A Wild Safari and Toh

N'Douada! (now you say "Laaafia") Our evening is winding down and it's nearly time for bed after a fun-filled weekend.

On Friday after working in the morning we left on an adventure into the West African wildlife at "Parc W". Parc W is a large land preserve shared by Benin, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The place where we spent the night was right near the "triple point", and some of our cabins were Niger and some in Burkina! A park ranger came to pick us up in a beatup pickup truck, and then Sam followed with the rest of the team in Dale's pickup truck. Some people sat in the truck, and some in the back (with rags/scarves over their faces for protection from the dust!). The park was nearly two hours away and Sam (Swiss Sam) and Ian rode bikes to the park entrance and met us. I was amazed that the biked in this heat and sand. Once at the park we had fun bouncing along through the wildlife and searching for animals. The animals were scarce, but we did site some water buffalo, roan antelopes, gazelles, warthogs, and large birds. No lions or elephants however!
The "road" was barely visible and we were driving through tall grass and shrubs. As it grew darker we felt a little nervous about our guide finding the way. It grew darker and darker and it seemed as though were winding through the bush with no direction....left, then right, then swerve to miss a fallen tree, then backup and try again... Our driver was trying to overcome a very rocky section in the road when the truck stalled and would not restart. Some of the men grabbed flashlights and were trying to figure out what was wrong (besides everything) with the truck. We said a prayer under the beautiful starry sky and after a running pop start we were off again (think Little Miss Sunshine + wild African bush). After nearly two hours of driving in the dark we saw buildings and had arrived at our camp. We set out again at 5am to spot some early wildlife then came back to Mahadaga after breakfast at the camp. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for our awesome adventure!

This morning we had the choice of going to a French, Gourma, or Fuhlani church service. Most of chose the French church because Ian was speaking and Sue, Dan and I shared our testimonies.The service was a blessing to be a part of, sharing cultures and how God is working in our lives. Perhaps I will go into more detail on the church service in a later blog post.

Roan Antelope

Our evening activity for the women involved making a traditional Burkinabe meal of "Toh" and sauce. The women learned how to make the meal while the men when on a hike up some nearby cliffs. Toh is a thick porridge of sorghum flour or millet flour cooked with water. We learned the proper way of stirring the cooking toh and then ladling it our a little at a time using a dried gourd. The sauce was made from: dried okra, peanuts crushed to a powder, a white bean (perhaps black-eyed peas?), a local herb, and boiled petals from a flower. To eat it you use your fingers to scoop into a community bowl of toh and roll it into a sticky ball, then you dip it into the sauce and pop it in your mouth! We learned to make the meal from a group of about 10 women from the local church, and while we cooked we swapped cultural information. The women were very interested to know: A. marital status, B. number of children and C. our age. They cannot understand why I am 24, married, and do not have children yet! Once the meal was prepared the men were served first in a separate group. The men had their own cultural exchange with the pastor of the French church who was there. In a typical household the men are served first, then the children, and the women eat last. What a different way of life for us American women to try to understand.

cooking toh

and eating toh