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