Dieudonne

Dieudonne Ouoba

When I learned about the mission trip to Burkina Faso in January through a co-worker, I was even more keenly interested as I have sponsored a child through the Christian Children's Fund for the past eight years. His name is Dieudonne and the sponsorship began when he was six years old so he is now 14. I did some research and learned that where my child lived was 500 km from where we would be. That distance on African roads seemed overwhelming.

I had planned to talk to Andrew, our team leader, as he was born and raised in Burkina Faso and might have some ideas. I thought perhaps we could hire someone and have Dieudonne meet us half way. At one of our mission team meetings in March, Andrew was talking to one of the other team members about what he planned for our third and leisure week of the trip. I had not told anyone on the team about my sponsored child yet. He mentioned going to Mahadaga. I asked him, "What did you say?" He repeated, "Mahadaga." I asked him to spell it since I didn't know how to pronounce any of the places. I said, "You can't be serious. You're kidding me!" Then I told the team about my sponsored child and was completely blown away that we were going to the exact village where he lived. The entire team was excited for me. I was very excited that I didn't need to arrange anything and that we were travelling there as a team. Andrew says some of the best hiking is in Mahadaga.

I contacted Christian Children's Fund to inquire about arranging for the visit. They said this would be a really big deal and that there had only been one Canadian that had visited before. They told me that the entire village would be there to greet us, that they would sing songs and dance for us, that there would also be an exchange of gifts and a meal shared. This will be an amazing experience - once in a lifetime - much like everything about the trip!