Every Sunday and Wednesday night, the missionary team here has worship night.  "God of this City" has become one of our favorite songs (though we change the words to "God of this Village").  For those of you who have not heard the song before, it is powerful.  The words go like this:

You're the God of this village

You're the King of these people

You're the Lord of this nation

You are

You're the light in this darkness

You're the hope to the hopeless

You're the peace to the restless

You are

We as a team continually claim the people of Catel (and Guinea Bissau) for God.  It's absolutely exciting to see how God is working, despite the spiritual darkness that many people are in.

Here are some of the beautiful faces I'm talking about.  These were taken after a Bible Study that me and some local women do at one of the jambakus's (witch doctor)  houses.

Until later!

-A-

Pig Project!

Thank you to everyone who has been asking about, giving to, and spreading the word about the Pig Project!  For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about... I'm about to tell you.

I am working with three Catel locals to help them each develop a pig project.  They make their own cement bricks for the barn, build the barn from the ground up, and are supplied with 5 pigs of an improved variety (4 females and one male).  Pigs have a huge market here in Guinea Bissau from parties to ceremonies, so the business is looking to be pretty profitable. 

I think in the future, I will introduce you to each of the guys who have a pig project, but for today, I'll just give you a taste of things to come...

Lona is the closest one to being finished.  Here are some pictures of his barn.

 

It's still lacking a roof.... that will come.

The big holes that you see there will become doors/gates.

 Each barn has 6 pens - I cannot wait to see those pens full!

While we're on the subject of agriculture, I thought I'd show you what my demo plot looks like now.

All those little plants in the foreground are little okra plants that are producing lots.  I have mulched with dried rice grass.  Look at that!  My demo plot is so photogenic!

I had to include this picture also.  I am quite proud of my baby tomato plants!  Recently, I made them  the jungle gyms that are featured in the picture (also known as tomato cages).

Stay tuned!  More to come - I'm on a good roll with the internet today.

-A-

Snapshots of Christmas

I would much rather give you a whole bunch of pictures (with minimal commentary) of what Christmas was like and have you imagine the rest.  The next newsletter coming out has to do with the holidays as well.  As I write this rather belated post, I am hoping that you all had a most splendid Christmas!  ~ A

Tessa and I are all decked out in our Christmas outfits (this is not our house by the way).  A friend of ours was operating a photobooth type thing for people to take their Christmas pictures.

I spent Christmas lunch with my friends Mai and Aminata from church.  We had a very yummy rice dish.  There was lots of food.

Some of the beautiful people I spent my Christmas with.

Totally a candid shot.  I love it!

Andrew with some of my friend Di's nephews (Part II of Christmas Day)

Di's mother-in-law carrying water from the well.  For this family, Christmas is like any other ordinary day.

This picture was a complete accident, and I wish it had captured more of Di's face, but... I was encouraged to post it anyways.

Di's niece Lusiana (loo-JYA-na).  Super cute.

Di's husband Bryma with his nephews.

And that about rounds up my Christmas day!  Stay tuned for the newsletter coming out within the next few weeks. If you have been reading the blog, but are not on the newsletter list (and would like to be), send your contact information (name and email) to sothatafricamayknow@gmail.com.  

Merry (belated) Christmas!

~A

Snow in Africa

You know, sometimes it's just fun to revert back to childhood activities... like making paper snowflakes!  Tessa and I decided one hot, slow, Saturday afternoon to sit down to Christmas music and make paper snowflakes.  Our white kitchen now has a little decoration.  Beryl (the head hauncho who lives here) even said that we could keep them up all year round.  Whoopee!

Me with my first snowflake!

Tessa and her first snowflake!

Tessa and Erin (oh! and Leo) in our kitchen with the finished product.  Unfortunately, this picture does not do justice.  We were quite proud of ourselves. :)  Now, every time one of our friends come in, we get to explain what snow is.  Somehow "below 0 degrees Celsius" doesn't compute in this tropic-like climate.

Rat!

When you are kept awake by something else in your room (not a someone), you are always anxious to see what it is.  One morning, we found a rat in our room.  It seemed to like the mint mentos that someone had sent in one of the girls' packages.  

Thankfully, the boys were home (they normally live in a more remote village about an hour away from us), and they helped us tear our room apart in search of the rat.  I actually think they were having fun.

 They were even so kind as to sweep our entire room for us!

We almost caught it!  It was right there!  Too bad it got away.  The boys made us a giant rat trap to make up for it.  Thanks boys (I mean MEN) for saving some damsels in distress!

A smattering of all things lively

So, it has come to my attention that I have not posted on this blog for about a month.  What a sad and true story.   Enjoy these photos and captions. :)  Newsletter to come soon!

Some of you may have heard about our monkey.  This was our little child for awhile.  She really did seem like a toddler - she craved attention, liked to play, and liked to eat.  One night, she got sick (we're assuming it was a snake bite or something of the likes), and died.  Poor monkey.

This is my "man" Sumfon.... Well, he's not my man, but he likes to call me his woman.  What a charmer. 

Here is a picture of a bunch of my friends at the Catel soccer championship.  Soccer games and funerals are pretty much the only times the entire village gets together.  I'm not really a fan of either (soccer games or funerals), but it's really nice to see the whole community join together for an event.  One thing is always for sure - you can take out a camera and children will flock!

One day, I went out with my friends Mai and Aminata to help them harvest rice.  Tessa (far right) and Erin (the photographer) came out too.  Erin took video of Aminata, Tessa, and I harvesting.  I wish internet was good enough to post it because it is downright hilarious.  It looks like Aminata is harvesting in fast forward, and Tessa and I are harvesting in slow motion.  I guess you'll just have to imagine it.

P.S.  Isn't Guinea Bissau beautiful?

This is the sunrise from my quiet spot on the back veranda. I wish I had good photo-editing skills, so this picture would actually do justice, but alas... I am not able to edit pictures.  This is all natural beauty as captured by my camera.

We had Thanksgiving while I was on my writing hiatus.  All of the YES boys (ahem... men) came back from Kabio, where they are doing their outreach, to help us celebrate Thanksgiving.  We make a very lovely looking group if you ask me.

  Erin and I made pumpkin pie-ish in our solar oven.  It didn't turn out quite like my mom's, but apparently it was quite the rave with the boys.

This is me washing laundry... nothing too exciting. 

My friend Sansan's baby, Samira.  If you happen to get my newsletters, more news will come about Sansan.

This is how women carry around their babies - working, cooking, dancing - you name it.

This is my friend, Loti.  Her mom was featured a few pictures before in the rice fields (Aminata).  I really enjoy hanging out with her, and she just posed so beautifully in this picture... I had to include it.

And thus ends my picture update.  Stay tuned for more news!

Signing out,
Adrianne

Catching the Rhythms of Life

Recently, I have been struck with the fact that though things seem to have little structure (I.e. you take life as you go, things happen when they happen, things are done however they are done), everything has a rhythm.

There’s a beat to which women pound rice - THUD THUD! THUD THUD! THUD THUD!

There’s a rhythm to harvesting rice - Swish swish swish, tear.  Swish swish swish, tear.  Swish swish swish, tear.

There’s a rhythm for cooling off warga (tea) between 2 cups - Pluuuup. Pluuuup.

Everything has a “normal” sound that I’m becoming accustomed to and comfortable with.

My hands are only learning the rhythms.  They mess up sometimes.  When my hands grind rice with a local women, it sometimes sounds like "THUD!…thudTHUD!…thudTHUD!…thud."  When my hands harvest rice, it sometimes sounds like "Swish…tear.  Swish…tear.  Swish…tear."  When my hands cool off warga, it sometimes sounds like "pluup.  Ow!  I kai! (it fell!)."

BUT, my hands are learning.  They are beginning to have calluses from the big grinding post.  They are beginning to be able to finagle a big handful of rice, and they are beginning to learn the art of skillfully pouring boiling tea from one small glass to the other (without burning myself).

My hands are catching the rhythms of life.