the Ubangui River

Life in Bangui is exciting, but there really is not a whole lot two young white girls can do in the city for fun so Caitlin and I have to come up with our own entertainment. We read a lot, cook, watch movies, have interesting conversations with visiting American pastors, swim, and hang out with the other missionaries. One of our favorite things to do is to go hiking/walking around the city. The best place to go to is the Ubangui River.

Yesterday we walked down to the Ubangui River and then hiked around to the ambassadors’ neighborhood via a mountain pass. There is a hotel and restaurant on the river where you are allowed to take pictures so here are a few to give you a better idea of what it looks like here.

the Ubangui River

the bridge out to the hotel restaurant

the restaurant is out on a little island of rocks that the Africans fish from

One side of the river is the Central African Republic and the other side is the Democratic Republic of Congo (the top picture is looking towards CAR and the next two pictures after that are looking towards the the Democratic Republic of Congo).

a dugout canoe

more fishing canoes

Mbi yeke manda ti tene Songo

I started learning Songo this week! Everyday my teacher, Madam Marie Claire, comes to my house and from 1-2pm I sit with her in the grass hut in my yard listening to her say words and then trying my best to say each word exactly how she said it. Songo is an interesting language to learn because it’s tonal and also has different letter formations than in English. The most difficult words for me to say are the “kp” and the “mb” words like “kpaka” which means to write and "kpe" which means run and “mbo” which can mean dog or to clean depending on which tone you say it in.

I’ve been focusing on learning Songo but I have been learning all sorts of other things as well. On Sunday I had my first African church experience, I’ve been learning how to do my job with the orphan care project, and I’ve been learning how to shop and cook African style. Oh... and I've been doing a lot of swimming at the American ambassador's pool. Here are a few pictures from this week.

The church I went to on Sunday

hanging out with kids after church

me with Pastor Marc Dounia and his wife Rebecca

the pastor, deacons, and wives

Pastor Dounia is at the missions station quite a bit working at the print shop. When I saw him the other day I got excited because, for one, I remembered his name and also because when he said hello and asked me how I was doing I actually knew what he was saying and was able to answer him in Songo!

the US ambassador's pool

fruit and vegetables for sale

a little piece of America

a class at the orphan care center

whenever I pull out my camera there are lots of curious little Africans wanting their pictures taken

me with some of the teenage girls at the orphan center (I'm the one in blue ;)

On Wednesday Barb took me and Caitlin (and a few visiting pastors) out to the orphan care center to give us a tour. I got introduced to a lot of teachers, kids, and teenagers I'll be working with this year.

the new orphans at the Ber Cail orphan center

This morning we had our first job assignment at another one of the orphan centers in Ber Cail. There are around 30 new students enrolled at this school this year so Caitlin and I had the job of taking individual pictures of each of these new kids. The pictures we took, along with a brief bio of each child, will be posted on the Project Hope and Charite website so that people can look through them and sponsor the children. The kids below are a couple of the orphans we photographed this morning.

First Saturday

What does a typical Saturday in Africa look like? I don’t know! But I can tell you what my Saturday looked like today.

4:30am- I wake up to the sound of the Muslim call to prayer (or maybe it was just someone who got up extra early to practice their trumpet because they really needed the extra practice!). Even though it’s already getting light out and there are people out on the streets being loud, I roll over and go back to sleep.

6:50am- “Co-co-co!” Barb is loudly calling, “knock-knock-knock!” in Songo right outside my window making sure Caitlin and I wake up in time to go harvest rice.

7:00am- I crawl out from under my mosquito net, eat a breakfast consisting of fresh grapefruit and a banana with peanut butter, take my malaria pill, then head off to the widow garden outside of town to harvest rice!

I’ll tell you about the rest of my Saturday with pictures.

The rice field

Women singing a greeting to us

Me harvesting rice with a really sharp knife!

gathering rice bundles

threshing the rice

The land for these gardens was purchased several years ago for the widows to use. Through gardening the women have a way to provide food for their families and make a little money and it also gives them an escape from their painful lives. You would never guess it from all their smiling faces, but many of these women are abused at home, HIV positive, and struggling.

this grandmother comes to the gardens to escape abuse

The directors of PHC discussing building plans

Ok so you have 40 acres of empty land and you want to build a shelter. Where should you build it? On someone else’s empty land really close to your own of course! This sounds ridiculous to Americans but in the Central African Republic I guess this is ok. When the owner of the land you just built on sees that his empty land is being used, that’ll make him happy and he will probably offer to sell you the land (which is what you wanted in the first place). It also increases the value of all the land around where you built. Go figure. This is Africa.

In the picture above, Madam Alexandrine Zokoe and Barb (two women I am working with) are discussing building a chicken coop. They just recently built the shelter you can see behind them and of course it’s not on their land.

little Africans!

The little boys were my favorite! I couldn’t talk to them because I don’t know Songo yet but they loved showing me things. They’d grab a cricket in their hand to show me, overturn a termite hill so I could watch all the little bugs crawl all over, or point out the trails of biting ants so I could avoid stepping on them. They smiled a lot and laughed at me a lot too. The coolest thing they found were a bunch of snake eggs that were just hatching! The little red baby snakes are really poisonous. If you got bit by one you be in extreme pain and be dead within six hours.

A cricket

a hatching snake

dead snake

I'm in Africa!

Paris

I've been on three continents in the last three days and last night I made it safely to Africa with all my luggage! It was a little late when we got in because of the strikes going on in France. We boarded the plane and then sat there in the plane and waited for a couple hours before we took off. But I made it!

The plane landed in Bangui last night at 6:45. It was pitch black and a balmy (humid) 83 degrees. The streets outside the airport were lined with African people and markets lit up by tiny little candles. It looked really cool!

Nzoni Gango, Bienvenue, Welcome

My house!

I wish I could tell you about everything I've done in the past 24 hours but that'd take too long. I'll give you the brief version for now: Today was laid back. I met people, had breakfast at a nearby cafe (the fresh squeezed orange juice is awesome), had a meeting with my new boss, ate lunch with the missionary women, unpacked, got a tour of the city and the city orphan care center, then had dinner with Wilfred, a German gardener who cooked special German food for me and Caitlin. (They've been feeding us so well... I've had ice cream two times already!) 

Caitlin and I share this 3 bedroom house.

Me and Caitlin. The two new PHC interns

I will do my best to upload lots of pictures but I can't take pictures out in the city for several reason: 

1) It makes the African people mad. They don't want you taking pictures of their city because they don't take pride in it and would be embarrassed for people from other places to see it... I personally think the city it beautiful with all the tropical trees and plants. 

2) The Africans don't like it when Americans come and take pictures of them and their stuff and then go back home and get rich from it. 

3) My camera might get stolen or taken away by police if I pull it out. 

I'll still be taking lots of pictures though. (Just not certain places.) I start my job taking photos at the orphan care center tomorrow! Thanks again for all your prayers. It feel good to finally be in Africa!

almost there

got my flights, visa, and euros!!!

3:55pm Tuesday, October 19. That's when I'll be officially headed to Africa! I leave from Cincinnati and will be landing in Paris on Wednesday morning hopefully with enough time to eat some European airport food and try out some French. I'll be taking off again at 11:00am for Bangui, Central African Republic and landing around 4:45 in the afternoon at my final destination.

I am getting to Bangui right at the end of a rainy season. The weather forecast for this week is 80-90 degrees F, rain, thunderstorms, and 70-100% humidity. That will be an adjustment. It is so crazy to me that right now I'm sitting in my home in Michigan and in just a few days I'll be across the world in a totally different climate and culture!

There's still some packing left to do but other than that I'm all ready to go! My visa came last week, I've been faithfully taking my malaria medication, I got my euros, Mom has finished sewing all my skirts and I've said goodbye to so many people I will miss a ton while I'm gone! (I'm not a fan of packing or goodbyes and I am so ready to have them all done with.) If all goes according to plan, I'll be in Bangui, Central African Republic next time you hear from me!

Status Update

Vaccinations: check

Passport ready: check

Plane tickets: getting purchased this week

Visa paperwork: done

All the other piles of paperwork: almost finished

Packing: started

It’s beginning to feel like I really am going to Africa! There are only 15 more days until I leave!!! I’m excited for all that I will see, do, and learn in Africa but right now I am dreading having to say goodbye to everyone at home.

School in Africa begins this month and everyone at Project Hope Charité is counting down the days until Caitlin (the other girl interning with me) and I arrive. Fall is a very busy time of year for the orphan care program and they really need the extra help. We're already getting to Africa later than anticipated. 

The start date for my Africa internship had to be pushed back from September 21 to October 19 to give Caitlin and me more time for support raising. It’s a big task and I got a late start. A few weeks ago I decided to pray specifically that God would provide all my financial support by the end of September. I wasn’t sure how this was going to happen but I knew that with God anything was possible. Last Thursday (the last day of September) I received an email from GBIM, my missions agency, informing me that they had enough frequent flyer miles to cover the cost of all my airfare to and from the Central African Republic. The cost of a roundtrip ticket to CAR is about $3000, just about the exact amount I still needed to raise. I was so blown away by how faithful God always is! Africa, here I come!!!