DAY 5: The Beauty of the People

 

Beni (Blessed): one of the children at I.B.B.T

   The people that we served during our trip were tremendous. They had incredible stories, an amazing amount of generosity, and were strong in the face of whatever was to come.  When they had only a little they shared with us and when we spoke they listened with all their hearts. There is a beauty to these people that is hard to describe. 

The Ife women

   

Note: This blog is very late due to a prolonged internet failure and life in general. Sorry, guys!

 When morning worship was over the lesson began. The mother of twins was having trouble keeping her baby, Joy from crawling away so I got to hold her and play with her. It's such a hard job :-)  Joy definitely earned her name. She giggled, laughed, and cooed when you held her up in the air, talking nonsense about whoever was sitting next to you (literally nonsense, not just an African dialect). She would clap her hands with delight when you sang at her and played with her toes. Joy loved attention. If you waved at her across a room, you would be rewarded with a wide 1-toothed smile. 

The twins: Grace on the left and Joy on the right. 

 We did a survey among the women. We asked them to bring a physical object representing a need in their community. Gathering stones, four for each woman, we passed them out, telling them to place the pebbles next to each need that they thought was the most relevant. A few of the needs were education, medicine, food, clean water, Biblical training for young women and girls, a pharmacy, and others. They were all picked by the women. 

  

  When it was all said and done, Need #1 was a pharmacy. 

 (Cultural fact: here in West Africa, where we live at least, you don't need a doctor's prescription for most medicines)

 Mom and Dad took this survey so we could find a project for the women to do that was related to community needs. However, it needed to be a small project, and building a pharmacy is obviously not something you can do in 2 or 3 days that is inexpensive.  So we tried to come up with 'Plan B.'  But first, chapel and lunch break. 

  Daddy was asked to speak in chapel. 

(Cultural fact: You might be asked to preach the minute you innocently walk into the church you attend if you are a pastor! Also you may be asked to pray out of the blue for the offering or choir, e.t.c.)  

If you attend a chapel service there, you will hear people talking during the sermon/devotion. At first I thought everyone was discussing the message or chatting about something, but I later realized they were translating the message into Ewe, Ife, and so on. It was a bit of a 'duh' moment for me. :) 

Lunch (with the tents still inside)

  For lunch Mme. Tchalare sent some Basa sauce (Basa is yet another African tribe) and corn meal mush to go with our Yovo food (Yovo is the Ewe equivalent of Gringo in Spanish). As soon as Tata Louise opened the pot Mom said, "Oh my that smells good!" Of course, it had fish in it :) So Mommy ate it and Daddy didn't. Daddy doesn't like fish with all the bones.

  Aidan stuck the thermometer outside just to see how hot it was. We were only sitting still, but sweat was dripping down our faces, trickling slowly down the back and sides of our necks and chins, soaking through our shirts, BLAAAAAH....  After a while we checked the thermometer and you will not believe it: 121.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Aaaugh! :) 

In case you don't believe me...

 Not only was it this hot, but Tristan was suffering from a bad allergy attack (he says he was more sick than I was, but I highly doubt that). 

Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot... you get the idea :)

   Because of his allergies, Tristan Kept. On. Sneezing. It got to the point Daddy would tell him, "Okay Tristan, go blow up outside." whenever Tristan drew in for an 'achoo.'  But this was not all that we got on to him for. Somehow, somewhere, for some reason, Tristan had 'accidentally' maybeonpurpose forgotten his deodorant when we packed. Trust me, this is not just an 'oh well, he forgot' life goes on thing. When Tristan forgets his deodorant, everyone in the room knows. Mom walked in the room and said, "Tristan, I walk in the room and I smell you." None of us were happy about this arrangement (Aidan adds here, "Hey! I had to sleep in the same tent with him!")

"Smell my victory!"   (a movie reference)

   For women's group that afternoon we found a small 1 day pharmacy project the women could do: worm vaccinations in a neighborhood where they lived. This is actually still in the works, so if you could pray that we get it figured out, it would be a HUGE help!

Then Mom took Christianna, Aidan, and me to the "downtown" area. We passed a beautiful pond, some school kids that followed us, a blacksmith, and some weavers.

The Blacksmith (in red)

Our fan club...

Weavers making cloth 

Pigs!

  We met some women at the pump when we got back. They asked about us and laughed (though they are quite stone-faced in the picture above)

 Mom had asked me that morning to take pictures of all the students and their families (imagine trying to download ALL of these with our internet; headache!)

    Delicately putting it, there was not much for these people to eat. In the second picture above, you see a mother cooking cornmeal mush. Usually the families have one meal a day and then whatever else they can find, which is usually the mangos that fall from the trees. As Tata Louise put it, 'they really have nothing.' But look at their faces.

   They may have little, but they have much more than many. It was wonderful working with these people, and I look forward to when we can go back.

We were able to sleep outside again and the night was beautiful; there was a full moon and many more stars than even the first night. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed it.