Catching up

If you regularly check our blog, you are probably wondering what happened to us.... No posts in 2 months?!?!?!?

Well, no need to be alarmed, we are still alive.  All we can say is: life sure does get busy!  No doubt you can agree.

Rather than bore you with every little detail of our life for the last few months, how about a quick summary?

Our Memorial campaign was a little interesting, mostly due to the availability (or lack) of invitations.  Our congregation only received enough for each publisher to distribute 25. In an average morning, one can hand out almost that many in 2 hours!  (No, we don't leave them at not-at-homes.... Wait, what is a not-at-home?)  Due to the shortage of invitations, our elders decided to start the campaign by writing the information on tracts.  About a week in, a neighboring congregation shared their surplus, and we were finally able to start using the real invitations.  We were very grateful to them for sharing!

Our campaign ended on April 3, just like it did wherever you are, with the Memorial.  Our first Memorial with the Sarfalao congregation was a first of another kind too.  Our first Memorial outdoors!  Well, there was a tent for most of the audience, but still outdoors.  Since our Kingdom Hall is so far outside of our territory, we use a school for Memorial.  No, not a class room.  The school yard.  That is to say, the large dirt area that all the class rooms open into.  Unlike in the USA, school yards here don't have grass.  They are simply dirt.  Aside from being a little dusty, this didn't really cause any inconvenience for us.  The set-up was just about the same as it would be in any other facility, in other words it took all afternoon.  One benefit to having it at a school is that quite a few students were curious and stuck around after school to attend.

You might think that our lives would get back to normal after memorial, right?  Not exactly.  The day after Memorial, we had company, missionaries from Ouaga.  Even though they could only stay for 2 nights, we were able to cram in a trip to the waterfalls in Banfora with them.  One of the couples is originally from California, and had never been outside of Ouaga during their 4 years in Burkina.  Imagine 4 years in a dusty furnace.....  Seeing some natural beauty was just what they needed!  Just a few days later, we had more visitors, this time from Arizona.  They were in Burkina to "scout out the land" with a view to possibly moving here.  We got to spend 2 1/2 weeks with them, and they came away with a pretty positive view of Bobo, despite the many challenges here.  Hopefully, everything works out for them to move.  We would really enjoy having them here!  Of course, they would also be a great asset to the congregation!

So that brings us almost up to the present, and hopefully you are still with us at this point!  Only a few more things to share (exciting things).  First, we finally got a generator for the Kingdom Hall!!!  No more meetings by flashlight!!!  Maybe you aren't too excited by that, but we sure are!

Second, we are finally getting public witnessing going too.  After a little confusion in getting a cart, we finally have one.  So far it's only a few publishers involved, but we are already seeing benefits.  Our post just happens to be right in front of our house, from 10 am to noon once a week, when the students all leave the school across the street for lunch.  At first, we wondered if the kids would just take everything we offered simply because it's free.  While there may be some of that, we have seen real interest too.  For example, last week we were able to start 2 studies right at the cart.  Then, yesterday, we had a teenage boy approach who had taken the "Truth" tract last week.  He said that he had read it, but had some questions.  Of course, we invited him to sit down, and we answered his questions.  As it turned out, this boy is convinced that a loving God would never burn people in hell, and really appreciated hearing that the Bible doesn't teach that at all.  In the end, he accepted a Bible Teach book, and will hopefully be back next week so we can start studying it.

After seeing how successful the cart is with students, we thought of another location: a main road with a school on both sides.  When school lets out, there are hundreds of students!  We are excited to find out what good results may come from that location as well!  (One benefit to locations near schools: all the students passing by can read, which is not at all guaranteed in other locations)

Finally, we got to attend a wedding for a couple who will soon be joining our congregation.  The sister works at the Jula RTO here in Bobo, and her husband was a Bethelite in Benin.  Happily, the branch accepted to keep them both as Bethelites, but to everyone's surprise, assigned them to Bobo Dioulasso!  Why was that a surprise?  Because the brother doesn't speak a word of Jula!  As our congregation hosts a Jula group, the branch assigned them to us, so that the brother can learn Jula while still getting his spiritual food in French.  So, happy for us, we gain an elder and 2 full time servants once they finish their honeymoon!  We do feel for the Jula congregation though (which the sister had been part of before the wedding), as they only have 2 elders and a few servants.  Making it even harder for them, one of their elders just left for the SKE, leaving the other one solo for 4 months!  But, as with everything in Jehovah's organization, we know that He will provide.

That's about all for this post, bringing you up to date with our lives here in Bobo.  Thanks for sticking with us despite our long silence!  No doubt, we will be a little more prompt about our next post :)

The best life ever

Faces seem to float, barely visible, in the dim pools of light being feebly cast by flashlights squeezing the last bit of current out of their batteries.  Through the open window, we catch the brief flash of far off lightning, and fervently wish it would bring with it some kind of breeze.  Every forehead drips with sweat, as we slowly swelter in the stagnant oven air, superheated all day under a hot tin roof, left with nowhere to go as night falls, locked in a thermal prison.

Still, comments ring out, as the speaker searches the audience with his flashlight, looking for hands raised.  When the time arrives to sing, one brave voice takes the lead, as the rest of us follow.  Small groups huddle around single lights, straining to make out the words in the dimly lit books.  As the last word is sung, all lights are extinguished, allowing us to concentrate on the prayer with complete lack of visual stimulus.  Immediately upon "amen", the work of cleaning begins, done in teams: one with a light, 2 with brooms.  All who aren't involved with cleaning escape to the relative chill outside, not allowing the darkness to inhibit an interchange of encouragement in any way.

This wasn't quite what we expected as the meeting began.  However, when the entire neighborhood suddenly plunged into darkness about 15 minutes in, we knew we were in for a new experience!  No, this wasn't the first time that the power has gone out during a meeting.  However, our first Hall here had a small generator, enough to power the sound system and half the interior lights.  Periods of darkness rarely lasted more than a few minutes, although the generator would occasionally be rather temperamental.  This invariably led to a short flashlight session inside the Hall, and an impromptu elder meeting outside, with brothers circled around the generator coaxing it back to life.

In fact, this isn't even the first time we have had an entire meeting without electricity.  Just a few weeks ago, our 2nd meeting back in Burkina, a large swath of Bobo was privileged to go without electricity for the whole weekend.  Fortunately, the sun was still up during that meeting.  The largest inconvenience fell upon the CO who didn't have the benefit of technology to make himself heard by all.  Still, that wasn't as much of a hardship as he faced on his previous visit, when an inopportune downpour pounding on the roof made it virtually impossible to hear anything he said, even with the aid of microphones and amplifiers.  Earlier in the same visit, the CO had contended with a wedding party literally right outside of the Kingdom Hall during the meeting.  As is the case in pretty much the entire world, wedding parties here involve music.  Loud music.  Lots of music.  Lots and lots of loud music.  Traveling overseers here face unique challenges!

But not all mention of technology here in Africa comes with tales of woe.  Rolling back time again, to our first meeting back here, we were very privileged to enjoy something completely new for our congregation, a new tool which brought us up to date with most congregations in the US.  Imagine how much the congregation enjoyed watching the JW.org video, easily seen by all, thanks to a new video projector!  You might be asking yourself "what were they using before?"  After all, the videos have been featured in service meeting parts for several months now.  They didn't entirely miss out, in September and October the videos were displayed as per the KM.  Those in the first 2 rows fully enjoyed them, those further back might have strained to see the 11" tablet....  Obviously big screen projection is a treat!  Sadly, in December no one had any way to show the videos, as the missionaries with the tablet were out of the country.  We hope they won't have to miss out on any more!

The projector is quickly becoming an indispensable member of the congregation, having also been able to show some of the newly released videos after a recent meeting, being scheduled for the public talk this Saturday, as well as enjoying fine association with ones from all over Bobo.  Ok, you caught me.  The projector isn't actually "giving" the public talk.... But it will be displaying the video that is taking the place of the talk!  And, no, the projector didn't really "associate" with us the other night.... It just sat there very passively and showed us the February JW broadcast.  Nearly all the English speakers in Bobo were gathered for the event, even a few who don't speak English.  A fine spiritual time was had by all (including our new friend, the projector... as far as we can tell)!

As you read this, it's possible that the same thought entered your mind as has entered ours... "What if the power goes out in the middle of the video????"  Well, we are actually a little concerned about that, but, since we have no control over it we are choosing to ignore it!  No doubt, in that event, one of the elders will be stepping in with a very last minute impromptu talk.... with no microphones, and lit by flashlight!

Whenever we start to miss the days of unlimited high speed wifi, power that never went out, water we could drink straight from the tap, etc etc etc, we stop and remind ourselves that, yes, we did in fact choose to come here.  All these small inconveniences, we can get used to them.  It is an adjustment going from one of the richest countries in the world to one of the poorest.... But the ministry is enough reason to make the change!  Plus, we really feel privileged to help share all of the faithful slave's provisions, whether on the big screen at the Hall, or on our cell phones in the territory.  Whenever we look at the whole equation, there really isn't anywhere we would rather be.  Just like they say in the movie, this really is the best life ever!!

Back home!

Well, here we are, back in Burkina!  It almost seems like a dream, but one of those dreams where you aren't really sure what is the reality and what is the dream.  Is this the dream, what I'm seeing now, or am I remembering a dream of another world, a city buzzing with expensive cars and the gleam of tall glass-clad buildings?

In any case, or, as the Burkinabé say "en tout cas", we are back!  Hopefully you didn't miss us too much during the last 4 months.  Really, this blog is about our life in Burkina, not about life in San Francisco, so it didn't seem necessary to post anything while we were back working in the US of A.

We cut our time in Cali short by a little to be able to return in time for our CO visit, which was definitely worth it.  Really, jumping right back into our service routine made it seem like we never even left.  After only a week, we are back on schedule (having powered through jet lag... Maybe "power" is too strong a word.... More like struggled through it), and have re-established several studies.  It won't be long before our schedule is too full again!  What a nice problem to have.... too many visits and studies.

First though, our CO visit.  Our half of the country is served by an African brother with many many years in the truth.  He is a very lively brother who learned the truth in Côte d'Ivoire, quickly becoming a special pioneer and serving all over Burkina, before becoming a CO.  He has a very motivating manner of speaking, which we quite enjoy.  You might think this is normal when you see how lively conversations are between West Africans, but they often reel it in for public speaking, sometimes making it difficult beyond description for us to pay attention and force ourselves to follow along in French.  Lively talks by the CO were a great way to jump back into our congregation.  It also seemed like our congregation loved us even more because we actually came back.  Not that that was ever in doubt, but they seem to know what a difference it is for needgreaters in their home country versus here.  We really felt welcomed and appreciated by everyone, and they seemed to feel like we are now a permanent fixture since we came back again, knowing in full what we were coming to.

And what were we coming back to?  Above all else, dust.  Fortunately, the heat hasn't really started yet.  Our first week back, the highs were around 92, although it's creeping closer to triple digits this week.  (Since I spent a couple days editing this, I have to revise that.... It has hit triple digits now, and the hot season is definitely on its way in!)  Add to that, it hasn't rained in months.... so it's incredibly dusty!  If the roads weren't mostly dirt, it wouldn't be too bad.  But, during the "commute" hours, when there's lots of people on the road, there is a haze hanging everywhere over the city.  The evenings and early mornings are the worst, because the dust combines with the never-ending trash burning that takes place throughout Bobo every nightfall (why it is culturally dictated that trash must be burned at night I don't know.  Maybe we should just be glad that it is... There is no taboo to burning plastic here, so the smoke is literally toxic.  Passing by a trash fire in service can be enough to gag us.  Happily, they aren't too common during our normal preaching hours, that is to say, "daylight").  How happy we are to have a house where we can close all that out, and still stay at a comfortable temperature!  Truly, Jehovah blessed us by allowing us to move in here.  Of course, no matter how nice the house, we are depending on African infrastructure, and we received a reminder of that almost immediately with daily water outages.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except that the water went out just before we headed to take showers after service, and came back on around 10 pm.... meaning we took bucket showers but could have just waited a few hours and had a normal running water shower!  Not the end of the world, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Never forget "If everything worked right, it wouldn't be Africa."

This isn't to say that it's all suffering.  Getting back to the territory and our studies more than compensates for any discomfort we may feel.  We have both started back with a couple studies already, in addition to new calls from the door to door work during the CO visit.  Fortunately, we are much more prepared now than we were a year ago.  When someone listens to us, we don't automatically get all excited and promise to return every week til they get baptized.  Rather, we try to discern what their real level of interest is, and sometimes we just leave them something to read with no plan on ever returning.  If we don't do that, we will end up spending about 36 hours a day doing return visits.  You can probably see why that wouldn't work....  The challenge here is always determining who to invest our limited time in.

To finish off the CO visit, the congregation had a party Sunday night, in part for the CO but also as a goodbye to a family moving to a neighboring congregation and to an elder moving to a village for work.  Again, we were reminded that we are back in Africa, as there was a power outage in the entire neighborhood.  But, just as our COBE was announcing the reasons for the party, and how sad it was there wouldn't be any music for dancing, the power came back on!  It was almost like Jehovah answered all the prayers of those wanting to dance (would he really do that???).  So, we moved from moonlit conversation to bumpin beats and African dancing.  Our secretary was thrilled to be able to use his new laptop (donated by a brother in Cali) to play the music, and was surprisingly not at all inhibited by Windows being entirely in English.

That brings us up to this week, with Monday off per the traditional missionary schedule (which everyone follows here). Tuesday, back to service, complete with siesta which we hope will help us sustain a high level of activity through the rest of the year (100+ hours per month).  Not surprisingly, we have a pretty sizeable list of things we need to do with our days off, so we won't be getting bored anytime soon!

On a side note, we had a little sadness on returning to our house.  Some of you may know the story of how the French missionaries living next door helped us get this house, then helped us so much after we moved in.  Well, they got invited to the BSCC last summer (many French missionaries in West Africa never attended Gilead, they were sent directly from France).  Then, we left before they returned, meaning we wouldn't see each other for about 6 months.... or so we thought!  Turns out, they were re-assigned to France, and left the day before we got back home.  We were in Ouagadougou at the same time, but never had a chance to see them.  While we are of course very happy for them and know Jehovah will bless them, we are a little sad for ourselves, because we had hoped to learn a lot from them.  They are very effective teachers, with many local "letters of recommendation" to prove it.  Some of their former students are now pioneers and Bethelites.  Of course, not all is lost, as we had new neighbors move in within the week.  2 sisters (as in fleshly sisters) were re-assigned to here, at the same time moving from special pioneer status to missionary status. They are quite nice, and also very experienced in Burkina, having spent almost 20 years here, most of it in special full time service.  All we have to do is learn to keep up with their rapid-fire French, and we will once again have a font of knowledge right next door!

In summary, are we happy to be back?  Incredibly so!  The time spent in Cali was necessary, but not easy.  It may be a struggle to be here without a "real job" and what the world considers to be a secure future, but we can't think of anything we would rather do than expend ourselves in the preaching work, especially here!  In line with today's Watchtower, there is nothing in this world that even compares with the value of our message.  Really, spending 3 months back in the rat-race of this system helped remind us of how little value it actually has!  While there will always be things we miss in Cali (family and food, mostly), the 3 months we just spent there helped reinforce that Burkina is our home.  If we can finish out this system here, we will truly thank Jehovah!!!

Regional assembly 2014

<Spoiler Alert!>  In the unlikely event that you have not yet attended your 2014 Regional Convention, be aware that this blog post will make reference to said convention, and will almost certainly reveal some details regarding said convention. If you wish to remain blissfully ignorant of such details, you may wish to skip this post for now.

That being said, we just had the pleasure of attending our first regional assembly here in Bobo.  (Yes, I called it an assembly.  In French, conventions are called assemblées, so that's just what we are calling it now). This was possibly the smallest regional/ district assembly we have ever been to, with a peak attendance of 684.  Being in a nice rented amphitheater with A/C, nice seats, and modern looks, we could almost forget that we were in Africa.  At least, until the power went out!  Which seemed to happen regularly during the videos, including the drama.  As you can imagine, every time the power interrupted a video, there was a collective groan from the audience.  But, even worse, the brothers in charge of A/V had to go into frantic mode to determine if they could get the power back on, and, once they did, to reset every one of the 12 TVs placed throughout the facility.

2 newly baptized sisters with the only baptized deaf brother in Bobo

On the subject of videos, we have to mention our appreciation for the videos that were provided for ASL.  Here in Bobo we have a sign language group, and they had a section with their own TV at the assembly.  They averaged 35 in attendance, well over half being studies or visits.  We were able to see their TV during the whole program, and really enjoyed seeing how they had the whole program in sign language.  The local brothers only did a little bit of interpreting.  It was great for us, and we don't even understand ASL, can only imagine how it touched all of the deaf attendees!

Now, back to the hearing section.... the visiting speaker was a member of the branch committee in Benin (our branch).  We actually got to have dinner with him, a very nice and humble brother.  He can also give a little encouragement to all of us who are learning a language:  he and his wife have been in Benin for 18 years and still haven't mastered French, and don't speak a word of the local language Fon.  Clearly, they weren't sent here because of their fluency in the local languages (speaking English and German before), rather because of their spiritual qualities.  That's a nice reminder anytime we feel like we just aren't managing the language; while language is important, it's not the most important thing!

True, we could "almost" forget that we were in Africa... but there were always small reminders.  Things like the stage brothers sometimes forgetting to adjust mics, and the hand painted signs for the Friday drama.  Mostly, just a reflection of the different culture here: a laid-back attitude, and not worrying about every little thing.  The thought is "it will work out", and it usually does.  Of course, we are coming from a very detail oriented culture, so it's impossible for us to be so laid-back.  But, at the end of the day, who do you think is less stressed?  Again, a nice lesson, not everything has to be done exactly how we are accustomed to!

Finally, the exciting part!  We were very privileged to have 9 invitees attend!  One was Alisa's study who was there all 3 days, the others were mostly studies who came for just one session, and even 1 guy that we had just met on Wednesday and told about the assembly, and he came for 2 sessions.  Interestingly, 4 out 5 were of Muslim background, and several were practicing Muslims.  Even though they usually are slow to change, they are coming into the truth too.  The fields truly are white for harvesting!!!

Once the assembly was all over, we got to enjoy the new video... in French!  Of course, none of the releases were available here in English.  So, we have watched the video twice in French, and so far not once in English.  Even still, it's the best video yet!  While the publications in French aren't ideal for us, they are already benefitting those in the territory.  One of our studies is a father and husband, and appreciated the counsel in the Good News brochure that he is responsible for teaching his family.  So, I made sure to get him the new family brochure, and he has already started reading it together with his wife!

Issouf, who walked an hour to attend the assembly

Edith was there all 3 days

Charles is a Liberian refugee who loves the Bible

Orokia rode her bicycle to the assembly 2 days

Zekaria happens to also be our tailor (he made the orange and the blue suits)

Deneba is also a tailor, and seems ready to accept the truth (her little girl is also really cute)

Campaigns, campaigns

So here we are counting down to the final week of the JW tract campaign, and how is it going?  Well, for us, it's over.  What?? Why is it over early in this part of the world?? Well, when we ran out of tracts, it was over, pretty simple.  The few thousand tracts we received didn't last very long.  After the first 2 weeks, they were mostly gone.  Originally, it was thought that we would roll from the JW tract right into our assembly invitation work... Well, a little more on that later.

But, how did the tract work go while they lasted?  At first, we were a little skeptical.  After all, we are offering a tract that focuses on the internet, mostly to people who don't have access to the internet.  How is this going to turn out?  Also, very few publishers have smartphones, and it seems like we might be the only ones who have actually connected our phones to the internet (mobile internet is quite cheap here, compared to an unlimited plan in the US, but is still an unimaginable luxury for most people.  Even those who start trying it usually only buy a few mega-bytes at a time, not enough to really do much with).  So, showing the householder the website is mostly out of the question.  However, we were able to focus on the younger ones in the territory as the best potential readers of the tract.  While ones under 20 years old typically can't afford their own smart phone, the large majority of them have some awareness of the internet, and are likely to use it at some point.  (Did we ever mention that cyber-cafés are still big business here?  They are all over, using 10+ year old towers, a spotty cellular connection, and are ALWAYS, ALWAYS full)  However, the age group from 20-30, especially university students, are quite likely to have a connected phone, or even tablet, with them.  We had a lot of good responses from ones in this age range, a few even taking a look at the site right away.  Also, we found lots of success, when talking to parents, by focusing on how the website can help their kids.  After all, the world is changing, and it's only a matter of time before the kids are surfing the web just like we do!  So, while there were probably a lot more spectacular experiences in the more connected parts of the world (anywhere not Africa), we were able to feel like the campaign was a success here.  It will be very exciting to hear how much the traffic on the site increased during August!

On a side note, when we ask the question on the front and ask for their choice between the 3 sources of answers, the response was 99.9% "the Bible".  That's one reason that we love it here, you don't have to convince anyone to talk about spiritual things.  They already see the value of them.

Another side note, are you using the videos from JW.org in service?  We love them!  Although we started using them before the campaign, it was a pretty logical step to show people content from the site when offering the tract.  At this point, the videos "why study the bible", "what happens on a study", and "what happens at meetings" are all available in the major languages of Burkina.  You should see the face of someone who is expecting the "colonial language", French, and instead hears their native language!

Now, as I promised earlier, a little bit about our convention invitation program.  The convention will begin 2 weeks from today... however we haven't begun our invitation work yet.  Why not?  Well, we aren't even sure yet where the convention will be!  Although it was initially announced as being at a conference hall near our house, there seem to have been difficulties getting a contract signed.  For the moment, our congregation has a supply of invitations, but doesn't know what location to print on them!  We are really hoping that it will be the hall close to our house.  It would be nice for us, but the best part would be the benefits for our territory.  If it's close to us, it will be very easy for everyone in our territory to find and attend.  We will be sure to post a few pictures and an update after the convention, no matter where it ends up being!

Languages

Ok so it's not a video... But this is how you count to 10 in Jula!

Why is language such a big deal here?  Mostly because there are so many, and not everyone speaks the same one.  Growing up in the United States, that can be a little hard to grasp, because we are used to nearly all of the other 300 million people around us speaking English as a native language.  Of course, there are many exceptions, most notably the millions and millions of Spanish speakers, many living in areas that, not too long ago, were owned by a Spanish speaking country.  But, for some reason, that doesn't seem to penetrate the collective thinking that says "everybody speaks English".  While this is good for Europeans who want to poke fun at American tourists who can't even say hello, it's not so good for us Americans who want to understand another culture.

So, here goes our short lesson on languages in Burkina!  If you want lots of technical info, you will have to Google it, we aren't doing this to bore everyone with the details of the languages.  This is more to give you an idea how the languages affect our preaching here.

English: virtually non-existent.  Aside from a few foreigners, the only English speakers here are emigrants from Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.  Our guess is that they total maybe 100.  There is an English congregation in the capitol, but we haven't had a chance to visit them

French: the dominant language.  This is the language we preach in and that all our meetings are in.  However, this isn't exactly the same French that you may have studied in high school... First there is the accent.  Burkina French can be hard for us to understand, and our French is hard for them to understand.  Even the French sisters that are here are told that they have a funny accent, so it's not just us.  Part of the problem is that Burkinabé often slur their words and don't pronounce the whole word.  We first realized how big a problem this could be when we offended a guy who had said a price of 70 but we heard 110!  (Soixante-dix, cent-dix, see the difference?)  It adds a new element of complexity to shopping in a country where almost no stores have the price posted and you need to understand what the vendor just told you.  There is another side as well: far from 100% of the population speak French fluently.  Sure, every single person can greet you in French and maybe say a phrase or 2, but for many that's the end of it.  What do we do for them?  Often, our service partner will jump in and take over in that case.  But, if we don't have someone to bail us out, we sometimes end up using nearby children as translators.  As you can imagine, this isn't a totally effective way to communicate....  Now for the big question: if they don't speak English or French, what do they speak?

Moore: this is the regional/ ethnic language of about half of Burkina (pronounced Mo-ray).  Even though it's not the half we live in, there are still a lot of people who have moved here whose mother tongue is Moore.  Most of them speak French by necessity, so we can easily preach to them.  In Ouaga, there are lots of Moore congregations, and they even have current magazines available for them.

Jula: this is where it starts to get tricky (pronounced Jew-lah).  Jula is the regional language of the other half of Burkina (the half where we live), but also part of Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, and much of Mali.  However, in Mali it is called Bambara, and is viewed as a totally different language, even having separate Society translation teams.  In reality, they are still mostly the same language, though.  The important thing is that Jula isn't really an ethic language, it's a commerce language.  That means that everyone in the region learned it to be able to communicate (so they could sell stuff), but it's not their mother tongue.  So 99.9% of the population here speak it, but almost always as a 2nd language.  What is their first language?  Their family or tribe language, of which there are many.  So, we have a Jula congregation and a Jula group here in Bobo, because it's a language closer to the hearts of many than French, even if it's not truly the language of their hearts.  We should mention that, although it's mostly a spoken language, there are some schools in our new territory that are teaching kids to read and write Jula, sometimes alongside French, sometimes instead of French.  This is a good thing for preaching, of course.  Want to guess who is teaching them and opening up the field for us?  Protestant churches!  They probably won't be happy when they see their members learning what the Bible really says by reading it for themselves like the church taught them to!  In some territories, it is about 80% Jula and 20% French.  That can make it pretty difficult for us to preach, however we are trying to learn a little.  Is it easy?  Not even!!!  For example, we started with the numbers.  1-10 is pretty easy, but once you hit 100, things get really weird.  There is a word for 100 and a word for 500, but they switch places depending whether you mean a quantity or money.  Basically, there are 2 sets of numbers, one for money, one for counting.... As if it wasn't hard enough already!  Then there is the detail that the number system is based off of 5, not 10 like we are used to.  So, when we think we understand how to say a number, for example 200, our teacher says "no, that's 125!"  This is not going to get any easier....  In any case, people in the territory love it when a foreigner can at least greet them in Jula, even if we can't do anything more. 

Bobo: one of the dominant ethnic languages in our area (pronounced Boh-boh).  There are villages south of us where everyone speaks Bobo, and the oldest part of the city is almost 100% Bobo.  Of course, in the city, they also speak Jula.  We have a brother in the congregation and a study's family who have tried to teach us the greetings, but it's a little hard to keep it all straight.  As far as we know, the brother is the only Bobo witness here, although his wife will likely get baptized soon and become the 2nd.  So anytime I work with him, he will preach in Bobo if we meet someone.  Since it's only a spoken language, it doesn't seem likely that we will see any publications in Bobo anytime soon.

Arabic:  in theory, learned by most Muslims.  There are many Koranic schools that teach reading and, to some degree, speaking.  However, the Arabic in the Koran is not the same as the Arabic used by the Society for publications.  So, we are often told "yes I read Arabic", only to have a baffled look appear on their face when we give them a tract and they can't read even a single word.  The exceptions to this are the Lebanese and Syrian businessmen who run many of the larger stores here.  They aren't even all Muslim.  One of our calls is an Orthodox Catholic from Lebanon, and yes, he can read the publications with no problem.

We haven't even ventured into the dozens of other ethnic languages that exist here.  In most cases, people only use those with their immediate family, so we won't likely have the need or opportunity to learn any of them.  But, you can see how there are layers upon layers of languages here.  It definitely adds a complexity that doesn't exist in other parts of the world.  It also adds a depth that doesn't always exist in the USA.  The people who speak these diverse languages can trace their history back for centuries, sometimes 1000 years, in part because of the language.  Of course, the most exciting language here is the one we are trying to help people of all backgrounds learn: the pure language!

Pics

A few pics of our Kingdom Hall:

The Jula group has their Bible study outside on these benches

Our view every meeting

Some of the friends in Bobo, not necessarily all in our current congregation:

Yes, in Africa you can go 3 to a motorcycle

Some sights from field service:

Patient sisters

Making candy

This was once a road.  We now call it "the great rift valley"