meet Oumou

Meet Oumou.  This is the first time she slept on me all afternoon at tea.  I smelled like b.o. and sweat the rest of the day. :)  Her mom sits right outside our gate and sells peanuts with a bunch of other ladies.  It has now become a continuous thing, for me to walk out and bring her in to hang with me.  So here is how she works.  She's a bit whiny and stubborn.  She will not go to anyone else.  Once she is sitting on my lap, Michenzie, Chris, or Courtney are considered "scarey" by Oumou.  She screams and throws tantrums and elbows (Michenzie) if they try and take her away from me.  It's hilarious!  My thought was, "Yes, finally a child who loves me and no one else...just me!!" Yet that's not such a good thought.  I had to let her follow me into the bathroom to pee otherwise she'd scream.  Today she actually pulled my hand and walked me back to her mom outside the gate.  It was so sweet.  Tomorrow you will meet my bff from church! :D

i togo oumou

Her name is Oumou. Oumou.  I have photos and more moments to blog about tomorrow!

my heart

The longer I am here, the more I am falling in love with the Malians.  How unique and precious are all of God's children.  How creative He is in all His work!  He baffles my mind and I'm so amazed at who He is while I sit here and type this.

Yesterday, I was walking back from lunch at the Camara's house and all these children were hanging by the gate like usual.  Except there was one girl who I'd never seen come into the compound.  There are a group of women who sell peanuts at a stand right outside our gate under a tree.  I knew this was one of their girls because I had seen her sit with them before.  She was carrying a bowl of rice that she was eating...except there were so many rocks in the rice...it was dirty.  Her hair was all sectioned off into squares and wrapped into small buns- about 8 all over her head.  She was wearing a too-small blue and stained baby dress, and some very old ratty underwear.  I held my hands out to her and shockingly she held her hands out as well.  The hard thing is, there are a select few smaller kids and babies who will actually let us hold them, so I was shocked for her to want to come to me.  I picked her up and walked back around the corner where our house sits.  All of our chairs are usually set under the mango tree for shade.  I sat down with her and let her finish her rice.  I grabbed an apple and gave her part of it and filled up some water in a cup for her (water---"ji" in bambara).  She did not hesitate to take food from me.  But she showed no emotion the whole entire time I held her.  She would just look at me and back at everyone else.  Later on I took her inside of our house (we aren't really supposed to but there were no other kids around and she is young enough I think it was okay), and I let her use chalk on our floor (cement floor) and she was done with it pretty quickly and put it back in the bag and made sure i zipped it up properly.  I sat down with her on the floor and blew up a ball for her (world map on it) and let her hold it and play with it.  I walked with her around our house.  She continually followed me and looked oh so precious, and "perfect" in this house (if you know my heart, you know why I say this).  The second time God has reminded me of how much I want to be a mother; a biological mother- who knows! but a mother.  All I hear Him say is "love them".  I see Jesus in them.  When I went to pick her up to take her back outside, she FREAKED out! She didn't want to go outside.  She wanted to stay inside the house, and I was like "great look what I have done now".  So I fought against it and took her outside while she shook herself in my arms and cried.  We sat back down under the mango tree for a while and she calmed down a bit.  The dogs- Toupas and Sharbon, walked by and she flipped out again.  I let her keep the world map ball and walked her back to her mom right outside the gate.  As soon as she got back the bigger kids took the ball from her and started playing with it---oh how I knew this was going to happen!

Today I thought about her all day.  Oh how I wanted to go out and grab her and bring her back in, but I was busy with French and other things.  Later during the day, Christian and I were walking with "Grandma" and clean clothes back pass the gate and there were some kids so we started "karate" fighting with them for fun.  AND making so much loud noise.  All the "peanut ladies" walked to the gate and looked in at us and started laughing.  Then here comes this girl!  So beautiful, wearing such dirty, stained, and too small of clothing.  I wanted to bathe her and clean her up, give her a manicure and just hold her in new clothes.  I wanted to be able to say "she's mine" and I get to watch after her while she sleeps at night in the room next to me!  Oh how hard it is to wait for such a longing desire.  I found out her name today, but I don't know how to spell it.  I barely know how to pronounce it, but I will figure it out one of these days!

Thanks for reading.

sick

No one likes to be sick, especially a day before starting French class with Madame Fiet.  Sharon got Typhoid, or at least thats what her blood test said, but we sort of think it could be Malaria, and when they tested the blood they could have been looking at the Typhoid vaccine instead of the actual illness.  Does that make sense?  It happened to another EDGE teamer like two years ago.  Chris has a cold, Michenzie's throat hurts, and Courtney was just taken to the doctor with Uncle Joseph to get blood work.  I am IMMUNE! Just kidding.  I hope this all passes me on, I don't tend to get sick very often but if the typhoid is in the water here then you really can't help it.  We are filtering our water but still, things happen.  A couple people at Uncle Joseph's house got Typhoid as well, so it definitely could be in the water.  

Being sick is the last thing you want when you are still adjusting to a new culture, its so hot, and you need to study and do homework!

Please lift this up to Jesus, for we know He heals all.

RAIN

It is not even close to the rainy season yet, but we have already been blessed two different times with rain and wind.  It usually comes up out of nowhere! Our team was basically playing in the rain while it lasted (about 15-20 min).  It was so much fun and hilarious.  At home rain is just rain.  But in Mali its a whole other world.  I was reminded how much of a blessing rain is.  RAIN IS A BEAUTIFUL BLESSING!

be

I am challenged to just be.

To just sit for hours under the shady mango tree and be.

To learn a new pace of life and understand 

it is okay to just be

We don't always have to be doing something with our 

minds or our hands.

It is acceptable by the LORD to just be.

Oh what a challenge it is.

The more our minds aren't occupied with busy work, the more we think.

We think about ourselves.

I think about myself.

You can't hide from self.

What am I doing?

Where is God taking me?

What is true 'sacrifice'?

What is God doing in my heart?

Why don't I feel my passion for Africa while I'm here, in the moment?

We are forced to think about questions we rarely truly answer (or want to answer).

How can I be more secure in my God and let Him love me just the way I am.

How do I just be?

Why does it put bear in my and resistance to think about just being, today.

It is hard.

The Lord is slowly shifting my view.

We are God's Beloved.  So, be...LOVED!

-Journal Entry 3.02.10 

 

weather class and malaria

We thought maybe we'd be starting one of our classes this week, but it looks like we have another week to do nothing but cook, clean, and chill.  We do have homework and books to read for due dates coming up in the next couple weeks but not actual classroom time.  We were supposed to be starting "Conversational French" with Pastor Gabria here, but it doesn't work for him yet.  It would be nice to learn some more french, because right now we are using such BROKEN french words in the midst of our english sentences.  Thank goodness Uncle Joseph, his family, and the IBR students know english.  The students dont know as much but at least we can figure out what they are saying! It's quite entertaining actually.

Every day seems a little bit hotter.  There's no way you can go throughout one day and not sweat through your tanktop!  I have limited tanktops too so therefore I have to do laundry often.  Last night I think it rained a bit.  I remember waking up at 7 and smelling the rain through our window, but it wasn't enough to make the ground muddy.  The cool breeze in the early morning is so wonderful.  I dont think I've ever been so thankful to feel a good breeze.  Oh how much we take for granted!

And a couple of Uncle Joseph's kids have been tested for typhoid.  They think it might be in the water (we have filtered water).  So please keep them in your thoughts.  They are doing better.

Malaria is huge here.  For the short amount of time we've been here (3 weeks) about 5 people that we know amongst the compound have already gotten malaria and medication to heal.  They are better, but it is soo common here.  I get annoyed sleeping with my mosquito net all the time.  Its such a pain to always tuck in around your bed and you cant feel the fan as much and you feel like you are in a cage.  

Anyways, its my turn to cook lunch so peace out! :)