The only thing consistent is change…
I think even that is not true as the amount of change going on right now is much more than usual.
So to start at the beginning. I have been working at HGS since shortly after arriving in Burkina. It was a very challenging opportunity but the people are great and it was a fantastic opportunity to learn new things. Something I had never done before in an area I knew almost nothing about. I had never worked in a sales/service environment before, having worked mostly in either environmental consulting or in government. A friend of mine said I should leave government before I could "no longer work at the speed of business". True enough but I got it all back here and then some. Working in Africa is harder than anywhere else because the rules are never clear and clients expect you to function with the same speed and cost as you do in the West. Everything takes longer, it's much harder to get the quality you are looking for and of course it's more expensive. Then to add doing this all in French, learning business environment, supply chain etc. well it was fascinating.
Anyway, last year I started working part time. I was beginning to get burnt out and felt like my family was suffering so I worked mostly mornings while Ben was in school and was home in the afternoon (in theory I was working 25 hours per week but was averaging 40 – still better than the 60 – 80 I had been working). This is the longest I have ever stayed at the same job as well. Loren and I were also struggling with him being away so often and last year I ended up travelling a lot too which added more pressure to our relationship. There were a lot of bad things that happened in 2014, such as the Air Algeria crash, Ebola created many problems economically etc, the Mali war, Boko Haram etc., I was fighting with my family over Ben regarding a dental issue (exacerbated by Ebola), fighting with Loren, and then looking at a Christian school in Niamey, the day I sent in my application for Ben was the day all hell broke loose in Niger over the Charlie Hebdo thing. Work was no better as we were really struggling financially and we finally got a GM, and he was so discouraged by the state of our affairs that he left within 2 months of starting. A lot of my friends left, and I was in poor health, then Ben had a bad motorcycle accident just after his birthday. I honestly felt like there was no corner of my life where I felt safe. I didn't much feel like blogging about all that! I think I crawled out of my hole in February some time.
So finally in a "this too shall pass" mode, Loren and I started talking about changes to our lives to make our relationship better/work. Since I first met him in 1997, I wanted to work with him but I didn't have the courage back then to stay. I wanted to build my career and some money first. So I've done that. I have a lot under my belt now and have some cash put away. Time to head in a new direction. So I submitted my resignation to HGS in order that I can start working with Loren on his jobs. It was a hard thing to do. I have decided to stay until end of July so that I could ensure they were in a good state – procedures, HR, personnel in place – before I left. I only recently told everyone and they were shocked. Some clients do not yet know but the word is going around. Ouaga is not so big.
So all the stuff that goes with that:
What will I be doing?
What's happening with Ben?
What does that mean for us? And what's all the crap keeping me up at night
What are you doing?!
I joking described my new job title as "slave". Honestly I have no idea. Not fully true as I am starting to develop a plan. So the basis is that Loren and I need to be together more, not just for 6 months of the year. It's not working for us. So we figured that he could use help in administration on his jobs and the opportunity to start was good as there were a set of 15 projects coming out of UNDP for the Parc du W (the park covers 3 countries – Burkina, Benin and Niger) and the Lungrens are prime to do a large number of them. I wanted to wait till Ben went to Canada before starting with Loren so I was going to quit in June but then true to form, these jobs have not come out in the timing originally provided by UNDP so everything will be on hold til November. I decided to push my end date to July 31 and now am considering discussing with Steve a small amount of follow-on work so I have a bit of cash and other things that I don't have time to finish might actually get done.
So the idea is that when these jobs come through that I will go to the bush with Loren and we, as a team, will work for Clark. This means initially that I will have no salary, have to give up my benefits (blackberry, car/gas/insurance/maintenance, internet, paid phone bills, people to send to do errands*, medical coverage) so that I can live in huts and sleep on a camp cot for 6 months out of the year. Things are not going very smoothly between the Lungren men at the moment so I am hoping to have to opportunity to use a lot of my different skills to help them work things out – administration, project management, facilitation, and as much as my mother might laugh really hard, my organization. There is certainly lots of room to help Clark if he will let me, and Loren but more as a buffer between him and Clark. I certainly can help them to figure out their finances and administration better. And I know I will be calling my Dad a lot to profit from his extensive management experience.
*Note: why do you need people to do errands, have a full-time housekeeper etc. A discussion with a friend who lives here, about how much longer it takes to do anything here and just the anguish over having to go do them. She went to Ireland for a week and one morning had 3 errands to run. She thought this would take her all day, and certainly if she had had to do them here, it might well have taken that long. She mentally tortured herself about having to do it and finally decided just to get it done, but she was pleasantly surprised to be finished by 11am. The housekeeper is because it is really dirty here and we are still doing all laundry by hand, and cooking fresh is definitely the cheapest and tastiest way to eat here (the processed food is very poor quality and taste)
Ben
I started helping last year with the opening of the new Christian school (Life Academy) here in Ouaga. It's for English-speaking missionaries largely but the will allow non-missionaries to attend as well, for a higher fee of course. I didn't put Ben in last year as it only went up to Grade 6 and he was in Grade 7/8. We did also look at Sahel Academy in Niamey, Niger but it is about $8000 per year for non-missionaries and he would not be placed in the dorm so we'd have to find a host family. We decided that Ben stay at the French school until this June.
It would be a little difficult and probably uninteresting to hear the whole convoluted story of how we got to this so I'll just give you the result.
So this year, Ben and his friend Josh Gray and Josh's sister Jessica will all be attending part-time together. Karen Gray (Jess and Josh's mom) has been instrumental in getting all this together. Although Josh is a year ahead of Ben and Jess the year behind, they will do a combined class of 7/8/9 in English, Math and Science. The rest of his courses, Ben will be doing an online Christian school – The Potter's School – for Geography and study skills. It was quite funny to note, how we arrived at that. TPS has placement tests available. I originally had applied for Ben to do English. Since he's been at a French school and doing English as a second language, I was a bit concerned about his level. Ben has a tutor named Joelle, whose parents teach/direct the International school here in Ouaga. Ben did the placement test for Grade 7 English and unfortunately Joelle's mom assessed him to be at a Grade 5 or 6 level of writing. So Ben and Joelle have been working extensively on writing skills, and Ben has improved tremendously. However, I think the Life Academy situation will be even better for him.
We also had Ben do the French placement test… for Grade 12 placement. Having done French school for the last 6 years, he finished the test with minimal errors in about 15 min. So I have decided to have him do additional tutoring in French just to keep it up. So as I've always heard that when a child is brought up bilingual that both languages suffer, it appears to be true but I don't think it's so much. He's doing well in both languages and we've even been learning some of the local language together.
Ok so you're probably wondering if we go in the bush with Loren, exactly how Ben is supposed to go to Life Academy in Ouaga.
The answer is – he's not coming to the bush. The Gray family invited us over for dinner one night and as we discussed some of our questions about how to handle Ben's school (looked at options like he comes to the bush and does complete online study, he goes back to Canada – NOT! – we find a host family in Ouaga, he goes to Sahel, etc. ) Karen and Joel offered to host Ben. I think my jaw hit the floor. The Grays are a fantastic, really lovely family from Boston. Joel is the Director of SIM, a long standing missionary group. He was raised here in Burkina and also went to the same boarding school in Ivory Coast that Loren went to. Karen and Joel are a couple years older than I am (meaning about 10 years older than Loren so they didn't really know each other before). They have 4 children, of which on is at Uni in the States. Josh and Ben have been growing closer as friends through the Youth Group over the last 4 years and has been a good influence on Ben. So Ben gets the "older brother" that he's always wanted (and 2 younger sisters for good measure).
Of course this was still an extremely difficult decision for us, especially for me as Loren goes long stints without seeing Ben as it is. But for me to give up my baby (even if he is taller than me!) well, let's just say I'm already planning my trips into Ouaga.
All the crazy stuff in my head
I just came back from an "apprenticeship" in the bush for a week with Loren and I'm not so sure that starting a completely new career going from air conditioned office/car to grass hut in the bush at 46 is one of the saner things that a person could do. There is so much to assimilate – the heat, the sun/UV, the way they eat when in the bush (sardines and macaroni), lack of diversion (altho Ouaga isn't exactly Las Vegas anyway), and just general lack of facilities. At Tapoa in Niger, it's a pain to shower, the toilets are terrible (and my standards are quite low so these are truly terrible), and we are 10 people in one room on camp cots (not interesting when it rains!). This last trip, we were mostly in the bush as in trees, and grass, not even a road, and water comes out of the same waterhole that the elephants bath in (not totally true as they did revive an old forage (water well/pump) but we had to drive for 45 minutes to fill up 25L jerry cans with water. And my mechanical ability with vehicles is limited to passing Loren the correct size of wrench or a rag when he needs it. So if I break down (which the likelihood is quite high from what I've seen) I'm SOL.
My biggest concern was safety. The day we arrived, one of the worker split his hand open with a machete (I wasn't there to bandage); the truck broke down so the workers had to walk 6 km back to the camp in the dark; a group of the workers, while waiting to be picked up ran into 3 armed poachers; a heavy wind just before the rain knocked down our mosquito net setup and I was bashed in the head with a heavy stick; on the drive back to Niamey we witnessed a bad car accident and transported 3 blood-soaked people to hospital. And Loren and I watched the movie Babel where a woman is shot while travelling in Morocco and can't get medical help. All of this brings to mind that there may be a lot to deal with being where there is no doctor (yes I know that's the title of a book on bush first aid). Then there's scorpions, and lions, and venomous snakes and spiders, sunburn, heat stroke, boils, malaria, typhoid fever, and SOO much else that can go wrong. I can only plan for so much! Clark has a heart condition and diabetes, both Derek and Loren have wrecked shoulders from motorcycle accidents. I still remember vividly our car accident from 2009. So this is a huge concern for me at the moment.
Other stuff: I have to buy a car, one that will survive the bush and I can easily find parts for (ideally a late 90s model LandCruiser, diesel, manual transmission); I have to get a new phone; I have to watch my money because although I have savings, I don't want to see it drop too fast! – I need to look at my expenses and of course look to future plans as well of Ben's schooling and if he will continue to visit Canada every summer. I should probably re-learn how to ride a motorcycle as that will be much cheaper and more convenient in a lot of circumstances. I have to figure out how to keep exercising in the bush and maintaining my health, what to take with me; how to manage my house while we're away in the bush. I have other stuff I want to do since I will have time – complete my course in Management Accounting online, continue playing piano, learn Moore, stay in touch with my family and friends. So trying to work out all the things needed to make that happen and how to afford it all.
Yes this is where the wheels hit the pavement or in my case where the moccasin hits the dirt as my childhood fantasy of being Pocahontas running through the forest is about to meet its evil twin I think!
And though Ben will be in Ouaga living with a caring family, it does not preclude something from happening. We have elections coming up in October which could prove to be volatile leading up to that. (We will likely be in Ouaga until late-October anyway.) And well he is a teenage boy and although he has retained a lot of the lesson from his moto accident in January, life has a way of throwing you curveballs.
Just to add an extra dose of chaos, our landlord sold the house to a woman who wants to double our rent starting beginning of Sept. Since we won't be in Ouaga a whole lot, the idea of spending MORE on rent, is not appealing at all. I am trying to negotiate with her to increase a much smaller amount but have not heard back yet. So on top of all the other things I have to sort, I now also have to start house hunting and will likely have to pack up and move over the next 2 months.
So this is a huge opportunity to test my faith and trust that God will protect and provide. Indeed a huge amount of prayer has gone into this already and certainly there is much more to come. He has been faithful so far.
I will continue to write as things progress and give updates on what's happening as well as compile some of my ongoing "apprenticeship".
