End of March Update:
Currently listening to: The Civil Wars
Wow. Oh Wow. Hello my friends! It is about time that I sit down and write to you. Although, it actually is not good timing because I should be working on a 15 page paper that is due very soon, but I will not be able to focus on that until this is done. So off we go!
I cannot believe it is April already! Time seems to be slipping right through my fingers and yet the days seem to last forever. We have now been in Bougouni a month and we have finally seen some generally regular power and have gone through one class: Worlds Living Religions. I have had many great experiences since being here and there is so much to talk about so hopefully I do not forget anything.
First of all, I put a thing on the right side of my blog where it says you can put your e-mail; if you would like a notification for when I post please stop quick and put it in there. I will be posting more often, at least that is my plan, and I do not want you to miss out when I do!
Awkward family photo that was taken in the dark, while we had no power.
As you know things here at the house started off pretty slow, seeing as we had no power. This would be exactly what HEART (the school we went to in Florida) had prepared us for. In this time we went through everything in the house and cleaned it out and put things in what we claimed to be their rightful place. Here in Bougouni we are staying at a place called IBR. IBR stands for (in English) Reed Bible Institute, where people can come and take bible classes. The campus we live on has four “homes” and many “dorm rooms” as well as class rooms. One of the four homes is our team house as well as where the girls live and our host live in another.
Our host is Reverend Joseph Camara. Yes, it is Reverend, because here in Mali if they are an ordained priest you call them Reverend. We call him uncle Joseph and his wife, Marte Diallo, is tante Marte. First of all, yes his wife has a different last name, unlike in America the woman keep their last names. Second, I am not sure how I can explain the significance of the emotions I felt when I heard the next thing I am about to tell you. Third, the reason that we call them Uncle Joseph and her Tante Marte, which means aunt, is because they are here for us, not to replace our parents, but to stand in the temporary gap of having someone to go to when we need something, want to learn, or simply to discuss with. They said that they care about us and are constantly praying for us just as they do their own children.
Introduction to the Students:
There are 5 students here attending the IBR school. These young men have been a major influence on the previous team’s experiences and no doubt will they be on our team. Many times already, I have sat out with them discussing things over tea. They are very interested in the American culture just as much as we are in the Malian culture so discussions stay interesting.
Samuel Yalcouye, Samuel Gindo, Samuel Traore, Gideon Pardiorigo, and Pastor Daniel Dacko are the 5 students. We usually refer to the Samuels by their last names, except Traore is usually called Moses and sometimes Yalcouye, Sana. Yalcouye or Sana, speaks very good English and because of this fact we are able to communicate very well with him. Samuel Gindo, or Gindo, is the next student who speaks English decently enough that we can usually understand each other. Moses speaks very small English, but he really knows more than he will admit. Gideon speaks hardly any English, but I am sure he knows more than he admits as well. Then we have Pastor Daniel who speaks no English at all.
Moses, Gideon, and Pastor Daniel are all married and so their wives have a very big influence on our experience here as well! Moses’ wife’s name is Dina and they were married in September, she speaks no English. Gideon’s wife’s name is Elizabeth but you will hear most people call her Bartima; they were married in September? Or October? One of those; she speaks a decent amount of English. Pastor Daniel’s wife is referred to as Mama and she speaks no English.
Hopefully this little introduction will help you understand some of the things I wish to talk about.
Beginning of a new friendship:
In time, like I had previously stated, I would find myself making my way outside talking to the students, trying to get to know them. We would have tea at our Host’s house (Uncle Joseph) with them twice to help break the ice and soon I would make my way outside after dinner one night. This night, the beginning of my conversation was with Moses and Gindo, so very small English, a little Bambara, and very little French would be used! I told them that I wanted to come and talk to them more and learn French so we planned for the next day to have tea, and Moses would teach me how to make it Malian style!
Soon we would be continuing to have tea and make small talk with the students. This is one of my favorite things to do and, although I do not do it every day, I try to make it a part of my day. One day while having tea Dina, Moses’ wife, was sitting there and Bartima was getting her hair braided; I made a joke saying “I am next,” thinking they would just laugh. Well, they actually were interested in playing with my hair anyways so Dina went and bought me little rubber bands and told me to sit in front of her. 2 ½ hours later my hair was finished. C’est l’Afrique! It took time and things were needing to be done but I was not about to move. One thing that I have learned is that relationships with people are very important; even just before coming here I learned this by contacting all of you! It is not uncommon for people to just show up at your house, as we learned with Paul in Bamako, but even though it may be inconvenient for you, you sit down with them anyways!
Epic Fail Story:
So one day I was really craving a new kind of sweet and thought I would try to make peanut Brittle or something similar. A few things to note from this experience: Always PRE-read the entire recipe before you go to make it. Also make sure that you have everything that you need set out and ready to go. Needless to say I completely failed at my random attempt and somehow we ended up with very hard clumps of a really sugary sweet snack! I think I decided to name it Caramel Rocks instead of Caramel Candies…
Frog Saga:
So for those who were keeping track on Facebook or Twitter about the Animal Saga:
The frogs have stopped coming to our shower and we have no idea what made them stop coming. I have a theory though and I am sure that it is because they watched Tammi chuck their friends across the IBR campus and they got scared of her muscles and throwing skills. So to conclude the Shower Frog Saga number Tammi: 4 Frog: 0. This does not include the many frogs that you will spot walking around at night in which our host’s son likes to throw rocks at. They have been unsuccessful in getting into our home.
As for the animals that were being hosted by my unfriendly hospitality in my room:
The baby lizard: I believe he is no longer a baby lizard; but also I believe that Andrew caught him today actually! The best part of this day is that the Malians hate them and will not touch them!
The baby mouse: I definitely hate mice. The idea of them crawling through my stuff and not knowing where they have been, well it’s gross. I had not seen this little one in a while and was getting nervous he had grown up a little bit, every night I wake up to a noise and would look around in hopes it was not him. Funny thing is last night after just finishing dinner we were all sitting there and Andrew looked over and spotted a small creature crawling across the floor. He stated that if that was indeed the mouse that we had a very good opportunity to catch it; so I decided to leave the room not wanting anything to do with this conversation. I joined Samantha in the Kitchen who had started dishes by now and I would be sewing a phone bag for Tante Marte. Tante Marte always drops her phone (because she does not have any pockets) to the point where she had to buy a new phone. Instead of sewing a ton of pockets I decided to start with a phone case.
I am going to add a handle but she loved it and was so excited to see this!
Back to the mouse story: We were singing to The Lion King soundtrack that I had going on my iPod and Samantha went to go get her iPod. She then saw Andrew and Tammi who had started using furniture to barricade our living room. So I yelled at her to grab the camera and record this nonsense while I stood up high off the ground on our couch, which happened to be in the hallway. Long story short we caught the mouse while also finding that there was two, and not just one. Andrew and his mad barricading skills caught both of the mice and they definitely learned their lesson, seeing as he unintentionally crushed the second mouse in attempts to catch it.
In case you were wondering yes the Mice have names but if you are not a Grace student or teacher you might not know the significance of them; and I am sorry if you feel left out but thus is life.. These Mice, we decided were named Tony and Isabel; who is the one who lived you might ask? Sorry Tony, but we killed Isabel, we decided that in this case: of a mouse, we did not want her children. ;)
Chief of the Fetish:
Here in Bougouni, uncle Joseph is a very well known man and well respected for all of the things that he does. While in the class of Worlds Living Religion, which he taught us, we had an opportunity to go and meet a man that is the Chief of the Fetish in a nearby city called Kola. We were learning about traditional religions of Africa and of them were fetishes. When we arrived there a man met us at our car who then brought us to another man’s home. We sat there while our host talked to this man, in whom then brought us to the Chief’s home.
Usually in order to see the chief you have to bring him cola nuts but we did not have time to stop and get any so our host ended up just giving him money to buy some. We were told before arriving that he was blind and when arriving at the Chief’s home we found him sitting on the ground on an animal hide. We sat there with him as our host talked with him and the other two men we had been with. Our host would have to explain that he was with four American students 1 male and 3 females; in which we were also previously told that if someone in Kola shook Andrew’s hand and not ours that we should not be offended; it was part of certain religions in the area.
Before leaving this “Chief of the Fetish” our host was asked to pray for him. Our host says that he claims to not have asked to be Chief of the Fetish, rather he was forced into it. He said that if he did not accept it, they would kill him. What this means, I do not know and I do not try to understand because there is definitely more to this that I do not know. But what I can leave you with is this: No matter who you are, no matter who I am, no matter who you meet, somehow we are all born with a fear of God. Please be praying for this man because clearly, Chief of the Fetish or not, he is fearing God.
Je Chante:
Now, the last thing that I will write about is what you all have been waiting for! I have joined the church choir, yes! Two weeks ago, I finally had the chance to join the choir and make new friends. Since we had been here for a few weeks, I had made it a point to go and shake the choir member’s hands. I knew that I wanted to join the choir and I wanted to give them the opportunity to get to know my face and understand I was interested in being friends with them.
When I showed up for practice I was automatically accepted and gained new friends. They would have to write down the songs for me but that did not stop them from having a good time. The first day they had a break down session during practice and we danced and my new friend Dorcas grabbed my arm and made sure I stayed close and followed her lead. The next week I would make my debut in front of the church as a choir member! After church we had practice again and then I was told that we would be going to a member’s house to talk at 3.
Here is where the language barrier would get even more interesting. Because they said talk, I was confused thinking there would be an agenda but once again I must tell myself: C’est l’Afrique, we got to the house and they were making tea and playing cards! I got to know the members really well this day. Even though the only one who could speak any English was Gindo, which was a challenge at times, yet very exciting, we managed to have a very good time and I learned a Malian card game! They found out that I had Malian music on my iPod and wanted to listen to it and then one of the girls wanted to hear American music so I played some for her.
I look forward to the memories and friendships to come and cannot wait to share them with you as they come!
This girl's hair is awesome! It reminded us of a troll doll!
Peed on by a frog?! :
For those who saw my question on Facebook and were wanting to know the result to "Who got peed on by a frog?" Here is your answer:
For now I will leave you with these stories to tide you over. I plan to blog more now that my internet is consistent so stay tuned!
Special shout outs go to Gwen And Lynn Burn who were my initial push to come on this trip. I appreciate your obedience to the Lord, this is truly a life changing experience I am having here and your support means a lot to me! Also to Don Schreiber, your prayer and support mean a lot to me and I definitely want to sit down and talk with you about everything the Lord has done and is doing in my life through this experience.
Thanks to my Mama and Papa who are continually supporting me and sending me awesome packages! Also to my sister who has also helped in sending stuff to me, including zippers and buttons for my special projects! The Malians are going to love them!
I love and miss you all and once again if you want to ask any questions or just send a note saying hello please e-mail me at kaeli.mincey@gmail.com
Bamako Package from my Mama and Papa!
Zippers and buttons from my Sister!
For the 3 Princesses, from my Mama!
