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January 07, 2006

Back to Burkina ! (but only for a visit)

I have just bought tickets for a trip back "home" to Burkina Faso for three weeks in February!

I discovered that the Libyan airline Afriqiyah has by far the cheapest flights - from Gatwick via Tripoli.

JOYS AND TRIALS
It will be great to go "home" again, to see Seydou and Monique and my Fulani friends in Gorom-Gorom, to eat nyiiri, and to find out how the Fulani Christians are making progress. At the same time, I know there will be some difficult situations - the year has not been easy, and there have been both encouragements and challenges:

* Survival. The food crisis at the start of the year that resulted from the loss of last year’s harvest has affected many. Along with many other agencies, we managed to distribute food aid, and the worst of the crisis was averted. The harvest this year has been good, but many are still suffering the longer-term effects of the crisis. Many lost animals, or had no seed to sow, or have debt that they took on to keep their families alive during the hardest time.

* Work. Seydou has still not found work, and he is struggling to provide for his family. Thankfully, someone has given a gift to help him out in the immediate crisis, but he really needs a job. When farming is so fragile, and there is little work around, many families suffer.

* Faith. The Fulani Christians seem to be persevering in their faith, in spite of difficulties. I heard recently that Yusuf paid 5000cfa (£5, or about 10 days wages) to travel 200 miles because he heard there was a conference for Christian Fulani there.

* National Debt and Trade. Nationally, Burkina Faso is one of the countries to benefit from the debt cancellation, agreed at the G8 in July. But there were few crumbs of comfort from the WTO trade meetings. More on that later...

* Radio Station. It seems our latest application for the radio station has been turned down again.

Please pray for me over these next months as I seek God about how I should be involved back in Burkina in the future. Pray also that this visit would be both beneficial in itself, but also help me see what my future role might be.

Thank you.

Tags: burkina faso africa fulani burkina gorom-gorom mission famine radio G8

Posted by Keith at January 7, 2006 06:11 PM

Comments

Posted by: Christine at January 11, 2006 09:52 AM

Posted by: eija at January 20, 2006 11:06 AM