Fulani Trip #3

Sorry it's taken me an entire week to get another post up about our Fulani adventures!  Yes, we did go back to the refugee camp and yes, the men went out to the village of Mogu to work on their houses.  There are a lot of photos in this blog post because I really want to share this experience. I wish all of you could have been there.  It was pretty awesome.  Turns out the Fulani were preparing to leave to head back to their villages.  We had thought about waiting to buy all the supplies and take them out the following week, but we didn't.  And now we know why.  We were so thankful that we went to market on Thursday and bought 100 cans of powdered milk, 126 panyes, and 1000 lbs of corn.  If we'd waited, we would have totally missed them

On Friday morning, the work team from Indiana, and Anna, Emily, the kids, me, and the Drake family packed up our vehicles with powdered milk, candy, toys, panyes, and corn.

Here's a photo of three of the men from Indiana sitting on 3 of the massive bags of corn. Each bag was about 200 lbs, I think.  This team was so thrilled to be able to be a part of helping at the refugee camp.  They had hoped, before they left, that they would be able to be involved, so they came prepared with candy and gifts to give it out.

Because we told them we were coming, and because word gets around (as we all know now), this visit was a bit more formal at the beginning.  I found that kind of disappointing.  Our "watermelon visit" was so enjoyable because we sort of "popped by" to see them and bring gifts and there was no formality or seriousness about it.  But this time, word got out.  When we first arrived, they were all waiting, standing.  Then we began with all the greetings and speeches. It didn't take long and then we got busy.

As the people gathered, I saw the woman with "my" baby, she walked toward me and just handed me her little girl again.  Oh, that baby was so sweet.  And the other mom gave Emily "her" Fulani baby.  (That's how Em and I refer to them anyhow.)

                       

Andy, from Indiana, brought candy bags that he and his six kids had prepared back home in hopes that he would have a chance to give them out.  So here's Andy starting to hand out little ziplocs of candy.  The Fulani are so peaceful, the kids did not rush him, they just waited until he or someone else came along with a treat bag.

And here's our sweet Anna, just diving right in, talking to her Fulani lady friends.  When she would translate what they were saying, some of the stuff was super funny.  They were teasing each other and laughing, which just made it more....real.  These women are just like us.

While the speeches were going on, I put my sunglasses on a little girl who was standing beside me.  She didn't say a word, but smiled and put her arm around me, and I put mine around hers.  As soon as I gave her the glasses, she got a whole new attitude.  It was so funny.  Here she is.  And I did NOT ask her to stand this way.  But this is the way she stood for the rest of the time (until one of the pompiers (firemen) took the glasses away.  Bah.)

And this is my little buddy and me.  This is how we hung out the rest of the morning.

After handing out the candy, we gave each child a toy.  The Drakes had brought some toys, so they allowed my kids and their kids to hand out the gifts.  Here's one little girl with her loot:  candy and a pink stuffed bunny.

I'm not too sure how to tell you about this fellow.  When the toys were being handed out, this guy jumped in there and got this white stuff bear.  He carried it like a baby over his shoulder the rest of the time, hugging it and kissing it.  Strange.  But he was smiling from ear to ear, he was so thrilled with his gift.

Next we handed out a panye to each woman.  These women love colourful clothes, so we gave some pretty bright fabrics. I didn't get any photos, because I was busy handing them out.  Then came the handout of the milk.  I love this photo below.  You can see Joyce, in pink, handing the canned milk to one very happy customer.  Behind him, in the crazy hat, is Solomon, the mediator-kind-of-guy.  He was so organized.  He had a list of every person in the camp, and he just called up each family to come and receive their milk.  You can see his little clipboard in his hands and the guy beside him marking it off on the sheet.

We so appreciated the organization.  It would have been AWFUL if it had been a typical African kind of handout. We would've been mobbed for sure.  But this was lovely.  And quite jovial.

Finally, the corn.  Here is a beautiful Fulani woman taking her six bowls of corn from the bag.  Solomon told each family to go to their tent and get their sacks or bowls.  They all returned and waited in line as he marked them on his sheet and they each took the same amount of corn, except for the bigger families, who got more.

And the rest of us just played with the kids and visited.  I love some of these shots.

Teddy and Celeste pretty much chased ducks the entire time.  Here they are trying to figure out which way the ducks went.

Noles and a new little buddy.

And more little buddies.  These boys couldn't figure out how to open the package on their candy, so he was helping them out.

Kylie made a friend with Lucas, the gendarme.  I'm not supposed to take photos of them, but I did.  

Here's Jack and Teddy with Oceane and Celeste, sitting in the van on the corn bags.

And finally, a visit from the Prefect.  This guy is in charge of our entire region of Togo and he got wind of what we were doing.  So he came, with his armed guard and a TV crew guy to give his thanks to the ABWE mission and what they were doing.  More formalities.  But it is really good for us to be in good standing with this fine fellow.

And so that concluded our visit with the Fulani. Here's a final picture of them gathering to see us off.  The beauty of this whole refugee camp experience is that it has opened the doors for us to befriend the Fulani people.  Already when we see them in market or in town, they wave and smile at us.  Before this, they were so reserved and weren't so nearly open and friendly.  This whole experience has helped make huge inroads into their tribe.

Then, this past Monday, the men from the Indiana team, plus Nate, John, Jim, Adam and Anna, went out to the village of Mogu to help with the rebuilding.  This is was a good day but a tough one.

Here's the inside of one of the homes.  The black on the walls is from the fires the attackers lit to burn them out of their homes. They also slashed holes in the roof with machetes to try to get to them.  It must have been terrifying.

Here's Nate and Bob on top of the roof, removing the old slashed up steel.  A Fulani man watches.

And on goes the new steel!  It was smokin' hot that day.  These guys worked for hours on tin roofs in the baking sun.  It was quite the job.

And Jim and Nate working on another roof.

This is where they were living before the roof was finished.  The poor little boy lying on the wood plank would NOT move or speak all day long.  They tried to talk to him, but the locals said that he was traumatized.  No kidding.  Poor little guy. All in all, it was a very good day and they got three roofs on three houses.  Which is really just a drop in the bucket.  But the families were very grateful.  And I think it really impacted the missionary men to see them in their village, houses burned, nothing left.  Please keep praying for this people group.