New Office Building

Since the Wiesmanns, our Swiss colleagues, moved to Bobo, we have found it inconvenient to have the office 3 km away. The Wiesmann family plan to return to Switzerland in the next couple of years so the office will have to move from their courtyard anyway. We are fortunate that our across-the-street neighbor is a general contractor. We were able to explain what we wanted and discuss where we wanted the building. After some money changed hands things started happening quite quickly.

The bricks are cut rock that are found near here. A foundation for the walls was done first. It looked so small when it was just ropes on the ground so we made the main meeting room a bit bigger. Wilhelm kept saying that it would look bigger in real life. I was paranoid that it would be too small.

The rock is a bit porous so the outside has to be cemented. Paint helps protect the cement. Before the building was even ready we began to use it. Awa was training a teacher and he needed to practice teaching. Wilehlm, Awa (pictured) Trudi and Kalifa were the students. As you can see the walls were not painted and there was dirt on the floor. This is actually to protect the floor while they paint the walls.

The moving in took a couple of days as the Wiesmann’s had to sort through the stuff in the old office. Joseph and his donkey cart came in handy. The stocking cap is to ward off the sun, it was really quite warm that day. They complained that the cabinet was so heavy. When I looked inside I found it was full of books!

Getting all the furniture and books inside is just the beginning, then you have to clean and organize. Wilhelm took this opportunity to come down with malaria so he was in bed with a high fever. Once everyone was there the building seemed to fill up fast.

Joseph and Madeleine are revising Luke. Pierre and Soungalo are editing a booklet on the Moringa Tree. This is a tree that is commonly found here and has many uses. Awa was training a new teacher for a village that REALLY wanted a class this year. A different man from the previous practice teaching picture. As you can see this is a big deal for us and will make working with our colleagues so much easier. As you may have noticed from the pictures the rooms are still pretty sparse. We need to get more desks and bookcases. As we were sorting through the things in the office we found some original language learning materials from the Burdons who were the original Toussian translators. Here is a picture of the office next to our house. Our car port is behind the gate in between.

• Nov 2002, Reading Contest
• July 2002, Toussian Translators
• March 2002 Literacy classes
• Jan 2002 Bissa New Testament dedication
• January 15, 2002
• Nov 2002  Language learning, Translation, Revision, Ladies day at church
• Oct 2001  Sunday school outing, Fonio harvest
• Aug 2001  Cobly Reunion
• May 31, 2001  Return to Burkina Faso
• May 5, 2001  Germany, Az, Oregon office work
• Jan 2001  Our time in Germany

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