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.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Futuro, the time is now!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, August 22, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
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.
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?)
Friday, August 8, 2008
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
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
Saturday, August 2, 2008
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.
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.
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