Burkna Faso Trip 2009

On the 12th of July another team of nine volunteers went from the church to work in Djibo a town in the north of Burkina Faso, the team had four new members from the the trip in 2008. Briege, Sarah, Claire and Hamilton joined Peter, Terry, Ciaran, Ola and Eddie who had been there in 2008. We went with a very aggressive schedule of work to be accomplished in the twelve days we had committed to.
 We arrived on the Sunday evening and spent till the Tuesday in a mission house at the Assemblies of God Compound in the Capital city Ouagadougou, on the Tuesday morning the convoy of 2 jeeps loaded with the team, our luggage and Jean Bazie our local co-ordinator and good friend and our interpeter Patrick,  the journey takes approximately four hours or more depending on the condition of the roads and the prevailing weather. There were some improvements on the condition of the road compared to last year, but the further north we went the worse the roads became, nothing more than potholed dirt tracks. It was obvious as we travelled north that the country was in drought, the rains had not come and the crops that were planted in anticipation of the rainy season were withering and dying of drought. (Link to photo gallery www.emmanuelchurchdundalk.org/photos.php)
 We received a very warm welcome as we called into Mohammeds camp on our way to Djibo, we had promised in 2008 that when we came back we would sink a well and put a pump for clean water in the camp, we thought that all we would have been able to do was organise the well, but as we travelled up Jean Bazie got a phone call to let him know that there was a rig and crew in the area and we were able to tell Mahommed that the rig would be on site within a few days. On the Thursday the rig arrived and struck water at the very first spot that the surveyors had identified as a potential spot for the well, the pressure from the water was so strong that it gushed over the height of the jib, the guys capped the pipe and set the concrete base, they sent a sample of the water to a lab for analysis, it returned with a report of being excellent quality. The pump was installed on the following Monday, the celebrations by the folk in the camp were unbelievable, there way was weeping, there was laughter, there was dancing, you and I dont understand what a privilege it is to have clean water on tap, these people travelled 30km's to get five gallon drums of clean drinking water. We only heard afterwards how the people in the camp who had been using water out of an open local well were suffering with terrible sick stomachs and skin infections, it was truly God's timing that we were there at that time, that the rig was there etc.. €8500.00 gifted by the people of the Church, and Dundalk towns people who supported the events we ran to raise the finance for this well.
 After arriving in Djibo we were greeted by Pastor Peckidewende,  we received a treat of bottles of minerals this is a big honour when you consider how much poverty there is in the area, unknown to us the students and their families on the compound were living on one meal of rice or meal a day and here we were drinking fizzy drinks that these people could ill afford. We found out from Jean Bazie the conditions in the area the next morning as he had been talking to different ones there after we had arrived. Basically the rains had not arrived and any crops that were planted were basically withering in the ground due to the lack of moisture, the people were attempting to protect the crops by carrying 5 gallon drums of water from what remained in the rivers around the area. The team on hearing this organised enough food to cover them for about 6 to 8 weeks hoping that the rains would come before the food ran out, we heard when we got home that the rains did come to Djibo, but whether there is enough and whether they are on time to grow crops we are still waiting to find this out.
 In Djibo on the Bible School compound we set about painting the rooms that the Bible students and their families live in, familys live in a single room not more than twelve foot square. You may wonder why we would go the whole way to Africa to paint ?, I was wondering the same until I seen how the people have to live, they have neither the time or the money to do this for themselves, life is full of studying, working in the fields trying to provide food for their families, we watched the kids take sacks and strips them down to the individual plastices strands and then weave those strands into balls of rope which they tried to sell in the markets. My answer at the end of it all is that it was a privilege to be able to help provide a bright painted room.
 In the town of Djibo there is a local church that has a leaking roof, the galvanise was full of holes, basically anytime it rained the congrgation was soaked, we provided the money for the roof to be taken off, for the walls to be raised by a couple of blocks to put a better pitch on the roof and to buy a full new galvanise roof, all this work was done for the princely sum of €500.00.You cannot begin to understand the joy that such a generous act to the local people, you see in all of this work its not what we have done, it is about what God has enabled us to do and the desire that He has put in our harts to do such works, one lady came to us and gave us a bag of her homegrown peanuts, were they all that she had we dont know but in the circumstances in that area it was definitely as sacrifice to give them to us.Others there spoke of the difficulty to understand how or why people of Ireland would come to this place and put a roof on their church.
 Our last endeavour is one of the gretest desires that we have had for the last few years, it is our desire to help to educate children, education is the ticket to breaking the poverty trap in these countries, so this year we were introduced to the teachers of a local schoo, this school has two buildings teaching primary level kids, the classes are crammed with children, the cost per year to provide books pens etc for a child is the equivilent of €8.00, it was with great joy that we were able to give a gift of €2000.00 to the school to provide for 250 children to go to school this year, there are many children who would love to go to school but their families just dont have the money to send them, this breaks the teachers hearts they dont want to deny any child an education, The teachers, the locals are overwhelmed by the generosity of the Irish people.
 So at the end of this report all I and the team can say is that it was a privilege and a humbling experience to be able to represent all the people who supported the work we got done in Burkina Faso, the people in the church who gave generously, the people who are not even involved with the church who gave finance, organised events, took part in the Womens Marathon as a sponsored event, the Table Quiz kindly hosted by Andrew McGeough again and Marian Gorham for all the organisation of the quiz and Michael Larkin our quizmaster, the sponsors of Spot Prizes, the Bag Packing in Tesco's, for the team members who sacrifcally paid for flights, food and accomadation. Thank you all very much.