Shopping Spree

So as soon as we got off the plane in Meskine, I noticed all of the missionaries were wearing African attire. As if I didn’t stand out enough as a white person, my clothes were glaringly different too. I was in need of a makeover shopping spree.  Well to my dismay, there are no Targets in Meskine or even a shop that sells premade clothes. So just in case you find yourself in a similar situation, here is how to get clothes in a rural African village-

Step 1- go to the weekly market with your Fufulde teacher to “practice greetings, “but really with the secret mission to buy cloth. Get her to haggle the price with the sellers. The cost of cloth for an outfit- about $10 each

Step 2- Soak the cloth in vinegar in your cement “shower”. The vinegar is supposed to prevent the colors from fading.

Step 3- spread the cloth out on your porch because it is monsoon season and it looks like this outside

Step 4- take the cloth to the tailor. (I went to 2 in town as to spread around business. This is Christine). Have someone translate for you what you want and hope that they are actually telling them what you want. (I wanted some dresses- they actually turned out to look like HUGE muumuus- not my favorite).

Step 5- wait 1-2 weeks.

Step 6- Either your domestique (house help) will bring the finished outfits to your house or you take your whole family and bike about a mile to the tailor in 95 degree humid weather. Very important- do not wear a wrap skirt while biking. You will flash the people in the village- trust me- been there, done that!

Step 7- Get lost biking and have to call for directions because every mud hut looks alike.

Step 8- Pick up clothes and literally drip sweat on the tailor as she fixes something on the dress. Then ask how much you owe only to have to ask her to write down the price because you have no idea what she said. Each outfit cost between $3-$10 to have hand made for you.

Step 7- On your way home, stop at your Fufulde teacher’s house because she lives next to the tailor and it is rude not to. Also, play with her cute baby. (Daada Esther also made me an outfit that I picked up)

Step 8- Bike home and drink a big glass of iced tea because you are sooo hot and the electricity is off which means no fans either.

Step 9- Look at your new dresses in a mirror and realize you could sneak an entire family into the movie theatre underneath it because it is a HUGE muumuu!

Step 10- Wait another week and get another missionary who can translate for you to go back to the tailor to see if she can make the HUGE muumuus into a less huge version of a muumuu- only to find out that the tailor is not there.

Step 11- Get another missionary to make the journey with you a few days later. This missionary will yell through the open window in order to get the tailor to open the door for you.

Step 12- Try the clothes on in the tailor's house only to realize when you are naked, that you are not alone in there. Thank God that it is only a teenage girl and a few mice- and not some man!

Step 13- Finally 5 weeks later, return home with some new clothes! Christine made dresses for Charlie also! Isn't my "mini-me" cute?!

A day in the life of an African missionary

Ever wonder what missionaries do? Well, me too. I guess I will learn soon enough. But here is a sample of what we do so far.

Today for example
-6:30- wake up to Charlie popping up in her pack and play saying, "Hi!"

-6:45- take a cold shower because I am too lazy to wait 15 minutes for the water heater and I don't want to take a bath (the only way the hot water really works). The water is luke warm so it is not that bad.

-7:00- Get dressed. Hmm, what to wear? Oh the choices- always a skirt, t-shirt, and head scarf.
-7:10- Get Charlie ready for the day and wake up Josh.
-7:30- Breakfast. This morning was granola and mango. Charlie LOVES mango. She would eat 20 of them if we let her!

-8:00- Fellow missionary Carrie comes with Dada Dorkus (mother of Dorkus- my name is Dada Charlotte!). She will be our domestique (aka- life saver). Everything takes FOREVER here and there would be no way to learn Fufulde and do the house chores, cleaning, and cooking. Also, it provides much needed employment for the people. (I am trying to convince myself of this. It is still a really weird concept, but when in Africa...). Anyway, Carrie comes with Dada Dorkus to translate because she does not speak English which makes things fun.
-8:30- Fufulde lessons begin with Dada Esther and missionary Dave. Lessons are three hours and by the end I literally have trouble remembering my own name or should I say "ingaago."

Charlie plays with Jennica and Linda- her nanny and nanny's three-year-old daughter. Or Charlie is carried around by other people on the station while they work.

-11:30- come home and complete Fufulde homework- write and conjugate 20 sentences. Read them to Josh and have him try and translate. Give up and go eat lunch.
-12:30- LUNCH! Oh my goodness! Josh and  I were hoping to loose weight here, but Dada Dorkus is an amazing cook. We had hamburger steak in the most wonderful gravy with mashed potatoes and green beans. I mean we were licking the plates! We invited Dada Dorkus to eat with us because after I gave her a plate of food, I realized that she was eating on the floor in the kitchen. Did I mention she is 8 months pregnant with baby #7?! Bless her soul, she deserves a chair. So then we practiced our Fufulde on her- most of which she eventually understood.
-1:00- brain break (aka facebook)
-1:30- clean up house and put away laundry
-2:00- put Charlie down for nap
-2:15- make kettle corn for missionary get together night. Burn first batch because not used to overly dramatic gas stove. Burn 2nd batch. Give up. Move onto pizza making for the get together.
-3:00- skype with my dad
-3:45- pizza making
-4:45- shower again because some days are a 2 shower kind of day! This time I choose a red shirt and green scarf. I kind of look like a Christmas pirate!
-5:00- "graduation" ceremony for 4 of the mission kids on their last day of school with Miss. Laura.

-5:30- bake the pizza

-6:00- going away pizza party for Miss. Laura complete with Coke, charade's, andJenga!

-7:30- bathe Charlie in the cement tub which is loads of fun now that she hates bath time. Maybe it is the cold water.
-8:00- Charlie bedtime in our room with the AC. Take down laundry from the line that Dada Dorkus washed and hung up. Spray ants in bathroom and in kitchen. Step on ants in dining room. Sweep up dead ants.
-8:30- blog :) and kill more bugs
-9:30- relax!
-10:00- Take malaria medicine, use light from phone to check bed for bugs, crawl under mosquito net and go to sleep!

Well, now you know!

More pictures!

There has been a request for more pictures! I know, we have been horrible. It is not that we are hoarding them and not sharing, it is just that we have not taken very many! We are still trying to learn when it is appropriate!

But here is are the few we have taken:

This is Shar-loat's nanny Jennica and her daughter Linda. Jennica and Linda come during the mornings when we are in language lessons. They are both answers to prayers! Jennica speaks English and Linda is a great play buddy for Shar-loat (that is how everyone says her name!)

This is right outside our house during today's rain storm. You will notice that it is far less green than our last home. It is more desert like. This spot is also home to this guy...

A horse! Or a puuco in Fulfulde or a puppy in Charlie language. 

This is outside thr front of our house. The river is only there when it rains.

Charlie's room

Our room. Sorry the picture is so bad, I literally took it in the dark because Charlie was sleeping. Why is she not sleeping in her room you ask? Well, this room has air conditioning and it would be rude of us not to share.

Our bathroom. Since cement floors are all trendy in the U.S., I am going to brag now and say that all of our floors are cement... but wait there is more... so are our bathtubs! Yep, tile walls with a cement basin. Odd and slippery.

Our guest bathroom. (aka the entry point for 5 million ants- that is until I used a bug spray called "Rambo." Stuff worked! No more ants!)

Our kitchen.

Our dining room. And yes the computer is open to facebook- a link to another world.

And Josh studying Fufulde in our living room!

A jamo na?

Are you well? Well, we are after our first day of Fufulde language learning! We arrived yesterday to Meskine. Whoa we are at the African Ritz of missionary stations. Our house is huge. Josh thinks it is like 1700 square feet (including our 2 screened in porches).  And we have AC in our master bedroom! And each room has a ceiling fan which is unheard of in Africa. But the faint of heart still should not pack their bags for a vacation here because there are still many things here that make American life seem ridiculously easy (maybe I will touch on those another time).

So as I said, language study started with Damaurice our French/Fufulde language helper who does not speak a word of English. But she can say everything with her face. Especially when you cannot trill your r’s like me. She looks like she ate a whole lemon.

Today we learned how to greet one another. There are literally 7 questions you must ask. Luckily there is only one response to all the questions- fine. Here is how a morning greeting goes.

·         Assalaamu aleekum (Peace be with you)

o   Wa aleekum-ussalaam (and peace with you)

·         Jabbaama (welcome in)

o   Mi jabi (I accept)

·         A waali jam na? (did you sleep well)

o   Jam (fine)-not like the stuff you spread on bread.  The j and m are pronounced the same as in English, but the a is like a Spanish a or like the "a" in "father”

·         A weeti jam na? (how has your morning been?)

o   Jam

·         A fini jam na? (Did you wake fine?)

o   Jam

·         A jamo na? (are you fine?)

o   Jam

·         Jam banndu na? (is your body well?)

o   Jam

·         Jam bikkon na?(are your children well?)

o   Jam

·         Jam saare na? (is your household well?)

o   Jam

·         Useko madalla (I am done. Thank you)

Then the other person asks the questions and you say fine to all of them- even if it is not fine. You always say “jam.”

In the afternoon, one of the missionaries came by and said would you like to go to the village and practice your greetings. Feeling like a moron, I wanted to say no, but knew that was not really an option so I got up and followed. Not too far outside of the missionary/hospital station is a small village. The missionary did not know the people, but knew their culture and knew they would be friendly and invite us in. And that they did. Everyone. She talked fluently with them and then said, “Your turn.” To which I gracefully pulled out my cheat sheet and read my phrases like a kindergartener. To which they all replied, “jam” in between their giggling. They were all very kind and welcoming. They told me to come back every day which is good because the missionary told me I had to practice my daily lesson with 15 people each day!

And I learned that they really do reply “jam” even if everything is not “jam.” One lady after reporting that her children were “jam,” later told us that her 2 year old son was sick. He was lethargic on the ground and shivering- most likely malaria. The missionary told her to go to the pharmacy and buy malaria treatment. We were also able to pray for him. Please keep him in your prayers also, so that she may see the powerful work of the Lord.

So yeah, today was really jam.

A Post from Josh!!

What a post from Josh? Well, kind of. I stole this from an email he wrote to his mom. I thought it might be nice to have a different perspective on the situation:

I spent another day on the
town today returning a cell phone that Lori bought that didn't work.
Surprisingly they replaced it with another working one.  It's hard to
complain when you are only paying $18 for a cell phone.  I had a
little moment today that I'm sure I'll look back on and laugh.  We
moved our stuff that will go to Gamboula over to Ron and Janet's house
which is not but 1000 feet down the main road from where we are at.
He drove me over and then presumed I would just walk back.  I have to
admit, I had a little apprehension walking down the road by myself.
There are tons of people everywhere, and I honestly didn't know how to
cross the street when pedestrians don't have the right of way and
there's bumper to bumper traffic.  I'd heard stories about
missionaries getting robbed walking down this road and all these
horror stories about children getting shot up because they wouldn't
give their lunch money to robbers...Needless to say I arrived home
safely, didn't get hit by a car and even managed to exchange greetings
with a few people in French.
Early in the day we went to the store to buy some eggs.  I think we
did pretty good to start, "Je voudrais cinq oeufs si vous plait".  She
got the eggs for us and calculated the total.  She said some really
long number and I just couldn't keep up with it.  Also consider that
10,000 CF is only $20.  After a few seconds of tying to process the
number she told me, she just wrote it down and I paid her in coins.  I
guess she was used to the non-french speaking white people in the
area.

We are flying North on Sunday to Meskine, but before we do here are some pics of where we have been staying in Yaounde!

This is some of the stuff we brought

Our bathroom- notice the brown thing next to the toilet. It is a gas tank connected to the box above it- instant hot water! The blue tub is Charlie's bathtub

Our room- and the mosquito net is not just for decoration!

The living room

The kitchen- um where is the dishwasher

Outside our apartment

If you look closely, there is a little Charlie in there!

May 24- shopping!

May 24- Shopping!

Some might say that I am an avid shopper. Let’s just say I know my way around every Target and Walmart within 100 miles of our house in Cave Creek. Well, today I had a shopping first- I was completely overwhelmed!

The shopping trip started by hiring a taxi driver to take us to the shops because you have never seen crazy drivers until you come to Africa. There are no street lines, few traffic lights, and even fewer rules. Basically there is one rule- push your way through- whether you are a person or a car. And there are people everywhere- dodging in and out of the cars and selling all sorts of goods to the cars stuck in traffic. Moses is our taxi man around here. He is trust worthy and reliable. He doesn’t just drop us off and come back, he stays in the car the whole time and guards our stuff from sticky fingers. Thank God for Moses!

 Big buildings, small shops that specialize in one kind of item such as toilets, roadside huts, smoke, red dust, beggars asking for money, and a million items for sell can be seen all around in town.  Sights of green or nature are few and far between. There is hustle and bustle everywhere. Sounds of horns honking, people yelling, and loud radios fill the air as we drive through town with our windows down.

Aleta and I are shopping for goods that we cannot get in Central African Republic. I think we went to 4 shops to get what we need/wanted. I didn’t take pictures because it is not allowed which is a shame because there is no way to describe these stores. The best way I guess is to think of a dollar store in a small town that has a little bit of everything- some groceries, some home goods, some clothes.  You know the general stores that are dusty and have really random stuff.  There were name brands that we have in the states like huggies diapers, pantene shampoo, and Nutella. But these have a name brand price! For example there was a box of Reynold’s wrap aluminum foil for $25! Twenty five dollars! But then there were “dollar store” type knock off brands for $3. The stores had names like “Price Leader” and “American Shopper,” but the missionaries here call them the $3 store because most things were $3.

So what does one buy to live in the bush in Africa? That is what I asked Aleta! In the first store, I just wandered around aimlessly. By the 2^nd one, we were on a roll. I ended up just buying whatever Aleta bought! Here is a sample of our goodies- huge bags of powdered and brown sugar, toiletries such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, balsamic vinegar, canned green beans, towels, ant spray, and bouillon cubes. We even bought Kraft mac and cheese, Ghirardelli brownie mix, Jiff peanut butter, and Tide detergent (these were not quite the Reynold’s wrap prices!). In fact we filled the taxi up completely and are headed back tomorrow!

For lunch we went to a bakery. I have never smelled anything so wonderful! We got croissants with ham and cheese! And even a flat Coca-Cola lite!  All in all, it was a great day!