Krispy Kreme's Got Nothin' On Us!

Hello All!

So we have survived a week in Niamey! So far things have been quite interesting.
The food has been pretty great! Linds and I learned how to make spaghetti from scratch and a whole bunch of other yummy things too. We even had fajita’s last night! Oh yeah and we discover farimasas! They are these donut like things that are covered in sugar that we can buy from this lady at the corner. There is no way these things can be healthy, but they give Krispy Kreme’s a run for their money!

We’ve also learned how to do all sorts of new exciting things. For example, we’ve learned to go to the bathroom in a squatty potty and carry water on our head. We’ve also learned how to bargain with people at the market and catch a taxi. These have been our small victories for the past week. The first time I yelled our destination at a taxi and they stopped and let us in I was so excited!

We’ve learned how to go to the market all by ourselves. We tried out our new skills on Friday with a game. Linds, Crystal, Amanda and I were all given a 1000 cfa’s (which is roughly $2) and we were sent to the market by ourselves to see what we could get for a 1000 cfa. So we have all become quite good at getting a taxi! I was quite impressed. Our language is extremely limited but we are learning how to make each word count! So we went to this little convenience store thing called shatto un. Unfortunately it was closed. We then decided to walk around a bit and see what we could find. We were then bombarded by a zillion people trying to see us all sorts of ridiculous things. They had everything from bikes made of wire to silver earrings. They wanted 4000 cfa for their items and I made the mistake of telling them that we only had 1000. So I accidentally bargained with one man that had silver earrings and I had to buy them. Emily says that I actually got a really good deal, but I was a little bummed about it for awhile. I really do like the earrings though.

So, we’ve encountered all sorts of language barriers. We are still in the capital city for orientation and no one really speaks the language we need to learn. On July 3 we are moving way out into the bush of Africa. So, it’s been difficult trying to find people to speak Fulfulde with. A guard from the Samaritan’s Purse, a man named Ibraham, was supposed to help Lindsay and I yesterday. We walked to meet him, but he was not there. So then Emily, our supervisor, took us to visit a Fulani friend of hers who is in the hospital. We were able to listen to their conversation for a while. Then Emily took us to where some Fulani women were selling milk at the market. With our limited vocabulary we said hello and told them that we were learning Fulfulde. They seemed friendly to begin with, but they though we wanted to buy milk. Then a bunch of men came to try to figure out what we were saying then we were able to communicate to them that we only knew English (they were speaking French). They then began to yell through the market to find someone who spoke English. This was extremely embarrassing and stressful! But finally this really sweet African woman came and said “Friends, friends! How can I help you?” She was such a blessing. We explained to her that we just wanted to sit with the women to try and better understand Fulfulde. She told us that what we were trying to do was very difficult because the women don’t speak Fulfulde to the customers, they only spoke it to one another and they were not speaking to each other. Linds and I decided to try again. Unfortunately they began shaking their fingers at us and shooing us away. We then hopped in a taxi and went home. We learned a lot from this experience. Language learning was going to be a whole lot harder than we expected. We also learned that the Fulani as a people group are very private and if you have not been introduced by someone they already accept, life would be very difficult. Good news is that when we go to the village Melissa will introduce us to everyone she knows, so we’ll have a bit of a head start in that area.

As for me personally…I haven’t been feeling the greatest. I’ve been sick for a few days and we aren’t completely sure what’s wrong. We have an idea so we are trying to adapt my diet to make it better. But, good news is that today I’m feeling a bit better.

Something else that is significant is that we all dream a lot! Every time we fall asleep for two seconds many of us have vivid dreams. We’ve been told it’s because the spirit world is just more active here. It’s definitely a strong hold area. This has made us much more vocal with the Father.

Well if you want to know more or see some pictures look at Lindsay’s blog. I haven’t been taking many pictures, but I promise to work on that :) Please continue to pr*y for us.

Love and miss you all!