Fathers, Fellowship, and Fun

Gosh there is so much to write! First off, I had no clue yesterday was Father’s day! So happy father’s day to all you dads! But most importantly, I want to thank my Father in heaven, my God and King, for all You have done for me and the ways you continue to guide my steps! Please mold me after your Son Jesus, and go with me and before me so I can be a part of you grand adoption plan! To those of us who know what it is like to know Him as our Abba Father, we are his sons and daughters because of Christ! I think the best way we can honor our great Father is to simply love him through obedience and trust, and through letting other people know that He wants them to join the family.

Also, this is was first Father's day since my Dad passed away...I miss him a ton! I am so thankful for the wonderful Dad he was, love you Dad!

So moving on to this last week, here is a few highlights split up into topics:

COMMUNITY:

Last week, the big happening was the building of the second story roof/third story floor (it was a giant concrete slab) for Koko church on Monday. It was an incredible thing to participate in as 500 to 700 men, women, and children from the church and surrounding churches (and at least one Muslim I know of) came together to pour the roof like a big symphony of bucketeers!

The men mostly were involved in filling wheelbarrows of dirt and rock and then depositing those contents into 3 giant concrete mixers. They then added water and mixed the concrete, which was passed in buckets up the three scaffolding systems to rows of people, mostly women and children, who were passing the buckets and then dumping them on the roof.

Next the empty buckets were passed down a different line and thrown off the roof to attentive kids waiting on the ground to retrieve them. You have to be quick as to not get nailed by a heavy bucket bathed in concrete. The buckets were next filled with concrete again and this process repeated itself over and over, until after about 14 hours of work the staircase and roof were complete.

There was of course lunch breaks that people took in shifts; a group of about 50 or 60 women were working on preparing the rice and sauce for everyone….and it was tasty too! As far as work goes, I tried my hand at everything, but definitely enjoying passing buckets up the scaffolding the most! It got a little interesting though when all the guys started dancing on the scaffolding! Let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t fall 20 feet from the shaky tower of pipes and narrow boards while the Ivorian guys got their groove on to some great Balophone music. In the end, I think that whole project was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed! Here are a few photos (thanks CJ for the pics!):

hanging out with the other monkeys

the one in pink is my host sister, Martine

the one in black (below) is CJ's host sister, Madeline

Our JCWA program director, Rod, Hard at work (as always)

FOOD:

Tuesday was Alyssa’s 21 birthday, so we surprised her by taking her out to lunch at the chwarma place, La Columbdore. Rodolph (the owner) had set everything up for us including placemats that he had printed (at a very high quality) the words “Joyeux Anniversaire Alyssa” and a photo of Alyssa that he probably had taken with his phone on an earlier date. He brought out a huge chocolate cake, that had these delicious layers of fruits inside of it, a big Lebanese salad, freshly sliced bananas, and of course the staple Moroccan mint tea. We also ordered chwarmas and fries of course. It was such a good meal, and Rodolph is such a fun host! As a thank you for our group, Heidi and CJ baked a coffee cake for him, which was really flattered to receive.

In further news:

I took my brother Zumbulé (he’s 10) to get malaria medicine the other day, and on the way back he got sick from some meat he ate and vomited all over the floor of the restaurant we were at. I had a front row seat and narrowly avoided becoming like the splash section at sea world. Good thing I’m a ninja.

Oh and my Maman thinks I hate rice and sauce (and she’s right but I won’t admit it) so I only have to eat it for 2/3 meals a day now instead of 3/3. They make a bunch of whatever else for me at night now, but at least it’s enough for me to share it with my Zachary and my host Dad; I wouldn’t want to be the “special” one who get’s his own stuff.

Here's a photo of sauce arrachide I found online (mmmmmm), the only sauce I really like (peanut sauce):

MINISTRY:

I’ll keep it short since this blog is getting lengthy.

I finished the song I’ve been working on for Radio Sinai! In French it’s called “Nous Les Enfants” (we the children), and it’s about children’s’ rights. However, I redid it and had some girls sing in Dioulla and Cebara. After way too many hours of work it’s ready for the radio. It’s still an annoying song, but I’m glad with the end product.

Go HERE to hear the song in Dioulla

If that doesn't work try HERE

On Friday’s CJ and I now go with our two pastors to visit families from our church, and every other Sunday we go with them to other villages and meet our sister churches. It’s a cool opportunity to meet new people and to get an idea what the state of the church is like in other areas.

Man On The Run

Oh la la, c'est la sixième de Juin maintenant! Mon cœur est plein de joie a cause des choses que Dieu a me béni ces sept mois passé. Je comprende la Français beaucoup mieux que plus tôt; j'étais très inquiet avant Mai! Mais, Dieu a me donné un cadeau de la compréhension. Ma soeur, Martine, même a dit que je parle très bien actuellement! Si cela est vrai - je ne sais pas - mais j'apprécie le compliment! Vraiment, mon accent (la prononciation des mots et des voyelles) a besoin de beaucoup du travail. C'est vrai pour chacun de notre équipe, surtout moi. En plus, j'ai fait des erreurs dans ce paragraphe, probablement! Mon espoir par rapport à la langue de français est que je puisse parler et comprendre presque tous que j'écoute est lire!! C'est possible avec Dieu! (J'ai essayé la subjonctif là, c'est propre, n'est pas? Faut me corriger si tu voir une erreur!)

Ok I'm done, I'll type in English now. I was just talking about the french language and such there, hopefully google translate will be your friend and translate that somewhat well for you, if you need it to!

So this last week has been an adventure!

Stephanie had her 23rd birthday last wednesday! She was kinda bummed that we couldn't all be together (she lives in Bouaké), so we all bought bus tickets and surprised her! We showed up at the ice cream place there, and it was perfect. Her back was facing us, and so we walked right in behind her before she turned around - definitely a great surprise! Thursday night we had an awesome costume dinner/dance party for her with the old drama costumes we found from when École Baptist was a school. I'll get a photo of that up here if I can find one later.

In Bouaké, I worked hard with the Cedarville team and Chazz in gym cleaning 8 years of bird poop, dust, and cobwebs for a few hours. I even had this awesome broom tied to the end of a 25 foot long stick with which I could sweep up cobwebs nearer the roof. The rest of the time there was relaxing, and then Friday morning we took a bus back to Korhogo (except Heidi who was sick that morning).

Back in Korhogo, I went straight to my host dad's shop and then home for 5 minutes to change my clothes. Zana (my host dad) and I , along with 2 others, left immediately for NioFoin. So basically Friday was a day of constant traveling for me, and I was happy to get to bed that night.

Saturday we went to this big animistic "we're gonna build a huge cotton factory here in 2012" celebration. Actually, I'm pretty sure that was the official title of it. Or not. Anyways, it was really interesting to see the traditional beads, cowry shells, mirrors, fetishes, straw, etc that they wear to ward off evil spirits. The dances they did and the different rhythms they played were so impressive!

True "African American" balophone players:

Awesome hats, awesome facial expression:

This is Eagleman (or so I call him), Ivorian superhero:

Here are the ladies costumes, a panya, crazy hat, straw shield thing, and no shirt (which is why I took a facing away photo to show you):

These guys are, in my opinion, the equivalent of Ivorian power rangers. They do awesome acrobatics and scare away evil spirits (aka Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa).

Here, we are eating family style in N'Ganon (the village Zana grew up in):

And this is my friend Eliza (who used to live with us in Korhogo) and her little sister Sara, having a good time:

And this last picture is of someone who thought it wise to have a load on his car many times taller than the car itself. I almost didn't capture it!

Ok, have a great week! Hopefully I won't be on the run so much.