The Africaness of it all!

So I have to say today was quite an African day for me. It started out at 6:30 AM when I crawled out of bed, because the Youth Group was meeting at 7:00 AM for the food distribution (more on that in a minute). So I get on my moto only to realize, yup, flat tire. So I run it to the tire place (there's tons around town). I told the guy I'm in a big hurry if he could go quickly. Well, here's the thing about that. "Somebody in a hurry" doesn't really sink into many Burkinabe's concept. They aren't super lax on time, but then again, there are few things one would rush to do for the sake of saving time. Well, my plight wasn't one of them, so as I was already late, I said, see ya, I'll be back at noon. I just took off running in my street clothes for about a 1 1/2 miles to the house we were meeting at. I get there out of breath and sweaty, although I'm thankful I run as much as I do because I couldn't have done it as fast as I did otherwise. Anyway, so we get there I go get a truck from Galen's, yes, I'm driving on the streets of Ouaga, in a stick shift. That's a big deal! So we take off, no problems off to this food distribution, we get to a light and stop. And then the light turns green and I kill it. Then I quickly start it again... and kill it. Galen is behind me with kids I've got students with me trying to hold my tongue, not panic and do this, but to no avail. Third time was the charm although by that time I was looking at another red light! Ahhh!
So we got lost from the rest of the cars in front as there were five in our "caravan". So far I've had a flat tire, ran a mile and a half and got lost going out to a village where I had no clue was. And it was only 7:40 in the morning!
After some searching and cell phones calls, (thank you for cell phones) and help from my co-pilot Rachel (I'm a big believer in a good co-pilot. Shout out to Dan Barnes) we got back on track. We got to the village and the church and watched a ceremony regarding the food distribution and a new building being opened. Now was the work part. About 45 Jr. and High school kids here raise almost $10,000 worth of money for grain for a extremely poor part of town! Big ups to God on that one for sure.
So distributed over 10 metric tons of grain to 600 families. They estimate about 9 to 10 people per family. Which means that we served out food for 5000 people! Where have I heard that before?.... I can't remember.
Anyway as we were finishing up it got kind of rough. People started showing up who weren't on the list to get grain and people started pushing and shoving pretty violently to get the last few buckets full. It was not a pleasent sight, but went to show just how desperate these people were. It was really sad, and pretty traumatic for some of the kids. Sometimes it seems no matter how much you give it's never enough. But I won't let that discourage me from knowing that these kids raised money to feed 5,000 people! That flippin amazing! Straight up no if's and's or but's about it!
Then in the evening I went to a service with my new roommate, but we only made it about halfway on my moto, no flat tire. This time when I'd put it in gear it'd just flat out die. So we walked it the rest of the way, and then had to get his truck to go pick it up afterwards. Who knows what's wrong with it now? Anyway, quite the African day indeed. Pictures will be following from the food distribution in the next week or so. So hang tight. Until then, keep rolling with the waves.