Hey everyone!!
So much has happened since I last wrote... It's almost overwhelming!
Let's start with last weekend.... Kelsey and I spent the 12th through the 16th living in a village called Zamaka with a wonderful family... it's about 22 km outside of Abengourou. We've been there before; on Fridays we usually go out to the same village with Andy to do a bible story telling group. This experience... It was... beyond words. I can't even begin to tell you how much I learned about African people, life, and the world in general.
Before I left for Africa, I had a chance to eat with my dad's friend, Sherman. Sherman is Ghanaian; Ghana is the country that's right next door to Ivory Coast (we're only like 30 minutes away from the border in Abengourou). His parents are from Ghana, he visits Ghana often, and he even has a son that lives in the capitol of Ghana. So we met with him because he knew more about West African culture than anyone else my family knows. When I explained to Sherman what I'd be doing this summer and where I'd be going, I think he had in mind that I'd be living in a village very similar to Zamaka the whole summer (he wasn't as familiar with Ivorian cities, so understandably he didn't know for sure whether Abengourou was a town or a village [it's a town])... he had described village culture to me, trying to get me to understand what it'd be like. I listened, but honestly, I didn't really absorb what he was talking about until I was thrown into the middle of it last weekend. Sherman had said that there was no greater experience in the entire world that a young American girl like me could have than living in a west African village... he was 100% right. I could go on forever about what I learned and saw and how I grew as a person last weekend, but I have so much more to blog about! I REALLY encourage you all to go read Kelsey's blog post about our stay in Zamaka... she's a fantastic writer, and gave some great insights to village life. Check it out here. Seriously, go read it! And when you see me in person next, please please please ask me about Zamaka -- it was a life changing weekend.
OKAY. Next topic of blogging -- the festival!
Last week after we got back from the village, Kelsey and I had a bunch of stuff to do! We had been planning on having a kind of festival/field day/party for the kids in the school children program. All those families we had been visiting 3 times a week for the past month were coming to the clinic! We had a lot to do to get ready, so we spent the week running around buying stuff, making gift bags, filling water balloons, ordering snacks, and other various party-planning activities. It was a lot to do, but Saturday finally came and the festival was a complete success! We played lots of games, had relay races, took a bunch of pictures, and gave each child a snack and a gift bag with candies and some school supplies. I think everyone had a really great time, and we're super glad everything worked out really well!
On Sunday, we went to a village church that was about 20 or so minutes outside of town. This was a really interesting church service because the focus was on implementing a CHE (or Community Health Evangelism) program. They gave a CHE lesson about how God doesn't really want us to live in poverty, and so many of the problems that the communities faces can be addressed with the resources they have on hand. They really encouraged the church to take leadership in their community and identify resources that the community has, using them to solve community health problems. The coolest thing about the CHE lesson was how interactive the teaching was. People were encouraged to get up and participate in a small activity, and afterwards were encouraged to discuss what they learned and how these lessons can be applied towards CHE. It was really great to see how effective CHE was at teaching these lessons in an engaging way and to see the community really learning about how they can fix many of their problems together.
Today, we got to work with the chicken farm program a little! Kelsey and I actually went up to the farm and collected eggs... I even picked up a chicken! It was kind of scary because I'd never actually touched a live chicken.... but I did it! These chickens lay SO many eggs. It's kind of out of control. Calm down, chickens!!! But in all seriousness, this program is really awesome... it's completely self-sustainable and has a 100% profit margin. Furthermore, it encourages better nutrition in the community, and it can give many families a way to earn money by selling eggs in the market for the chicken farm, thus turning into a kind of micro enterprise program for many families. Really great program!
Okay, I think that's all I have right now. And I know what you're thinking right now... where are all your pictures?? I have been taking pictures still; I promise. I just presently don't know where the computer adapter is for my memory card right now and haven't had a chance to look for my spare one. I promise I'll write again before I go home next week and add pictures (can you believe I leave next week???).
Love you all SO much, thanks for your relentless prayers and undying support... keep praying for the Gables, Kelsey and I, and this awesome ministry out here in Ivory Coast!
Q&A
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Hey team! I was kind of at a loss for what to write this week (hence why I've put it off for so long). But this morning I decided it'd be really interesting to do a Q&A kind of blog with some of the questions my family and friends have been asking.... hope you enjoy!
Q: What kind of food do you eat?
A: Actually, we tend to eat a lot of American food! We eat mostly at our house, and we thus generally get to have things like spaghetti, chicken, lasagne, and potatoes. The only difference is that everything has to be made from scratch... no ready-made pasta sauce here!
But we also get plenty of opportunities to eat African food. One really popular staple is attieke (it's not pronounced how it's spelled). It kind of reminds me of rice or couscous, but it's not really like either of them at all. It's made from cassava, and people usually put oil, peppers, tomatoes, and salt on it. When we have it, it's often served alongside fish. Another African dish is called foutou, and I believe it's made with ground plantains. The texture of it is very different... almost like mashed potatoes. It's usually served with some sort of meat in a peanut sauce or something comparable. Africans also eat a lot of rice and yams, both of which I really like.
Q: Do you see any wildlife?
A: I actually don't! However, there are a lot of over-sized bugs. Yeah... bugs are definitely bigger in Africa. Cockroaches, giant months, huge snails that come out at night time... This past weekend, we supposedly ran over a really large black snake with the land rover... we had the opportunity to go to one of the village churches that was in a village a couple hours into the bush (which was really cool!). On our way back, we ran over the snake. I didn't get to see it, but Andy, our host missionary, say that black snakes usually mean pretty deadly snakes. I have no love for snakes, so it really didn't bother me.
This past week, Kelsey and I watched The Ghost and The Darkness, a movie based on a true story about two lions in Kenya that terrorized and murdered railroad builders in the late 1800's (we've been watching lots of movies about Africa while in Africa, haha). If you've never seen the movie, I promise I'm not ruining anything by telling you it's truly a horror film... terrifying. So, naturally, I Googled whether or not lion territory runs this far west. To my immediate relief, there really aren't any big cats like that here (but it's also kind of sad -- read on about lions in west Africa here).
Q: Do any of the people speak English?
A: Nope. People speak French in Cote d'Ivoire. There's also a lot of native languages still spoken, especially in villages. Such languages include Djoula, Agni, and Baoule. People may learn English in school, but they're just as likely to study Spanish or German as they are English.
Q: What interesting cultural differences have you seen?
A: SO MANY!!! Examples... people walk slow. People always shake hands upon greeting, always with the right hand; also, it's a sign of respect if you touch your right arm with your left hand while shaking hands. Some men may have more than 1 wife.... there's countless other things, some of which are kind of hard to explain by typing. Really I could just go on and on. Ask me in person some time!
Q: What's church like?
A: Church is church! Just like in America, there's worship and music, offering, communion, teachings and sermons out of the Bible, and plenty of people to greet and talk to after! So all the big things are the same. But all of these things are done a little differently than what we see in the states... they're done according to African culture! So although they have singing and drums and keyboards and a sound system, it's all very African sounding.. and in French! It's loud, up-beat, and very exciting. People usually get up and dance during worship time, kind of like a follow-the-leader march type of dance (I can show you some time). Offering and communion are done backwards... that is, we get up and go to the front to give offering, and communion is brought to you in your seat! A little different, but really that's nothing too crazy. But everything else, it's the same Bible, we still do announcements, and there's still plenty of after-church talking and visiting (my mom's a pro at that kind of thing; she'd do well here).
If you have other questions about things in Ivory Coast, email me or leave me a comment and I'll try to include it in my next post. Love you all, continue praying for me and for the mission!
Danica
Q: What kind of food do you eat?
A: Actually, we tend to eat a lot of American food! We eat mostly at our house, and we thus generally get to have things like spaghetti, chicken, lasagne, and potatoes. The only difference is that everything has to be made from scratch... no ready-made pasta sauce here!
But we also get plenty of opportunities to eat African food. One really popular staple is attieke (it's not pronounced how it's spelled). It kind of reminds me of rice or couscous, but it's not really like either of them at all. It's made from cassava, and people usually put oil, peppers, tomatoes, and salt on it. When we have it, it's often served alongside fish. Another African dish is called foutou, and I believe it's made with ground plantains. The texture of it is very different... almost like mashed potatoes. It's usually served with some sort of meat in a peanut sauce or something comparable. Africans also eat a lot of rice and yams, both of which I really like.
Q: Do you see any wildlife?
A: I actually don't! However, there are a lot of over-sized bugs. Yeah... bugs are definitely bigger in Africa. Cockroaches, giant months, huge snails that come out at night time... This past weekend, we supposedly ran over a really large black snake with the land rover... we had the opportunity to go to one of the village churches that was in a village a couple hours into the bush (which was really cool!). On our way back, we ran over the snake. I didn't get to see it, but Andy, our host missionary, say that black snakes usually mean pretty deadly snakes. I have no love for snakes, so it really didn't bother me.
This past week, Kelsey and I watched The Ghost and The Darkness, a movie based on a true story about two lions in Kenya that terrorized and murdered railroad builders in the late 1800's (we've been watching lots of movies about Africa while in Africa, haha). If you've never seen the movie, I promise I'm not ruining anything by telling you it's truly a horror film... terrifying. So, naturally, I Googled whether or not lion territory runs this far west. To my immediate relief, there really aren't any big cats like that here (but it's also kind of sad -- read on about lions in west Africa here).
Q: Do any of the people speak English?
A: Nope. People speak French in Cote d'Ivoire. There's also a lot of native languages still spoken, especially in villages. Such languages include Djoula, Agni, and Baoule. People may learn English in school, but they're just as likely to study Spanish or German as they are English.
Q: What interesting cultural differences have you seen?
A: SO MANY!!! Examples... people walk slow. People always shake hands upon greeting, always with the right hand; also, it's a sign of respect if you touch your right arm with your left hand while shaking hands. Some men may have more than 1 wife.... there's countless other things, some of which are kind of hard to explain by typing. Really I could just go on and on. Ask me in person some time!
Q: What's church like?
A: Church is church! Just like in America, there's worship and music, offering, communion, teachings and sermons out of the Bible, and plenty of people to greet and talk to after! So all the big things are the same. But all of these things are done a little differently than what we see in the states... they're done according to African culture! So although they have singing and drums and keyboards and a sound system, it's all very African sounding.. and in French! It's loud, up-beat, and very exciting. People usually get up and dance during worship time, kind of like a follow-the-leader march type of dance (I can show you some time). Offering and communion are done backwards... that is, we get up and go to the front to give offering, and communion is brought to you in your seat! A little different, but really that's nothing too crazy. But everything else, it's the same Bible, we still do announcements, and there's still plenty of after-church talking and visiting (my mom's a pro at that kind of thing; she'd do well here).
If you have other questions about things in Ivory Coast, email me or leave me a comment and I'll try to include it in my next post. Love you all, continue praying for me and for the mission!
Danica
Therese
Monday, July 1, 2013
Hey all! Thanks for checking my blog again! If you want to receive email notifications when I post, there's a little tool on the right of the page that says "Follow by Email". You can just write yours in and you'll know when I write something new!
Last week, we fell into quite the routine. Between teaching English to the clinic staff twice a week, doing home visits on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and working in the clinic regularly, we've been kept relatively busy! However, Africa operates at a slightly slower pace than America. So when I say "busy", I really mean that relative to Africa. ;)
As I mentioned, Kelsey and I have been doing home visits 3 days a week. For this ministry activity, we are actually split up. Each of us goes with a translator and a social worker, and we spend the morning walking around town to different homes. We are visiting families involved in the mission's school children program. As it is now summer break for kids here in Abengourou, the kids are at home and we usually get to sit down with the children involved and their mother for a short visit. During this visit, we check up on the children's school performance (the session just ended, so we usually can ask after their performance this term). We also focus heavily and primarily on any sort of health problems the family faces. We will inquire about their water supply, how much and what they're eating, the overall health of the family, and any sort of change they'd like to see that might help their family's well-being.
Today, I want to write about one of the families I encountered during home visits last week. I met Therese on Wednesday, an older woman who has several kids in the school children program. What really stood out to me about Therese was her joy. As we came into the courtyard, her eyes visibly lit up to see us. She didn't shake my hand; instead, Therese wrapped her arms around me and laughed with joy upon our meeting. Therese engaged me the entire time and wanted nothing more than to share things about her life and her family with us. She loved having us there, and her excitement about our program was heard by me even without a French to English translation. Before we got up to go and to her delight, I prayed out loud for the family in English. Then, she wrapped me in another large hug and insisted on taking a picture with me on her phone so she could keep it.
Therese takes care of 7 children in the school children program (which is a lot!). She is the mother of 4 of them, but she also looks after 3 other kids that live in the courtyard. She also looks after a young man who is mentally ill and the child of another mentally ill woman who is not in the program. Therese doesn't have a job; in order to support all the mouths she feeds, she rents out one of the rooms in the family courtyard. Her husband is sickly and has hypertension, so most of the responsibility to support the family falls upon her shoulders. Thankfully, she has a brother who sends money to support the children. But honestly, the family doesn't have much money and can really only afford to eat 2 small meals per day. Towards the end of the visit, I asked what kind of changes she would like to see that might help the family's well being. Therese gave the same answer that almost every other family has given me: she'd like to sell something in order to have money to better provide for the family. As I was reflecting on this visit, I couldn't help but think about how this woman, who struggles so much each day just to meet the basic needs of her family, is filled with so much joy and life. Sylvain, my
translator, told me as were walking away from the home that Therese was
truly a good woman who took care of so many people just because it was
simply the right and loving thing to do.
The CHE program strives to help people like Therese, a Muslim woman who, by herself, supports 10 other people. CHE hopes to connect people with the resources and knowledge needed to emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially better provide for the family. One way CHE does this is through micro-enterprise. The mission has recently begun a chicken farm micro-enterprise project. Hopefully, families like Therese's will be able to work with the chicken farm program to sell eggs, thereby earning money to better provide basic needs for the family. These families will be transformed financially, and hopefully spiritually, as they grow in the knowledge of Jesus through CHE.
Today, I want to ask each of you to pray about the CHE program activities happening in Ivory Coast. I'm glad I am here in Africa so I can share with you about this program. It has, is, and will change so many lives, and I am right here in the middle of it! As always, thank you all for your continuous and unrelenting love and support.
Love,
Danica
Last week, we fell into quite the routine. Between teaching English to the clinic staff twice a week, doing home visits on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and working in the clinic regularly, we've been kept relatively busy! However, Africa operates at a slightly slower pace than America. So when I say "busy", I really mean that relative to Africa. ;)
As I mentioned, Kelsey and I have been doing home visits 3 days a week. For this ministry activity, we are actually split up. Each of us goes with a translator and a social worker, and we spend the morning walking around town to different homes. We are visiting families involved in the mission's school children program. As it is now summer break for kids here in Abengourou, the kids are at home and we usually get to sit down with the children involved and their mother for a short visit. During this visit, we check up on the children's school performance (the session just ended, so we usually can ask after their performance this term). We also focus heavily and primarily on any sort of health problems the family faces. We will inquire about their water supply, how much and what they're eating, the overall health of the family, and any sort of change they'd like to see that might help their family's well-being.
 |
| A family courtyard I visited |
 |
| An area of Abengourou called Plateau |
Today, I want to write about one of the families I encountered during home visits last week. I met Therese on Wednesday, an older woman who has several kids in the school children program. What really stood out to me about Therese was her joy. As we came into the courtyard, her eyes visibly lit up to see us. She didn't shake my hand; instead, Therese wrapped her arms around me and laughed with joy upon our meeting. Therese engaged me the entire time and wanted nothing more than to share things about her life and her family with us. She loved having us there, and her excitement about our program was heard by me even without a French to English translation. Before we got up to go and to her delight, I prayed out loud for the family in English. Then, she wrapped me in another large hug and insisted on taking a picture with me on her phone so she could keep it.
 |
| Therese and some of her family |
 |
| Children we saw playing in the road during home visits |
Today, I want to ask each of you to pray about the CHE program activities happening in Ivory Coast. I'm glad I am here in Africa so I can share with you about this program. It has, is, and will change so many lives, and I am right here in the middle of it! As always, thank you all for your continuous and unrelenting love and support.
Love,
Danica
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