It has been a busy but interesting first week back in Gorom-Gorom...
I am missing Lynne, but I have discovered that a USB "dongle" enables me to get reasonable access to the internet via the mobile phone network, so am managing to keep in touch with her, and hopefully will be able to update my blog reasonably frequently. The dongle works best at about 2am, and worst during a storm.
Here is a taste of some of what I have been doing this week:
Sunday - Arrived with a truck load of stuff for the new house.
Monday - Spending time with the family (Pierre & Aseta, Seydou & Monique, and children). We have two new family members: Aisa, 8, the daughter of Seydou's sister, who died recently, and Rebecca, 14, who ran away from a forced marriage, and has been taken in by Pierre.
Tuesday - Went to look at the new buildings for the school we are building in Gorom-Gorom, and then spent time unpacking and sorting out stuff in our house. Then went to visit Pastor Pascal on the other side of town and had a good time of encouragement and prayer.
Wednesday - In the morning, went with Pierre and Seydou to visit "Yusufi" the father of Amadou, who died a couple of months ago. Yusufi lives out on the sand dunes a few miles from Gorom-Gorom, but the way was blocked by a river that came up to our chests, so we left the truck and waded across, then through another half-mile of water and up the dunes. While there, we heard that another friend, "Muusa", had recently lost his father and oldest son in the same week. So, in the afternoon, we went to Muusa's village to give him our condolences.
Thursday - market day in Gorom-Gorom, and a good opportunity to catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen for ages. Several came from various villages to spend the day with us, including two Fulani who are interested in following Christ, and we had a good time sharing the good news of Christ with them.
Friday - In the morning, Arsene from DWF comes to have a look at the house they have helped us build in the Ministry Centre. We then do a tour to look at the teachers' houses for the school, and some repairs we did for houses we built following the 2006 floods.
In the afternoon, I look at the finances with Chantal, go over the details of last month's grain distribution with Pierre, then phone around to catch up with some of the pastors around the province:
* In Markoye, Pastor Adama's newborn baby is doing well.
* In Oursi, there has been flooding - according to the local newspaper, the mayor had to swim to get to his office - the water has come up to the edge of Pastor Matthias's home, but not yet come in.
* In Deou, Pastor Samuel is working in his millet field. Villages around Deou have been badly affected by the flooding, and the road to Deou is apparently impassable to vehicles.
* In Saouga, Pastor Paul is settling in well, having just moved in.
Saturday - Various comings and goings in the yard:
* Arsene sends the painter over to finish painting the office.
* Pastor Daniel comes to discuss how things are going with the school - including the progress on construction, plans to get the toilets in, what to do about a water supply, ideas for an inauguration ceremony, etc.
* The father of "Salimata" comes to thank us for helping with her schooling.
...and I try to get an internet connection to update my blog and to find out how West Brom are doing against Chelsea on the first day of the season (unsurprisingly, not very well!)
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The main road through Saouga crosses a river running through the middle of the village (above). The river is dry most of the year, but cuts the village in two during the rainy season. 
The construction of the Gorom-Gorom School continues to make good progress.
Lynne and I made a flying trip to Belfast last week, to take a car-load of dental equipment (drill unit, chair, amalgamator, sterilisers, tools etc) to the good people at FiA, who have offered to transport it to Burkina for us.
Lynne and I have been very blessed recently to get to know Erik and Anette of the Acacia Village Catalan in the Pyrenees.
