Saturday

Our chaplain at the hospital and our neighbor has been going to another small village about 5 km away from us on Sabbath and meeting with a group of people. They just finished a 2 wk "evangelistic crusade?" (I say that because I guess it was mostly videos that they watched of various things and all in French so only the educated would understand) and one Sabbath during that time a lot of our church went out to show support. Then last Sabbath they all came to our church and then we went to the river and had a baptism. There were 12 baptised but not all of those were from this other village. Anyway, today we went out there again and Steve preached, Gary translated to French and then another translator into Nangjere (local dialect). K&C got filthy afterward (and before - we waited at least an hour for them to start and we were already "late") playing with the kids in the dirt. Cherise is a real native and wants to be in the middle of the action or more like the center of the action. Well, they always have to feed us afterwards and it was very gritty boule (bougalie in Congo - basically porridge made so thick they shape it into a ball. Then you dip into a sauce and eat with your fingers from a common plate). Our sauce was chicken and fish, so we just ate the grit and then later they brought a vegetarian sauce made from sesame seeds. It was a bit bitter or kind of the flavor of tahini. So, the kids fell asleep on the bike on the way home and the road is very thick sand, so Gary had quite a job as we had the chaplain as well! But then the kids woke up when we got home and then didn't want to sleep. Kaleb finally did go to sleep, but no luck with Cherise! She will go to bed early.

Well, since lunch was grim my big boy is begging to eat, so guess I better run. Hope we can send this soon and to hear from you all too.

Much love,
Wendy

Friday Night

This last week we invited everybody here for Friday night. I didn't realize that this inluded a meal; I was thinking vespers, but this same boy had stuff for tacos/haystacks so I cooked beans and we actually found lettuce and tomatoes in the market (they are pretty hit and miss - mostly miss! lately), so it was really yummy and a wonderful treat. The girl who does most of cooking was sick with malaria, so I still had to oversee everything but the other girls helped, and the guys even rolled out tortillas.

who's who of Tchad.

Our internet isn't working lately, so it's not very much fun to write, but otherwise I won't remember what to tell you and I'll be in trouble from all sides! :-)

Let's start with all the nasaras (white people) here. There are five SMs that will be here the entire year. There are two others that are leaving after this week, and then of course James and Sarah (the Dr and his wife). Right before we left here for the US back in June a kid from a church near G&G Parker came for 6 months. Since we were leaving we had him come to Cameroon and he stayed there and worked with Charles, our guy there. But he really wanted to fly with Gary to see if he would like to become a pilot. So, we brought him back from Cameroon with us and he was only here a few days when he got very sick with malaria. (It was actually from Cameroon.) So, he was in the hospital on IV quinine for a day and then spent several days recovering here. Then Gary took him back and picked up a bunch of our stuff. Then we have a man named Steve Rose (he came to meet us when we were at Aunt Rita's and Uncle Ralph's place). He is here for 3 months and is a pilot and physical therapist. I guess he is trying to decide if this is something he wants to do full time. He is staying here in a little hut (but very nice) that we are renting for him and eating meals with us. We also have a couple Jeremy and Annie Smith - he is Canadian, she is Filipino, but grew up in Ivory Coast and Congo, so she speaks French. They will be here for a year and so they are building the first building on our new property. It's a small hut to start out with and they may add more later. We also have a well being hand dug out there too, so we are staying busy with that. Jeremy also has an agriculture degree and so he has our garden up and running again and is anxious go get started at the new property as well, but we have to wait for water and a way to keep the goats/pigs/etc out. So, we have a lot of pale faces here right now, and we have been enjoying that.

Thanksgiving Day

Gary left on Tuesday before Thanksgiving to take Danieal back to Cameroon. He wasn't planning to come back until Friday morning, so we were thinking maybe we would have our TG meal on Friday evening or Sunday. Well, on Wed I commented at lunch time that we were going to have a mini TG on Thurs no matter who was there. We were trying to get together with all the SMs and James and Sarah, but I couldn't get anybody to tell me when, where, etc, so I was just saying I was going to cook a TG lunch anyway! So, Jeremy was here and said, "Can Annie and I come too?" I didn't know if they would be too interested since they aren't American, but I was happy to have company, but the problem was Annie was working til 3pm so we would have to do it for supper. Then Gary called Wed night and he was coming home Thurs morning, so we were ending up with a good number anyway. Then Thurs afternoon about 4 or 5 James called to say they were having dinner at their house with all the SMs at 7pm! :-) So, it's a good thing I was already cooking and we had a nice big potluck, and good fellowship, even though we didn't stay too long since it was so late. One of the boy's mother had sent him a package with everything for a TG meal including recipes, so it was a real treat.