December 2017
As we are rapidly approaching Christmas have a thought for our valiant volunteers working in our warehouse. It is very cold at the moment and they are struggling to keep warm. We have plans to site two porta-cabins, one either side of the warehouse, so that the medical sorters can be in one and the volunteers who sort clothes and bric-a-brac can be in the other one. We will be able to heat these much more successfully than the warehouse at present. Those of you who get our Newsletter will know that through their hard work and that of all our volunteers and supporters we have filled and sent 11 containers this year. Thank you to everyone!
Alistair and I were very fortunate to visit Burkina Faso in November – no WiFi available throughout our stay! Sometimes no electricity and occasionally no water. We visited the partly built hospital in Ouagadougou and we hope that we may be able to help them to finish the area that will become the mother’s and baby unit. At the moment up to 4 women give birth at any one time in a small room, certainly no bigger than my old consulting room.
Alistair stood in the the current clinic on the left and the partly built hospital on the right.
We also visited a fruit tree plantation of 77 trees. This was 4 kilometers away from the nearest water supply, which meant that the community watered the trees by donkey cart. Despite this the trees were healthy and doing well. Such hard work in extreme heat is very impressive!
The water arrives! 
We also visited the ABC school in Bobo which is going from strength to strength. One of our generous donors had paid for solar panels (very needed as the new computer suite drains the current panels in 30 minutes) and for a new well on land the school had recently bought.
We were very fortunately to be able to go and see them drill the well. It took about 5 hours for them to drill with a truck which had cost the firm £500,000! This is why wells are so expensive. If you look closely at the picture you can just see the water coming up!
The ABC school plans to teach agricultural skills to their pupils. They will encourage the pupils to plant and harvest throughout the year, instead of the traditional way of planting only with the rains. As Burkina Faso relies heavily on its farming this will make a great impact for their communities. They will also teach the children about rearing animals and hope to be able to start a chicken farm – anyone like to buy them a chicken for Easter?
Lift up your eyes, look around and see. Isaiah 49:18