Our lives have been full of exciting events - from our meeting and marrying, our wonderful honeymoon in Europe and the Middle East, and then so many fun things happening in both Africa and the USA and even other countries of the world, during our fifty six years of marriage. Our lives have been rich in experiences, most of them positive. Both of us have chosen to major on the positives in life rather than occasional negative happenings. What is the saying...."into every life a little rain must fall..." and we have had our share of rain, but our years and experiences have been lived for the most part on the sunny side!
Every worker overseas should program a down time for possible farewells, but in our case, with our involvement right to the end in our translation project, this was not an option. So we kind of sandwiched in all of our farewells from mission and church and personal friends, into our day and night concentration on finishing the Bible manuscript and diskettes.
Karen Conkle prepared a lovely mission farewell for us at the former mission office building out on the Colma property. She used a lace tablecloth on the refreshment table and gathered fancy teacups to use and had flowers and candles - as I had been known for using those kinds of things when I entertained in our home. It was an evening of fun and farewell, there were speeches, both funny and emotive and a couple hysterical skits!
Our farewell from the church was held out at Santidougou - where else? They had cleaned the old mission yard and put up walls of grass and palm leaves, there were shelters for people to sit under, with a huge space in the middle for all of the presentations. People came from long distances to greet us - the FATEAC sent Isaac and his wife, the church president of Burkina was there, plus many tribal and official dignitaries. The whole program was done for us - we did not have to speak, except to thank people for the gifts - even the Santidougou dance team performed, all Muslim young men who had grown up with us there. Speeches were made by various organizations with whom we had worked in Burkina and each one then presented a gift to us. It brings back memories to see some of those gifts in our home here in Toccoa. The African people are so generous and they sure know how to throw a party. Elin and John were there to represent our family.
When we got to Ouaga, on our way out of the country, we were invited with the church committee and their spouses to a big meal at the home of one of the leaders. We sat out on the large verandah of a cement home in the city, eating our fellowship meal together with these men and women, most of whom we had known from their youth. It was so rewarding to see the spiritual and professional progress that so many of these had made since we had first known them.
We were surprised when the Alliance High School in Bobo invited us to a special ceremony to thank us and present us with a gift. We were always friendly with the students and staff there but we certainly did not expect an official farewell from them. Each year at Christmas time we had a big party for the High School teachers and their spouses in our home. It was always a fun time to which they looked forward each year. And they wanted to do something special for us in return. We were blessed by their thoughtfulness. They gave us a large village scene batik cloth which is bautiful and we have used it on tour.
We had decided that we would like to become official citizens of Burkina Faso since we had spent the major part of our lives therre, so we asked what the process was we would have to go through for that to happen. It really was not very complicated. We had to gather a group of five people who had known us for many years in Burkina and take them to the police chief's office in Bobo. Each one was taken separately into the chief's office and each one asked how he knew us and for how long and what kind of people we were, etc. We were also called into the office and the chief talked to us. He gave a very positive report of his impressions after talking to our friends, asked us a couple of questions and said we could get Burkinabe passports and become citizens of the country. That was it! So we became Burkinabe as well as Americans.
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