resolution.

Luckily, I serve a super awesome God who knows I suck at reading the bible without stopping and getting sidetracked and with His help I'm bound to make it through at least 20 of the 66 books.
Okay....with His help I can make it all the way through. He's kind of a rockstar and makes up for the mess that is me. And I owe it to Him to know His Word more. All of it. Not just the books I like. Even Leviticus and Amos. I'm sure there's good stuff in those too.

So that's my goal.

I start tomorrow, Lord help me. No seriously...Lord help me! This is not gonna come easily.

Feels like Fall.

I stepped outside to take the garbage out at 6am a couple weeks ago.

The darkness of night had just departed and the brightness of day was being ushered in.

I stood on our back steps for a moment, suddenly struck by the familiarness of home. Our old home. In the States.

I looked around. But I was still here, far away, in our new home. A smile broke out across my face.

For the first time since I moved here five months ago...it felt like Fall. It even smelled like it. It smelled like a season I recognized. The air was crisp. The temperature hovering in the 60's. You could smell the dew. My skin prickled from the colder air stirred up by a breeze.

It sent my spirit light.

They told me the cold season would come. And it did.

A cold season that gets into the 90's during the day.

What a funny place this is.

I love it very much.

I'm particularly enjoying the weather right now. I wore jeans and a layered long sleeve shirt tonight. When night starts to fall the temperature drops to the high 50's, which is chilly anywhere. But feels especially chilly here when you've been sweatin' in the 90's all day. Burkinabé's all wear thick jackets, with scarves, hats, and gloves. They are seriously cold.

I welcome the cooler air.

It feels like Fall to me.

The beginning of Fall when the leaves start to turn. The leaves have even been falling off our trees here.

Again, what a funny place this is.

This morning I sneaked outside early and sat on the patio in a patch of sunlight with my book. I cozied up in my chair and basked in the small patch of sunlight. I delighted in the chill of the morning. I watched the birds and listened to the lizards rustle around. I thanked Jesus again and again and again. For everything and nothing in particular. Just a soul deep thanks that I can never say enough. A thousand thank you's will always be too few. But I say it still.

I have learned and am still painfully learning to be thankful for the smallest of things.

Today I was thankful for the chilly morning air. I sat outside and let it wash over me. I am soaking it in. Every goose bump. Every smell of what seems like Fall. Fall mixed with dirt and garbage and sewage. But that familiar smell is still there. We spent a lot of time outside today. When sitting in the sun got too hot and sweaty, I would move to the shade and welcome it's cool relief. The patio steps in full light would be hot to touch, but the shady ground under our mango trees was damp and cool.

The contradictions made me smile.

I'm taking it all in. Because I know that soon it will be gone. Just as the rain washed itself away, soon the heat will stifle all that is cool and it will be suffocatingly hot.

They said the rains would stop and they did. They said the cold season would come and it did. Soon the Harmattan will blow in and then the unbearable heat will follow.

So I am soaking up every cool morning and night I can. Because I don't want to miss it. Because one day it will be gone...and I want to have lived and loved this season to it's fullest.

New Years Eve.

This year was one of the funnest most memorable New Year's Eves we've ever had. Not only did we get to celebrate the ringing in of another year on a new continent, but we got to celebrate it with some of the new really good friends that God has placed in our lives here.

We spent the evening at Fred and Nathanja's house with their two boys, Rhyan and Nicole and their two boys, Fred's mom who was in town from Denmark, Nathanja's parents who live here, and another couple from Ireland and Wales that are living here too.

Just a fun eclectic group of people to usher a new year in with! We all had the. best. time.

There was great food and the longest drinking straws I've ever seen! The kids had so much fun!

And while the kids were busy having a blast at their table...we were literally having a blast at our table! Fred's mom brought a bunch of table firecrackers that you light and explode with confetti! For such little tubes those suckers pack a big punch!

Nathanja baked an incredible tiramisu for the adults and even made a special cake for Sydaleigh to celebrate her birthday.

And may I just say, Europeans go big or go home! Those almost fire extinguisher needin' candles nearly took that cake to the moon! Ha ha! Wow that's a big flame!

There was confetti. And confetti. And confetti. And....more confetti. It was in the food, the drinks, our hair, our clothes, our ears, mouths....everywhere.

There was a sending off of a lantern...or Rapunzel lantern as the girls say.

There was laughing. And debates. And hilarious discussions on why Americans don't have British accents. And why we have a Christopher Columbus day. And why we don't have French accents. And Fred's mom flat out told us that she hates the way American's talk! Bah ha ha! Especially Southern American's. "It's not caaaat. It's c(ah)t. With an 'ah' sound." Rhyan and Nicole are from N.Carolina...and they sound like it. I don't think that helped us win any love! Ha ha! There were serious talks about the differences between American sports like baseball and dignified European sports like cricket. When I inquired if whether cricket was the game you played on a horse....I debated whether or not I should run for my life the response was so immediate! I think I heard someone think, "Off with her head!" Ha ha!! Apparently the game you play on horses is not Cricket, it is Polo. Ha ha! And I don't think that helped us score any points either! We just kept diggin' ourselves deeper and deeper into that 'one cocked eyebrow gapin' mouthed perplexed look of why Americans are so weird' hole. I'm gonna start telling people I am Canadian! Make another country take the blame for my lack of culture! Ahhh, good times. :~) Good times.

There were fireworks.

And may I just say...African fireworks are not the same as fireworks you buy in the United States. No no. African fireworks are, shall we say...a wee bit more unpredictable. There is really no telling what is going to happen when they explode. Or even when they will explode. Or where they will go. You gotta be quick on your toes when you light those bad boys. There's no tellin' when you're gonna need to duck and take cover. Or run looking for a fire extinguisher. Or a doctor. :~) You really need to be prepared to meet death or in the very least lose an arm when you play with those. If you succeed in not dying or losing any body parts....you can thank Jesus that miracles still happen! Isaak likes cheating death and gets a rush out of almost being left handed...so he lit all the fuses.

There was dancing....crazy kid brake dancing rolling in confetti, viking hat wearing gonna start the house on fire dancing....it was hilarious!

And of course...there was great company. These people hold a special place in our hearts already. We feel so blessed to call them friends and be able to do life with them here. Such great people. We had the greatest time.

And now it is 2013. Another year awaits....and only God knows what's in store. Excited to see what may come. Glad to have these friends to walk through it with us.