Life in the bush

(You will see many of the people we met along the way listed as new prayer requests listed to the side so if you would be sure to pray for them please!)

If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be 3 years old, come to the 'bush' in Africa. You have to learn how to eat (using the right hand only, the left is the dirty one because they use that to wipe themselves after using the bathroom). You ball up the rice and dip it in sauce and try not to let it drop everywhere and then yes, you lick your hand and fingers.

You have to learn how to go to the bathroom in the nagan (or the outdoor squatty potty which is a concrete slab with a really high wall and a whole in the ground with a tin pot for a lid). You have to take the tablissi (or small plastic teapot) of water with you otherwise they don't think you washed. You have to learn how to take a bucket shower outside (incidentally in the same concrete slab area where the nagan is) We however roll up toilet paper and a wet wipe in our ponya!

You have to learn how to speak. I learned quite a bit of Bambara. First lessons were numbers, money (called wadi) and it's confusing because they don't call the coin or bill by the amount on it but rather by how many times it is divided by 5. So you have to do math at the same time as you think of the name! Rolling the "r's" like in many languages is touch here as well. The most important lessons were greetings... 'they simply call it greet (a noun and verb) This is huge in this culture. In the morning, or when you arrive somewhere or when you pass someone, you are expected to 'greet' everyone. And it's not just a 'hi', 'how are you' - NO it's like 8 or 9 different blessings. It is in a sense the same though because they don't really care about the answers and you always say everything is good!) And you say your response about the same time they are talking... it's not like you what for them to finish. It's crazy. And you have to do it over and over to everyone.

As a goldfish you are taught just to listen for the 'key words' so you know which response to give (I have no idea what they are saying to me but it's the same more or less all the time so if you just give one of the responses you're good!) There is "kay a resito" which you say ta-ro-ta (kind of did you sleep well and you say good). Then there are all kinds of "allah" blessings to which you say A-mean-a to each one. It's not Muslim it's just God bless you in your day, with food, with health, etc. I did learn "allah-ka-do-bye-a" which is God Bless You and "allah-ka-do-min-a" which is what you say back to someone who has just blessed you alot.

You have to learn how to go to bed. After having secured your headlamp on your head you can brush your teeth just outside the hut and spit it on the ground. Then making sure the mosquito net was tucked all the way under the 'mattress' tightly so you wouldn't kick it off and that the opening was overlapping a good amount so as to not let any flies creep through. (For those of you how saw the movie at my commissioning - I did not see one rat!)

You have to learn how to cook. Pounding corn, rice or peanuts by hand with a large wood pole... you should see these women sing and dance to a beat while they do it. Gathering wood and carrying it on top your head tied in your head wrap (I didn't quite accomplish that so I tied my bundle in my headwrap and carried it like a knapsack which of course brought quite a few giggles and smiles). We took a donkey cart (yes! and our two young boy drivers had quite a good time making the donkeys race and bouncing us around) to the field one afternoon to help the women finish the rice harvest. We swept the rice into piles in the clearings in the fields and then literally shook the bowl high in the air so the chaff would blow in the wind. I suddenly felt like I was in biblical times. Together we loaded about 7- 50 pound bags of rice. (They had been working all day)

You have to learn how to sit (ALL THE TIME) on wood benches or stools and not have your bottom go numb. You great someone and immediately the arranging of the chairs and stools begin until you are told to ig-e-cee (sit). It is impolite to stand or they wonder what is wrong it you do for do long. So I would find excuses to walk inside the hut or go look at something just to wake my legs up.

All and I, I was successful at accomplishing the following in my first week in the bush with a little bit of help from fiber bars, lots of prayers, holding my nose and Alyson (my trainers) reminder of "Remember we are eating for Jesus".

Actually the food was not that bad. We of course had brought protein bars and peanut butter with us that we'd snack on in our hut.

Food consists of a rotation of the following:
Sedi - which is a which is a rice (moulu) based sugar soup
Mo-nee - which is a sugar soup with flour balls in it
Ti-gi-da-ga-nah - which is rice with peanut sauce
Noog-a-nah - which is rice with a spinach type sauce (a rare treat for a vegetable)
Toe - which is the least favorite and the most difficult to eat. It is a corn (kaba) based thing that is cooked and allowed to sit so it congeals on the top

After eating you MUST say to your host - barka (which is just an after the meal thank you/ greeting) and then na-fad-a kos-o-bow (which is I'm very full). Then you MUST take the bowl to the women and tell them the same thing. There are a great number of rituals in this culture.

Then there is tea - always tea! It is a ritual to sit around anytime day or night and share tea (if you have the money for it so it is one of the gifts we bring when we come to the village). Imagine a shot glass full of sugar in tea that is brewed and brewed in a small creamer size pot. There are always 3 rounds. The host mixes back and forth between the pot and the glass several times so as to mix in the huge amount of sugar and to get a nice foamy top on it. The rounds are poured in the shot glass (notice I said the) and when you are handed it you must drink it fairly quickly because the next person is waiting for that same glass! I burned my tongue a few times because if you get the first drink it's pretty hot but you still have to drink it fast. You would think with the sugar it tasted great but the first round is VERY bitter. The next 2 aren't as bad.

The first afternoon we were in the village, I was given my African name by an elder uncle... Ma-sa-da or Sada (for short) Heyedra. So that is what I go by now.

My week consisted of 3 different cities and 2 different villages in 6 days. The first one was the longest stay with a family named Heyedra about 2 hours south of Bamako. They are very welcoming and Ja (the oldest son about 30) is an excellent language trainer. IMB sends goldfish there quite often so they are very patient and one night when I messed up and used my left hand to give Ja something they corrected me (which I didn't understand at first) but in a nice way. I was so embarrassed. They are Muslim but they know we are Christian and we pray with hands open and palms up in the name of Esa (Jesus) A-mean-a (Amen) before our meals and they bow their heads as well.

Then it was on to meet Miriam and Fat-a-mot-a, IMB workers in a village of about 2000 about 1 hour south of Bamako. This part of Mali (near Guinea), actually has some beautiful mountains which I was quite surprised to see. Decent hiking they said as well and some waterfalls (when there is water). I spent the night with them and we headed out the next morning on the "3 hour tour" which turned into a 9hour all-day adventure. We were taking a road they hadn't been on before to research where their people group the Menika sort of ended. So we would stop and talk to people along the way and ask how big the village was and make note of it they had radio, hospital, telephone and write done GPS and mileage coordinates. (Radio is important because if they do we can see about getting our Esa stories played in their village). We were able to meet one believer in a village of about 4000 people (the only believer as far as he knows) and as when any white people come to town we draw a crowd. The girls shared the Gospel with several of this mans friends. 'Pierre', had not seen another believer in almost 3 years, the last time the area pastor had come through! He was so excited to ask up questions and to help us explain to his friends.

Then, it got really interesting. We had directions of where to go, however, it was about 6 hours of true African bush roads like you would imagine. My back, head were quite sore from all the bouncing. At one point we were on a 'road' which was a moto road for sure. No truck had ever been on it as their were no tracks and the corn stalks were swipping alongside the truck!

We arrived at the Madi's (another worker) city of about 5000 people just about due west a couple hours from Bamako finally about dark. We met his good friends, 'Mo' and 'Angel' who are workers from Nigeria along with their adorable family, who had use for dinner. It was so neat to see other workers from another African country caring to give up everything to share the Esa Sierra (or Jesus Road). They also have a young man, Ibri, who stays with them who is a worker from Cote d'Ivorie.

The next day we went to Madi's village - "the Dunes" to spend the day with the hand-full of believers there. Madi has been in country since October so his language is coming along but he wanted some help to find out if the believers truly understood what the Esa Sierra was. He had brought spaghetti noodles for lunch (which for them is expensive treat) and they make them with oil and some spices and it was really good.

My first Bambara church experience was Sunday morning. Although I didn't understand, it was still a 2 hour+ praise and worship. Bambara is phonetic so I could kind of sing along from the hymn book the girls have even though I didn't know what I was saying. Meat pies (yum, my favorite Nigerian food) made by "Angel' for us before we hit the road back to Bamako. This time it was a real paved highway.

Incidentally, I had been wearing the same outfit for 3 days because we were traveling and greeting we had to have on full matching tops and ponyas and I had only brought one!

We got back to Bamako just in time to go straight to a Two-bob candlelight Christmas service which was very special and felt like home, including lots of treats afterwards.