True Bush Livin' : 36 Hrs of Observing Village Life

  CRUNCH - BUMP!  Mom and I clapped and cheered from the back as our chauffeur, Marcellin, navigated the treacherous dirt roads.  We were in our tightly packed van and though no one had leg room the air was on full blast and no one was hot - yet. We were on our way to a village with a pastors' school that my dad was going to teach at and that my mom was going to do women's ministry at. Evangelist Samuel and Pasteur Edouard were also going with us. 

A view of our car

Skip back: early Sunday morning, everyone in our family got up early and scrambled around in pajamas to finish last minute tasks. Then our team mates arrived. 

 

M. Samuel, le evangelist :)

M. Marcellin, le chauffeur 

Aidan and I were the photographers; Mom wanted someone else to take pictures so that I would be in some of them, which is funny because Aidan's camera ran out of battery power right after we got settled it.

Photographer #1

You will notice I am wearing a skirt in this picture.  In the village, girls older than 12 are not allowed to wear shorts, Capri's, OR pants.  If I was the height of the 12 year old girls here I could get away with wearing Capri's or pants. But I am as tall (if not taller) than most 16-17 year old girls here, and some grown women. Hence the long, hot, skirt. :) 

Photographer #2 , Aidan

Where Mom and I sat; with our mattresses. 

Once we finally got on the road at about 9 on Sunday morning, everyone except Christianna was fully awake and ready to get to business.... we got there five hours later. But the trip was... smooth, though you can't really say that because of all the bumps. All we can say is, no one threw up.

What I love about this video is how the men sway in unison! 

  Aidan sat up front, so he got all the GOOD pictures!

A very NEATLY organised 'West Africa Van' :)

A Fulani herd of cattle

We saw about 7 herds of cattle in all; Mom got so excited every time she saw one and she would say, "Oh, I hope we get to eat one of those!"

After about 2 and a half hours, we pulled over at a gas station. I got some great pictures there.

Tristan really enjoyed having the leg room!

I just feel a disaster coming....

A pink bus? It's all mine!!! :)

Then we got back in the van for another 2 and a half hours and made it to Out-In-the-Middle-of-Nowhere. 

  Once upon a time, there were more than one missionary from our agency in our country, and our mission built a bridge to make it easier for the missionaries and locals to get around. It became too old and so they built another (the one we are driving on in the picture). The locals were so grateful the area became known as 'Jésus est la chemin'  which means 'Jesus is the way' in honor of our mission. Now we are the only missionaries from our organisation. 

Then we pulled up!  

Partially used solar panels on the director's house.

  It was hot; I mean, really, Really, REALLY HOT. A bunch of kids, some older girls and boys and the director stood in the yard. The kids gawked at us like we were from Mars. It got really unsettling to have teenage boys staring at you all the time. Uungh! 

We arrived!!! Our team stayed in an abandoned missionary modular home.

  Our lodging (the abandoned missionary modular home) was rather nice, though it WAS abandoned and had wasps nests, ants, and no electricity or running water. None of the fans worked, either. But despite all, it was great! Much better than we had expected, actually. :)

EVERYONE helped us carry all our luggage in.

The front yard. 

  Random students came and took dead wood from the front yard.

Helping carry....

Staring.....uungh! 

Director Thomas

Administratuer Michel

First ten minutes after unloading, what do you do? Blleeaahh.....

Our 'fan club' just sat outside. Some of them just came right on in and gazed at us and whatever we happened to be doing at that moment. :)

Dad, Pst. Edouard, the Administrator, and the Director sat down and planned out their teaching schedule.

  

Kids...

...more kids...

....even more kids....

  The girls of whom I took the above picture were way more polite than all the boys. When I greeted them, they curtsied and said, "Bonjour, Mama." I took the above picture of their stone-faced, beautiful looks and then showed them.  Their whole faces lit up and they pointed and cried out, "Look, that's me!" (in French) then hastily glanced up at me, bowed, and said, "Merci, Mama." 

In the end, I told them to stop calling me 'Mama' because I was only two or four years older than them. They found that really hard to believe, but super funny in the end. 

 Then Tristan and I explored the house and backyard, looking for a place to pitch our tents (there were only enough foam mattresses in bed frames for Mom, Dad, and Pst. Edouard, and we were suspicious it would be hot that night). 

Wasps nests everywhere!!!!

A 'GranAnnie' cabinet ;)

"Aidan, what are you doing with my camera?!?"

The teenage girls went back and forth, getting us enough water to last us a week! They were really sweet (and STRONG!).

Then Mom and Tristan went to a boutique in the village to grab some things; and Tristan took my camera.

A girl in the boutique

Oh, really? .....

One of five mosques in the village.

Once Mom got back, we went to greet the director's wife; she's an amazing lady!

Then we had to go greet the village chief. This is a welcomed cultural expectation. 

The chief

Poor Tristan had terrible allergies from all of the dust in the air (Harmattan was still in the village). He kept sneezing while we were talking to the chief. 

.... and..yawning... ;)

 Then we went back to our house. Mme. Director had made a very traditional African meal for us - fufu (pronounced 'foo foo').  

Fufu is boiled yam pounded with a giant mortar and pestle into a dough like substance that is very sticky. You eat it with your hands and dip it in a sauce; peanut sauce, fish sauce, chicken sauce, you name it, but it's all spicy!

We had a lot of fun!!!

Christianna and I ate with our hands; at first, Mom was like, "Maryann, you eat just like an African!" but Marcellin was like, "No, you have to dip it all the way in the sauce!" and gave a demonstration. 

   Two students came and played around with a gas generator for two hours or so until they got most of the lights working. Then the kids got to set up camp. :)

You can see all the dust particles floating in the air from the flash.

Once we got the tents set up, it was dark and we couldn't see them very well :) But try sleeping right next to a gas generator!!! It is bad news. Dad was meeting with students and needed the light, so for about an hour we lay in the dark playing with our flashlights and teasing the mosquitoes that flew up to get our hands that we pressed on the sides of the tent; they always hit the netting when we took our hands away. 

This is Christianna. She stuck her flashlight part way in her mouth and her nostrils glowed!! Us girls discovered it and hollered loudly at the boys what to do, then we all had glowing noses. It was great!!!

Tristan swinging his flashlight in a circle.

The Serious Professor and his students.

   We made one mistake: it was Harmattan. And at night during the Harmattan, it gets cold. And in Africa, below 70 is FREEZING. Like, really, Really, REALLY COLD!!!!!!! And all we had brought were a bunch of sheets. Ha ha ha ha. Good luck there! Tristan chickened out at about midnight and went inside, but Christianna fell asleep. Aidan and I slept too, but we also found three constellations of stars, including Orion and Scorpio. We woke up with numb feet and fell around the house walking around trying to get them warm. It was really funny!!!  Also, starting at 5 a.m. and going nonstop, roosters crowed. And when I say nonstop, I mean nonstop. There must have been about 10 all crowing in order over and over and over.

 Aidan and I wrapped all our sheets around Christianna to keep her warm.   

Christianna in the girl's tent. :) All cozy!

Tristan sleeping 

We had a great breakfast with hot cocoa! 

M. Samuel sent a bottle of water over to the director's house to be heated for hot cocoa. He said he would have sent 'regular' water, but our Yovo (African dialect for caucasian) stomachs were too weak. :) Mme. Director later sent some 'regular' hot water to dip -bathe in.

A flower I found in the yard.

  And then our day began! Dad had to go and teach at 7:30 and at 8 Mom and the rest of us headed out to Student Housing to meet all the women.

                           But first Christianna had to wake up and eat noodles for breakfast. 

Then we went to meet the women!!

Student housing. There is another row opposite this one. 

Some sweet little kids.

They could not get enough of the "autobus" (i.e. our van) - they kicked the tires, ran their hand over the perimeter of the outside, hit it with their hands, raced around it... or stood and stared at it opened mouthed. It was hysterical.

  The women all sat on the wall of the gazebo dressed in the colorful African cloth. They were curious and would laugh at some things we did, but it was all in good fun and they were really quite nice. There was a spattering of 8 different African dialects, and about half understood colonial French, and they helped each other out if they didn't understand what Mom or M. Samuel were saying.

Mom accomplished a lot that day. She gave her testimony, asked what their biggest struggles were (so she would know what to teach), jotted down all their names and ages, and prayed. This was basically her test run. She would get to know her ground so we know what to do the next time we visit.  Then she asked: What is one thing you personally really want for me to teach you? The Top 2 answers? Health & Hygiene  and How to Teach other Women. Wow. That surprised me and yet it didn't. 

I could not get enough of those kids 

Big sister helping out.

A quick nap on a hard concrete floor with Mommy's outer skirt for a blanket.

  There was one young mother there with twins. In the above picture one is on her back and one in her lap laughing with her. She was thrilled when I took her picture and showed it to her.

   Dad was teaching during all of this.

   And then it was time for good-byes. My camera was almost dead (these pictures were the best of ALL the pictures I took) but we managed to squeeze in two more. Both are candid because we weren't sure if it would take or not, which made it look really good!

Guess what everyone is looking at? You'll never know... ;)

My favorite picture-everyone gathered around the screen trying to see the picture. What a cultural difference!

     The trip was a success; we figured out everything that we did wrong and we are going to do things differently next time. That qualifies as a success!!!!! :) (woah, this was a long post!)