The dirt road less traveled
On Saturday evening of September 1 we arrived in Burkina Faso, the country directly north of Ghana taking the dirt road less traveled. We wrote in a previous letter that we were short of rains in northern Ghana and there was a drought. Well from Burkina Faso to Northern Ghana we have seen so much rain, many areas are flooded. Unfortunately, houses the clay/mud based houses are falling down. Even the Nasuan chief's house has been rendered unsafe. Most walls have either fallen or are in danger of falling.
Well now to get to the story about the dirt road less traveled. We left the house at about 8:30 am and stopped by the Baptist Medical Center to travel with the Hewitts. Everything went well until we arrived in Burkina Faso to find myriads of trucks lined up on the road facing north towards Ouagadougou and nothing coming south into Ghana. In turns out that the trucks were lined up for 30 km. I drove up to the 'gendarme' or police. I noticed a vehicle with Ghana plates that looked like a special government vehicle. I guessed they might be Burkinabes who were ambassadors or something. I walked up to them and asked in my terrible French if they spoke English. They did and explained that the main bridge going into Ouaga had been washed out and was six feet under water. The gendarme sent a vehicle to go see if the ambassador could cross. It turns out that they could not and it was recommended to them to take a by pass around that was long and over some rough road. I quickly decided to just follow behind these people who knew what they were doing and spoke English.
We made it for about two hours following behind them and then they stopped for a bathroom break. So we did the same, but we were slow and they got on ahead of us and we lost them. All we knew was we were going to a village called Manga and then back to to the main road to get to Ouagadougou. So we kept driving..and driving..and driving..and stopping to ask if this was the road to Manga and the answer was always yes, keep going. So we did. Along the way we saw more trucks stuck in the mud, overturned trucks. We crossed other bridges that were still standing and not underwater. Thankfully it had not been raining for a couple of days or it would have been a lot worse. Or if it had started raining during our drive, we would have found it much more difficult to ask people if we were on the road to Manga.
It was well after dark when we finally arrived to Manga and I asked someone in my bad French again, "Is it 20 kilometers to Ouaga?" He laughed and said "go, go." So we did. It took about 20 - 30 kilometers to get to the main north south road that we would have been on the whole time if the bridge had not been washed out. Then it was another 70 km to get to Ouaga. We arrived at the guesthouse about 9:30 PM after 13 hours of traveling. We felt like we had been on an international flight. We were so strung out, but thankful to have arrived safely. We thank God for his protection and the kind people who we trailed for the first two hours and who gave us the necessary information to arrive in Ouaga. Had we not seen them, we would have turned around and gone back to Ghana and perhaps just not come to FES this time.
So now we are here in Ouagadougou for the FES (Field Education Service) for Karissa to play with other home schooled children and to get a classroom experience for three weeks. Please pray for health and good learning and mostly fun interaction with peers for the children. Another piece of good news is that the Fluegges LCMS missionaries from Togo have also been accepted into the FES program and are here in Ouaga!
Also Christina Riddle who is planning to come help us as a volunteer homeschool teacher is in need of more financial support so she can come and help us. Pray for all needed funds and travel arrangements to be completed.
Well now to get to the story about the dirt road less traveled. We left the house at about 8:30 am and stopped by the Baptist Medical Center to travel with the Hewitts. Everything went well until we arrived in Burkina Faso to find myriads of trucks lined up on the road facing north towards Ouagadougou and nothing coming south into Ghana. In turns out that the trucks were lined up for 30 km. I drove up to the 'gendarme' or police. I noticed a vehicle with Ghana plates that looked like a special government vehicle. I guessed they might be Burkinabes who were ambassadors or something. I walked up to them and asked in my terrible French if they spoke English. They did and explained that the main bridge going into Ouaga had been washed out and was six feet under water. The gendarme sent a vehicle to go see if the ambassador could cross. It turns out that they could not and it was recommended to them to take a by pass around that was long and over some rough road. I quickly decided to just follow behind these people who knew what they were doing and spoke English.
We made it for about two hours following behind them and then they stopped for a bathroom break. So we did the same, but we were slow and they got on ahead of us and we lost them. All we knew was we were going to a village called Manga and then back to to the main road to get to Ouagadougou. So we kept driving..and driving..and driving..and stopping to ask if this was the road to Manga and the answer was always yes, keep going. So we did. Along the way we saw more trucks stuck in the mud, overturned trucks. We crossed other bridges that were still standing and not underwater. Thankfully it had not been raining for a couple of days or it would have been a lot worse. Or if it had started raining during our drive, we would have found it much more difficult to ask people if we were on the road to Manga.
It was well after dark when we finally arrived to Manga and I asked someone in my bad French again, "Is it 20 kilometers to Ouaga?" He laughed and said "go, go." So we did. It took about 20 - 30 kilometers to get to the main north south road that we would have been on the whole time if the bridge had not been washed out. Then it was another 70 km to get to Ouaga. We arrived at the guesthouse about 9:30 PM after 13 hours of traveling. We felt like we had been on an international flight. We were so strung out, but thankful to have arrived safely. We thank God for his protection and the kind people who we trailed for the first two hours and who gave us the necessary information to arrive in Ouaga. Had we not seen them, we would have turned around and gone back to Ghana and perhaps just not come to FES this time.
So now we are here in Ouagadougou for the FES (Field Education Service) for Karissa to play with other home schooled children and to get a classroom experience for three weeks. Please pray for health and good learning and mostly fun interaction with peers for the children. Another piece of good news is that the Fluegges LCMS missionaries from Togo have also been accepted into the FES program and are here in Ouaga!
Also Christina Riddle who is planning to come help us as a volunteer homeschool teacher is in need of more financial support so she can come and help us. Pray for all needed funds and travel arrangements to be completed.
posted by Nathan Esala at 12:11 PM
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