It's hard to believe that we're already nearing 2007 and we've been in Guinea for four months now. We had a great Christmas on Monday. In the morning we woke up to fog(almost the same as snow ;)). The day before, missionary friends from Bantun came by. They had gone to Conakry and picked up our mail for us while they were there. We were so surprised to get gifts from friends and family back home on the 24th! So Christmas morning, we ended up unwrapping a ton of gifts, more than I think I've ever gotten in all my Christmases combined as a kid. We felt tremendously thankful to have such wonderful family and friends that went out of their way to make us feel like we were back home.
We had our Christmas service in the morning at the chapel and invited all the Sambouya and Bilingkoro people to come. Many attended as you can see from the pictures. The children did a great job on their play and our volunteers and workers put together a play in Malinke that was both entertaining and showed the birth of Christ. It was interesting to see and hear the villagers' reactions. The women and children were pretty quiet during the plays and songs, but the men commented and talked loudly throughout the entire service. It was interesting to see roles reversed since we're used to shushing children and not adults.
It's difficult to imagine, but these people have never been to a service before where they're just supposed to:
1. show up on time and
2. sit and listen.
After the service was over we handed out some goodies to everyone that came. It was a little chaotic, but everyone got at least a little candy. Since this is a diaperless region, we had a few puddles on the floor after everyone had left, but we're hopeful that it all had an impact on some of them. It's hard to tell, but at least most of them heard our message and it may have helped lead to some future discussions with those we know well from our villages. More than just being good teachers we want to have a ministry here for the locals. Please pray that our language skills would continue to improve and that the Guinean people would be prepared for the message.
After the service we enjoyed a lunch of fried rice and fish made by our volunteers with the children. In the afternoon we gave the children some coloring books and crayons as Christmas presents. For dinner we ate together with the Kim family and played some games.
All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. We hope that you enjoyed celebrating Christmas back at home too. Happy early New Year and hooray for two more days of school until our break! :)
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Merry Christmas!
Hey everybody!
Merry Christmas!!! It's strange to be festive when it's still 85 degrees every day and it's been two months without any precipitation, but we're doing the best we can. No Christmas lights, trees or sleigh bells in Guinea, but in the morning you can usually see your breath and we've been rehearsing for our Christmas play. We certainly don't miss all the hustle and bustle, the cheesy tv specials and I can't speak for Carol, but I definitely don't miss Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas". We do miss all of you though! You can replace the food and the gifts, but the people are irreplaceable. We know we are in your thoughts and prayers though and
it's a daily comfort to us. Thank you!
We're also encouraged by the fact that God chose us to come here and serve Him. We really count it a privilege to be doing this work and as we remember the birth of Christ this week we are reminded how much God loved us, that He would send His own son to save us. We feel blessed to do this small service in response to His love.
Everything is well here. We're taking Christmas day off and in the morning we're having a service for all of the Sambouya and Bilingkoro people. They usually come for the gifts (usually just some candies), but it's the biggest service we have all year and we're praying that the villagers would truly come to know why we celebrate Christmas.
This Friday we will head down to Conakry for our two week retreat. We're excited that we'll be able to relax and not teach for a little bit. In Conakry we may even go to an island and go swimming in the ocean. We're not too excited about the eight hour drive, but we know that it'll be worth it once we get there. We won't have the same e-mail restrictions while we're there, so we hope to hear from some of you!
After we come back from Conakry in January, there will be a team coming from California. Mira Ahn, who taught here the past couple years, will also be visiting us! They'll be in Guinea for almost two weeks and during that time they'll be living in various villages for a few days and getting a taste of what M4 missions is like. Both Carol and Jeje got to spend time living with the villagers on their previous visits to Guinea, but this is my first trip here so I'm hoping to join one of the groups and have a true village experience for a few days.
When the team heads back to the States Pastor is also heading back for a month of speaking engagements. Mira has decided to stay until he returns and we're really excited to have the extra pair of hands. It will also be nice to have someone else who can speak Maninka and French pretty well.
Many of you have asked about our passport situation. We're going to get new passports since there hasn't been word of them being found. We'll have to go to the US Embassy in Conakry and Jeje's getting hers through the Korean Embassy in Senegal by mail. Please pray that the whole process would go through smoothly so that we can have passports again before we leave. :)
Everyone's been pretty healthy. Pastor and Caleb both had a short bout with malaria the past couple weeks, but early detection helped them to recover quickly. We had market day on Friday after school. We have been giving the kids and volunteers "money" for doing various things; getting water, doing laundry, delivering things, sweeping classrooms, etc. On Friday they got a chance to spend their money on things like used clothes and toys that were donated, new shoes and backpacks, games and puzzles, and hair accessories among other things. It was a mad house when the selling started and we were put in charge of pricing things and selling them. It would have been an easy job in America, but in a county that uses the barter system and lacks some of the manners that we're accustomed to it was almost too much. But we survived and it was really sweet to see some of the kids buying earrings for their mothers and shoes for their brothers and sisters back home.
We hope that you enjoyed the pictures that we were able to send. I know it gives a better idea of what things look like here. Right now we're able to receive pictures as well, so please feel free to send a couple pictures from home too. And if you're a Skype user we'll probably be online some during the next couple of weeks. Our screen name is shannonandcarol.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year again and God bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
November/December Pictures
Lining up for art class!
Mr. Shannon's class in their "party hats"
Lone palm tree in the middle of Sambouya
TMICA's night watchman's son in Sambouya village
Thanksgiving Day! Can you find the teachers?
Jeje and the Kim girls, Chelsea and Christa
Sambouya cuties getting water from the creek
Gathered around Kim dining table (Chelsea's b-day)
Elisabeth and Sia Mariame enjoying Art Day outside
Our wonderful TMICA volunteers and workers(2 are not pictured here)
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Snapshots of Village Life
Boys
Dining Room
Front Door View
Sunrise from our Bedroom
Internet Cafe and Well
Mrs. Carol's Classroom
On our Moto
Ready to Play
Samboya Women to Faranah
Friends
Dry Season Arrives
[Originally written around Thanksgiving, but posted late due to "technical difficulties"]
Hello everyone!
Well, it's already happened. With the first of November came the onset of dry season. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and we haven't even seen a gray cloud. It's hard to believe, but it is supposed to be like this for the next few months. Fortunately the temperature hasn't increased much and it has actually decreased overnight. We had to put the blankets on our bed and start wearing our warmer pajamas. It's still pretty chilly when we wake up in the morning so we bundle up for the walk to school. We're amazed at how much the temperature can fluctuate every day. We don't have a thermometer, but we guess that it gets down to about 40 over night and up to about 90 during the afternoons. Most of the villagers in Bilingkoro got a case of the sniffles, but they've been in good spirits and we think the chilly weather has cooled some of their hot tempers since the arguing suddenly ceased:) It's nice to have jacket weather when we know you're all getting out your warmer clothes too.
Our students have still been much healthier than those first few weeks and we ask for your continued prayer. We actually had a student get seriously ill last week. When they found her in the middle of the night she could not even speak or raise up her arms. They thought at that point that she would not even survive, but after a few days in the hospital she was back and good as new. Also, the wife of the new Sambouya pastor, Rachel, had an appendectomy which is unpleasant in the U.S., but very risky in these hospitals. She came out of it fine though and is now back at home resting up. We praise God for the answered prayers that everyone is back here at TMICA and well!
Here's an interesting fact. You can fit two live, adult oxen and four men in one compact car. It sounds like an old fashioned college prank, but we've witnessed this ourselves. When we were in Faranah at the marketplace we saw a car trying to get up a hill with all of the above. They had somehow stuffed one cow into the open trunk, one cow was strapped to the roof of the car, and the men were pushing and driving the car. I'd like to see more of these real world scenarios taught in our engineering schools.
Personal safety and animal rights aren't issues here. While walking to and from school, we frequently see cars crammed with people inside, on the bumper, and on top of them, along with bags and other things on the car's roof. We're always afraid someone's going to fall off, but it's more important to them that they get a ride than worry about falling off. They seem to number around 15-20 passengers per car, but they drive too fast for us to count.
Major cultural differences seem few, but there are a few minor ones that we have run in to...We gave an older woman a ride from our village to Sambouya and she had no idea how to open a car door from the outside or the inside. Cars are a rarity in the cities, but pretty non-existent in the villages. Teaching our students using American text books has provided us with some interesting teaching moments. Topics include surfing, mailboxes, ice skates (slightly ironic), stop lights and stop signs, baseball, fire trucks, lawn mowers (lawns are dirt), ovens, and so on. Imagine trying to explain these things to someone that's never seen or heard of them before. They don't always believe us, and when we try to explain things, it does make Americans
sound a little strange. Riding a board on waves!? Che!?
We attended a funeral in Bilingkoro a few weeks ago. By chance it was a Saturday and we happened to be around. One of the village men came to our door and told us that someone had died and we should go. We already guessed it was a funeral from the beating drum and the wailing women, but we've heard/seen so many strange things we didn't want to be presumptuous. We put on nice clothes and went out and discovered that there were hundreds of people, mostly visitors. The funeral is nothing at all like our funerals and so it was interesting to attend. They had set up a large awning where the men gathered to sit or stand or talk. (It was nice for me to be in the shade;) The women stay outside and generally sing songs of mourning and wail, so Carol sat with the women. She watched as the women came together in groups from their respective villages wailing and singing funeral songs.
The body was wrapped in cloth and lay in the deceased's house. In the house 10-12 Muslim men sat around reciting prayers from the Koran. I went in for a bit and said my own prayer. Many of the men were carrying money which they sometimes gave to people or pocketed. There were two men standing in the middle shouting things that I did not understand, but they seemed to bein charge. We stayed for about an hour and then we were told that this could go on all day and decided to head to Sambouya.
All of us are still doing very well. Jeje is now confident enough with her English to teach art on her own and even moved to her own classroom. It's very nice for Carol and I to get the break a few times a week. Pastor's family is doing great also. We got to have dinner with them and some other missionaries from the area last weekend. It was nice to have some other adults, and Americans, to chat with.
We're still eating well. We had some of the mac and cheese that my mother sent to us and right now the ladies are trying their hands at making some fried chicken! Carol has mastered French fries and somehow the ladies still make many traditional Korean foods as well. We keep saying that we'll start dieting at the beginning of every month, but so far that keeps getting pushed back...
We said last time that we'd write about some TMICA history. We are so indebted to all the people who came here before us. By no means are we living in luxury, but we definitely have some comforts that we never could have anticipated. And having students who already know how to line up and sit quietly and do their homework and hold their pencils is a blessing we cannot measure. TMICA (Teachus Mission International Christian Academy) opened three years ago. Pastor Joshua, his family, and many supporters planned, raised funds, and built a school that can currently house about 120 students plus staff. The timeline on which all of this happened is so small that nothing less than the hand of God at work could explain it. The continuing vision is to educate these students all the way through college. In addition to the school, TM is also devoted to starting churches and making disciples/disciplers. Benjamin, a native Guinean who has been discipled by Pastor for nearly 3 years just took over the responsibility of preaching the church services in Sambouya. Pastor and his family are relocating to a nearby village to begin their second church in February.
TM is also in the process of beginning a new ministry in Cambodia which broke ground in June and made TMICA truly international. There are 1,581 peoples in the world who have no access to the gospel and TM's vision is to reach all of them.
On a final note, we saw our first real snake a few nights ago. We've seen a couple babies, no bigger than a pencil, but we were walking home at night and came upon it in the road. Fortunately we noticed it before we stepped on it and it slithered away. People here have been killed by them before so you have to take them seriously. This one wasn't huge, only about 3 feet long, but it was as thick around as your upper arm. The villagers that we told afterward warned us about the grave dangers of walking at night and insisted that we take the motos at night.
There's a couple of big events coming up that we would appreciate your prayer for. Urbana is a ginormous Christian gathering that happens every three years and this year it is in St. Louis. TM will have a booth and some representatives there to share our ministry and recruit teachers and missionaries. Please pray that God would use this event to help expand the TM ministry and provide teachers for years to come. Secondly, a group of men and women will be coming from California for M4E in January. They will come to see and learn about village life and the work that is being done at
TMICA.
Thank you for your prayers. We know that God is answering them and we feel blessed everyday because of it.
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Hello everyone!
Well, it's already happened. With the first of November came the onset of dry season. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and we haven't even seen a gray cloud. It's hard to believe, but it is supposed to be like this for the next few months. Fortunately the temperature hasn't increased much and it has actually decreased overnight. We had to put the blankets on our bed and start wearing our warmer pajamas. It's still pretty chilly when we wake up in the morning so we bundle up for the walk to school. We're amazed at how much the temperature can fluctuate every day. We don't have a thermometer, but we guess that it gets down to about 40 over night and up to about 90 during the afternoons. Most of the villagers in Bilingkoro got a case of the sniffles, but they've been in good spirits and we think the chilly weather has cooled some of their hot tempers since the arguing suddenly ceased:) It's nice to have jacket weather when we know you're all getting out your warmer clothes too.
Our students have still been much healthier than those first few weeks and we ask for your continued prayer. We actually had a student get seriously ill last week. When they found her in the middle of the night she could not even speak or raise up her arms. They thought at that point that she would not even survive, but after a few days in the hospital she was back and good as new. Also, the wife of the new Sambouya pastor, Rachel, had an appendectomy which is unpleasant in the U.S., but very risky in these hospitals. She came out of it fine though and is now back at home resting up. We praise God for the answered prayers that everyone is back here at TMICA and well!
Here's an interesting fact. You can fit two live, adult oxen and four men in one compact car. It sounds like an old fashioned college prank, but we've witnessed this ourselves. When we were in Faranah at the marketplace we saw a car trying to get up a hill with all of the above. They had somehow stuffed one cow into the open trunk, one cow was strapped to the roof of the car, and the men were pushing and driving the car. I'd like to see more of these real world scenarios taught in our engineering schools.
Personal safety and animal rights aren't issues here. While walking to and from school, we frequently see cars crammed with people inside, on the bumper, and on top of them, along with bags and other things on the car's roof. We're always afraid someone's going to fall off, but it's more important to them that they get a ride than worry about falling off. They seem to number around 15-20 passengers per car, but they drive too fast for us to count.
Major cultural differences seem few, but there are a few minor ones that we have run in to...We gave an older woman a ride from our village to Sambouya and she had no idea how to open a car door from the outside or the inside. Cars are a rarity in the cities, but pretty non-existent in the villages. Teaching our students using American text books has provided us with some interesting teaching moments. Topics include surfing, mailboxes, ice skates (slightly ironic), stop lights and stop signs, baseball, fire trucks, lawn mowers (lawns are dirt), ovens, and so on. Imagine trying to explain these things to someone that's never seen or heard of them before. They don't always believe us, and when we try to explain things, it does make Americans
sound a little strange. Riding a board on waves!? Che!?
We attended a funeral in Bilingkoro a few weeks ago. By chance it was a Saturday and we happened to be around. One of the village men came to our door and told us that someone had died and we should go. We already guessed it was a funeral from the beating drum and the wailing women, but we've heard/seen so many strange things we didn't want to be presumptuous. We put on nice clothes and went out and discovered that there were hundreds of people, mostly visitors. The funeral is nothing at all like our funerals and so it was interesting to attend. They had set up a large awning where the men gathered to sit or stand or talk. (It was nice for me to be in the shade;) The women stay outside and generally sing songs of mourning and wail, so Carol sat with the women. She watched as the women came together in groups from their respective villages wailing and singing funeral songs.
The body was wrapped in cloth and lay in the deceased's house. In the house 10-12 Muslim men sat around reciting prayers from the Koran. I went in for a bit and said my own prayer. Many of the men were carrying money which they sometimes gave to people or pocketed. There were two men standing in the middle shouting things that I did not understand, but they seemed to bein charge. We stayed for about an hour and then we were told that this could go on all day and decided to head to Sambouya.
All of us are still doing very well. Jeje is now confident enough with her English to teach art on her own and even moved to her own classroom. It's very nice for Carol and I to get the break a few times a week. Pastor's family is doing great also. We got to have dinner with them and some other missionaries from the area last weekend. It was nice to have some other adults, and Americans, to chat with.
We're still eating well. We had some of the mac and cheese that my mother sent to us and right now the ladies are trying their hands at making some fried chicken! Carol has mastered French fries and somehow the ladies still make many traditional Korean foods as well. We keep saying that we'll start dieting at the beginning of every month, but so far that keeps getting pushed back...
We said last time that we'd write about some TMICA history. We are so indebted to all the people who came here before us. By no means are we living in luxury, but we definitely have some comforts that we never could have anticipated. And having students who already know how to line up and sit quietly and do their homework and hold their pencils is a blessing we cannot measure. TMICA (Teachus Mission International Christian Academy) opened three years ago. Pastor Joshua, his family, and many supporters planned, raised funds, and built a school that can currently house about 120 students plus staff. The timeline on which all of this happened is so small that nothing less than the hand of God at work could explain it. The continuing vision is to educate these students all the way through college. In addition to the school, TM is also devoted to starting churches and making disciples/disciplers. Benjamin, a native Guinean who has been discipled by Pastor for nearly 3 years just took over the responsibility of preaching the church services in Sambouya. Pastor and his family are relocating to a nearby village to begin their second church in February.
TM is also in the process of beginning a new ministry in Cambodia which broke ground in June and made TMICA truly international. There are 1,581 peoples in the world who have no access to the gospel and TM's vision is to reach all of them.
On a final note, we saw our first real snake a few nights ago. We've seen a couple babies, no bigger than a pencil, but we were walking home at night and came upon it in the road. Fortunately we noticed it before we stepped on it and it slithered away. People here have been killed by them before so you have to take them seriously. This one wasn't huge, only about 3 feet long, but it was as thick around as your upper arm. The villagers that we told afterward warned us about the grave dangers of walking at night and insisted that we take the motos at night.
There's a couple of big events coming up that we would appreciate your prayer for. Urbana is a ginormous Christian gathering that happens every three years and this year it is in St. Louis. TM will have a booth and some representatives there to share our ministry and recruit teachers and missionaries. Please pray that God would use this event to help expand the TM ministry and provide teachers for years to come. Secondly, a group of men and women will be coming from California for M4E in January. They will come to see and learn about village life and the work that is being done at
TMICA.
Thank you for your prayers. We know that God is answering them and we feel blessed everyday because of it.
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Monday, October 30, 2006
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
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
Sunday, October 15, 2006
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
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
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
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.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
School begins
Dear Family and Friends,
Since Shannon's been good and has written most of these updates, I decided to give him a break and write one to you too. We started school last Monday (I know this is unthinkable to you teachers out there) and survived the first week and a half of school. :)
The children are very cute, energetic, and for the most part,excited to learn. A typical school day begins with our chapel time at 8am, and at 8:30 the children walk to class. Shannon and I each have 20 kids and our classrooms are next to each other. The classrooms are spacious and there are more than enough desks for everyone. The only thing we wish for is for better lighting, since we teach only by sunlight without electricity.
In the morning we teach reading, writing, math, and spelling. We eat an African meal for lunch made by the volunteers. Typically, the meal has rice with peanut sauce. Peanut sauce is made up of finely ground peanuts, palm oil, and some other spices. In the afternoon we teach phonics/word work, social studies/science, and then the kids either have art or music. Jeje, the missionary from Korea teaches art and we, er Shannon, teaches music on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I usually end up teaching the children some new songs at the end of music time and do my best to strum them on the guitar. The children absolutely LOVE to sing and it's a real joy to hear them. We can usually hear them in the chapel singing at 7:30 in the morning before school starts and they love learning new songs.
During the first week, we were concerned with the children because some of them stared at us blankly while we spoke to them. Since then, some of them have started to remember what they learned last year and they are speaking much better now. It's difficult because over the whole summer they haven't had any practice with their English, so we've been doing a lot of review with basic skills. What we're most amazed at is their range. Most of the children are very good at math, but they are at all ends of the spectrum when it comes to reading, writing, and spelling. So, we'll do
our best this year to especially bring up those kids that are really low.
After school we have orientation with Pastor Joshua at 3. Orientation is really good and gives us a chance to debrief and also learn from God's word. Then we usually go back to school to finish preparing for the next school day. Shannon usually makes copies at night. Hahaha, making copies is the most frustrating thing in the world because it's such an ordeal. In order to make copies we have to turn on the generator, which takes a lot of physical strength and is extremely loud once it's on. Then we plug it into the duplicator and hope and pray that it doesn't break down
that day. Our duplicator is tempermental, but PJoshua and Shannon do a pretty good job being handymen to fix it when it gets stuck and stops working.
At around 5-6 we usually make dinner. They do have a lot of things we can get at the Faranah market, like potatoes, bananas, onions, green onions, garlic, cucumber, and plantain. They also have these fried donut holes that Shannon especially likes to eat. Jeje loves to cook, so it's been great making dinners with her. We've been pretty creative with the food we have. They do have French bread in Faranah that is delivered by bicycle by one of the workers every morning for the children and us to eat. Shannon really enjoys being able to eat his peanut butter sandwiches
everyday. I don't know what he would do without them. So, we are eating well and we're healthy. I think we've actually put on a couple pounds here.
This week Pastor Joshua, Sarah, Caleb, and Christa are in Conakry, Guinea's capital. Conakry is the city we flew into when we arrived here. The drive there from Sambouya is 8 hours of mountains and is sometimes treacherous. Please pray for them as the trip can be very tiring. They went there to get more supplies and pick up mail. So this week, I've
been leading the praise time with the kids in the morning and Shannon has been giving mini sermons. Please pray for us that we would stay energized. The sun really does make you tired and it can make the children listless too.
I would say that the hardest part about teaching here is that we are constantly concerned about the children. Almost everyday, someone has a fever, needs bandaids, or has an upset stomach. Today in class I had someone throw up on the floor, and she never told me that she felt sick. So, we make an effort to constantly tell the kids how to stay healthy and to tell us when they are not feeling well. Please pray that the kids would stay healthy!
On a funnier note, we've seen and eaten our fair share of strange things. Shannon always happens to see/catch/observe crazy insects/animals out here. So far this week we've seen an enormous millipede(probably 3/4inch thick and 8 inches long!), an iguana, a snake, and the biggest slug we've ever seen. He's usually attempting to prevent the kids from
throwing things at them. While we were in our village the other night, someone offered us what looked like a meatball. I took a bite and discovered that it was a fishball with bones. Being the nice wife I was, I offered
some to Shannon to eat. He took one bite and passed it on to a village kid who gobbled it up. "Adumang, adumang!" they said, which means delicious! We just nodded our heads and smiled.
Life in Bilingkoro has been interesting. We try to get home early enough to greet people about twice a week or so. The other times it is too dark or we are too tired by the time we get home to go around the village saying hi to everyone. We'll talk more about village life in another e-mail, but I realize I've already written far too much.
So now you know what a typical day is like for us. Sorry I can't be as concise as Shannon, but there is just so much to write. We think and pray for you all often. Please do the same for us! :) I hope all is well at home!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Since Shannon's been good and has written most of these updates, I decided to give him a break and write one to you too. We started school last Monday (I know this is unthinkable to you teachers out there) and survived the first week and a half of school. :)
The children are very cute, energetic, and for the most part,excited to learn. A typical school day begins with our chapel time at 8am, and at 8:30 the children walk to class. Shannon and I each have 20 kids and our classrooms are next to each other. The classrooms are spacious and there are more than enough desks for everyone. The only thing we wish for is for better lighting, since we teach only by sunlight without electricity.
In the morning we teach reading, writing, math, and spelling. We eat an African meal for lunch made by the volunteers. Typically, the meal has rice with peanut sauce. Peanut sauce is made up of finely ground peanuts, palm oil, and some other spices. In the afternoon we teach phonics/word work, social studies/science, and then the kids either have art or music. Jeje, the missionary from Korea teaches art and we, er Shannon, teaches music on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I usually end up teaching the children some new songs at the end of music time and do my best to strum them on the guitar. The children absolutely LOVE to sing and it's a real joy to hear them. We can usually hear them in the chapel singing at 7:30 in the morning before school starts and they love learning new songs.
During the first week, we were concerned with the children because some of them stared at us blankly while we spoke to them. Since then, some of them have started to remember what they learned last year and they are speaking much better now. It's difficult because over the whole summer they haven't had any practice with their English, so we've been doing a lot of review with basic skills. What we're most amazed at is their range. Most of the children are very good at math, but they are at all ends of the spectrum when it comes to reading, writing, and spelling. So, we'll do
our best this year to especially bring up those kids that are really low.
After school we have orientation with Pastor Joshua at 3. Orientation is really good and gives us a chance to debrief and also learn from God's word. Then we usually go back to school to finish preparing for the next school day. Shannon usually makes copies at night. Hahaha, making copies is the most frustrating thing in the world because it's such an ordeal. In order to make copies we have to turn on the generator, which takes a lot of physical strength and is extremely loud once it's on. Then we plug it into the duplicator and hope and pray that it doesn't break down
that day. Our duplicator is tempermental, but PJoshua and Shannon do a pretty good job being handymen to fix it when it gets stuck and stops working.
At around 5-6 we usually make dinner. They do have a lot of things we can get at the Faranah market, like potatoes, bananas, onions, green onions, garlic, cucumber, and plantain. They also have these fried donut holes that Shannon especially likes to eat. Jeje loves to cook, so it's been great making dinners with her. We've been pretty creative with the food we have. They do have French bread in Faranah that is delivered by bicycle by one of the workers every morning for the children and us to eat. Shannon really enjoys being able to eat his peanut butter sandwiches
everyday. I don't know what he would do without them. So, we are eating well and we're healthy. I think we've actually put on a couple pounds here.
This week Pastor Joshua, Sarah, Caleb, and Christa are in Conakry, Guinea's capital. Conakry is the city we flew into when we arrived here. The drive there from Sambouya is 8 hours of mountains and is sometimes treacherous. Please pray for them as the trip can be very tiring. They went there to get more supplies and pick up mail. So this week, I've
been leading the praise time with the kids in the morning and Shannon has been giving mini sermons. Please pray for us that we would stay energized. The sun really does make you tired and it can make the children listless too.
I would say that the hardest part about teaching here is that we are constantly concerned about the children. Almost everyday, someone has a fever, needs bandaids, or has an upset stomach. Today in class I had someone throw up on the floor, and she never told me that she felt sick. So, we make an effort to constantly tell the kids how to stay healthy and to tell us when they are not feeling well. Please pray that the kids would stay healthy!
On a funnier note, we've seen and eaten our fair share of strange things. Shannon always happens to see/catch/observe crazy insects/animals out here. So far this week we've seen an enormous millipede(probably 3/4inch thick and 8 inches long!), an iguana, a snake, and the biggest slug we've ever seen. He's usually attempting to prevent the kids from
throwing things at them. While we were in our village the other night, someone offered us what looked like a meatball. I took a bite and discovered that it was a fishball with bones. Being the nice wife I was, I offered
some to Shannon to eat. He took one bite and passed it on to a village kid who gobbled it up. "Adumang, adumang!" they said, which means delicious! We just nodded our heads and smiled.
Life in Bilingkoro has been interesting. We try to get home early enough to greet people about twice a week or so. The other times it is too dark or we are too tired by the time we get home to go around the village saying hi to everyone. We'll talk more about village life in another e-mail, but I realize I've already written far too much.
So now you know what a typical day is like for us. Sorry I can't be as concise as Shannon, but there is just so much to write. We think and pray for you all often. Please do the same for us! :) I hope all is well at home!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
three out of six
Dear Friends and Family, :)
Many of you are wondering about our luggage situation. We received three of our bags last week, so we are doing just fine. The bags we still hope to receive mostly have our medicine and clothing, but we're getting by on what past missionaries have left and the things Pastor and Sarah have provided for us. We're still hopeful about receiving our other 3 bags, so don't start sending supplies just yet! We filed missing baggage claims in Paris and Conakry and we have people trying to track down our baggage for us and a man, Banjou, who stops in at the airport every day or two to see if our bags have arrived yet. Our first three were not tampered with (much to our surprise!) so while you pray for us to get our other 3 bags, pray also that they arrive in whole.
Sarah has almost fully recovered from her malaria and just has a headache now and then, so praise God for that! J.J. had a minor accident with a moto and a tree last night, but she escaped with only a couple of scrapes and bumps and the moto is fine too. We're praying for a quick recovery as we prepare for school to start on Monday.
Our house in Bilingkoro is starting to feel like home now that we've moved in, but we haven't got to spend much time there yet due to our school preparations. We know a lot of the villagers by name though and we're starting to build some relationships. Everyone is very friendly and very patient with our poor language skills and we look forward to getting to know them better in the near future.
We made our first excursion into the Farranah market by ourselves yesterday and came out pretty well. It's not a huge place, but very crowded and pretty dirty. Fortunately we ran in to Benjamin, the up-and-coming pastor in Sambouya, and felt much more confident after he assured us we hadn't been ripped off.
School starts way too soon and we don't feel at all prepared yet, so prayer for preparation and safety for the kids traveling in (some of them travel 2 days to get here).
If you have been, you can stop sending e-mails to the TMICA email account, since we're now able to check email at our normal g-mail address.
We miss you all and think of you often!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Many of you are wondering about our luggage situation. We received three of our bags last week, so we are doing just fine. The bags we still hope to receive mostly have our medicine and clothing, but we're getting by on what past missionaries have left and the things Pastor and Sarah have provided for us. We're still hopeful about receiving our other 3 bags, so don't start sending supplies just yet! We filed missing baggage claims in Paris and Conakry and we have people trying to track down our baggage for us and a man, Banjou, who stops in at the airport every day or two to see if our bags have arrived yet. Our first three were not tampered with (much to our surprise!) so while you pray for us to get our other 3 bags, pray also that they arrive in whole.
Sarah has almost fully recovered from her malaria and just has a headache now and then, so praise God for that! J.J. had a minor accident with a moto and a tree last night, but she escaped with only a couple of scrapes and bumps and the moto is fine too. We're praying for a quick recovery as we prepare for school to start on Monday.
Our house in Bilingkoro is starting to feel like home now that we've moved in, but we haven't got to spend much time there yet due to our school preparations. We know a lot of the villagers by name though and we're starting to build some relationships. Everyone is very friendly and very patient with our poor language skills and we look forward to getting to know them better in the near future.
We made our first excursion into the Farranah market by ourselves yesterday and came out pretty well. It's not a huge place, but very crowded and pretty dirty. Fortunately we ran in to Benjamin, the up-and-coming pastor in Sambouya, and felt much more confident after he assured us we hadn't been ripped off.
School starts way too soon and we don't feel at all prepared yet, so prayer for preparation and safety for the kids traveling in (some of them travel 2 days to get here).
If you have been, you can stop sending e-mails to the TMICA email account, since we're now able to check email at our normal g-mail address.
We miss you all and think of you often!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Update :)
Hey everyone! :)
We've been here for about a week now and already we're sending you our second e-mail! We're guessing that from now on we'll probably try and send an e-mail twice a month or so. Unfortunately, we're unable at this time to receive any e-mail through our gmail account. If you could send e-mails to both our gmail and tmica@teachusmission.org, and put our names in the subject line, it'll guarantee that we'll be able to read what you send.
During this past week we've been continuing orientation with Pastor Joshua and JJ, the other missionary teacher in the mornings. Usually after orientation we usually do laundry or other chores until lunch. Washing laundry by hand is hard work and during the rainy season, it's hard to predict if your clothes will be dry by the end of the day. :P For lunch we have a typical African lunch made by a native volunteer. Currently, the woman that makes us lunch is the mother of Nona, one of our students
this year. Our lunches usually consist of a bowl of rice with some type of sauce, such as peanut sauce on the side. We've even had chicken and fish.
After lunch we've been going over to Bilingkoro, the village where our new home is. Slowly but surely it's becoming clean. When we first walked in, the house was boarded up and littered with bugs, dead and alive. We've both killed more than our share of spiders, ants, roaches, grasshoppers, etc. Shannon even killed a couple of lizards (they are everywhere!), but I couldn't bear to see them being killed.
Our biggest surprise came from the beehive that was in our bathroom window. Fortunately, one of our brave native volunteers, Clemon, sprayed the beehive with insecticide a few times and took care of them. Yesterday, Shannon opened the bathroom window and cleaned up hundreds of dead bees. Unfortunately, we couldn't use the honey from the beehive since we had sprayed it.
We'll be moving into our home in a few days. We've almost cleaned up the entire place except for the bathroom and kitchen. Since we've been going back and forth from Sambouya to Bilingkoro, we've greeted many people along the way. The elder in our village introduced all the children to us the other day and we shook their hands and tried our best to say hello. It's funny, because when we're cleaning inside the house, we'll hear the children saying, "Tubab, tubabo!" to each other, which means white man,white man. They often ask or mention Mira and Nara's names, the two
missionary teachers that lived in our house last year. When we leave, the children always run around to where the dirt road is and make sure to say goodbye twice.
As for our prayer requests, please pray for Sarah, Pastor Joshua's wife. She tested positive for malaria yesterday and is resting at home now. Please also pray for our luggage, which still hasn't arrived. We were told that it would be a semi miracle if it even came. The rest of us here are all healthy and eating well. Shannon's getting used to eating lots of rice at every meal, since we do eat a lot of it here.
We hope that all is well back in the US. If you haven't been, but would like to recieve email updates, please e-mail mieko743@yahoo.com to be added to our mailing list. God bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
We've been here for about a week now and already we're sending you our second e-mail! We're guessing that from now on we'll probably try and send an e-mail twice a month or so. Unfortunately, we're unable at this time to receive any e-mail through our gmail account. If you could send e-mails to both our gmail and tmica@teachusmission.org, and put our names in the subject line, it'll guarantee that we'll be able to read what you send.
During this past week we've been continuing orientation with Pastor Joshua and JJ, the other missionary teacher in the mornings. Usually after orientation we usually do laundry or other chores until lunch. Washing laundry by hand is hard work and during the rainy season, it's hard to predict if your clothes will be dry by the end of the day. :P For lunch we have a typical African lunch made by a native volunteer. Currently, the woman that makes us lunch is the mother of Nona, one of our students
this year. Our lunches usually consist of a bowl of rice with some type of sauce, such as peanut sauce on the side. We've even had chicken and fish.
After lunch we've been going over to Bilingkoro, the village where our new home is. Slowly but surely it's becoming clean. When we first walked in, the house was boarded up and littered with bugs, dead and alive. We've both killed more than our share of spiders, ants, roaches, grasshoppers, etc. Shannon even killed a couple of lizards (they are everywhere!), but I couldn't bear to see them being killed.
Our biggest surprise came from the beehive that was in our bathroom window. Fortunately, one of our brave native volunteers, Clemon, sprayed the beehive with insecticide a few times and took care of them. Yesterday, Shannon opened the bathroom window and cleaned up hundreds of dead bees. Unfortunately, we couldn't use the honey from the beehive since we had sprayed it.
We'll be moving into our home in a few days. We've almost cleaned up the entire place except for the bathroom and kitchen. Since we've been going back and forth from Sambouya to Bilingkoro, we've greeted many people along the way. The elder in our village introduced all the children to us the other day and we shook their hands and tried our best to say hello. It's funny, because when we're cleaning inside the house, we'll hear the children saying, "Tubab, tubabo!" to each other, which means white man,white man. They often ask or mention Mira and Nara's names, the two
missionary teachers that lived in our house last year. When we leave, the children always run around to where the dirt road is and make sure to say goodbye twice.
As for our prayer requests, please pray for Sarah, Pastor Joshua's wife. She tested positive for malaria yesterday and is resting at home now. Please also pray for our luggage, which still hasn't arrived. We were told that it would be a semi miracle if it even came. The rest of us here are all healthy and eating well. Shannon's getting used to eating lots of rice at every meal, since we do eat a lot of it here.
We hope that all is well back in the US. If you haven't been, but would like to recieve email updates, please e-mail mieko743@yahoo.com to be added to our mailing list. God bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Friday, September 01, 2006
Wow! (Part II)
It's been so exciting since we've been here in Sambouya. Sambouya village is right next to the school campus, and Pastor Joshua and his family live right next to the village as well. We've been staying at the center temporarily since we got here, at the guesthouse, which is awesome. If you ever want to come out and visit us, your accommodations will be pretty nice! In the guesthouse there are beds with mattresses, the living room area is very open and large, there is a kitchen and a gas stove, and there are bathrooms! You don't have to squat to use the toilet, and the faucet and shower do work, even if the water only comes out in a trickle and it's REALLY cold. Because it is rainy season now and the water tank outside is large, we don't have to ration our water that much like we do during the dry season.
So THIS, is Guinea in a way I have never seen or experienced before. I am completely amazed at how God has done all these things in such a short period of time. We peeked into the classrooms, kids' dormitories, chapel, and some other buildings the other day. I can't believe at all the work that has been done. Pastor Joshua has such a vision that they're planning on starting the middle school and high school buildings this year.
As for the surroundings, it is very lush and green around here. The campus is surrounded by trees, bushes, and reddish dirt covers the ground in patches. We were told that as it changes from rainy to dry season, the green begins to disappear.
The other day we visited Bilingkoro, the village we will be staying in. I have to admit, in some ways we would like to stay in the guesthouse because the other teacher will be living there and it is nicer than we thought it would be. However, Shannon and I would like to try and live in the village so we can interact with the villagers and get to know them as well. If we live at the guesthouse, which is right on campus, we would rarely interact with people in the villages unless we walk there. Bilingkoro is about a 15 minute walk from the school. It's a little hilly on the way and there is a red dirt path wide enough for cars to get through that you can travel on to get there. People in the villages are very friendly, and you'll hear shouted greetings of "Inike! Tanante!", which mean hello in Maninka. It was funny when we were going through the village the other day and ended up having a crowd of about 30 children following us all the way through. Here it is uncommon to see a "tubab" or white man, so we're quite a sight to see.
Our new home is cozy. It needs a lot of cleaning because there are lots of cobwebs and dust around, but there are three small rooms, a stove, a sink, and a bathroom that we can use. The villagers are very friendly here. There will be a generator in our new home so that we can actually use some electricity for a couple hours at night when we come home from teaching. Plus, we will be able to take a shower and wash dishes and such as long as there is water in our water tank.
So far life is pretty relaxed. We went to the market today for some groceries (we'll describe it more later), and hooked up a solar panel on the guesthouse so that we can turn on a few lights at night. The weather has been relatively mild, probably only up into the mid-eighties, but we know that won't last long. Orientation has been fruitful and there is a lot for us to learn and remember. J.J., the other teacher from Korea, is great and we have been spending a lot of time with the Kim family and playing with the kids.
This coming week we'll start preparing for school as the kids are showing up on the 17th. Please pray for their safety(many travel two days to get here) and our preparation. Also, are bags have still not arrived and we don't know if or when they will come. Fortunately, Pastor J. and Sara have put together a survival kit to get us through a couple weeks, as well as things left behind by previous missionaries that we can use. (We'll let you know if we need some things sent, but we're fine for now)
Hopefully we'll update often and write less! We hope and pray that all is well with all of you back home! God Bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
So THIS, is Guinea in a way I have never seen or experienced before. I am completely amazed at how God has done all these things in such a short period of time. We peeked into the classrooms, kids' dormitories, chapel, and some other buildings the other day. I can't believe at all the work that has been done. Pastor Joshua has such a vision that they're planning on starting the middle school and high school buildings this year.
As for the surroundings, it is very lush and green around here. The campus is surrounded by trees, bushes, and reddish dirt covers the ground in patches. We were told that as it changes from rainy to dry season, the green begins to disappear.
The other day we visited Bilingkoro, the village we will be staying in. I have to admit, in some ways we would like to stay in the guesthouse because the other teacher will be living there and it is nicer than we thought it would be. However, Shannon and I would like to try and live in the village so we can interact with the villagers and get to know them as well. If we live at the guesthouse, which is right on campus, we would rarely interact with people in the villages unless we walk there. Bilingkoro is about a 15 minute walk from the school. It's a little hilly on the way and there is a red dirt path wide enough for cars to get through that you can travel on to get there. People in the villages are very friendly, and you'll hear shouted greetings of "Inike! Tanante!", which mean hello in Maninka. It was funny when we were going through the village the other day and ended up having a crowd of about 30 children following us all the way through. Here it is uncommon to see a "tubab" or white man, so we're quite a sight to see.
Our new home is cozy. It needs a lot of cleaning because there are lots of cobwebs and dust around, but there are three small rooms, a stove, a sink, and a bathroom that we can use. The villagers are very friendly here. There will be a generator in our new home so that we can actually use some electricity for a couple hours at night when we come home from teaching. Plus, we will be able to take a shower and wash dishes and such as long as there is water in our water tank.
So far life is pretty relaxed. We went to the market today for some groceries (we'll describe it more later), and hooked up a solar panel on the guesthouse so that we can turn on a few lights at night. The weather has been relatively mild, probably only up into the mid-eighties, but we know that won't last long. Orientation has been fruitful and there is a lot for us to learn and remember. J.J., the other teacher from Korea, is great and we have been spending a lot of time with the Kim family and playing with the kids.
This coming week we'll start preparing for school as the kids are showing up on the 17th. Please pray for their safety(many travel two days to get here) and our preparation. Also, are bags have still not arrived and we don't know if or when they will come. Fortunately, Pastor J. and Sara have put together a survival kit to get us through a couple weeks, as well as things left behind by previous missionaries that we can use. (We'll let you know if we need some things sent, but we're fine for now)
Hopefully we'll update often and write less! We hope and pray that all is well with all of you back home! God Bless!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Wow!
Hey everybody!
Carol and I have arrived safely in Guinea! Despite some baggage troubles and some visa problems, we are here and healthy. Praise God!
Conakry is unlike anything we have ever experienced before. We arrived in the evening but unfortunately our baggage did not. If you could pray that our bags would arrive soon, we would be most appreciative! We stayed the night in an apartment in Conakry rented by TM. It was very nice, but there was no running water or electricity so it was an experience. Especially trying to shower in a bucket!
There was an open air night club across the street and they partied until early in the morning, but we were so tired from the travel that we fell asleep right away. But not before we got to hear a little Bob Marley!
This morning we had to stop at a garage to get the car looked at and Carol, along with J.J., another missionary teacher, went to the market to buy some supplies to take back to the village today.
They weren't kidding when they said rainy season. It has been raining all day and we've been told it will be like this until November. They say there's enough rainfall in Guinea to power all of Western Africa if they would harness it.
Please pray for us as our bodies adapt to the new environment and we get oriented to our new life style. So far people have been friendly, but corruption and dishonesty are the way of life here, so also pray that the people we run in to will be honest and fair in their dealings with us.
We pray that all is well with you and that you will experience God's blessings today!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Carol and I have arrived safely in Guinea! Despite some baggage troubles and some visa problems, we are here and healthy. Praise God!
Conakry is unlike anything we have ever experienced before. We arrived in the evening but unfortunately our baggage did not. If you could pray that our bags would arrive soon, we would be most appreciative! We stayed the night in an apartment in Conakry rented by TM. It was very nice, but there was no running water or electricity so it was an experience. Especially trying to shower in a bucket!
There was an open air night club across the street and they partied until early in the morning, but we were so tired from the travel that we fell asleep right away. But not before we got to hear a little Bob Marley!
This morning we had to stop at a garage to get the car looked at and Carol, along with J.J., another missionary teacher, went to the market to buy some supplies to take back to the village today.
They weren't kidding when they said rainy season. It has been raining all day and we've been told it will be like this until November. They say there's enough rainfall in Guinea to power all of Western Africa if they would harness it.
Please pray for us as our bodies adapt to the new environment and we get oriented to our new life style. So far people have been friendly, but corruption and dishonesty are the way of life here, so also pray that the people we run in to will be honest and fair in their dealings with us.
We pray that all is well with you and that you will experience God's blessings today!
Love,
Shannon and Carol
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Touching ground in Conakry, Guinea
Shannon and Carol arrived safely in Conakry, Guinea today via a layover in Paris and met Pastor Joshua at the airport. They should be beginning the next leg of their trip soon, if not already, to their village (an 8 hour drive from Conakry).
[charles]
[charles]
Monday, August 28, 2006
Goodbye
Hey everyone,
We're on our way out the door and just wanted to say goodbye! If you're getting this and you don't want it, e-mail our sister-in-law Sunny to remove you, or if you got doubled, ditto. We also missed some people probably, so ask a couple people this week if they got this e-mail, and if they didn't then they can e-mail Sunny and ask to be added, or you can just be a sport and forward stuff along to them. Carol's brother Charles will be setting up a blog for us probably and any updates or newsletters will be posted there and an e-mail will be sent to you notifying you of the update. If you have a problem with that...too bad! Look us up on Skype by Shannon White and we might call sometime.
We love you all, and we are going to miss you all dearly during the next 9 months. But keep us in your prayers and God willing we will return with amazing stories next May.
God Bless!
Shannon and Carol
We're on our way out the door and just wanted to say goodbye! If you're getting this and you don't want it, e-mail our sister-in-law Sunny to remove you, or if you got doubled, ditto. We also missed some people probably, so ask a couple people this week if they got this e-mail, and if they didn't then they can e-mail Sunny and ask to be added, or you can just be a sport and forward stuff along to them. Carol's brother Charles will be setting up a blog for us probably and any updates or newsletters will be posted there and an e-mail will be sent to you notifying you of the update. If you have a problem with that...too bad! Look us up on Skype by Shannon White and we might call sometime.
We love you all, and we are going to miss you all dearly during the next 9 months. But keep us in your prayers and God willing we will return with amazing stories next May.
God Bless!
Shannon and Carol
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