Superstition

This week at the women's prayer meeting, Lucy asked that we pray for all the children. She said because our children don't wear the charms and we don't make sacrifices for the protection of our children we must pray extra hard. Every time a Christian child falls sick the town uses it as an excuse, it was because they weren't wearing charms. It's because the family didn't make sacrifices. The truth is that life happens to us all, the good and the bad. Life is full of inconsistencies here. People want to have all their bases covered. So they cover their windows with charms and put crosses over their doors. They make sacrifices and hang the bones on the walls along side their posters of the president who will save them and their country. Believe in all of it. Something good will happen to you. It's only a few people, who reject the charms and the symbols for believe in a God who is bigger than it all.

Malaria

Wednesday evening I was feeling kind of ill. I woke up Thursday feeling even worse, the beginnings of some classic Malaria symptoms. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some Malaria drugs. I spent the entire day walking through a village feeling ill, by 2:00 p.m. I just had to go home. My fever spiked and I got chills. Today I feel much better after starting the meds and getting some rest.

While we were walking yesterday I remembered a story from Ghana. One day a lady told me she had been having bouts of Malaria all the time. She told me it was because of all the mangoes she had been eating. I tried to explain to her that Malaria came from Mosquitoes, she said yes, because the Mosquitoes eat the mangoes. It didn't seem worth it to try and convince her. She seemed confident that she was getting Malaria from Mangoes. Perhaps our scientists have been wrong all along and I have discovered the true source of Malaria. Mangoes.

Baseball Senegalese Style

Remember when you were a kid and anything became a toy? In Senegal everything is a toy because it's not very often they are given ACTUAL toys! It is now the season for these flowers to fall from the trees into my yard. The children each take one of these flower stems and attempt to knock off the tip of the other persons stem. It does actually take some skill and there were even some injuries as I was not aware of my flower power and whipped my step sending the flower tip into Erin's back. We should be wearing helmets for this kind of activity. Life is a series of risks. Here are some photos from the Flower Power Baseball.

Praying for the sacred tree to rot from the Inside out.

Lucy and I

Yes, Erin the Gambia is a another country

Knit Caps Keep the Sun Off

Visits

The last few days there have been fantastic. Lot's of people have stopped by to visit since I have returned home. Here are some pics.

Is this true of me?

March 4, 2008
Is This True of Me?

READ:
None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself . . . —Acts 20:24



It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide. You may be more prosperous and successful from the world’s perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.

What do I count in my life as "dear to myself"? If I have not been seized by Jesus Christ and have not surrendered myself to Him, I will consider the time I decide to give God and my own ideas of service as dear. I will also consider my own life as "dear to myself." But Paul said he considered his life dear so that he might fulfill the ministry he had received, and he refused to use his energy on anything else. This verse shows an almost noble annoyance by Paul at being asked to consider himself. He was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Our ordinary and reasonable service to God may actually compete against our total surrender to Him. Our reasonable work is based on the following argument which we say to ourselves, "Remember how useful you are here, and think how much value you would be in that particular type of work." That attitude chooses our own judgment, instead of Jesus Christ, to be our guide as to where we should go and where we could be used the most. Never consider whether or not you are of use— but always consider that "you are not your own" ( 1 Corinthians 6:19 ). You are His.

News from Senegal

Here is some of the latest news from Senegal: http://allafrica.com/senegal/

Most noticeable the rebels on the road to the Cassamance and the big Islamic conference in Dakar next week.

Senegal 2008

I returned to Senegal 26th of February with our first student for the training center. On my previous trips to the Airport I was with friends who had been in Senegal many times. This year I was making the decisions. Things went smoothly from the airport to Oussouye.

We traveled by car because the new boat is not running yet. I found out after we arrived in Oussouye that there had been rebel attacks on the Gambian - Bignona road on Tuesday. We heard that we might have trouble getting a car because of a large gathering in Touba for the Muslims. We were able to get a good car for the normal price and had no problems on the road.

When we arrived at the port to cross the Gambian river everyone from our car descended and took the barge across the river. The driver said, look for the car on the other side. We traveled across the river and wandered a bit on the other side. After about a half an hour I started to look for the car and the other people we had been traveling with. To my dismay I could not find our fellow travelers or the car. We walked up and down the strip twice. Finally in a panic I walked just a bit farther down the shopping strip and found a man we had been traveling with, noticeable different from the others because he wore a face mask. I called him "the masked man." We sat down with him and waited two hours for hour car to cross the Gambian River.

We arrived in Ziguinchor exactly eight hours after we left Dakar. If the Gambian River had a bridge the trip would be six hours, not eight. If the road was fixed, the journey from Dakar to Ziguinchor might actually only take 4 hours.

The house in Oussouye was so clean upon our arrival. Our friend Victorine had taken over as guardian because the boys had traveled for a week or so. The only things in disarray are the grounds, full of weeds and overgrowth, and the kitchen and bathroom sinks. I was thankful and truly amazed.

Time has passed now and we are slowly settling into village life.

Returning Home

I thought I would end my blog for 2007 with some photos of my return and the story of my return journey and first impressions home. In 2008 I will start a fresh blog for a fresh year.

My flight leaving Dakar was an hour late and then the computers were down in NYC so immigration took an extra hour. Driving home from NYC to Syracuse is usually a five hour drive. There happened to be a snow storm however and the trip took us nine hours. I was exhausted when we arrived but so euphoric at returning.

I have been adjusting to the constant chatter and noise of being home. There are so many choices I have a hard time deciding what kind of coffee, what kind of lettuce, what kind of coke do I want. There is even a new coke with like DNA samples or something bazaar in it. (ok I suppose it couldn't be DNA but it was something weird) It's like Coke Plus or Extra or More. In America there isn't just Coca Cola, its got more just like our nation.

Reflecting on being home I can say we are an incredible blessed nation. Blessed beyond belief.

I am staying with my friend Tricia who has set me up in her home in such an amazing way. It really is home to me. Like Oussouye and the Center are in Senegal, the corner of Westcott is a home to me here.

I am feeling overwhelmed with the love here. I have been embraced in the last 48 hours more than ten months in Oussouye but of course I am not shaking as many hands and exchanging greetings about their families.

Its great to be home.

Attached are some photos of my long awaited and desired hair cut and highlight. Also the massive amounts of snow on the ground. Ughghgh

Ta ta for now. Much love Kristina

Where I find myself

I told my friend Ramale that on Saturday I would come out to her village and visit her before I leave for the United States. Dvante is really far from Oussouye and there are students who walk every single day all the way to the highschool, home for lunch and back to school six days a week.

I took my bicycle through the villages so I could pray on my way to Dvante. (I have a great bike for the dusty, rocky pathways through the villages) I had to ask directions a couple of times becuase in the bowels of these villages its easy to get lost. I headed towards Kahinda instead of going straight and that was a mistake too, I was twisting and turning through the pathways, around trees and fetish sites. I would turn a corner and there was an alter with a little creature made from wood and bone staring at me. Another corner and the side of a house is covered with bones. At one point I rounded a corner of this big fetish site there, where people go if they have killed someone or taken innocent blood, and I am face to face with this very very old lady. I greet her in Jola and she greets me and touches me and stares at me. All the words in Jola I know are now finished so I just say au revoir and take off.

Someone I knew there spotted me and sent the word out to the girls house I was going to that I was arriving, so her sister starts chasing my bike to greet me and shouting.."Ramale Kristina has come she has come." Hugs and tickels for the children, photos to make them happy and Ramale says she is heading out to the fields to pick the rice.

We start walking and walking and walking. And finally I am face to face with a massive field of rice. Its bizaar when you wake up on Saturday morning and by 9:30 am you are face to face with something you have never seen before, EvER, never done before.....thinking to yourself, I love my life. I absolutely love the total randomness of what happens to me every day. So I spent an hour in the rice taking pictures and talking to the kids working there. I wanted to take some pictures of an old lady but she wanted money, but the children were more than willing.
A day in the life of me.

Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving with two American missionary families near Bignona in a small village called Niamone. We had all the fixings of a real Thanksgiving dinner, including a wish bone.

Pastor Jerome Assine

Last night was my last Thursday night Bible study at Jerome's house. Here are some photos of Jerome and his wife Marie Claire, their son Joshua and the students who live at the their house. The two older boys Gibrail and Serge will be guarding my house when I am in the USA.

Eglise Evangelique D'Oussouye

I took photos of the church last Sunday. There were several of our friends missing but you can see how large the church actually is. We are the second largest evangelical church in the Cassamance region.

Pastor Joe Lambal

Here is a picture of the pastor of the Oussouye Church and his family. His wife is Lucy, daughter Lorna, Jonathan, Sylvan and Elyse.