Apr 3
Easter Eggs Hunts at Nakpanduri and Home
Easter came around again and that meant a visit to Nakpanduri for Ms. Denise’s annual easter egg hunt ! I lose track of how many years she has been doing this but it’s over 30 and each year we make sure we attend (2017, 2016, 2015). In addition to the BMC families, this year we had a massive group of volunteers (9 from WVU and a couple others) as well as four German friends that attended.
-
- KJ finds an egg!
-
- Success
-
- Harmattan had a odd return at the end of March
The next day Heidi did her own traditional Easter Egg hunt around the house with the kids (2017, 2016, 2015).
Mar 28
Baby Naming at Tambɔna Preaching Point
Sumnibooma#1 Baptist Church, a place we visit fairly regularly, has a new preaching point in Tambɔna, a very small community a couple miles away. They erected a simple shelter in which they meet weekly for a worship service. Sumnibooma#1 sends two or three of its members to lead the service.
I had not yet been able to visit the group at Tambɔna but had promised I would do it soon. Rev. George asked me to go on March 25th to preach and do a baby naming ceremony for a couple there.
Often for such events I preach a sermon that has a theme that matches the meaning of the child’s name. However, this child had no traditional name (those are often connected to proverbs) and his English given name was Desmond. Desmond is an anglicization of the Gaelic locale Deas-Mhumhna, or “South Munster.” So basically, Desmond means “Irish guy from South Munster.” Kind of hard to preach a sermon in a rural West African village on that topic.
Thankfully, I found one claim that the American meaning of Desmond has become “gracious defender” (don’t ask me how). That was a much easier meaning to tie to Scripture since Christ is our gracious defender – our advocate before the Judge!
Mar 28
Visit to Namoori Escarpment
Whenever Dr. Vince “Tiiya” Waite comes to town, I take him out to Namoori to visit his old friend who is chief of that village. Often we go out to the Gambaga Escarpment just north of there after visiting with the chief and enjoying a meal together. Several of his courtiers guided us and took us to a new spot a bit farther east down the scarp.
There they showed us a natural spring that attracts wildlife year round. In fact, we saw a troop of about 10-12 wild patas monkeys running through the trees below. They also showed me a new path I did not know of that allows one to walk down the cliffs and get to the White Volta River.
It follows the trend that each village seems to have its own path down the Gambaga Escarpment to reach their farms, the forest and the river. So far, I’ve seen such paths at Gambaga, Dintigi, Namoori, Zarantinga/Namaasim, Sakogu, Baungu, Kpatiritinga, Nakpanduri and Tusugu.
-
- Men of Namoori
Mar 26
KJ at Play
Here are some images from the first few months of this year of KJ enjoying life in and around Nalerigu.
-
- Matching mommy!
-
- Preparing to cook rice
-
- Chilling on a hot, dry day
-
- Going for a spin on a friend’s bike
-
- Playing prison (?) with friends
-
- Spying on sheep
-
- Getting carried away with markets
-
- Rocking out with Trey and Duplo instruments
-
- Helping Mommy make pizza dough
-
- Helping fix a flat tire on our truck
-
- Hiking with a medical volunteer
-
- Rocking the pigtails
-
- Thinking about fake plastic trees
-
- Buying fish in the market
-
- Watching Daddy’s drone
-
- Passed out after a long day of play
Mar 24
With the help of her older brother, KJ is getting pretty good at this walking on stilts thing!
