Open Seat: A Holy Family Podcast

Finding Home at Holy Family: Africa to Adrian

• Holy Family Adrian • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Join Ariane Ouedraogo on a heartfelt episode of Open Seat as she shares her inspiring journey from Burkina Faso to Adrian College in Michigan. Ariane discusses the crucial role of faith in her life, cultural differences between the Catholic Church in Africa and the U.S., and how a leadership program enabled her dream of studying abroad. Explore her work founding a non-profit, Duni-paalé, dedicated to supporting vulnerable families and her aspirations in the tech industry. Throughout her journey, discover the importance of community, patience, and unwavering faith in overcoming life's challenges. Support her mission and witness the impactful work being done to help others.

If you would like to help Support Ariane's non profit, visit them on the web https://dunipaale.odoo.com/

You can also follow Duni Paalé on Facebook!


This is a podcast of Holy Family Parish, located in Adrian MI. We are a Catholic people, not a place, striving to Live Jesus through celebrating the sacraments and forming disciples in Adrian and beyond.

www.HolyFamilyAdrian.org
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Open Seat es un podcast Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia ubicada en Adrian, Michigan. Somos un pueblo católico, no un lugar, que se esfuerza por vivir a Jesús celebrando los sacramentos y formando discípulos en Adrian y más allá.

I miss my family, but I don't feel alone because I have Jesus. Honestly, Jesus helped me a lot because I don't feel alone in my room. I have Mary, I have Jesus. And every time I feel alone, I talk with them. Welcome to Open Seat, the podcast where we create a space for authentic conversations about faith, unfiltered and unapologetic. Here, we believe that every story matters and in the open seat, there's room for honesty, vulnerability, and community. Whether you're questioning, seeking, or steadfast in your beliefs, you'll find something relatable. In these heartfelt discussions, so grab your seat, get comfortable, and let's dive into today's story here at OpenSeat. So Today, we'd like to welcome our guest, Ariane. I don't even know your last name. I apologize. I just know you're Ariane from Adrian College. So, what is your last name? My last name is Ouedraogo. Yep, we welcome Ariane. To the podcast today on Open Seat. And, first of all, we want to thank you for coming. You're welcome. It's a pleasure. Second of all, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How'd you, end up at Adrian College? It's a big city. Yes So thank you so much for the opportunity you gave to me to be here today. So, my name is Ariane Ouedraogo and I'm from Burkina Faso. It's a French speaking country in West Africa. So, I speak French, English is my third language. Third? Yes, So we speak French? Yes, and the first one is my native language, Mooré. In Africa we have more than, like in my country we have more than 60 local languages. So Mooré is like my native language. like At school we speak French, and at home we speak Mooré. Wow. Yes. Okay, so three languages. Yes, and I'm a junior in computer science at Adrian College, Michigan. Yeah, so it's a really long story, but I'm gonna make it short. So in 2019, I was selected by US embassy to come here for a leadership program So I did my leadership program in Alabama ,and after that I Go back. I went back to my country, but coming to United States was a dream for me. When I was five years old, I told my mom one day, I'm going to come here, And she was laughing because it's kind of expensive to come here. So my parents cannot afford to send me here. So it was like a dream for me. So after my leadership program, I met so many good people there. And they helped me apply to more than 40 colleges. And only Adrian College gave me a lot of amount of scholarship. This is why I'm here. But, when I get accepted to come here, I was asking myself too, Why Adrian College? I was asking Jesus why here? Why this this little town in Michigan. It's a beautiful place But beautiful place, but I was wondering why It's not exactly on the highlight of the 50 places you want to be in but now I realize why God put me here because I have all the support need to grow. So now I understand everything. It was god's plans. I understand everything. Speaking of God's plans and opportunity to grow, where have you had an opportunity to grow since you've been in Adrian? I want to really be grateful to the Lord because here in Adrian, I had a lot of opportunity to grow. first of all, on campus, God put good people on my way. And I'm a people person. I love to talk with people I love to laugh. I love be to be surrounded. So, I have a lot of grandpa, a lot of grandma on campus, and the administration building. And also, after that, my church. I'm Catholic and I love my faith. I was born and raised Catholic. My parents are Catholic. And when I first came here, my first thing to do where is a Catholic church here? And I came here and they opened their heart for me and everybody was so nice with me. Everybody wanted to know where I come from. Everybody wanted to support me. And I have a lot of support from this church. Yeah. From so many people. So, definitely the church is my community here. I don't have my family here, but I have this church who is my family. I don't feel alone Beautiful. It's beautiful. We're so happy to have you at Holy Family. You have, you have added so much joy. I'm so happy. I'm blessed and every day when I wake up I tell Jesus I am blessed because I have all those people who help me, loves me and I love them so much too. So, in Burkina Faso, How is the Catholic Church different than it is here? Okay. I think, in Africa, people are more religious. Like, they go to church. Every Sunday, every morning. Here, the big difference is the church is filled by all the people. But in Africa, even younger people, everybody is going to church. So they practicing their faith. But here, I hear a lot of my friends, they told me, Oh, I believe in God, but I don't practice. But in Africa, most of the people are going to church. But it does not mean they are good Christians. I don't say that, but they are going to church. to church They're occupying space. Yes. And I think, I think this is the And also the music. We love lively music. We love dancing. When we are doing the Gloria, or at the end, we love to dance. And here, I think the people are a little bit quiet, a little bit shy. we love to dance, we love to move. Sometimes in the choir, you can see me, sometimes I'm moving because I cannot stay. You got a little too much Jesus joy in You right? you're just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. There are are a lot of different cultures who celebrate, their expression of of prayer by dancing. So that's beautiful. Yeah, So, other than that, I think it's pretty the same thing. The same celebration, the same steps. It is, It is. Right. That is, the absolute beauty of the Catholic Church. Absolutely. You can go anywhere and it is the same Mass different words. Same Mass Same Mass.. same idea. And I really love that The unity of the church Unity of the church, right? That is amazing. Cause catholic means universal, right? So I should be able to go to China to France to Burkina Faso to Mexico and it's all the same liturgy. It's just different words. That's true. So beautiful. Same Jesus, no matter where you are. That's true, and I love it. So, are there a lot of Catholics in Burkina Faso? Like, in, in Africa in general? Is that a, is that a big, Catholic country? I think so. For example, in Burkina Faso, if I don't mistaken, we have probably 45 percent of the population Christian, not Catholic, but Christian, And the other part is Muslim. And we have traditional religion there too. But I think we have a good amount of Catholic too. Probably, I don't know, 25 percent of the Christian part. So. Did you go to Catholic School or did you go to like a? So for my primary school, I went to a private school. And after that, for my secondary school and my high school, I went to a Catholic school. It was a nun, it's like sienna Heights for nuns. So I did seven years there. And during those years, I was, in charge of the prayer. Like, every morning, at noon, and in the afternoon, we are doing a prayer. And I was the one who is leading the prayer. How beautiful! Yes. So it was amazing and they, it's not, like, Catholic education is something really good. And In my country, for example, all the Catholic schools are the best. Best result because they are educating kids to have values. Yes. So. And did you have to live at the Catholic school or did you go home at night? night? Oh, I go home at night. So, everybody is coming in the morning and yeah, after class you have to go home. Well, you get to go home, right? You didn't have to stay there. That's beautiful. So, how has it been living apart from your family, Cause you're the only one here. Yes. So, how is how has it been, you're now almost three years into living in the United States. Without anyone around you. How do you handle missing your family? That's a really good question. I miss my family, but I don't feel alone because I have Jesus. Honestly, Jesus helped me a lot. Because I don't feel alone. In my room, I have Mary, I have Jesus. And every time I feel alone, I talk with them. And my mom always, she always told me, Ariane, your family is Jesus first. It's not me. I'm not your mom. Mary is your mom first. Put her first. And when you have something, before talking with me, talk with her. How beautiful! Yes. So, this really helps me. And to, I said, Jesus, you are with me. I don't feel alone. And after that, I Jesus bring people to me, too. The day I feel sad, I say, Jesus, today I'm sad. And after that he gonna bring somebody in my life to make me smile. So I don't really feel alone. Sometimes it's hard. I'm a human. But when I feel alone, I have my rosary. I'm doing my rosary every morning. Every night. The rosary helped me to be happy. How beautiful. So, I'm really in deep with my faith. Yeah. And so your faith has really helped you overcome a lot. Absolutely. And I encountered so many problems. I'm really young, but I saw a lot of things, and only Jesus helped me and my family. And, from my young age, like from eight to twenty, every year in my country, there is like a retreat for kids. My mom always sending me there to Improve my faith and to go deep in my faith. This really helped me to know the faith and to love Jesus more than everything in this world. Beautiful. Beautiful. What a beautiful testament to your parents, right, for raising you in this way. And then, for just you continuing to deepen your faith with God every chance you get. Yeah. So you were talking about some of the more difficult things in life. Yeah. I heard you have your own non profit. Yeah, I have my non profit. so you want to talk a little bit about it? Absolutely. So, my non profit is named in my local language Duni-paalé. It means new world. So, I'm someone who loves to serve. I want to see everybody smile. I want to see everybody have something to eat, have some clothes and be happy. So, when I was five years old, I always, when I saw someone outside, who cannot have to eat, when I go back home, I was crying. And I was like, Jesus, why that? Why this? Jesus, I want to help those people. I was only five. So I realized, I have this passion to help people. And I told Jesus, I want to be good to help. I'm a computer science major, but I told Jesus, I want to be successful to be the voice of voiceless. So, my non profit is helping vulnerable people, vulnerable family, handicapped people back home. And we are doing also leadership program to build leadership on young people. We want to develop their leadership. We have fundraising. We're going to start our fifth edition of fundraising in October. So we're gonna collect money and food and things for vulnerable people. And we want to start also a sponsorship program where we're gonna, connect some people who want to help those families. So it's gonna help those people who have but they don't know where to go to help people. so we're gonna connect them together. It's gonna be a new family for them. They're gonna know people. It's gonna be sharing love, sharing hope, sharing smile. So, yeah, this is what we are planning for October. October to December. And every June we have our leadership program sometimes supported by US Embassy in Burkina Faso. Oh, nice. So, I want to thank you for taking some time away from your busy day today which includes this fundraiser planning for your nonprofit. I mean, we're we're grateful that you were able to share that with us. and so, do you have a website or some kind of information you could share with the people if they wanted to do more research on your nonprofit? right now we have our Facebook page, our LinkedIn page. We are working on the website, me and my friends. So we are, we want to do it by ourselves because, we are a small non profit and everything we are doing it's only by our means. Every month everybody has to give one dollar. So we are doing our activity based on that. We don't have any support. So, right now we are planning to do our own website by ourselves because we don't have the money to do it. And after that I can share more information. But I plan to talk in a women group at church probably in in Yes The Women's Guild I'm gonna probably do some papers with all the information so I can share with people. So they can go on Facebook to see what we are doing. If anybody want to support us, I'm here, they can talk with you, they can talk with me. Yeah, we're happy to answer any questions or direct them to you. Sounds good. And how many are helping you with this non profit? Because when you say you and your friends I imagine you're all around the same age. Yes. So, early 20s. And how many people? Oh, I'm 23. And, we started a non profit in 2020. I was 19 And, I'm working with my close friend. We are fifteen, twenty people. And they are working there. I'm coordinating everything from here they are doing are doing a really good job there to put everything in place. So, yeah. Technology is such a blessing, right? Especially in this case. Yeah. So, it's a team. Everybody is working hard to make things happen. so outside of your non profit, what does the future look like? We've talked about some of your future plans and I think they're fascinating. So could you please share them with everybody? Yeah. So, I'm a computer science major and I want to continue computer science in a company. So after my graduation, I hope I will have a job somewhere to do computer science or cyber security or software engineering. And while doing that, I plan to continue in my master degree. Yeah. This is my plan. And right now you're working on the non profit this weekend but also something else this weekend. What else are you working on? I wanna do an internship somewhere. And I passed the first and the second step. And I'm in the third step, which is like recording myself for an interview, So they're gonna review the interview. If I passed it, I'm gonna have to do the the final step. So, I want you to pray for me because it's really important for me to have this internship in computer science. And can you say the company? Are you comfortable with that? I think No, because it's not final So, we just wanna pray for for you Yeah. during this period of time to get this Yes. which is, I'm, I'm just gonna say, it's a very big company. Yes. Yes. It's a pretty, pretty big deal. Yes, it's a big deal. Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit different than small Adrian Let's say that, right? So, very, very exciting stuff on the, on the horizon for you. So Ariane. in all of your life, it's pretty short, but in all of your life, what do you think you have learned the most from all your struggles? Learned to be patient. I learned to trust God. And I learned that God's time is not my time. God's ways is not my ways. I learned to trust without knowing what's gonna come next. So patient, trust. And I can think of no one who displays that better than you because I have rarely seen you, In fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen you not with a giant smile Thank you. and a beautiful outfit Thank you at church. I appreciate it. Thank you. And one of the greatest things I think is, not my ways not my time you have displayed this is simply just being here and being present to the church community. Because you have to have a ride everywhere you go. And you are solely dependent on people, which I'm certain wasn't in your plan with God. I'm sure you're probably like, by this point, God, like we've got to figure something out. and He has, which is to count on other people right? Your other family. Yes And how beautiful That you are so trusting of God, but also just other human beings who are just present in your life. And so I learned to trust him to don't try to control what I cannot control. Sometime when you have so many problems, you want to over control, you want to over think, but no, God wants you to live in the present to trust Him, to love Him above all things and the rest will come. Try to be patient and you will be happy. So I learned that from all my struggle. Honestly there were a moment I wasn't patient about everything about what I want about I want to come in US I want to have good education I want to have a good job I want to help people but God told me there is a time for everything. Ecclesiastes, right? Yes. There's time for everything under the heavens. Yes. And that is the blessing and the curse Christianity. Yes. it will happen, just not in your time. In God's time. Well, I very much want to thank you for coming to join us, and I want to just say how wonderful it's been to have you. Thank you so much. And we here at Open Seat hope that, wherever you find an Open Seat in your life that you would invite someone to join you. just as you have joined us. Thank you so much. I appreciate and it's a great pleasure for me to be here It is an honor. Thank you so much. And, you give me the opportunity to talk about me about my story. And about my non profit And I'm really happy for that. Maybe because of that I will have some people who want to support me with the non profit. Thank you so much for this great opportunity. Thank you.

People on this episode

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Katie Love

Host
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Ariane

Guest