Scorpion Hunting and a Host of Other, More Logical Thrills

The past two days have been full of excitement. We started Saturday off with an 11 hour trip to get from Ouaga to Mahadaga and ended today (Sunday) with scorpion catching!

Saturday:

The day began bright and early, with breakfast at 5:30, planning to leave around 6. We didn't get to leave until 7, but that ended up not making much of a difference. Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves in a nice little storm, slowing down our pace and potentially washing out the dirt roads to come. For lunch we stopped at the SIM compound in Fada, taking our time to relax while the end of the storm passed.

After lunch, we continued our voyage to a checkpoint along the road. At the checkpoint we waited a brief time until a caravan of travelers was gathered to proceed further down the road. At this time, we were also joined by ...let's call him the mute man (for he spoke little, if at all), to help us navigate the road ahead. Added to the 10 people from Messiah, 2 Swiss girls going to Mahadaga, and our two drivers, we had quite the party to pack out the van. Then, just before our nicely paved road ended, we dropped off the mute man and thanked he and his boss for their aid.

Next came the dirt road - the exciting part! Not knowing what the stom had done to the road, we did not know what to expect. Though most of the road was fine and intact, we did get to cross some streams and traverse a flooded dam. It was pretty sweet. Eventually, after a little while later, we arrived in Mahadaga!

The rest of the evening consisted of unpacking, eating at Matt's house with his family and the other missionaries there, and then watching the end of the USA vs. Ghana world cup game at the pastors house. Though it was a disheartening defeat, it will still be pretty cool since that means that Ghana will continue on (If you're not up to date on your African geography, note that Ghana is directly south of Burkina Faso - hence, their victory is also a big deal to those in Burkina.).

Sunday:

Sunday began with some unpleasant news. Though a majority of the team had survived the trip unscathed so far, we awoke to find that many of our colleagues had fallen ill. The diagnosis: Malarone (malaria medicine that doesn't always sit well with everyone. The sick ones will be switched off of it once they're better.). After a check up by one of the missionaries, it was decided that they would pull through and that a little prayer and some sleep would fix them right up (so don't freak out over people being sick - we're in Africa, it's going to happen. Just shoot them a little prayer - don't lose sleep over it.). So yeah, since Mike is now feeling better, we're pretty confident that Justin and Dr. Fish will perk right up in no time.

So after deciding that we were going to leave the sickly bunch fend for themselves for the morning, we headed to church. The message out of Revelation - or as it is literally translated from French and/or Gorma, apocalypse - and was about perseverence to the end and remembering who our first love is. It was a very interesting message with lots of world cup references and four languages. The pastor preached in French, while the assistant pastor (or maybe just a buddy) translated to Gorma, another man translated to sign-language, and Matt tanslated to English.

After church, we had lunch. PB&J sandwiches aren't really too exciting, so I'll spare you what you are all too familiar with. Later in the afternoon, however, things got exciting again! A small expedition set off to conquer the cliffs behind the compound. Part of the group (Bethany, Jon, and Katie) took the slow route up the path, while Charlie and I (Alex) scaled the face (and by "scaled the face," I mean it was more of a steep rock formation than what you would call a "shear cliff". Really, the biggest danger would be those eagles that pick goats off of mountains, but I don't think they have those here ...so it wasn't dangerous.) When we got to the top, we found some children and Mia, Matt's sister. When we finally met up with Bethany, Jon, and Katie, we headed to find the water. When we found the water, we also found more children. They were all there to bathe, but took a short break to marvel at the blinding light reflecting off of our pastey white skin. It seemed the longer we were there, the more of them showed up. By the time we had gotten back down to flat land, there were maybe like 100 of so little kids following us around. We got to practice our broken French for a while and take pictures of all of them until it was time to leave. Also, it may be important to note that bulls actually do charge red swooshy things, like Mia's skirt (once again, no one was hurt... nor was the bull).

When we got back, the pastor came over to pray for the ill and meet all of us. After that, it was time for dinner. Katie and Bethany wanted to try out this African peanut sauce stuff, so I gave them a hand. We ended up making the exact amount, since multiple people came back for seconds. Also, we had a guest for dinner, Daniel, a local, college-aged Burkinabae.

After dinner and cleanup, Daniel agreed to help us find some scorpions. We found a UV light, so we headed out, empty peanut butter tub in hand. After many attempts to find one under a rock, we found a nice big one hanging out under a rock (it reminded me of this time in high school when one of the janitors smashed my one teacher's pet scorpion). Fearlessly, Charlie scooped up the scorpion, in his bare hands, sternly telling the scorpion not to sting him (actually, he just used a couple sticks and chop-sticked it into the tub). Then, on our way back, we found two more scorpions. Though one was too small to be worth saving, we did get some sweet pictures (perhaps you'll see one later...). Oh, and, lucky for us, Justin missed out ...so we have a legit excuse to do it again!

This coming week:

This will be real brief, because I'm really tired... Also, it'll just be for the mobility guys, because I'm not 100% sure what everyone else is doing.

Tomorrow (Monday) most of us are going for a tour of the handicap center.

Tuesday everyone will be helping out with a carnival that the center is putting on for the kids. The mobility guys will also be heading out to visit a potential electric trike client.

Wednesday, I believe, we start our trike work.

Prayer and such:

Justin and Dr. Fish are still feeling under the weather. It would be cool if they got better.

Continued safety for everyone

Continued acclimation to the weather (The heat and humidity is hard to adapt to. Apparently the rash over my hands, arms, feet, and lips is a heat rash... it's super annoying.)

Project work

Thanks again for your vested interest in our team. Your support has gotten us this far, so prayers to get us the rest of the way would be super awesome. Also, keep checking the blog. There are many exciting things going on here and it'd take an exorbedant amount of time explaining all of the details within the blog as well as those left out, upon our return.

-Alex Brubaker, Mobility Team