Dear Family and Friends,
First and foremost, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! We have a good update to send you! Praise God, because peace seems to be coming back to Guinea. The strike is still on, but the martial law curfew has ended. The president wanted to extend it, but his legislature unanimously voted him down. Benjamin also told us this past week that it was safe to go to Faranah, so we went to the market today and things seemed to be as normal. Please continue to pray that the strikes would end and the president and union leaders would come to an agreement. Please also pray for Pastor Joshua, who will be flying back and arriving in Conakry this Sunday. He will be there for the day to run errands and pick up my passport, and will return to Sambouya by Monday. We hope all is well back home too. God bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Peace amongst turmoil
Hey everyone!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers. I'm sure without them we would just be overwhelmed right now. U.S. Embassy officials have pulled out, Peace Corps workers have left and it seems like a lot of missionaries have also fled the country. Meanwhile we just keep on living as usual.
The stuff that happens in the cities doesn't seem to have much impact on the lives of villagers. The demonstrations in Faranah have quieted since the curfew was imposed and Benjamin has been able to go in a few times to pick up some supplies. We're not planning on moving back to Bilingkoro until everything has been settled, but we feel very safe here and still visit our village whenever our schedule allows. Everyone here at TMICA is healthy, strong, and not feeling the effects of the turmoil very much.
Yesterday the president and the union officials were set to have a negotiation meeting in the morning. However, the union leaders refused to come until the president lifts the nationwide curfew. Please pray that both the president and union leaders would both have wisdom and humility to bring peace back to the land. Thank you for your prayers and we'll continue to keep you updated as much as we can.
To answer a question completely unrelated to the strikes that came from my brother, "Why aren't you guys tan?", we don't like to stay in the African sun. I wear sunblock, we both wear hats whenever we're outside, and we stay in the shade whenever possible if we're outside. Although I know people love to have a nice tan, it's not worth it when it's 90 degrees and you can feel the sun scorching you whenever you're outside.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We are so thankful for you and miss you all!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Thank you so much for all of your prayers. I'm sure without them we would just be overwhelmed right now. U.S. Embassy officials have pulled out, Peace Corps workers have left and it seems like a lot of missionaries have also fled the country. Meanwhile we just keep on living as usual.
The stuff that happens in the cities doesn't seem to have much impact on the lives of villagers. The demonstrations in Faranah have quieted since the curfew was imposed and Benjamin has been able to go in a few times to pick up some supplies. We're not planning on moving back to Bilingkoro until everything has been settled, but we feel very safe here and still visit our village whenever our schedule allows. Everyone here at TMICA is healthy, strong, and not feeling the effects of the turmoil very much.
Yesterday the president and the union officials were set to have a negotiation meeting in the morning. However, the union leaders refused to come until the president lifts the nationwide curfew. Please pray that both the president and union leaders would both have wisdom and humility to bring peace back to the land. Thank you for your prayers and we'll continue to keep you updated as much as we can.
To answer a question completely unrelated to the strikes that came from my brother, "Why aren't you guys tan?", we don't like to stay in the African sun. I wear sunblock, we both wear hats whenever we're outside, and we stay in the shade whenever possible if we're outside. Although I know people love to have a nice tan, it's not worth it when it's 90 degrees and you can feel the sun scorching you whenever you're outside.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We are so thankful for you and miss you all!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Strikes in Faranah
Dear Family and Friends,
We have an urgent prayer request. The strikes have started again, earlier than scheduled. The President named a new Prime Minister, but it was not the man the people wanted and was instead someone President Conte is very close to. The people are outraged at the President's conduct. The strikes started yesterday in the major cities and so far 9 demonstrators have been killed. Looting has also started in the cities, somewhat in part to food shortages due to the strikes.
Our biggest concern is that they started striking in Faranah today. Benjamin drove in today to get supplies and turned around and came back immediately. We're stocked with food and supplies for ourselves but we don't know when the strikes will end. On Benjamin's suggestion we are moving from Bilingkoro into the guest house with Mira and Jeje.
We hate to leave our village but it seems like the safest thing to do at this point. Please pray that peace may be restored and that the President will do the right thing. Many of our students' families live in these cities, so please pray for them as well. Please pray for our continued safety. So far we're all well and healthy and the kids had their usual Saturday soccer match today. Thank you so much for your prayers! We'll do our best to keep you updated on our situation.
God Bless!
Shannon and Carol
We have an urgent prayer request. The strikes have started again, earlier than scheduled. The President named a new Prime Minister, but it was not the man the people wanted and was instead someone President Conte is very close to. The people are outraged at the President's conduct. The strikes started yesterday in the major cities and so far 9 demonstrators have been killed. Looting has also started in the cities, somewhat in part to food shortages due to the strikes.
Our biggest concern is that they started striking in Faranah today. Benjamin drove in today to get supplies and turned around and came back immediately. We're stocked with food and supplies for ourselves but we don't know when the strikes will end. On Benjamin's suggestion we are moving from Bilingkoro into the guest house with Mira and Jeje.
We hate to leave our village but it seems like the safest thing to do at this point. Please pray that peace may be restored and that the President will do the right thing. Many of our students' families live in these cities, so please pray for them as well. Please pray for our continued safety. So far we're all well and healthy and the kids had their usual Saturday soccer match today. Thank you so much for your prayers! We'll do our best to keep you updated on our situation.
God Bless!
Shannon and Carol
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Pictures from the recent trip to Conakry
The drive to Conakry begins
It becomes increasingly tropical
Moving roadblocks
A typical small town we pass along the way
Driving "Guinean" style
Are you surprised?
View from the Conakry apartment
Drive-thru shopping
Outskirts of a Conakry market
Ice Cream Shop
Fishing boat
Casa Island
Islander gathering food
The beautiful beach
Sunset
Another strike?
Hey everyone,
This is just a quick update and prayer request. Everything is still going fine. We're all healthy and starting to count down the days until we get to see all of you again (it's just under 100). We just got news this week that Guinea could go on strike again. The President was supposed to name a new Prime Minister last week and apparently he didn't do it happen. So now the people are angry but giving him until Monday to hold up his end of the agreement. If he doesn't though, they are threatening to have even bigger strikes than before. Again, check out BBC news or Yahoo news for reports.
We're stocking up on the things that we can this week just in case. Please just pray for peace and protection for TMICA. Life goes on as usual for us. We hope that all is well at home and that those of you in the colder regions are staying warm!!!
God bless you!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
This is just a quick update and prayer request. Everything is still going fine. We're all healthy and starting to count down the days until we get to see all of you again (it's just under 100). We just got news this week that Guinea could go on strike again. The President was supposed to name a new Prime Minister last week and apparently he didn't do it happen. So now the people are angry but giving him until Monday to hold up his end of the agreement. If he doesn't though, they are threatening to have even bigger strikes than before. Again, check out BBC news or Yahoo news for reports.
We're stocking up on the things that we can this week just in case. Please just pray for peace and protection for TMICA. Life goes on as usual for us. We hope that all is well at home and that those of you in the colder regions are staying warm!!!
God bless you!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Phew
18 long days, but the strike is over. Peace has been restored and the people are finally going back to work. Schools officially started back up yesterday. We’re still waiting for Faranah to get gas, but it should come with time. Thanks for all of your prayers and praise God for answering them!
I wanted to write about my experience in the village. Carol, Jeje and Mira all did SME(Summer mission exposure) in the past and were living in villages for about a month. Though Carol and I live in Bilingkoro, I really felt like I could gain something by living like a villager for the whole day since we teach during the day and don't get home until after dinner. So while the team was here from LA, I decided to go to one of the villages with them for three days.
Pastor divided us up into pairs and Benjamin (our native pastor) scouted out some nearby villages that would host us. Mr. Irrondelle, a retired journalist from here in Sambouya (also about the only person who can read and write fluently), played a key part many years ago in getting TM our land and he still likes to be helpful when he can. Everyone in the villages listens to the radio at night so he made a radio announcement the day before to let the three villages know that we were coming. We packed light and the 9 of us (Pastor, Benjamin, Mr. Irrondelle, the team of 5 and myself) and all our stuff piled into the 4Runner. It was a very tight squeeze, but we all fit.
Simon, my fellow villager, and I were the last drop off so we got to experience all three welcomes from the villages. They each had us come and sit down with the elders and other men of the village. Mr. Irrondelle would speak for a few minutes about what a good man Pastor was, get the people excited and then let Pastor introduce us. About that time all of the women of the village would march in a procession towards us with 2 or 3 tambourine-ish players in the front. One woman would sing a short line and then all the other women would respond. After just a little bit of that they showed us to where we’d be sleeping.
After Pastor and everyone left us in our village the women actually performed 6-7 more songs and dances for us. It was a welcome even the SME people never got to experience so we were pretty fortunate to see a real village celebration. They even got Simon and I involved in a song where we pretended to hoe the ground to the rhythm of the song. They really enjoyed seeing toobabos dance!
After the welcome most of the crowd dispersed except for our host and the children, who never fail to be intrigued by white people. They brought us a tray of oranges and bananas and we rested just a little bit to recover from the excitement. We each had an orange, but Simon discovered a worm in his and mine looked a little rotten so we ended up not eating those two. But the other 30-40 oranges that we ate in those three days (not kidding) were all good. For the rest of our time there we really got to see day to day village life.
The name of our village was Mantuma or Bantuma, I couldn’t really tell. The population was probably around 500 though it’s really hard to tell with villages. As in most villages there were a lot of farmers, so Simon and I spent some time checking out nearby fields and tagging along while they went to work. Three months into dry season there really isn’t much going on in the fields, but it is time for the banakoo harvest (cassava in French). It’s a very starchy root that they like to snack on and use to make a couple of different dishes.
Simon watched them cut down grass with sickles one morning, but other than that there wasn’t much going on. Our host was actually a tailor formerly of Sierra Leone and Liberia so he spoke a little English. He had a very old Singer sewing machine, but it was fascinating to watch him make things without using patterns or measuring anything. He did wear a measuring tape around his neck, but simply as decoration. I sat for an entire afternoon and watched him work and he only took it off to go pray. I never figured out how to pronounce his name because it was so unusual, but he never knew mine either so I didn't feel too bad.
I think our village was pretty wealthy because there was a lot of cows around (a sign of wealth around these parts). They provided the most entertainment for us...always walking around, sticking their heads into the huts, pooping everywhere and sometimes butting heads.
The food was okay. Rice, rice and more rice, but they did give us chicken for a couple meals and some 'nono' for a treat. We didn't eat the nono though. It was basically their form of yogurt. We were actually given a bowl of spoiled milk and a small baggie with sugar in it. We tried, but just couldn't eat it. If it was cold I probably could have stomached it, but room temp was just not very appetizing. But the oranges...
Oranges are eaten differently here. They actually slice off the outer peel in small pieces, cut a little bit off the top and then squeeze and suck the juice until it's dry. It's very different from American style, but pretty good. That first day they brought the tray and our host would peel them and hand them to us as fast as we could eat them. We both had 6 in one sitting. The next two mornings men brought us a bag full of oranges.
Both afternoons we went through the same routine. He sliced and we ate. Most of the time he cut them faster than we could eat them so we would both be eating one and holding another one. I haven't had an orange since.
We got to play a soccer game with some other boys our age. It was great to play with people not 9 and 10. I was really out of shape though so I was grateful when the game finally ended.
That's the news from the village. Everyone had a great experience, but it was nice to come back and bathe in a bathroom and not just a fenced off half circle outside. For some of the team who neglected to shower for 3 days, it was just good to shower:)
Since the team left the cold has ended. The afternoon heat has really increased and we're back to sleeping on top of our sheets, praying for it to cool down. It's supposed to be this way until March though, so I suppose we'll get used to it. This morning it seemed like it might rain.
Dark clouds, some moisture in the air, cool breeze, but it passed over and so we've officially finished our third consecutive month with no precipitation. I haven't read "The Grapes of Wrath" since 8th grade, but I still remember his description of the heat and dust, and now I can finally relate.
Pastor is in Chicago this week and then heading out to San Francisco and LA to finish the mobilizing. We heard DC was a big success and that lots of people wanted to be a part of finishing the task with TM. We're excited to hear how things go in the other cities. Please pray for Pastor Joshua as he is doing a lot of speaking engagements.
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. You're all often in ours. God bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
I wanted to write about my experience in the village. Carol, Jeje and Mira all did SME(Summer mission exposure) in the past and were living in villages for about a month. Though Carol and I live in Bilingkoro, I really felt like I could gain something by living like a villager for the whole day since we teach during the day and don't get home until after dinner. So while the team was here from LA, I decided to go to one of the villages with them for three days.
Pastor divided us up into pairs and Benjamin (our native pastor) scouted out some nearby villages that would host us. Mr. Irrondelle, a retired journalist from here in Sambouya (also about the only person who can read and write fluently), played a key part many years ago in getting TM our land and he still likes to be helpful when he can. Everyone in the villages listens to the radio at night so he made a radio announcement the day before to let the three villages know that we were coming. We packed light and the 9 of us (Pastor, Benjamin, Mr. Irrondelle, the team of 5 and myself) and all our stuff piled into the 4Runner. It was a very tight squeeze, but we all fit.
Simon, my fellow villager, and I were the last drop off so we got to experience all three welcomes from the villages. They each had us come and sit down with the elders and other men of the village. Mr. Irrondelle would speak for a few minutes about what a good man Pastor was, get the people excited and then let Pastor introduce us. About that time all of the women of the village would march in a procession towards us with 2 or 3 tambourine-ish players in the front. One woman would sing a short line and then all the other women would respond. After just a little bit of that they showed us to where we’d be sleeping.
After Pastor and everyone left us in our village the women actually performed 6-7 more songs and dances for us. It was a welcome even the SME people never got to experience so we were pretty fortunate to see a real village celebration. They even got Simon and I involved in a song where we pretended to hoe the ground to the rhythm of the song. They really enjoyed seeing toobabos dance!
After the welcome most of the crowd dispersed except for our host and the children, who never fail to be intrigued by white people. They brought us a tray of oranges and bananas and we rested just a little bit to recover from the excitement. We each had an orange, but Simon discovered a worm in his and mine looked a little rotten so we ended up not eating those two. But the other 30-40 oranges that we ate in those three days (not kidding) were all good. For the rest of our time there we really got to see day to day village life.
The name of our village was Mantuma or Bantuma, I couldn’t really tell. The population was probably around 500 though it’s really hard to tell with villages. As in most villages there were a lot of farmers, so Simon and I spent some time checking out nearby fields and tagging along while they went to work. Three months into dry season there really isn’t much going on in the fields, but it is time for the banakoo harvest (cassava in French). It’s a very starchy root that they like to snack on and use to make a couple of different dishes.
Simon watched them cut down grass with sickles one morning, but other than that there wasn’t much going on. Our host was actually a tailor formerly of Sierra Leone and Liberia so he spoke a little English. He had a very old Singer sewing machine, but it was fascinating to watch him make things without using patterns or measuring anything. He did wear a measuring tape around his neck, but simply as decoration. I sat for an entire afternoon and watched him work and he only took it off to go pray. I never figured out how to pronounce his name because it was so unusual, but he never knew mine either so I didn't feel too bad.
I think our village was pretty wealthy because there was a lot of cows around (a sign of wealth around these parts). They provided the most entertainment for us...always walking around, sticking their heads into the huts, pooping everywhere and sometimes butting heads.
The food was okay. Rice, rice and more rice, but they did give us chicken for a couple meals and some 'nono' for a treat. We didn't eat the nono though. It was basically their form of yogurt. We were actually given a bowl of spoiled milk and a small baggie with sugar in it. We tried, but just couldn't eat it. If it was cold I probably could have stomached it, but room temp was just not very appetizing. But the oranges...
Oranges are eaten differently here. They actually slice off the outer peel in small pieces, cut a little bit off the top and then squeeze and suck the juice until it's dry. It's very different from American style, but pretty good. That first day they brought the tray and our host would peel them and hand them to us as fast as we could eat them. We both had 6 in one sitting. The next two mornings men brought us a bag full of oranges.
Both afternoons we went through the same routine. He sliced and we ate. Most of the time he cut them faster than we could eat them so we would both be eating one and holding another one. I haven't had an orange since.
We got to play a soccer game with some other boys our age. It was great to play with people not 9 and 10. I was really out of shape though so I was grateful when the game finally ended.
That's the news from the village. Everyone had a great experience, but it was nice to come back and bathe in a bathroom and not just a fenced off half circle outside. For some of the team who neglected to shower for 3 days, it was just good to shower:)
Since the team left the cold has ended. The afternoon heat has really increased and we're back to sleeping on top of our sheets, praying for it to cool down. It's supposed to be this way until March though, so I suppose we'll get used to it. This morning it seemed like it might rain.
Dark clouds, some moisture in the air, cool breeze, but it passed over and so we've officially finished our third consecutive month with no precipitation. I haven't read "The Grapes of Wrath" since 8th grade, but I still remember his description of the heat and dust, and now I can finally relate.
Pastor is in Chicago this week and then heading out to San Francisco and LA to finish the mobilizing. We heard DC was a big success and that lots of people wanted to be a part of finishing the task with TM. We're excited to hear how things go in the other cities. Please pray for Pastor Joshua as he is doing a lot of speaking engagements.
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. You're all often in ours. God bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
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