Daily Survial Skills

We’ve now been in Ouagadougou for a little over two weeks. Throughout this time we’ve picked up several useful skills for daily survival in West Africa:

1. Turning on a gas stove. Deron acquired this skill living in Argentina, but it was a new trick for me. It’s kind of hard to turn down the heat without extinguishing the flame completely, as I discovered SEVERAL times…it’s a wonder the maple syrup turned out at all. (That’s another skill we’ve acquired – making syrup from scratch.)


2. Spraying our room with mosquito-killing spray 30 minutes before going to bed, so we won’t be attacked as we sleep.

3. Freezing flour and sugar before using it, to kill any bugs that may be living in the bags.

4. Sifting flour before using it, to remove the bugs that were killed in the freezer. Here’s Jesse and I shifting the flour before making banana bread:


5. Washing rice before using it, in order to clean out any bugs.

6. Soaking fruits and veggies in a sink of water with a capful of bleach for 20 minutes, to kill bugs and other germs that may be lurking amidst the leaves. (Are you noticing a recurring bug theme?)

7. Brushing our teeth using bottled, filtered water instead of water from the tap. Eventually we’ll develop stomachs of iron that can tolerate the water, but for now we have to be extra careful.


8. Washing our feet nightly in attempts to scrub off the dirt that is quickly staining our feet a permanent shade of red. Burkina Faso is currently experiencing harmattan – the time of year when winds from the Sahara Desert blow in huge clouds of dust – so everything is covered with a film of dirt and the sky is always hazy.

9. Using a bottle opener for cokes, which are sold in glass bottles instead of plastic or cans. I acquired this bottle opening skill while living in southern Africa as a kid, but after 10 years my memory was a little cloudy. I unsuccessfully fumbled with the opener for awhile before a 9 year old missionary kid came to my rescue and re-taught me how to do it.

10. Quickly toasting baguettes over the open flame of the gas stove in order to burn off any germs that may be on it. (Baguettes are sold without any packaging, which means numerous hands may touch a loaf before it is purchased.) Here’s Kathy Arnett teaching us the technique during orientation:


These minor inconveniences were aggravating at first, but have quickly become a fact of daily life and don’t really bother us that much. We are so grateful for your prayers, support, blog comments and e-mails – God is taking care of us and we can definitely feel the prayers!