The Harmattan is here!

Over the last 24 hours or so, we have had our first experience with the Harmattan, something quite unique to this part of the world.  So, "what is the Harmattan?" you are likely asking....

To fully explain it, let me set the stage for you, going back a week or so.  Over the last week, temperatures have been peaking every day somewhere close to 100, with very clear skies.  Clear skies means plenty of sunshine, put that with the heat and you get a combination that numbs the brain, drains your energy, and in general makes you want to find a dark place to melt!  That's why a siesta is a commonplace thing here, even the grocery stores close from 1-4pm.  Sleep is about the only way to cope with the heat!  Well, not the only way, we did break down and buy an air conditioner for our bedroom, but that's another story!

So, imagine mind numbing heat every day..... suddenly yesterday things began to change!  The skies were not as clear, kind of a grey color, and it was cooler.  In fact, the temperature was quite bearable.  The sky gave the impression it might rain, except that the grey color was quite uniform and didn't form up into any discernible clouds.  Then, today, we woke up to the sensation of being in a coastal city!  The grey had descended from the sky, to the point where we could see a haze between us and houses only a block away.  The streets seemed to just fade away into grey in the distance, the horizon becoming just the point where vision fails to discern anything through the haze.  And the temperature.... it was downright cold this morning!  If someone had told us we were somehow transported back to the Bay Area overnight, it wouldn't have been a surprise (remember SF is "fog city"...)  As we learned, this is the Harmattan.  So, where did it come from?  It's actually a regional wind that comes from the Sahara Desert.  You would think it would bring heat, coming from the Sahara, but instead it brings dust.  Not just a little dust.  A LOT of dust!  Enough to put the brakes on the solar heat that is ever present here, and create the "foggy" conditions we woke up to today.  Fortunately, we are pretty far south of the desert.  Further north, it can bring true Hollywood worthy dust-storms!  If you google Harmattan, you can see some pictures of it.  I'm including 2 pictures from today, but it's hard to really convey the haziness with just an IPhone camera.

One for the books...

I thought id write a little post about today. It was the first day of co visit and Natalia (American sister) and I got to work together for first time, usually we work with a local that speaks jula. It was so nice, we were with 8 brothers including the co. So off we went to the doors, Natalia struggling in jula and me just sitting there trying to explain why I don't speak jula yet. Lol it was quite fun. The we came to the next door/house which was situated a bit diffrent from the others but like normal there were two woman washing clothes in tubs and children playing in courtyard, everything seemed normal. Then we see that the men are sitting to the back of courtyard, and as it's customary to talk to head of house, Natalia and I head to back to speak to the men. We kinda look at each other with a look of "this should be fun" as there were five men and all in complete muslum attire. It was my turn so I just jumped right in to my presentation that consisted of explaining ps 83:18 and why we are called jws. Only two men spoke fluent French so they did most of talking. We though it was a bit weird that they somehow went from taking about name of god to the woman's role in life (to stay at home and clean/cook). But we tried to reason with them, but they really weren't interested in what the bible said about women. So after about 20 mins of them  lecturing us, we politely try to leave, and in the 10 mins it took for us to leave they explained that we had no right to be talking to them and they asked if I would wear a head coving the next time I try to preach. (As Natalia was wearing a hat for the sun) I just smiled and we apologized for any offense that we may have caused. They said they weren't offended at all and were very nice when we left. So then we were off to find the rest of group who with co who was waiting under amango tree for us so we could all continue. The brothers asked where we were, we told them what house we were at and they said they passed it over because it was a mosque! So we, two women went into a mosque and tried to preach to the imams! Ha! It all seemed to make sense after that, they didn't like women coming to mosque to preach the bible...especially with out a head covering! So needless to say we were able to provide some great entertainment for the local brothers. And they took all of the men for the rest of morning....you live and you learn. (Thankfully we had a get out of jail free card...being American) 

Finally, the ministry!

Ok, this has been slow in coming: a post about the ministry here!  After all, that is why we are here, right?  Well, it's been pretty busy getting adjusted and settled, but we have been out in service about 5 times a week since we got here, so we can tell you a little about it.  I will warn you, this a fairly long post, since I want to give you a real feel for the ministry here.

First, the service in general:  The routine here is that we meet at 8 and do territory for 2 hours as a group, then everyone breaks off and does calls.  The concept of "car-group" doesn't exist... At most, maybe a "moto-group", as almost everyone shows up for service on a moped or motorcycle.  The meeting is close enough to the territory that we all just park our motos and walk as a big group.  This is a little different than in Ouaga.... There we met at the Hall and everyone rode their motos to the territory.  Kind of like a Bible packin moped gang!

This missionary couple in Ouaga add to the "moped gang" look!

A typical parking place in the territory.  The small shack is actually a cafe/boutique.  

  Anyways, back to service here.  The territory is usually commercial on main streets and residential behind that, and we work it all, business or homes.  The first time we walked up to a cafe and the brother started preaching to the customers, I was a little intimidated.  Not something we do in the States!!!  But, here, it's perfectly normal.  Once we get into the residential areas, it goes something like this..... We approach a gate (all the houses have a walled courtyard, usually high enough you can't see over it), if the gate is latched we knock, if it's open we enter slowly, calling out "bonjour" or "coo-coo".  Not at homes are virtually non-existent, there is always someone at home.  9 times out of 10 (or more), we can give our whole presentation, read a scripture or 2, and place something.  If the householder is at all interested they will say "prendre place" and set out seats for us.  This is a regular occurrence, and usually results in a 20 minute + conversation.  Needless to say, we don't cover huge amounts of territory in a morning!  The conversation can range from "hi, we are JW's and are here to talk to you about God's Word (read any scripture)" to the current magazine presentation to asking a question and hoping for a response.  For us foreigners, the conversation sometimes includes a blank stare in response, usually accompanied by our partner jumping in in Djula and telling us that the person doesn't understand French.  Sometimes, they just don't understand OUR French, which is quite frustrating!  Our partner can say the same thing that we did, word for word, and they understand.... Seriously, our accent isn't that bad!  But, I think, in most cases, they rarely or never hear French with an American accent, so I guess it's understandable.

Some typical street scenes in the commercial area of Bobo

On to actual experiences:  Just a couple experiences we have had, which helped us remember why we are here....  Last Sunday, we went to meet an English speaker that a brother turned over to me.  Well, it turns out, the same day a German brother in another congregation had met him, and it seems started a study.  But, the man said that he had a friend he wanted us to meet, who wants to learn about the Bible. So, we walk with him through the neighborhood, past little stores, through a moto repair shop (an oily spot in the dirt, under a grass mat roof), into a kind of ghetto area (if you can imagine a ghetto within the ghetto), and meet not one, but 2 of his friends.  One is Burkinabé, the other Ivoirian, so we talk in French.  As we discuss why we can have confidence in the Bible, a small crowd forms around us, mostly kids from 7-12 years old, but also one adult who is listening very intently to the whole conversation.  The Ivoirian follows our reasoning very easily on why we can trust the Bible, and we end up giving him a Bible Teach book.  But, we only have one between us!  So, we have to promise to the other guy to bring one back.  His background is clearly Muslim, even though he won't say that, so he's a little harder to convince.  But through all of this, the 3rd guy is listening, and we can't leave him with nothing, so we give him a brochure too.  Anyways, jump forward a few hours, and we go back to the same place with another BT book.  Well, we call the English speaker, as he was our first contact, and he comes to meet us.  While we are waiting, we strike up a conversation with the barber who works right there.  He calls himself Rasta-man (complete with dreds) and it turns out that he wants to learn something too!  He has a Protestant Bible, one with only the New Testament and Psalms, but he wants a complete Bible.  We told him about the meetings, and he says he would like to come.... But can he come with his hair?  We tell him "of course! It's no problem!"  It was obviously a weight on his mind, because he is very relieved to hear that.  Seems like he may have been told that he's not welcome at some churches with his long hair.  So, he didn't make it to the Wednesday meeting (although the English speaker did), but we will see about Saturday.  To conclude, I will be going back on the English speaker Sunday with the German brother, to determine how to proceed with the study, and we will be visiting the other 3 guys also, all of whom show great potential!  Did I mention the main problem in field service here?  It's not finding people at home, or dealing with apathy, or overcoming conversation stoppers.... It's how to make all of your return visits!

On to today.... Called back on a Muslim man who we started a study with, but he wanted to discuss "the helper" from John 14 and 16.  So, I'm thinking "this will be a waste of time", but we must follow through.  The first visit had been very good, and he obviously respects the Bible.  In fact, that visit was a follow up on meeting his wife, and she had asked for a Bible.  They actually already have several Bibles, including a NWT in Arabic.... So he has met Witnesses before!  Back to today, he is there, dressed in Muslim robes and hat, ready for Friday prayers, even reading his Koran when we arrive.   He brings up the normal objections, but seems very sincere in his beliefs, and very willing to listen to our points.  I'm not sure that we convinced him that the helper wasn't Mohammed, but he was willing to drop the subject and move on, which is a very good sign.  He definitely wants to continue the conversation, and had his BT book right at hand, so is willing to continue the study as well.  But, things get more interesting.... His wife is Christian, and during our conversation with them together, we showed that Jesus isn't God, and that bothered her.  So, Alisa promised to come back and talk to her, but of course not at the same time that I talk to the husband.  Even though they are married, they need vastly different reasoning points!  So, that's a little awkward already, that I'm there, but Alisa isn't.  But, it gets worse.  About 20 minutes after I'm done talking to the husband, Alisa and I go to look for a girl just around the corner.  Well, she isn't there, but the lady who is there send her daughter to show us where the girl is.  Guess where she leads us.... None other than the same house I was just at!  Turns out that the girl's mother just died on Sunday, so of course we go into the subject of hope for the dead.  She appreciated it, and will continue the conversation.  But, it turns out, she lives half time at this house and half at the other.  So now, it's entirely possible that we will be calling on 3 different people within the same house, all requiring different reasoning and subjects!

We are starting to see what a truly great need there is here for Kingdom publishers!  It's truly a blessing that Jehovah has allowed us to be here, and we are certainly going to be praying for more workers too!  Will try to give some updates on the people mentioned, assuming they make progress.  Next week is our CO visit, so we will likely have something to share about that, and we promise to try to take some pictures!

Life In Bobo

Hello everyone,
As JJ said in his last blog sorry for the late blogs. Getting settled here has been allot more work and allot more tiring than we anticipated. But we wanted to share some of the highlights when we got here in bobo, now two weeks ago. For all of you
who have instagram, sorry it a bit of a repeat of the pics. Also this is Alisa writing so you will see a very different writing pattern than JJ (he is a better writer than me :) ).

Well we had such a wonderful time in Ouagadougou than the morning that we got on the bus to bobo I asked JJ, "do you think they are going to be as nice in Bobo?" I was worried that we would feel sad about leaving the love, kindness and generosity that we had felt in Ouagadougou. I think Jehovah might have been smiling and thinking....Just you wait to see what I have in store in Bobo.

The Almosts. A missionary Couple at the translation office in Ouagadougou.

Janet Williams, a missionary sister for over 25 years here in west Africa.

Some of the brothers that met us bus station.

From the moment we stepped off the bus in Bobo we knew we were home and every fear that we had had for 6 months leading up to being there was gone in a split second. We pulled up to station to find our brothers and sisters waiting for us. (13 in all) They had all come to meet us there and help us

Our Stove and Fridge

with our luggage (it took 4 cars to fit everyone and all the bags). Everyone greeted is in english to make us comfortable, I remember thinking "wow, everyone speaks English"...Not the case, just wanted us to feel welcome. :) After we got all of our bags together and into the cars, we were off to our new home. Something we had been eagerly anticipating for 3

Our bedroom with a rigged mosquito net.

months since we had been paying the rent since oct. :) I arrived first with the french/Spanish missionary couple. Went inside to find a a refrigerator. (something Very unsuspected since we were told no appliances were included) I was overjoyed! I didn't know why it was there, but Ana (missionary sister) told me there was another surprise also but wanted to let Nancy (American need greater next door) tell me what it was. so when everyone pulled up on the other cars I had to find out what was going on. I ran and told JJ and he just smiled. (didn't understand while he wasn't overjoyed like me). Nancy asked me if i had gone into kitchen yet (kitchen is in back of house through two more doors). So i ran into kitchen to find a amazing stove already there! I couldn't believe it! Again JJ seemed to be pleased but not surprised...Only to find out that HE, my husband had conspired against me with my own parents!...HEHE but for a could cause! It turns out JJ got My parents into contact with the Americans next door, who in turn purchased the appliances for my parents and arranged to have them here in our house when we got here. (which is not as easy as it sounds). It was such a amazing gift that I couldn't believe it! I had already seen enough to know what kind of stove and fridge we would probably be able to afford and there were 10x nicer than that! Ok sorry to ramble on about the appliances. (For all of you who really know us, you understand why ;) ) So after the shock and excitement of the house we went next door to get to know the brothers and sisters a bit better. It was so nice to see the relationship between the foreigners and the local brothers and sisters. Everyone was laughing and telling jokes (all french). It warmed our hearts to see that kind of relationship, they really treated each other like brothers and sisters. We knew we were home! we also found out that since our house had been vacant for 6 months, 3 local brothers came in and cleaned it for us...Including getting all the spiders, cockroaches, wasp hives and 2 inchs of dust/dirt out of it. We really felt welcomed and loved when we heard that! So to say the least we were overwhelmed with love and kindness from our new congregation.


I'm sure everyone would like to know a bit about congregation. We have 5 elders, 6 Ms, 6 reg pioneers (including us), 1 sp pioneer and 1 missionary couple and 40 pubs. That includes the ASL group, which is huge (15 pubs + bible studies). The ASL has most of meetings on their own and joke that they are going to kick French into back room and

Some Pics from First meeting in Bobo

take the main hall because they are more in attendance than the french. We have the CO visit soon and who knows what will happen then. :) For all of you in ASL in the states or Canada, this is an amazing place to take a vacation if you want to help. We were able to get a few to do small videos saying hello to the ASL here and they LOVED

JJ Helping Cleaning Parking lot at KH.

them, they said that those videos were the first contact they had ever had with Americans who signed other than videos. They were truly impressed with the brotherhood. So just imagine if one of you were to be the first American/Canadian to come visit and help them...I can guarantee it would be an amazing thing for everyone involved!
So that's all for now. JJ should be on here soon to tell you about the ministry here as it deserves its own blog. :)

Our Gros Moto

Our new pet Samba

Getting to Burkina

So I'm sure you have noticed that we are a little slow in posting anything on this blog..... I'll try to do a little catch up!  But, a warning, for those who just want to look at pictures, I don't really have any to post, sorry!

The trip here was definitely long, but no surprise.  First, we get up early to get to JFK on time (3 hours before our flight, because we had so many bags to check), only to find our flight was delayed 4 hours. We could have slept in!!!  But, too late now.  So, proceeding to check in, we find out that the baggage price that a Turkish Airlines rep quoted me on the phone was about half of the real price.  Not the end of the world, but not a happy way to start the trip!  Anyways, after a nice long time hanging out in a fairly small terminal, we finally got to board our plane and get underway across the Atlantic!

I won't say that the experience of flying Turkish completely compensated for the baggage price, but it did help.  First, only a half full flight means plenty of rows in the middle to stretch out and (try) to sleep.  Plus all the movies, food and drinks are complimentary, and the food was actually pretty good.

But, moving on, we had a stop in Istanbul, which we took advantage of to sight see a little.  As it turns out, Istanbul taxi drivers are apparently road race drivers trying to qualify.... Quite an exhilarating experience!

Finally, the last leg of the trip.... Again not a full flight so we could each have our own row to stretch out.  Again, full meals were provided.  When we bought our tickets we selected our "meal type".... Alisa's choice of Kosher meal really seemed to cause the flight attendants some trouble... Halal is fine, but Kosher, we don't have that!!!

So, we arrived in Burkina about midnight.  When we walked off the plane, the first thing that hit me was the lack of heat.  I expected to be walking into an oven, instead it was the perfect temperature!  That was a very nice surprise!  The next thing that hit me, as we left the airport, was how much construction is going on.  Of course, it looks a little different than what I'm used to..... I'll try to take some pics and make a post for those few who are as interested in construction as I am (just be patient!). The 3 missionaries who met us at the airport took really good care of us, and made our stay in Ouaga very enjoyable.

Now we are in Bobo, in our home, and how it was getting here will be another post.  Be patient, we are new to this blog thing!  Eventually we will get used to writing for everyone

Chez nous

We have a house!! Our COBE in the kolsama congregation in Burkina has been more then kind and loving to take time out of his busy schedule to find us a house. When we first emailed him after we received his contact from branch, we told him we would love to have a place to land and rent a room from a brother or sister for a week or so, but he let us know right away that they would be more than happy to find us a place. We of course did not refuse his kindness! About two months ago we got an email from him asking if we want a 2bed/2bath for 120$/month...so we replied yes we would love it! So he unbeknownst to us was able to get the deposit money from a kind brother in the hall with the means, as Membe (the COBE) is a special pioneer. He then emailed to let us know we would need to pay rent from October-January when we got there in Jan. We thought this was a bit odd but we prayed and asked Membe if this was normal to reserve a house now when we are not there. He replied that sometimes it is a little hard to find nicer housing because, for one there isn't that much, and two, there are alot of Peace Corps volunteers in Burkina so they usually rent fast. But he said it would be no problem to ask for deposit back and find something else closer to the time we would be there. And he had no doubt in his mind Jehovah would provide something else for us. So we decided to go with that and prayed that everything work out in Jehovah's way.   About a week later we received an email from Membe telling us that they were not able to get the money back from the owner as he wants us (either because we are Witness's or Americans or both) to live there so we felt very positive that Jehovah was providing this place for us, so we called Membe and said we would love to have this place and found a western union to transfer the money to cover the expenses till we get there in Jan. So it's official! We are rich enough to have a vacation home!! Lol j/k. But we do have a house! Wahoo!! It's more and more real every day! Countdown: 2months, 3 days, 21 hrs! 

We kinda had to chuckle a bit when we asked for a pic of the house from Membe, first he said he was not able to take a pic ( not what we chuckled about!) but he would ask some sisters that live near by. So we thanked him and waited to hear, then we got a pic! ...thats when we chuckled....it was a pic of a water faucet...we are not sure why he sent this pic or if it was the only one he got from sister. But we loved knowing we could wash our feet before entering the house. :) And would wait to see the house in its entirety when we arrived in Jan. 

About a week later we received a email from a American sister who got our email from Membe. She was letting us know that she was there in Bobo and thought it might be nice for us to make contact before we got there. Such a kind gesture! Membe had mentioned her name in regards to our house being close to her and another sister. So we were able to email her back with a million questions. Poor sister! But she was kind enough to email back and answer all of them. So it turns out that we are not only living near these two sisters but we are neighbors in the same duplex! Lol she also said that they are the only two Americans witnesses in Bobo, and there's only one other missionary couple from Spain in the asl group (Kolsama cong hosts an asl group). So we will be 6 foreigners altogether. The sister and her roommate are both from Jersey and have lived there for 3/2 years. So we are so happy that they were nice enough to contact us. They sent us an update they had sent home, so we were able to read about their struggles with the new duplex and see more pics! 

We are the gate on the right. 

The living room.

The kitchen. Which we found out it is not in the house but in a room outside. That should be interesting to get used to. I'm excited to see how we can make it all work. 

They also let us know there is no furniture ( including appliances, these pics ere of their side of dulpex) whatsoever in the house (to be expected). And we would have to get everything made...fortunately I know a carpenter! They also talked about the struggles of getting screens and glass on the windows and a screen door on the back door In between house and kitchen. Oh and a water line for the washing machine (green line in the kitchen pic). After reading about everything they had to do to make the duplex comfortable and livable for reasonable standards, I had to laugh and think to myself...man am I happy I married James! I mean I always knew he was awesome and great to have around to make spice racks and all sorts of racks/shelves for our kitchen/house here! Oh, and to kill spiders, but I had no idea how useful all of his skills would be in Africa! So....The only thing we will have to do is find supplies when we get there! Well, that's about all I have for today. We will post more once we have some more info to share. Alisa  

Bare walls

The photo can't really give the full picture, but our little home is feeling pretty barren this morning.  The couch has been sold, along with several other "unnecessary" pieces of furniture.  Yesterday, we sold the kitchen table and chairs.  So, as we get going this morning, it feels a little different. 

For now, the bedroom remains the one fully furnished room in the house.  Really, we do still need to sleep here for 2 more months!  But, for other activities, we can get by with less.  After all, if we can't live without it now, how will we live in Africa? There's no guarantee that we can have all the same comforts there that we have grown accustomed to... Leather couch, wall to wall carpets, fancy serving plates, cars, electricity....

So, we are continuing with day 2 of our moving sale, and praying that we don't have to take ANYTHING back in the house!