Christmas shopping in Africa

The very top one it my dress fabric and the one under it is my panya (baby carrier/extra skirt) fabric

Fino...our African Christmas shopping guide

To Baboo (not sure on spelling) but while I walk down the street that's all I hear from children...AKA white person!! :) But the irony is that I had an albino girl yell it at me today...interesting. It's the second albino child I've seen, so I'm interested in how common it is here. Also, some children are scared of white people and cry when a white person walks in (like the pastor's neighbor today) because they're parents tell them, when their bad, that the white people are going to come and take them away. From there I thought...what do children think when they are adopted or their friends are. Why the "white people" take them or their friends away...

We went shopping in the market today for Christmas. All was well and normal (not knowing French and being called to baboo all the time) until Jan went with Rachel and I went with this girl who only spoke french and I know NOTHING!!! (It's amazing how much Spanish I realized I know when it's my reaction since it's not Englsih...I miss Latin America for that reason.) Any way, I bought a cute baby outfit and she tried to get me to buy everything along the way...luckily no is pretty universal. At the end it when I got scared...we went through this area of the market where I hadn't seen...and the road we went down wasn't the road we started on. I literately prayed to God for safety, that she wasn't take me somewhere I didn't know, and realized what it's literately like to WALK BY FAITH. We got there just fine. I got to buy her a Christmas present.

While in the market I bought my fabric for my African dress, got measured, and picked it out...it should be done on Tuesday...exciting!



grace peace and love from africa

thoughts

I can't change the whole world at once, but I can change the world one person at a time. (Not sure if thats from someone, but just a thought I have had recently...)

I've seen a lot of things while here in Africa, but the above thought is what I can't seem to get out of my head. Understandably so. I actually really like having that thought. While I walk through Africa, my heart aches. Faces become ingrained in my mind. Statistics become real life. And as I'm walking I feel God tugging on my heart. Piece-by-piece telling me the role I play (with my future husband) in changing the world one person at a time.

I once went to Mars Hill with Evan and some friends. There was a song that said loving the world of pieace but what I heard was slightly different: loving the world IN pieces. Those few different words completely changed the meaning, both are great things. It's all just a matter of perspective and what God is calling you to in your role.


I live by my heart. My heart is filled with love. When you live with love you often get hurt, but the joy is so much greater in the end.

It's hard for me process things at times and especially hard for me to share those thoughts that have been formed. Since I live with the love of my heart, criticism cuts deep in my soul and who I am. Something that has affected me through out my life and will continue forever. Something that I will continue to live, but also something that I have learned to guard. Needing to find that balance. When strangers hurt it's fine at times because of the burden it lays on my heart, but others is not because they don't even know the beginning of my thought process.

Good night from Kadiolo, Mali.

grace peace and love

traveling the country side

Things are going great. I feel very safe (some people wanted to know.) It's been a lot of getting acclimated the country, its people, and the language. It's been a great experience thus far. I have learned a lot about Mali, French, the Bible, orphans (earthly and eternal), myself, and more. We are currently traveling to the town (village) where we are staying until the 28th of December, so I don't have much time to write before we take off for the morning, but I wanted to share a story my friend, Rachel, wrote about our expedition yesterday:

Here are some of the ...different things about Africa.

There are lizards everywhere! Including the small Christmas tree in the guest house we stayed in last night. You can always see little lizards creeping up walls...


mosquito nets over the beds. inconvenient if you ever have to get out of bed.

You always see women carrying little babies stuck in a wrap attached to their backs. Half the times the babies' heads are just hanging back. It is really cute but kind of sad for the babies seeing as they can't move at all for the whole day or whatever.

The air always smells burnt.

We have eaten a ton of French bread, Chinese food, and Vietnamese, we made pizza one night, and no African food yet. But I was assured we'd be experiencing that later this week.

Odd, but Mali has the BEST FRENCH BREAD ever. We eat it every meal.


FUNNY STORY:
Yesterday me Kait and Nate went to go buy bread and tomatoes and cucumbers in this little village. We got 4 loaves of bread for the equivalent of a dollar and then are walking down this street. Everyone is staring because Kait and Nate are white and I'm Asian, not sure that they're used to seeing this sort of thing. No produce in sight... so we give up after a little and turn around. then, lo and behold, RANDOMLY who should be across the street but an African girl with a huge bowl of tomatoes balanced on her head! Perfecto.

So we go across the street. "Cést Combien pour quatre?" I ask in a very bad accent.
I have no idea what she responded with but it was really fast and a lot. I think I picked up on the word "cent" so something about a hundred Francs....
And then we didn't know how to ask if she had change for a thousand. I tried my hand at some more Francais... but I don't think she really understood me. So I very poorly say something to the effect of "ummm sorry, we will return... after... we will return"

We run across the street and buy 1 more loaf of bread just so we can get change and then run back to the tomato girl who is already walking away. I try speaking to her in French again. Things get very confusing but we do end up with 5 tomatoes for 50 cents or less.

Then we start walking away after thanking her and the bag rips and our tomatoes roll down the street. And all the AFricans who have been watching us this whole time are now busting a gut laughing. Good times. This is why most of the French I learned for all those years in highschool was completely pointless, I curse you American foreign language classes! Heaven forbid I learn something I would actually NEED to know in a French-speaking country!

im here in bamako

Hello everyone,

I'm here in Bamako, Mali...yay!! It's crazy how this was in the making for so long and now I'm currently sitting in the Eadelman's house and getting ready to go to church.

My travels went smoother then I think they EVER have, such a blessing from God! We are currently staying in a "guest house" in Bamako. The guest house is for missionaries to stay in for cheaper when in the city. It is a huge courtyard with four houses in it. All varying in size, but all beautiful. There are lots of rooms. Currently, Nate, Rachel, and I are in the same hallway. Rachel and I are in the same house, but the Eadelman's are in a different one.

We slept alot yesterday and ventured around town a little, so there aren't many great pictures yet, I didn't want to feel too American.

So fare our schedule looks a LITTLE (taken loosely because it could change at any minute) like this:

• We will be in these guest houses unti lthe 16th or 17th of December in Bamako.
• Then, taking off the Kadiolo until the 28th of December. There we will be living in the Eadleman's house, hopefully getting in the schools, helping at church, and what ever other leading God gives us. I think that will be the place where we connect the most with the largest amount of locals.

• We will be wrapping up our last two weeks at the guest houses again. The Eadleman's have to manage it into the New Year, so we are here to help out. At night though we will be going to the ministry lead by Jessica (I believe) with the boys who have escaped Human Trafficking. There we will be teaching numbers, letters, and writing. Playing duck-duck-goose and other games that Don Cochrane has taught us along the way.

Thank you for yuor continued prayers. They are greatly appreciated. Please continue to pray that God will lead us to where He needs our helping hands and loving hearts.

That's Rachel and my bed. We sleep under mosquito nets!