Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Even when it doesn't seem like Easter, even when there was not one mention at the Baptist church today of Jesus' death and resurrection, even when there was no feast or even a meal with others to celebrate this momentous day, Christ is risen indeed! It is good to celebrate in community, but when necessary, it is also possible to celebrate and be joyous alone. And therefore, this is a good day!
I was very surprised that there was not one mention of Easter at church today. You might think it's a matter of language and I just didn't understand. And although there is a lot I don't understand, I do know the words for Easter, death, resurrection, etc. and I understood the general gist of almost everything that was said... and there was no mention of what an important day it is. You might be thinking that it is celebrated on a different day here, but that is not the case either. The schools have a week break right now, in conjunction with Easter. The Catholic churches have special services all week. Even many non-Christians get together to feast today. So, I'm not quite sure why it was completed omitted at the church I was at. I knew ahead of time that it wouldn't be quite as big a deal as I am used to, but I expected at least the sermon to have something to do with Christ's resurrection. It wasn't. But like I said, that doesn't diminish the fact that for me, this is a day of celebration. So, I sit here and celebrate with some of you as you are sitting in church at this very moment (factoring in time change). (Little side note: During next year's lenten season, I recommend that you read the book Reliving the Passion of Christ by Walter Wangrin. It has little readings for each day of Lent and is excellent).
So, it's been a few weeks since I've written and some of you are wondering what I've been up to? Have I started working? Am I fluent yet in French and Adja? Have I adopted any cute little kids yet? The answer to all those questions is no. And just so no one is confused, no, I'm not planning on adopting any kids while I'm here! I actually don't have a lot of news to report. I haven't started working yet. I was supposed to start at Plan Benin two weeks ago (which I wrote about in the last blog), but the first day I went, the director was gone and they had an outside team working with them all week and so told me to come back the following week. Well, this last week I was sick. It was my first bought of being sick and I'm amazed (and thankful) that I've been here for almost two months before getting sick! The first night I was miserable- fever, chills, head ache, the runs (worse than the runs, but I don't want to gross people out) that made me get up over 20 times that night (and no, that is not an exaggeration). I had no idea what I had and I was a little worried because the Broyles were in Togo all week and had just left that morning. I didn't eat the next day and slept and rested lots. By the following day I felt somewhat better and ate some, and by Thursday I felt fine. Needless to say, I didn't start at Plan Benin as I had planned and will hopefully start this Tuesday with my internship there.
Thursday I did ride my bike 17 km to finally meet the director of the clinic. I've tried to speak with him almost every week since my arrival here, so I was happy that it finally worked out. I am really impressed with all that this organization does (too much to write about in this blog update) and am excited about the ways I might be able to be plugged in. The director, who is German (and so yes, my German comes in handy even in Africa :)), is excited about having a fresh person to look at the way they are doing things and provide evaluation, criticism, and ideas for improvement. There are many things I should be able to get involved in, and although I still don't know any specifics or logisitcs, here are three general areas that interest me: working with the orphans who live there (he wants to utilize the fact that I'm a teacher and have me work in some capacity with them, possibly teaching English), developing something for the mothers to do who are there with their HIV-infected babies (organizing someone to come and teach them to make some sort of craft or something they can sell in order to have some income and also to have something to do with their time), and working with AIDS- counseling. Right now they have ten of the staff members who have gone through AIDS counseling training with the organization Doctors Without Borders. However, they haven't really set up the space or schedule for it to take place, so it currently takes place during the doctor's visit. But since there is only one doctor (there are also several assistants, who basically function as doctors, and two midwives), it is difficult for him to take the time that is necessary to do AIDS counseling before and after testing. Over 3,000 people were tested there last year. So, the director is hoping to send me to training with Doctors Without Borders and maybe have me work on the logistics of setting up the space, schedule, and whatever else needs to happen in this area and also do some of the counseling. This really excites me, but my practical mind wonders how much of this I really could do. At this point I have no training in the area of counseling, especially not AIDS counseling. Even if I get the one or two week training to help prepare me a little, there is still the language problem. And even if I can master French well enough, I know that I will not be able to master Aja to that degree. Most of the women coming for testing don't even speak French, but even for those who do speak some French (a few women, all students, many men), I think it would be better for them to be counseled in their mother tongue, in a language they are completely comfortable with, especially if they are tested positive. But those details can wait to be worked out... it's just my practical mind that already starts thinking too realistically. I need to dream a bit, too :). I really am excited to be able to start doing something productive with my time. I need to return next week when both the director and the assistant director are there, in order to discuss more specifics of what days I'll work there (at this point I'm planning on being there two days a week), whether I'll spend the night there (it's 17km each way... biking there was not so bad, but biking back was exhausting because it's a gentle slope uphill the entire way), and a bunch of other details. If it weren't so far, I would probably prefer just working there, instead of having my time split between two organizations, but I'll wait to decide any of that until I've been involved with each a little first. The great thing about coming here on my own is that I'm not tied to either one. Both have said that if I decide to only work with the other, that is fine as well. So, we'll see...
Since moving into my own place three weeks ago, I've been able experience life here in ways that I didn't the first 5 weeks (3 + 5= 8... yes, I've been here almost two months. Crazy! Being here seems so normal... most of the time!). I've enjoyed finally learning to cook some African food. Jules (who I've mentioned in previous blogs- he's best friends with Koudjo and is the brother of my French tutor) has received the title "professeur de la nouriture". You can probably decipher its meaning, but just in case you can't, he's my cooking instructor. A couple weeks ago I had two different inaugurational 'ceremonies' of my new home. For the first inauguration I learned to cook Pat (corn flour that's boiled into a thick porridge and then hardens a bit in a bowl, after which you flip it over onto a plate and it stays molded. ) You break off little pieces of Pat and dip into the Sauce. There a many different kinds of Sauces. Most involve some sort of oil (palm nut, coconut, or peanut) , tomato paste, hot peppers, salt, and a variety of other things, such as greens, okra, fish, occasionally other kinds of meat, etc. For the second inauguration I made Riz au Grat, for which you prepare a Sauce and then cook rice directly in it. Since then I've also learned to cook manioc and different Sauces for Pat.
Besides African food, I've also experienced another part of culture here, the "popping-in" of people, since living on my own. People constantly stop by to visit. Without being invited, they sit down and procede to talk to you or watch you, regardless of what you might be in the middle of. If you are in the middle of eating, one must invite them to join. If I'm cooking something, or especially when I'm learning to cook some African food, it's not uncommon for a couple people to come in and watch. Yesterday I was doing laundry and I had 6 little kids watching... it's a little disconcerting because I know that most of those kids are better at washing clothes by hand than I am (by the way, washing clothes by hand takes a long time. I definitely have a new appreciation for washing machines! Dryers here really wouldn't be necessary, because things dry so quickly here in the sun). I haven't started popping-in to other people's places yet, mostly because I feel like I always have enough pop-ins that I want some time to myself. However, I feel that to be friendly, I better start reciprocating. And although I've enjoyed getting to know more people around me, I've also become a little jealous of my time. With people having the freedom to come in almost at any time, I've had a difficult time having time by myself, which I definitely need to be recharged. Some of you know that I brought almost 40 books I was hoping to read!! :) Up until this week, I hadn't finished a single one. (This week, because my friend Koudjo has been in Togo all week and the students are on a school break and therefore have had very few pop-ins, I finished four books that I was in the middle of... and it was wonderful having time to read!). Besides reading, I was also hoping to have more time to play guitar, journal, etc, but that doesn't really happen. Also, these last two months I definitely haven't spent as much time studying French and Aja as I would have liked and as I really need to. I trying to learn how to find a balance between spending time with people and having time for me. My idea of time is a very foreign one here. People here don't spend time on themselves. Most don't have books to read, journals to write in, guitars to play, music to listen to. They spend their free time with people and expect that everyone is that way. So, I want to learn from them, to value others and put people as a high priority, but I also know that I need to guard some time for me as well. (For those of you who pray for me, there you go- finding the right balance).
Besides the high school students who live around me, I've also gotten to know a grandma and her grandson Kaka. They live in a little dirt house with dirt floors and a tin roof, just 15 feet away from me. Kaka is around 3 years old. His mother died a couple years ago from hepatitis; his father lives here with him. He has a bunch of siblings, too, some of which are grown, and the other younger siblings live with them nearby. Kaka loves to come in all the time and just watch me. Since my Aja is extremely limited and he speaks no French, except for "Oui" (yes), which he replies everytime I say anything to him in English or French, we don't talk a whole lot. I learn words from him by pointing to things and asking what it is. We draw pictures together. And he spends a lot of time just watching me. I can start reading a book or studying and he'll just sit there and watch me. I practice my Aja on his grandma and we spend most of our time together just laughing, because my little bit of Aja lasts a few seconds and then she says things I don't understand. Often I try to repeat what she's saying, but I don't really know what it is I'm regurgatating. So, we end up just laughing. I'm really thankful for this lady, especially since she's really the only lady I much contact with (besides Thora). I love to bring her things from the market, especially since she doesn't ask me for anything.
That brings me to another type of experience I've had since living on my own, requests. It is completely culturally acceptable to ask someone who has more than you for something. If someone is sick, people go around to all of their family to ask for money (and that can mean very extended family may come to request money). This is a very foreign concept for Westerners. I was advised from the very beginning not to give out any money and at this point I've stuck to that, but it's not easy. I'm not sure what the correct thing to do is. I have money and am extremely wealthy compared to most of the people who live around me. Should I give to those who need, like the neighbor who cannot pay his school fee or the other neighbor who needs medicine? But if I help some, then do I need to help all who ask? Where do I draw the line? I pray and ask for wisdom. However, when one of the students next door comes at ten o'clock at night to ask what I've prepared today and when I don't understand his implications and he directly asks what can I give him to eat because he has nothing to eat, then I give him food to eat. It is also not uncommon for someone to ask you what you will bring them from the market. And yes, you are then expected to bring them something. Another request that surprised me was when another one of my neighbors was going home to his village and he asked me what I was going to give his mother. When I asked my trusted interpreter of culture, Koudjo, if that was normal, he said that if I had some sort of relationship with his mother, then that was common. I've been working with this student in English and so I've asked about his mother as part of our conversational practice. He had told his mother that a white woman had come to the village to live and so she had sent her greetings to me. So, I suppose we now have a relationship :).
As much as some of these cultural difference take some getting used to and challenge me to evaluate my own culture, upbringing, and values, I am so very thankful to have this opportunity. Hopefully I will learn the positives of this culture, as well as retain (and possibly even introduce here) some of the positives of my own culture. I am really excited to start working this next week, and I'm sure I'll be exposed to many new things that will cause my head to want to explode with more questions...but that's one of the reasons I came here, to grow and be challenged.
I hope this blog update finds each of you well. I've enjoyed hearing from many of you, now that I have a better e-mail situation worked out. Thanks for being interested enough in my life to read this :) and thank you for your prayers as well. Love, Chrischona
P.S. Ironically, after having written about people requesting things from me, I now have a couple requests as well. I guess I'm adapting pretty well! :)
1. I have two people at the moment who would love to have a penpal in the States. One is Jules, my friend and cooking instructor. He's 17, is in 12th grade (there are 13 grades here), and speaks pretty decent English. I've been teaching him some computer skills and hopefully this week we'll set up an e-mail account for him at the cyber cafe. The other is the older brother of Kaka, Marcelin, who is 21 and a student at the high school (people start school at all ages here, so it's not uncommon to have people my age who are still in school). So, my request is this. If you know anyone, preferable guys who are in high school or maybe even college, who would be willing to correspond with these two guys, please let me know. Also, I'm sure I'll get more people in the future who will ask the same things, so if there are more than 2, that's great!
2. If you have any information on AIDS-counseling or on prevention, especially abstinence education (possibly to use with a few of the churches, I don't know yet about school groups here), I would appreciate anything. I do have a few things and the clinic probably has things as well, but I know some of you have some expertise in this area as well.
3. I'd like some recipes, especially for Asian and Indian dishes. A peace corps volunteer who finished her stay here yesterday, gave me various Indian and a few other Asian spices. But since I didn't expect to have those available, I have no recipes and don't know what to make with them. The only recipes I brought with me were for different kinds of breads (bread, tortillas, banana bread, English muffins, puris, etc)... comfort food which I love!
Thank you in advance!
I was very surprised that there was not one mention of Easter at church today. You might think it's a matter of language and I just didn't understand. And although there is a lot I don't understand, I do know the words for Easter, death, resurrection, etc. and I understood the general gist of almost everything that was said... and there was no mention of what an important day it is. You might be thinking that it is celebrated on a different day here, but that is not the case either. The schools have a week break right now, in conjunction with Easter. The Catholic churches have special services all week. Even many non-Christians get together to feast today. So, I'm not quite sure why it was completed omitted at the church I was at. I knew ahead of time that it wouldn't be quite as big a deal as I am used to, but I expected at least the sermon to have something to do with Christ's resurrection. It wasn't. But like I said, that doesn't diminish the fact that for me, this is a day of celebration. So, I sit here and celebrate with some of you as you are sitting in church at this very moment (factoring in time change). (Little side note: During next year's lenten season, I recommend that you read the book Reliving the Passion of Christ by Walter Wangrin. It has little readings for each day of Lent and is excellent).
So, it's been a few weeks since I've written and some of you are wondering what I've been up to? Have I started working? Am I fluent yet in French and Adja? Have I adopted any cute little kids yet? The answer to all those questions is no. And just so no one is confused, no, I'm not planning on adopting any kids while I'm here! I actually don't have a lot of news to report. I haven't started working yet. I was supposed to start at Plan Benin two weeks ago (which I wrote about in the last blog), but the first day I went, the director was gone and they had an outside team working with them all week and so told me to come back the following week. Well, this last week I was sick. It was my first bought of being sick and I'm amazed (and thankful) that I've been here for almost two months before getting sick! The first night I was miserable- fever, chills, head ache, the runs (worse than the runs, but I don't want to gross people out) that made me get up over 20 times that night (and no, that is not an exaggeration). I had no idea what I had and I was a little worried because the Broyles were in Togo all week and had just left that morning. I didn't eat the next day and slept and rested lots. By the following day I felt somewhat better and ate some, and by Thursday I felt fine. Needless to say, I didn't start at Plan Benin as I had planned and will hopefully start this Tuesday with my internship there.
Thursday I did ride my bike 17 km to finally meet the director of the clinic. I've tried to speak with him almost every week since my arrival here, so I was happy that it finally worked out. I am really impressed with all that this organization does (too much to write about in this blog update) and am excited about the ways I might be able to be plugged in. The director, who is German (and so yes, my German comes in handy even in Africa :)), is excited about having a fresh person to look at the way they are doing things and provide evaluation, criticism, and ideas for improvement. There are many things I should be able to get involved in, and although I still don't know any specifics or logisitcs, here are three general areas that interest me: working with the orphans who live there (he wants to utilize the fact that I'm a teacher and have me work in some capacity with them, possibly teaching English), developing something for the mothers to do who are there with their HIV-infected babies (organizing someone to come and teach them to make some sort of craft or something they can sell in order to have some income and also to have something to do with their time), and working with AIDS- counseling. Right now they have ten of the staff members who have gone through AIDS counseling training with the organization Doctors Without Borders. However, they haven't really set up the space or schedule for it to take place, so it currently takes place during the doctor's visit. But since there is only one doctor (there are also several assistants, who basically function as doctors, and two midwives), it is difficult for him to take the time that is necessary to do AIDS counseling before and after testing. Over 3,000 people were tested there last year. So, the director is hoping to send me to training with Doctors Without Borders and maybe have me work on the logistics of setting up the space, schedule, and whatever else needs to happen in this area and also do some of the counseling. This really excites me, but my practical mind wonders how much of this I really could do. At this point I have no training in the area of counseling, especially not AIDS counseling. Even if I get the one or two week training to help prepare me a little, there is still the language problem. And even if I can master French well enough, I know that I will not be able to master Aja to that degree. Most of the women coming for testing don't even speak French, but even for those who do speak some French (a few women, all students, many men), I think it would be better for them to be counseled in their mother tongue, in a language they are completely comfortable with, especially if they are tested positive. But those details can wait to be worked out... it's just my practical mind that already starts thinking too realistically. I need to dream a bit, too :). I really am excited to be able to start doing something productive with my time. I need to return next week when both the director and the assistant director are there, in order to discuss more specifics of what days I'll work there (at this point I'm planning on being there two days a week), whether I'll spend the night there (it's 17km each way... biking there was not so bad, but biking back was exhausting because it's a gentle slope uphill the entire way), and a bunch of other details. If it weren't so far, I would probably prefer just working there, instead of having my time split between two organizations, but I'll wait to decide any of that until I've been involved with each a little first. The great thing about coming here on my own is that I'm not tied to either one. Both have said that if I decide to only work with the other, that is fine as well. So, we'll see...
Since moving into my own place three weeks ago, I've been able experience life here in ways that I didn't the first 5 weeks (3 + 5= 8... yes, I've been here almost two months. Crazy! Being here seems so normal... most of the time!). I've enjoyed finally learning to cook some African food. Jules (who I've mentioned in previous blogs- he's best friends with Koudjo and is the brother of my French tutor) has received the title "professeur de la nouriture". You can probably decipher its meaning, but just in case you can't, he's my cooking instructor. A couple weeks ago I had two different inaugurational 'ceremonies' of my new home. For the first inauguration I learned to cook Pat (corn flour that's boiled into a thick porridge and then hardens a bit in a bowl, after which you flip it over onto a plate and it stays molded. ) You break off little pieces of Pat and dip into the Sauce. There a many different kinds of Sauces. Most involve some sort of oil (palm nut, coconut, or peanut) , tomato paste, hot peppers, salt, and a variety of other things, such as greens, okra, fish, occasionally other kinds of meat, etc. For the second inauguration I made Riz au Grat, for which you prepare a Sauce and then cook rice directly in it. Since then I've also learned to cook manioc and different Sauces for Pat.
Besides African food, I've also experienced another part of culture here, the "popping-in" of people, since living on my own. People constantly stop by to visit. Without being invited, they sit down and procede to talk to you or watch you, regardless of what you might be in the middle of. If you are in the middle of eating, one must invite them to join. If I'm cooking something, or especially when I'm learning to cook some African food, it's not uncommon for a couple people to come in and watch. Yesterday I was doing laundry and I had 6 little kids watching... it's a little disconcerting because I know that most of those kids are better at washing clothes by hand than I am (by the way, washing clothes by hand takes a long time. I definitely have a new appreciation for washing machines! Dryers here really wouldn't be necessary, because things dry so quickly here in the sun). I haven't started popping-in to other people's places yet, mostly because I feel like I always have enough pop-ins that I want some time to myself. However, I feel that to be friendly, I better start reciprocating. And although I've enjoyed getting to know more people around me, I've also become a little jealous of my time. With people having the freedom to come in almost at any time, I've had a difficult time having time by myself, which I definitely need to be recharged. Some of you know that I brought almost 40 books I was hoping to read!! :) Up until this week, I hadn't finished a single one. (This week, because my friend Koudjo has been in Togo all week and the students are on a school break and therefore have had very few pop-ins, I finished four books that I was in the middle of... and it was wonderful having time to read!). Besides reading, I was also hoping to have more time to play guitar, journal, etc, but that doesn't really happen. Also, these last two months I definitely haven't spent as much time studying French and Aja as I would have liked and as I really need to. I trying to learn how to find a balance between spending time with people and having time for me. My idea of time is a very foreign one here. People here don't spend time on themselves. Most don't have books to read, journals to write in, guitars to play, music to listen to. They spend their free time with people and expect that everyone is that way. So, I want to learn from them, to value others and put people as a high priority, but I also know that I need to guard some time for me as well. (For those of you who pray for me, there you go- finding the right balance).
Besides the high school students who live around me, I've also gotten to know a grandma and her grandson Kaka. They live in a little dirt house with dirt floors and a tin roof, just 15 feet away from me. Kaka is around 3 years old. His mother died a couple years ago from hepatitis; his father lives here with him. He has a bunch of siblings, too, some of which are grown, and the other younger siblings live with them nearby. Kaka loves to come in all the time and just watch me. Since my Aja is extremely limited and he speaks no French, except for "Oui" (yes), which he replies everytime I say anything to him in English or French, we don't talk a whole lot. I learn words from him by pointing to things and asking what it is. We draw pictures together. And he spends a lot of time just watching me. I can start reading a book or studying and he'll just sit there and watch me. I practice my Aja on his grandma and we spend most of our time together just laughing, because my little bit of Aja lasts a few seconds and then she says things I don't understand. Often I try to repeat what she's saying, but I don't really know what it is I'm regurgatating. So, we end up just laughing. I'm really thankful for this lady, especially since she's really the only lady I much contact with (besides Thora). I love to bring her things from the market, especially since she doesn't ask me for anything.
That brings me to another type of experience I've had since living on my own, requests. It is completely culturally acceptable to ask someone who has more than you for something. If someone is sick, people go around to all of their family to ask for money (and that can mean very extended family may come to request money). This is a very foreign concept for Westerners. I was advised from the very beginning not to give out any money and at this point I've stuck to that, but it's not easy. I'm not sure what the correct thing to do is. I have money and am extremely wealthy compared to most of the people who live around me. Should I give to those who need, like the neighbor who cannot pay his school fee or the other neighbor who needs medicine? But if I help some, then do I need to help all who ask? Where do I draw the line? I pray and ask for wisdom. However, when one of the students next door comes at ten o'clock at night to ask what I've prepared today and when I don't understand his implications and he directly asks what can I give him to eat because he has nothing to eat, then I give him food to eat. It is also not uncommon for someone to ask you what you will bring them from the market. And yes, you are then expected to bring them something. Another request that surprised me was when another one of my neighbors was going home to his village and he asked me what I was going to give his mother. When I asked my trusted interpreter of culture, Koudjo, if that was normal, he said that if I had some sort of relationship with his mother, then that was common. I've been working with this student in English and so I've asked about his mother as part of our conversational practice. He had told his mother that a white woman had come to the village to live and so she had sent her greetings to me. So, I suppose we now have a relationship :).
As much as some of these cultural difference take some getting used to and challenge me to evaluate my own culture, upbringing, and values, I am so very thankful to have this opportunity. Hopefully I will learn the positives of this culture, as well as retain (and possibly even introduce here) some of the positives of my own culture. I am really excited to start working this next week, and I'm sure I'll be exposed to many new things that will cause my head to want to explode with more questions...but that's one of the reasons I came here, to grow and be challenged.
I hope this blog update finds each of you well. I've enjoyed hearing from many of you, now that I have a better e-mail situation worked out. Thanks for being interested enough in my life to read this :) and thank you for your prayers as well. Love, Chrischona
P.S. Ironically, after having written about people requesting things from me, I now have a couple requests as well. I guess I'm adapting pretty well! :)
1. I have two people at the moment who would love to have a penpal in the States. One is Jules, my friend and cooking instructor. He's 17, is in 12th grade (there are 13 grades here), and speaks pretty decent English. I've been teaching him some computer skills and hopefully this week we'll set up an e-mail account for him at the cyber cafe. The other is the older brother of Kaka, Marcelin, who is 21 and a student at the high school (people start school at all ages here, so it's not uncommon to have people my age who are still in school). So, my request is this. If you know anyone, preferable guys who are in high school or maybe even college, who would be willing to correspond with these two guys, please let me know. Also, I'm sure I'll get more people in the future who will ask the same things, so if there are more than 2, that's great!
2. If you have any information on AIDS-counseling or on prevention, especially abstinence education (possibly to use with a few of the churches, I don't know yet about school groups here), I would appreciate anything. I do have a few things and the clinic probably has things as well, but I know some of you have some expertise in this area as well.
3. I'd like some recipes, especially for Asian and Indian dishes. A peace corps volunteer who finished her stay here yesterday, gave me various Indian and a few other Asian spices. But since I didn't expect to have those available, I have no recipes and don't know what to make with them. The only recipes I brought with me were for different kinds of breads (bread, tortillas, banana bread, English muffins, puris, etc)... comfort food which I love!
Thank you in advance!
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