A day in the village

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!

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

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!

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

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?

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

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

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

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Back Home

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

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

A few pics from Kenya