Wedding Party

We went to our first Malian wedding celebration for our young friend Aïcha. It was actually only part of the celebration: an afternoon just for the ladies involving lots of food and fancy outfits. Although it was an all-day affair, the girls and I just showed up mid-afternoon and stayed only a few hours. We were served the typical Malian party food, a plate heaped with rice topped with eggplant, cabbage, beef and plantains. There were at least 4 other pregnant women there besides me and about a million little kids and babies. It was the biggest Malian party I’ve been to yet. Many of the women came dressed up, or in casual clothes, and some changed into fancier clothes while there, while others came fancy and changed into even more extravagant outfits. I’ve been to quite a few Malian parties and was already familiar with many of the women, but this time a lot of people showed up that I’d never seen before, including some of the most beautiful and elegant women I have ever seen (and not just because of perfect make-up). Eventually the bride herself showed up, looking quite beautiful and outdoing everyone else with her finery and dazzling white dress. Unlike most Congolese weddings, for the Muslim weddings, the white dress is actually fitting for the bride. Unfortunately I had forgotten my phone but it would have been a wonderful opportunity to take pictures. Since many of the women were taking pictures it wouldn’t have been awkward at all. I did get my friend to send me a few which I will share at the end. Once everyone started leaving to go to the next phase of the party (I’m not sure where), we decided to head home instead of sticking with the group. It was a lively and colorful afternoon for sure!

Our newest niece

My brother and sister-in-law just welcomed another baby girl into their family! To help provide them meals, click here.

The last few weeks in pictures…

Since we just got another internet subscription I thought I’d catch up with a post that will be almost completely photos. We had a short visit from some missionary friends

Molly’s first fishing trip with Papa

Aravis has discovered she loves goldfish just like her sisters

Frying plantains for company

Molly and Eileen are enjoying learning new things!

Molly sick and having a bad hair day

Papa’s way of containing the chaos

Aravis turned 10 months and was very sick

I made some cloth diaper covers

Molly is learning to write

Burning weeds with Papa

The new light sign downtown: the girls with their friend Patricia

A cup of hot tea early in the morning

If anything can be called true love, this must be it. If I could list everything Orcxance has done for us over the last few days, it would fill many pages. I just spent several days very sick with malaria, and I was the sickest I have been in years. I remember being sick with malaria like this our first year of marriage, before we had any children, and Orcxance cared for me so well then. Fast forward five years and add three children into the mix and he is still caring for me, now us, as patiently and faithfully as when we were starry-eyed newlyweds. —— He stayed up with me at night while I shook so hard my teeth rattled in my head, and he got up every time with Aravis, made the girls breakfast and did the dishes and laundry. Then after all that he went off to work all day and came home to do dinner, baths, bottles and bedtime. Then repeated the process again the next day. —— He made sure I got medicines, monitored the baby, gave me IV fluids and cleaned up a flood that happened in our house during a hard rainstorm. —— Right as I started to turn the corner toward health, Aravis came down hard with malaria. One night she cried for about 3 hours straight. Nothing we did seemed to help at all, but finally she tired herself out, and he gave her a second bath and offered the bottle for the tenth time, and she finally fell asleep.

I am still waking up each morning with a pounding headache, but I’m definitely on the mend. Just this morning as I lay on the couch trying to get enough energy to start the day, Orcxance brought me a cup of tea. Definitely true love.

Aravis Leanna

Snapshots from the last few weeks

We found some cool maps at the printing shop and studied them while waiting for documents to print.

Aravis had a botfly maggot in her head but we got it out. They do eventually come out on their own but it can take weeks and is an itchy and painful process.

Silas posing with people at the hospital. He’s been able to shadow the lab technicians and get a little experience.

Pasta from a local shop. I took a picture of this because it means “the White Rose” which was the name of a German resistance group during WWII (O faithful readers, correct me if I’m wrong).

Flatbread frying pan pizza and fresh pineapple

The girls’ fan came to a dramatic end

Fun with neighbors in the yard

Getting O ready for his trip and sending some bags of stuff to relatives and friends (I needed a good purge and our neighbors, friends and family are happy to be the equivalent of Goodwill for us)

Hot chocolate for rainy days

Silas cleaning fish he and Héritier caught together, and then the fried fish

Silas accidentally ran over and busted a badly placed water pipe and the road flooded; they got it repaired and blocked so it wouldn’t happen again

Art by Molly

The neighbor girls have been helping me out some

The sacrifice of living at the ends of the earth is never felt so strongly as at times like these.