Village Life

Inike everyone,

We hope that all of you are well! We think of you all often and pray that God is transforming your lives. Here in Guinea where we don't have access to certain needs, it gives God the opportunity answer our prayers in a big way. This past week, many of our children were very sick. Some had malaria, another had worms, and others had the stomach flu. They had fevers that were 102 and 103 on a regular basis, and we were concerned for them. Some of our children were on malaria medicine prescribed by the doctor that comes to our center weekly. He is the father of one of our children,
Alexis. However, since this is Africa, typically children are all given chloroquin. So as we prayed before we went to bed, Shannon and I asked God to completely heal our children. At that point, I was so frustrated at my inability to help them. The next morning, when Pastor Joshua asked the children during chapel time if any of them felt sick, everyone said that they were healthy. They have been healthy through the end of this week as well, which is really a miracle since we have typically been sending 2-3 students home sick every day. We praise God for answering our prayers and thank you so much for your prayers as well. Please continue to pray for their health!

This past Tuesday, the villagers celebrated the end of Ramadan. Typically, they sacrifice goats each year to atone for their sins that year. Then have a large feast after their forty days of fasting from sunrise to sunset. A "dj" comes into large villages where they have a celebration with music and dancing. Sarah sahmonim, Jeje, and I went on Tuesday into Sambouya to say hello during the festivities. Everyone from nearby villages was there, because it's one of the larger villages around here. I said hello to many people from Bilingkoro, the village Shannon and I live in about 15 minutes away by foot. As usual, about 30 or so children followed us around and stood by us. Many women and girls had their hair braided and some even wore makeup, probably made from things found here. At the end of Ramadan, many people buy new clothes and other things for themselves and their children, so we saw many people with new earrings and clothing.

We said earlier that we would share more about village life. First we usually go home after dinner because we eat with Jeje. On a side note, we have a bat that somehow got into the guesthouse, where Jeje stays. We haven't been able to get rid of it for two nights because it flies up into the cracks. Now I really know what a bat looks and flies like now. Shannon almost caught it with a large cloth, but it flew out from under it. I'm hoping that we can humanely get rid of it, but I'm not sure if we can. Oh my goodness, there are two. As I'm writing this e-mail, two just appeared from nowhere inside the house. Shannon grabbed the broom and hit them. I think he's gotten tired of trying to throw cloth on them to catch them. We're too busy screaming and trying to avoid it to do anything. One landed on an umbrella after he hit it. He put a bag over it and threw it outside. The other flew into a small room after he hit it but it's nowhere to be seen. We went back outside and we think the other one was just stunned and flew away.

Anyways, most of the time we travel by moto, but occasionally by foot or car. On the way home, Shannon usually leads the way and blocks most of the spider webs we encounter. There's always the frogs, ant colonies, and animal dung to avoid as well. It's interesting though to hear all the night sounds as we go home. When we get home we walk around the village and greet villagers. Usually, people invite us to sit on a bench or small stool. The other night we sat with a young woman named Kuta. She always wants me to touch her belly because she's due anytime soon. All the women in Bilingkoro wonder why I'm not pregnant, because it's rare for us to see women who aren't pregnant here. Making babies is valued in this culture, so I get teased every so often about my apparent lack of baby making abilities.

Another interesting thing about village life is how much you stick out when you're a tubab, or white person. People ask you, "Did you bring me a gift?" and children always ask us for candy. We've been asked for the clothes we're wearing and the flashlight we carry numerous times. In fact, my bandana and our flashlight almost got taken away from us by people who we thought were just looking at them when they asked to see it.

But, it's fun to sit and talk with people too. The people are good company and usually try to teach us a little Maninka. On certain nights when the sky is clear, you can even see shooting stars. Even when the moon isn't full, it's still bright enough to walk without a flashlight on clear nights. The children sometimes follow us around and try to teach us songs. So far, we've learned one that goes, "N Barete Ekana Wee kay Fom ba kay" which means something like, "You will not do it, I will do it." The other song is "Segaram po, segaram pa", and the second part changes. It doesn't really mean anything but it's some song that Mohammed sang.

In our village, although this is never toward us, the people can be verbally aggressive. We often wake up/go to bed hearing people yelling at each other about various things. We recorded one particularly loud fight one morning and had Pastor Joshua translate it for us. He said the women were arguing about some illness, but it was hard for him to tell what they were saying. Typically, we hear women arguing with each other. Pastor said that sometimes the arguments are between wives, since polygamy is practiced here. When we first arrived, we were bothered by the yelling and hesitant to leave the house, but it's become commonplace. We even walk around now outside while people are fighting, and once in a while I try to ask someone what people are fighting about.

One nice story about village life: One of the older ladies that lives very close to us asked Shannon one morning if she could have a ride to Sambouya for medicine for her head. People around here know that they can go to Pastor's house for some medical needs. We had some Tylenol around and so we just gave her a pill. The next morning when we walked outside our front door, she was finishing hoeing the weeds around our front yard as a thank you to us. She told us that her head was much better and we were touched by her kindness back to us.

We ask that you please continue to pray about our passport situation for Jeje and I, especially Jeje. Please also pray for perseverance because sometimes it's easy to get discouraged here. We are doing very well and it's hard to believe it's already been two months. At the same time, it feels like we've been here forever. We don't really miss material things or comforts, but we do miss all of you. God bless!

Love,
Shannon and Carol

Luggage Arrives

We received our other three bags last night!!! Praise God that we got them and everything was still in them! It was like Christmas, only better. We're enjoying being able to wear our own underwear again, although we were so grateful for all the ways Pastor and his fam provided the stuff we needed when we didn't have anything. It's really a miracle that the rest of our bags even came, and we thank you so much for your prayers!

We hope all is well back at home and we miss you all.

P.S. - As we walked back to our village the other day, we said hello to a woman who had a mouse sliced open in her hand. Thank goodness she gave us her other hand to shake. She was about to cook it for dinner. Mmmmmm

4th Week of School

We're midway through our 4th week of school and things are still looking good! We're still healthy, united and in good spirits. We even got a chance to call home this past weekend and talk for a few minutes, although when people tried to call us using phone cards we couldn't hear anyone on the other end. We'll have to figure out why that is happening. They're building a larger cell tower in Farranah which is only 5km from here so hopefully we'll even have good reception soon!

Pastor tested positive on Sunday for malaria, but it hasn't really slowed him down too much yet. We think he's had it so many times that he just knows how to deal with it. We both had a bit of a cold/sore throat early this week but we're pretty much back to normal now. JeJe's leg seems to be pretty well healed and she has no trouble walking around campus, so praise God for that answered prayer!

The kids seem to get sick quite often. Each of us sends about 4-5 kids home too sick to stay in class each week. Mostly they get fevers, some malaria some just illness, but some of them seem to linger and pop up again every couple of days. If you could please pray for the health of our students that would be a big blessing for us and them!

Now that we've been here for a few weeks and we've really gotten to see what M4 missions is and it's purpose we can really compare it to our expectations before we came. M4 for those who don't know, is the 1,581 different tribes, villages and peoples still left in the world who still have no accessibility to the gospel whatsoever. The goal of M4 missions is to reach every one of those places, share the gospel and make disciples. Pastor Joshua was given the vision of the school to go along with his ministry and so he built the school here in Sambouya near his first "church." I use quotes only because it is nothing like the buildings we're used to. It is round and open air under a straw roof, just like meeting places in other
villages, so that it can be easily duplicated by the villagers.

Right now our focus is mostly on teaching, but as we get more into the school year we're hoping to spend more time in Bilingkoro, learning the language and trying to share Christ with our neighbors. Right now the task seems very large, but we're still hopeful that it will all be done.

Lost Passports

Carol and JeJe's passports have been lost. Someone was going to take them to get the visas and they left them in the taxi. They are working on trying to track them down in Conakry, but we could use some prayer from everyone. We have copies of Carol's and it probably wouldn't be too hard to replace it through the embassy here, but there's no Korean embassy so JeJe might have some problems if they are not found.