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October 30, 2006
Arrival in Gorom
I have arrived in Gorom-Gorom at last. The journey to Dori was easy, with the new tarmac road, but the last 56km from Dori to Gorom was hard. I sat by the road from 6.30am till 10.30 waiting for a vehicle to pass. Finally I climbed on top of a truck carrying millet along with about 30 others. The road to Gorom is in a fairly bad state after the rains, and the truck was swaying precariously whenever it hit a hole or bump (so, most of the way…). But we arrived safely. I have a lot of travelling to do over the coming weeks, so please pray I can get a vehicle to help me.
Contact info…
I am hoping to get online once a week to email and update my blog, but we will have to see if this works in practice… This will of course mean a delay in getting a reply, so please be patient…
My mobile phone number has changed from the one I had in June. It seems that because I hadn’t used it for nearly 4 months, Celtel sold the number to someone else. Ho-hum. Anyway, if you know me, email me to ask me for the number – but be warned that only Orange network customers seem to be able to reach me from the UK at the moment!
Effects of the flood
Yesterday I went for a walk around Gorom to talk with people and see how things are in town following the floods. I have written more about that and posted pictures here. It was hard seeing the devastation, but good to be back out among people here again.
Life in Gorom
I am staying in the yard I bought as a ministry base for our work in the province. It is my first time to stay here. Seydou and Monique are living here along with “W”, the young man who was thrown out of his family for becoming a Christian. We are in the process of building another house on the land at the moment, for Pastor Moumouni to live in, as he prepares to move to Gorom. It is so good to be back in Gorom, and to be with my friends here again.
The coming week will be fairly busy:
Mon: Visit local political and NGO authorities, meet with Pastor Pascal
Tue: Meet with Pastor Adama from Markoye; visit the broken dam
Wed: Nothing planned yet!
Thur: Gorom market day - seeing people
Fri: Distribution of mats and blankets (postponed from earlier)
Sat: Ouaga
Sun: Niamey for Horizons-Sahel conference, and meet up with Steve.
Thanks for your prayers!
Gorom Flood Update
On Saturday I went for a walk round town to look at the situation, and begin to talk to people. This photo is where I used to live – where the rubble is used to be my house before I moved out to our new piece of land.
Hope instead of despair
Everywhere I go, people are expressing thanks to the church for the help given. Everyone recognises that the help given by the church has been effective and significant. Local authorities too have expressed appreciation. It has been a great testimony to the compassion of God in Christ, and has helped thousands of people. As I talked with people, it is clear that, although many are still in hardship, there is not a sense of desperation, but of hope, and this has been put down largely to the timely help they have received.
Pastor Daniel and his team have done an excellent job in handling the money, the distribution, and in collaboration with local authorities. On behalf of the population of Gorom, he thanks you for your help, and for trusting the church with your aid. Today I also went to visit the town mayor, the chief of police, the commandant of the army, the “prefet” for the department, the gendarmerie director, the Social Action director, and various other local authorities who have been collaborating with the church. They all expressed their appreciation for the help given.
Aid Distribution and Ongoing Needs
The distribution of blankets and mats has been delayed, and will now happen this Friday. This will be a timely intervention as the cold season is about to start. After that, the general consensus seems to be that the time for immediate emergency aid is over, and we need a pause for reflection. The rains have finished, and the harvest is beginning to be gathered in. There is still an ongoing need, but we need to re-assess how and where to best allocate the remaining resources:
Among those affected by the flood and who lost their homes were people of all economic and physical condition. There are those who have the economic means to start re-building, or the physical strength to start making bricks for themselves. Others have no resource. Many of these have been grouped together in a “tent camp” under blue plastic tarpaulins provided by UNICEF.
Part of our next job will be to work with the local “Social Action” authorities to identify the neediest people. Others may not have lost their houses, but may have been already very vulnerable (some may not even have had a house to begin with), and the floods will have exacerbated this situation. We then need to think about the best way to help these people.
As we walked round town, everywhere were young men making mud bricks from the remains of their collapsed houses. It is great to see people taking the initiative to help themselves, but often they are re-building where floods are likely to happen again.
News on the Harvest
The harvest has not been good around Gorom this year. The flood washed away some fields. The subsequent rains were inadequate for the other fields, and then flocks of birds have eaten up a lot of what did actually grow. Some food will come in from the fields, and the better harvest in other areas will hopefully drive the price of grain down to ease up the situation. So it seems wise to cut down on food aid at this time. But more food aid will be necessary at the start of next rainy season.
Please pray as we seek the best way forward in an appropriate solution to all these things. Thank you. More soon.
October 26, 2006
Going north
So I leave Ouaga today on the new tarmac road up to Dori, where I will spend the night before continuing to Gorom tomorrow.
I have finally managed to get my mobile phone to work - it took about 3 days to get everything sorted out. It turns out I only seem to be able to receive texts from the UK if they are sent via Orange! This should work while I am in Gorom too, so if you want to text me, you know what to do...
I will be glad to get out of the city. There are always important admin things to do here. They have to be done, but it drives me potty. I can't wait to get back up north. Of course, this will be an emotional time for me, seeing all my friends who have lost their homes to the flood. It will also be a busy time as I continue to seek how to respond to the various calls on my time. But it will be great to see Seydou and Monique, Pascal, Daniel, Pierre, Yusufi, and others again.
I will only be in Gorom a week or so at this time, before travelling to Niamey in Niger, where we have our annual gathering for all the World Horizons people in West Africa. Steve should be there, back from visiting his fiancee in Cambodia, and hopefully we will travel back to Burkina together.
Thanks for your prayers.
October 21, 2006
Back to Burkina Faso
Life has been very busy these last few weeks, so I have not had time to write much in the way of updates.
Arrival in Burkina Faso
I have however now arrived in Ouaga, once more with the help of Afriqiyah. My continuing observation of Tripoli airport reveals the warnings of the dangers of drugs have disappeared, and been replaced with an ATM. Apart from that, not much change - the internet café and vast Samsung televisions still stand quiet, and the souvenir shop and duty free shop never seem to draw any interest from the weary transit passengers.
I was met at the airport at 12.30 this morning by Sibidi and by Peter, which was lovely. It’s great to be back. It is quite hot and humid, and this afternoon Ouaga had a sudden downpour.
Communication
Today has been a fairly relaxed day, mostly trying to sort out communication for the coming months. This time, I have brought my laptop with me, to help me with some aspects of work and communication. The mission office where I am staying for the next few days has just got broadband, and they are kindly letting me use that while here. That means I can even Skype while here… although there is stiff competition for the only access point to the broadband connection, so I can only grab it as and when it’s available.
I have also got a dial-up account sorted for when I move up north, which means hopefully I should be able to blog from time to time.
My mobile unfortunately is not working here at the moment, but good old Sibidi is working on getting that sorted out for me.
Plans
My plan is to spend a few days here in Ouaga, sorting out some practical stuff, then head up to Gorom. Monday is apparently a national holiday, as it is the end of Ramadan. There is still some doubt as to whether it will be Monday or Tuesday – depending presumably on when the imam sees the moon. So I hope that doesn’t delay me too much.
I am eager now to get up north and see how everyone is doing – I will be speaking to Seydou and Daniel tomorrow to find out the latest. Please pray for me as I head up – I know it will be hard seeing so many friends homeless following the flood, and need God’s wisdom to know how to respond and encourage people.
Thanks. More soon…
October 14, 2006
Whatever happened to Keith...? October 2006
Continue reading "Whatever happened to Keith...? October 2006"
News from Burkina Faso
* Football: Burkina beat Senegal. Burkina beat Senegal 1-0 in the African Nations Cup qualifier last week. Burkina have a good, but inconsistent team. In the World Cup qualifiers, they defeated South Africa, but lost to Cape Verde, to lose out on their chance for glory. Burkina is 89th in the FIFA world rankings - a full 12 places below Wales!
* Planes and Trains. Burkina is to get a new international airport 35km north-east of the capital Ouagadougou - which will probably put it near the president's home town of Ziniare. There are also plans to build new railways to Ghana and Mali, and possibly even Niger and Togo. These would open up transport in the region and reduce Burkina's dependancy on the sole line at present which runs through troubled Cote d'Ivoire.
* The Growth and Collapse of Gold Mines. Gold is the third largest export of Burkina Faso. However, most gold is hand-mined by locals (artisanal mining), who sell the gold at 5p/gram to the government. It is a dangerous and unhealthy process, which nevertheless provides much needed income for up to 200,000 Burkinabe. The dangers were highlighted by the collapse of a mine at Poura in August, killing 10 people. The government is now trying to privatise the mines, in an attempt to manage them better for the alleviation of poverty and boost employment, and Canadian and Australian companies in particular are moving into the country. Reuters reports: "This year, the government expects to receive 1.3 billion CFA (US $2.5 million) in annual taxes from mining companies, and foresees the creation of 800 new jobs every year for the next eight years. It also stipulated in its new mining code that companies must invest in community development projects, such as the building of schools, housing and wells." However, critics say that many more people will lose out by being driven from their traditional mining, and that the companies are unlikely to uphold their social responsibilities.
* French help Burkina Cotton IRIN report that France has stepped in to help boost Burkina Faso's beleaguered cotton sector with a grant of $13.4m. Cotton is Burkina's main export, and it has one of the most efficient cotton industries in the world. However, there has been loss of motivation to grown cotton, especially because of low world prices for the commodity, which have been driven down by US cotton subsidies.
Tags: burkina faso africa burkina gold football soccer cotton airport railway
October 13, 2006
Gorom-Gorom Flood Relief Update : 12 October
Background
Update
• Stories and Pictures. Steve has some stories and photos from Gorom at his blog, including the photo above of Pastor Pascal’s church, which was destroyed by the flood.
• Blankets and mats. Thank you for your prayers for the problem with the blankets and mats. We finally managed to get 1000 blankets and 1000 mats up to Gorom, and Seydou and Daniel are getting ready to distribute these. With the cold season coming up, the blankets will be very much needed – especially as most people will not have been able to rebuild their homes before the cold starts.
• The food situation. Seydou and Daniel are saying that we should do one more food distribution, as people are still in need. In addition, although the rainy season is just about finished, and people are getting ready to harvest, the harvest looks likely to be very poor this year. We are likely therefore to need to do follow-up food aid around May/June next year.
• My travels. I am heading out to Burkina on the 20th, and will arrive in Gorom about 5 days later, so am looking forward to seeing for myself the situation on the ground.
Tags: burkina faso africa burkina gorom flood emergency aid crisis gorom-gorom
October 02, 2006
Update on Flood Relief: 2 October
Background
UPDATE
• Mosquito nets. We bought 1000 mosquito nets from the national malaria bureau (PNLP) at 950 CFA (about £1) per net, which is a good price. We had problems again with transferring the money, but it did eventually work, and the nets were successfully distributed last Tuesday. The team there says that “this was a very important and beneficial distribution, since mosquito nets have been needed in this area for a long time…. We have seen the church’s white nets in use at the refuge sites already, and it’s very gratifying. The more people use them, the more the transmission of the disease will be prevented. Since our current list of displaced households only amounts to 821, we have some extra nets. These we will give to the hospital and to the authorities of nearby villages which have fallen houses but have not received any aide yet.”
• Blankets and mats. We are in the process of buying blankets and mats, but are having problems again with money transfers. This has been a continual difficulty. Please pray that we can get the money out quickly without further problems.
• Help from elsewhere. The Red Cross has now begun their distributions, including food for each affected household, and mats, clothes, and mosquito nets for each pregnant or nursing woman. They also have plans to help with reconstruction. The government is apparently providing temporary shelter in tented camps, and is promising help with the longer-term housing needs. I will look into this further once I get out to Burkina in a few weeks time.
Thanks for all your support and prayer.
Tags: burkina faso africa burkina gorom flood emergency aid crisis gorom-gorom
US, UK, France, Burkina Faso...
Too much travelling...
Having returned from the US, I had a few days in the UK, including some excellent meetings at a church in Leicestershire, and more meetings looking at linking up churches here in the UK with those in northern Burkina, and am now in France, meeting with church leaders and missionaries here.
At the same time, I am trying to stay on top of the flood relief developments in Gorom-Gorom, and preparing for my return there in October for 4 months. These next weeks and months look like being really busy, so your prayers are much appreciated! Thank you.
Tags: travel
