Fulani

This week has been really interesting. Dr. Mike Taylor and Ryan Bowell from the GBIM home office are out for a visit as well as Rick, a dentist from Michigan. Caitlin and I have had the privilege of going along with them a few evenings to visit and eat with prominent African men associated with the mission and their families. It is so inspiring watching how these people live and hearing their stories.

Fulani people are very distinguished

What has been most interesting to me has been learning about the Fulani people. On Friday Dr. Dibona, an African doctor we spent the evening with, took us to visit a Fulani village on the outskirts of Bangui. The Fulani are a Muslim ethnic group who are nomadic cattle herders. They are one of the world’s most unreached people groups and there are only a handful or less of Fulani Christians in this country. At dinner tonight we met Yaya, a Fulani convert to Christianity who shared a little bit with us about how he came to Christ and the struggles and persecution that came with that decision.

The Fulani are a very private community and it was a big honor to sit and eat with their chief or "Baba", one of the most powerful Muslim men of the tribe. After eating our sweet pasta and hot sweet milk (which Fulani children brought to us on trays balanced on their heads), the chief showed us around the village and let us take pictures. I felt like I was in the middle of a National Geographic photo shoot.

the whole group with our Fulani hosts

My knowledge of the Fulani people is still very limited so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

the "Baba" of the village with some of his family

all these Fulani kids sang a special song for us. It was really cool!

kids with their writing tablets from Koran class

they all wanted their picture taken with me 

the orange on this girls fingers and face is from henna

showing off the Arabic writing on his tablet

they learn French in their regular village school

a young Fulani boy

Camping trip

What is the difference between camping out in the middle of nowhere in North America and camping out in the middle of nowhere in Africa? The number of people in the middle of nowhere!

heading out of town in our Toyota!

Get out of our way camel!

On Monday, Ginger and Barb (two missionaries I’m interning with) took me, Caitlin, and a team of six visiting sponsors “up country” on an overnight camping trip to visit a Hand-in-Hand orphan school. The Hand-in-Hand orphan schools are the rural schools run by village churches for the orphans in and around their village. Once you are outside of Bangui it really does feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. The villages seem so tiny but as soon as you step out of the car every kid in the whole village seems to flock to you and the village doesn’t seem so small then! Everyone has to shake your hand and all the little kids yell “boundjou, boundjou!” which sounds like the French word for hello but it really is the Sango word for “white person.” The visiting Americans were all saying “Bonjour!” back to the kids and waving very enthusiastically. Those of us who knew what they were actually saying were all thinking, “Yep, we’re white and please stop yelling that or else more people might come out to gawk at the silly looking white people who drove into your village waving and smiling like they’re in a parade.”

a little girl peeking in the church window

We didn’t set up camp outside because of all the onlookers. Instead, we set up camp inside the Bosemebele church building. There were still little kids peeking in through every window and doorway so we hired a guard to do crowd control.

the girls' tent all set up!

I love camping!

Barb enjoying African food

The people of the church at Bosembele are so hospitable! Pastor Dole’s wife made us a traditional African dinner of gozo, rolls, rice, and some meat in a red sauce. It was actually pretty good but I was glad we’d brought along ramon noodles. After a lovely dinner eaten by the light of our flashlights, we all ventured outside to sit around the campfire listening to African campfire stories about hunting for snakes and possessed man-eating hippos. Nothing like a few good scary stories right before laying down to sleep in the middle of the African bush!

It turns out that it was a very good thing we camped inside the church because halfway through the night it started pouring rain! It was raining so hard that water was dripping in through the tin roof and leaking into our tent. The rain was nice, though, because it cooled everything off and covered up all the squeaking sounds of the bats. The bad part about the rain was that the “outhouse” was very muddy the next morning. I was very proud of myself for not slipping and falling into the hole.

At the orphan school the sponsors gave out beanies babies, flip flops, and tennis balls and man were those kids excited! Caitlin and I had work to do taking individual pictures of each kid. This job is fun but it makes things tricky when the whole village is watching and the little kid getting his or her picture taken is really nervous. It is also an added challenge making sure you don’t get random kids going to the bathroom in the tall grass in the background of your photo.

happy kids playing with their new toys

I know this is making you all want to go camping in Africa now! It really is fun. 

We also got to stop by the falls at Boali again. All sorts of little boys like to hang out around the falls so that when tourists come they can be their guides and make some money. A little 11 year old boy named Samson decided that he was going to follow me around the whole entire time we were there. We went exploring all around the falls since it wasn't raining this time. I think this is one of my favorite places to visit!

crossing the bridge above the falls

hanging out with my African "body guards". Samson is on the right.

Overall it was a successful trip. Ginger managed to only kill two chickens on the drive home and we all made it back to the mission station safely. And let me tell you... even though I love camping, the warm shower, dry clothes, and homemade pizza when we got back couldn't have made me more happy!

A little glimpse of heaven

Since coming to Africa I have attended a church service preached in English translated into Sango, a completely Sango service, a service preached by a German man (which was mostly in English and a little bit in German), and this morning I went to a French service. 

Even though it's a bit annoying not being able to understand what is being said, seeing people praising God in other languages is such a neat reminder that the God I worship is God of the whole world and worthy of all the praise and adoration the world has to offer! I can't imagine what heaven will be like!

I took a quick video in church this morning. I tried to upload it on here but it was taking too long so maybe I'll try again later. 

Expectations and Extremes

Before I left for my internship my dad told me that living in the middle of Africa would be like living on a huge beach without the ocean: hot, dry, sunny, and sandy. (Being a beach lover who had the option of going to grad school in Hawaii, this was supposed to make me feel better about choosing to live far away from the ocean in the very middle of a “hot and dry” continent). Well Dad, as it turns out there is way more water here than there is beach. You were right about the heat, though.

Now that I’ve been in Africa 2 ½ weeks people are asking what I think of it. It’s interesting to me how perceptions and expectations are so often different from reality.

class

one of the Bosembelli schools

On Thursday I got to go “up country” to the village of Bosembelli to photograph some kids at a couple Hand-in-Hand schools. These are rural schools for orphans that are run by the Grace Brethren Church in the village and are more what you’d expect an African school to look like. The orphan care center in the city is very different. Besides working, I also got to be a tourist and see the waterfall at Boali. It was beautiful and very wet.

The falls at Boali

Me and Caitlin very wet from the rain and spray of the waterfall

looking down on some lower falls

A lot of people asked me to come home with pictures of elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, and gorillas. Believe it or not, there’s not much wildlife here. All the animals in and around Bangui have been eaten. But I couldn’t let you all down so I found some real live monkeys to take a picture with!

me and a monkey!

there are at least two monkeys in CAR that haven't been eaten yet!

 The Central African Republic is a country of extremes. For example, it’s been so wet recently because it’s the rainy season but I’m told that come springtime when it’s hot and humid we’ll be wishing for rain like this and rain won’t come for months. The scenery is full of extremes as well. In the past few days I have been in the colorfully cluttered city, driven through the suburbs full of dirty red brick houses built right on top of each other, and out to sparsely populated villages.

There are extremes in people too. Friday morning I was hanging out with orphans and widows (who aren't very respected in this culture) and Friday night I was attending a classy party at the US ambassador’s house surrounded by wealth and prestige. It certainly is an interesting country and I would have to say my experiences here so far have been different than I expected them to be. I'm still processing what I think of it all.

p.s. the US ambassador and his wife are super nice! They have a grand piano (probably the only one in the country) and they told me I can come over to their house and play it whenever I want to! This made me so happy!!! I certainly didn’t expect to find any pianos in Bangui, let alone a beautiful grand piano that I can play whenever I want to! Things being different than you expect can be a very good thing!