A Holy Day-Baptism

It has always been a dream of mine to see a baptism here in Africa. On May 16, I was able to realize this dream.

Our church we attend here had 19 candidates for baptism. Our church observed the sacrament with another church that has a pool. 

The service was to start at 4pm. When I arrived, there was nearly noone there. A few of my friends were there so I greeted them and talked. I actually took the opportunity to practice my language with them as we have had classes for 2 weeks to this point. The pastor came out and I walked over to greet him. He saw I was alone and asked if I could transport these guys. I said I had places for 5 of them, and followed a car to the church for the baptism. Thanks to everyone else being able to pile into the bed of the truck ahead of us, noone was left behind.

We started around 5 with music. The pastor gave a mini sermon on the example of Jesus being baptized by John as a model for us to also honor baptism as a time when one makes a new relationship with God. The church was full with my estimate of 170 people there. I was one of at least 30 standing. 

When the sermon was over and it was time for the baptism, I have rarely seen a crowd gather as fast as they did around the baptismal pool. I was on the other side of the church and was 7 or 8 rows of people deep around the pool. I could finally begin to see through people that there was a hole in the floor and a 4 foot deep pool of water. The musicians sang worship songs while each person was baptized. Before they were immersed they were asked a few questions by the pastor that I could not hear, and then dunked in the water. It was a beautiful sight and I was so thrilled. 

After the baptism, every candidate was given an opportunity to thank their family and friends. We formed a line and shook hands with each person and prayed for them. And that was the service. Not much different from a service in America, but so encouraging among a nation with so many who are non-believers. I pray I get to see more baptisms. I am so glad I could experience this. Baptism services are my favorite form of worshipping God. I mentioned to one of the pastors that my professor would call this day a holy day. He completely agreed.

Eid-al Fadr

Today was the Muslim holiday, Eid Al Fadr. For the period of Ramadan, our neighbors have been fasting during daylight hours from food and water. They honor this time as a month-long personal sacrifice to reflect on and draw closer to God (Allah). 

Now that the Ramadan fast is complete, families get together and celebrate. They decorate their homes, wear brand new clothes, and eat foods prepared with extra spices to celebrate the event. 

I enjoy observing cultures. Today I greeted our neighbors with phrases I have learned in French and fulf. In French we can say Bonne fête (happy celebration) and bonne rupture (happy breaking of the fast). In fulf I learned the phrase barka he yarude ndiyam (bless the gift of food as a loose translation). 

As I greeted neighbors I saw many in new clothes. Everyone had such good spirits today. We heard horns blowing on cars and motos. We heard children blowing bugle horns, playing with new balloons and other toys, and all the children had new clothes they were wearing. People were going from house to house greeting neighbors and celebrating together. Those who have come from out of town will likely celebrate for the rest of the week.

For all the happiness we saw, we still reflect on how fsr from truth and God's grace our neighbors are. Please pray with us that we find opportunities to share our faith with others. 

We will remember this festival for the power cut today. It was extremely warm today, 110F. At 11 this morning we experienced our power outage. We heard a main line from another contry that supplies power to us was disturbed. By 3pm it was fixed, only to discover another disturbance an hour later on a similar line. Because of darkness they had to suspend work on it. I read that a repair crew has been sent to fix the issue and will start tomorrow on the repair. Until then the entire nation is operating on 80% power supply. The power company will share power to different segments until power is fully restored. (Lesson for engineers to not plan for power needs to be equal to the supply of power)

I did get our generator running today! Then suddenly it stopped working. It starts but then almost immediately shuts off again. I will look in the morning, hopeful it is as simple as draining the fuel line. 

The kids were fitful tonight as we went to bed with no power. Our power did come on at 11pm and the kids went right to sleep shortly after that. I expect we will lose power again at some point during the night. But at this moment we are well and everyone in the house is resting peacefully.

Continuing to live one day at a time.

Thank you for praying!

week 2-making things work

(For those not mechanically-inclined, forgive us for a long post about repairs!)

After our week of quarantine, we began the process of making our house our home. We found it took us awhile to settle and unpack. By day 10 we felt like our kitchen was in order, most of our bags were unpacked, and our house was mostly livable. But then comes the part of fixing the little things.

Washing clothes 

We have a washing machine and clothes line. We put a new line on the clothes line, even making a few lines lower so Abby can help hang clothes to dry. This is a chore she loves to do! 

new clothes line and bonus burn barrel in the back.

But we found the washing machine wasn't completing its wash cycle. We realized this was due to not enough water pressure. The previous tenants told us a trick they used to make the washing machine finish. Turns out, the water company must have repaired a main line as now we have great water pressure throughout the day! Problem solved!

The drain for the washing machine was going into the shower. Denise found a drain line we could use instead of the shower, and even found a wire for me to use to hold the drain line in place. I found a clamp and fastened it on the drain line to secure it. So the clothes line and the washing machine are working great! Yay for clean clothes, a properly draining washing machine, and a new clothes line!

Shower rod

Along the lines of the bathroom, our shower rod was not fixed well to wall. It was constantly falling down when we showered. I found some tape to tape it more securely to the wall, and some wire to attach it to a window handle. It is much more secure now.

Drinking water

this is our katadyn water filter.

The water cooler we have is too small for our daily needs. We found we were filling it 4 times a day, which means making ice 4 times a day, and having water to fill it with 4 times a day.  A dear friend let us have her old cooler she is no longer using. It leaked because of an old O-ring but it was the appropriate size. I was able to find a replacement part for the spigot, installed it, and it works beautifully for us! Now we fill the water tank at night, and put ice in it first thing in the morning. It lasts us throughout the day and remains cool.

Generator

We do have a generator for when our power goes out. We bought it without looking at it, and I knew something was broken on it but I didn't know what. Our guard told us one problem was the gas line filter, which is cheap to replace. I put it on and put fuel in the tank, it fired right up! I couldn't believe it! I know it hasn't been started in nearly 2 years. I had to wire the plug to the house and now it is ready for use.. We are glad for the generator so that we can run our frige when the power is out for a long time.

Toilet

We had a toilet seat that broke, and easily installed a new one.

Electric

You know the saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." This was the case for our electricity. When our a/c repairman came to clean our a/c units, one unit wasn't working. He told me the problem lies with the breaker. Well, I've changed breakers before, I can do that! As Lee Corso (espn college gameday) once said, "Not so fast, my friend!" When I finished installing the new breaker, I turned on the power but the outlets didn't work in the living room (where our fridges are). I tried again, and the outlets in our bedroom and Josh and Abby's bedroom didn't work. I tried a 3rd time and got it back to the way it was originally with everything working but the a/c unit.

So I hired an electrician to fix the problem for us. Our house is on a 3 phase system, and when the power came into the breaker box it was not being evenly distributed. I purchased a 4 way splitter which the electrician installed. Now the a/c unit in the living room is working! 

But, back to our friend Lee Corso "Not so fast, my friend!" That night when Denise went to turn on the a/c in our bedroom, it didn't work. The next 2 nights she slept on the floor in the kids' room while I slept with a fan running in our room. Our electrician told me he would return the next day, Friday. But Friday came and he didn't come. Saturday I called him and at 930 he said he was getting ready. 1130 he said he was in the market buying things. I asked him to call when he was on his way. At 2pm when he still hasn't arrived, I went to the market myself to buy some things we needed. When I came back to our house, guess who is at our gate? Our electrician! Turns out his phone wasn't working, and he had spent the last 3 hours looking for our house. What a day!

He looked at the electricity. There was power in the breaker box. There was power to the junction box that was in our room, and there was power to the unit. I knew what this meant, likely the circuit board was fried, likely because of the overload on the electric system when he installed the splitter. We have a digital regulator and Denise said she saw it read 370 volts for a brief moment. 

We have a dear family who are neighbors to us, and visited us this very day after he diagnosed the a/c issue. The husband knew a guy who was good with a/c units. The next morning he came to repair it! He pulled out the circuit board and showed a relay and a transponder that were both fried. He tried to refabricate it, but could not make it work right. So they went to the market and got a replacement off an old unit and reinstalled it to ours. Hooray! The a/c now works! 

Well, it worked one night, Sunday. Just as we were going to bed Monday there was a power outage. After an hour and a half the power came on again, and after getting the kids settled again we finally went to bed. Then Denise told me the bad news, the a/c unit in our bedroom was not working. I walked into the living room and smelled the smell of an electric burn. I prayed it was no longer burning but was restless. Also I noticed one breaker was blown; it would no longer stay in the "on" position. 

I replaced that breaker the next morning and success! Our a/c unit runs once more. 

These a/cs make sleeping at night manageable. Our house is cement and seems to absorb heat. During the day it gets up to 110 degrees. Josh has a baby monitor with a digital tempersture guage, and we have never seen it below 86F. All that to say, we still sweat even when the a/c runs! 

Cabinet

We have 2 corner cabinets that rub on the handles when we open them. We had to push against one to open the other. A quick bang-bang with a hammer to a chisel and some sanding, and this is no longer a problem! 

We still have more repairs to do. We want another outside water barrel for storing water. We have some conduit for an underfround wire to replace. I need to replace the faucet in the sink. And we need to make some tables, all for general use around our home.

Thank you for your prayers for our family. We start language this week! Our next post will describe language learning and our nanny.

bienvenue chez nous! part 2

These are pictures from the inside of our house. The house is big, bigger than we need. There are 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. We have a big living room. There is a small kitchen with plumbing from a separate water barrel for when the water is off.

Abby and Josh's room

The kids' bathroom

There is also a guestbroom and laundry room.

And one great feature, we can walk on our roof. It is a great view of the neighborhood from there.

Thanks for your prayers! Continue to pray as this next week we will begin working with our house helper and also begin our language classes.

bienvenue chez nous! part 1

Welcome to our home! 

We have spent the better part of our first 2 weeks unpacking and setting up our home. We are starting to really like it!  There are some things to fix (next blog post), but praise God we are adjusting!

Abby and Josh love to play outside! We have our 2 turtles back, Rosie and Rambo. They are somewhat liking their new home. We will find them some more sand so they can burrow as they are natural at doing. We feed them cabbage and clean their water daily.

Josh and Abby love to swing! We are spending our afternoons sainging in the shade, playing in sand, and racing against a fast Abby Chip on her bike around the house.

Continued....

First week

Our first week in Niger! Oh what an adjustment it has been! Where oh where to begin?

We arrived on Saturday the 10th, and were greeted at our home by a friend and coworker who happened to bring us soup for our dinner. What a wonderful treat! We got all of our bags in our house, looked around briefly, and ate our supper before getting ready for bed. Abby adjusted her sleep schedule perfectly from day 1,  and slept like a baby the first night in her room. Denise and I unpacked every night from 9 until midnight or later. 

Sunday morning we were greeted by our wonderful utility companies with cuts! Both water and power were out at 7am

 No water and no power all day. Power returned around 8pm, water pressure came on around midnight. We weren't prepared so we simply had to go in our fridge even though there was no power (a no-no in hot season as things in the fridge spoil easily). 

Once again, we were bailed out by an amazing friend in our time of need. I had just gotten my phone set up with a local number and Denise's best friend called me to say they were beinging pizza for our family. Thank you God for truly amazing friends. Thank you God for knowing our need even when we fail to ask. 

We are in an area of town known for frequent power and water cuts. Other than the first day, the power has been pretty good! There has been the occasional outage, usually lasting no longer than an hour. But water for our first week was a challenge. We found we had a trickle of water at our hose pipe by the meter for most of the day. But we rarely had enough water pressure during the day to get any water to come out of any sinks inside our house. This is due to the heavy demand as everyone else in the neighborhood was also using water. We had enough water to wash dishes at midnight. We could take a shower around 1am. I had to do bucket baths my first 5 days. We filled every empty container we had available for washing hands, flushing toilets when necessary, and other essentials. We do have a cistern holding 55 gallons of water and use it for washing hands and dishes when we needed to. 

Let me also describe drinking water. We use a filter to clean our drinkable water. There is one plumbed to the house that we were going to rely on for our drinking water supply. But with no water pressure it didn't work. Our first night I stayed up until 230 am filling up the 12 1.5 liter containers we had used for drinking water that day!

Another blessing, when we first came to West Africa we packed as if we would live in the bush. One thing we packed for bush living was a katadyn filter that stands alone. By the first night I had found it and on day 2 we began to prepare it for use (they need charging when they are brand new). Now we have drinkable water throughout the day with no worry of running out! 

So we have spent the days mostly playing with the kids and adjusting to the heat. Abby started to have frequent nosebleeds. Denise made a saline spray and a teammate brought us a tube of vaseline so that we could make her nose more moist. Treating her nose with both of these have made her frequent nosebleeds much less frequent. She would have had 5 or more nosebleeds during the day her first 3 days. After day 3 maybe she has had 2 in the last week. Praise God we were able to address this issue.

Have we mentioned how hot it is here? Daily temps rise to about 110 or so. So keeping Josh hydrated has been a concern of ours. We discussed supplementing nursing with cool water in a baby bottle and have been doing that after feedings. Josh likes this and will usually even hold the bottle while he drinks. Abby likes flavored popsicles and I asked if there was a way Josh could get his own icicle. Turns out Denise has a teething popsicle net that will pop open and has room for a 1 inch cube of ice. Sucking on that has made Josh so happy! He seems to be doing much better with staying hydrated and having wet diapers again.

It has taken Josh longer to adjust to our new time zone. He liked going to bed at 2am ea h night of our first week. By day 7 he seemed to finally get on the right schedule. He is still waking up at night to feed. His sleep schedule seems to be getting better every day.

By day 5 we pretty much had our kitchen and clothes unpacked and set up. Abby has been finding toys and books from our time in Africa last year. Each day she finds something else and acts like it is Christmas! It has been fun to see and I  know has helped her with the adjusting. We have a swing and some of her outside toys setup so she can play the games she has always enjoyed playing. And she has been so good playing with Josh when we are occupied with our own tasks.

There was a family of cats that took shelter under our vehicle under our carport. We found them on day 1 and Abby loved holding the baby kittens (3 weeks old?). Mama cat moved her 3 babies the next day to keep her kittens from curious 4 yeal old giants who love to hold and pet her babies. It was probably wise as our vehicle was going to be a danger to them.

I am writing this on day 11. Today we felt like our house is mostly unpacked and functioning. We have our list of things to purchase and things to fix. But we are making great progress in settling in and adjusting to our new home!

Thank you for praying for us!

Traveling to Africa!

The day finally arrived. We had been anticipating our travel to Africa for many months. All the goodbyes to friends and family. All the last minute shopping. All the covid testing. All the packing. Abby had been counting down the day on her calendar. The day was finally here, we were finally ready. Can you be fully ready and prepared? 

Abby's calendar just over Josh's head

Friday morning we loaded up our luggage and set off for the airport. We had 9 totes and 3 suitcases as our checked baggage. Denise and i weighed each one. In weighing the last tote before traveling, I happened to take out 2 bottles of medicine and a piece of cloth fabric. The scale gained 3 ounces! I exclaimed to everyone in the house that I had broken the laws of physics! But in fact this made me nervous that our bags would be overweight.

Well, God hears and answers prayers. All but one of our bags were 49 pounds or heavier, yet not one was over our allotted weight!  The only checked bag weighing less than 49 pounds weighed 48 pounds. We were so happy to not have to repack any of our bags or totes. Denise did wonderful packing our luggage and I give her all the credit. It couldn't have been any better!

My mom and George took our totes with them to the airport. Denise's brother Steve surprised us by joining us for the evening before leaving, and saw us off at the airport as well. He then drove off with his newly purchased car that he bought from us.

The airplane rides were mostly uneventful. Denise was a champion mommy as always, sitting between both kids while I was separated from them, either by an aisle or by a row. I was there to watch kids during potty breaks, take kids to go to the bathroom, change diapers, hold hands and pray, and share stories, but Denise handled the kids for the majority of the time with all wisdom and grace.

Abby giving all the hugs

We like to explore during our layovers at airports. The airport in Atlanta was my highlight. We found a nice porche Panamera! Abby found a bookstore with some of her favorite titles-Daniel Tiger large story book being one. There were also many stuffed animals, knick knacks, and novels there. I am reminded of how much I liked knick knacks and stuffed animals when I was Abby's age. Denise and Abby found a very cool service animal relief area! Abby was so excited she had to show me, too. I had mentioned when we entered the gate area and saw signs for restaurants of my sudden Asian cuisine craving, and Denise found the perfect mouth watering sign while I watched Josh and luggage. Oh, and how could I forget that we got to ride a train and an elevator?!!

Mommy Abby snack

service animal relief station

bye Aunt Sum

train ride!

Paris to Africa was the hardest flight transition. When we deplaned we immediated checked the departure table to see our next gate assignment. One departure sign said our flight was at one terminal, but as we went that way we discovered  another sign pointing us back to the terminal we had just left from. At least we got to ride another train! We had to go through customs with very little layover time. They were odd in that they required us to use their ziploc bags for our liquids, required us to use large boxes to put our carry on luggage bags into, and wouldn't bother to refill the boxes when they ran out. We made it through customs 30 minutes after boarding for our flight began. We got in line and were tired, hungry, hot, and thirsty after carrying all the luggage and a tired Abby all through the airport. Denise had just enough time to fill water bottles before we boarded our flight. I was nausious on this flight and couldn't even look at food. 

I need to brag on Abby. Without her help we honestly could not have gotten all our bags boarded. We found that she could easily push my small tote that had 4 wheels. She loved pushing it down the ramp and through the aisles. She is always a big helper! She wore her mask very well for the duration of our travels! She was actually sad to learn she didn't have to wear her mask on the airplane from Paris to Africa. "But Daddy said I need to wear my mask on the plane!  I overheard and told her, "That's right, but we just learned you don't have to if you don't want to! That rule is for kiddos 6 and older." She was a champion throughout the whole travels. Thank you Abby Chip!

being a goof wearing Josh's hat.

I can't brag about Abby without also bragging about Josh. He was the best any 5 month old could be! People who saw me hold him during the flight even said they forgot he was on board. He was a very calm traveler. Great job, Josh!

Well, we made it. After getting off our last flight we got our stroller and made it to customs. Abby helped me find a bathroom for her (more escalators) and me, and we came back to help Denise fill out customs papers. We were last in line only to learn we didn't fill out the proper form. So we start over filling out the proper forms, getting our fingerprints scanned and our stamps of acceptance. 2 hours after landing we finally collect our luggage-all of it! We had 2 men who were overly excited to help us with our luggage load everything into the SUV and one of our coworkers drove us to our home.

Here we are! We knew it would be a big challenge to get here and to get settled. And we are surviving. One day at a time.