⎨Sannu⎬Day Two

Sannu!

Today is a good day. I wake up with the sun this morning after a very hot sleep with the fan blowing on me all night long. It is hot all night long and by the time I wake up in the morning it is already 36ºC. Melanie welcomes some visitors right away in the morning onto the property. We sit together with one of H's wives and some of her children, and have a visit. It is pretty much impossible for me to communicate, so while Melanie goes through the greetings, I sit and smile at the children. Some of them smile back, some just stare at me, and some shy away. When the people here are ready to leave they say three times during the conversation that they are going to go, and the traditional response is "Oh you're going?" until finally they will get up, grasp our hands and say they will see us later. We have been invited to go and visit this family on their property when we are not so tired.

Stephen goes with Treven to the market today while I take a nap. They are looking for an air cooler, to help cool off a room in the evening to make things easier to sleep. He says he meets a couple men who try to talk to him until they realize he doesn't speak French - but they remain so gracious and still acknowledged him when it is time to go. They then go and pick up the kids from school. They are in a French school that goes from kindergarden through grade twelve but the classes are only a half day everyday. The curriculum is approved by and from France. Tiana is apparently really picking up French quite well and enjoys school, while Micah isn't so sure about French and has a ton of excuses why he doesn't need to go to school each day.

Later in the afternoon Melanie takes me with her to visit with another family. We walk onto their property and Melanie calls out a greeting which means "Peace be with you". Two women with a baby invite us into their "room" - a sign that they have welcomed us. We sit and talk with them and one women explains that she has been sick, and gets out the medicine that she has been taking. They then take us to another home, which is actually about 6 or 7 homes that are all on the same gated compound, and introduce us to some women that Melanie had not met yet. These women along with many children come and sit down and visit with us for quite some time. While I don't understand what they are talking about, I can tell at several points in the conversation that they are talking about me. They giggle when Melanie tells them that I don't speak either French or their local language. The women ask Melanie if she does the "prayers" as she is dressed with the head covering and in traditional clothes. Melanie has told women when they ask her this that she prays (using a different word for prayer than what is used for the ritualistic prayers of this culture), but she prays all day long. She wears the head covering as a sign of respect to these women, and also to the men. As we leave, everyone shakes my hand and we tell them that we will come back another day.

This evening cooled off a bit, from 42 to a breezy 35ºC.  Stephen says that he never knew 35 could feel so cool! We are experiencing a bit of culture shock but Treven and Melanie are helping us understand and are answering our many questions. This feels like a completely different world, even from the other part of the country that we were in a couple days ago. We had been told this fact by many people before we traveled up here, but it really does feel like a different world. One that I personally have never been exposed to before.  We are learning a lot and are looking forward to the coming days when we will get to go to the market and spend some time in the town.

In Him,

Carlin (and Stephen)