My Sister's Company

MSC is going really well. We have been really busy with making products for the US. I've really been blessed by working with the women. They are all really excited to learn new skills and they are clearly very happy to have the opportunity to learn. I can't wait to see how they develop over the next couple of months.

Working on potholders

Here are a few examples of the products.

Everything comes in many different colors and designs.

Knot-bags

Pillow Cases

Free-form Earrings

Fabric Necklaces

Coconut Earrings

Wire Earrings

Potholders

Aprons

The past month in a nutshell

A second baby girl was born in my compound. This time we actually got to witness the naming ceremony and try to decipher what was happening. The Marabout (an intermediary of the spiritual world) shaves the babies head, and the elders sort of pass her around and formally decide on the name which is usually chosen by the father. Kola nuts and a pounded mixture of rice and sugar is passed out to everyone. And the rest of the day is a celebration.

Before Eric left we visited the biggest tree in West Africa which just happens to be in our backyard.

We also bought a solar oven that we have had fun experimenting with. (more to come on this in my newsletter)

A new Sister

Since Yankuba (Eric) is leaving we decided to get Asobes (matching outfits). Don’t be too weirded out. Eric’s doesn’t really match ours and it’s something they do for a special occasions. We went with some of our friends to pick out fabric and talk to the tailor. Lori and I got a custom made dress for the equivalent of $7, Eric’s was about $17. But like we told him, he bought a suit when we just bought a Sunday dress.
We have a new sister! Our landlords wife had her baby on Feb 18. She is a tiny little girl named Mariama. And our outfits were ready just in time for the naming ceremony.

Eric holding Mariama after the naming ceremony

This was a mis-shot but you can see the end result of the skin dye from the earlier post

Me and Mariama

Fun stuff

We decided to make doughnuts about a week too early for Fasnacht day. We didn’t have yeast but we made cake doughnuts instead. We a great 3 man assembly line going and they turned out really well. The first ones got a little too dark but then we discovered that putting a potato in the oil with the dough keeps them from getting too dark.

We also had an evening of “painting” our nails. There is a local tree here that they pound and make a powder with. They then mix that with sugar to make a paste. It is very similar to the Indian Henna that we are familiar with. So they spread the paste on your finger tips, palms and sometimes the bottoms of your feet, cover it with plastic bags. You leave it on over night and your skin is dyed in the morning. They think it is very beautiful and on their skin I think it is too. It makes a very nice, deep tone. We aren’t too impressed with the orange color that it dyes our skin but that eventually goes away and we’re left with nail color.

rolling & cutting

Frying


Dipping in glaze & Cin/sugar


The finished product


Yay, doughnuts!

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Applying the paste to my foot

My fingers covered with plastic

Lori's feet all finished ready for bed

Abuko

A lot has happened since the conference. I’ve been unable to update my blog with pictures so the stories have been piling up. I will split them into a few posts.

On Monday after the conference our team had a day out. We went to a wildlife reserve Abuko; where we walked through the bit of jungle that is still left in the area. It was really cool because you turn off the main road in the large city and you’re right in the middle of a jungle. Here in West Africa we don’t have the big, exciting animals that you typically think of when you think of Africa but it was exciting to see monkeys, antelope, crocodiles and lots of beautiful birds. They also had a few animals in cages that used to be found in the wild here; such as baboons, tortoises, a pelican, and hyenas. Let me just tell you, hyenas are much bigger and scarier than “The Lion King” makes them look. They are almost the same size as a lioness and some lions will actually back down from a hyena in a confrontation. Scary!

Our little guard at the MEHDA Gate

In the forest

A path made just for Denise

Tarzan or Eric

Crocodile (this guy was what we saw from behind that sign^)

Cute Monkey

Killer Ants (ok, maybe not killer but fierce)

Snarling Hyena

The conference

I had asked you to pray for the conference in Senegal and I thank you for your prayers. It was quite an ordeal to get there and I’m sure that Satan had tried to keep us from arriving. There were issues with the amount of money it would cost to travel. We ended up giving our money to the church leaders so they could go. Gary wasn’t sure if he wanted to try making the trip alone as a team without any locals with us but we were set on going and were sure that we wouldn’t have any problems. So then we had to wait while Gary traveled to the money exchanger to get more funds. We sat on a metal-grate bench for 4 hours until we left. We made it there safely, tired and hot from being cramped in a small car, but safe none the less.
We knew a team was coming from America but I was surprised when I had some sort of connection with everyone there. I knew Elaine and Lloyd Hoover’s daughter Sheila from EMM and Glenn Hoover is from Ephrata and shops at Roxanne’s flowers. Zach Mininger and I had met several times in Lancaster when our groups of friends would hang out. We joked how we never would have imagined that we would be eating with our hands out of the same bowl in Africa! What a small world.
The conference was a combination of the Mennonite churches in Guinea Bissau and The Gambia; with the majority being from GB so most of the people spoke Creole and we couldn’t communicate with them. There were a few who really tried to talk to us but they just kept repeating the Creole and that didn’t make it any easier for us. The time consisted of a lot of sitting on hard benches listening to teachings through 3 interpreters. It was good teaching but it was hard to sit through most of it. I enjoyed when we had the church leaders talk about their culture and customs and had them sift through them to see which traditions were good and which should be stopped. Over all, it was a good time with lots of energetic worship times and fellowship. It was also refreshing and very encouraging to be with a few other Americans.

In the little car

Glenn Hoover Preaching

Lloyd Hoover teaching

Zach Mininger baby sitting

Hello everyone! I hope you all were able to enjoy watching the Super Bowl on Sunday; I heard that is was one of the most memorable of all time. The team here went to a guest house for the weekend. We are now headed to southern Senegal from Wednesday till Saturday. It is a conference for the leaders of the church here. There is a group from New Holland Mennonite coming. The topics will be on marriage and family, culture, transformational development & Evangelism. Please be praying for our time there. That the leaders would be open to the teachings and that God would be working deep in their hearts. Pray also for safety as we are taking public transportation for a 6 hour trip.