if my friend killed my goat...

It’s possible that most of you have heard the joke about Sunday school where the teacher is describing something small and furry that lives in a tree. She asks the children what it is. One little boy pipes up and says it sounds like a squirrel, but the right answer is always "Jesus". Yeah, I know it’s a bit of a groaner, but I bring it up because I had a similar experience today when I was grading homework.

Jovens Para Cristo (Youth for Christ) is a Christian school, so we do talk about Jesus. We learn verses and read things from the Bible and have discussion about those things. We also learn grammar and practice discussing lots of other things. Yesterday we learned about how to talk about imaginary situations and consequences – ex: If something funny happened I would blog about it.

On the homework I gave the students some imaginary situations and asked them to make a complete sentence with the situation and a possible consequence. One of the situations was "Your friend was taking care of your goat and it died." Most people put answers that I would expect: "If my friend was taking care of my goat and it died I could take the meat and eat it." or "If my friend was taking care of my goat and it died I might never forgive him for what he did." But, one answer was different. It felt just like a typical "Sunday school" answer and it made me laugh a bit, so I thought I would share it with you: "If my friend was taking care of my goat and it died I would give him a grace of the only Lord in the sky to help that he or she gave to my goat while he died." hehe, yup, still makes me laugh.

Keep Emily Cool

So there is something that has been making me laugh every time I think about it and I wanted to run it by you guys. Most of you know my friend Fernando (from Guinea-Bissau, came to the States for 6 months to study English at the University of West Florida recently arrived back). Yesterday after we taught some American idioms to our third level English class (like a chicken with its head cut off, frog in my throat, butterflies in my stomach, etc) I was talking to him about the things that he learned in his English classes in the States. I asked him if they had done any idioms, and he said not exactly but their teachers had taught them some American expressions like: "that’s banging" meaning "that’s cool", and my favorite: "crackalackin’ ".

Have I been out of America so long that crackalackin’ is a real thing that people actualy say? Sometimes I feel like I have lost touch with American pop culture a little bit - I don’t know who the current Idol contestants are and I am not really interested in Brittnay and her baby problems. But have I lost touch this much? Tell me honestly, have you used the word crackalackin’ in the past month??? Do I need to add it to my vocabulary so I can be a crackalackin individual (Was that it? Did I do it right? I need to know... )?

Keep Emily cool - fill me in on the shizzle (Wait, do people still say shizzle? Did people ever say shizzle? I’m getting so confused ).

a Few Things

Right now I am super-excited . One of the ladies who has worked at the youth center forever became a Christian this weekend. People have been sharing the gospel with her for years and she has believed in Jesus for a while, but she didn’t want to give up her sacrifices and ceremonies, so she hadn’t given her heart to God. She has five kids, the oldest of which are teenagers, and her husband died a few years ago.

She was really sick and in the hospital this past week and when she got back she told one of our friends here that she had decided to give her life to Jesus. He talked to her for a while and she seemed really confident about it. She wasn’t back at work today because she is still recovering, but I am going to go visit her soon.

It is not that common for someone her age to become a Christian here because by that point most people are really involved in doing the ceremonies for themselves and for their families and they are responsible for the sacrifices for their children, etc.

I can’t even imagine the freedom after more than 40 years of living in fear of Satan. I also can’t imagine how hard it would be to walk away from your entire way of life. She has been released from the promises and pacts she has made with Satan. She has a God that she can know and who wants to know her. Wow! Ok, so like I said I am super excited.

On a different note, we only have three weeks left here, which is totally unbelievable to me… Seriously, where did the time go this time?

When we leave here we have a layover in Frankfurt, Germany. While we were booking the tickets the agent told us that the price of the ticket didn’t change if the layover was a few hours or a month, so we opted for a longer one so that we could see a little bit of Europe. We have 19 days and we are planning on spending most of the time in Germany with a quick trip to Salzburg, Austria and Prague in the Czech Republic. I am sure we’ll take lots of pictures and Jason might even post a movie or two

Over the past few weeks we have mostly been working. Jason taped some cool new language videos (like the Fula one), but he hasn’t had a chance to edit them yet. We did visit one of our friends, Roberta, on her son’s first birthday so I thought I would share some pictures of that with you.

Here’s me with the birthday boy, Meno. He was in a really good mood and for some reason I made him laugh a lot.

He really liked it when we put our heads together. He would laugh and then squeal and wiggle. I can’t really convey the cuteness in a picture, but trust me, it was adorable.

We have gotten to be friends with our neighbors here, Charlotte, and Salva. This past Friday night we went to a concert with them and we had a good time. Charlotte is from France and she is teaching and supervising teachers at a French school here in Bissau. (She studied English in college and then went to Portugal for a few years and taught there, so she speaks French, Portuguese, English, and now Creole.) Salva is her boyfriend and he is a doctor from Spain. He has spent some time in Portugal, and I’m not really sure where else, but he speaks good English too. At the concert we were joined by another French woman, her Guinean boyfriend, and three people from Spain. It’s so funny to be from all over and have Creole as a common language.

Charlotte and Salva had an oyster baking party today so we stopped over and had a few. Correction, I had a few, Jason ate about 40. They had a huge bag full of them, and they went down to the port to buy them, so they were fresh and pretty cheap. I took a few pictures and I thought I would share them with you guys.

I know this picture is a little blury, but if you look at the right side of this oyster you can clearly see the letters USA... We really have no idea how it got there, but when Charlotte opened it up, there it was. Weird!

This is Charlotte about to start munching some party food.

One of the benefits of living near the ocean – big shrimp. They were pretty good too! You just take off the head with the guts, peel off the shell and legs and pop them in your mouth!

So, that’s about it right now. See you soon.

Wild and Dangerous

You know how sometimes something you read just really connects with you on a deep level? I had that experience today. I picked up a little book called A Boy Who Cried Abba by Brennan Manning. It is a parable so it's not really a long story (I read it in about half an hour), but it was powerful!

The basic plot of the story is that there is a young Mexican boy named Willie Juan whose terrible life is transformed from the inside out by a series of encounters with a medicine man. The medicine that the man has is free and it's not for healing your body primarily, it's for healing your soul. At one point in the story the boy goes to the Cave of Bright Darkness to meet the medicine man (El Shaddai) and before he comes to him a voice calls out his name. Willie Juan answers, and asks who are you? This is the response:

"To most I am known as Danger, Willie Juan. I make my presence known in water, wind, and fire. I am Spirit, without shape, form, or face. Those who seek safety try to summon me like a tame lapdog. They crave security instead of growth. They have no tolerance for mystery, certain that they can know everything knowable. The week-kneed do not love Danger. They are afraid I will call them to become what they are not. They call me Comforter for all the wrong reasons and are surprised when no comfort comes to them."

Wow! Take a minute and read that again…

Right now I am doing a conversation series in the Sunday night English service we have here watching and discussing the movie Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I remember reading that series of books over and over as a kid and all throughout they talk about Aslan (who represents Jesus) as "not a tame lion". I always loved that and it always scared me. Here in this story the name of the Holy Spirit is Danger and that makes me feel the same way.

I do not serve a safe God. I do not serve a God who wants me to know everything and feel secure and comfortable. I serve a God who can change me, transform me, stretch me, and take me places that I've never dreamed of. A God who has more for me than just surviving life. A God who can heal me on the deepest levels and use me to bring healing to others. He has a path for me – a purpose to fulfill the desires that He has placed in my heart.

Does that sound like the God you know? If it doesn't you're missing out. I think that we should let Him out of the safe box that we have shoved Him in and see what a wild, dangerous, fiercely-loving God wants to do with us…

A Few Thoughts

Well we've got just about a month left and the time is flying. I am excited to go home and see everyone! I am also sad to be leaving. I love my work and I love the people here.

Jason and I have been thinking and praying a lot about the future and sometimes it seems like we're just going in circles. I want to know everything now so that I can get ready for it all. I know that's not how God works, but I've been praying so long that I just want feel some resolution.

Last Sunday night in the English service here we were singing a song called Step by Step. I think most of you have heard it (I will seek You in the morning, and I will learn to walk in Your ways, and step by step You'll lead me, and I will follow You all of my days, etc). When Fernando was introducing the song he had Ruth walk across the stage and he walked behind her stepping exactly where she stepped. He talked about how this song teaches us the way that we should follow God.

When he was talking it kind of hit me that Ruth could've turned right or left and because Fernando was following her he would have turned that way too. It's the same with God I think. Sometimes He shows me where He is going, but sometimes He just asks me to step in His steps. I would like to know if I am going to be turning right so that I can get ready with all of my right turn stuff, but it should be enough for me to know that if I am following God each day He won't leave me. He will stay one step ahead of me, revealing each day. That is what He has promised and that is all I need to know.

So, right now is step-by-step - walking behind God, following the desires He has put into my heart, making plans loosely, fully expecting Him to turn at any minute.

As I have changed my focus from "the future" to right now I have felt a big burden lift off of my shoulders. I was getting so frustrated about not making big decisions that I was not feeling at peace with any of my small decisions. Not any more (at least until God has to teach me again…). Right now I am content with what I know and I am learning to be content with an ever changing picture of my future.

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.