I had better luck on the phone today and managed to get in touch with the Papiers du Sahel women! Their store and outdoor workshop are both fine. Nearly all of them escaped Tuesday's flood with no major problems. Sadly, the home of one family (Ramata's) collapsed and she and her children are now lodged in a school building with hundreds of other families. But at least they are unhurt and safe.

I chatted awhile with Haoua and learned that the women are getting pretty discouraged with the project. Sales are way down since I left the project and few orders are coming in.

I was happy to be able to tell her that things may get better in the future. This month, a French bridal magazine gave about half a page to Papiers du Sahel wedding invitations!

The women now have one small order for them, but lets hope for many more to come...

If you'd like to see what the women make and how they do it, check out this site. If you'd order, that would be even better. They can't ship tiny orders to the USA or Europe, but if you'd like to give a bunch of Papiers stuff as holiday gifts, or sell it at a craft fair/Christmas fair/whatever, you can order in quantities they can ship.

If you don't speak any French, contact me and I'll take care of the ordering for you.

(NB: If you live in Australia, order from these nice people here. If you live in Utah, visit these good folks in Logan. )

If you have some money to spare and feel that you'd like to directly help flood victims in Burkina Faso, you can send your contribution to my friends in Ouaga. I have known Steve and Amy for years and know that they will do their best to really help the people that need it most.

Here's the appeal that they just sent out:

Greetings from Burkina Faso,

In a country where 14 inches of rain would be an annual rainfall, we received 14 inches in less than 12 hours. This was the largest rain since 1919. That’s going back a ways. The canals that normally evacuate the water run-off quite adequately, were incapable of doing so this time. The result was that many neighborhoods were overcome with water. In the poorer neighborhoods of the city, many of the mud brick homes were unable to withstand the rush of the water and, as a result, came down! Today, it is estimated that 150,000 people are homeless, living in schools or with family. Some lost every bit of their personal belongings, even though they never had much to begin with. A number of people lost their lives in the rushing water. Bridges and dams have been destroyed. One of the main generators, that powers electricity to the capital city, was destroyed. We were already having significant power cuts due to the inability to provide electricity for the whole city at one time. This will likely aggravate the situation even further.

The relief and development organization of our church, ACCEDES, is planning to do something tangible to help meet the needs. They certainly can’t help everyone, but they can help some and we can help with them. The plan is to provide food for 500 people for 2 months, and to provide three changes of clothing for 500, as well as to provide medicine for those who may need emergency medicine. The total cost of the relief effort is estimated at about $24,000. About $10,000 has been promised from CAMA Services. We are trying to partner with ACCEDES and CAMA to find the funds to help with this need.

If you or your church would like to help in some way, you can send a gift to CAMA Service, P.O. Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500. Be sure to note that it is for Burkina Flood Relief.

Thanks.

Steve Nehlsen
Field Director – The C&MA in Burkina Faso

I've been trying to phone Aisha all morning. And I've been wondering about Yvonne and her children, too- but she has no access to a phone. In fact, I've been worried about everyone in Ouaga- especially my many Burkinabé friends whose simple mud-brick homes stood little chance of surviving the terrible rains of Tuesday, September 1st.

Yesterday I didn't even turn on my computer or television, so I only found out about this disaster this morning. My Facebook page was full of news from many friends in Ouaga- lucky friends with internet access and sturdy homes - though there was flooding and lots of property damage everywhere.

In just 10 hours, over a foot of rain fell. Houses collapsed, cars floated away and bridges washed out.
The only bright spot is that there seem to be relatively few death reported- only five so far. The downside is that with 150,000 left homeless and this year's food crop damaged, there may be lots more suffering ahead for many people.

Here are a few photos:
This one was taken the morning of the 1st, just outside the ISO gates, very close to our old house.

These cars floating away were photographed along the Blvd Charles de G. It's the road we'd take every day to get to school and work.

This is also from our old neighborhood:

Here's one man try to keep the water out:

Here are some pictures from the next day. They show what happens to mud brick houses when it rains too much, too hard.
One of the deaths was caused by a collasping house. Luckily, it seems that most people managed to escape their homes before they fell in.


(NB: These were taken by Alice and Pete- friends from Ouaga. They are lovely people and doing all they can to help out in this difficult situation.)

Burkina Faso is already a country with many issues- education woes, poverty, corruption. The government is trying to meet the challenge of this disaster...That's what the Burkinabé press reports, anyway. But they have little/almost no money, no experience (the last flood was in 1919) and lots of other problems to deal with.
I really fear this flood will be responsible for even more hunger and disease in an already difficult environment.
In the meantime, I try the phone again.
And I wait.