Christmas

Christmas was different this year. We did some of our old traditions and started some new ones. It was especially great to talk to family on skype - that helped us miss home a little less. For dinner we went over to another workers house for dinner - filled with traditional food. A package from the States arrived Christmas eve so that was a treat - (we believe from God - it should have never made it here that fast!) So the kids had some new DS games and some new movies to watch. Thanks Nana! Here are some pics from the day:

Ron won this leopard skin hat in our white elephant exchange, but lost it to someone else!

Here is our "tree" - more like a garland wall hanging. Ron was very creative - the kids loved it!

Faith got a king size Reese's cup which are pretty non-existent here - thanks Laverne!

Nana gave Zach a new digital camera - he was so excited!!!

Luke got Prince Caspian!

Here is a Wise Lizard following the star to Bethlehem - thankfully he left the others in the East!

I bet that wasn't among your Christmas decorations!

Merry Christmas

We want to wish our family and friends a very Merry Christmas. This is our first Christmas away from you and although we know this is where God has us for now, we want you to know that we are missing you terribly. We are trying to focus on the reason for the season and not focus on the things that we are missing. We want to leave you with a song that has meant a lot to us this holiday season. Some of the images on the video are a little cheesy - but just listen to the words - they share our heart with you. We hope you can feel our love across the miles - Merry Christmas.

The Other 5

1. Driving - This list wouldn't be complete without something on the driving. I know that I have mentioned this many times before, but it bears repeating. Each time I venture out (yes, I am driving now) I am reminded at how crazy it is. People tell us it is worse in Dakar, so we will see! The number of motos is completely out of control - they are everywhere. They go where ever, whenever, however they want! Evidently traffic laws do not apply to motos. When you pull up at a light they squeak by and use up every inch. This past Tuesday I was turning left at a light - on my left was about 15 motos - some of them going straight, some turning left. When we get back to the States, we should be masters of defensive driving skills.



2. Weather - this is probably the most dependable item on the list, but it still remains a major difference. We arrived at the end of rainy season and once it ended it has remained fairly steady - hot (we have had some milder hot though). In Faith's home school math book, she was asked to graph the weather. It says - go outside and observe the weather. The categories are hot, cold, raining, windy, cool - we have used all of the hot blocks and have given up this pointless exercise!



3. Shopping - this is probably the most stressful for me. There is no set price for anything, unless you go to some of the bigger stores. The prices for the vegetables and fruits are pretty static, but anything not consumable, etc. you bargain. It goes like this - they start at 10,000 - I am appalled and offer 2,000 - they act appalled - I say 3,000 - back and forth until we end up around half - it can be exhausting, but sometimes it can be fun, if the vendor doesn't act like we are taking food from his children's mouth! After all of that, we often find out we have paid too much at half of the original price.



4. Kids - this is a pretty broad category. Some of the differences in regards to kids are - most of the babies don't wear underwear or diapers. A funny story to illustrate this is - I was in a village and I took a Vera Bradley cloth back pack (not very smart). I had it sitting next to me in the chair - they offered me a different chair and I moved and didn't take my bag. A mother sat down and had her baby girl standing next to her - she went right there and I watch to see the pee running down a trail right for my bag. I didn't panic, and praise the Lord it stopped before touching it! The kids ride on motos. Sometimes in the drivers lap holding on to the handlebars, sometimes in between the driver and the passenger and many times strapped to the mothers back while she is driving. Needless to say there are no seat belt laws here - you will never see a "Click it or Ticket" sign! We often see many kids just playing on the street - walking on the busy roads - selling veggies on the side of the roads with their moms - carrying big loads on their heads. It is a much different life here for children!



5. Life lived outside - for the most part people don't live in their houses, or even in their own courtyard. They are often outside drinking tea, walking, shopping, selling, living. Our neighborhood is a little different, but the street is hopping until late in the evening.

Cultural Adventures

We have had a few, fun cultural experiences. First on Friday, we went to a outdoor market here with our language helper and we bought 2 chickens. They were alive and we then paid to have them become unalive! The children thought that it would be more dignified. They watched them drop them on the ground - the man then steps on the body and takes the head into his hand and he then slits its throat. The chicken flails around a little bit. They then drop into a barrel of boiling water for a few minutes. He then reaches into the water, pulls out the chicken and begins to rip the feathers out. He then cleans out the innards and cuts it into pieces. This whole process only costs about 50 cents. Not a glamorous job. I would love to say that this was the tastiest chicken we ever ate, but alas it was terribly tough! And unfortunately I did not bring my camera, which was probably a good thing, since we were the main attraction at this market - especially Faith. They love touching her hair.

The other thing was that Faith and I got our hands and feet inked. It is a long process, but it was fun to do. I like it, but as you can see the concept of "less is more" is not easily translated. Or I am guessing that since I immediately agreed to the first - and definitely exaggerated price, she would use the entire batch of ink! Once again, a new lesson learned!

Stay tuned for the last of the differences....

Top 10 things that are different here

We wanted to share some of the big differences for us while living in West Africa - we had to limit the list to 10. We will do 5 now and 5 later. We tried to pick the big ones. These are not complaints - just stating the differences. We love being here and have enjoyed getting beyond the survival stage.


1. Animals - they are everywhere. We see cows, goat, sheeps, donkeys, chickens, even dogs and cats just roaming around where ever. I walked out my door to get eggs and there was a group of cows eating out of the trash. I walked by them and I had to stop, because they were ready to cross the street. It was very interesting right before Tabaski - it was crazy how many sheep were around; it was quite humorous to see them strapped to the tops of vehicles.



2. Dirt - I am not a neat freak (be quiet Amie), but I had to get adjusted to living with a new level of dirt everyday. It is not like dust - it is dirt. A fine layer of red, clay colored dirt. It is everywhere. We are in the season of the Harmatan winds now and the dust is especially plentiful. It is in drawers, closets, on everything that is still. Our feet have a orangy tinge to the bottom.


3. Cooking/food - this is a big one! For example - buying eggs. In the states, you go and pick up a pretty container and you have eggs. Here you buy them fresh - covered with poo and dirt. We have to wash the eggs and test them to see if they float. If they float they are bad - you throw them away. Another big thing was bugs in the food - I have to sift the flour, wash the rice, pick through the sugar to get the critters out. We have to bleach everything. I am not a planner so feeding my family has been a little challenging at times!


4. Water or lack thereof - the city cuts off our water whenever they feel like it. So we have to be mindful when we are doing our dishes, preparing for baths. We have had many nights with us taking a bucket bath. It is important that we always are prepared - like boy scouts! - with making sure we have filtered water. We have to boil water to do dishes, we have no hot water in the kitchen. The soap doesn't rinse well with just cold.


5. Being laughed at - on a daily basis we are the brunt of many jokes. The Africans love to laugh and it has been fun when we speak and they fall out in hysterics at our attempt to communicate. When we came here, we were given a last name of Coulibaly - that is the biggest area that they crack up. Coulibaly here is the name of dogs, donkeys, thieves, and any other undesirable thing. Everyone loves making fun of our name - there are comebacks for it, but we can't say any - we don't know them yet!

We will post the other 5 shortly - we have a full week of French - we meet with the tutor everyday.

Tabaski pics

Yes that is a hoof in the fire.

He was proud of his 2 sheeps heads.

Notice the hoof on the left side of the picture!
These were the sights outside of our door yesterday - lots of things to see and smell! Everyone was in the party mood - they were many fireworks and festivities. Above is one the neighborhood children in her new dress. Everyone was dressed in their new outfits. It was fun to see all of the children dressed up - it is kind of like Easter morning. Throughout the day, children came to our door - we gave them candy. We were told that they would bestow blessings upon us and then we would give them a coin, but I think because we were white they were not quite sure what to do with us! We gave them candy anyway, but no coins.

One good thing about Tabaski - with the government workers not working - they didn't turn our water off yesterday!

Amazing Technology

Yesterday we had an awesome opportunity to worship with one of our home churches - Faith Baptist Church in North Carolina. The missions team (thank you Tim, Ben, Liz and the sound team) rigged up skype so that with our web cam, the whole congregation in all 3 services were able to see us. They also were able to leave skype running and we were able to hear the whole service. It was awesome. I also recorded the singing so that when we are needing a little taste of home worship - we will have it (thanks Michael, Emily and the choir). Whoever did the solos were amazing!

Although we have been blessed with a body of African believers here - it was great to hear the choir and a message in English! Our purpose for the call was to thank everyone for their giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and to share what that money does for us and others overseas.

For more information on the Lottie Moon offering and how you can give: http://imbresources.org/index.cfm/fa/store.prod/ProdID/256.cfm

Some have told us that they missed it - download skype and you can call us for free! You can search for us with our email! Remember we are 5 hours ahead of the US.

Tabaski

We are currently being overrun by sheep and goats! They are everywhere you look - they even wander around the streets. On Monday it is a national holiday - Tabaski. This holiday is for all - we are not sure exactly who will slaughter an animal. We know that Muslims do, but not sure of who else. This is to remember and celebrate Abraham's obedience by offering up his son - the Bible says it was Isaac, the Muslims believe it was Ishmael, though the Koran does not give a name. They remember and imitate the sacrifice of a sheep, since God provided a substitute for Abraham's son. We have been told that this is an all day affair - we are excited to meet some of our neighbors. There is certainly festivity in the air!

It is a huge deal here - please pray as we have an opportunity to meet our neighbors as they come greet and "bless" us. It is kind of like Halloween afterwards - all of the children of our neighborhood go door to door and give blessings and then we give them money (a very small token - around 10 or 15 cents for the kids in one family).

We have been able to share with our language helper - Abdoulaye. We shared with him what the Bible says about His sacrifice and the promise of the true "ultimate" sacrifice of Jesus. Please pray that he will seek out the truth this Christmas season.

Thanks Faith Baptist Sunday Schools

A big thank you to the Marriage Journey, Married with Children and Melting Pot Sunday school classes for your support, prayers and love for us! The neighborhood kids loved coloring with new books and crayons - they were a big hit!!! We have handed out some gum - they loved that too! We appreciate you guys so much!

Segou

This is market day - along the river.

Sun setting on the Niger River!

We just returned from a weekend trip to Segou, Mali. It is a little town right on the Niger River. We stayed at the Independence Hotel on the outskirts of town. It had a great restaurant and a beautiful pool. It was a fun 3 days spent with our fellow teammates. We played games, swam, shopped, and ate. On Saturday we went to a different hotel for lunch and then shopping around the hotel - that was stressful. They are very high pressured in their sales tactics - on top of the language barrier.

Saturday we also went on a tour of a Bogolon factory. This is a type of fabric they make from all natural things - it was first created by accident. Women used to smear mud on their husbands clothes so that he could be less visible when he went hunting - they realized that it stained. They started making the fabric. Now they have created many different colors and designs. The cloths had a message on it. We were able to make our own messages and mini cloths - that was a lot of fun!

Sunday night we ate dinner at a restaurant on the Niger River - it was gorgeous. We were able to watch the sunset, the boats, children getting bathed, and we were able to catch a glimpse of their ordinary life.

We went to Market Day on Monday - that is the day where all by the river the vendors come out in force to sell to all of the neighboring villages. They come over by boat and stock up and then had back. It was a myriad of sights and smells. We thought the fish section was particularly overwhelming, until we ventured over to the manure section. That almost pushed us over the edge! We decided among the 3 adults that went, our mantra was "we are in control". When you shop here - as I have posted before - it is very different. We left shopping on Saturday very stressed and drained! But we were determined to stay in control and determine what we are willing to spend beforehand - that helped a lot!

Here is a link to a slideshow I created: http://www.photoshopshowcase.com/Go.aspx?AID=187297&AT=3&VID=599989&ABID=585732

NOTE: We have had some trouble with that link. If it does not work for you, comment or email and we can send you an email link directly.