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August 14, 2007

Children's Camp Photos

Here are some photos from the camp. Click on any photo to enlarge.

We held the camp in the local secondary school, with the children sleeping there for the whole week. We ended up with about 250 children instead of the 100 expected, with about even numbers of children from Christian and Muslim homes, and the camp went really well.

Pete, Maggie, Trudi, Hawa and I were there to support the churches in Gorom-Gorom who were running the camp, and they did a great job. However, with over twice the number of children there than expected, they asked us to look after 105 children from Muslim backgrounds – mostly Fulani, which was great.

We split our children up into three smaller groups, each one with helpers from the local church, like Bernadette, Norbert, and Wenasso, who were wonderful. Pete did a lot of story-telling and juggling. Maggie did craft with the children, which they loved. Trudi taught them songs. And Hawa translated and generally kept an eye on everything.

The children heard clearly the message of Jesus, ate well, and clearly had a lot of fun, each going back with small bags and masks which they had coloured themselves. The helpers from the local church will follow them up now. We also spent one afternoon planting 50 trees on the ground of the school that we are hoping to build.

It was such a privilege to have Muslim families entrust us with their children for a week, and we are so pleased that everything went so well. No-one got really sick –which in the middle of malaria season was quite remarkable. The increased numbers challenged our resources – for food, sleeping space, and meeting space – but we coped somehow, and are already thinking about how we can do it even better next time.

The journey to and from Gorom-Gorom was challenging – the roads being flooded from the rains. When it came time to leave, we couldn’t actually get out on the direct road – the car after us tried and ended up getting stuck in the middle of a river. So we took the cross-country route out – an extra day’s journey and 100 miles of tiring roads and shallower rivers, but at least we got out! Water came into the car, and it is still drying out 2 days later…

Click here for more photos of the camp, or here for a slide show.

Tags: africa burkina burkina faso photos gorom-gorom fulani children kids camp

Posted by Keith at August 14, 2007 12:13 PM