“Let us not allow the ugliness in this world to take our joy away from us.” 

-Seretse in A United Kingdom

Coloring Days

Our house is an endless source of entertainment and fun for the neighborhood children. They love looking at the books, especially Tintin, and they also have lots of fun over a deck of cards, coloring pictures, or building a puzzle. The little girls are always asking me to “tell a story” with one of the books. Since I can’t read French with proper pronunciation, I usually choose one of the French children’s books and tell the story in Lingala. I know the basic story of every picture book we own, so I can tell the story while they enjoy looking at the pictures. 

When it comes to the books and coloring, I have to be a careful monitor. This usually involves keeping the children from snatching things from each other, making sure one child is not hoarding all the crayons, helping them learn to take turns, and teaching them how to turn the pages of books properly. They tend to just grab a handful of page and turn - wrinkling every page of every book. Afternoons with the children are full of energy, fun and quite a bit of noise. When they head home I have to check and make sure they don’t leave with books or toys. They are allowed to take the pictures they colored home with them but nothing else. Otherwise we would soon be completely out of all our crayons and books, and the fun at “Maison Mokouenza” would be over.

Plantain Chips

You can make plantain chips easily. Buy some green plantains (it is important that they are still green). 

Peeling can be a bit difficult but once peeled, cut the plantains into thin slices. Sprinkle salt over the slices. 

Heat up oil in a pot and put in a handful of slices at a time. 

Once golden brown on one side, flip the slices over. When they are brown on both sides, remove from the pot. Add more salt as needed. And there you have it - plantain chips! They make a great snack or side dish to a meal. 

Life

“We like our work. I know many people who feel a calling to ministry are always praying to God, “Please don’t send me to Africa,” as if that were the ultimate punishment or purification one could endure. We, on the other hand, are very thankful for our opportunity to live here; we feel we are the privileged ones, some of the few who are allowed to partake in such an exciting life with such an important task. In this life there is always something going on, something new we are learning, something interesting to be discovered and recorded. Life is never boring - in fact, it can be almost too exciting.” -Lisa Leidenfrost, At the Edge of the Village pg 65

The Library Shelf

Our bookshelf is called “The Library.” Our neighbors are allowed to check out one book at a time, and I write down the title and who the book was lent to so we can hold onto some shred of hope that we will get the book back. Eventually. 

We have some good books in French, including Pilgrim’s Progress, some of the Narnia books, Love and Respect, the Meaning of Marriage, Mere Christianity, the Screwtape Letters, the Hiding Place and Eternity in Their Hearts, not to mention my English books. As Orcxance said as we put them all on the shelves, “we are rich in books.” Our books really are a treasure, especially here, where attaining Christian literature in French is extremely difficult. 

We hope that our little “library” will be a blessing to others here and a source of encouragement and edification to us.

Sunday

Bon Dimanche

House Improvements

We now have a table for cooking and storing things, since it has a shelf underneath. We can cook and prepare food while standing up, which is really nice and I think might help eliminate some of the back pain I have been experiencing from all the floor meal prep and other kitchen related activities.

We also have a sink now, pictured below. Our water filter survived the trip from Impfondo with only a few broken parts which we repaired. We recently acquired a second cooking pot, which has made my life easier. 

A little plastic shelf for the kitchen has also proved quite useful. I bartered for this at a WestAf shop and walked away with a better price than my husband was expecting we would get. The majority of our food and dishes are off the floor now!

Our most luxurious improvement is probably the refridgerator. Now we don’t have to buy food every day; we can store things. We also have the advantage of drinking cold water, making “iced” coffee, lemonade or the occasional cold soda (we don’t normally buy it but our neighbors are very generous in the juice and soda department.)

Flowers

As always, I enjoy photographing the beautiful flowers wherever I can find them...

2019 begins...

We've made it to the end of one year and the beginning of another. We are thankful. Every morning when we pray together before breakfast, Orcxance thanks God that we have woken up in the morning and that God has given us another day to praise Him.

We are settling into life here but we haven't reached what I would call a "routine" yet. We are going at a slow pace and enjoying time together. I feel more free than I have in a long time. I am not working outside the home right now and the little tasks that make up my day are enough for the time being. I cherish each moment with my husband. He is so pleased with me and I consider myself blessed among women.