Thursday, February 16, 2006

Camel rides at Pink Lake

This is Pink Lake, so called because of the salt content turns the lake a pink color. The foam you see is actually salt foam that has collected on the surface of the water.
We went there with a group of local Missy friends and a Senegalise friend of theirs named Aminata. The other Senegalise are actually Nars/Pulaar, they were our camel drivers.
These guys took good care of us, and the children. William was excited about seeing the camels....but REFUSED to get close to them. So he stayed back with Granpa Dave,as did Mariama, and played with their children. He had a BLAST!!
This is William on Granpa Dave's sholders. This made William happy, finding out he did not have to get too close to the camels!! They LOVE each other!!
Lisa getting on her camel. As you can see there was no room for Mariam, so she stayed behind as well. Thats uncle Carl in front of Lisa, he helps keep things operating machanically for the missys here.Me riding on my camel. They are not NEAR as smooth of a ride as a horse!! It was fun though none the less. That is Aaron, another ISC-journeyman, on the right. Part of the group riding along the beach. That is Carrie on the left (another ISC-journeygirl), Aminata, Lisa and then uncle Carl again.


Friday, February 10, 2006

2 O’clock Prayer Time

As you may well know, here the big prayer time is the pm prayer time on Fri. afternoon. That is like our Sunday morning, although usually better attended. Today, on my way to school to teach, I was driving by several Msq on the way and they all were surrounded by hundreds of devout M.s. At first I was struck by their level of devotion and commitment….. then I became rather sad to see it all. I was asked recently what was the good and the bad about living here, and seeing this sort of thing is among the worst.

Let me explain. You see, as a Chrstn, I am ASSURED of where I am going when I die. I know that because of the cost of Jesus, I am going to enter into Heaven when I die. My friends and neighbors here DO NOT know these things. They are almost all afraid of death, in part because they never know if they have done enough good to balance out their bad. I watch them go through so many things and try to follow so many set rituals to try to get better, all along never knowing if it is enough. They could literally miss Paradise by one missed prayer!! This is VERY heartbreaking to me. This is the worst thing about living here, seeing your friends and neighbors starve them selves for a month each year and live in fear of God all their lives. Especially knowing all along if they would just allow me too, I could help point them in the right direction; to a personal relationship with God.

Unfortunately, most here, as in other parts of the M. world, do not realize they have a choice!!! Will you pray with us that God will give dreams and visions and soften hearts of our neighbors and friends? Pray that they will begin to understand that they have a choice, and that they do not have to fear death. Pray also that we will be the examples that we need to be. Pray that in our relationships with each other that they will see God’s love through us as a family as well as in our relations with them. Let me hear from you about your willingness to help lift us up in this.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Pape goes to school

In case you have not heard…..our son has started school!!!! We took him with us the day that we registered him and that gave him a chance to see all the other kids and meet his teacher while we were there. This was, in my opinion, one big step towards him adjusting so that the next day when we dropped him off, he did not cry!!! Instead all the kids ran up to him and one boy shared his sucker with William, while he was eating it. Then they all went out to the little courtyard area and started to play before starting class.

His class is small, there are only about 15 students in the whole school, but we like that. This allows his class itself to have about 6-7 students and so the teacher can offer more one-on-one time with the children. Most other pre-schools, and large schools alike, can have anywhere between 25-45 children per class.

Now, a week or so after starting, he absolutely loves going to school. When we walk through the gate, at about 8am, he gets REAL excited and we have to try to stop him from running off to play with his friends just to get our kiss good-bye. They play outside until about 8:30, then they go inside and have a memorization time, art time, play time, snack time and rest time. He gets excited just seeing his vest for school. He even has his own little back-pack that he takes with him and a water bottle with juice to drink.