What a Treat!

Last week we got our first non-grandparent package. I'm not sure why that is so darn humbling to me, but it is. The fact that people would spend their time and money to send us things that must seem so trivial overwhelms me. It also blesses me to know that people care and that while I'm over here struggling through all of the newness and the culture shock and the daily demands of basic living, people back home are remembering us and seeking ways to encourage us. And obviously, from the pictures, you can see that we were one encouraged bunch!

Grins before we dig too far in.

Wow! Easter marshmallows! They decided that they wanted me to put them up and save them for the week of Easter so that they could have something festive. We also got 2 bags of lifesaver Easter gummies and they ate one and had me hide the other one until Easter week. This morning, the 2 older girls had taken Abe outside and he had some of the gummies. He dropped one on the ground and they couldn't stand to see it wasted, so they decided to split it, dirt and all! According to their story, they then looked at each other and said, "We never would have eaten a gummy of the ground back home and we're splitting one from the dirt? What's happening to us?" Then they came running inside laughing at one another to tell me what they'd done.

The Peeps, however, did not get saved. They disappeared in about 12 hours. The napkins, I have been ordered to save until Abby's birthday in June. We'll see if they make it that long.

A big thanks to the McNeill family for such a special and heartfelt package. We could tell that it came with lots of thought and love. And Sarah, I really enjoyed those pretzel M&Ms! It pays to have an office partner who remembers your cubicle snacking habits!

A New Take on Fun

One of the things that we've been most overwhelmed with here is how "small and simple" our world has become (it's become really complicated in some ways too, but that's a different post!) We knew in our heads that it would be this way, but living in the reality of it has been harder than we expected. It used to be that we had all sorts of options for outings and adventures. Museums, special events, camping trips, birthday parties, parks, Chik-fil-a playgrounds, Target snack bar...you name it, it was available to us. Often, we were stressed out by too many options.

That's not the case here. At. all. Our city doesn't have many options for "down time" activities. We have not eaten at a restaurant as a family since we left London. There are no malls, parks, or get away options. There are a few hotels that will allow you to pay for a day of swimming, which we may try soon. But, the fact that we would pay about $50 for our family to swim in a pool that has a reputation of being 1/2 full and questionably clean has prevented that action thus far.

So, we're learning a new normal. We're looking for other ways to find fun and we're trying to build relationships with other people, though it is slow-going. It's obvious that folks who've gone before us have used lots of ingenuity to create memorable activities. We got to take part in one of those fun, festive things a couple of Saturdays ago. The school here that many of the TCKs in our city attend recently had their spring carnival and we decided to take the kids and check it out. They had a lot of fun.

Ryan and I decided that one of the reasons it was so fun is because safety standards are nearly non-existant here. Since Ryan served as a children's pastor in our last life and he's been a part of building several playgrounds, we've learned that US safety standards are really, really strict, to the point that it's hard to have any fun sometimes! Sheesh, the last playground he worked on they didn't even put swings because the rules for swings and clearance and inches of padding underneath, etc. are too hard to meet.

That's not the case here. If you can dream it up...go for it! I have to admit though, when Ryan agreed that our 2 oldest girls could ride the zipline, I had my doubts!

Here is the platform to zipline off of, they climbed an extension ladder to get up there.

Abby climbed up first, since she was the oldest.

But then they decided that Abby's harness needed some adjustments, so they sent Lizzy down first.

Then it was Abby's turn!

Coming in for a landing!

The other favorite of the day was this slide. I know that from here it looks like an ordinary playground slide...

But actually, it's been rigged up with a water hose at the top and a water box at the bottom to create the ultimate carnival experience! I just love this photo, because it totally captures Abe's approach to life, "If you're going to do it, do it with gusto!"

Lily was hesitant at first, but after watching Abe a few times while standing in the hot sun, she decided to go for it! Then when she found out that if she did it 3 times, she got the 4th ride free, she was burning through her tickets!

Take that, Water Country USA! We didn't even have to wear swimsuits, or read warning signs before climbing on!

An Opportunity

Sunday, we walked home from church and by the time we came through our gate, I was ready to rest. I was on total sensory overload and my head was swimming from drinking a warm Coke on an empty stomach while visiting with the pastor. I had one thing on my mind... lunch! When we came in, I immediately noticed our night guard standing at the gate. It was the middle of the day, so I was surprised to see him.

Right away, I could tell that something was wrong, he didn't have his normal sweet smile and I sensed that he was in pain. I knew that he had hurt his arm a couple of weeks ago and Ryan and I had been worried that he didn't have it treated properly. But, with his limited English and our limited Hausa, we couldn't ever get to the bottom of it.

G, our guard had come to tell us that he had been to a traditional bone setter that morning and he needed to have 3 days off of work. He also asked for some ice. Immediately, I insisted that we find out more about what had been done and we were able to determine that they had actually made an incision in his arm so that they could see the bone, and then two men had pulled in opposite directions to reset the 2 week old injury.

I insisted to Ryan that I wanted him to have ibuprofen and that he needed to drive him to a pharmacy and buy him an antibiotic because I didn't want this sweet man getting seriously ill from an infection. So, Ryan, Abby, and our neighbor, who speaks a good bit of Hausa, set off for the pharmacy. At the pharmacy, they were able to get the pharmacist to talk to him and determine that no x-ray had been done at any point, so they then took him to the imaging center to have that done. Bless his heart, he just sort of went along for the ride and according to Ryan his only concern was that someone would make him take the gauze off his incision, because it hurt so badly.

After they got all of that taken care of, he allowed them to take him home. According to Ryan, they headed through an area of town that we were familiar with and then kept on winding further and further from our beaten path into a distinctively Muslim area. Ryan said that at one point, the walls and building were so close to the sides of the vehicle that he could have almost reached out and touched the mosque.

When they arrived at his home, he invited them in, which Ryan considers a great honor. Abby tells me that the room that our guard, his 2 wives, and his 7 children live in is tiny- maybe the size of my bedroom. She said there were about 30 people pressing in to see the Batures who had come. They only stayed for a few minutes, but they were very excited to have the opportunity to show the love of Christ to this man. Our family has been praying that he would come to know Christ in a personal way. Every night, when I hear the call to prayer and I look out my window and see him drop to his prayer mat, I pray that he will know the freedom that can only be found in Christ. When you think of him, please pray for our friend, G.

Hausa Church

This weekend, we went to our first service at a Hausa speaking church. Our first couple of weeks, we went to church at the local Christian school where most of the kids from the States go to school. We wanted to meet some of the other ex-pat families so that our kids could begin to make friends. After two Sundays there, we decided to begin attending a Hausa church. We had been trying to get there for the past 3 Sundays, but we had two weeks of illness and then the bombing. Finally, on our 6th Sunday in the country, we made it!

We had learned a lot at training about what to expect and for the most part, we were prepared. We had been warned that many of the services would last 3-4 hours. We were pleasantly surprised that the services at this church typically only last about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Now, that may sound awful to you. But, when you’re wrangling 5 kids, you can’t understand the language, and everyone is watching you, that’s long enough.

We had a great experience and we’re excited to go back again. I thought I’d try to share a few highlights with you, though I’m sure I won’t do it justice. First of all, when we entered, the women were seated in one section and the men went to another. The seating consisted of plastic chairs for the main congregation facing forward, but the choirs, musicians, and platform people were seated on wooden benches facing the center. The building was basic with one big room made of cinder block walls, a concrete floor, and a tin roof. I’d say there were between 150-200 people there.

We had never met the pastor, but he knew the crazy neighbor who took us and I guess that was enough to gain merit in his eyes, because he called on Ryan to pray 2 different times during the service. The first time, he called Ryan and I both up to the front so that Ryan could pray over a couple that will be married this Saturday. Then, he called him up to pray again after the invitation.

Because they don’t have bulletins or power points, there were lots of announcements and business which was dealt with orally, which I did not understand at all. Fortunately, my friend gave me tidbits of what was happening throughout the service.

Probably the most interesting part for me was the offering. The offering is taken up by groups according to where you live. We were told from the pulpit, during the welcome, that we were to go with the last group which includes the pastor, missionaries, visitors, and the children. Each group danced to the front, put their offering in the bowl, and then danced back to their seats. It was really neat to see. It was especially neat for us because we were surrounded by children as we walked to the front, which is exactly the crowd we love to hang with. There were dozens of children dancing up the aisles around us and it was a very surreal, “Oh my word, I really live in Africa!” moment.

The choir specials were also pretty cool. This week the women’s and the youth choir sang. One cool thing for us was that the solo part for the women’t choir was sung by our house helper, Naomi. I’d been trying to find her among the rows and rows of colorful head ties and just when I decided she must be missing for some reason, I hear this woman take off with the lead on the choir special and I realized it was her. The kids thought that was neat too.

After the service, we were called to the pastor’s office where we were served minerals. It is the custom here to serve minerals as a sign of hospitality. In case you’re wondering, minerals are what they call soda here and the best part is, they come in glass bottles! The kids were not excited about going to the pastor’s office, until they started handing out bottles of Coke and Fanta!

The whole experience was very humbling. One thing that continues to amaze me is that we are esteemed simply because of the color of our skin. People use terms of respect and give us privileges simply because we’re white Americans. I find it quite bothersome and it brings with it a heavy sense of responsibility.

10 years old!

Today we celebrated Isaac's 10th birthday. It's hard to believe that my 10 pound, 6 ounce baby boy is a decade old! He is such a delight and we're very proud of the young man he is becoming.

Isaac decided that he wanted to have pizza for dinner and a cookie cake for dessert, which were relatively easy requests to fill. My helper made the pizza dough up before she left and grated the cheese. I'd made a big batch of pizza sauce a few weeks ago and I froze it in individual servings in a ziploc, so it is ready in a flash. We just had a family dinner and then we planned to watch a movie, but our generator has been uncooperative, so we clustered around a laptop.

Nana had thoughtfully sent a pack of plates and napkins featuring Lego Star Wars, when she sent his birthday gift, which brought great delight. It's a good thing she did, because I haven't found anything like that here, even though I did go to a "party store." It was basically a small shop with 3 shelves of trinkets like you would put in a pinata. It made the Dollar Tree party aisle look like a boutique. One more thing to love about West Africa!

To really improve upon the day, we had power for almost 9 hours, which is one of the longest stretches since we arrived here. That may not seem like a big deal, but that meant that we were able to print decorations from the computer, I was able to use my hand mixer to prepare the cake and icing, and the sodas were actually cold because the fridge had been running all day!

The girls wanted to make dinner special, so they pulled out some Star Wars Legos and toys, used some stickers, printed out a few things they found on the computer and made things party-ish. It was nothing fancy, but he felt special and had a fun time.

Here's the birthday boy drinking his bottle of soda, which his sisters had re-labeled with a printed "Yoda Soda" label. The kids look forward to drinking soda here for special occassions. Here, they are called "minerals." They come in glass bottles and the price is about 40 cents per bottle. You keep the bottles in a pallet and then exchange them when they're empty.

That's a can of Pringles at the end of the table, which has been re-labeled also to look like R2-D2. Pringles is one of the only American type snack-foods that is readily available here at a relatively affordable price.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Holy Smokes Batman!

Saturday has become our market day, mainly because our weekdays are filled with homeschooling and language learning. So this past Saturday, we were headed out to shop and I mentioned to Ryan that I wanted to try and find a few more baskets to use around the house. We decided to go to a little area near the "museum" that has some artisan crafts. They call them the museum shops.

As we were driving down the dirt road to the museum shops, Lily said, "Hey mom, look at those bats flying over our heads."

To which I replied, "Lily, those aren't bats, they're birds. Remember, bats are nocturnal and it's mid-morning."

She insisted they were bats and so just to appease her, I took a closer look and what do you know? They were, most definitely, bats. Not just a few bats. Hundreds and hundreds of bats. So many that when we got out of the car their squeaking was extremely loud to our ears. It was amazing.

We walked toward the shops where all of the craftsman came out of their shops and welcomed us in. That is what happens wherever we go. There are usually multiple vendors of similar things in each area and they all call for our attention. It's really bad when we go to the produce stands because, as most of you know, I don't eat my veggies very well, so I have 6 men begging me to buy their broccoli, swiss chard, and cauliflower when all I really want is a few green beans, a tomato, and some irish potatoes. They proudly show off all of their veggies, each one trying to find their most beautiful and unique offering and I am a lost cause in the vegetable world.

Anyway, I digress... Where was I? Oh yeah, so I asked the craftsmen about the bats and they explained to us that this forest area of trees where we parked is always full of bats this time of year and that they will migrate when the rains come in a few months.

We had a great time watching them and we even walked toward the trees so that we could see them hanging in big clumps. It really was fascinating, though all of my kids were not equally keen on the bats.

A few of the bats above our heads

Can you see those dark clumps in the tree? Those are groups of bats. There were gazillions of them. Crazy!

We didn't have the big camera with us, but even if we had, I'm not sure we could have captured the full effect. Anyway, it made for a fun spot in our Saturday morning.

They're hanging all over!

Just a few of the things that I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to...

In no particular order...

• Hearing our nightguard walk the gravel path around the perimeter of our home through the night.
• The fact that people twice our age refer to Ryan and I as “Mama” and “Baba.” Which, I think I understand are friendly terms of respect.
• The call to prayer throughout the day, especially the one that often wakes me at 4:30 every morning.
• The insane number of “machines” that weave in and out and all around us everywhere we go. I am especially floored by the motorcycles that have a man on the front, with a preschooler, then a mama with a baby tied on her back. Oh, and none of them have helmets!
• The reality that there are virtually no traffic rules and the number of lanes on any given road is totally flexible.
• This conversation, which happens several times in the average day...”Oh, the power came on, we’ve got to get laundry started! Hurry! Oh, wait, it’s off, nevermind. Oh, look, it’s on again! Run! Oh wait, nevermind...”
• The fact that automatic weapons are a common sight while shopping, banking, or driving down the road. I’m not sure what qualifies a person to carry one, but they seem to be pretty standard issue round these parts.
• Being stared at everywhere that we go. And not in a sly sort of way. In a mouth open gaping at us sort of way. Although, I have learned that looking them straight in the eye , smiling, and going through the standard greetings usually changes the staring session into a slightly more congenial stare.