Dinner for 17

With the new academic year at the evening Evangelical Bible Institute of Ouagadougou starting and a few new students I invited them to my place for a meal.

14 of the 17 turned up, but with me, my dinner helper and my guard looking after all the visiting motorbikes and car we made 17.

I had 3 fans going in my small lounge where we chatted, laughed, and ate pumpkin soup, pasta salad and meatballs, and banana cake and custard.

I'm leaving the re-arranged furniture as is since I have to fit much of my bedroom furniture in here for when they dig up the floor next Tuesday.

English, anyone? English for Everyone

With Alison's absence overseas for a few weeks, I'm teaching her class in our "English for Everyone"  programme twice a week.

Again we had nights of testing for new students, again waiting to see which of the former students wanted to sign up for the next level, again resulting in long waiting lists of those who didn't get in. Some of those offered spots haven't turned up, so classes of 22 or 18 have become 14, much easier to handle in the small rooms. We have 7 levels this term, the highest working on poetry, the lowest on how to say "Hello"!

If we had more teachers we'd be able to offer more classes (we can spread out to the upstairs level), so if you'd like to teach English for 3 months or more in a French-speaking African country, let us know!

No special training necessary since we provide full course materials, just an ability to explain our complicated language in uncomplicated terms.

Solar oven cooking

After we used their solar ovens in Benin, Janet and I bought our own from the Centre Liweitari project and squeezed them into the car. (We also bought lamps they made there). I have tried various home-made solar oven experiments during my years in Africa, but this one gets much hotter.

Since then rain has eased up a bit and we've been able to use the oven occasionally for our mid-day meals. Leah and I have been working on a new range of recipes to use in the cooker and anticipate free outdoor cooking during the hot season.

We brown the meat on the normal stovetop, then put rest of the ingredients with it in a black pot to 'slow cook' during the morning.

Rice cooked in the stainless steel bowl with a black lid (provided with the stove) takes only a few hours, especially near noon, and comes out fluffy and with a great flavour.

Flooding from below, flooding from above, flooding from on high.

It seems funny to be thankful that the rain has stopped ... but I am!

My spare bedroom/library has had puddles of water every time it rains, even after we fixed the roof. Seems that it is coming in at the junction of floor and external wall, and up through the foundations through cracks in the cement floor.

I have been packing up my books, airing out the mouldy-smelling pillows, will have to die my new briefcase (mould turned the green surface black in spots), and am looking for friends with dry spaces to store my stuff as the owner looks at fixing it.  I'm just waiting for his increase in rent (a frequent suggestion) if it costs him anything. Of course he'd have to do a good job for that to happen, so we'll wait and see! If it's too much I'll seriously consider moving, since we've had lots of problems lately with the house, and so far SIM has paid most of the maintenance.

Last week I had water on my desk next to my computer, on the phone, on my bed ... and the roof has already been repaired three times this rainy season. The house is getting so old that patching up the stuff is not working any more.

Benin #3: Parakou

Getting used to driving Benin-style again was easy: add lots of honking and weaving between cars and motorbikes!  I drove a lot of the time we were in Parakou, a very busy town, since I knew the route and destinations. There were more paved roads and traffic lights than when I lived there almost 20 years ago but the main roads were in a worse state and more crowded than when I regularly visited there 10 years ago.

Janet & I stayed with friends of hers on the SIM property on the northern side of town. The site was peaceful except for the timber yard which unloaded heavy logs at 5 am and 11pm!

We made the 20 min trip into the centre of town and/or out to SIM's offices on the southern side each day. I got to catch up with old friends, both African and missionary, and also do a little publicity for IMS.

We bought some local specialties, like chopping boards (good wood is scarce in Burkina), and cards and jams from the monastery where we had a long walk.

The stay was short (2 1/2 days) before we had to hit the road back again!

Benin #2: View from the roof, Natitingou

 The house we stayed in had 2 side sections with flat roofs: a great spot to read, relax and catch the view early in the morning (above) or late in the afternoon as the sun set (below), and hot enough during the day to cook things well in the solar oven (bottom left of photo).

 Our nearest neighbours just a little down the hill were Kristie and Johann Bayne and their 3 boys. I knew Johann originally as one of the missionary kids (MKs) in Benin, and Kristie met him when she came from my church in Springwood for a short term teaching school.  Johann's parents live normally in another house on the site.

Benin #1: Resting near Natitingou

Janet and I spent 10 days at Centre Liweitari in the hills around the northern town of Natitingou, Benin.

We arrived planning for 7 days there and 7 days in Parakou (my old hunting grounds) but it was so calm and restful we almost immediately asked to extend our stay.

 In the afternoons we walked along the brook in the valley below (photo of the centre taken from there)

We got to stay in the house of missionaries currently in Europe so had all the mod cons. It had a flat roof with a great view of the valley (see next post for photos) and solar ovens, which we ended up ordering from their project.