Quatre personnes sur la meme moto!

In hindsight it's ironic, given my situation, that I considered it worthy of comment. "Four people on one moped!" Nobody else seemed to notice, or care. Their focus was not on the road, but on the evening ahead. Some, I could tell, were nervous. I was riding with my little sister and my brother's band on the way to the second round of the competition, inside of a vehicle that's somewhere between a van and a perfectly rectangular car. Even without the instruments packed in, we would have been pressed space; I am certain that the number of people exceeded the number of seatbelts. The band has, if I recall correctly, eleven members.

The event lasted for about six hours. Less than half of this was taken by the actual performance of the four competing bands. Each of these musical groups represented a different church congregation. Each group sang three songs, two that were given to them, and a third song that was arranged by the group. For this last song, they were told to use a psalm (I forget which one) as lyrics, and to pair these words with a local melody. In the first round of the competition, this third song was in French. In preparing for the second round, the four remaining groups were asked to translate this psalm into a local language, of which there are many (my 6-year old sister speaks 4 languages). Some band members wound up singing in a language they do not speak.

My brother's band, or, rather, my church's band, won. They deserved it. They were the best.

In December, the group will represent Burkina Faso at the international level of the competition in Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). There are, I believe, six participating countries. Due to MCC regulations concerning travel to nations without MCC programs, I don't think I'll be able to tag along.



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This week, MCC West Africa received approval from Akron for $20,000 of flood relief money we requested at the end of last week.

I've finally come accross some figures concerning the damage caused by the flooding on Sept. 1. My first-hand experience has only been watching my brothers repair their shower room in their courtyard (my French lessons took place in said courtyard). Following is an excerpt from an email I recieved from Eva Mazharenko, SALT Coordinator:

"I have just received an update regarding recent flooding in Burkina Faso, where the rainy season stunned everyone with a twelve hour heavy downpour on September 1, causing reservoir in the capital city to overflow and destroying estimated 24 thousand homes that left about 150,000 people homeless."

Though this an issue apart from the flooding, these numbers indicate about six people per household. And the homes that were destroyed were typically not grand mansions with firm foundations. They were the houses occupied by those without the ability to pay for better housing; they were small homes. Vehicles are not the only thing in Ouagadougou that are often crowded.