⎨Ville⎬Last Day in Africa

Blogging: Stephen Style!

Once upon a time, Carlin and Stephen had a day in the capital city of the country in Africa where they have been visiting for the past three weeks. They sat around and thought they would be bored all day, just waiting for a plane to take them somewhere else the next day. When suddenly Stephen sat up and exclaimed, “Eureka! What if we went on a tour of this fine city? We can call a taxi and he can show us the sights.” 

“That’s sound like a fine idea dear. You are so wise, and smart, and handsome. Let us venture forth into this here city.”

So they called a cabbie named Moses who spoke English and was more than happy to show them around. 

Upon finding out the handsome young couple was from Canada, Moses told them that his family sister lived in Canada. When Stephen clarified that it was his sister, Moses said that it was his father’s younger brother’s daughter - they both have the same grandfather, so they are brother and sister, not cousins.

Their first stop was the central market, a great hullabaloo of commerce and activity. You could buy anything from used car parts from Europe to, as Stephen swiftly purchased, soccer jerseys.

After a successful purchase, our intrepid couple carried on as Moses drove them to a very high peak overlooking the whole city. He said there are just under four million people dwelling therein.

Then, just like that, they were off again. Moses drove them past the presidential building and dwellings and pointed out a number of embassies, including the massive US embassy. 

US Embassy

One of the Prime Minister's Buildings - Not to be confused with the President's

He then drove them to an artisan market. There the fine young couple made a few purchases of handcrafted local goods and continued on their way. Moses drove them past a famous monument for the city. He said it was funny, yesterday marked 30 years of unification between the French and English parts of the country. But lately the smaller English part is talking about separation - they feel mistreated and disrespected by the French part. “Ironic,” Stephen thought,

 “just like Canada, only in reverse.”

Then Moses brought our weary travelers home. “I’m glad we did this.” said Stephen.

“Me too.” said Carlin, "you are so intelligent, I'm glad I married you. I will always listen to everything you say."

It was a grand day. One that neither will soon forget!

Tidbits:

-Temp: 25ºC

-The city felt so much more “alive” than where we have spent most of our time. More hustle and bustle. I think this is due to the cooler climate,  larger population and the fact that men and women are both out and about.

- This post was written by Stephen while Carlin wasn’t watching and in no way reflects her style or approval.

-Here's some random things growing on trees around where we were staying (see how bored we were before Stephen's wonderful idea of a tour?):

⎨Au revoir⎬Days 17-18

Saturday was our last full day in this town with Treven and Melanie and the kids.

We spent some time taking family photos (here's a sampling of a couple of my favourites).

And then we spend the afternoon with another family living in the neighbouring town. We got to hear stories of their ministry and just spend our last day relaxing and connecting together.

When we got back home in the evening, there were a few kids outside so we figured that we would give

 away some candy that we had brought along. Stephen handed out a couple of them and then word spread really fast because children came running from all around. One little boy that was being carried by his older sister got really scared of Stephen and would cry and scream if his sister brought him too close. 

Mmm... suckers.

On Sunday morning we went to the airport and said our goodbyes. We are sad to be leaving and to have to say goodbye to our friends. They have been such gracious hosts and have showed us so much of their lives and ministry here. We are grateful for their kindness and friendship. Thank you Treven and Melanie for inviting us into your home and allowing us to do life with you. Thank you Tiana and Micah for laughing and playing with us and letting us take over your house! 

And now, after 2 flights (we stopped unexpectedly in another city) we are in the capital city once again. We were immediately struck by how green everything was! There is grass! It is such a contrast from the North where we have spend the majority of our time. I almost can't believe we are still in the same country - from desert to rainforest in an hour flight. It's also kind of weird that we are no longer in an area where I have to wear a veil. It's a completely different culture in the South and we hope to be able to experience a bit of it today.

We are staying in the capital city for 2 nights before we fly out to Rome on Tuesday. It's hard to believe that our time is coming to a close. It feels like it flew by and I can't even really remember all that has happened right now. We hope we will be able to use this time to really reflect on our experience and let everything sink in. I hope to write some reflections in another post.

Until next time,

Carlin (& Stephen)

Tidbits:

- 28ºC yesterday. It is significantly cooler here and it's kind of weird to not be sweating all the time.

- At about 6PM a huge thunderstorm blew in that knocked the power out. It was pretty phenomenal. Thunder and lightning and torrential downpour. 

- Yesterday (May 20) was this country's independence day. There were parades in the towns and there were supposed to be fireworks in the capital, but they likely were cancelled due to the storm. The parades are made up of all the kids from each school dressed in their uniforms and marching through the street. We got to see one group practicing for the parade earlier in the week, but were flying when it was actually happening. 

⎨Jawro⎬Day 16

We got to go visit a bush village today.

We drove about an hour outside the town on a dirt road to get to a small village. Actually, there wasn't even a road for part of the way. The boy that came with us to guide us there had us turn off the road at one point and told us to drive into what looked like the middle of nowhere. We drove around trees and bushes and weren't sure that he knew where he was taking us. 

Slowly, though, a road started to form and it took us to the village. We were greeted by a "grandma" whom Treven and Melanie knew from a time a few years ago when they stayed in this village for 10 days. She put down a big mat for us to sit on and have a visit. 

My initial observation of this village is that the kids seem more apprehensive about me. They don't sit close to me, and when I smile at them, they look away. I began to look for something I could start playing with, and these little fruit things kept falling from the tree above us. So I started playing with the stems and tying them in knots. During this time I kept trying to smile at the girls and soon a few of them came over and sat next to me. I "honked" their noses and they giggled. They showed me the little sticks that they all have in their noses as "piercings". The little girl in the below picture with the green head wrap started making eyes at me, and we began exchanging silly faces. Soon all the kids started smiling and giggling and we began communicating that way. 

At about that time a huge windstorm came up and was blowing dust everywhere. The people moved our mat inside a partially enclosed hut and we visited there some more. This time the boys sat next to me and I "honked" their noses too and they soon started talking to us and playing games with us.

The windstorm was getting worse so we were moved into one of the mud huts for a while until the storm calmed down. When we went back outside we took a few photos:

Impressive hey?

and played some games:

This is the same "jacks" game that I showed in a previous post. I tried it and they all laughed at me cause I'm not very good at it.

Everyone wants to be in the front of the picture! 

I think this guy was the "class clown"

We ended up staying here for lunch. Pretty much as soon as we arrived they went and killed a chicken for us to eat. We had that along with some millet Nyiiri and Haako.

After lunch we played a while longer and I tried to ask the kids to help me learn some of their language. It's really hard to try and explain something when you don't have any basis for each other's language. I would say something and they would all mimic me as though I was teaching them English. After several minutes of confusion they seemed to understand and started teaching me some words. They taught me how to count to 10 and say the parts of the face. It was also a struggle to communicate that I wanted to know their names. When they finally understood, they would say their names and then laugh at me when I attempted to say them back. A lot of the names are very similar to each other and are names that have no resemblance to English names. The only name I recognized was Yasmine.

At one point I started singing a few simple songs and everyone got really quiet just to listen. When I would finish they would ask for another song.

Near the end of the time, all the kids kept motioning to breasts and making sucking sounds. I was extremely confused and started feeling self-conscious, like they were asking me something about my body or commenting on my body. While I'm still not completely sure, I think what they were asking me is if I had any children. The way they ask that in this culture is to ask if a woman is nursing, which would make sense why the kids were motioning like that. I told them that I had no children (at least I think that's what I told them). In this culture a woman my age should have a few children already, so I think that it's kind of strange to them that I don't have children yet.

At the end of our time as we were leaving, the kids all ran after our car for several "blocks", grabbing onto the back of the car and waving after us. 

It was a great experience to see a small village like this. It's kind of hard to imagine that most of these kids will spend their whole lives in this little area. It's simple. It's secluded. It's such a different life than what I have. 

When we got back to town, Stephen went with Treven to the market and passed by this sign that I had wanted to get a picture of. Because it's funny. Stephen can tell the story...

So Treven and I had gone to pick up some fruit and we passed by a billboard that Carlin has wanted a picture of since we got here. I asked if we would pass by it on the way home and Treven said yes. When we passed by again I tried to take a picture of it from the car but it didn't work, so Treven pulled over and I said I would get out and go take a picture of it. Treven said that would be fine but to make sure I took the picture straight on the sign, because to the left was a police station (you are not allowed to take pictures of police officers or any government buildings here). I quickly ran over, took the picture and ran back to the car to discover it was locked and Treven wasn't there. I looked around and saw him talking to the police officers. Apparently they saw me and started pointing at me when I took the picture so Treven decided to go over and talk to them and explain. Everything was fine when he explained - no African jail for me. One of the officers even spoke a little English and said to me, "Welcome to Africa. We are not a rich country, but we are happy." 

The picture of the billboard that almost got Stephen arrested

(Back to Carlin) In the evening Treven and Melanie went out on a date and Stephen and I watched the kids. We brought along an ice cream "ball" that you fill with ice and salt and are able to make ice cream by shaking the ball around and playing with it to churn the ice cream. We had a lot of fun with that and the ice cream was so good! 

Blessings,

Carlin & Stephen

Tidbits:

- 33ºC with a windstorm in the village and a lot of rain in town. We actually got cold sleeping in the night!

- Stephen bought a hat to match his Boubou. He thinks he's going to wear it everyday. I think otherwise.

- Stephen and Treven bought some mangoes today. The man that they bought them from gave us a gift of peanuts as a sign of loyalty and to build the friendship. The culture here is one of give and take, and so vendors will often give gifts to customers in order to build that friendship. All relationships seem to work in this way. Coming from a North American mindset, this can appear that both parties are only friends because of what they can get from one another. Yet in this culture it is a sign of respect to give gifts and establish a connection this way.

- Stephen got to meet the chief of the village (only the men were able to go) and gave him a gift of tea and sugar. We tried some of the tea and it is very sweet! They really like their sugar. 

⎨Boubou⎬Day 15

We got to go to H's house again this morning for a visit.

It was really fun to be able to go back and visit for the second time. We were greeted with much excitement and immediately we were able to play games with the kids and continue getting to know one another. We had brought a few photos along from Canada of Stephen and I in front of Lake Louise in the wintertime, and also a picture of a snowman that we had made. Our little book got passed around for quite some time and the women and children studied the snow and many said that they wanted to come to Canada with us. When I took out my camera this time even the ladies wanted their pictures taken. They asked me to take many photos and even went and got changed into their best outfits to come have a photo taken. They would each take turns with one of their best veils for their photos. Unfortunately I can't post the photos of the women for security purposes but here's some of the kids...

The boys had a pair of old glasses that they all took turns getting a picture with:

This is the outside of their house. Most of the living area is outside.

Washing clothes

I hope that we were a blessing to this family and in some small way can encourage them in their walk. 

H seemed encouraged by our visit and commented that he was happy that we had walked all the way to his house in the hot sun. (The walk took about 20 minutes) 

And here's Stephen in his Boubou that H made for him! H is a tailor by trade. A boubou is the traditional dress for men here. It can be made in any number of colours but is usually just one solid colour and usually not very bright colours. It's drawstring pants and a long shirt that looks more like a dress.

 Doesn't Stephen look like an angel?

When we got home Tiana and Micah and I goofed off a bit and took some silly pictures just for fun:

Tiana twirling in her new dress:

In Him,

Carlin (& Stephen)

Tidbits:

- 40ºC today

- The car came back from the shop this evening

- Today was a holiday here (Ascension Day) so the kids didn't have school. They were told in the morning that today would be a video game free day, even though Micah figured playing video games would be an excellent way to celebrate Jesus' Ascension. We had fun playing UNO, Memory and Scrabble Junior with them during the afternoon.