The Home Stretch

We are back in Diapaga today after spending a pleasant, if hot, week in Mahadaga.  I've complained a few times these last few months that our weekly visits to Mahadaga have been incredibly exhausting and intense, and I was surprised to find I did not enjoy the time in Mahadaga as much as I'd thought.  I now realize that was partly due to the shortness of our "visits" home.  We were trying to cram 7 days worth of catching up into 2 days.  It was insane.

This past week we were not in Mahadaga for any real particular reason other than because Betty needed to use our car.  What a difference that made!  We still managed to find a few things to do, but overall it was a much more relaxed time.  And upon returning to Diapaga this afternoon after a week away, I realized how much I've been missing my own home these last few months.  Coming back here after being able to relax in the comfort of my house with my things doing the things I'm used to with the people I know was a bit...disconcerting!

Instead, as we came up the drive to the house in Diapaga, we found an unknown van parked in our yard as there is apparently a pastor's conference going on at the church next door.  And when I walked in the house and started opening up all the windows, I was surprised to look out on the verandah and find a "squatter!"  Turned out to be one of the conference attendees who had decided that our verandah looked like a nice place to take sieste and had set up his own cot there.  I guess he didn't know there were people actually living here...

And as I put the groceries away in the cupboards, I found that the mice here are really rather desperate and determined!  They've been getting into anything wrapped in plastic or paper (like macaronis or kool-aid envelopes) for weeks now, and once I removed all those sorts of items from their reach, they had started on cardboard (like boxed foods), which I also removed before leaving (though I apparently forgot to remove the bullion cubes).  Now, it seems, they've started chewing holes in the plastic lids covering tin cans of food, and even chewing through thicker, harder plastic to get to my maple flavoring extract!  We had brought our Kitty to live with us when we first came, but we had trouble with her "potty-training", and we also suspect that someone tried to "catnap" her at one point, so we took her back to Mahadaga to stay.

Well, needless to say, the "camping adventure" we were excited about when this language study time started is starting to get old.  But we are hanging in there.  This time around we intend to stay in Diapaga a little longer than usual as a final "push" as we wind down our time.  Dale has medical committee meetings in Fada coming up May 23rd and 24th, so we anticipate those meetings will signal the end of our language study time.  That should give us enough time to settle back in our home in Mahadaga before the adventures of the summer months begin!

Hali li daali!

Happy Easter and the Johnson Blog is Back!

Hi Everyone!  I am so excited to FINALLY get this blog post up!  It means we're finally back on the web!  If you were following our blog before, you know that we were having technical problems with our old blog.  I finally got frustrated enough to switch to blogger, and so far so good!  I was even able to import most of the posts and other information I had on the old blog without too much hassle!  So, hopefully this transition will feel fairly seamless to you, though I'm sure there are still a few things I need to clean up.  If you run across any, feel free to email us and let us know!  This new blog interface seems much simpler to use, so I'm hoping that'll make it easier for us to post more often.  Here's to hoping anyway!

It seems like a lot has been going on lately, it's almost tempting to make this a "catch up" post, but I'm afraid that would get long!  Suffice it to say that we've been on the road a lot recently, between our weekly trips to Mahadaga, the regional church women's retreat that I spoke at, meetings with ministry partners to the CAH, and a marriage conference in Fada.

This weekend we found ourselves pleasantly "immobile" as our vehicle did all the travelling without us.  Our colleague, Betty Eichhorst, left Mahadaga on Thursday to return to her home in Canada.  She doesn't have her own vehicle, so we came in to Mahadaga Wednesday afternoon so she could use our car (she hired a driver) to get back to the capital where the airport is.  Betty has been working in Mahadaga since 1956.  She retired from full-time missions work with SIM in 2000, but has still been coming to Mahadaga for 6 months at a time every year since then.  Recently, it seems she states it "may be her last time" each time she arrives in October, though usually by the time she's leaving in April she's making plans to return again.  This time, however, she seems less sure, and there's a sense we may be seeing the end of a legacy here in Mahadaga!  Whether we'll see her again or not we do not know, but may the Lord reward her with a gorgeous crown on that Great Day of Accounting!

After taking Betty all the way back to Ouaga, our car was due back Friday or Saturday.  However, the Walsh family, who also serve with us here in Mahadaga, are having car trouble of late.  They were on their way to the marriage conference in Fada last weekend when the radiator in their car blew up about 100 kms from the mission station.  They had to be towed all the way to Fada (after waiting for several hours in the hot mid-day sun!), and then towed again to Ouaga after the conference was over where there was hope of a mechanic (and parts) that might be able to fix the car.  Unfortunately, by the Thursday when Betty arrived in Ouaga with our vehicle, it became clear that the Walsh vehicle needs a heart transplant.  Yes, folks, a replacement motor must be found, and for a Nissan Terrano, those can only be found in Ghana in this area.  That means 3-4 weeks before the car is running again.  So, in the end, the timing worked out perfectly for our car to be in Ouaga while we stayed behind.  We agreed to extend our stay in Mahadaga, and the Walshes now have a car to drive back to Mahadaga tomorrow (Monday).

That was a pretty long-winded way to say, we ended up spending Easter in Mahadaga!  With all of our adventures of the last couple of weeks, Easter sort of snuck up on us, and we weren't really "prepared" for it as far as the usual celebratory preparations go.  We did attend Easter service at our local church.  The service started at 8 and ended at 11:15, with at least 4 choirs performing, 2-3 theater pieces, and a couple of expressive dance numbers before the pastor preached an 8-point sermon on Christ, the Conqueror of death!  You can experience a little of our service by viewing the video below.

All in all, we had a relaxing, quiet morning, enjoyed the Easter service at our church, made an Easter dinner of left-over honey-baked chicken and macaroni and cheese, and took a joy-ride through the fields of Mahadaga on the Yamaha Rhino.

Happy Easter!

Burkina Blurbs 1st Qtr 2011

A few weeks late, but we finally got our 1st Qtr 2011 edition of our newsletter "Burkina Blurbs" finished, emailed out, and now, with our new blog up and running, posted online!  If you're not on our email list and would like us to email you directly with the link to the newsletter each time we post a new one up, please let us know!

Dale, Flo, Caleb & Joel

March 2011 Prayer Letter

Update #2: Finally got our blog moved to blogger and things are sailing a bit more smoothly now.  The March Prayer Letter is now posted here for you to read if you please.  In the future, however, we've decided to simply our prayer letters to a short email with prayer points, so we will no longer post those here.  If you'd like to be on our monthly prayer list, send us an email.

Update: We've been having some trouble uploading the prayer letter for this month, but we'd be happy to send it to you as an email attachment if you would like a copy! Post a comment here or email us at johnson@ergatai.com if you didn't get an email copy of our March 2011 prayer letter and would like one.

It's been a while since we've managed to send out a prayer letter, but we are alive and well!  We've been in transition the last month or so and it's taken us a while to get ourselves set up with a regular schedule, get internet set up, etc.  If you received our 4th Quarter newsletter in December, you may remember that we were planning to take a few months at the beginning of this year to concentrate on learning the Gourma language.  We are now in the midst of that, having moved to Diapaga, a town about 35 kilometers from Mahadaga where we are usually stationed, on February 7th.

The language learning process is slow, and having no formal classroom set up means we have to come up with all the motivation and initiative for learning the language ourselves.  At times it is challenging to press forward and feel motivated; at other times there are many distractions.  Though the process is slow, however, we are progressing and we hope to have picked up enough of the language by mid-May to have a base to work from in continuing to learn in the future.  We appreciate your prayers on this account.

Hot season is in full swing here in Burkina, with temps averaging over 100 degrees lately; we think of you often and the much cooler weather you have been experiencing!

God bless you!

Love,

Dale, Florence, Caleb & Joel

Where in the World is the Johnson Family?

I know it's been forever since we posted anything. I've been a little frustrated with some of the glitches on our blog site, and super busy the last couple of months (not to mention all the illnesses we had to get through), so it's been hard to motivate myself to sit down and post anything. But today, at least, I have something "easy" to say.:)

For those of you who have not been able to follow us otherwise (i.e facebook, prayer letters, newsletters), we have been doing a lot of travelling/transition recently. We were in Ouagadougou (the capital) last week for meetings and to pick up supplies. It was, actually, a pretty insane week and I was glad when we were done with it. We did, as usual, have an "adventure" on our way there. Couldn't avoid it, seeing as how Liz was travelling with us and "adventures" are just par for the course with her.:) But, we've already done the whole "blown tire" story back in August, so aside from the fact that it was a WAWA (remember that post from a long time ago? WAWA = West Africa Wins Again) experience (hence the title), there's not much to tell. We were fortunate to have some of our colleagues travelling to the same destination in a separate care just 5-10 minutes behind us, so they stopped and helped us out of our predicament. We were in a "less remote" area, apparently, and our poor boys became the object of much curiosity as the local kids pressed their hands and faces up against the glass and jabbered and pointed at them, like at fish in an aquarium, as they were "trapped" inside our car since I would not let them out for fear of the highway traffic.

Just tried uploading some pics to show our above adventure, but, as I already complained, having problems with the blog site...so you'll just have to picture it. On to other ramblings...

We moved to Diapaga this past Monday. Diapaga is the provincial seat for the province Mahadaga is located in. It's the closest thing to a "city" we have anywhere near us, but it's really more of a small town... So, anyway, SIM used to have full-time missionaries stationed in Diapaga and still owns the property (and houses) where the mission station in Diapaga was located. It's been about 13 years since anyone from the mission has lived there, but the structure, anyway, is still in good shape. So with a little elbow grease and a big sense of adventure, we've worked at making ourselves a temporary home in one of the old mission houses in Diapaga. Why? Because we're trying to learn another language. I know, I know...how many tricks can you teach an old dog? But we're gonna give it a try anyway. While I (Florence) have been able to pick up some Gourma (slowly over time) while living in Mahadaga, Dale has found it next to impossible to dedicate the attention and time necessary to really be able to learn another language while being in his current ministry role. It was necessary for him that we "get away" to do the study. Being the director of the Centre for the Advancement of the Handicapped, though, finding a good block of time where he could just "step away" from his responsibilities was not easy. In the end, we managed to find a 3.5 month block of time (February - mid-May) that our colleagues were willing to "let us go" while they shouldered the extra burden of us being away. In an effort to compromise and make the transition away from and back to the responsibilities, we chose to do our study in Diapaga, which is only 35 miles away (but takes about an hour and fifteen to drive due to the road conditions). This allows us to come back to Mahadaga once a week (usually Wednesdays) to check in with the team here. Dale can attend the leadership team meetings at the Center and stay appraised of any major happenings, and as a family we can attend the station prayer meetings in the evenings and stay connected with our team.

So, the big day has finally come to actually make this move. We've been able to pick up basic furnishings from random guest house surplus to use in Diapaga, so we haven't had to move too much out of our house. The house in Diapaga still needs a bit of TLC, but it's livable. And so, in two days we managed to move and settle into our new temporary home. So far our impressions of Diapaga are as follows:

• Lots more traffic and more concentrated population, so more noise


• There is a mosque in Diapaga, so we're getting used to the regular calls to prayer our colleagues in other parts of Muslim Africa are so familiar with.  We've experienced this before when we spent 6 weeks in Ouaga for Joel's birth in 2007, but the muezzin in Diapaga doesn't seem to "sing" quite as well...last night I awoke to what sounded more like a long diatribe or lecture than a sing-song call to prayer.


• Dust.  Lots of it.  Mahadaga is more "bush" than Diapaga, so you'd thing it would be dustier.  But Mahadaga has more sand.  Diapaga just has red dust and it clings to everything.  Sand feels nice under your feet (unless it's too hot).  Dust...not so much.  And the boys get dirty even faster than they do in Mahadaga (if you can imagine that!).


• Reforging boundaries and relationships.  The local church runs a private elementary school on the mission property behind our house.  The children at the school are not used to little "white" kids, so during lunch breaks and after school they tend to all come over for a look-see...  I expect it won't be long 'til we start having a few curious neighbors show up as well.  Much as some days are "frustrating" in Diapaga for the constant "interruptions" at the door, we've gotten used to our Mahadaga community and who most people are.  And they've gotten used to us.  Now we have to "start over".  But this should be a great chance for us to practice our Gourma and a great refresher course on culture!


• Critters.  We have plenty of those in Mahadaga, but I hadn't realized how much we've actually begun "winning the war" against the worst of these until now.  Our first night in Diapaga, I swept the whole house out, then mopped it before I would let the boys go to bed.  So I KNOW their room was bug free, clean, etc.  We got their beds in place, made them up and put them to bed.  Joel woke me up several times that night with various incoherent requests, so I KNOW I was in his room in the pitch black several times checking on him.  But it wasn't until the next morning when he came into our room and woke me up with a "Mommy, the dirt pile just bit me" that we discovered what was going on.  I walked into Joel's room to discover that there were two termite mounds, each about 8 inches tall surrounding the two bed legs closest to the outer wall.  In ONE night!  It was incredible!  Apparently Joel had dropped his toy car and reached down to retrieve it and that's when the "dirt pile" "bit" him.  I've had nightmares of invading termite monsters ever since... (really wish I could upload pictures so I could show you!).


• Other animals.  Along the same lines as the previous point, we've finally managed to keep out the majority of unwanted animals from around the village in Mahadaga.  This is not the case in Diapaga where all the fences are broken down and animals have taken to foraging freely.  I had known from previous visit to the house in Diapaga that there was a flock of guinea fowl nearby that used the back yard as their direct path to wherever they go to graze.  They don't stay there all day (thank goodness - they are REALLY loud and annoying), but they do pass through.  And we found out the last two days that they generally make this trek in the early morning hours (of course).  What we were surprised by, though, was the flock of guinea fowl that "climbed" the tree just outside our bedroom window, then made it's way up onto the roof.  Next thing we know, we hear them scrambling loudly across the length of our tin roof house, just to get to the other side and realize that's not where they had intended to go.  Back across they go, their claws clicking and scratching all the way before they decided to get off and be on their merry way in exactly they same direction they had just come from...  I'm pretty sure they are at LEAST as dumb as donkeys...

On the upside, we have enjoyed some aspects of "the city life".  It's been so nice to be able to hop in the car and run down to the local grocery store when we forget our toothbrushes, or the local bakery when we want bread for lunch, or the local restaurant when we want a quick meal of rice and sauce, or the local hardware store when we need a new shower head, plumbing parts, or even a fan.  Diapaga is now "on the grid" and has city water.  Not sure how reliable it will prove to be, but so far we've not had any problems.  The only "modern convenience" I miss for the moment is my internet!

So, until we either find a way to access the internet from Diapaga, or until our next trip in to Mahadaga, fare ye well!

4th Qtr 2010 Newsletter - Merry Christmas!

Please click on the link to view the newsletter pdf file.

Johnson 4th Qtr Newsletter

We just celebrated our youngest son, Joel's, 3rd birthday and are looking forward to our Christmas celebration this weekend. We've had a busy couple of months as Dale has had a lot of travelling recently. Things are settling down a little (at least travel-wise), but there are still some big changes coming up in the near future as we pursue a short, intense period of Gourma language study in the new year.

We appreciate your prayers and support and are always encouraged to hear from you! Please keep checking back here on our blog for more news, pictures and reflections! I know we haven't been as consistent posting news lately, but I hope we can pick that back up again soon!.

Love,

Dale, Florence, Caleb and Joel

Lord, let me live!

Okay, so it’s been a long time since I’ve feared for my life.  Doesn’t mean it’s been boring.  Just safe.

In October I (Dale) made the three-day trek by car to Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.  THREE DAYS!  We were going to an international conference for “Community Based Rehabilitation” (CBR), which is the technical term for the ministry we do with people with disabilities.

The first day, I drove with my associate director to Niamey, the capital of Niger.  We stayed there overnight and met up with 8 other folks who were also going to the conference.  The next day, the 10 of us headed for Nigeria.

The trip started out great.  We even saw 4 giraffes along the road!  Except for a long border crossing to get into Nigeria, we thought all was well.  We kept cruising along…until 10 hours later when the drivers started thinking we were lost.  Apparently, we had taken a wrong turn early on and we didn’t really know where we were.

So the drivers (we were in two pick-up trucks) were flying.  And I mean flying.  They were going about 120 mph, which is nuts on African roads.  One blown tire and, bang, it’s all over.  Can’t control a pick-up truck at 120 mph with a blown tire.

So then it got dark, and we were still trying to reach a city with some sort of hotel to stay in overnight.

The rule is:  when in Africa, NEVER EVER drive at night.  Never.  There are so many reasons it’s dangerous.  Not the least of which are all the people driving with no working headlights.  Pitch black…what’s that?  Bang!  Or maybe even worse, all the road bandits.

So we’re driving along in the pitch black, when we see a strange little light ahead.  Our driver didn’t slow down at first because he was afraid it might be a bandit.  At the last second, we see in our headlights that the light is from the flashlight of a policeman standing in the middle of the road.  We slammed on the brakes, and the second car rear-ended us.  Fortunately, our car was okay.  The second car needed a new radiator.

So the policeman explained to me (because I was translating for our group) that he was on the road looking for bandits.  “Because they just shoot everyone down and take their money after.  They don’t bother threatening you.”  NOT the most reassuring words to tell a traveler late at night in the African bush.

With the policeman’s words ringing in my ears, we headed off very slowly (because 5 of us were riding in the back of the truck).  They were the longest 60 miles of my life, that’s for sure!

Six more times we were stopped.  Each time was more unsettling than the last.  The other times we were stopped, there were armed men camped next to the road.  Apparently, they were all just local volunteers trying to keep the road safe.  But man, in the dark, no uniforms, big guns…you don’t know if you should floor it and get out of there or what!

Well, we made it safely to a hotel that night (got the second car fixed) and drove on to Abuja the next day.  Abuja was a great African contrast.  It’s a city that was built recently to be, well, a capital city.  (Depending on your age, you might remember learning that Lagos was the capital:  which it was, until 1991.)  Interestingly, “it’s not a city for poor people”, as one of my hosts said it.  It’s criss-crossed with 4-lane highways and the streets are filled with actual cars, not motorbikes.  It’s inhabited mostly by government workers and oil-company employees.  And with all of that…no internet.  What?!

Fortunately, the 4-day conference was worth the 6-days of traveling.  The World Health Organization used the conference to launch its new “CBR Guidelines”, which was a big deal.  There were a lot of seminars on program evaluations, inclusion of people with disabilities in society, and training of CBR workers.  But the most interesting parts of the affair were the coffee breaks, when we could talk with some of the 450 other participants from all over the world.  We compared notes and discussed new ideas.  It was very exciting for someone like me…trying to figure out how to lead a disabilities ministry in the African bush.

So there were only a couple of small adventures on the way home.  There was nothing as momentous as the trip to Abuja.