Fences May Make Good Neighbors

Imagine you are a farmer, so you plant some fields and maybe start a garden. Your neighbors down the road are ranchers. There are no fences, so their cattle are free to roam anywhere, including your fields and gardens, where they promptly eat whatever you've planted.
Now you've got an idea of one of the problems facing the tribes here. It's a day to day existence as far as food, made even harder by not being able to plant more due to the destruction of cattle and goats.
New Tribes, with the help of a supporting church, is going to try and fence in an entire village along with some of the fields, so that the cows can't get to the crops. Then more crops can be raised, food harvested, and the standard of living goes up. Ideas like this help the missionaries to make inroads into the village and earn the trust of the villagers.

Landuma Church Visit Sunday April 5, 2009

Today we had the pleasure of going to a local Landuma village for the regular Sunday service. It started with about an hour drive, picking up a few churchgoers on the way. Once we arrived and greeted some villagers, the church service began. It started with some singing. The first song was sung in French, then Susu and then Landuma. I think the remaining songs were sung in just Landuma. We had songbooks, so we could follow along. I learned that Isa is the Landuma name for Jesus. After the worship time, we had a time of prayer requests and then prayer. This reminded me of our Tuesday nite prayer services back home. After the prayers were finished, we had a lesson from the New Testament about the power of the Holy Spirit. The lesson was given in Landuma, but the missionary giving the lesson gave us the scripture references in English, so we could kind of follow along. At the conclusion of the service, one of the local believers invited us to stay for lunch, so we waited for awhile. During this time, another man brought up an issue he wanted to bring before the church, so that was discussed for some time. We took that time to walk to the missionaries house nearby and get a cold glass of water.
Back for lunch, we had our first meal of rice and sauce, a typical Guinean meal. The rice was put in a large bowl in the middle of a group. Then the sauce was added along with a few fish. We each had our own spoon that we used to reach in and gets bites to eat. This also gave us some time to talk with the missionaries about some of their work in the village. More on that later. Another hour ride and we were back home.

Shepherd's Pie Dinner Party

While in Midland, Kelsey started hosting weekly dinners for whoever (whomever?) wanted to come. The tradition has continued, so Wed nite found us have a shepherd's pie dinner out on the porch with LaBelle, Mama, Isa, and Aber, along with Kelsey and the rents. (note: shepherd's pie is not some strange Guinean dish, it's a combination of mashed potatoes, ground beef, and vegetables. ) A couple advantages to eating on the porch are: a bit of a cool breeze and Shadow the local dog comes by to eat the stuff that falls on the ground.

HBCS Students: Where are your comments?

Use the comment link to post comments. You can use the post anonymously option. If you include your name and last initial, you may even get some extra credit!
NEWS FLASH: I just learned that yesterday's high temp was 115 degrees in the sun but a cool 106 degrees in the shade. Here, I'll share some of the heat with you. Just hold your hands close to the computer. I'd appreciate it if someone could send a bit of cool back.

Day 4: The Incredible H2O Journey

So, since I miss asking my students questions, I've got another problem for you to figure out. Can you guess the correct order of the pictures to show the path of water to the drinking cup?
Is it:

1. A B C D E F G H
2. H G F E D C B A
3. A B G H 3 C D 4
4. C B A H F G E D

A free glass of water to all of you who chose 4 for your answer. Here's the route. It's pumped into a tank on the ground (c). From there it's pumped up to the water tower (b). Next gravity brings it to the faucet (a). At this point, though, it's not ready to drink, so a container (h) is used to take water from the faucet to the top of the filter (f). Once the water is filtered, it ends up in G. That pail has a spigot on it, so the water can be emptied into the red cooler (e). That cooler usually has a bottle of ice in it, so the water gets cooled. From there it goes to my cup (d). I'm very grateful for a cool cup of water these days.
The 2nd photo shows a local village well. I estimate that it's about 25 feet down to the surface of the water. A rope with a bucket attached it dropped down into the well to get the water. I guess I'll stick with option #4.

Day 3.78 My New Job otherwise known as Making Tortillas

We're outside on Kelsey's porch area. Fairly shaded with a bit of breeze. Can you match the pictures with the tortillas making process? 1. LaBelle and Mama kneading the dough. 2. Separating the dough into 82 balls of dough. LaBelle is not too sure about my being involved in the process (probably a combination of my being a man and this isn't typical man's work - and just watching me and wondering if I know what I'm doing - Since I've never made tortillas before, I know very little about what I'm doing) 3. Gayl rolling out one of the balls of dough into a tortillas shape. 4. LaBelle and Mama cooking the dough on the hibachi.
Overall it took about 3 hours from start to finish to make 82 tortillas. They sell for 10 cents a piece to the missionary families. They had put in their orders ahead of time. That means a gross of $8.20. Take away 1/2 of that for expenses and you've got $4.10. That equals about $.70 per hour for LaBelle and Mama for their 3 hours work. Actually that's a pretty good wage for Guineans in the area. Kelsey is trying to encourage the 2 girls to become more self-sufficient. This is a big step for them to earn some money for themselves. Kelsey helps them to "bank" some of the money, so they don't spend it all at once. Like alot of us, they want to spend whatever they have without regard to the future, so the "banking" helps them to put some aside.
So, how did you do? Were you able to match the pictures with the descriptions. Winners may receive a free tortillas, unless I eat them all first!

Day 3.47: Kelsey's New Shirt