Almost every day, we set off with Ruth and Linda to take care of business and run our necessary errands. Some are for fun....like shopping, or to ice cream :) Others are more important, like signing the "Golden Book" (which is not really golden at all), for the child welfare agency that allowed us to adopt our Burkinabe son. Other errands are critical, as they enable us to to go home....Like appointments at our Consulate or to the Belgian Embassy.....
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| With Mme Kiema, the "Golden Book" keeper, and our Social Worker, Adiara with her 3 week old baby, Ruth Azzania |
Although traffic through town requires advanced planning, we can usually tick off several of our to-do items each day. For those of you who run your personal errands with respect to your "driving circle", you will relate to this. At home, there's the dry cleaners on the way to the post office, on the way to Target, then to pick Kellen up from practice, just before swinging by the taco shop for burritos, then home-- its a circle!
In Africa, things are not so predicable, however, so our planning sometimes goes out the window. The transit visa we needed to get, so that Sylvain may walk from one terminal to another in the Brussels airport takes about 10 minutes to process at the Belgian Embassy, but it took three separate trips to the Embassy to obtain, in real life. Which means three days out in traffic.
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| Welcoming party in front of our tailor, Joseph's shop |
We felt like we got ahead of the game, TWICE today! We multi-tasked! Joe ran across the street to buy these totally addictive and delicious "sugared peanuts" from a street vendor, while the rest of us went inside the market to shop for essentials, like peanut butter, bread, bottled water, (soda, candy, chips :) We felt very accomplished! Since the young men at the market don't let you carry out your own groceries, it felt very luxurious indeed!
The second WIN for the day involves one of my so-far-favorite activities since I've been in Burkina-- (besides the African restaurant). Joe, Ruth and Nate ran across the street (Joe is always the guy you can count on to safely cross streets with.....me, not so much). They were on a mission to get Nate a much-coveted Burkina Faso soccer jersey. There is a strong sense of national pride here-- it is cute to see many Burkinabe young men wearing their "colors" in support of their homeland and home team. Nate, Kellen, and Sylvain can now all join the bandwagon! While Joe and his group were negotiating, Linda and I took Sylvain to a roadside "coiffure shop"....more of a coiffure shack, really..... The young barber skillfully wielded first, his quick scissors, taking only the small tufts of tight curl from Sylvain's little head. Then he applied some oil, and used what looked like a comb, with a razor blade inset, so that every small and careful stroke across our boy's melon, created a nearly smooth pattern. Amazingly, he left the top a teeny bit longer, used an oiled brush, and then, with a plain old straight-edge-- like a naked razor blade, gently cut a 3 inch part into our son's hair. Sylvain was so still and calm for the whole thing. Afterwards, he insisted on reviewing the photos we took, and told us all (in Morre, or French, or just laugh bubbles) all about his new haircut. Although Kellen witnessed the skill of the barber, AND although he really does need a haircut, he opted out of this African experience.
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| Handsome Boy! |
Yesterday was another multi-tasking day-- Joe and I visited a boy who is in our hearts and prayers (see my previous blog post called, "Meet a Boy who Dreams"), while Ruth took some photos of other sweet little boys waiting for their forever families. Yesterday's story, however is not so light....and that will be for another day.
