Woke up at 8 this morning, much to my surprise. Ears still hurt a little bit but not as bad as they did. After breakfast we continued reading in 1 Thessalonians. After that I finally was able to post yesterdays journal on facebook. I write these posts throughout the day on my iPod and then copy and paste using the facebook app at night. For some reason the wifi was still working but not letting me access the Internet. Probably some kind of malfunction with this confounded apple product… I mean apple product user. After a successful attempt at creating a static address I was beckoned by Dany to join him in the shop. The djembe shells were ready to be sanded. After picking out my very own shell I had to decide if I wanted a smooth or rough cut finish. I decided on a rough cut on the top and a smooth on the bottom. The process for going from a rough cut to a smooth finish consists of hours of painstaking scraping with your fingernail to get it as smooth as possible … actually they take an electric drill and put a sander on the end of it and start sanding away. After sneezing for the umpteenth million time while one of the guys sanded with the drill I was done with rough sanding my shell. One of the drum makers started to fill in some of the small gaps in my drum by taking, what looked like, Elmer’s glue and mixing it with the “sand” residue from sanding the shell. He would spread it all over the drum in the places that needed filled and then took a razor blade and scraped the excess off. While waiting for the glue to dry I was intrigued by another process goin on nearby. One of the other products that are made are these little drums ( about 3 inches high ) and used as keychains. After making the shell and adding the top skin they would take long pieces of wire and thread them through a black string; almost like a shoe string. They would then wrap the wire around the top of the drum and make a circle and then manuever the string around the wire so it would appear seamless. They would do the same thing around the bottom of the drum bowl. Afterward they use needle and thread to pull each of the wired string closer together. So here is your first Wolof ( native language ) lesson. Dany says that the national language is french but your better respected if you speak Wolof, which is the biggest tribe in Senegal. How are you – nahn geh def’. I’m doing well – mahn gee fee’. Thank you – yeer’ de yuf. Yes – wow. ( This is kind of funny because Jeebs has been teaching me different phrases and whenever I would say them back to him he would say “wow”. I always thought he was impressed until I learned he was just saying “yes”. ) Your welcome – no ko bo. Praise God – sahnta Yallah. While checking email and facebook, Herma asked me to help her with her frequent flyer miles. I quickly realized the value of skype overseas since it only cost me about 2 cents per minute to talk to the customer service lady. Now we are just waiting for a group of baptists who have been in southern Senegal to join us for dinner and rest before they leave tomorrow morning. Dinner was excellent and was followed by a Senegalese card game called U’-tee-go. Took me a couple hands to get the hang of it but I finally started winning. It’s played with 4 people to start and the object is to get rid of your cards. When a player plays all their cards they are in the next game and the last player with cards has to sit out and rotate with the others. This along with some Arabic tea, which is known for being sweet, loaded with caffeine, and served in a shot glass made for a long but eventful night. I learned how to count to five in Wolof which is all the numbers they really use because 6 is just saying the number 5 and 1 together. Then you just have to learn the number for 10, 100, etc. I also learned the names of the symbols on the cards and am finally recognizing some of the guys names too Now that it’s 1:15 in the morning it’s time to hit the sack. Please pray for my ears still if you would. Good night all, sleep well, and may you have pleasant dreams. IXOYE <>< – Lee
Malika – Day 8 – Just say NO ( to Arabic tea )
I guess it’s officially day 8 even though I haven’t slept yet. My ear is aching but I’m pretty sure it’s the tea that’s keeping me up. Maybe that and God wants me to help the missionaries who are staying with us tonight get on the road easily. I think their flight leaves early in the morning like ours does. It’s interesting trying to learn a new language, especially when your this old. ( 31 is considered “old” right? ) I was thinking about my little girl and realizing what she has to go through to learn English when she doesn’t have any language background like I do. I think it might be a good idea to get a kids book with lots of pictures in it and have each picture translated with the actual word and then the phonetic spelling next to it. Seems like that would allow people to, not only, pronounce the words correctly but would also help them to recognize the spelling of the words in the Wolof language. It’s odd how indescribably comfortable I feel here. Everything is different than it is at home; the food, the city, the sleeping arrangements with my own princess bed. Even the English spoken by Herma is , sometimes, hard to understand. In spite of all that I feel at peace here. Maybe because I haven’t been here that long and it’s still a new experience for me ( Nadine, Dany’s wife, calls it the Senegal honeymoon ). It could also be the slower pace of life coupled with the intense relationships and friendships that can be formed, in spite of the language barrier ( but yes, honey, I’m still coming home ). By the way if you ever sit down to play cards with a group of guys at night and they offer you Arabic tea, please say NO. Didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Ate breakfast around 9 and had a small Bible study and then crashed till about 2. Luckily I woke up just in time to have a dish with rice, beef, and a sauce with peanut butter. Kind of reminded me of mole’ sauce. Dany is expanding the eating hut so I’m getting a closer look at the building process. Should be an exciting week. I worked on my drum a little bit. Saw how they take a goat skin and shave it, then stretch it over the drum bowl and make it as tight as possible using two iron rings. After the initial skin is tight and the excess is cut off they have to let the drum sit and dry for 3 days. During that time, I was invited to a game of volleyball with the guys. It’s interesting some of the things that the guys here know and somthings they don’t. I was surprised to see that they knew how to play volleyball but didn’t know how to throw an ( American ) football. One of the guys from the church that stayed here last night pulled his out and you’d have thought the guys at the shop had never seen one before. I was surprised to see how good they were at volleyball. After drenching my shirt I took a quick dip in the pool and when I got out the electricity was off again. It’s odd how fast I’ve adapted to this idiosyncrasy of Malika life. You just know that at any time you should have a candle and matches nearby. Tonight’s dinner consisted of roast beef and french fries, which was welcomed with open arms. Got to talk to my wonderful wifey on Skype and now I’m going to bed.
Malika – Day 9 – Dakar Again and Drum Strings
Dany woke me and told me it was time to go to Dakar again with Herma. After two visits already, flying in and day 3, my expectations of Dakar are non-existent; and, usually, I’m pleasantly surprised that way. First we stopped at the post office to grab Herma’s mail. This consisted of a huge room with rows and rows of mailboxes. The neatest thing we did while we were there is stop at a drive up fruit stand. They were setup on the sidewalk and we just drove up on the sidelak next to them, rolled down the window, gave them our order and after paying were on our way again. We also stopped at a market place. The outside looked like a circular stadium and the inside consisted of rows of fish, meat, and produce vendors. Outside were more vendors of jewelry, baskets and many other crafts. The traffic seemed to be lots worse than it has been before. At one point we had to go from a three lane road to a one lane road. So Herma and I just sat in the car and talked about how blessed we were to have air conditioning. I noticed a lot that there are street vendors everywhere just waiting for a traffic jam. When we got back to the shop my djembe was ready for the next step. There were two iron rings that were prepared and ready to be wrapped with ribbon. I chose blue cause it’s Keely’s favorite. After that I had to thread both iron rings to make loops around the perimeter. Once that was complete I threaded the rope from the top and bottom ring loops. Tomorrow is when I will finish the rope part and make it tighter. I laid down for a little bit and then woke up and helped Herma fix dinner which consisted of something like spring rolls that she and Dany called Nems. Afterwards we talked about the best part of our day and Dave, John, and I all commented on how neat it was that we were starting to be accepted by the guys in the shop. We know lots of their names and have had lots of time to share with them. We prayed for the opportunity to share Christ with them before we leave. Anyway, hope this finds you well, and may the Lord bless you. IXOYE <>< – Lee
Malika – Day 10 – One More Monkey
I woke up at 5 this morning but this time it was on purpose. Dave and Dany had to leave for Dakar this morning to pick up the next addition to our monkey group. They just wanted me to set my alarm to make sure they woke up. Luckily I moved out to the living room where the overhead fan kept me cool all night long. After waking up in the morning for breakfast I was greeted by the new member of our extended family; Steven. We all had breakfast together and then started reading James. It was great to add another believer to the table. Breakfast was soon over and I had the task of getting ready to leave this afternoon for a “business” trip to take some of the merchandise the guys make and sell it to a group of medical missionaries that are getting ready to leave back to the states. The accounting process is a little different over here since you have to deal with American dollars and CFA at the same time, but it seems to all work out in the end. After a scrumptious lunch of fish ball surprise I was able to sit with Jeebs and read the Bible in Wolof. We started with my favorite verse 1 Thess. 5:16. I should have realized sooner that the work of the Spirit, through the Bible, is something else that bridges the language barrier. He also showed me some of the alphabet and while we were reading I was starting to get the hang of it Around 4 we started to load the car with all the boys’ merchandise. Then around 5 Herma, Jeebs, Dominga, and I loaded up in the truck and headed to Theis which is a city about 70 kilometers away. We arrived in the city just fine but then I realized that Herma had no idea where we were going. We would drive up one street and then come back down. We finally got a hold of one of the policemen ( I think ) and he took us to a couple different locations and we finally found one that knew where we were supposed to go. We took all of our stuff inside and the people were extremely nice. Jeebs was nice enough to show off his djembe skills with the missionaries, and they were all very impressed. After a long ride home, I’m ready to go to bed. Good night all.
Malika – Day 11 – Some Clever Title
Woke up at 8 this morning and felt pretty good. I was sitting on my bed feeling the coolness of the fan until suddenly the power just shut off. … Trust is an unusual thing. It isn’t instantly gained, but once you have it you can easily feel disheartened if it is compromised. We, as Americans, have lots of trust. We have been conditioned to trust our credit cards, running water, electricity, etc. Senegal has taught me that trust in anything, except God, will leave me disappointed. Things are very unpredictable here; traffic may stop at any time, the water may stop running, your car may not start, and, like this morning, the electricity may go out without a moments notice. When I’m at home I trust in these things to work all the time. Of course I still trust in God but I’ve been conditioned so much to believe that if I plug something into the wall that it’s going to work, no matter what. I now realize that if I expect something and it doesn’t happen then I feel cheated and Senegal has certainly taught me to lower my expectations of my surroundings in order to keep my priorities straight. The one thing I haven’t lost trust in is God. As a servant we are called to trust in our Lord and believe that He will be faithful to His word. He has not promised to make our lives easier but He has promised us that He will be glorified and that if we put our faith in Him and live by that faith we will be joined with Him throughout eternity. Ok, now it’s time for breakfast and it better be there … =) After breakfast I needed to do some accounting work based on the sales from last night. Let me say what a difficulty it was to go from Microsoft Office to Microsoft Works, but I trudged through it. =) I got Herma’s sheet all ready for how much each guy in the shop gets based on the sales. Afterwards we had lunch and then I was able to show Abdulaye a quick tutorial on how to use Revit. I got through drawing walls, inserting doors and windows, and drawing roofs and then his brain exploded. He said he was ready to stop for the day and I don’t blame him. ( I forgot to mention a humerous thing about our drive yesterday. While stopping for gas, we were bombarded with people wanting to sell us all sorts of items; oranges, limes, cookies, tea leaves, etc. Herma did buy some oranges from a lady and you would have thought that all the people selling oranges would have left us alone. Quite the contrary. It was funny to see Herma explain to her that we didn’t need anymore. ) Dinnertime came and we were treated to barbeque chicken again. I enjoyed dinner even more than usual because I was able to fix a problem that I created with Herma’s Internet. Everyone has been using her wireless capabilities and I wanted to download something and I thought it would be faster to use an Ethernet cord instead of the wireless. It wasn’t working at first so I got the address to her router and started up the wizard. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the username and password to connect to her ISP. So Jeebs was gracious enough to help me get a hold of them and ask for someone in English. I actually had to call them twice. In the end it all worked out but if I knew how to spell in French it would have gone much faster. ( BTW – if any one says the letter “jee” in French, they actually mean “j” ). After all that, watching LOST and getting to talk to my beautiful wife on skype, I’m ready for some reading, then off to bed. Good night world and “day-lehm bek”.