Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from West Africa. Here in Mali - it just Thursday. Today is the first of many holidays that will be different. First it is very hot today and secondly, nobody else knows there is a holiday. The same will be for Christmas!

We celebrated last night with the rest of our team mates and we had a traditional feast. It was complete with Turkey, Ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole (for which Luke was very happy). It was a great time of celebrating with our friends here. We miss being with our friends and family back home. We wanted to let you know how thankful we are for your blessings, prayers, and support for our family!

We pray that you have a blessed time of reflection and thanks for your many blessings. Tomorrow we will be travelling to a town called Segou - we will be there until Monday. Pray for safe travels and a good time of relaxation and rest.

The Artisans Market

Here is a sotrama - not our sotrama, but hopefully you can see the size and how they are jammed in there.

We had a successful day on Saturday. We think of these days as successful, not necessarily fun, because we completed what we set out to do. If we had to be completely honest, it was a completely overwhelming experience. We asked the kids if they wanted to go - only Zach said yes. Our friends Billy and Heather said they would watch Faith and Luke. We dropped them off at their house and then walked to the main street to catch the sotrama. A few came by, but were full, so we waited. When another came by, I thought it was full - silly me! Ron and Zach got on and when I climbed into it (think old school gutted volkswagon bus) I did not see any spots. The inside of the 4 walls have wooden benches. I told Zach to get up and I sat down on my few inches of bench and had him sit on my lap. They told me that he couldn't sit on my lap, at this point I didn't see any more wood available. Once again silly me! The people scooted over and made a couple of inches for Zach. Ron was half sitting on 2 women, Zach and I were half sitting on each other. There were 18 people and 2 infants jammed into this vehicle! Driving a little ways down the road, Zach got his first intimate lesson on breastfeeding! Both women next to me, determined it was time for their babies to eat. Let's just say they are not discreet like in America - it is fully exposed and sometimes if the babies take a break - they will just leave it out until they are ready to continue. The one women fed her baby probably 4 or 5 times because he was cranky! After we figured out where we needed to get off (with the help of those on the van), we headed into the market. Everyone suddenly was our friend, cousin, brother, and we even got - great to see you again (we all look alike to them!). Once you made eye contact - you were officially escorted into their shop. They promised to give us the best price! The vendors spoke pretty good English too, so we couldn't talk to each other! Here is how the game is played: I ask how much something is, they respond with a ridiculous price, I appear shocked and respond with a ridiculous offer, to which they appear appalled. Then we haggle back and forth until we come to a price we both agree to. It is exhausting! I had to be reminded by them many times of the rules! We kept saying to them - we just are looking. To which they responded, well come on in looking is free and if you were curious as to what something costs and asked the game began. I had to tell them many times - after they explained the rules once again - I don't want to play the game with that particular item - I was just curious! We bought a few things and then we both looked at each other and said - I am done! It was a neat experience to see them making their wares right there, seeing animal skins drying, shaping their wood, etc.

We left there and had to catch the bus back to Billy and Heather's neighborhood. Problem was - it is a one-way street into downtown and we couldn't find the street that led out of town. We walked a little way - we ended up getting lost in a covered market. We finally found our way to a street and saw the buses heading out of the city. We hopped on the sotrama and praise the Lord, this one wasn't crowded. We made conversation with a lady and she helped us stop the bus when it was time. We practiced our Bambara - her reply laugh, laugh, laugh.

Here are some random pictures of things people carry while they are driving motos:

Yes, they are carrying live goats! The one right above, was none to happy about it!! You can also see how orderly the motos are at lights!

Sunday

Here are some pics of us in our Sunday best - it is amazing at what some of these tailors can do - they are very talented. We are having the boys some clothes made - Zach wants a whole outfit like Ron's - Luke only wants a shirt!

Things are going well - tomorrow we are going downtown to the Artisans Market - we are taking the famous green buses, called sotramas. It should be interesting to have a bunch of white people crammed in! It should be a sight. They have tried to prepare us for the market - they say it is a little crazy. The vendors are very aggressive - you have to be prepared to bargain hard!

With Ron going to the village, we finally bought into learning some Bambara. We now have enough of the greeting to be friendly. It is amazing to see their eyes light up when we go through the greeting. We can see why it is called their heart language - it excites us to learn Wolof (which is the heart language of Senegal). French is the trade language, but if we truly want to share the love of Christ and build a relationship we have to speak Wolof. That terrifies me - not quite sure how much this old brain can hold, but we are going to try our hardest. Ron still will post on his trip to the village - I could try, but he will do it better justice! We love and miss you guys and are so thankful for your prayers!

Successful day

Well, we both survived our experiences - Ron in the bush for the first time and me alone with 3 children in Africa. Ron will post about his experiences - without photos (sorry Amie).

To sum up my time, I successfully took 3 taxis, ate at a restaurant, went fabric shopping, had a skirt made, and bought groceries. And, I need to add only 1 out of the 3 taxi drivers spoke French! We went to a restaurant that serves American food and enjoyed some pizza. On the way out the parking person asked me where I wanted to go and I pointed up the road - he then hailed me a taxi. He was the 1 that did speak French - at the end of our trip I got in a quarrel with him! He said a price to go literally up the road (but across the main road, with 3 children), so I said yes - I thought he said 50, he said he said 500. It cost me 1,000 cfa to go from my house, so 500 cfa for a short distance was absurd. But I did not want to cause a scene for a dollar (exchange rate is around 510 cfa = 1 dollar), so I paid the man and got out of the cab. My children were only slightly frightened at this point! Bad Mom for scaring the children over a $1. But hey a buck is a buck right? Anyway, by the time we finished grocery shopping it was dark and I had to manage a taxi home. Once again standing my ground, the first 2 taxi drivers were going to charge me 1,500 cfa, but I only paid 1,000 to get there - we both refused to budge. So here I am standing in the dark street - my children up safely by the grocery store - waiting for another taxi to come by. Praise the Lord I didn't have to wait long and the parking lot security guy arranged it for me since he spoke Bambara and I didn't.

All in all - I would say it was successful. Now I am off to bed, I am exhausted! I will post pictures of some of our new african outfits tomorrow.

Prayer Request

Ron is going on his first trip to a village! He will leave Monday morning and return sometime Tuesday afternoon/evening. Pray that he will have an amazing time, as well for safety. He may have a time to do some storying and prayer for the village believers. Pray for him emotionally - all that have been to a village say it is very hard to see children near death. Pray for the kids and I while we are alone. Look forward to some pictures.

Overall - things have been relatively quiet. We have been busy learning language and just living here in West Africa. We have seen so many crazy, interesting things - unfortunately since we don't have our camera with us 24/7 - many things don't get recorded. We have seen about 20 or so goats strapped to the top of a bus - a goat being carried on a motorcycle -people carrying TV's on motos. Goats are pretty much like dogs around here. While driving through the neighborhoods, you have to dodge goats, small children, dogs, carts, bikes, motos, naked children, and people.

It is fun to see kids get bathed here - the moms take them into the street and scrub them down, head to toe - these dark black children are completely white! It is a sight to see!

Happy Belated Halloween to Us!

We received our first care package from the States. It was from my Mom and my sister Diana and her family. They obviously knew we needed candy! It was a great treat. The kids (knowing their Aunt Diana) knew that it would be a special package and were waiting with baited breath. We only go and check our mail once a week and so we hoped that it would be here this week. When Ron went and checked the mail, he came back empty handed. The kids were so disappointed. However, when Ron came back our language helper was here and he wanted to wait so that the kids would be fully concentrating on learning. Shortly after he left, Ron went to the car and retrieved the packages - way exciting!!! There were many practical things as well as fun things - included were some of the things we took for granted: baggies, index cards, candy, hair spray, drink mixes (in English), English movies! Here are some pics.

Thanks Nana, Aunt Diana, Uncle Mike, Austin and Chase!!!! Love and miss you guys!

Kill the Insects

Our apologies to all you PETI (People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects) people out there – those are not our words! I took them from our recent purchase of Casa Jardin bug spray, and quite a can it is! Several pictures are included for your viewing pleasure. We have had quite a time over the past week with the mosquitoes. They have especially had their way with Faith and Zach. Since our purchase of Casa Jardin and a few other repellant-type items, things are going better. Of course, the timing coincides with the beginning of the harmattan winds blowing down across the Sahara, carrying much dust with it. We have been told this is just the beginning, as it is currently only a light dusting each day. The good news is that we have already noticed it being a little cooler. From what I have read on line, there is so much dust in the air that it blocks some of the sun and thus its heat – good times! By late December, many Malians will be wearing parkas and caps and will hover around small fires to make it through the chilly nights!!! It gets down into the low 60's. ALERT: we did not pack for this chilly weather, so we might need you to send some gloves and scarves, sizes forthcoming J

In other news, we had fun on Wednesday morning. We took a taxi downtown to the National Museum of Mali. We tried to make small talk to the driver - that lasted about 15 seconds. We were driving a long and he pops in a cassette and through his speaker croons Tracy Chapman! We had a good day – not brave enough to eat from the roadside restaurants yet, but hopefully one day soon. We were able to hail a taxi home – that was an interesting ride – the taxi drivers are much braver than we are and I found myself pushing my imaginary brakes and bracing myself – especially with Faith riding in the front on Ron's lap. So much for safety standards. No safety lectures, please! Here are some pictures from the day.

Here is a model of the "sotramas" – the famous green buses that cram as many as 10-15 people into them, with no doors. And, yes they have that much on top of them -minus the tarp! We will have the opportunity to "enjoy" this experience while we are here!

We met a fun guard in the Prehistoric section of the museum – he wanted us to take his picture with every attraction. He was a great guy and we participated in some interesting charades as we talked with him.

Week 4

Zach caught our little friend - we have several more - we try to leave them alone. We hear they eat a lot of bugs!

Here is a flower from our courtyard!

Faith carrying her "baby" on her back like the African women!

Here is a real African carrying her baby on her back!

A lady carrying a bunch of stuff on her head - took this from the car. She is cheating a little bit and holding it with her hand - usually they have stuff even higher than this without holding on!

Chris and Faith dressed for church - aren't we cute in our matching outfits!

Here are the kids at the American Club - we went swimming there with some friends.

Here is the church we go to - Bethel Baptist.

We had a fun day on Friday going to the American Club. It used to be the old American Embassy. When they moved to a new building, it was given to the Marines and now it is a club for American government employees. In order to be a member without working for the government you have to have an embassy worker sponsor you. Our friends brought us in as their guests. It was a great break - a little slice of America. It had a huge playground for the kids, with sand and swings and slides. They had a great time playing in the water!

We had our first opportunity to go shopping and do some bargaining. We bought some fabric and then went to a tailor. I had an African outfit made and Ron is going to have an outfit made as well - we will post pictures when all is sewn!

This week is going to be full. We are going on Wednesday to the Museum downtown Bamako. On the first Wednesday of every month it is free. We are going to try to take a taxi - that should be interesting!

Our language learning is going well - Zach will start with a formal tutor - 2 hours a week. We think that he will really fly with some formal instruction.

Thanks for checking in on us - we love hearing from you guys!