The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Marketplace
    • Autos
    • Jobs
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Shopping
    • Dining Out
    • Education
    • TWT Store
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • NFL

    Same old problems plague Redskins

  • Politics

    Obama: It's Senate's turn on health care

  • Security

    Army chief wary of backlash against Muslim soldiers

  • Sports

    Offense erupts in Caps' victory

  • National

    KUHNHENN: 10% jobless rate is Obama's troubling world

  • World

    Joint forces probe NATO air strike

  • National

    Fla. shooting suspect 'mentally ill'

Home » News » National

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Mission: Burkina Faso

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

Md. family lives faith 17 years

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos
Please stand by, images loading!
  • Kaan Women In Burkina Faso With New Mosquito Netting, 2008

More National Stories

  • Political foes unite against big banks
  • Late-season hurricane heads toward Gulf
  • American Scene
  • DAVIS: Yankee hater finds love for '09 team

By Bruce Frazer SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

More than 17 years ago - on Sept. 14, 1991 - The Washington Times reported on a Silver Spring couple named Stuart and Cathie Showalter, two Christian missionaries who had recently spent two years studying languages and cultures of ethnic groups surrounding the village of Loropeni in Burkina Faso.

The couple - linguists with the Summer Institute of Languages, a sister organization to Wycliffe Bible Translators - committed then to return to the West African nation for an additional 15 years of living among and develop a written language for the Kaan people.

Driven by unquenchable religious faith, the Showalters returned to Loropeni in 1991 after Mr. Showalter received his doctorate from Georgetown, bringing along their two children, Nathanael and Esther, ages 4 and 1 at the time.

The roads were nearly impassable, and there were no telecommunications.

"Our first house didn't have electricity or running water. We dug a latrine, brought water in with buckets and took sponge showers," Mr. Showalter said in an recent interview. His wife remembers bumpy, eight-hour rides to the Ivory Coast, where Nathanael and Jesse, the couple's third child, were born.

But this time around, they also got a more-receptive response from the 6,000 or so Kaan people who live in 20 villages, surrounded by larger populations of Lobi and Jula.

"Our initial reception by the Kaan people had been arms-length and guarded. They seemed to ask themselves what we were all about," Mr. Showalter said. "They were positive to our face when we explained we wanted to learn their language and write it down, but they waited to see what we would do. Foreigners pass through and never come back. People began to take us seriously when we came back."

Mrs. Showalter was awarded an M.A. in linguistics, a subject she taught until she married Stuart, one of her students. But what she really needed was a crash course in multitasking.

With physicians many hours and miles away, she taught herself how to treat her family's numerous bouts with malaria and other health maladies. She had to prepare slabs of meat cut randomly and often haphazardly from local game with machetes, and deal with poisonous snakes and scorpions.

The Kaan people build houses in clusters forming distinct villages surrounded by cultivated fields. They have a king, who rules with 10 elders having control over different aspects of the Kaan territory. There is a secondary head called the land chief, who is in charge of how the land is distributed and used by the people.

[Get Copyright Permissions] Click here for reprint permissions!
Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC

12Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Please login or register to post a comment

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  2. Sniper's ex-wife speaks out on abuse
  3. Parents buying homes for kids at college
  4. PRUDEN: Corpse sits up, gets nice salute
  5. Inside the Beltway
More Top Stories »
  1. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  2. Armored troop carriers called unsafe for duty
  3. 13 killed at Texas army base; psychiatrist accused
  4. House OKs health reform bill
  5. Aborted fetus cells used in beauty creams

Most Shared

  1. Parents buying homes for kids at college
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  3. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  4. Sunshine vitamin stirs new debate
  5. Obama's unlearned lesson
More Top Stories »
  1. NSA surveillance -- of you?
  2. Looking to 2010, GOP focuses on fiscal restraint
  3. EDITORIAL: The negative Obama factor
  4. Israelis unsure of U.S. support
  5. Rebirth of an old scourge

Most Commented

  1. House OKs health reform bill
  2. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  3. Furious scramble for health reform support
  4. Muslims stunned by Fort Hood shooting
  5. 'Gentle' Army psychiatrist displayed worrisome signs
More Top Stories »
  1. Obama praises those who ended Fort Hood violence
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
  3. Army chief wary of backlash against Muslim soldiers
  4. Making fun of faith
  5. Israelis unsure of U.S. support

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Question of the day

Do you think the health reform bill will pass?

Blogs & Columns

  • POTUS Notes

    New Dem talking point on Obama approval doesn't wash

  • The Back Story

    12 arrested at Pelosi's office

  • Belief Blog

    Washington goes Greek this week

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Redskins 360

    Samuels feeling better, hopeful

  • Tara's Two Cents

    On their way to summer vacation..

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.