Coming to a close

Three things are on my mind as I consider the fact that I already left Mahadaga yesterday and will be stateside on Friday.

• My time here came and went faster than I could possibly have imagined
• I really miss you all and am excited to see you again soon.
• My time here has been really awesome. Change the world while I was here? Yeah right. But I have learned a ton and feel prepared to serve in the future.

So far my blog has been mostly cool random things I have done, but now I'll try to tell  you a bit about the work that I have done here.

A lot of my work here has been dealing with these bad boys. If you don't recognize this, consider yourself lucky. You either don't use computers very much, you own a Mac, or your really freakin lucky. This is a not-so-affectionately named BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), caused by a stop error in a faulty Windows machine. Those seem to happen a lot in Burkina, and when they do they call me!

I swear we didn't pick these barrels on purpose. One could not get more beaten up and the other is BP. But looks dont matter when your filling a barrel with a slush mixture of poo and water, right? One morning, a pile of goat manure, a paint mixer drill attachment, and a funnel got this project rolling. That partially inflated inner tube on top? Thats methane gas for gas stoves. Wicked cheap/awesome renewable energy source, plus an improvement over the smoky wood fires the Burkinabe use. I'm probably going to be trying this out when I get home.

Check it out http://www.echonet.org/repositories#138:d:Biogas.08.pdf

This sweet contraption is a solar hot water heater. Its been sitting in the shed here in Mahadaga for a while, but these cold (60 degrees.. brrrrr!) December mornings have convinced Matt to finally set it up. Its relatively small and most houses don't have the necessary piping for hot and cold water. So for now its just the Walshes that are enjoying hot showers! We weren't sure how hot the water would actually be by 6 am after cooling all night, but it sounds like it works like a charm! (Again, not that I've experienced it; but its OK, I'm back in Ouaga living the life of warm-showered luxury anyhow!)

When I came to Mahadaga my networking experience included setting up a WiFi router at my house... and thats about it. Now thanks to time spent in Mahadaga and my tutor, Google, I'm a pro. DD-WRT is a pretty amazing third party router software that gives you about a million networking options. I flashed this onto several routers and tweaked the options on several more. Network connections for the SIM station, CSPS dispensary, CCFC school, and Handicap Center are up and running. 

Renewable Energy! I think this picture should be on the logo for the new Mahadaga power company. From top to bottom: Wind Turbine trickle charging our batteries, Solar panels pumping water from the well, Water tower storing our water supply, Jatropha plants - the first batch of plants for future bio-diesel production.

Matt has a grand-master plan to eventually do a large scale Solar/Wind/Bio-diesel Power company in Mahadaga. One of the first steps in preparation for that was to put up the wind turbine you see in the picture above. Once it arrived from Niamey, prep involved mounting the turbine on a 20-foot pole, runnning the 'power lines' through the trees to the battery shed (that involved me climbing a lot of trees, really a lot of fun), and attaching guy wires to the pole. Then came the precarious job of actually getting the turbine in place. Matt and I stood on top of the 25-foot water tower while someone on a ladder lifted the pole up the side. Once we actually got the pole on top of the tower, already in a vertical position, we had to lift it 4 more feet in a circus-like balancing act to get the pole into its base on top of the tower! 

It was kinda like this. Only in reverse. Luckily there were also 4 people holding the guy wires that steadied the top of the pole. Still. It was precarious to say the least. But its solid now, and producing a little bit of power for us. Its not exactly ideal - the turbine still doesn't quite clear all the trees and there is a good bit of loss in the power line run to the battery shed (it should be #4 for how long it is and it is #10 or #12). But its good to get some experience with wind power to get a better feel for using it on a larger scale in the future.

Back to the Jatropha. Jatropha is a pretty amazing nonfood bio-diesel plant that grows like crazy and animals won't eat it. Here's more about it http://www.jatrophabiodiesel.org/

Until that power company dream actually becomes a reality, this is our station power supply. I learned a bit about the ins and outs of solar power along with the pains of lead-acid battery upkeep. The burden of a Mac-laden video team in October proved a bit much for our power supply and exposed some bad batteries. Most nights the power would go out around 3 am as the batteries didn't last through the night. We did some specific gravity testing to figure out which ones are going bad. If only the new batteries had ever made it to Mahadaga from Niamey... That will be a job for the future.

Last but not least, I did a lot of reading while in Mahadaga. Before coming I barely ever read books aside from required school books. Now I've asked for a Kindle for Christmas. There are two books that I can absolutely recommend: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, the CEO of World Vision. This isn't just another run of the mill book on development. It is a stirring call to action that it no way minimizes the immensity of the problem yet incredibly optimistically tackles what we can do to fix it. 

Read the reviews: http://www.theholeinourgospel.com/endorsements/

Here I've made it easy for you, buy it! http://www.amazon.com/Hole-Our-Gospel-Expect-Changed/dp/0849947006/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

The other book is Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher. This book is a little tougher read, but has really some great ideas on economics, people, politics and development. 

So all in all, my time here has been great. I've learned a ton and helped a bit. It wasn't all fun and pleasantries. 

Things broke.

Bikes crashed. (All healed now though =)

But I have been blessed by my time here. Thank you all for supporting me and keeping me in your prayers. Like I said, I'm really excited to see you all again. I will have plenty of stories to tell! 

Here are some links to all my photos that I uploaded on Facebook. Enjoy =)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095145&id=55303943&l=e2f66fd35e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095147&id=55303943&l=3ed18dfff6

I have a new respect for combines.

Growing up on the Eastern Shore, I was surrounded by combines from birth. I think my nephew, Darren, can spot a John Deere combine from a mile away. They're existence isn't the least bit novel to me.

But these past couple weeks I have learned to appreciate this modern marvel. My first experience with rice came last Monday (well 2 Mondays ago). Nov 1st is a national holiday here, for All Saints Day. Since everyone (who actually has a job) had off work, the church held a work day to help the pastor thresh his freshly-harvested rice.

I'm pretty sure in the West we've forgotten what threshing is.. since the combine (hence the name) both harvests and threshes the grain in one fell swoop. Not so here. As you can see, a couple dozen people form a nice big circle and beat the snot out of the grain that is piled on the ground. Though its hard to tell at first, after doing it for a bit I learned there was a bit of method to their madness. They actually make a pretty sweet rhythm to avoid hitting each other, even as we rotated around and moved in and out to make sure we got all the grain. Anyhow, beating the straw and grain separates the rice from the stalks (straw). And if you didn't know - I didn't - pre-threshed rice looks a whole lot like wheat.

Here are some more pics - me going at it ^

The piles of rice before the threshing ^

Women carrying in the rice from the fields ^ That brings me to the other half of the long process of harvesting.... 

Tuesday Matt and I went out to Igbani (pretty positive thats spelled wrong), the 10 hectare (25 acre) farm owned by the Handicap Center. Just getting there was an adventure, it was 5-6 km away and the road/path was pretty bad. With Matt driving a 100cc moto and me on the back, it was a pretty crazy ride. Plus we got a little lost. I'm pretty sure the people here have white-man-dar or some sort of spy network where they radio in when a white person has been spotted. After we called, Timote found us SO fast even though we were nowhere near where we were supposed to be.

Anyhow, I got a lesson on harvesting the rice - I'll have to get the pictures from Matt. Using a little hand sickle, men cut the rice and lay it in bundles that the women then  carry in to be threshed! Six to ten people are working all week this week to harvest the rice and we'll have another threshing party on Monday. All this work to harvest and thresh a field that would take 1 person a couple hours with a combine. Totally crazy. 

But the even crazier part is that a combine wouldn't actually be useful here at all. Aside from all the cost, repair, maintenance and parts issues, labor is the one commodity that is not in short supply in Burkina. With 77%  unemployment (country-wide that is; its almost definitely worse in the bush), all the high-capital, low-labor technology of the West is of no use here. New technology that uses the available labor while improving the quality of life and requires a small amount of capital is what is appropriate here. But it takes a huge change in world view to think this way, rather than Americana bigger is always better!

Anyhow, it looks like it will be a bumper harvest, even though the rice was planted a little late. In its first year of production, the 4 hectares planted will provide a bunch of rice for school lunches at the blind and deaf schools in the Handicap Center! Matt's hoping to up their production to 8 hectares next year.

Sorry I've been slow in updating my blog. Time has flown by, and before I know it I'll be home. Miss you all!

Peace

Jason

A month?!

Well, 2 weeks in Ouaga, 1 week getting situated in Mahadaga, and 1 week of actually getting down to business, makes this October 10th! It has been one month since I left home and it is 2 months til I land back in the states. Craziness. It doesnt seem like its been that long.

I mentioned on Facebook about going to the cliffs, and here they are! About a 30sec walk in the opposite direction of the main road puts you in view of this pretty amazing rock wall! It stretches for miles pretty much parallel to the main road through Mahadaga. I don't think any picture can really do them justice, its a pretty great sight. In between the cliffs and the edge of the trees (where I took the photo) are fields of millet, corn, soybeans, cotton, okra, and probably a lot of other things. Like I said, its the end of the rainy season so everything is really green! There are also a ton of donkeys (some tied up, some with a rope around their neck that is no longer tied down) that are pretty evenly spaced grazing throughout the fields.. I need to get a picture of 3-4 of them in view! 

Today I got the chance to go to a pretty awesome waterfall a few miles from home. Its so cool how the water falls down each level one-by-one! And the water was nice and refreshing, but not too cold!! Perfect way to relax on a Sunday afternoon.

We were going to take the Johnson's rhino (same thing as a john deere gator), but it wouldnt start, so instead Daniel and I took this:

This ballin 250cc Honda is Dale's bike and has been my mode of transportation to the center and back for the past week! Its pretty sweet. And big compared to all the bicycles and mopeds here. I'm getting more used to driving it but this was the furthest I had driven, and there were 2 of us! Driving on the (albeit bumpy) road wasn't too bad, but then we turned onto a back path to the waterfall. The path was either loose sand or channels where the dirt was washed away, neither good for driving. Fell over a couple times but no harm done..

Anyhow yeah Daniel is an awesome dude I've been hanging out with recently. Hes a 20 yr old in his last year of high school (not that they call it that here!). He wants to learn more English and I badly need to learn more French,  so hanging out is mutually beneficial. 

We then went and played soccer at his school. It was a lot of fun. Most were better than me (especially a guy named Emmanuel who works at the Handicap Center) but I managed to get the first goal! We still lost 3-1. The craziest part of the game was the weather going on around us. SERIOUS storm clouds were rolling past, but everyone was confident the storm would miss us. And they were right, but I saw some pretty crazy streaks of lighting while we were playing! The storm set the mood for the game... it was like this pick up game was a clash of titans!

So that was a good Sunday. It made up for an unfortunate Saturday. A lot of what I have been working on here so far has been fixing the network set up between the mission station, the handicap center, and the CSPS dispensary. There are 60ft antenna poles at each of these 3 locations that transmit the WiFi between networks. Things have been improving, and its really gratifying to be able to help around here where so many good things are happening.

Yesterday Dale and I decided that we needed to take down the pole at the station, because one of the antennas was not working properly. But the trees around the tower have grown since last time!! While trying to get the pole around the trees, the tower fell from about 40 feet!! 

Oh oh hey. Everythings fine. Just wanted to run in here like that.  Yah you know that antenna pole? Well you know how like its arm usually, usually it bends like that? Yeah its not bendin like that right now.

Luckily no one was hurt. But we figured out the antenna was our problem.... or at least it is now that its in 3 pieces....!

So now were working on getting the tower back up, and we think we've found a way to rearrange the antennas so that we'll have even better signal than before... even though we have one less antenna. We'll see how that goes.

I've finished reading People in Rural Development and have moved onto Small is Beautiful. More than a book about development, Small is Beautiful is a book about world economics, conservation, peace, and prosperity.. and I'm only on chapter 2! I was gonna put a good quote, but it doesn't really work out of context. Just read it yourself if you like.

Oh and Happy 10-10-10 day!

Mahadaga it is

Well here I am in Mahadaga! I got here last Tuesday (yeah I know I'm behind). The first week of transition was kinda tough. I have a whole house to myself........................ Im used to living in a small apartment with 5 people!!!! This is not normal to me

I actually only use 2/3 of the house, but still. Also cooking for myself is weird. So far (with the help of Flo) I have made salsa, spaghetti sauce and yogurt, along with plenty of meals on my own. It was a bit lonely at first but I'm adjusting.

The work I've finally been able to start has helped me adjust; its good to be doing something productive! I'm working on the wireless network at the handicap center down the street and figuring out how to work on their database!

Also I have been given a long list of books to read. People in Rural Developments is the one I'm on now. There is also Small is Beautiful, Mastering the Machine Revisited, Walking with the Poor, The Hole in Our Gospel, and African Friends and Money Matters on my short list until Matt gets back from Ghana....! I mean I dont really have to read them all in the next two weeks, but so far they are pretty worthwhile and I might just try...

So far these books have been pretty much crushing my hopes of being useful in development... There are about a million ways we have tried to help people in need and really only made the situation worse. Simple grassroots progress that people can claim as their own is generally the only thing of merit. But I have 2.5 more months and a lot of books to help me figure out how I can answer God's call to help the sick and the poor, and actually, ya know, help them.

Road Trippin

Its a 8-9 hour drive to Mahadaga. This was our vehicle for 4 adults, 2 kids, and too much stuff.

The trip was good, the car was packed to the brim, but at least the roads weren't terrible until the last stretch! (Better roads than I experienced in Kenya..) We broke up the trip by spending a night in Fada which is 3 hrs from Ouaga. You can find Fada on the map (Fada'ngourma is its full name); from there we went to Diapaga (also on the map) almost at the Niger border, and then went another hour or so south to Mahadaga! There are some awesome cliffs out here; before descending into the valley on our way in, there was a great lookout and we could see really far, all the way into Benin (the country south of here)!

Dale and Flo are great. The books on development Matt wants me to read are great - the kind of thing I want to learn about. Working with engineers is great too... for example - there was an old house that the mission was considering tearing down, but instead Dale and Matt spent a couple thousand bucks at Home Depot to finish filling up a crate that was headed to Mahadaga with solar panels. Now that rundown home is a toy, i mean, tool shop. Pretty much any tool plus a decent supply of bolts and screws and stuff. Even a milling machine and some stock aluminum lol. How can an engineer fix problems without the toys.. uh.. tools... to do it? If only I could find anything in there....

Oh and I mentioned that we hit a biker while leaving Ouaga? Hate to bring it up again, but in Flo's defense this is what the roads in Ouaga look like. Actually scratch that, they might be crazier than this can even depict.

But Samuel Eto'o (or well... a guy wearing his jersey) and his bike were thankfully fine. Which brings me to another point. To quote Dale... Eto'o and Drogba are demigods here. Barcelona, Chelsea and Inter are everyones favorite teams. I've only gotten around to playing soccer a few times here but so far my lowly American skills have held their own (yeh im surprised)! There are games played not far from my house every Saturday and Sunday so I'm definitely gonna hit that up soon.

Highs and Lows in the flat land?

Hey all!
My first week in Ouaga was full of transition. Ouaga really is great, but I had to remember I'd only be there for 2 weeks! Then its off to the bush of Mahadaga in southeastern Burkina. I have met really great people here.. some from England, Australia, Germany, Canada, the States. Burkinabe culture is pretty cool too. Everyone you pass you greet with "Hi how are you? Hows your family? etc" (Bonjour/Bonsoir, Ce va? Et toi fami?... or something like that).

My first several nights didn't involve much sleep. At first I wasn't sure if it was the Mefloquine (malaria medicine), but it must've just been jet lag cause I can sleep like normal now! While trying to sleep, my mind flew through hopes and dreams for the future. I'd love to find ways to apply electronics engineering and wireless technology to needs in developing countries... but that is easier said than done. Either way, mefloquine gave me grandiose day dreams of what the future could look like.

But as days went on doubts swelled. Is any of this really possible? Is this all just a waste of time? What am I doing here??!?!!?

I opened my Bible and just happened to open to the story of David and Goliath. Now I know its kinda the cliché story we've heard since Sunday school, but chancing upon it made it stand out to me. David had no fear. Somehow he decided that experience fighting off wild animals was experience enough to take on a UFC champ.... His lack of war experience was no concern. God had it under control.

Piled up things to say!

So I've been slack in keeping up with my blog so far. But today starts the day I do better with it.

Heres some background info:
Mahadaga is a small town in southeastern Burkina Faso. Its not on google maps.... I mean Santa Rosa, Ecuador is even on google maps... But its about and hour - hour and half drive (depending on the size of the puddles in the road) south of Diapaga and that is on the map. In total, its is about an 8-9 hr drive from Ouaga. Mahadaga is where I will spend most of my time in Burkina; the SIM station here is where many Messiah teams have come over the past 10-15 years to install solar panels, implement battery powered handicapped trikes, teach math, and many other things.

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso. Most people call it Ouaga. I flew into here and spent my first two weeks at SIM Burkina's main station in Ouaga.

The Johnsons - Dale, Florence, Caleb (4 years old) and Joel (2 years old) live here at the station in Mahadaga. Dale and Flo graduated from Messiah about 10 yrs ago and have been here for 3 yrs (short of a 6 mo furlough last spring). Dale is one of the engineers I will be working for/with.

The Walshes - Matt, Julie, Mia, Thomas, Tessa, and Stephanie also live here on the station in Mahadaga. Also graduates of Messiah. I will be working more closely with Matt once he and the family return in a couple weeks from a much-deserved vacation in Ghana. Matt is the ideas/development engineer, and Dale is the administrative engineer.. but those titles don't fit cause they regularly overlap and help each other out to keep things running.

The Handicap Center - Most of the work here at the SIM station in Mahadaga is centered around the center for the handicapped. Consultations are given (onsite and home calls), prosthetics/braces and handicap trikes are made, crafts and other skills are taught, a school for the blind and a school for the deaf are lead, along with many other things.Francoise is a lovely French lady who has been working here with the handicap center for a long time. She along with many Burkinabe and other expatriates come and gone have put much work into the handicapped center.

Liz Barr - At some point during his first 3 years here, Dale was handed the role of Director of the handicapped center. Not exactly what he was expecting; but a role that needed to be filled. He soon learned what a mess the administrative/accounting system of the center was. Not only could he not keep up on his own, it needed some major overhaul. That is when they /summoned Liz. A friend of the Johnsons from home, Liz graduated as a business major from Messiah a few years ago. She is here for a year to help overhaul the administrative/accounting process.

Blogs - Liz and the Johnsons both have blogs. I don't mean this as a cop out, but if you feel the need for an update and I don't have one, they may have more info =). Or they may include juicy details I forget to throw in... for example, I emailed my parents a short description of our drive and they replied - so we read Liz's blog... you didn't mention you hit a bicyclist?!?!?!?

The Johnsons' - johnson.ergatai.com
Liz's - themahadagaroad.wordpress.com (yes I kinda stole my blog name from her)

Flyin' high

Hey! So I've been a little slow on putting any info on here, I've been far more busy than I expected. I guess I'll start with the flight.

All in all, my travel experience was really great, even though I was especially worried about it! My overnight flight was full of crying babies and the most ill-timed, poor-tasting meals, so needless to say I didn't get much sleep. Yet the next leg was where I expected to run into some troubles. I landed in Casablanca, where I would have a 12 hour layover in a French and Arabic-speaking country. I had heard that Royal Air Maroc (the airline) would put me up in a hotel for the day for free, if I could only find their office to get the voucher! I had intended both to study French a lot this summer and to write down some useful French phrases for this interaction... but neither one really happened. But luckily thanks to some good directions I found my way. I also ran into a couple Americans who also spoke no French, so we were in it together!

The hotel was really, really nice. Far better than spending 12 hours in an airport terminal! The pool looked awesome, but by that point I just pulled the curtains shut and took a nap while watching the one English tv station! The shower was wonderful as well. By the time I got ready to ride the bus back to the airport, I felt very refreshed and ready for the second leg of my trip!

That night I landed in Ouaga (Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso) airport. My flight had two stops, one in Ouaga and the other in Niamey, Niger. As I was getting off the plane in Ouaga, I wasn't positive I was in the right city... but luckily a nice flight attendant pointed out the door when I showed her Ouaga on my plane ticket. The airport... well there wasn't much to it. I only remember 3-4 partially enclosed rooms with cement/dirt floors. But who knows, it was all kinda a daze as I was trying to claim my bags and get through customs, maybe there was more to it than I remember!

Made It!

Hey all!

I made it safe and sound! It was a long trip, but really without any troubles. I have wireless internet here at the guest house in Ouagadougou  (the capital of Burkina Faso) so between Skype, Google Voice text messages, email, Facebook, and this blog, I feel pretty well connected! Thanks for all your prayers, it is really great to know I have the support of people back home. Anyhow, I'm currently watching a French movie that I don't really understand but is still pretty funny! And its about dinner time, so I'll post more details later!

Peace

Jason