Wouldn't Ya Know It?!

So, it is so funny how God blesses you in little ways.
The lack of computer skills by the Burkinabe people is pretty amazing in our fast paced techno world, but I am always pleased and made to smile by their innovation and "Little Train that Could" attitude.
But, what we go through to try to communicate always makes for entertaining stories and if we aren't laughing we are crying.
So, here is where our guardian angels have gotten into the picture:
Kassoum, one of our main characters in the saga of the Kalinowski's and Burkina Faso, is at a major crossroads in his life. I'll fill you all in here.
Kassoum is Rakieta's older brother and one of the only sons in the Tapsoba clan of Lassane and his 3 wives. For a Muslim guy, he is pretty cool. He has many, many sisters, one of whom is Rakieta, who has some American ideas and is a prosthetic wearer. Plus he has 3 moms. Needless to say, he is pretty mellow and used to dealing with a lot of estrogen. In the last year, Lassane (the dad) has developed some major health hazard which I will guess is a hernia. So, who do you think is working hard to feed this bunch?
You guessed it.....Kassoum. At this point, he has all the responsibilities of a middle aged man with 3 wives and none of the perks.
Burkina Faso has this crazy system where half the people who go to school never end up with the diploma for many reasons. A lot of it originates with lack of $$.
Well without the diploma, it is impossible to get into any of the government jobs. Yes, this is a socialist country modeled after the best of them, France.
But, Burkina Faso's idea of a benefit is to have enough rice for everyone every day. In other words, none of the sloughing off stuff European socialism is famous for.
Kassoum can not seem to get his baccalaureate (diploma) even with many attempts. There have been many reasons, but suffice it to say he is now 22, has to work like a dog to feed the masses and he needs a solution.
So, he asked Rakieta to tell me he needed Matt and I's advice. This started the dialog that we have now had. Now we spent the better part of 3 weeks in miss-communication because of the lack of computer savvy on that end. But where there is a will there is a way and finally we have connected.
I had suggested he give up making the baccalaureate his highest priority in exchange for getting training in some kind of trade. In the meantime he was trying to tell me that he wanted our opinion and blessing on computer school. So see where I say the angels were looking over us?!
Computer school costs $62.00 for the year and we look at it this way: if NOTHING else, our $62.00 will get that family and anyone else we need to talk to there into the cyber world in a way that is actually practical.
That is a very good deal from our point of view!