~Life in West Africa~

Updates

2009-07-11T17:08:00.004-04:00

Faith's ear is doing much better. After going back to the doctor, she determined that she just had a nasty outer ear infection. It is still gross, but it is getting better everyday and she isn't in pain any more. Thank you for your prayers.

We are completely moved out of our other house and are still organizing and unpacking in the new apartment. The school has torn out the dorm kitchen, so the dorm is a mess. Our allergies are a mess because of the dust. We are praying that they finish soon. Once our apartment is finished getting the final touches on it, we will upload some pictures.

We are battling with roaches!! We have had ants before, but never roaches. We are determined to win this battle, so any tips are greatly appreciated. There will be some work done in the apartment in a week, so we will move out for a few days and we are going to do a bomb. We are praying that it helps. Ugh!

We all had our first de-worming treatment (not the first for Luke and Zach). Some of us picked up a little souvenir from the Gambia. But since some of us had them, we decided to make it a family affair! It worked!

All in all, life in Africa continues to go along smoothly. We have a volunteer team that we are going to be helping with - we are excited about that. We will be in some of the villages helping the team. Pray for our time and that we would be able to share the message of the Cross!

We are continuing to get ready for the dorm to open August 10th. We will be busy helping getting the campus ready and the dorm cleaned and set up. Pray that we will be efficient and thorough in all of our planning.

Continue to pray for our language. It is so frustrating to see the lostness of the people of Senegal and not be able to share the good news. We are going to start memorizing stories this week. Pray that we will have an opportunity to practice what we have learned.

We continue to thank you for your prayers and support of our family. While we miss being with our friends and family, we love life here in Senegal.

Random Pictures

2009-07-07T03:50:00.003-04:00

Here is us driving off of the ferry - it was crazy, there were so many people.

This is a picture from the ferry.

Faith and Melodie on the ferry - they were inseparable while in the Gambia!

Don't see this in the States do you?

A guy named Siddie - we shared stories with him many times. Pray for his eyes to be opened and that he would read the Bible we left with him. Praise the Lord for the 8 people that were baptized while we were in the Gambia. Pray that all of those that were shared with will continue to search and find the true God!

A cat strolling around the restaurant we ate in.

The trip home was much smoother than the trip to the Gambia. When we got to the ferry there was nobody in line, so we only had to wait an hour. The border stops were a little interesting - a funny thing that happened was that while we were at the second of 3 buildings where Ron had to get something signed. The kids and I were in the car and there were a group of kids asking for everything they saw in the car. A lady walks up and a girl asks for the bibiron - I didn't know what that was - so after clarifying it was a baby bottle I said no, it was a toy for Faith's baby. They couldn't understand that Faith had a baby. I said to the lady that she didn't need a bottle to feed and she then proceeded to lift up her shirt and squirt me with breast milk, and then she fell out laughing. After I picked up my jaw, I told her she still couldn't have the bottle. She asked if she could "look" at it - stupid me - said sure. She then told me sorry and walked away. She did throw back some "free" cashews. I didn't want to cause a scene at the border crossing, crazy white woman trying to enter the country might not go over to well. We survived, but it might be a while before we go back.

We are now home in our new apartment. We are about 90% moved. We slept here for the first time since moving. Faith has a bad infection in her ear, face and eye. She is on major antibiotics and will go back to the dr. on Thursday. She is miserable and on 24 hour pain meds. We are praying that the antibiotics kick in today. She has had 1 day of them and so hopefully she will turn the corner today.

We have jumped back into language - we weren't ready after speaking english for 3 weeks. We want to be able to communicate better so we will continue to do 2-3 days a week for the summer before school starts. Pray that our language will stick.

Off for now - thanks for all of your prayers. Pray that we will get everything done in this next month before the boys arrive!

Quick Update

2009-07-05T06:11:00.002-04:00

We arrived home safe from our crazy travels on Wednesday and began the arduous task of moving and packing. Ugh! We will post some pictures from our trip soon - our internet is not cooperating to load pictures.

We haven't been able to move into the dorm yet. They have ripped up the kitchen and in the process turned off the cold water. Hopefully they will finish up this week. So in the meantime we have moved, cleaned, and organized during the day and then come home and shower and fall in the bed!

We hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. We missed celebrating in the US! We did have hot dogs, hamburgers, beans and mac and cheese and we heard some fireworks!

Our trip to Banjul, Gambia

2009-06-20T03:27:00.005-04:00

Well this was certainly an adventure - here are some pictures from our trip. The above tree was our rest stop where we ate, used the "facilities" and rested. When we stopped here there was only 1 African watching us, when we left there were 3. I am sure they haven't seen many toubabs peeing out in the bush before. The picture below is a where they do the salt mining - they pull it from the water.

This is what the road looked like much of the trip - and to top it off our air conditioner stopped working as we started the second half of the trip and we had to have our windows down! This is their attempt to help the dust - make it mud!
Here is a mosque we saw on the way. The picture below is while I was waiting at the border. Two men praying for the mid-day prayers. Crossing the border was interesting as well. We have never crossed a border in the car. We had to stop at 4 offices and get a multitude of stamps. It took forever!

Here are some of the "few" kids we had around our car while we waited to get on the ferry. We got to the ferry at 3:00 and finally got on the ferry at 11:15. We really haven't seen corruption while we have been in Africa, aside from one police officer wanting tea money. But this was terrible. Many people came up to our car and asked us if we were wanting to go to the front of the line for a fee for the captain. We politely said no. So what they were doing was, those that paid went to a special line and those that didn't waited in the regular line. So when each ferry came they let a few cars from the regular line and all of the bribe paying line. This went on all day, so that we got on the last ferry across to Banjul. So we sat and waited for 8+ hours. During that time we saw many sellers, kids, animals, beggars, etc. Here are a few pics.

We were stopped in front of a Koranic school and here is a boy with his tablet of arabic.

Here is Faith after we finally made it on to the ferry - she was riding in our friends car - this says it all! We finally made it to the hotel around 1:30 and we fell into bed (after washing away the grime from the trip that was literally caked on our necks).

The hotel we are staying at is gorgeous and I will post some pictures tomorrow - right now I am in the internet room and I am being bit up by mosquito's!

Pictures

2009-06-07T14:27:00.004-04:00

We went to a wedding for a daughter of our supervisors - it was right on the beach!

This is a little girl that was watching the ceremony.

It was so funny - during the ceremony all these vendors walked down the beach!

Here are some pictures from Luke's birthday!

His class enjoying some cupcakes.

These are some pictures of the vendors on the road! I am sure that you thought I was exaggerating!

The kids finished up school last week and we now have an eighth grader, sixth grader and third grader. They all did very well in school - although Zach had the hardest transition. We have been told next year it will be easier as they won't be the new kids and they know what to expect.

Tuesday we leave for the Gambia. Pray for safe travels, as we are told that the roads are horrendous. Pray also for the ferry ride - we have been told that it could take up to 10 or more hours to get a ride on the ferry (unless you pay to get to the front of the line). We are hoping to get there early enough to beat the rush, but it is still a long day. In the training we will be learning how to share a story of Jesus' life - from creation to the cross. It is an English speaking country so that helps, we are also told there are a fare amount of Wolof speakers too. So we are hoping that we won't digress in our language. We not sure of our internet availability while we are there, but will post whenever possible.

In the dorm

2009-05-31T12:57:00.002-04:00

A while back we were asked to take care of the dorm while the current dorm parents take their 3 day weekend off. So this is the weekend. We approached it with reserved excitement and a little bit of apprehension. We got here Saturday morning and will stay until lights out on Monday - around 10 pm.

We were a little nervous, because what if we hated it or what if they hated us? Here we have committed to 3 years of time and what if we found out that it was going to be torture? But, praise the Lord, it has been awesome. We have been basically hanging out in the living room area, which is a little awkward because we don’t have a space of our in the dorm. It also has been a busy weekend with a Junior/Senior Banquet, Senior receptions and other things going on, but it has really solidified our call to this job and this school. It has been really neat to be able to get to know the boys before next year!

So it has increased our excitement for the school year and has made us so thankful to be here!

Life goes on

2009-05-24T12:59:00.003-04:00

It has been a while since we have posted. We have settled into a routine here in Senegal. We continue to have 3 days of language and the kids continue to really enjoy school. With our crate arriving, we have had a few additional forms of entertainment. We dug out the Wii and have enjoyed playing with that! For the most part we left all of the boxes taped up, but definitely wanted to dig out the Wii! The kids love school and are very anxious to get on campus. There is always something going on at the school and they can't wait to be in the mix!

To catch up: Zach played the trumpet again and once again did very well. He continues to enjoy baseball and playing soccer. He has struggled a little bit with the social aspect and having to deal with a bully. He has made some good friends, but unfortunately his closest friend is going on furlough next year. Thus the life of a missionary kid! Luke likes baseball and has enjoyed being involved with floor hockey too! He loves playing in the woods at school, building forts and creating clubs. Not real crazy about schoolwork, but loves the atmosphere at school. Faith loves everything about DA - her teacher, friends, play ground!

Ron and I are still working on language. It still continues to be a struggle. We understand so much while in the class room and then walk out and depending on who is talking - don't understand a word! It is very frustrating. But we continue to progress and learn more vocabulary and can carry on conversations. Our house helper continues to encourage - they other day I was talking with her in French and she looked at me and said - say it again but in Wolof this time. I am thankful for that! It is much easier at times for me to think in French, so I quickly go to that instead of plugging along in the Wolof.

Life continues to be fun here - seeing funny new things each time we head out of our doors! We haven't taken many pictures while driving, but it is interesting what you see while driving. We can do all of our Christmas shopping inside of our car. There are people selling everything imaginable and some not so imaginable things on the road. So far while in our car stopped in traffic we have bought - sun glasses, drinking glasses, a knife, fruit, nuts, cookies, grater, eggs, water, gum, phone cards, and a watch. So far we have turned down - mirrors, clocks, bras, underwear, undershirts, kleenex (personal or full box), toys, posters of various marabouts (Muslim leaders), rugs, hangers, muslim books, muslim beads, french DVDs, books, stickers, remote controls, every cell phone gadget, ball/strike counters, steering wheel covers, flares, cans of fix a flat, key chains, string art, magnifying glasses, razors, hair clipper sets, water boilers, skillet, tupperware, plates, table cloths, clothes pins, and the list will I am sure continue to grow. It is like Walmart each time we get on the road.

The kids only have around 7 days of school left - then we are off to the Gambia for training. We will hopefully put some pictures on soon. Pray for the kids finishing up school and pray for the Seniors as they complete their finals and prepare to head off to colleges.

Our crate arrived!

2009-05-14T04:37:00.002-04:00

Let's open it up and see what we got.....

Where are your books? That is all they were concerned about. Unfortunately the books were near the back of the crate. So, piece by piece they started unloading the crate.

This is Ron talking with the customs officer. Praise the Lord after about 15-20 things were pulled out Ron found a box with some books in it and thankfully the books were a writers' manual and a Rosetta Stone book and not the many, many evangelism books or books on Islam. God was good! The customs officer seemed satisfied and signed off of the crate. We think it helped that we talked a good bit of Wolof with him and he was very impressed (amused) with our attempt to speak with him. So they starting putting all of the things that they took out back in. Only 2 things didn't fit and had to be held off separately. It was fun to see their faces reacting to some of the items they had never seen before. The nerf dart gun, kites, candle warmer, Christmas tree topper - we did a lot of charades! It was delivered the next morning. They had a machine that dropped the whole crate over our gate. We hadn't told the kids that it was here - so they had a huge surprise when they got home from school! There was much shouts of glee and excitement.

Before we left the States, we read a book about a boy who collected his most prized possessions in a special box. So we stole the idea and had each of them collect their most favorite things and put them in a box - it was neat to see them pull each item out and reminisce about the memory or love on a stuffed animal. We gave away a lot of their toys when we left, but these special items helped them forget what they left behind and allowed them to appreciate what they chose to keep!

Happenings....

2009-05-10T08:27:00.004-04:00

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. We have just been doing life! Kids have been busy at school. Here are the latest activities - Zach started baseball, Luke finished handball and started intramural floor hockey, Zach turned 13 (hard to believe), got caught in a parade downtown, had a beach day, survived a birthday party and sleepover with 9 middle school boys, and of course language. Below are pictures of one of the big mosques - this is also one of the Lebou villages where we went and hung out with some of the Lebou workers:

A couple of Mondays ago we went to a compound and hung out with some of the ladies for the afternoon - below are some pictures:

Here is a picture of Zach with his Masaai spear from Kenya - sorry for the weird smile on his face!

Life continues to run smoothly here in Senegal. We continue to love it here and are so looking forward to getting in the dorm and settle in. We continue to grow in the language and are not as intimidated to go out and do things. We went shopping in one of the local markets for some soccer shirts for Zach and it went great! The nationals continue to be gracious and warm in our attempt to speak Wolof. They are so encouraging and receptive, it builds our excitement for the continuous learning - which at times is so draining. We continue to have lots of opportunities to practice with as many people showing up at our gate. Here is the list of our personal sellers - fruit seller, broom seller, 2 fish and shrimp sellers, egg seller, and several strawberry and corn sellers. I think it is like in the great depression times - you get your door marked. Everyone who is looking for money, selling stuff, wanting to wash our floors, do our laundry or yardwork is directed to our gate. So we gets lots of language in by trying to explain that we don't want to buy today!

Today we are celebrating Mother's Day - I was made heart shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup. They were delicious.

We say Happy Mother's Day to our moms - we hope you have a great day! We love and miss you lots!

A post for the Grandparents

2009-04-27T22:14:00.005-04:00

Zach was asked to do a trumpet solo during the offertory 2 weeks ago. He did great! Enjoy! Our supervisor Cal is playing the piano.

Goings On

2009-04-25T04:22:00.007-04:00

We have been busy with school activities and, you guessed it, language. Here is the latest: Faith turned 8 and celebrated it with 11 girls from her class. We had a "Princess Picnic" birthday party at the house. It was a lot of fun.

Zach competed in a middle school "Petites Poteaux" tournament (soccer inside a concrete court - kind of like indoor soccer played on concrete). he also went on a middle school outreach where they painted a wall of a local hospital and cleaned the trash out the ditch in front of the wall. The kids did a great job and it looks great! This weekend Zach is on the middle school retreat.

Luke competed in a handball intramurals (like ultimate frisbee with a ball) for the last two weeks. Luke playing and enjoying the handball tournament is an answer to prayer. He has not connected as much with the kids in his class because most of them love playing soccer at lunch and after school. Luke's favorite memories of soccer in Youngsville are generally the snack after the game each week. So, he tends to hang out with all the younger kids. He is really good at entertaining them, but we also want him to connect with kids his own age. When he signed up for this, we were excited. The first week he didn't enjoy it because no one passed it to him, but this week he was aggressive and active and he did great. He scored 2 goals and was great on both offense and defense. More importantly, he had fun and wants to practice and get better. This is his first real go at athletics, and this is a very sports oriented school - there isn't a whole lot else to do here!

Here is Luke playing handball.

On our ministry outing we went back and visited the public hospital where the boys painted the wall. We went into the maternity building - here is the picture of the delivery room.

Here is a horse cart that carried all of the trash out of the ditch.

The before:

The after:

Here are some local kids getting in on the fun.

Here is Zach at the end of the day - they had a little fun with the paint after they finished.

Zach heading the ball in the Petits Poteaux tournament.

This picture is for Bob Murray - sorry if this offends any cat lovers. This cat is right outside the office where we have language class. For days, we could not understand why it was so smelly. THEN we noticed the dead cat! We are sorry that it is not a scratch-n-sniff picture.

Trash

2009-04-19T15:28:00.003-04:00

There are many hard things to get used to about living in Africa - one of them being trash. There is trash everywhere. I grew up being part of an organization called Children of the American Revolution - a patriotic youth organization where we learned about our country. One area we learned about was conservation. I remember many meetings where we focused on litter. It was drilled into my head not to be a "litterbug". Even if I had wanted to, I could not have even thrown a gum wrapper on the ground. Here, everywhere you look there are little clear sacks, black bags, little coffee cups, bottles and many other miscellaneous wrappers strewn on the ground. You see people eat their snacks and drop their trash on the ground. It pains me. There are whole lots of just trash. When it gets too high - they burn it. On Saturday, the middle schoolers went and worked at an area by the local hospital. They were there to paint a wall and to pick up trash out of the ditch. They had hired some horse carts to removed the trash. By the end of the day, they had removed over 10 loads of trash, for a relatively small area.

We have heard that not all of Africa has this problem, but that it is particularly bad in West Africa. It is hard sometimes to find a trash can outside. I found myself on one occasion throwing my trash on the ground. I felt guilty. It is something I have to get used to, but I know that I will never like it and will do my best to not be a litterbug!

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T06:50:00.005-04:00

It has been a while since our last post, for that I apologize. Nothing very exciting happening and not much to share, but wanted to check in. We are celebrating Easter today in a country that doesn't recognize this holiday, but as a family we celebrated early this morning with a sunrise service at Dakar Academy. What a beautiful sight to behold - watching the sun rise and thinking of His sacrifice for us. We had an Easter celebration yesterday with an egg hunt, tug of war, egg toss and good food. We had to die eggs without the help of Paas! I had no idea how to do this, but thanks to the internet found out you just need food coloring, water and vinegar - who knew?

This past week - nothing much happened - language and life. Our only bit of excitement was that a stray cat had kittens in our yard. One was sick, so we tried to help it. Unfortunately it ended up dying and at the end of the week, and then we couldn't find the other three kittens. We are not sure if the momma took them somewhere or something came and completed the circle of life. It was not a happy ending, but it was neat for our kids to see newborn kittens.

We continue to progress in language and continue to have fun trying to use and learn as much as we can. We went out to a village on Monday and walked on the beach with all of the fishing boats coming in - it was a myriad of sights and smells. It was quite the adventure for me (Chris) - I almost got bit by a horse, run over by a horse cart, stepped on a dead cat and rat and then got into a conversation with a friendly drunk African (talk about a language barrier). For a beach and ocean lover it was hard to see the beach in this way - there are open sewers running to the ocean, trash everywhere, and goats eating trash along the water. At one point we saw a huge sea turtle that they had caught on its back - just waiting for death so they can eat it or cut it up to be sold. The matter of fact here is that it is all about survival. Whatever it takes to eat today - that is essentially what matters.

The kids continue to do well in school. They really like the school and are excited about next year and us living there. We continue to be thankful for being here in Dakar. We can't wait to show our friends and family where we live and to meet these awesome people (hint, hint). We miss you all, especially on holidays!

A fun day trip

2009-04-03T05:42:00.004-04:00

While the kids are on break, we have wanted to explore a little bit off of the peninsula. We went to a little Lebou village outside Dakar where the work there is still developing. In the past, there has not been much response; however a couple of months ago a volunteer team came in and did a medical clinic there. They were well received. We went to visit the beach, but also to stop and visit some of the people who came to the clinic. Our group of nine people showed up in the African homes. We were warmly welcomed and sat for a brief time to greet them well. It was a great day to see a little more of Senegal. The drive out of Dakar is a killer (especially two times in three days), as it is quite a bottleneck and LOTS of traffic. The pics below were taken from the restaurant of a hotel on the cliff on the Atlantic. We look forward to heading back there for an overnight sometime soon. Enjoy the pics!

A day in the village

2009-03-29T07:58:00.006-04:00

All week we have been coordinating with our guard Ibrahaima to go to his village. I had told him at least 3 times - you are coordinating the transportation. We couldn't go in our truck - there wasn't enough spaces, so we were hiring a "bush taxi" - it holds 7 people. All week he said that yes was arranging the car. Well, Friday night I asked him what time the taxi was coming and with a deer in the headlight look said - I thought you were arranging the taxi! Ugh - I thought our communication was clear. Well, we called a friend who called a friend and we had a taxi - albeit at a much higher price, but nonetheless we were all set. It was an interesting ride - he picked up his cousin along the way (who spoke English) so we had a very full car. Our driver was a little grumpy - after agreeing to a price - he tried to negotiate a little more in the morning, but thankfully there were some of our wolof friends there to tell him no. The trip was a little more crazy because that morning my back went out, so the taxi ride was a little less enjoyable for me! We arrived at his wife's village an hour and a half laterto pick her up to take her to his parents village up the road. So we had an eight month pregnant women added to our very full taxi.
We arrived at his village and of course were celebrities. We met his dad who was the chief of their compound and a village elder. They treated us like family. They fed us beignets (little doughnuts), rice and chicken, melon and attaya (tea). The kids had fun with the other kids - the boys played soccer and Faith hung out with the other little girls. At one point I heard some of the girls call for Faith - "Fanta, Fanta" it was neat how quickly they were accepted. Our kids also had so much fun with all of the animals there - the baby goats were adorable! Faith quickly slid into Momma role with them.

We just basically hung out all day - literally sat in a room, but to them we honored them and their son by spending our whole day there. They weren't happy that we had to leave - insisting that we stay the night. But they were appeased as we promised to come back and stay the night. That should be interesting! Overall it was a great day, with the hope of another day in the future.

His dad had a garden - these are papayas.

Ibrahaima and his wife - she was very shy!

A huge Baobob tree!

This was our lunch - poulet yassa.

The kids getting water from their well.

The kids when we stopped at his house to pick up his wife - were excited to see all of the Toubabs crammed in the car.

15 years later - she turns my heart cold!

2009-03-26T08:01:00.002-04:00

Ok, so you got Chris's take and our story. I concur with all of it. However, this year I have found that things have changed and she now turns my heart cold. In Wolof, that is "Sama xool di sedd!" or my heart is cold. Now that we're in Africa, much has flipped upside down! Since it is hot here so much (at least once you get out of Dakar and off of this peninsula), a "steamy" relationship is the norm. What is exceptional is to find someone who makes your heart cold! Ha! Thank God for my Ice Queen!!! I LOVE YOU, CHRIS!

15 years

2009-03-26T07:28:00.003-04:00

Wow - hard to believe that Ron and I have been married for 15 years. Fifteen years ago today, we did not envision ourselves in Africa that is for sure!

Here is our story: In August 1992 I was living with my sister in Pikesville. We lived next door to a family that invited me to their church. I went that Sunday and then was invited by the Associate Pastor to a small group meeting. I decided to go - I was to meet someone named Kristi at her apartment. When I got there, she had brought her friend Ron. We went to the small group meeting and Ron and I clicked - we talked for a long time and agreed to get together again. We then continued to hang out, but only as friends. We built a great friendship and went out at least once a week! Everyone kept telling us that we should be dating, but we each had ruled out the other - he was younger and shorter - I was older and taller! We had tried "dating" but it was weird.

In June Ron invited me to go see "Cats." I thought it was a date, but to him - he was just taking out his good friend. But later that night while watching "Top Gun" he shared that his feelings had changed. I thought "it's about time!" We started dating, but just a month later he had decided that he wanted to not see each other so much, but that didn't last long :) and we were on again. Another month later, on August 19th (his birthday), he asked me to marry him. He was teaching at the time so we decided to get married during his break - so on March 26, 1994 we committed ourselves to God and each other before all of our friends and family!

We are so thankful to God for coordinating that meeting and for all of the others who were instrumental in our relationship. The last 15 years have been amazing - we are truly best friends and for that we are both so thankful! We are excited to see the next part of our journey and what the next 15 years hold!

2009-03-25T17:13:00.004-04:00

We went out to another village this week. We had a great visit with a Senegalese woman - she was a hoot. She danced for us and we had a great time listening to her and our supervisors wife shoot the breeze. We walked along the beach and talked with some kids. Below are some pictures from the day:

This is the view as we come around a corner to drive along side the ocean - it is one of my favorite views - minus the billboard!

This is a Lebou fishing village we walked through - it was cool to see all of the boats that were there.

This was a different thing to see on the beach! Never saw goats along the shore in Myrtle Beach!!

Saturday we are going to our guards village for the day - it should be interesting day full of language and culture. He is a great guy and we are excited to meet his wife and family. Not sure what it is going to look like, but are excited none the less!

Our helper fixed us dinner tonight and she cooked rice and fish. It included the fish heads - ugh. We shared with our guard and he was so excited to get the fish heads! We explained that we weren't a big fan and he said that the Senegalese love the heads. After he asked us what we wanted to eat in the village and we quickly said - no fish heads! Our head had the eyes, teeth, mouth - not ready for that yet!

Pray that we in our limited language will be able to make a positive impression so as to be able to share the gospel.

Cultural Day

2009-03-19T11:46:00.002-04:00

We had our second cultural day with a Sengalese believer. The original plan was for us to drive to his house and pick him up. He called us and said "I am coming", I quickly said "to your house or my house." He said yes I am coming, me - Okay, got that - your house or my house? His answer - yes. So I said - we are meeting you at your house right? Yes I am coming. Hang up. I then tell Ron I think we are meeting Papa at his house, but he could be coming here....Ron calls him and asks if we are meeting him at his house - Yes I am coming...We then determined that he was not at his house, but was going to his house!

After sorting that out, we met him on the street by his house and he told us to park, and we would be using public transportation. Ok.....So we starting walking and went to the main street and waved down a "taxi" called a klondoor - a private car driven as a taxi - we never knew how to determine these, but quickly found out they do 2 little honks. They are much cheaper than taxis and they cram in whoever and drop them on route. So after taking our ride to a market, we wandered around to various indoor and outdoor markets - saw and smelled lots of interesting things. We wanted to eat lunch so we stopped at a "restaurant". It was a room with some tables with a bowl of spoons on the table. They were serving ceeb with fish and yassa. Yassa is normally rice with chicken and onions, lemony. Knowing the fish would be bony or the fish head, I opted for yassa. Well they tricked me and my yassa was served with a whole fish on a bed of rice. Ron had small bits (albeit with lots of bones) of fish. I will next time clarify! After that we got on a car rapide - a van with lots of people in, and then another klandoor. It was a fun day filled with lots of new experiences! We had some good opportunities to practice our language.

I know there are some that wish there were more photos of the things we see and experience. But we hope you can keep in mind that we are the only white people around at times and if we were walking around just taking pictures - we would only be tourists. It is really not easy to take pictures! We will try, but most importantly we want to be culturally appropriate at all times. We don't want to be tourists. We want to be accepted, and we don't want them to feel that they or their lives are spectacles. But we will try whenever possible and acceptable to snap a photo!

Village anyone?

2009-03-16T12:27:00.003-04:00

We went into what we thought was a Lebou village, but it really turned out to was an area where the Lebou worked and hung out. Ron and Cal went in search of the men and Patty and I went in search of the women. We saw 2 groups of women hanging out and went over and introduced ourselves. They were excited to teach me wolof and talk with us while they waited for the fish to come in. Basically these women come to this area 3 times a day to collect fish and then walk it back up to the street to sell. Next week we are going to go down there before the fish come in and the girls are going to do some storying while the women are captive! Ron and Cal are going to be there to help pull the boats in when they come. Please pray for this area and pray for opportunities to share. Continue to pray for our language, this is a great place to learn and listen to Nationals talk.

Jr. Carnival and soccer

2009-03-15T09:17:00.005-04:00

We had a busy weekend with 2 different school functions - Jr. Carnival and a soccer game against a rec league. Zach made the jr. soccer squad and was able to play in 1 game before their "season" ended. The team was basically put together to play in a tournament that was held while we were in Kenya, but they did organize 1 game against a rec league. Zach played well and they ended up with a tie.

The Junior class put on a carnival on Friday - the kids had a lot of fun there. The football team from Wheaton College was here and brought all kinds of American things, so they served bacon cheeseburgers, nachos, american candy. The theme was Lord of the Rings, so lots dressed up in costumes. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Here is Zach with Andy Studebaker from the Kansas City Chiefs.

We have a busy week planned - we have started back with language 3 days a week, with another day of culture and language and then a ministry day as well - so all 5 days are full of learning and observing. We never would have guessed how tired we would be at the end of the day. Our minds are always working and processing - you are constantly either studying language, speaking language, translating language, listening, and then thinking about what you are going to say....It is exhausting. We are very ready to have a better grasp on Wolof. We have such a strong desire to be able to communicate and not have that be another stressor! Many of you have asked about packages. We are putting a list on the blog of the things we can't get here. When you mail packages, please ask at the post office for the flat rate international box. You will save a lot more money and it gets here much faster.

A slide show from our trip

2009-03-12T16:15:00.003-04:00

Here is a slide show of some of our adventures. I hope you enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Back Home

2009-03-11T15:41:00.004-04:00

We are back in Senegal and have gotten back into the swing of things. We arrived dinner time on Sunday and the kids were back to school on Monday. We were all pretty tired on Sunday due to the fact that Kenya is 3 hours ahead of us. But it is now Wednesday and everyone seems to have adjusted well.

Kenya was amazing. It is such a beautiful country. There were so many amazing flowers, plants and animals to see. The artistry there among the Kenyans is amazing as well. We went to 2 different artisan markets and the talent we came across was unbelievable. It was actually fun shopping - exhausting, but fun since it was in English. Kenyan is not a Muslim country, so it was weird to see lots of churches everywhere - all kinds of churches. If you ever have a chance to go - do it!

Next we need to say thanks to many people who made the trip possible. Thanks to our friends, and a donor from SEBTS who gave money to fund the trip for the kids and I. It would have been impossible for us to go as a family without your support. Thanks to the team from First Baptist Church in Durham. They came to love on us and watch our kids while we were in class. They left us with all sorts of games and books for the kids and some makeup for me. A fun thing that we did while there was shop. They had big stores with a lot of American products. We packed very lightly and planned on filling it up. We were allowed 150 kilos and we came back with 151! We stocked up on cake mixes, syrup, Kenyan coffee, crackers, granola bars, and lots of fun things. We are ready to hit our birthday season now!

As for us in Senegal - Ron and I met with an African believer who will be doing cultural training one day a week with us. He took us to a market and taught us more about shopping and bartering. Some of the things we have planned while we are out are: using public transportation - riding the big buses and small vans, hitting some outdoor markets, learning the streets, maybe some storying, eating in African "restaurants". So you can pray that our time is effective, meaningful and safe. Ron went to his house for a Bible study on Tuesday night - it didn't end up happening, but pray that the other believers come next Tuesday. This group of believers were meeting and then stopped - they haven't met for over 2 years. Pray for our teacher's wife that she would be interested in what is being taught and want to learn more.

We recently had 4 packages from home - THANKS
we had one from my parents filled with some Christmas goodies - love that Chop Wizard!

one from a Sunday school class at Faith Baptist Church filled with great ministry items - coloring books and school supplies, Parmesan cheese, drink mixes - thanks Lewis

one from the youth group at South End Baptist Church (a church we have never been to or met) - thanks so much for our Christmas gifts and goodies - we appreciate your creativity!

Thanks to David Hartman for bringing us a trunk of goodies to Kenya - thanks to those that contributed to that package - especially the Campbell family!

Packages take much longer to get here and are generally opened and searched, but cards and letters take only 2 weeks. Our kids love getting mail!

I am putting together a slide show (I know vacation slides, ugh) - but hopefully it will be fun to watch! I should be able to put that on in the next couple of days.

More pics

2009-03-02T05:28:00.005-05:00

This is a 6 week old baby Rhino - he was so adorable!

A few pics from Kenya

2009-03-02T00:56:00.001-05:00