Appleton Team’s Last Day

Today was the Appleton team’s last day in Burkina. Pete picked us up and we went out to Tangehn to play with children and visit the site that the last Appleton team helped build a wall for. We sang a lot of songs with the kids—the chicken dance, the hokie pokie etc. We also did a follow the leader type thing. It was pretty humorous to watch. One young boy was holding a little baby girl and she was crying a lot. I asked him if I could hold her for him. He handed her over and she stopped crying. I was so surprised…because most babies start crying when I hold them. It seemed as though the baby had a fever—but it felt wonderful to calm her—at least temporarily. The boy really wanted to join in the games…and without having to carry around the baby he was more free to. So I watched the games and danced around with the baby girl. Before leaving I asked the boy what her name was (in French) –and he said that her name was Cinq (which is the number 5 in French). His name was Quartre (which is the number 4 in French) He had 5 sisters, and Cinq was the youngest…and Quarte was the youngest of the boys in his family. All of his siblings’ names were the number of their birth order in their respective gender. When I left I gave the brother one of my necklaces. He was so happy to get it. As we drove away I saw him showing all of his friends.

Next, we went to visit the LAC…we just walked around and looked at the progress of the building. It was neat to see because the Franklin team had put the roof on it while they were here—but the last time that I saw it was before they worked on it. It looked really great! On the way home, the team asked Pete to pull over so they could buy some Burkina soccer jerseys. The vendors started giving the jerseys to Pete through the front, but Nate wanted to buy a jersey from a few stands behind us…it had his hockey number on it. I asked a vendor who came to the backside window to get it for us. It was really fun talking with him and making a deal with him (in French and some small conversation in More) I should have probably gotten the price lower…but I enjoyed talking with the guy and his price was lower than all the other vendors to start off with. When I handed Nate the jersey—the vendor asked if he was my older brother (the kid is 4 years younger than me) and I responded yes—to Kirsten’s amusement…I knew it was easier to say yes than to explain. Then he returned with another jersey for me…and I asked him if I could have it for free….and he just laughed. It was a very pleasant interaction!

Kirsten and I ate tacos with the team for lunch and then went back to the Hub. We tried to visit Dr. Peter’s house (he called Alice and asked her to tell us to see him before he left for the US) but he wasn’t home. So we instead went walking around. It was really cool because we had heard about a little corner store that sold a lot of gift type things…and when we found it…I realized that it was a store that I went to when I was in Burkina in 2005—I had no idea where it was at the time that I went to it…but it has been so close to my house the entire time!! The lady who works there wears beautiful elegant clothing. I bought a panja from her when I was there the first time.

After our walk, the Brokopps picked us up and took us over to the guesthouse to say goodbye to the team. We played a round of spoons and watched the locals play soccer near the canal. Kirsten and I also did a whole lot of swinging Sammy and Charity around and throwing them on beds. It was pretty fun. The team left for the airport around 7:15. For dinner, Kirsten and I made corn, noodles, and white sauce. It was great! Now we are watching August Rush with Jess. These posts have been a tad short…but I’ve had to catch up on 3 days…so my apologies.

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