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| August 2008 |
Friday, August 29, 2008
August in Dakar
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Pictures from Abidjan, Ivory Coast
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| Advance 2008 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast |
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Fun in Sunday School!
We've been attending the International Baptist Church of Dakar. Their services are in English and they sing a mix of American hymns and African worship songs. It takes a few verses to learn to clap on the right beats here! We've chosen to attend here for now because Tina, our childcare helper, attends here. We thought it might help Lucas & Alexis to make a better connection seeing her in our home and in our church.
Because the services are 2 hours long, the kids & I (Allison) stay for the first 30 minutes and then head to the kids class. Today there wasn't a teacher in their class yet so I stayed with Lucas and Alexis. I'd stayed with them the last 2 weeks so I kinda knew where things were. Soon 2 more kids joined us. Then one by one the ushers kept bringing more children. Then a mom brought her daughter and asked if I was the new teacher. Hmmm!!! Pretty soon I had 15 children between 14 months and 5 years and it was quite an experience! Some time later the teacher I'd seen before finally arrived. I think I may have found a great way to minister in a practical way! :-)
Because the services are 2 hours long, the kids & I (Allison) stay for the first 30 minutes and then head to the kids class. Today there wasn't a teacher in their class yet so I stayed with Lucas and Alexis. I'd stayed with them the last 2 weeks so I kinda knew where things were. Soon 2 more kids joined us. Then one by one the ushers kept bringing more children. Then a mom brought her daughter and asked if I was the new teacher. Hmmm!!! Pretty soon I had 15 children between 14 months and 5 years and it was quite an experience! Some time later the teacher I'd seen before finally arrived. I think I may have found a great way to minister in a practical way! :-)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Our first few weeks in Dakar
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| Our 1st few weeks in Dakar |
5 Interesting things we do each week...
1. Break apart our cereal each morning so it will actually pour into our bowl. The humidity makes it form into one mass inside the box.
2. Hurry to carry our garbage to the trash pile at the end of the street when we hear the garbage truck honk. Usually we get 3 honks but sometimes only 1!
3. Decide which room has the best breeze for taking a nap with no electricity.
4. Buy enough mandarin oranges to feed our family. We eat about 2 kilos (4 pounds) every week! This is our new favorite family fruit!
5. When the kids are playing outside we must decide which piece of trash is actually too dirty for them to play with! :-)
2. Hurry to carry our garbage to the trash pile at the end of the street when we hear the garbage truck honk. Usually we get 3 honks but sometimes only 1!
3. Decide which room has the best breeze for taking a nap with no electricity.
4. Buy enough mandarin oranges to feed our family. We eat about 2 kilos (4 pounds) every week! This is our new favorite family fruit!
5. When the kids are playing outside we must decide which piece of trash is actually too dirty for them to play with! :-)
A Fun Little Story
Lucas and Alexis were playing in our living room when Lucas decided he was going to teach a French class and Alexis would be his student. This was what he'd seen mom and dad do the first few days they had class at home. (Now we have class at the Financial office.) He had Alexis sit in a chair across from him and he said to her, "Alexis, repeat after me. HOLA". We just laughed and laughed because HOLA is actually the Spanish word for hello.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Our New Apartment in Dakar
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| Our new apartment in Dakar |
Thursday, August 7, 2008
News from Dakar
Bonjour family & friends! We have just finished our first day of French and wow you really learn a lot in a 3 hour chunk. Dan and I will be heading off to practice all these new vowels and word/sound combos soon. We got to practice a little with the fruit guy who came by. We usually try to go for a walk each night because Lucas needs time to run with the neighborhood kids and we need opportunities to talk with people.
So, let's begin with a typical morning. The house helper across the street begins sweeping the street at about 6:30am. Because all our windows (w/screens because we live near a swamp...and lots of bugs) are open all night, this used to be kind of an alarm clock for me. Now I just sleep thru it and the kids usually wake us up about 7:30am. Ah, breakfast. We do have cereal every morning. We eat the generic cereals which are cheaper ($2-$3 per box). We really like "boules de mais" - little balls of corn. They look like "Corn Pops" cereal but taste like "Captain Crunch." We do buy Kellogg's Rice Krispies for Alexis because they are her favorite but only she gets to eat them because they are almost $8 a box! Milk is interesting. Thankfully our kids have responded well to the whole milk taste. Milk comes in one liter bottles that cost almost $3 each. So, milk is only for breakfast and we drink water at all other times just to stay hydrated.
One encouraging tidbit we've learned from the other missionaries is to celebrate the small victories. So, when the electricity goes out and we still prepare a decent meal-VICTORY! When we can speak French or buy something new from a vendor-VICTORY! we really do count our blessings at the end of each day.
One prayer request we do have is that there is talk about the water pipes in our area being worked on sometime in the near future. The latest word is that we might be 3 days without water. I guess pray that they can work quickly so it doesn't take that long. Also, please pray the our electricity does work during that time because that could certainly push some comfort limits, ya know?
So, let's begin with a typical morning. The house helper across the street begins sweeping the street at about 6:30am. Because all our windows (w/screens because we live near a swamp...and lots of bugs) are open all night, this used to be kind of an alarm clock for me. Now I just sleep thru it and the kids usually wake us up about 7:30am. Ah, breakfast. We do have cereal every morning. We eat the generic cereals which are cheaper ($2-$3 per box). We really like "boules de mais" - little balls of corn. They look like "Corn Pops" cereal but taste like "Captain Crunch." We do buy Kellogg's Rice Krispies for Alexis because they are her favorite but only she gets to eat them because they are almost $8 a box! Milk is interesting. Thankfully our kids have responded well to the whole milk taste. Milk comes in one liter bottles that cost almost $3 each. So, milk is only for breakfast and we drink water at all other times just to stay hydrated.
One encouraging tidbit we've learned from the other missionaries is to celebrate the small victories. So, when the electricity goes out and we still prepare a decent meal-VICTORY! When we can speak French or buy something new from a vendor-VICTORY! we really do count our blessings at the end of each day.
One prayer request we do have is that there is talk about the water pipes in our area being worked on sometime in the near future. The latest word is that we might be 3 days without water. I guess pray that they can work quickly so it doesn't take that long. Also, please pray the our electricity does work during that time because that could certainly push some comfort limits, ya know?
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