Timothe & Elisee

Sorry it’s been so long since I have written. We have had a busy couple of weeks so there is a lot to say but we didn’t have the most reliable internet connection for about five days, it was hard enough to just check our email.

This week we had to take two of our boys to the village.

Timothe was the first to go. He is a six year old Burkinabe Dennis the Menace. He is adorable. He makes everyone fall in love with him; and then after you’ve fallen in love with him you realize that he loves to make trouble. When his mom died about three years ago her husband’s family said that she could stay with them if she took another husband. She refused and then did not have the means to take care of her children. Two of them stayed with the father’s family (legally children belong to the father in Burkina) Timothe came to stay with us and the baby stayed with mom. It appears that mom is now in a place where she can take care of Timothe. This is fantastic for him. We weren’t sure how he would react to the news; he didn’t know his mother anymore. He could not have been happier!! The morning he found out the first thing I heard from his mouth was “EMI!!!(that’s how they say my name) I’m leaving tomorrow!!” and I said “OHH!! Where?” He said “To my house!! To my village!! With my mom!!!” it was wonderful to see him so excited. The morning of he was a little apprehensive, but five minutes after arriving you could tell that he had a place in that courtyard. He belongs in that family. It was amazing to watch.

Elisee was the second and that one was a little harder for me personally. When I was here for three months in 2004 I taught preschool and Elisee was one of my preschoolers. He is eight years old now. He used to be crazy like Timothe, but he has grown up and is a typical eight year old. He’s hysterical. He pretends to have presents for you when they are really bugs and all sorts of things. He, for whatever reasons that I am unaware of, was not told of his departure until the morning he took him. He had been here for four years, not once been visited by family and never left to visit family. We took him to an aunt who is married to a pastor that he didn’t know. Obviously, he was scared. He packed his clothes and sat down on the terrace as we were getting ready to leave and CRIED. It broke my heart. This has been his home and his family. He hasn’t known anything else. But what is best for him (and for all the kids) is to be placed in homes. So the ride out wasn’t pleasant. We were all a little nervous not knowing what we would find. And what we did find put our hearts and minds at ease. The pastor is a wonderful man. He’s full of joy and life even though he is older. He is kind. He bought Fantas for us all (orange soda) and offered Elisee some. It is not often that an adult will offer a child a treat like that. And he was offering from his own bottle. So, when we left he seemed ok. He was smiling a little bit. He lives next door to the church, across the way from the school, and across the street from a patch of grass (well its “grass” aka weeds for right now) where some local boys play soccer which he has recently gotten into quite a bit. He watched us leave waving big with both hands as we drove all the way down the road. I teared up a little bit, but it doesn’t matter, no, because this is what’s best for him.

The orphanage isn’t the same without those guys…much quieter. For right now they are only there for the summer, but if it goes well (which it seems in both cases it will) they will stay.

On Thursday morning I got a crash course in running the orphanage. Ruth was gone and Nichole was sick. So it was just me. People came needing things and I had to figure out how to get it to them. Luckily Lynn was around, who although she doesn’t know much about the orphanage, was another brain; and she can speak French (I don’t know that I would call what I do speaking.. ha!) so nothing fell apart. Afterwards Nichole said “You’re so brave! If it was me and I had only been here three weeks I would have been like “Sorry I’m staying inside!”

I don’t know if brave is the right word, and it wouldn’t be fair to say that it was fun…but it was an exciting morning!

PS I’ve been gone for four weeks today. That’s so surreal. In some ways I feel as if I’ve been here forever and in others I can’t believe four weeks have gone by so quickly. I guess I have a messed up sense of time J