Bad Hair Day

Lots of people have commented that they liked my hair when it was braided so I thought I would show you a few "after" shots...

This one is from the first time I got it braided. I had a lot of other hair braided in with it, so it was still kind of seperated into large chunks when I took it out.


This one is from this past time when the braids were all close on my head. It was only my hair so it just turned into a huge friz-ball. Serious bad hair day...


In other news, last summer one of our friends from Guinea-Bissau, Fernando, came to the US for 6 months to study. He just returned here last Sunday and we have been very happy to see him. He is going to take over my job when we leave so we have been working together.

Today he was talking to the students in one of the English classes about America and he told the students that if they are not happy here in Guinea-Bissau they won't be happy anywhere, not even in America. They were skeptical. They said, "but what about 50cent? He's living the life. I want a life like that." Yeah, some life... And besides for every one 50cent there are thousands of other guys living on welfare or with their mother, sending out demo CDs, and waiting for the fame to roll in.

Many young people here think that if they could just leave Africa they would be rich and famous and have no problems in their lives. Just your typical grass is greener thing. One of the things that struck Fernando the most when he was in the States was how many people there are unhappy; way more than in Guinea-Bissau (one of the five poorest countries in the world). He said that it just really drove home the point that happiness comes from within.

Coffee, Babies, and Hair

Another vacation has come and gone... I've always been a list maker, but I've noticed that as our time here is coming to a close (yeah, we have less than two months...) I've started to make ridiculous lists. I will write down 20 things to do in an amount of time that would be more realistically suited to 2. I'm just not sure how we are going to be able to get it all done...

On a happy note, Fernando is going to be coming back here from the States today or maybe tomorrow. He was in Dakar (Senegal) on Monday, so he could've made it back yesterday, but he had a few things to do there first. We are all really excited to see him again. He told Jase on the phone last week that two of the things he is going to miss about American food are starbucks and brownies. I have developed some pretty awesome brownies over here, so that should help a little. Jason and I love coffee too, and because of the heat we have started to really love iced coffee. When we first told our Brazilian friends about cold coffee, they made some pretty terrible faces, but when we had them over for tacos last Tuesday we changed their minds. We made iced coffee drinks in the blender and they were a big hit.

Jason and Gilson enjoying some "café fria"

You know how sometimes you have a bit of a bad day and you need something to remind you that everything really is good? I was having one of those days on Saturday when my friend Ligia stopped by. She and her husband were participating in a conference here at the Youth Center for a few hours and she had brought her little three-month-old, Manasés. She didn't mind keeping him with her, but she knows that I love babies so she didn't know if I would want to play with him for a few hours. I (of course) said yes and we had a good morning.

Me and Manasés hanging out right before he fell asleep.

I decided for fun that I would get my hair braided, so I did that on Monday. It's not going to be a permanent style for me, but it's fun for something different. I think I kind of look bald, but the people here really like it.

Putting in the braids took under an hour because we didn't use any fake hair. When I got my hair done last time it took 4, so I was relieved.

The finished product.

Wow, I still can't believe we are leaving here in less than two months!!!!!!! See y'all soon!

I'm terrified of mice!

It's funny how you can think something is so bad and then something else comes along that is way worse… Life is always like that. Someone else always has it worse than you do.

Now really, honestly, I can't complain. I shouldn't complain. But something just happened that is so gross I can't help but let it out. You see, we have mice in our kitchen. I am deathly terrified of mice. Now to those of you who grew up on farms, or just possess amazingly strong stomachs I apologize. I am terrible with rodents.

We have tried some things to make the mice want to leave. We put all of the food in ziplock bags, but they ate through them. I have resorted to a few large rubermade totes for most of our storage and smaller tupperware for everything else. Alas, we live in a guest house so we have different people in and out all the time. For some reason none of them seem as concerned as me about the whole situation and they leave food out a lot.

Most of the time the mice are kind enough to only come out at night, so all I see is their ever-present poop. A few weeks ago Jason killed one with a broom. Then a few days later I opened the silverware drawer in our big wooden cabinet in the kitchen and almost put my hand right on top of one. I screamed and ran outside to call Jason (who was on top of the roof adjusting an internet thing). He got two other guys and together they pulled out the drawer, the mouse jumped high in the air and when it landed it was promptly smashed to death with a broom and fed to the dog. So yay! Our mouse problem was gone, no worries! Or so I thought.

Even though I wasn't seeing any more mice (we seemed to have killed off the two boldest) I was still seeing a lot of poop. Then on Monday night someone (with a last name of Atkins, but not me) overfilled the water filter so that on Tuesday morning water had filtered through and overflowed all over the counter, floor, and most annoyingly into the drawer under the filter. I took the drawer out, dried off all of the utensils, and Jason put it out in the sun to dry out. Later that day we had two Brazilian couples over for tacos (they were really really delicious) and when I bent down to get the mugs out of the cabinet below where the drawer had been I saw a dead mouse in the back. We're pretty sure it died of being smashed to death when the drawer closed. The drawers stick really bad so most of the time I close them with a hip ramming. I was totally grossed out but kept it together and Jason and I didn't really discuss it until the company left.

After that we had to go do a staff internet training, etc, etc, and when we did finally get back to the kitchen the lights were off, which is weird because I always leave them on. The switch by the door doesn't work so you have to walk all the way across the pitch black kitchen to turn them on, and that just seems like a death wish to me. Anyway Jason and slowly made our way to the light switch and when we turned it on two mice jumped out of the dish rack and ran down behind the stove. Again, screaming burst from my mouth. Then more mice ran around the other side of the room past me and behind the fridge (Jason says they were the same ones, but I am skeptical). So I ran upstairs and we didn't get a chance to take care of the dead mouse last night.

Today Jason and I went down to the kitchen to remove the carcass. Really Jason was the one who was going to do the removing, I just sat in a chair shuddering. As I said before, deathly terrified of mice… I knew that something was wrong when Jason said "Wow!" and started laughing. I asked him what was up but he said that if he told me I wouldn't sleep for a week. Well, then I had to know, so I asked again. He said that the body was full of big maggots that had eaten pretty much all of the meat. I did not want to see it and I did not allow him to take a picture (you can thank me for that since he definitely would've made me post it here). Actually I just started crying. Jason disposed of the mouse and then I asked him if he thought we should check the other drawers just to be sure. He pulled out one of the two other drawers and sure enough another dead mouse, this one creased in an L-shape from being smashed by the back of the drawer (or so I was told). This was just too much for me so I retreated to the upstairs to share the story with you. Jason has joined me and informed me that the other mouse was not full of maggots, but that is a small comfort.

So really, the worm in the tomato was a little shocking but only because it was unexpected, this was just gross. I know it could be way worse than this. There are rats here that are more than a foot tall and really fat. Like I said, I can't complain, I shouldn't complain… and yet here I am. I mean, I just thought you should know...

Kenya 2

The conflict in Kenya still rages on. Almost 900 people have been killed and even though the government is currently negotiating a peace deal, the people on the ground have said that won't change anything. To many of them this is long overdue. When I read the stories and see the hate in the eyes of the people in the pictures it almost makes me want to give up. I feel like rebellion is literally popping up everywhere in Africa right now. Sudan still has not found peace, Chad has rebels storming the royal palace as we speak, and in South Africa police are raiding churches have given refuge to people fleeing from Zimbabwe.

As I was thinking about all of this I ran across a letter that a YFC missionary in Nairobi published on YFC International's website. When I read it I remembered that we will never be able to make sense of the things that are happening around us, but we can stand for things that are real in the middle of all of it. The purpose of the church in the world is to bring unity and healing; to tell people that the only real way to erase hate is to accept God's forgiveness so completely that it allows you to extend that forgiveness to other people.

January 2008 ~ Nairobi, Kenya

"As I write, rain has just started. It is hot in Kenya - our summer. Not only is the weather hot, but so are emotions. The rain feels good – it seems to cool things down.

As the events of the last few weeks unfolded, one thing became clear – this is NOT just about elections, it goes much deeper. This is a struggle for justice, for people from different tribes to dialog and forgive one another for injustices going back several generations. It is a spiritual battle, not physical. If we could see into the spirit realm, we would see what Peretti wrote so eloquently about a few years ago.

The greatest tragedy is that the Church has been divided. One pastor preaches in favour of one candidate, another in favour of someone else. A Kikuyu Christian prays this one will win, a Luo prays for another, and a Masaai prays for yet another to win. Which prayer will God answer? Today the Lord spoke in our church...and in many churches in Kenya. Unity...God is not confused...there is a divine plan, and our prayers needs to be, 'Your will be done, not mine.'

We (the Church) are a chosen people… a royal priesthood. What do priests do? They mediate between the people and a Holy God. They offer sacrifices and prayers for the people, pleading YOUR will be done, Lord. Bring us the leader of Your choosing, because You know the heart of the candidates. Bring a man/woman after Your own heart, Lord, no matter the tribe.

We must also serve God, not any other person or idol, as did Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They said "God is able to save us, BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we will not serve other gods!" (Daniel 3:17-18)

When we pray, "Your will be done,", when we serve God alone, there is unity in the Church. We don't ask, is God for ODM or PNU, or Democrat or Republican? When God brings leaders to rule over His people, then we can build a united nation. Otherwise we have chaos! Join us in praying Your will be done, Lord!"

The reason that I am here is to spread the life-changing message of God to as many people as I can so that people can find hope and peace and make sense out of their lives. That doesn't only happen in West Africa. God wants you to be doing exactly the same thing in exactly the place where He has put you too. This is not a quick process; it happens one person at a time. But, if we do not start reaching those people things like this will continue. People need to have something to live for and if we don't tell them what they were made to live for who will?

Waiter, there’s a bicu in my tomato!

I know that wherever you are can have a bad day. I've had plenty of days like that in America. (Like the day that I slid off the road on the way to work and had to call a tow truck to get back on the road. Oh, I did this twice in the same morning...)

Anyway, yesterday was one of those days. I learned a long time ago that there is no point going through something unpleasant if you don't laugh about it later. So, I will fill you in on a little part of it.

We have a break this week and I've really been looking forward to it, so of course last week had tons of problems. Nothing major just a lot of minor exasperations, but all of that ended in a loud way yesterday. There is a girl who goes to the market for me and for some reason I have a terrible time getting her to understand exactly what I want. So on Friday I was taking the groceries out of the bag after I got back from class. I was disappointed when I saw that she had bought the wrong kind of beans and I was thinking about how I could have described them any more clearly. While I was distracted by my thoughts I picked up the first tomato something moved on my finger. I dropped the tomato and when I saw the nasty worm that had been touching my finger I literally jumped and screamed. I included a picture for you.


*Note: His head kind of came off when I threw the tomato and that made some of his guts squirt out, so that's what the nasty green stuff is. Also, this is Jason's hand holding the tomato because I didn't really want to go there again.

It really wasn't the end of the world, just the bicu (bee-choo) that broke the camel's back.

Oh yeah, I have another funny story regarding food from last week too. Jason and I eat lunch together with some of the other workers at the Youth Center each day. One day this past week we had fish. The lady who cooks for the group of us usually cuts them in half (not long ways, but where the belt would be if they needed to wear a belt for their fish pants) and fries them. So they have the head, tail, skin, bones, everything except the guts. The fish are about 8 inches long.

Anyway, I picked up a tail piece and a big, round, organ-looking thing about the size of a tootsie roll (except more oval-like) fell out. I looked at one of the guys and said, "What is this?" He said, "It's the egg" so I put it in the pile of bones that we don't eat. He looked confused and asked, "Aren't you going to eat that?" I said, "No, wait, do people eat this???" He said, "Yeah! If you don't want it I'll eat it!" So I gladly handed it over. Actually that day all of the fish were mature females and they all had large ovaries full of eggs and Celestino ate all of them - I think like 5 or 6 total. I was kind of grossed out but I did eat a tiny little bite of one that was broken. I didn't eat the actual outside part, just a few of the eggs. They were really tiny and I think each ovary had like 1000 of them.

The guys were laughing at me and Jason for being weirded out about the fish eggs so Jason asked them if they would eat a cow testicle. They all laughed and said of course. Then they proceeded to tell us how people eat the cow skin and that hooves make really nutritious soup for people who are sick. It made me realize that the food we eat over here is really good compared to the food that we could be eating over here.

On a related note, Jason and I like to try new things so when we saw "Africa Cola" we couldn't resist. Here's Jason trying to drink it.


I think he forgot to take the top off... Actually after this picture we did open it up and take a sip... aaaaaand then we closed it. You see, even though it looks the same as a regular old Coke it kind of tasted like a mix of Coke, Ginger Ale, spiced gum drops, and Lysol. Needless to say, not fantastic.

Kenya

I don't know what you guys have heard about the problem right now in Kenya, but it's not looking good. The real problem goes back about 500 years when Europe starting colonizing Africa. They divided it up into regions without understanding the impact of their decisions. For thousands of years Africa had been divided into many kingdoms, each primarily composed of and ruled by one tribe. When the Europeans came they chopped up the land in to large areas putting many different tribes together into new "countries". When the African countries starting gaining independence from their colonial powers the tribal loyalties did not disappear. In Kenya alone there are over 40 different tribes.

Usually when a man from one tribe is elected president almost all of the other officials he appoints are from his tribe too. Elections are very emotionally charged events and they are full of corruption because each tribe wants to claim power. In Kenya they had a presidential election on December 27, 2007. Basically it was looking like a new guy was going to win the election and then the results were kept from people for a day or so and then the current president announced that he had won. There are tons of irregularities, local announcements not matching up with national announcements, more votes for the presidential election then for the parliamentary elections on the same ballot, more votes than registered voters in some areas (like a 115% turnout in one region). In a lot of regions the kerosene in the lamps of the vote counters went out, so they went home to sleep and continue counting the next day, but when they returned there were more ballots then they thought they had left. There was also a lack of ballots in a lot of voting places, causing long lines, and in some places whole groups of people were left off of the voter registries: like everyone with a last name starting in "O". Because people in the same tribe often have the same or similar last names, many people think this was done on purpose. Outside officials believe that both sides were involved in the vote rigging.

The government of Kenya is consistently ranked in the top 10 most corrupt governments in the world and the people have had enough. The current conflict started when the tribes of the two men who were running for president, the Kikuyu tribe and the Luo tribe, started killing each other in protest, but it soon became much more. Many places in Africa people don't really think that land can be sold. You have to have a blood claim to the land you live on or farm (passed on from one person to the next in a family). So a lot of people are using this conflict to attack people who live on the land that they feel their family has a blood claim to. Right now over 700 people have been killed and more than a quarter of a million are homeless.

I write this blog because I don't know how much people know about what is going on over here now and because I just want to say that this problem is not intirely of the Kenyan's making. Tribal tensions are one of the biggest issues in Africa and I don't see how they are going to go away anytime soon. It almost makes me want to scrap all of these countries imposed by colonial rule and start over drawing different borders.

Please be praying for Kenya: that the leaders would realize what their selfish grabs for power are doing to the people, that the people would realize that terrorizing their neighbors will not lead to anything good, and that the spirits of hatred and anger there would leave.

If you want to see some pictures of the conflict:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7209760.stm

*I got this information from the BBC, transparency international, my studies of African culture, the history of Kenya, and personal observations.

Good for a smile

So I showed you the picture of my class when they graduated, but I didn't tell you some of the funny things that happened along the way. In my class I taught 10 different American idioms every week, but sometimes the meaning didn't quite come across right. For example, here are a few gems from the homework: "I really like Jesus Christ, I think I'm falling in love with him." also "I am really tired because I've been looking like a dog all day." (supposed to be working like a dog). Just last week someone wrote: "Sometimes it's hard to break the ice cream." (a little different than break the ice)

Sometimes however, I think they understand the idioms very well. For example: "If you have two girlfriends you will always be in the dog house."

I also taught them the difference between active and passive sentences – "Emily ate the cake." and "The cake was eaten by Emily." So, I laughed really hard when I read: "Many Guineans were baked in ovens for people to eat at Christmas." At least I think that was a mistake...

I still really like teaching a lot. The other English teachers are doing a great job too. This semester we started a new night school program and we are doing some new things with conversation classes. I also started up the Sunday evening English service again and I am organizing that too. Most of the time I'm going to be the one preaching in the service, so that will be a new thing for me. It has all been a lot of work but I think it's going well.

The third week in February we are going to have a break so Jason and I will be doing a little traveling. We are going to go to Gabu to see the schools that Youth with a Mission has started there and then we are going to stay with some friends of ours, Basilio and Gisa, in Gabu for a few days. They are missionaries from Brazil. Basilio is a pastor so we are going to see what the church is doing out there.

After that we are headed to Sinchã Botchi for a few days. I am going to take beads and have some jewelry making classes for women as a way to talk to them about God and teach them a new skill. Then it's back to the salt mines.

As most of you know we have internet at the Youth Center now. It's not fast, but I get your emails right when you send them (during the hours that we have power) and sometimes I am sitting at my computer and can even email you right back. Skype works but only if no one else is doing anything online. So anyway, feel free to email me or even post a comment because I will get it way sooner than before .

The Past Month

Before I tell you about Christmas, I just wanted to let everyone know that Erica is back in the US safe and sound. (If you don't remember Erica is the other American girl in most of my pictures this time) She left for America and she is missed! Here are some pictures at her surprise going away party.

This is the group getting food. We had cakes, guavas and even jello with dream whip.

Erica doesn't really like to make speeches, but she did a good job.

Yes, we have matching dresses. We both got them made at the same tailor. Jason took this picture after the talent show.

The end of a semester is always happy and sad. Since I teach third level (our last level in the English school) I don't get to see the students much after they graduate.

This is my group of graduates with their certificates. The woman in the front right is Isaac's mom, she was not actually in my class.

Well, even though I made a color-coded map, this Christmas definitely went differently than I planned. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always interesting... I did many new things that I didn't really expect. I ate monkey (and liked it), made peanut butter (from local peanuts), swam in a river (with fish), and even learned to understand a little Portuguese.

We did not get a chance to go to Quinhámel, Bula, or the island of Bubaque, but we did have fun in Ziguinchor, Gabu, Sinchã Botchi and Bissau. I don't really like it when plans change, so there was some tension inside me each time (sometimes worse than others), but I survived .

After classes finished up here Jason and I went to Ziguinchor for three days. We stayed at a little hotel that had free wireless internet so most nights we were up until around 3 in the morning talking on Skype. We didn't get to call everyone that we wanted to, be we still had a good time. We ate lots of cheese and we loved the fact that we never heard the word "Branku". We took some videos along the way so I am going to try my hand at "vlogging" and make a little movie for you guys soon.

Here is Jason enjoying Skype in our hotel room.

This is the kind of car we took to Ziguinchor. Jason and I are always amazed at the amount of things that can be packed onto the back of a bike or the top of a car here. These are onions. When they finished loading it the whole inside was filled with onions as well.


The market in Ziguinchor was the same as Bissau. Lots of people, crowded, everyone yelling to get you to buy their stuff, lots of bargaining, etc. This is on the street out side of the market there.

The hotel restaurant was awesome and we ate there everyday at the same table. One of the waitresses spoke Creole, so we chatted with her every time.

Like I said, the food was amazing! Like a little slice of home .

Lots of crazy things happened to us on the trip (mostly at customs), including a group of soldiers who gave Jason back his passport but kept mine saying that I needed to stay with them (they gave it back eventually) and one customs agent who told me that if I ever wanted to kill Jason I could come and be his wife… But, the funniest thing (for me) was when the goat on the top of our car started peeing and it came in Jason's open window onto his arm and backpack… It wasn't a lot of pee, but let's just say Jason was not impressed. Even now I am laughing just thinking about his face. I should have taken a picture of that for you…

After that we came back to Bissau expecting to go to Bula with the Youth Center staff for camp; but our guy in charge of planning the camp did not talk to the right person at the Catholic mission where we were going to stay, so they figured out 2 days before we were supposed to leave that we were not going to be able to stay there. They decided to have the camp here at the Youth Center. Everybody slept, ate, and did all of the activities here. It was not as good for mainly two reasons. First of all, since we were at the Center, Jase and I were working a lot and secondly, because it was organized by Guineans nothing happened even remotely close to the time they said it was going to happen, so we missed a lot of things that we should have been at. As you can imagine it was not really all that relaxing.

Whenever Guinean women/girls get together someone gets their hair redone.

Lots of people played cards in the free time after lunch.

Jason taught people how to play Risk and they loved it. I would have played but there was a little one month old who wanted me to cuddle with him ?

Here is the group one day at lunch.

The food was pretty good.

The day after camp was over (the 24th) we went to Sinchã Botchi and we spent the next two weeks in Sinchã Botchi, Sinchã Sambal, Bissau, Gabú and Cussilinta with our Brazilian friends, Gilson and Rosania. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Sinchã Botchi. Both days big groups of Brazilian missionaries came to cook, eat, and hang out. Then the next day we went to Tony's house in Sinchã Sambal for some Brazilian cuscus. Tony is a missionary from Brazil who is working on translating the Bible into different Africa tribal languages.

At the party on Christmas Eve we learned a new dance. It was pretty funny to see it in person.

We paused for a minute during our morning of cooking. Yvonne, Jheny, Belle, Gigi and me

You always have to make sure to get all of the rocks out of the rice here. Gilson and Rosania were looking out for our teeth.

Yes, we are eating watermelon on Christmas day. And it was good.

It's not hard to get a picture of Jason on the computer. Even out in the village. Check out the new African shirt that he got for Christmas.

This picture is just too cute for me not to share it with you. No, that shirt is not baggy. Gabriella is just one of the world's chubbiest 10 month olds. She is really scared of me because of my light eyes. Brazilians come in many different shades between European and African, but pretty much all of them have brown eyes and brown hair. I am lighter than anyone else and with my light eyes and light hair I am more scary than other white people. This baby's four year old sister asked her mom why I am so "branku fondant" which means completely white (like a piece of computer paper). Her mom laughed and said that some Americans are just like that. She told her mom later that I must eat a lot of lettuce because I am so beautiful (her mother is always telling her that she has to eat vegetables to be beautiful). That quickly became one of the jokes of the day…

When we left Tony's we spent another 2 days in Sinchã Botchi, then a day and a half in Bissau. Then we went to Gabú for a New Year's Eve party at the "Youth with a Mission" base there. We spent the night at the base and then headed to Cussilinta with a big group for the 1st. Cussilinta is a little beach on a beautiful river and Jason and I took a long walk and snapped lots of pictures (I'll put some of my favorites at the end of the blog). After that back to Sinchã Botchi for the rest of the week and then home on Saturday the 5th. Just in time to start school on Monday…

This is me at Cussilinta eating some of the left over monkey meat from the night before.

Over those two weeks I learned a few things about Brazilians (or at least the ones that are missionaries to West Africa). They love to eat, especially meat, and no dish is complete without a staggering amount of garlic. We brought a lot of food with us to the Christmas festivities. Knowing how much Brazilians enjoy garlic from previous experiences I bought a bag with 10 bulbs. Not 10 cloves – 10 entire bulbs. They used the whole bag in just the meat that we grilled on skewers for Christmas day. It was more than 20 pounds of meat (for 20 people), but still, in my book, that's impressive.

This is pastor Tony skewering the heavily garlic-ed meat on Christmas.

A Christmas cook out. I could get used to this!

Just like our families, they love to joke and they all talk at the same time. Many times I just sat wide-eyed observing everything and understanding almost nothing because it was all in Portuguese. If they thought we would think it was funny or if they wanted to talk to us they spoke in Creole and that was much more helpful. We did start to understand more and more of what was going on as the days went by, but it was really tiring.

All of the Brazilians were really friendly and patient with us (and our Creole), so that was good. A lot of times they thought we were pretty funny. They eat lunch at 1 or so, but then they don't eat dinner until 9 or 10 at night. They thought it was hilarious that Jason and I like to eat dinner at 6. They also think it's funny that we don't like mayonnaise on everything and that we don't put ketchup on our pizza.

Everyone was so funny about the things that I cooked. They all made a huge deal about food from America and everything I made disappeared rapidly. Lots of people wanted recipes for everything, which is more difficult than it sounds because they don't use cups or teaspoons or tablespoons; only liters and milliliters, grams and kilograms. And, they use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. Sometimes the conversion kind of escapes me. We got some Frenches Onions in the mail, so I made green bean casserole for Christmas (in honor of my sister Amanda) and you would've thought it was gourmet. Everybody was raving about my breakfast potatoes the next morning, but the peanut butter cookies were the biggest hit of all.

I don't make peanut butter cookies very often because peanut butter is really expensive here (four bucks for about a cup) but, I decided to splurge for the New Year's party. People don't really make cookies here and everyone thought they were sensational. They were all talking about how great they would be to take on trips, etc. I told them that I don't make them often because peanut butter is expensive. They smiled and told me a beautiful thing: in the villages they roast peanuts and then pound them into a thick paste that you can buy, and it's pretty cheap. I bought a dollar's worth, mixed it with a dollar's worth of sweetened condensed milk, and some water and viola! It was delicious, the two dollar investment made about 4 cups of peanut butter, and it made great cookies!

Here are some kids in Sinchã Botchi who were following me around one day.

After we got home from all of our travels we did make some hot coco with a candy cane (sent from the US) to celebrate Christmas.

With some advice from Jase I think I took some good scenery pictures in Cussilinta.

Jason thought this would be silly but I really like it.

This tree was sweet!

Christmas Plans, a Cute Baby, and Funny Dog

Here in Guinea-Bissau no one really talks about Christmas until around the 20th. It was a little depressing last year, so this year Jase and I have been doing Christmas in a more American way. I made pumpkin pie for my classes on Thanksgiving and then the next day I got some white, red, and green ribbons and decorated all of the classrooms. On the Saturday after we had a big Thanksgiving dinner with us, Erica, Jens (a missionary from Germany), and two of the guys who work at the center, Tolos and Jerry. Since then I have been playing Christmas music a lot. I decorated our room and put a few things up in the kitchen here. I took a few pictures, so I thought I would share them with you guys.

This is our little tree in our room. Jason's Aunt Chris sent it over to us last year. The coolest feature you can't see right now. It lights up with little fiber optic lights that glow red and green.


This is the tree in our kitchen

Speaking of Christmas, Jason and I have been trying to make plans of fun stuff to do on our break. Jason doesn't have any classes in December, and I finish with classes on December 14th. We both start back on January 7th, so we have a few weeks to do stuff. If we can do everything that we want to do we will get to see quite a bit of Guinea-Bissau that we have not seen before.

On the first week that we both have off I think that we are going to go up to Ziguinchor (in Senegal) for a few days. It is a little bit of a tourist town, so it should be a nice vacation for us. After that we would like to go to Quinhámel which is a little village that's not far from us. We can take some nice walks there and I really want to go see a cool weaving factory that has been built there.

From the 20th to the 23rd we have a staff retreat for all of the people who work here at the Youth Center. We are going to a little town called Bula to play sports, have some discipleship time, and even hang out around the campfire. It should be really fun.

On the 24th Jase and I are going to go up to Sinchã Botchi to spend Christmas with our friends from Brazil, Gilson, Rosania, and their little 4 year old girl Nicole. She is very energetic and outgoing, so we have a lot of fun with her. We are going to stay there until the 27th. On the 27th the five of us are going to come back to Bissau, spend the night here, and then get on a ship to Bubaque. Bubaque is one of the islands of Guinea-Bissau. They have really nice beaches and the pastor of the evangelical church there has a guest house that we can stay in.

Here is a map of the places we will be going. All of the green is Guinea-Bissau and the thin black lines separate the different regions. I made all of the cities that we are going to into red dots. The pink route is the first trip that just Jason and I are taking. The blue one is the whole staff of the Youth Center going to our retreat. The dark red one is our Christmas and island trip with Gilson and Rosania. I know it's a little silly, but I had a good time making it .

I will let you know how all of this goes. I want to hear all about your Christmas fun times too

Oh, yeah, a few random things with pictures for your enjoyment...


Our guard dog likes to walk around with grass sticking out of his mouth, so we are pretty sure he is Arkansan at heart

Some of our good friends here had a baby recently. Their names are Pastor Beto and Ligia and the baby is Manaseis (not sure about the spelling). We went to see him when he was just two weeks old. Aparently Guinean babies are born with much lighter skin and then they get darker over the first month. Kind of like how most white babies are born with blue eyes and then the color changes after a week or so.


The new family


Me with the little guy