Dear Friends,
Another month is gone. Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how fathomless his ways!
I give him all the glory for what he is doing here in Africa.
The first part of May I spent a day with Kadiatou, one of our language nurturers, at her home. I wanted to learn how she makes the coconut strips she has brought to the team flat several times. She met me at the team flat and we walked about 3-4 city blocks to get a sotrama (bus like local transportation) to go to the sugu (market).
When we got to the sugu, we walked a good distance into it to find the man who sold coconuts. He chopped the outer shell off using a big knife, holding the coconut in his left hand and swinging the knife with his right hand. (See YouTube video)
He was pretty good at it but I wondered how he did that without cutting his hand. I'm sure I would have cut mine.
Then he peeled the brown skin off the coconut.
(I'm sorry I can't get the pictures to post.)
Cut it open and drained out the milk. Then he used the peeler to slice thin strips about 2" long.
After doing all five coconuts we had about half a bucket full.
We got some other things from the market and then walked across the street to a boutique where Kadiatou's sister, Mariam, was. This boutique sold beauty products. Mariam showed me the glue on nails they had there. I told her I'd like some, so she glued red nails on my hands. It was quite interesting to watch her. It was like a backward French manicure. The color was on the end of the nail. They looked nice. But there was a lot of glue left under the nail and it was rough. If anything would get under my nail, I couldn't clean it out. I would have to use a scrub brush or tooth brush to get the dirt out. About two days later, I cut them shorter. (I have a hard time with long nails) and then the next weekend I soaked them in polish remover and took them all off. Glad to have my regular nails back again.
After finishing with my nails, Kadiatou and I got a taxi to her house. We went into a compound area and then back to a two room building that was her house. She and her husband and 3 children live there. There is a bed in each room. A television in the first room. And the kitchen is outside. She had two little charcoal stoves on which she would put her pots for cooking.
First she put a mat out on the ground in the sun, and a piece of cloth on that. She washed the coconut good and then spread it out on the cloth to dry in the sun.
Then she gave me a chair to sit on and got some water for me. She had 3 small bags of ice that she took out of the bags and put in a small cooler. Then she got a cup full of water from their pot of water in the house and put it in the cooler. She sloshed it around to get the water cold and poured it into a cup for me. It was so good. Of course the cup is a community cup and everyone uses the same cup.
Then she started cooking. She had two charcoal cookers (fruna) that she cooks on. Here is a picture of a small one. This one is the size the men use to make tea with. The women cook on much bigger ones.
She put some red oil in one pot and put it on the hot charcoal. She cut up the very fatty beef and put it in the oil, along with some salt, maybe a teaspoonful. She cut up 2 small tomatoes to put in with the beef.
Then she peeled about 7 garlic cloves, a bunch of celery leaves, and a green pepper and put it in a wooden bowl and handed me a mallet. It's kind of like a mortar and pestle. I pound this until it became a paste. And she added it to the meat.
Next she put the rice in a large bowl and inspected it carefully taking out hints that shouldn't be there. I'm not sure what she was looking for, but she would pick something out and throw it on the ground. When it was cleaned she washed it and put it in a strainer over boiling water on the other charcoal stove. After steaming it for awhile she put it in the water and cooked it for awhile.
While the rice was cooking, she added several kinds of seasonings to the meat mixture and okra cut into small pieces. I can't remember how long it all cooked.
When it was ready to eat, we all went inside her house. I sat on the bed while they sat on the floor. There was one bowl of rice which she put some of the meat okra sauce on it. They brought me a bowl of water to wash my hands. Everyone else washed after I did. They eat with their right hand, scooping up the food and forming it into a oblong ball and put it into their mouth. Kadiatou offered me a spoon and I accepted it. I have eaten with my hand, but I really prefer a utensil. I would have never asked for it, but since she offered, I accepted.
When we had finished the rice dish, she put some pieces of meat in the bowl for everyone. It was like she saved the best till last. But I had a hard time chewing up the meat. It was so grizzly. I didn't want to be disrespectful, so I just kept it in my mouth until no one was looking and I spit it into my hand. Then what to do with it? I could throw it on the ground, but they would know I didn't eat it. I finally remembered I had a small Baggie in my purse and I discreetly put it in there. I threw it away after I came home.
After eating, it was time to finish the coconut. She put some water in a large pot, maybe 1 cup, and put it on the charcoal. When it was boiling she added about 1 cup of sugar to it and stirred it until it became a syrup. Then she brought the dried coconut over and put it in the pot and stirred it to coat it good with the syrup. She kept stirring and cooking it until it actually turned a little brown. It became very dry. Then she put it on a flat pan for it to cool. It was finished.
I helped Kadiatou wash up the dishes. She washed them in a big basin on the ground in soapy water. She had a bucket with clean water that she rinsed the soap off the dishes and then put them on a chest to dry. I started rinsing them for her and putting them on the chest.
Kadiatou has three children. Fatoumata - 11 years old. Ami - 8 years old. And Baru - 4 years old. Ami and Baru were there all day along with other children playing with them. Fatoumata came home from school about mid day and then when back again after lunch.
I wanted to get a picture of the family, but didn't know Fatoumata was leaving again. She had to go back to school. So she was gone when I took these pictures.
This is Baru. He was taking my picture with his mom's phone, so I took one of him.
This is Kadiatou and her two children on her right, Ami and Baru. The other two are friends. You can see the finished coconut in the pan on the chair. This is the kitchen, and you can see the ramp going up to the first of two rooms. Amazing, they have a TV on the wall in that room. And it worked. The kids watched it some.
I played a little "ring around the rosies" with the kids that were there. They enjoyed that.
Then it was time for me to go home. I told her I needed to go home and she called a taxi for me. While we were waiting, her daughter, Ami, started to take a bath. She had brought a bucket of water out into the courtyard, along with a small bucket of soapy water and a cloth and started washing herself. She only had on her panties. I thought, how is she going to wash her back? I can do that. So I took the cloth and washed her back. Then I rinsed it off for her.
Baru saw this and decided he needed a bath too. He stripped down to his birthday suit and I washed him completely and rinsed him off. That was fun for me to act like Nana and they seemed to like it.
When the taxi came I went home after hugging everyone goodbye. It was a great day.
Going into their homes is how we can get to know them well enough to be able to share Jesus with them. Pray that God will soften their hearts to hear about Jesus who loves them so much he died for them.
Thank you for your prayers and support. I love you all so much.
Now may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
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