In the midst

I am ever surprised at the continuously changing landscape of one small village in Senegal. Things change so slowly in this village and yet overnight things look different. The people are expanding, children are being born and old are dying. This cycle is visible all around me in the people and the earth.

This morning I arose to the land filled with mist. I have never seen the clouds laying so low upon the land here before, circling us, watering us, washing us. Everything looked fresh and different. In minutes as the sun began to rise, I watched the water drip off the trees and things begin to dry from the cool air and the clouds around us rose again to their place in the sky.

Lessons from the field

Someone mailed me a puzzle in June. I haven't put together a large puzzle in 20 years probably. Living alone in Africa does strange things to a person. So I started working on this 500 piece puzzle a little at a time over the last three weeks or so. I don't have much time here so it was done in place of reading or watching a movie at night. I actually learned so much while I was doing this puzzle. I kept getting distracted trying to make one single piece fit somewhere. I had to keep reminding myself to look at the bigger picture. Look at the completion as a whole and this one piece makes more sense but its also less important. I began to move in segments, working on colored sections only. I know this seems all random but it really spoke a lot to my life.

I am constantly trying to figure out how things work and why? Where does this fit in with everything else I know. But life doesn't fit together in a way that every piece connects to every other piece. Past, present and future are separated by vast plains of time and space.

My job here in Senegal is defined but not defined. I have the freedom because of my calling as a missionary to preach to the Gospel to anyone and everyone. This sometimes is overwhelming if I focus on each person and wonder how they can be reached. But if I look at the bigger picture, the work of the church as a whole, we do it together. Its not my burden alone.

This idea connects to so many other things in my life. I am always trying to make everything fit together in my pea sized brain. But its about the bigger picture. What's the main point of what we are doing? When we can see that, the picture comes into focus. Each part of our life or work is done a little at a time. Color by color, shape by shape and it forms this grand scheme. That isn't really ours but God's.

I was pondering all these things the other night while working on my puzzle and God spoke to me this: Psalm 16:1-2 Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Then later in verse 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

So Cold

I never would have thought I would be so cold in Africa. Everyone always says, "Its too hot!" Senegal is not really that hot. In Ghana you could start sweating in the shower it was so hot, your perspired all day long everyday. Here I find the climate wonderful. October was described to me as "one of the more horrible months" in terms of heat. November and December have been said to be very very cold. So far this is true. At night the temperatures are dipping into the 60's. Last night was perhaps even colder. I do have some warmer things that were sent to me before the rainy season, because I thought that it would be really cold then. Nope, its REALLY cold now. Not compared to the snow belt of central New York, but cold for the Africa I know. And I hate being cold. Oussouye has a fantastic climate.

Ground Nuts

The season has come for harvesting the ground nuts. My neighbors whole family spent Sunday harvesting and cleaning the peanuts, then putting them on my roof to dry in the sun. The children harvested the ground nuts from the soil, they were then carried to their house in baskets. The women gathered to pluck the peanut from the plant, which was then placed in a container and carried to my house.

We eat peanuts every way imaginable. They boil them in the shell, they roast them in the shell, they soak them in water and salt and roast them, they remove the shell and soak them in water and salt and roast them. They also boil them with sugar. Every which way, every one loves peanuts.

Bicycle

Here are some pictures of my fabulous new bicycle. I love this bike to bits. My neighbors at the Campement close to the house love bikes as well. The bike has become the conversation piece so I can hang out there more with Po and Co. They show me how to put air in the tired...he he...I couldn't figure it out...blond. Also cleaning the sand off the bike is a whole process I do once a week. But I received my lesson from these guys.

Bicycles in Oussouye are generally shared pieces of life. There are two or three taxi's AROUND. Who service the whole area here south of Ziguinchor. Very few private cars, a few people in Oussouye have motorcycles and moto's or mopeds. Those are quite common with the middle to upper class and also among older people. Bicycles are every where. Its really cool if your family has one. My neighbors have a bicycle and they send their child into town to exchange my gas canister strapped to the back of the bicycle.

Bicycles are generally things you lend to people. Oussouye is quite large if you have to rush from one end of the village and back. This rarely happens. But never the less, people always borrow a bike, and then perhaps the bike is lended out to someone else also. I do not lend this bicycle. Sorry, I can't replace it, so I don't lend it. Sometimes with great care and pride, Ishmael takes it into town for some reason.

As I ride people comment and you still have to greet everyone you pass when you are on the bicycle. The bike is a great help to me. No helmet laws here, but there are no cars and you are never going very fast, and you are almost never on pavement.

One last thing, everyone wants me to GIVE them the bike. They ask me all the time, when are you giving me the bicycle. Its Oussouye's way of saying, they love it. I always joke and say I'll be right back or tomorrow.

One more thing

In Senegal, the coffee is instant Nestcafe or some other brand of instant. The French drink espresso but American coffee is not sold here. American coffee makers are very expensive. What do I miss, coffee houses that sell complicated coffees. And then I order, just coffee place. Yes, just normal coffee please. Just normal sugar and milk please. No lights, or non dairy. No cane sugar or syrup. I would like just coffee.

America

People always ask me what I miss about home. So I made you a list. These are in no particular order. Just a collection of things that I miss about home. I would have put pictures of all of
you on here too if I had them. Because I miss my friends and family most of all.

Tourist Season

October through April is the main tourist season in Senegal. Unfortunately sex tourism is on the rise in Senegal. Although perhaps the tourists see themselves as real winners for scoring a PHAT African guy or girl for a week of cheap sex, those of us who live here and are not interested in this kind of tourism are seriously affected. Monday while I was in Ziguinchor I asked directions to the phone company. The man said to me, "Perhaps you need a companion" and turned to a rasta guy standing next to him. I am not sure how..."Can you give me directions to the phone company" got translated into "I'd like a rasta man to be my companion for sex" but apparently it did.

Then not two hours later at the market I got chased down by another rasta guy who said he was MY FRIEND. After I politely refused his aid, he continued to grab me and insist that he was my friend.

This kind of stuff really frustrates me so much in Senegal. I am not in serious danger, for people who are reading this and thinking, "Oh my God..." its just a matter of dealing with the situation, I just can't stand it.


IN THE MEDIA:
Here I am, just off the plane’
Mass-marketing sex tourism
Sexual tourism, a mercantile form of extreme leisure with its roots in prostitution, is on the rise. It can be seen as an extension of the service aspect of mass tourism, in itself a modern version of the old colonial attitudes towards the world.

By Franck Michel

Family Gatherings

In the village every week there is some sort of family gathering. Babies are born, being baptized, people are dieing. I never found the funerals to be that much of a party but I do like to go to the baptisms. Last week my friend Bintue in Harlem had the baptism for her new little baby. When I arrived I realized that many of the women in the nieghborhood who I know were there. I was able to go around and greet all the little groups of women. Today when we were going around praying for people in Mlumpe, one woman said, I know you, I saw you at the Baptism in Harlem last week. Ahh small town life. I don't blend at all here. I hope I don't stick out like a sore thumb.

I love it that these kinds of gatherings help me build relationships with people and meet new people.

Mlumpe

Yesterday I went to Mlumpe for a visit and had an opportunity to preach today. Mlumpe is a larger village only 9 kilometers away from Ousouye but it takes 45 minutes to get there because the road is soooo bad. When the car arrived going to Mlumpe I was pushed around by 15 other people also going there and I had to use serious force to get a standing place on the bus. Today coming home was the same Florence had to sit on my lap and I was sharing a place with another girl behind me. There is no electricity and no running water in Mlumpe. The Catholic church has a large presence there but most of the Catholics in this region are animists also.

When I visited Mlumpe in August Leopold had just started to openly build his church. The years previous he was living in a lot of fear to start the church. There were four people at church in August. Leopold, his wife, Florence from the Oussouye church and on guy called Basil. When I went today there were 15 adults and as many children. They have seen fantastic growth since Leopold stopped being so afraid to preach the Gospel, people are responding. I am so thankful for what God is doing there. They have already outgrown the space they have been meeting in for two years. In two months. God is so cool.

Jam House

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the Jam House because people ask me how it's going. In July the women of Eglise Evangelique began working at the jam house 5 days a week from 9-5 p.m. everyday. They really wanted to make a full fledged business out it. They have received two other trainings since the one I participated in, in April.

The work has been a real challenge for the women. These are women who's entire lives and the lives of most of the people they know are only centered around their home, husbands and children. Now they have been given this opportunity to WORK!!! And truly they love it. The come early and they stay late. They work hard. The only problem, is that there has not been a director at the jam house. They do the work together, so when they are out of sugar they don't work until someone goes and buys sugar in Zigunichor or they find money to go and buy sugar. They really needed a manager who could plan, project and bring order to what they were doing daily. Initially they rejected the idea but finally they agreed. In October a man from the church who was working as an accountant for an NGO returned to Oussouye to work with the ladies. He is a great administrator and also sensitive to the strong personalalities of the women who have been running the show from the beginning.

This man is also working with Marcel to find more funding for the Jam House, to paint and tile the building and repair the fence.

The women absolutely love their work at the jam house. So much that some of their husbands complain because they feel they "aren't being taken care of" Also some of the women have small children who stay at home with the older children because they cause problems when they are at the jam house. There are still problems that need to be worked out. But God has really blessed these women. They are more confident now and their world is so much bigger than it was before. Please contiued to pray for their work, their business and their relationships with God.

Ladies Retreat

This week my friend Corinna came to visit with her daughter Seraina. Her and her husband are missionaries from Switzerland living in Ziguinchor, about an hour north of Oussouye. We had a fabulous three days. I received a make over by seven year old Saraina. We went to the beach to bronze and swim in the ocean. We of course, went shopping to several of the local craft markets. And as ladies do, Corinna and I stayed up late talking and watching movies. I really had a great time and am thankful for friends living so close.