I think I’m finally getting used to the schedule here; wake up at 10, go to bed at 12 or later. We usually eat lunch around 3 and dinner at 8 or 9. After breakfast I started drafting another building that Dany wants to get going. It’s a circular hut with 2 stories. The first level is just a kitchen and living room and the second level has two bedrooms and a bathroom. It’s a little difficult to get used to the metric system. Normally I will equate a meter to a yard and that works out to be pretty close. After finfishing the rough draft, Herma took Dave and I to the beach. We were greeted by the sight of men from a local village fishing, though their definition and my definition are slightly different. A fish net consists of a long ( probably about 3-400 yards ) rope. In the middle would be a net about 100 yards long that would hang down. 20-30 men would hold on to one end of the rope and the rest would be put into a boat. The boat would then head out to sea and make a big horseshoe shape and come back to shore. It would then drop off the other end of the rope to another group of 20-30 men. Both sides would then start slowly pulling the net into the shore. They would start at one end of the beach and have to walk down the beach while pulling because of the motion of he waves. After watching them for a while Dave and I finally jumped in the water. It was an excellent temperature. There were lots of little waves, but nothing to write home about … but I’m going to anyway. We had the priviledge of having a private drum lesson from Jeebs. He would show us a particular beat and we would continually botch it up. =) It’s interesting though because Jeebs would start out a rhythm and we would follow his lead. After a while we would finally catch on and we would sound really good. Sometimes we would mess up but he would keep on playing in rhythm and we would have to stop for a second and find it and then we would jump back in. What an amazing parallel to the Christian life. If we are not following Christ then we are just living to the beat of our own drum. However, if we let him lead and follow his lead we can create quite a beautiful sound to the world. If a brother next to us gets out of rhythm on accident we don’t laugh and point fingers you just smile and keep on playing the beat that has been started and they will eventually find it again and if they don’t then you sit next to him and guide him out of love. Because Christ is the head of the church and since there are different churches throughout the world, I’ve noticed that there is a different rhythm here. Not a different leader, just rhythm. As long as we are following the right leader those around us will be drawn to our sound and will want to be a part of it. Dinner consisted of some scrambled eggs with sausage, tomatoes and cheese. Good stuff. Watched some LOST, last part of the world cup and now it’s off to read and bed. I bid you all, fondue. IXOYE <><. -Lee
Malika – Day 6 – Far Trek
Perhaps I’m not as used to swimming as others but I didn’t get to sleep until around 3 this morning. My left ear was so clogged that it was either putting a sharp pain in my ear or it felt like the left side of my face was going to implode depending on which side I slept on. Luckily the Lord had mercy and I was able to get some sleep. After breakfast Herma decided to take John and Dave and I on a walk that was supposed to only take about 45 minutes. Like I’ve mentioned before, Herma loves to entertain guests. Once she welcomed a couple that were guided out into the forest and were robbed and tied to a tree. The first place she said she was taking us was … the forest. I was a little hesitant to go at first but she assured us that we wouldn’t end up tied to a tree. Of course being so close to the desert it is extremely hot here. Thankfully the forest was pleasantly breezy. With the shelter from the sun and being so close to the beach the forest provided an excellent temperature for walking. There were some evergreen trees and eucalyptus trees growing there. Unfortunately, because if the trash dump being so close, there were piles of trash everywhere, which is commonplace around Malika and Dakar. Coming out of the forest we ventured onto the beach of which there were no trees to shade us. I did have a hat which I kept switching positions to keep the sun off my neck. Needless to say, the beach was beautiful again. The waves would crash off in the distance. The surf would slide along the smooth sandy beach and reach your legs and provide a quick moment of coolness before the tide would sweep them back out to sea. Jeebs came with us and tried for a while to catch a crab by laying a loop of string around the top of a crab hole and waiting for it to peek it’s head out. He tried this for a while to no avail. We started the hike back to the compound which was not covered with trees. There would be an occassional building that would provide some momentary shade and it was welcomed whenever the chance arose. What was supposed to take 45 minutes took almost 2 hours. Just like returning from Dakar, the compound was an oasis of refreshment. We had a quick glass of water and then put on our swimming suits for a dip in the pool. Lunch was served outside by the pool and consisted of a ring of salad on the outside and some chicken on a bed of noodles. Following a quick siesta after lunch was a mosque prayer call like I’ve never heard before. Most of the time it is someone singing solo into a microphone with ,usually, a soft tune. This time there was a duet of what sounded like a couple of teenagers that were expelled the first day of choir. Well let’s hope I sleep better tonight. Good night facebook world.
Malika – Day 7 – Drum and Drummer
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