It's Christmas Time

Living here in West Africa you don’t experience the Christmas Season the same way you would in America; in fact it's a lot different. There is a small population of Catholics here in Kolda and also in Senegal, and you could also say there is an even smaller population of “Westerners” so Christmas is something they are aware of. Actually from what I hear most about the Muslim people here, they have a celebration as well. They have it one the 24th and from what I’ve found out from the few people that I’ve asked they just use it as an excuse to party and have no idea that it’s a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I wanted to share one of my favorite Africa nChristmas stories so far. It was Saturday morning and I was doing probably what a lot of Americans were doing at that time - I was Christmas shopping!!! If you haven’t seen an African market, it’s just filled with people, and many people walk around just selling the things that they have in their hand, kinda like the vendors when you go to a football game. Anyways, I was talking to someone in the market and I look over my shoulder and I see a dude walking with two inflatable Santa Clause. It just seemed so out of place, it was the first Christmas thing that I saw since I’ve come to Senegal. I take a second look at the Santa and then I laugh to myself, but then it hits me….I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!!! So I start walking in his direction trying to catch up with the dude. So after about a block and a half I got his attention and bought one. He even gave me one that wasn’t blown up so I could stick it in my bag and wait till I got home.

I paid a little more than 2 dollars for it and I wouldn’t even see myself wanting to have one if I was in America, but here in Africa it gave me a great smile and gave me a little Christmas sprit.

***I don’t have one at this time but I will try to get a picture of the Santa up here in the next couple of days.***

MY BEST FRIEND!

Some of you back in South Texas or even one dude in South America might think from this title that I am about to talk about you in this blog. Even though I do think of many of ya'll as my really good friend, this blog is about an African. I call him The Sheriff, and I met him about my second week here. He has helped me greatly in my language and I would call him my closest friend here in Senegal. Yes, my closest friend here in Senegal is a 30 year old, single, metal worker. He is a very heavy smoker and can speak 6 or 7 languages, but he can’t read in any of them. Most importantly, he does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Over time Sheriff and I have gained a huge respect for each other. The friendship is a true friendship. Sheriff has shown an interest in knowing what I believe, and I have presented the Gospel to him. We have had many talks about the differences of what we believe. Through the time that we share, you can tell that he has a curiosity of the things that I have told him but you can also see that as of now he has no intention of changing his beliefs, changing his lifestyle, and proclaiming nothing other than the faith that he was born in to.

Please pray for Sheriff. Sheriff has been given an opportunity to hear and talk about the gospel. He is now in a position that only he can change. Please pray that he will seek the truth and not seek the acceptance of his family members or his neighbors (including his white friends that live around the corner). Pray that he will seek something bigger than what he’s found on this earth. And also pray for me as our relationship continues to grow and we continue to learn, and understand more about each other.

Thanksgiving!!!!

I thought I would share about my Thanksgiving experience. Thanksgiving might just be an American holiday, but I'm sure glad that I got to celebrate it. And my stomach is really happy too!!!!! For Thanksgiving, me and the other two journeymen down in Kolda, Michelle and Kimberly, took a 12 hour drive up to Dakar, the capital city of Senegal and we were able to celebrate with some of the other missionaries here in Senegal. We got there a little early and now we're in a conference for some of us "newbies" on the feild. The first picture is one of me and a couple that has been really good friends of mine. Since they live in Dakar we don't get to hangout too much but as you can see we're happy and our plates are empty!!!!
















Just like Thanksgiving back in America, after we stuff our faces with food we hang out and spend time with the people that we love. Here is a picture of us playing some cards and we even got some football playing in the background .



Although I miss my family and I would have loved to spend Thanksgiving with them, I can still feel your prayers and I know that I'm loved. And to tell you the truth the one thing that I'm most thankful for is my family and friends that pray for me. I may not be in America but I know that I'm still in the hearts and prayers of many of you. Thank You!

A CHANGE IS COMING!

As I look back at the time I’ve spent here in Africa, there are times that I can’t believe how quickly time has passed and there are times that it feels like it’s been way over a year. As you know most of my time so far has been spent learning the language and culture. If you remember, it was back in July when I took my first major test to see how far along I was. I was just a few points off from being right on schedule. I made some changes and got right back to trying to learn this language.
My confidence in the language of Pulaar gets stronger everyday, but sometimes I still find myself messing up on words or hearing a word that I don’t know. As the title explained, my time devoted to learning this language is coming to an end. Towards the end of December or early January I will take the level 2 test to see if I have met the requirement to start my research work among the Fulakunda.
Please pray for me as I continue learning this language. During the next few weeks I will be trying to fill in many of the gaps that I have in preparation for the final test. Pray that the time with both of my language teachers will continue to be fruitful and that I will find many more opportunities to share my faith. I’m ready for the change and ready to use my new language that I have been working on since I arrived in January. Another exciting opportunity is that my dad is coming to Kolda in January. That means that he will possibly be around as I begin my new work. I am definitely looking forward to a change!

THE POWER OF ONE!

Here in Kolda, God has been and is doing a lot of work! It’s a very exciting time and you can really see that God is moving in the hearts of the people. I want to tell you about some specifics but you will have to allow the holy spirit to translate for you. If you read my blogs very often, then you know that I don’t shy away from truth. Out of respect and for safety, there are a few words that I will/can not say.
Over the past two weeks, the first person in Kolda has been dunked. This means that new groups will be formed and more people will hear the news. This new “ONE” totally changes the landscape of Kolda. Change brings opposition, so prayer warriors, start praying!! Pray for physical and mental and spiritual strength for this one. I’ve been thinking a lot about Matthew 13. The seed has been planted among the thorns. Pray that Kolda will be able to rise up over the thorns and produce the crop that it has been designed to make.

22 Days!

Over the past 22 days I’ve been without a computer. I made a few trips to the cyber café and used their computers to do a few things, but for the most part I’ve been doing everything without one. As I said in my last blog, I’ve had to find a new way to do many things, and for those of you who look at my blog regularly you know that it has been that long time since my last post. So for this post I thought I would just share with you some of the things that I’ve done over the past 22 days.

New notebooks that I purchased and started using – 3
Hours spent watching African French Television – about 6 (which includes 2 soccer games)
Stories from the Bible that I can now tell in Pulaar – 3
Times I shared one of the stories – 10…ish
Trips to the Hospital – 1
Minutes spent unconscious – I was told about 5
Number of times it has rained – 3
Trips to the new “white man” store – 5
Time spent talking to God - too much to count (priceless!)


Don’t worry I know that I need to explain some of those in more detail.

The new white man store, I love it! It even has ground beef, and it makes me really happy.

The rainy season is almost over. That also makes me happy because all the crickets and frogs are almost gone now!!

About the unconscious thing…I had an infection on my little toe. It had a bubble coming off the top of it that was the size of a marble, which was right next to a broken toe that I stubbed in the middle of the night. It hurt a lot so I went to the doctor to get it checked out. They told me the medicine I needed to get and sent me to another room to get it cut off. They broke the thing open and then cut off the extra skin from the bubble. They wrapped it up and then said that they were done. But that's when I guess everything caught up to me, the sleepless night, forgetting to eat breakfast, and the pain. I fell right off the table and hit the floor hard. That was Oct. 15th and I’m still nursing the bump on my head (from the fall) and the hole that was left in my toe because of the carving, but everything else is fine. I'm back to 100% other than the fact that I’m going to wait probably another week or two till I can play some soccer again.

Now that I got email, feel free to send me a note sometime. I have a computer I can have a respond within a week!

ANSWERED PRAYER

I think you all know what it's like to pray for something. Sometimes the answer is "yes," sometimes it's "no". About a month ago I prayed that God would help me do a better job of organizing my day so that I could more efficiently and effectively learn this language to share with the people of Kolda. So how does He answser? He answered with a big fat "YES" by taking away my technological brain (you might call it a computer). I asked to be better organized..He he takes away the tool that I use to organize myself. I have had to covert my calendar, my journal, and many other things over to paper. Do I have more time? I'm not sure, but I will be spending more time communicating with the locals here.

Since one of my partners here in Kolda is taking a trip to the USA, she will take my computer to be repaired. That's a relief but for the next weeks I will be without my "brain". I will have to rely on visiting cyber cafes to communicate with some of you and that adds to my "to do" list. Pray that I will adjust to my new organizational tool and I will be able to take advantage of the time. Who knows. Maybe some new opportunities will come from this. I will not be praying for patience. I can only imagine how He'd teach it to me!

Futuro, the time is now!

Today I was sitting down outside and talking to one of my friends that’s my age. We were having a fun conversation about the show Lost. It's really crazy when you think about it. You get out to some of these villages and you will find people that have never seen a toilet but they know who Jack Bower is. 24 is another show that they always watch.
So it was about 7 o’clock and we were talking about the dude from Nigeria that was in season 2 of the show Lost. I watched the show in English and he watched the show in French, and we were talking about it in Pulaar, I still laugh when I think about it. Anyways as we were talking and the call of prayer went off. They call this one "futuro," the prayer at sunset, also meaning it is now ok for them to break their fast. The second the call of prayer starts, he gets up and says “futuro is here" and he walks back home so he can eat.
I’ve had many different conversations with people about Ramadan and I don’t think I’ve gotten the same answer twice. Many people have no idea why they are fasting and are doing it only because they are told too. Please continue to pray for Muslims all around the world. I’m sure that this time of Ramadan is very different all over the world, but they seem to be doing it thinking that it will help them get into heaven. Pray that each Muslim worldwide will use this time of fasting not as an obligation that they need to do but a time of devotion and a chance to better understand the Lord. Pray that they will be able to clearly seek out the Truth of the Lord and listen to his Word without any distractions or outside influences.

IT'S ALL IN A DAY'S WORK!

This week I had a little job that needed to be done. A few weeks ago we had two new members of the Fulakunda team join us. They will be living here in till around May. They are two college girls that are spending their semester overseas. Check out their site if you want at www.hands-on-africa.com. They will spend a few weeks getting the basics of Pulaar and then after that they will be teaching English. We found that English is good “bate” for the people here in Senegal and they are going to be using the Bible and other materials to teach English. What can be more fun than that??
This is where I come in, Hands On owned some bicycles that they wanted to give to the two girls, so they will have a means of transportation during their time here in Africa. The bikes were not in Kolda; they were in a city towards the edge on the country, the city of Kedougou. And I volunteered to take the trip and bring the bikes back.

You can see Kolda, down in the bottom middle. I was going to take local transportation to the city of Tambacounda and then switch cars and go to Kedougou. I was going to hang out with a family working in the city, get 2 of the bikes that were there, and the next day come back home. I asked a bunch of my friends about the trip to Kedougou. I was told that it would be around 7 to 9 hours driving. So I thought that I could leave early in the morning, arrive in the afternoon some time and get to hang out with the family, tell stories, and say bad things about the supervisor that we share. We didn’t do that, I just want to see if he actually reads my blog :)
I woke up early Friday morning had my backpack with an extra pair of clothes, my bible, and toothbrush, and started the adventure. There are two modes transportation, a cet-plas or a Rapiid, and I took the much quicker and more comfortable mode of the cet-plas . Cet-plas is French for seven people. They stick seven people and one driver in the car and drive. Some people like to call them a bush-taxi.

The picture that is shown would be one of the nicer bush taxies, but it gives you a real good idea of how the travel went. The other mode would be a big bus thingy, which has more people inside meaning more stops and a longer ride. That will be the other picture. My ride to Tambacunda was a rather normal ride other than it being slow, and it had two check points where the dude made me get out of the car, mainly because I white and they want to give me a hard time and see if they can get anything out of it. I handled the check points pretty well though. Either the dude thinks I’m cool because I speak Pulaar and then lets me go, or the officer doesn’t speak Pulaar and we have no method of translation and the dude realizes he can’t do much else after I showed him all the proper paper work.
So I arived in Tambacunda a little later than I wanted but not too bad. I first wanted to use the toilet and then found some lunch. After that, I found where I need to go to go to Kedougou and bought my ticket. We need 3 more people to make the 7 and then we would go on our way. The waiting took along longer than expected and I spent a good 2 hours talking with random people around the transportation center. I was having some fun conversations. The car that we were taking looked like a really good car that would go fast so I wasn’t too worried. And that’s where the fun story comes in.
About half way in the ride, about 2 hours in, the driver stopped and put some water in the radiator, but I didn’t think much of it. About 50 km out, we stop in a village and let someone out. We stayed in that city for about 20 minutes, letting the car cool and putting more water in. That’s when I started to get worried. About 15 minutes later we stopped to put more water in the radiator. Then about 10 minutes, right after I see the sign for 23 km to kedougou, the car stops.
We get out, the driver looks at the engine a little and he realized that the car is not going to go any further. So he pulls out his cell phone, and what do you know, no service! He walks about 200 yards each way and still no luck. About that time one of the big busses come over the hill and we all signal it to slow down. It slows down…and one of the guys with us jumps on the back. I wasn’t expecting that. So anyways we decided that we need to start pushing. And since I was the only one that ate lunch, due to Ramadan, the other quit pushing after about a minute. It was a very hilly place, which made it fun hanging on the back as the car was rolling down hill. So after, we got about a mile or so, yep you guess it!!! It started to rain. So we jump back in the car and watched the rain.
So I’m sitting in a car, with 5 other Africans, in the rain, in the middle of know where!!!! It felt like I was in a scary movie or something, I wasn’t scared but I had a feeling like a pack of monkeys were going to come and attacks us or something. And the white guys always dies first!!!!! So after about 45 minutes waiting in the rain, it stops and starts pushing some more. Soon the sun had set completely and it was dark. Since the car was cool again, he said that we will push to start it and then drive for a while till it gets too hot again. We have to try about 10 times to get it started so you can add another ½ mile of pushing. We go for a while and then he flashes his lights to another car that then towed us in the rest of the way. They knew each other and I had no idea how he knew about us, but I didn’t care. He pulled us with a 10 ft rope, and it was night time, that was a sight to see, I was surprised that we didn’t hit the car that was towing us. So I go in, called my friend and finally got to their place around 8 at night. Over 13 hours of traveling!!!! That was fun.
Had a nice dinner, slept on the living room floor, and was part of their family for the night. The next day I got the bikes and started the whole process over again. It was fun because everyone asked me and kept saying, “One man, two bikes?” I would reply “yes” and they wouldn’t know what to say so they would just say again, “2 bikes?” The way back wasn’t as eventful; just the check points, and the normal surprises that the other passengers get when an hour or two into the ride until they realize that I speak Pulaar and knew everything they said before hand. I got back to Kolda, took the bikes to my supervisor’s home, and then I went home. And I slept for about 11 hours.

It was a fun trip!

RAMADAN

Ramadan is a 30 day period where Muslims fast from sun up to sun down. It’s done in the 9th month of the Muslim calendar. It’s the time that they believe that Quran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Muslim people use this time for prayer, forgiveness, and to practice self-restraint.
The questions have already started. I’m being asked by almost everyone if I’m fasting. For those of you who know my testimony, you know about the time in my life where I had a parcite, had a wrong diagnosis, and had a hard time eating for two months. It wasn’t until I changed my attitude and started an “involuntary fast” that things started turning around for me. That month I grew a lot in the Lord and I knew it was because I changed my attitude and looked toward the Lord first. So fasting is a topic that I get really excited to talk about. I’ve had a bunch of fun conversations where I bring up the story of Jesus fasting for 40 days and then being tempted by the devil, what Jesus thought about Fasting, or telling them my own testimony. I had a really fun conversation about fasting with the guy at the store across the street and it all started because I was making sure that I would still be able to buy bread in the morning.
This month should offer some new experiences. It’s something that I haven’t experienced and have no idea what to expect, but I’m excited. Please pray for the people here in Kolda, pray for their health and pray for their soul. Please also pray for the conversations that I and the other missionaries will have with the many people about fasting. Pray that I will remain sensitive to my surroundings while still keeping and showing my faith. Pray for the Muslims World Wide, that through Ramadan they will be able to experience more than just a time of fasting, but that they will get closer to experiencing the Truth.

At first I didn't believe it!

My night guard told me a story last night. He said that early in the morning right in front of my house he saw a monkey on the back of a pig. The pig was freaking out and running real fast and the monkey was just laying down relaxing. I wish I would have been there to see that.

On another note, this week I start a new schedule with my language learning. Monday, Wednesday, Friday I will continue to go to my same language teacher, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will go to a different language teacher. This teacher is supposed to be real good on pronunciation, and if you remember, that was my biggest problem that I had on my test that I took last month. So please continue pray for my language learning. Please also pray for my classes with my new teacher that I start on Tuesday. You need a lot of patience to be able to teach me. Also, please pray that our relationship will start out on the right foot. Pray also that I will remember the real reasons on why I’m trying to learn this language and I will be able to spend an ample amount of time studying both the Word and Pulaar and that I will also be able to share stories and the things that I learn with my friends and neighbors.

A COUPLE OF SOUVENIRS

I’ve been back “home” in Kolda for almost 2 weeks now and I must say that my transition was not what I expected. I thought that all my African friends would give me a hard time for being gone for over three weeks but that wasn’t the case. I had not prepared myself for the shock that I would get from hanging out with English speaking believers for three weeks and then going back to Pulaar speaking non-believers. The problem wasn’t with language, it wasn’t with the people here in Kolda, it was all me. I guess you can call it culture shock, but I’m getting back into the rhythm. Before I know it, I will stop focusing on learning the language and my schedule will change again!!!

I did want to show you one of my souvenirs that I got during my time away from Kolda. It's made from the wood of an actual African tree. Perty, huh?

Today I had a real fun experience. I was hanging out with some of the guys my age and they told me to come play soccer with them. I knew that this would be a lot different than the 4 on 4 that we play in the rode in front of my house, but I was ready. We went to a big field and had real goals!!! Well kinda, they were big branches that were dug into the ground and a rope tied to the top of the branches connecting the two and it made the top bar. We get there and we start kicking the ball around a little, and when everyone shows up we start to stretch. Then they tell me we are going to go for a little jog….20 minutes later we stop and then the coach dude tells us to get in a square and we run the short sprints basically chasing each other around the square. Then we did this little sprint drill running back and forth in the shape of a star. Then we did this other drill running just like the star drill but with only one line. After that they spilt us up into teams and we finally started to play, which was fun. Before I knew it, it got dark and we went home. I can remember a bunch of people telling me that African training consists of running, running, and scrimmaging. I guess you never really believe it till you see it with you own eyes. I was told it’s the same way in every sport. You may not be the best ball handler or have the best plays, but as long as you can run, you can do anything! I’ll have to remember that later on.

As much fun as I had I thought I would show you a little souvenir from the day. I remember kicking the ball and my toe hurting for a second. When I got home and cleaned all the dirt from my feet I could see that I really had bruised my toe.

Oh well, it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks.

(Cool tan, huh?)

epieniazek@gowestafrica.org

This is my new email address. I've been having some problems with my other email address. The servers see that the email is coming from Africa and it goes to a lot of people’s junk folder, so I'm going to try something new. Would you please send an email to my new address and add it as a contact. I'm trying to get a little more organized. I'm still going to use my old email address as well but I'm going to try to use my new email address for communication between my prayer supporters and hopefuly I will start regularly sending out a short email with my prayer requests and leave my blog for the cool stories.

Oh yeah, all the build up of me trying to get home. Well, I finaly did and the process was very anti-clamatic. I'm glad to be back home. Thanks for the prayers.

And don’t be shy to tell all your friends to send an email to me. You can never have too much prayer. You can send your prayer request to that email accounts as well. I would love to pray for you.



epieniazek@gowestafrica.org

African traveling!!!

My last blog was a little short, so I’ll try to explain while I still have a limited time here on the Internet. My one problem turned into 2 problems. Then one of the problems got a lot less serious, and back to one problem. But then I was back to two problems, if you would call them that. I’m in Africa, a problem is just a normal way of life.

First would have to be a problem with travel. I was told that I might have a hard time getting back in the country of Senegal with my passport but then I was told later that it won’t be as much as big a deal as I first thought. I would have the problem in some of the other West African countries, but when in Africa you never know.

The second problem would be an airline strike!!!! That’s not something that you want to say out loud either. It was a big scare but it only lasted about 24 hours and didn’t affect but about 15 people in the region.

The third, which we are still in the middle of now, is the plane had some mechanical problems. All the people going to Senegal (around 30) waited at the airport a while then they sent us to a hotel in Cote d’Ivoire, where I am right now as I’m typing this. Don’t know when we'll finally get back to Senegal, but I hoping and praying it’s soon. My local flight that I would take to Senegal takes off in like 2 hours so I’m going to miss that one, but that doesn’t bother me. I just want to get back to Senegal.

Prayer Warriors Needed!

I need the help of some prayer warriors. I will spare you the details, but I may have some problems re-entering the country of Senegal. Please begin to pray now that my paperwork will not keep me from getting back to work in Kolda. I have had such a great experience here. I feel like I have learned new things, I have made new friends, and my spirit has been refreshed.
PRAY, PRAY, PRAY and I will update you the week of August 4th.

Sitt'n and Listen'n

I shared a little on my last post that I was leaving my home in Kolda to take some seminary classes and then attend a week long conference with missionaries from all over West Africa. The first week here in Cote d’Ivoire, I took a theology class and this past week I took a class about church history. As you can tell by my clever title, the month of July will entail more sitting and listening than I am used to.
These two seminary classes were a lot different that the undergraduate classes I took. I never thought I would have so much fun taking a seminary class, but I was wrong! I still have a couple of papers to write and I’m actually kind of looking forward to it. I’m very thankful that I had this opportunity to take these classes and learn more.
I’m also really excited about this coming week and getting to meet all the missionaries from around West Africa. Including children, there will be more than 300 of us here. The leadership has done a real good job getting all this stuff planned out but you have to remember, “We’re in Africa!!!!” and anything at anytime can go …African! Please pray for our meeting, the hotel, the places we eat, all the traveling that will take place and that we can focus on the main reason that we are here.

The test is over!!!!

I want to thank all the people that have kept me in their prayers, especially over the past few weeks regarding my language test. I had my test. It was fun; it was nice. It seems crazy that the past 6 months came down to a 45 minute test, but we all know that God’s got bigger plans than tests that people have to take…well actually it is all one big test, but we would all fail that one if it wasn’t for mercy!!!
My test consisted of sitting at a table with 3 native Pulaar speakers. They each had something that they evaluated me on: how I talked, the words that I used, and how much I understood. There’s this big system and a check list of things that I should know. One guy did the talking and the other two just made notes on the conversation. We talked about many things, about life in Kolda, about the differences between USA and here; we talked about food, I gave directions somewhere, I read out of the bible to them. It was just a bunch of small talk I would say. It was a fun test, I know that I could have done a lot better but I also think it was an accurate evaluation of the Pulaar that I know.
So what did the evaluation say? I’m a level one! They said I’m about a 10-12 year old!!! I’m not ahead and I’m not behind on my learning. I’m right in the middle of the curve on where I should be right now. One of my biggest problems that made me lose a lot of points was my accent. This language has two “B’s” two “D’s” two “Y’s” and three “N’s.” When you write them there is only a small difference with a little tail or accent and you say them the same but with your tongue in a different position. Because of my lazy self I always made the letters the same sound; I knew the people still understood what I wanted to say so I never thought it would be a big deal. But because of it, the evaluators said that my accent was a little distracting and it took points off. They also took off points on my correctness and fluency skills. I also got some points taken off on my vocabulary. I was told that I had a huge vocabulary and that they were very impressed by it, but they also told me that I used many words that were French or Wolof. When I’m here in the city, that’s no problem. People understand me fine, but when I will be out in the villages where they only speak one language, there might be a problem. This was very shocking to me because I had no idea that I did that.
So what am I going to do differently? I have already told my friends to not let me be lazy and correct me when I’m saying something wrong. I’ve also made my friends a lot more aware that I’m past the point that I just want to communicate. I want to know what words belong to what language and I want to be aware of that. Please keep these in mind when you're saying your prayers for my language acquisition.
So what’s next? I’m going to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. I’ll be there for about 3 weeks. The first two weeks I’ll be taking seminary classes, and the third week is a conference where the West Africa region will be able to get together. I'm really excited about the next couple of weeks.

Planting Seeds!!

I’m going to warn you that this story, even I don’t understand, but there’s been a couple of events that I really want to share with y’all. I really don’t know how to introduce this story, so I’ll get right to it.
There’s a friend of mine that I like to visit and talk to once or twice a week. I’ve written about him in the past. Patrick is his “name”. Because I spend so much time there I have started to get to know all the people that own shops next to and across from Patrick’s. There has been this one guy, still don’t know his name, that is near Patrick’s stand that I’ve had unusual dealings with. He sells radios, luggage, and other various items, but when he sees me, he would get right in my face and say…something I don’t know. He would be almost yelling at me. The first couple of times this happened it would catch me by surprise and I would just stare at him and then look to Patrick and ask what he said. After a while, I did what every normal person would have done. I started yelling back at him in English.
About a week ago the same thing happened, but for some reason I responded back to him in Pulaar. I’ve heard the Wolof language spoken a lot and I have a vocabulary of about 50 words. I had no idea what he was saying but I had a clue and would respond. This went on for about 5 minutes and everyone in the area got a big kick out of watching the two of us.
The other day the same dude comes up to me and gives me his greetings in Pulaar!!! I was totally surprised and so later that day I came and sat down next to him for a while. He knew a good amount of Pulaar too. He and about four of his friends sat down and starting asking me why I’m here. It took me a while to convince them that I’m not Peace Corp. Then the conversation moved to Jesus and he quickly asked, “Who is Jesus’ Mother?” Then he asked “Who is Mary’s Mother?” Before I could answer, someone else asked “Who is Jesus’ father?” I quickly responded “GOD!” They all gave the same reaction. I don’t know how to describe it but the noise would be a cross between the noise you make when you stub your toe and when you see a car crash. They all stared at me in disbelief from what I had said. I tried to say with my face “Bring it. It’s the truth!!” but on the inside I was saying “AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! What are they going to do to me?????” They asked me a couple more questions and then I could tell they had enough. I was told to go back and talk to Patrick.
I run into people all the time and I’m able to share a little about my faith like I did in this story. It will be fun to see if anything happens to the seed that was planted that day. I also had a big laugh yesterday when my new friend came up to me and gave his greetings and then Patrick looked at me and said, “You two are friends now?” PRAISE THE LORD!

TEST?!?!?!?!

Yeah I didn’t believe it when I first heard it too, but I have a big test coming up soon. On July 8th I will take a test to see how much Pulaar I really know. I will sit and talk will three Pulaar speakers. They have a checklist of the things that I should know and afterward they will tell me if they feel I am a Level One Pulaar speaker.
I won’t be able to start my research until I become a Level Two. If I do well on July 8th, I might have my level two test in 2 or 3 months. If I don't do as well as they expect, I will have about 4 more months of language school. If I do horribly on the test they’re going to send me into the bush and make me live by myself. I made that last part up, but there will be some changes. I'm hoping they won't be that drastic!
So, over the past few days I’ve been a little crazier than normal, and I know it won’t stop until I take the test. Sometimes I think I really need to study and I stay at home and study the whole night, and at other times I think I’m fine where I’m at in my language and focus more on my relationships and friends. It will be a battle trying to find a nice balance during the next week and a half.
I have many mixed feeling about this upcoming test. I’m really anxious to get out and start my work but I really enjoy my time with my language teacher and helping the new believer as he grows. Please pray that I can keep my mind focused and that I will be able to balance my time between studying Pulaar, building relationships with my friends, and most importantly, building my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Re-inventing the Wheel

Today, being the first day of summer, I thought I would show you something that I made a couple of weeks back. Here in West Africa you try anything to beat the heat and this new toy that I made is doing a really good job.

It all started a while back when I was talking to my Dad on Skype. I don’t remember exactly what we were talking about but the African heat was one of the topics. I explained that I have fans and that they do a good job but on some nights the fans just move the hot air and it’s difficult to go to sleep on those nights. My Dad responded “You got fans right? Make an air conditioner! You can do it like one in a car but use cold water instead of Freon.” And that got the wheels turning upstairs.

My first issue that I had to discover was how to get the air around the fan cold so that the fan would then blow cold air. I had a couple ideas and then I had an even greater idea. The internet!!!! I did a search online and I found about three different sites of people who made a contraption with cold water and a fan to cool the air. I studied them, and decided what I would do. I would put copper tubing on the back of a fan and then ran cold water threw the tubing and the condensation would lower the temperature around the fan.

The next big step was a way to get the water to move through the tubing. After making a big mess I canceled out using a siphon system and knew I would have to use a water pump. This is a whole 'nother story by itself but my friend Roy and I were able to find an aquarium store back when I spent that week in Dakar.

So after getting the pump I then searched the city of Kolda for the rest of the materials that I needed. I had a really fun time trying to explain what I wanted. I would say I’m using a fan, and cold water to get cold wind, and they would just stare at me. Half of them would look at me like I’m crazy and the other half would look at me like I was a mad scientist or something. So either way, I looked crazy…but that’s nothing new!!!!!!

So after making an even bigger mess than before I was able to get the water to circulate. The water pump wasn’t very powerful so I had to raise it, I first had a chair but then I went all out and had one of my friends make a stool for the ice chest to sit on.

This last picture is showing you the final product. If you look closely in the background you can see that I have it pointed right at my bed. Right before I go to bed I drop in about 3 big chunks of Ice and I get beautiful cold air till 3 or 4 in the morning, even if I don’t use ice it lowers the temperature slightly but when you got ice, you use it.

So are you jealous???

Oh yeah

The other day I was riding home from my Pulaar class and on the other side of the street I saw something that I've never seen before. It was two white people each on their own motorcycle . The motorcycle was loaded down with stuff like they have been riding for a long distance. When I saw them I kinda tilted my head and stared at them, you know like a dog does when he is confused. It was a sight because they looked out of place. So when they passed me they both gave me a nod. That same nod that people give in those small Texas towns when you pass each other. And that’s when it hit me - I wasn’t any different. I may not have had my motorcycle loaded down with things on my trip across Africa, but I was a white guy wearing a bright orange African outfit riding down the road on a motorcycle. I guess sometimes I forget how out of place I look when I'm traveling down the streets in West Africa.

For a final update on my health, I'm now back to 100%!! After the last blog it took about 3 more days for the swelling to go down in my neck but now I'm fine and have no sign of the sickness reappearing. Thanks again for your prayers.

MMMMMM.....Penicillin!!!!! (part 2)

I know that yall are all very worried, so I will first say that I'm a lot better! I woke up on Sunday morning without the fever and in a whole lot less pain. I still had swollen glands in my neck, but the fever was gone along with about 80% of the pain, and that made me really happy. As Sunday went on, I felt a lot of my strength coming back and I was even able to go next door to watch a soccer game on TV, but other than the 2 hours for the game I stayed inside my house and tried to keep my strength. Because I knew the next day was Monday.

Today when I woke up, I felt even better. My headaches were gone. I still feel and see that my glands are swollen but a noticeable amount less from the past two days. I went through my regular morning schedule and then went off to my language class. Had a very nice and smooth class, after class I had lunch at a restaurant in town and I returned home, in which I will stay in the neighbor the rest of the day.

The next couple of days I try to keep very calm and peaceful, sometimes that is very hard to do some times when you in Africa, but I will try. The next couple of days are also very important because on Thursday, the 12th, the whole Fulakunda team (4 adults and 3 children) are going to The Gambia. There we will have some team meetings, do so much needed shopping and relaxation, and get to speak some English (Gambia is a English colony). Please pray for the next couple of days so that I will be able to regain my health back to normal so I will be able to enjoy our time in The Gambia. Also pray for our travels and the many new faces and people that we will meet on this new adventure.

Thanks again, for your prayers, I have really felt them the past two days.

MMMMMM.....Penicillin!!!!!

Over the past 5 months, my health has been a lot better than I thought it was going to be. But as we all know, things don’t stay perfect for ever. Over a week ago I started having some pain in my neck, mostly when I swallowed. I didn't think much of it and just took some flu medicine and some immune busters. The pain that I would experience would be strong one day and then the next day it would feel almost gone. This went off and on for almost a week. I starting asking around and many people have had the same thing and they all told me to get this medicine called "Anjil." So I went to the pharmacy and asked the dude there and he confirmed and gave me the medicine. He told me the dosage and that it will take a day or two for it to start working. So after that, I went to go have lunch at a local restaurant and by the time I got home the pain had worked its way over to one side of my neck and it was starting to get really swollen. So I went home, read the information, (the papers inside the box are in French and English which helped out alot) found out that I got some penicillin. I was just about a day too late on going to the pharmacy because that night my neck got real swollen, I had a real bad fewer (102.5), and lost all my energy.

As I'm typing this its now, it’s the next day, and I woke up with the same pain. As the day is going on I'm starting to feel relief from the medicine but still in the back of mind is the thought that there was a miss communication somewhere down the line and I have the wrong medicine. Please pray for my body as I'm trying to recover from this illness, and please pray for my mind, that I can still be aware of my surroundings and continue to keep my testimony. I don’t know how but everybody in the neighborhood knows that I don't feel well and if I step outside for a second I get three or four people asking if I’m OK.

I can see the change!

When you’re an American living in West Africa you experience change and/or something different every day. But over the past couple of days I have experienced this change to a whole new level. About 3 months ago I started playing soccer (or football) with some of the kids my age in my neighborhood. I have a very fun time playing and the other kids all seem love playing with the white guy!!! I know it wasn’t a good picture but from that last blog you can see that the area that we play is just an open space, no grass, just dirt! I never played soccer before on the dirt so quickly filled the stereotype that American’s don’t play soccer, but over time I gain accustomed to the dirt, was able to bring but my soccer skills from my pee-wee days, and slowly I began to regain my confidence. My confidence was the easy thing; the next thing that I had to do was gain the confidence of the other kids. And over time I have seen the change in the eyes and by what they tell me. I am no longer token white guy that has to play because he bought the ball, I’m still not to the point where I think they truly accept me as one of them but I’m gaining respect. Which brings me to real topic, the friendships that I had made because if it. Once it gets dark, for the Africans, it’s the time to go home, wash up, answer the call of prayer, and then get ready for dinner. The last few time that I’ve played, I stayed after sat on a log and discussed religion with one of the other guys. He knew a good amount of English so the conversation would be about 75% Pulaar and 25% English and we are able to communicate very well. He is a very smart kid; I believe that he is in line for being a leader in the local mosque. I was surprised when talking to him seemed to have been educated about Missionaries. He was the first person that herd use the word missionary and after that he quickly asked about my family and I was able to talk about how hard it was to be away for my family and the choices that I had to make to do so. He seemed very eager to tell me what the Koran said and he was very excited when I accepted the question of “When you speak Pulaar really good, if you teach me the Bible, can I teach you the Koran?” I pray that the relationship that I have will continue to grow and I will be able to share with them what I believe. I pray that over time, my relationship and trust with the people that I play soccer with will grow. And that it will give me the opportunity to share with them about God’s son.

Also on another note, with the first day on June came the rainy season. And believe it or not, the first heavy rain of the season was on June 1st. The change that is happening because of this is also a whole new experience. I smell the rain in the air, the wind is much stronger, and even the dirt has changed. It used to be very sandy and very close to the color of sand on a beach and now the water has made it to be almost like the dirt on a baseball field, the orange tone, the getting stuck to the bottom of your shoes, I love it!!!!

Homesickness and my home

As I told y'all on my last blog I went to the capital city of Senegal, Dakar, to hang out with a friend and spend some of my vacation days. It was really fun and a nice time that I had in Dakar. The thing that I enjoyed the most had to be the food. Since the city is a little more developed I was able to eat some food that I can’t find in Kolda. The pizza, bacon, huge hamburgers, and even apples gave me a huge smile. But over this trip I learned a lot about myself. It’s hard to explain why but I had many experiences that let me know I’m where I'm supposed to be right now. First example would have to be how I got to Dakar. I took a set-plas (that’s seven people in French, 7 people one driver). I drove for 12 hours in a station wagon and I was hump seat in the back row, and for some reason that didn’t bother me??? Also the other big thing that surprised me was that I got home sick. Three months ago I had some of the same feelings about the things that were missing. I was missing speaking Pulaar, sitting under the shade tree and talking, and yes I was even missing the heat. I don’t know why but all I can pull from it is that I’m in the right place. If you would have told me two years ago I that I would be homesick from a small town in West Africa I wouldn’t have believed you, I might not have even believed it 3 months ago.
Now that I have internet at my house I’m able to spend a little more time uploading pictures and stuff like that and I thought that this blog would be a great time to show y'all a few pictures of my house. So….here you go, my home in West Africa

Here is a view from my front door. It’s also where I play soccer right out in the middle of the street. The big tree in the background is the one that I sit under and hang out with the Sheriff.

This is my kitchen I don’t use it a lot, but I do
cook in it!!!








This is my bed room, perty simple. Got a bed, dresser and that door in the back it to my bathroom.

And this is my living room. I got some nice couches and as you can see it is where I have my computer. I also use it as my desk. I have a guest room and another room that you are welcome to come visit anytime. I store my bike, washing machine, and my drying rack in them but when you've seen one room, you've seen the others. Thanks for taking the time to look at my house.

THIS BOOK MAKES ME SO HAPPY!

If ya’ll remember, I have asked for prayer for me and my language teacher as communicating with each other has been such a challenge. I am pleased that the rocky start we had was the beginning of what I see to be a long relationship. The last 30 minutes of class every day we spend reading the book of John. I have it written in Pulaar before hand and then we read what I wrote. Next, I rewrite in English, just above what I wrote before in Pulaar. As we read, sometimes I have a language question and we stop and look it up in one of my dictionaries or he would explain it to me. I’ve told ya’ll before that his best friend became a believer a couple of months ago. I remember asking the new believer if he talks with my language teacher about the Bible and he gave me a response that I never will forget, “He’s my best friend. We have known each other since we were young. I talk about it every time I see him.” That really inspired me. My teacher always tells me that he is very happy when his is reading the Bible. I decided to be very direct and ask him if he believed the Bible and he answered a very direct and quick, “Yes.” So then I asked him, “So, you’re not a Muslim, you’re a Christian?” He had a short pause like he never thought about it before and then he pointed to the Bible and told me that it’s the truth and the only way to get to heaven. I was very happy to hear those words but I was also saw that with this new decision there are a lot of circumstances that will greatly change his life now. So, I did the only thing I know to do; I continue to be his friend and continue to pray for him.
The other day he surprised me greatly and told me something that I will never forget. He was very excited and was telling me about “the last days” and how Jesus was going to be the Judge on that day. I told him about another story that talks about that and opened up the bible to Matthew 25. I told him to read the parable of the sheep and goats and that we would talk about it the next day. Being African I knew he knew a lot more than me the differences between goats and sheep and he seemed to understand the parable very clearly and sounded very proud. He said, “I am a Sheep owned my Jesus.” Beautiful, huh?!
On a lighter side I will be spending the next couple of days on vacation. I will be taking a bus to the capital city and will be spending about 5 days with my friend Roy from training I had back in November and December. On the way back, instead of the 12 hr drive, I will be taking a overnight boat and a 3 hr drive. I’m super excited to be able to talk with my friend Roy again and can’t wait to see what God has in store for me over the next couple of days.

I'VE BEEN ORANGED!

If ya’ll remember, back in February I told the story on how I got a bill to get my phone line set up. Over the past two months there have been many tries to get everything fixed so I could get internet at my house. And if you wondering, the phone company here is called Orange, that’s why I’ve been “Oranged”.
I just want to share with you the African experience that I’ve just been through. In the middle of March I got the phone line installed. They came out and connected it to my house. The company told me everything should work and left, but I had no dial tone! I made a trip to the phone company, and after waiting an hour, I was able to tell them that my phone was not completely set up. A couple of days later my phone rings!! I pick it up and the guy tried to speak French. That didn’t work so I tried to speak Pular. Eventually I figured out that my phone was working and that I needed to go back to the phone company to get stuff set up for the Internet. I went, waited, and then was told they will call me when they “get everything worked out”. After some time, I realize that I can receive calls on my phone, but I’m not able to make calls. So I go back to the phone company, wait, and then tell them what’s going on with my phone. (Let me remind you this is going on in either my broken Pulaar or the worker’s broken English) They tell me they will check on it and let me know. Six more weeks pass and I get a call from the phone company telling me that there’s a problem somewhere in the city and they can’t find it. As soon as they find the problem, they will be able to fix it.
Finally, I got a call that they fixed it and soon after that I was able to call out on my phone. Now it was my boss’s turn. And after about a week of trying to contact people here and in the capital city, Scott got what we needed. I still wasn’t there yet since their program didn’t have the updates for Windows Vista yet. I don’t know what Scott did, but he got whatever was needed and shortly after that I was able to get the Internet set up in my home. It only took four and a half months, but now I am happy!
So now I have Internet and I don’t have to go to the cyber café. I’m able to take my time and get a lot more things organized. Now that I have Internet I will be able to do more things, but as of right now, I don’t know where I should start. If you have any ideas please let me know. What do you want to know about Senegal, the Fulakunda, and what pictures would you like me to get so I can show y’all? You can let me know by leaving a comment on this blog or emailing me at erk2p@hotmail.com Thanks again for all your prayers and support.
If you want to know, the coolest thing about having the internet at my house is being able to listen to some American radio. And yes, that means that I have been waking up at 2 in the morning and listening to the Spurs games on the radio. GO SPURS GO.

YOU'RE GONNA START SOME PROBLEMS!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been having some conversations with my friend. He first told me that the Koran and the Bible are the same, and he seems very fascinated that I would not agree with him on that statement. I tell him that the Bible says things that I know he doesn’t agree with (like Jesus being God’s son) and I ask him, “Does the Koran say that?” About a week ago we stayed up until almost 2 in the morning talking about this subject. He would ask a question and I would explain to him what I believe and why I believe that. Personally, it’s very hard for me to believe that I can say that much in Pulaar and have someone understand me. There was a couple of times that I had to repeat myself but all in all I’m sharing my faith and I love it. So anyways I was talking to this friend the other day and he told me something very truthful that I knew took some thought on his part. He told me that when I start my job I will go out and talk to and meet all the people in the villages and if I find someone that wants to follow Jesus, it will mean problems. He reminded me that if the family continues to follow the way of Islam, the new believer might even get kicked out of the village. “What do you plan to do about that?” he asked me.
I stood there a while and then told him that I don’t know. I told him I would ask around and get back to him and then I tried to explain to him that things on this earth are not as important as eternal things. He didn’t think I understood his question so he then told me again…and I then repeated my answer back to him. We were both clear on the question, and then the Holy Spirit reminded me of a story of some believers of a “sister people group” in the country of Nigeria. I told him that there are some believers that are having their houses burned down by their families and all their livestock is being slaughtered because they are following Jesus. I then asked him, “What’s more important, your house on earth or God’s house in heaven. He quickly responded, “God’s house!” and the conversation changed because someone else walked up.
Persecution is something that is real and something that happens everyday for the local believers here in West Africa. Persecution has claimed many houses, cattle, jobs, and yes, even lives. Please pray for the work that is being done here in West Africa. Pray for the local believers that they can stand strong in their faith. Pray for the ones that have felt the persecution - that they can be assured of their salvation and that they can find the courage to still proclaim. Pray that the walls of persecution will not hinder the spread of the gospel but will open even more paths that lead to God’s Son. Also pray for the seekers, for the ones looking for the truth, the one that may even believe it, but can also see the consequences of this decision. Pray that they know what they’re getting themselves into, but also that they also know the reward that’s waiting for them at the end.
“I have come to set the world on fire…..” Luke 12:49 NLT

Now i find it!!!!

So yesterday I was hangout by my house talking to my friends, my broken Pulaar is coming along very nice, I think so at least. I was hangin out with the sheriff, that same guy that welded my lamp, as you can see in the blog below. We were talking about boats or something, I don’t know, I look up and I see a man walking around with a bunch of lamps! In Africa there are a lot of people who just walk around the city with a bunch of stuff just trying to make a living, some people like to call it walk-mart. Anyways, I call him over and look at them. No it didn’t have a stand with it but had the switch and socket, and the plug already assembled and with this fancy stretchy wire, (like on a telephone). I still would have needed the sheriff to make me that stand, but I could have saved the hassle of making the switch and all that stuff.

But missing out in all that fun of making it, and electrocuting myself twice. Nahhhh it was worth!!!!

I'M WAY TOO PROUD OF THIS!!!

So I’m here in Africa and as you know there are a lot of things that you don’t find here that are easy to find in America...like a lamp! I really wanted a lamp. My room had only one big light and it was on the other side of the room so it was kind of a hassle when I would be reading and then the sleepy bug would hit but I didn’t want to fall asleep with the light on and I didn’t want to get out of bed to turn it off. I know the problems of a missionary are sooooo hard!!! Anyways, I looked all over the city and I couldn’t find one anywhere. Most of the people had no idea what I was even asking for. I was really losing hope on trying to find a lamp. Then one day I was at a hardware store and I was getting nails so I could…nail something. I got the brightest idea in the world… “I can just make one!!!” It took another 30 minutes trying to ask the dude behind the counter if he had everything that I needed, and yes he did. I went and drew up my lamp. I took the drawing over to my good friend, the sheriff, and within 30 minutes he welded together a stand for the light with some re-bar. I went home, put it together and now I have a lamp!!!! I know I could have done more stuff to it real easily to make it look better (like put a sheet over it!!!) but when you look at this lamp, remember that it’s coming from Africa, and that the only tool that I had was a leatherman, a hammer and a welder. When you first look at it, it looks really ugly, but after that second look it looks like something a fancy designer would use. I'm sure you understand...one of those things that is so ugly it’s cool. Remember this is coming from someone who has over 2 years experience in interior design. I know what I’m talking about!!! (Thanks Ben and Todd)

As you can see, I got a haircut. I was starting to get a lot of people talking about my long hair, and I was even getting a lot of people asking me if they could braid my hair or add links to it. I knew that would get pretty close to a cultural line that I didn’t want to get near, yet. It was quite fun and a very different experience. And as most of ya’ll also know my hair during my college career got long; it was different and fun. Since I graduated high school I believe I’ve cut my hair 4 times. But before that, like the normal American I have had my hair cut by the same person almost my whole life. So when trying to figure out where I should get my hair cut I had to make a very difficult decision…I went to the place closest to my house. It was a fun time. I had about 4 people in the room watching me and I had to give the dude cutting my hair a couple of pointers. When cutting hair for guys he only knew one hair cut - shave it. And then I had to try to explain to everyone that if I shaved my head that it would burn. They just don’t understand about sunburns, they think it’s really funny. I didn’t ask him, but I’m pretty sure I was his first white guy. Another thing that I know ya’ll would like to hear, is how much I paid for this wonderful trim. I paid the guy one thousand Fcfa. And I knew I was giving the dude way too much, almost twice as much as what all my friends said they pay. But a thousand Fcfa is equal two about 2 and a half bucks and I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for change after I handed him a 1000.
Things are going great; it’s starting to get really hot and I got about 3 more months until rainy season starts. I don’t know if it gets even hotter. I might even try the shaven head if it does. I thought I was using a lot of sunscreen so I can’t image how much I would use on my head if there was no hair.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SENEGAL!

April 4th, 1960 in Senegal is the equivalent of the USA’s July 4th, 1776. I thought this would be a great time to tell you all a little about Senegal.
Senegal is a country filled with many different people groups, all of which have their own language, culture, tradition, animistic beliefs, and way life. I can think of eight right off the top of my head and there’s many more than that. Of the many different languages in Senegal, French is the official language, and Wolof is the national language. Pulaar is probably the third most spoken language in Senegal, but I haven’t done any research or anything on that.
The people on Senegal rely heavily on the land on which they live in with peanuts as one of their major exports. Senegal’s economy is greatly influenced by agriculture.
Senegal is a country of almost 20 million people. I’ve heard anywhere from 92% - 97% are Muslim - I guess it matters who’s doing the research. Actually last month they had a huge Islam convention in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. I really didn’t know what to think when I looked at the TV and I saw the president of Senegal talking to the person who claims to speak for every Muslim country. Senegal is just like many of the countries around the world that are filled with lost people who have little to no chance of having the gospel presented to them. April 4th will be a day filled with Senegalese people celebrating their country. Please join me on this day and pray for the people of Senegal. Pray for the missionaries in Senegal, the government, the schools, the people and their fields. Pray that April 4th is also a day for the Kingdom of God.

YEAH! I'M DEFINITELY IN AFRICA!

So, the other day after playing soccer I was taking a shower. You know the just the same ol’ same ol’. I actually was having a really good shower! I have a hot water heater, but I don’t use it on the account that it’s 150 degrees outside, but it sure is nice. So yeah, I was in the middle of washing my hair and I had my eyes closed. I opened them and I noticed that something was not right - there were colors that were not supposed to be. As most of ya’ll know I’m not really good with colors and my first thought was that it was red because of a big cut and it was blood all around me. After a second look I noticed that it wasn’t red, it was brown!!!!!!! I’m telling you that if I was wearing pants, I would have been scared right out of them!!! I jumped out of the water and stared at it a while. I watch as it turns to a lighter shade of brown and then back to that very nasty brown color again (you know what I’m talking about). After a couple of minutes I started thinking about my options and how I can get clean. I walk to my kitchen and get my 5 liter jug of water that I have sitting around just in case of a water emergency. I get everything all ready for a good old bucket bath, but I decided to wait and give the shower water one more try before the bucket bath. Sure enough, the water slowly turned back to the color that it should be. So…I took a shower.
I know not too long ago I talked about retrieving my cell phone in my septic system. But this one is different. There is a whole different mindset when expecting something dirty. I guess when you’re in Africa you can never let your guard down on stuff like that. I got a picture of that lovely water coming out of the sink and no there is no hidden tea packet or I didn’t get board and have too much fun playing with the photo programs on my computer, this picture is pure Africa!!!!

IT'S OFFICIAL - I'VE EXPERIENCED CULTURE SHOCK

As most of ya’ll know, the two months before I got here I spent training with the IMB. It was a great time where I was able to grow and learn about my job. There was one topic that was stressed a lot and I thought that it was never going to bother me. Yep, you guessed it, culture shock. There were tons of people that came to speak about the stages of culture shock, how to prevent it, how to recognize it in your colleagues, what to do about it, and how to overcome it. There even was this cool little video that a missionary from India made about culture shock. They must have shown it to us like five times.
My Sundays are just like your Sundays. In the morning I usually eat breakfast and then get ready to go to church. It’s probably not just like your church, but me and the other missionaries in this city have what you call “house church”. We sing, pray, someone teaches, all the same stuff that you would do. Anyways, this Sunday was different. When I woke up I remembered that all my colleagues were on a little vacation in a town about six hrs away. They asked me to come but, I thought I didn’t need a vacation. I thought I was fine; I love it here in Kolda! So, instead of going some where to worship God, I decided to worship in my place. I had a real nice peaceful morning. It started to become lunch time and I was thinking about my choices. Usually I just find a place in town to eat or I’ll eat at one of my friend’s houses with them. Today I cooked lunch and started watching a movie on my computer. After, I studied Pulaar a little, read a little and then I put in another movie. It was around six in the afternoon. I looked outside and I noticed that my night guard had already shown up and he was hangin out with some of my neighbors. For some reason I couldn’t get enough courage to get up and go outside to talk to them. So, I cooked dinner, watched another movie and called it an early night. I was not proud of myself knowing that I spent the whole day in my house and never even changed out of the clothes that I slept in.
So the next day was Monday. I wake up do my same morning routine and then go to my Pulaar class. I came home to eat lunch and do the only thing that I know - dive right back into the culture. I decided to leave my motorcycle at my house and walk to the market. I had a few things that I needed so I thought I would go on a little shopping spree. I bought a spatula, a mouse pad, some light bulbs, and I spent about an hour talking with the people in the clothes market. There’s this place that gets these big bags of clothes from America, Europe, and all those places and you just go looking through the piles until you find something that you want. I almost bought this shirt that was from a Doctor’s convention in Houston. It was perty cool with a big Texas Flag on it. So during my adventure I randomly met the chief of my neighborhood. He was a fun dude and was very interested in my job and why I was here. His friend was very curious that I believe that Jesus Christ is GOD. He asked a lot of questions that I was able to answer. I just hope that the door will still be open once my language gets stronger and I can answer some of the deeper question.
I went home, put my stuff away and hung out with my friend, the Sheriff and his family. They were all really worried about me because they knew I spent the entire day in my house on Sunday. They were asking me tons of questions thinking that I was sick or something. I finally said, “I’m white. You’re black. I was tired, and I’m not used to living in Africa!!” I know they didn’t understand but they did understand enough that I’m going to live and that I don’t need to eat some special plant that will make me poop or something.
I love my job. I’m starting to like this language, and most importantly, I love my Lord. And because I love Him, I’m trying to love the Fulakunda. Some days are a lot harder than others, but I’m here for a reason and to do that I know I have to live amongst the Fulakunda. I eat what they eat, I smell what they smell, I’m trying to talk what they talk, and I sweat like they sweat. Please pray that I can remember God’s love for these people. Pray that I will keep my eyes on the only one that can give me the rest that I need. Pray that I will be more like him.

A LOT OF LESSONS IN ONE DAY!

Alright, I knew that this story would be hard to believe so I got some pictures too. This first picture is my back yard, (I guess you would call it that). I got a bunch of those squares all over the place and I never really investigated them, so I thought I would take a peek. And as you can see it’s my drainage system. I played around a little and found out that this is all the junk that comes from my kitchen sick. I was done playing and I grabed the cover to put the lid back on and my phone falls out of my shirt pocket and down into the yummy water. I stood there like five minutes staring at the water trying to figure out what just happened. I learned a lesson: shirt pockets may be convenient, but when you least expect it, they will turn on you. So I’m standing there, and since I was also in the middle of me lunch I quickly returned but to my food. During lunch I decided that the phone might be dead but if I got it back, I could get the sim card back and save the hassel of changing numbers. After about ten mintues of debating with myself I got enough courage, put on my swin siut and went after the phone. It took my a while to climb down. It was hard with just that little hole and small space, but as I got down there I was very lucky (yeah, I’ll say lucky), The water was only about two feet deep and I only had to put one leg in that water. I found my phone and climbed back out and took like a ten minute shower. I was happy because then I didn’t have to tell everybody the embarssing story about how I lost my phone while I’m giving them my new number. I learned a lesson. I got my phone, took it apart, as much as I could, and told myself that I would try it out tommorow. The next morning I put my phone back together, and it worked!!!! The thing dried out in less than 16 hours. I learned a lesson, the African heat has some uses!!! I was all happy about my phone, but then the next day I found out that it was too good to be true. My phone didn’t charge. I looked up in my books all the words that I needed to know to explain the story and off I went to see if anyone could help. I go to one place where the dude speaks some English, but the guy sends me about two streets over where the dude is a specalist on batteries. That dude sends me to someone about a kilometer away. After a lot of help, I found the right place and tell the story. He said to give him 8000 CFA (about 8 or 9 bucks) and he would fix it. I knew I was giving him too much, but I was just happy that he said he could fix it. Anyways I sat there and watched him take the thing apart and put it back together like three times as he was looking for what was wrong with the phone. He was also fixing three other phones at the same time. He never found the problem but he gave me a charger that would work. Now when I need to charge my phone I take out the battery and connect to the charger. I got a picture cause it’s real hard to explain.

It made me think back to when my phone back in America broke and no one wanted to help me. My African experience was ten times better. I learned a bunch of lessons on this adventure…. STUPID SHIRT POCKET!

PICTURES TELL STORIES

The other day I was hanging out at the same compound where I almost passed out from dehydration. They were showing me a bunch of pictures that they had. It’s really interesting that in their photo album this family had, they had the regular pictures of them staring at the camera or making a really funny face, but in the mix of their pictures were two other white girls. They told me that one was from Germany and was here 5 years ago, and the other was from Switzerland from about 3 years ago. It made me wonder about this family. It is very uncommon for a family to have a white person as a friend and this family has had at least 3. Please pray that THIS white guy will be different. I have no idea who those people were or why they came to Kolda, but I hope that this family will see more than just another white guy. Pray that they will see that Jewish carpenter that wants to know them. Anyways, let me get back to the pictures. They were showing me pictures so I thought I would pull out some of the pictures that I have. I had a bunch of pictures of my family, and they were very impressed with the pictures and that I could describe who everyone was. I knew I would need to know all the words for family so I’ve been practicing them a lot. This one girl in the family, I think she’s 8, asked for one of the pictures. I asked her which one and then she showed me a picture of me and my nephew Sam. “Bbiddo jaja am – baby older sister mine.” It’s this picture right here.

Then her mother asked her “Why do you want that picture?” and she responded “It’s a picture of Erik.” The mother then said, “That’s not Erik. That guys is huge!” I then shook my head yes and said, “That’s me!” She had to show the picture to everyone in the room again and ask what they thought.
Here in Africa it’s too hot to wear tight clothes, you wear big baggy clothes that don’t show off your physique. Ok, Ok, maybe I have lost a little weight, but not that much! It sure does make you think, right? I know that I’m eating more than I did in my college days, but I guess when rice is over half your meals your body starts to adjust. Or maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t had a Whataburger in over 3 months! MAN, I really want one of those right now!!!!!

SOME THINGS ARE CULTURE and SOME ARE COMPLETE ACCIDENTS!

The other day I’m in language class and my teacher is introducing me to some new verbs. We get to the verb, “saltaade”, which means “to refuse”. My teacher says the word, and then I look it up in my dictionary, and say, “to refuse”. My teacher then repeats what I said and flaps one of his arms like a chicken. I’ve never seen that before so I try my hardest to figure out what it means. My teacher would make the motion and then say “to refuse,” then do it again and say “saltaade”. He did that like twice and in the middle of one of the times, he turned his head to the side and blew a snot rocket (snot rocket - to blow your nose without a tissue). In my mind I just thought that blowing a snot rocket was another African way of saying, “I don’t want it” I’d never seen the flapping one arm thingy so I didn’t think the snot rocket would be that different. Anyways, I figured out what I wanted and we went on forward to some more verbs, or should I say “dandols”. About 30 minutes later my teacher blew another snot rocket and thinking about his earlier lesson I said, “saltaade”. My teacher then says “I’m sorry” and gets up and walks about 10 ft away while continuing to blow his nose. Now I can tell he thinks that I don’t like it when he does that. If you know me, then you know that blowing a snot rocket does not bother me at all. It’s actually on my top ten list of things to do when I’m board.
Some people say you learn something new every day, and I’m also finding out that you learn something wrong every day. So….yeah, if you’re ever coming to West Africa, remember, blowing a snot rocket doesn’t mean that you refuse, it just means that you got buggers in your nose!
Quick side note, my teacher’s best friend, just became a believer. So over the next few months he will be in close contact with two Christians. Pray not only for the witness of the new believer, but for the witness that I will be on my teacher.

KNOWING THE TRUTH

One thing that’s hard to believe is that I’ve been living in Africa for 2 months. If I ever wonder if it’s true, all I have to do is take a look out my window and … I’m in Africa!! Almost every time I’m watching a movie, right in the middle of it I will hear the call to prayer, a donkey braying, or any other random African noises and I tell myself, “Oh yeah, I’m in Africa!!”
I want to give you an update on my friend Bob, and thank you for your prayers for him. He is just one of the many over here that are blind to the truth. If you haven’t been keeping up with my blogs, I gave him a bible about 3 weeks ago. I try to hang out with this family at least once a week and the last time I was there Bob told me, “I read the whole bible and I didn’t see where it says that God is three.” My response was, “OK, that’s fine, so do you believe that the bible is true?” …. “Yes” … “So do you believe what is says about Jesus is true?”…. “What???”… “Do you believe that all those miracles? Do you believe Jesus died on the cross and came back to life three days later?” By his response and the look on his face I don’t think he ever read the Bible, but I don’t go there. We talked a little more about some of the miracles that Jesus did, and then he asked me, “Who killed Jesus?” Bob has asked me some good questions so I know he is searching for the truth, but it also seems that he wants to stay where he is.
We all know that you can’t change the truth. Some people here flat out reject it. Some of the people know the truth, but don’t want to believe because it means that they will have to change. Some people, like my friend Bob, have the truth within their reach but can’t take that first step and take hold of it. Sadly, there are many people here in Senegal that have never and might never get the chance to hear the truth. Pray for the truth and pray that the word of God and the word alone will convict these people. Pray that I remember that my job is not to make them believe; my only job is to present the truth and leave the rest up to Holy Spirit. Pray that the Fulakunda, West Africa, and the world will quit hiding from truth. Like I said earlier, you can’t hide from the truth for too long!
Hey, if you haven’t gone to www.gowestafrica.org you need to. You can find info on the Fulakunda, or about the many other people groups in West Africa. April 4th and 5th, there will be a big convention in South Carolina that tries to connect the many people in America with the many opportunities to serve the Lord over here in West Africa. Many times missions start because of events like this. Please keep it in your prayers.

The Language of PULAR

As I’m spending my time here in Kolda my biggest prayer request is still my language. There’s a parable here in West Africa that “Slowly, Slowly, you catch a monkey in the bush.” When I say it they seem to get a big kick out of it. I hope they’re laughing at the parable and not at me, but it wouldn’t be the first time. And that’s just what is happening…I’m slowly getting this language. Now that I’m here I have been told that Pulaar is probably the toughest language of West Africa , so yeah, I do mean slowly. There’s only one way to eat an elephant, one bite at a time!!!!! I really do appreciate the prayers for my language and I thought that I would spend this time and just tell you some cool things about this language that make it so “fun” to learn.
NOUNS: A lot of times the singular and plural words are completely different. For example, Man – gorko Men – worbe
ARTICLES: If you look up the translation for the word “the” in the Pulaar-English dictionary you won’t find one – not because they don’t have a word for it, but because they have 23!!!!! Each noun has its own article and you basically have to just remember the article along with the word. And yes, it’s different for singular and plural nouns.
VERBS: In Pulaar, verbs aren’t necessarily conjugated for the subject. Instead, it depends more on when the action occurred. To conjugate, you get the stem of the verb and if it is present tense you add –ii; if it is present negative you add –aani. There is also a past tense and 2 future tenses that both have different negative forms (One of the future tenses is for when you know what will happen and the other is for when you aren’t sure what will happen).
MULTIPLE MEANINGS: There are a lot words in this language that are hard to translate and/or have two meanings. You just have to know the context of what they’re talking about. For example to read and to learn are the same word in Pulaar. Another example is the word Nande which means to hear and/ or understand (because many people in Africa can understand a language but they can’t speak it). The word that I gave you earlier, gorko¸ doesn’t just mean man it also can mean husband if it has a possessor after the word. One of my favorite things about this language is the many words for wash. There’s a different word for washing clothes, washing yourself, washing your hands, and washing your feet. I don’t know why, but I think that’s awesome!!!
As I said before I don’t expect to learn this language over night and I plan to still be taking language classes 6 months from now! As you can see, I almost have to totally re-wire my brain to be able to get this language. So please continue to pray for my language learning. Pray for my teacher. As I start learning more language I will start to bring out my Pulaar New Testament and translating them and using the bible as my lesson plan for learning Pulaar. That’s perty deep…lesson plans of life…I can go on for hours. I will not only share with my teacher but please pray that I will be able to “practice” these stories on my friends and eventually for the many villages and people that I will visit.