Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas in Africa


Merry Christmas Yesterday! We celebrated Christmas African-style this year. This means I got my hair done (in cornrows with a weave and a huge fake bun), my feet dyed black on the bottoms and part of the top, and matching Christmas outfits with the other Christians in the city (there aren't many). We had been out in the village learning doing language, but we left the 23rd to go to another city to celebrate Christmas with two journeygirls here and their African family. We got there the 23rd so we could get ready (it took me four hours for the hair alone and the feet is a 2 night process). We started the party Christmas Eve afternoon and it lasted through Christmas Day. Pastor tried to show the Jesus film Christmas Eve night but the projector broke. The cool thing about the way they celebrate here is they truly are celebrating Jesus's birth. It is not at all commercialized the way it is in the United States. They used it to witness to their neighbors. The Muslims have their big holidays that they celebrate so the Christians were able to show them that this is our Christian holiday and this is why we celebrate. It was incredible to see the way these African believers were reaching out and sharing Christ with their neighbors. Before that we were out in the village learning language. Amy Carmichael said that God could make a donkey talk and it would be about the same for her to learn Tamil, and that's how I feel about Bambera. It's not such a complex language, it's just nothing like English. Some things are funny, like they call a bicycle an "iron horse". And the word for year is the same as rain (because they have one rainy season a year), month is the same as moon, and day is the same as sun. Our "brother" in the village is teaching us Bambera. He wants to learn English so we're teaching him English while he teaches us Bambera. Africans are geniuses as language learning and he's learning English way faster than we're learning Bambera. It's embarrassing. We are doing a lot better though. I'm able to understand a lot of what people are telling me (after they repeat is slowly a few times and use hand gestures). We're back in Bamako because we had Christmas with everyone here last night. We're headed back to the village next tomorrow and will be working on language for the next couple weeks. Hope all of you had a great Christmas!



















This is a little girl in the village

and this is our hut in the village.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Hunt for the Red Bobo

We just got back from our first research trip by ourselves! (with the help of another journeygirl, Katie, and a translator). We were researching the Bobo people, and it was really fun! We got to our city on Tuesday, and we started asking people if they knew where Bobo villages were. Wednesday we rode out and started talking visiting the villages. Let me tell you something about African roads. Sometimes (usually not) they're paved. The ones that aren't paved are usually in bad condition and very bumpy, but you can still tell that they are roads. Out in the bush however, it is neither. The only way you can even tell you are on a road is the faint tracks from where donkey carts have been traveling. Other than that, there's no way to know. None. So, we would stop at a village and ask them our questions, then ask them where another Bobo village was. They would say, down this road, so we would go down the road. Pretty soon, we would lose the road, so we would have to stop and look for tracks, then follow them again. Thank goodness for GPS's and helpful Africans. God always provided us with someone to help us. We were able to get a lot of good information. Surprisingly, most of the Bobo people were not Muslim, there were a lot of Christians! We found a lot of little churches and got to talk with church members and pastors, it was a really great experience.
One village we went to, they took us to the chief. Imagine the oldest man you've ever seen in your life and add 50 years. That is how old this man looked. His wife looked even older. They were both sitting on the ground in a t-shirt and absolutely nothing else. Halfway through our conversation with him and about 15 other African men, the chief layed down on his side so that he was mooning all of us. I had to keep telling myself to be mature and not laugh. After we finished our questions, our translator said for us to ask how old the chief was. So we did, and this started a huge discussion. Apparently, it's ok to ask people's ages here, it's not considered rude, they just don't know. Many Africans don't keep track of birthdays. Well after a long discussion (of which the chief had no part) they finally came up with 200. Now, he looked about 200, but obviously he wasn't. They discussed it some more and said maybe not 200, maybe 180. It was so funny. Finally, they said, "he's old."
We're back in Bamako for a couple days, they we're headed out to the village for language training and we come back for Christmas. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Back from Guinea!

I got back from Guinea yesterday! We took Amanda and Brittany to their new home in Guinea. It was a 2 day drive from Bamako. The first part had paved roads, and you don't know what a luxury that is until you move to Africa. The rest (probably 2/3) was horrible roads. This picture shows a little

but not the full extent. You may think that is the side of the road, but that is the actual road. I drove for hours and hours, and only was in third gear for 5 minutes. The rest was between second and first. It was really fun and a little scary.
I had no idea of what to expect from their town. All we had heard was it was out in the middle of nowhere and you can't get anything. Africans were telling us it was out in the middle of nowhere, if that tells you anything. We did see a lot of animals, though. We saw a huge warthog (just like Pumba but black), a bushrat, and monkeys! Wild monkeys on the side of the road! We finally got there after 2 long days of driving, and it was so funny. Tons of Africans were all around us, and they were all speaking English! It was night and I was tired and I had no idea who was who, but they were all talking to us and getting stuff out of the car. They were really nice and excited we were there. We went to bed and the next morning we went looked around and met people. They town is incredible, but people are great. There is no electricity or running water, so we used a generator and went down to the pump to get water. The pump is a good ways away and you have to carry the water in bidons on your head! Oh my goodness, it's hard. The Africans can balance it on their heads, but I had to use my arms and it was still really hard. I thought my head was going to break, but fortunately, it didn't.
We stayed there a few days and got them settled, then we went on our first research assignment. We had to find information on the Kono people, like how many believers there were, were any mission organizations engaging them, etc. We drove to the town and stayed the night at a guesthouse, then the next morning we were going to a place that studies chimps to see them then to see the Kono people. I was so excited. Well, I woke up that morning and didn't feel good, but I still went. We got to the research place, and I threw up. The people found the monkeys and our guide took us up a mountain in primary forest (which means none of the trees have ever been cut and there aren't really any trails). I'm not great at climbing mountains anyway, and this was hard, and I felt awful. When we got close, I threw up again. How much grosser could I get? We finally found the chimps, and they were way up in the trees. I just layed down on a log while everyone else took pictures. Of all the days to get sick, I picked the worst one. They went and found some more and I stayed on the log. We finally started to go down the mountain, and I fell down it 3 times. I would like to say it's because I was sick, but I probably would have fallen anyways, my balance leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately for our guide, I was right behind him, and when he graciously tried to help me, my feet slipped out from under me and I knocked him over too. After that, he kept a safe distance away from me, sometimes I couldn't even see him!
It turns out that he was Kono! This is how nice Africans are, he took us to a Kono village! He didn't even know us and he did this. It was really far, but we drove there and he introduced us (or them, because I was still throwing up and laying down in the car) and they told the story of the demonic man and Creation to Return. The story of the demonic man really means a lot to these people because most of them have witnessed demonic possession first hand and they want to know the God who has power over this. The Creation to Return story is a run through of the Bible, highlighting man's need for God and how even though we sinned God promised a Savior and sent Him. The people were so grateful that we came and told us that they wanted to be changed like the man in the story. They gave us lots of gifts, like a live chicken, banananas, rice, and money. Christians in the town came and greeted us and took us to their church and we all worshipped together. They kept coming and coming and it was really cool. It's amazing how God works out divine appointments like that and leads you to where He wants you to be and puts the right people in your path. The next day, we went back to Amanda and Brittany's city and then we came back to Bamako. On the way, we though
t we had car trouble. We stopped the car and had tons of Africans
rush to our assitance. We were their morning entertainment, as you can see.
Tuesday, Rachel, another Journeyman named Katy, and I leave to search for the Red Boba and research them. Please be in prayer for us that God willl lead us to the right people and that we will be able to witness to people along the way. Pray for safety as we are driving.