Sorry for our absence from the blog! We've both been ill (again) and that knocked out all of our energy, hence the lack of communication...
Anyway, we're back on our feet now and wanted to share a few little things that happened in the last couple of weeks.
Last Friday, Denise and Maman Jean came round to make the unleavened bread for our Communion service. It was the first time they had made it on their own (Elmire taught them how to do it once a few weeks earlier) and it took several attempts to get it right. Cooking bread on a charcoal fire is not straight forward! They persevered for a few hours and finally produced the goods (which I forgot to take a picture of!).
Here they are in action :
And their mischievous helper, petit Jean :
In the evening, we had an unusual sky... It felt somehow bigger than usual and clearer... As we were on the bike going to church, I tried to describe to Etienne how it seemed different, more UK-like, and he suggested that the dust that usually fills the air seemed to have disappeared. It's amazing how accustomed we have become to a dust-filled environment! If we keep going on about how clean the air seems when we return, please forgive us! Here's the beautiful Friday sunset:
After church, everyone stayed behind so we could phone Pastor Badé in America. There was a real party atmosphere - everyone was so excited to be reconnecting with Pastor and they especially enjoyed making jokes about the 'cold' weather over there ;-)
On Sunday, Etienne woke up still feeling unwell (he'd had really bad diarrhoea since Thursday), and we were in the middle of a conversation when suddenly he jumped out of bed and vomited all over the corridor floor... I can't begin to explain what the smell was like, but I thank God for two things: 1) that He gave me the strength to clean it up, and 2) that the floors here are covered in tiles rather than carpet!! Poor Etienne then dragged himself to the toilet where he hurled several more times. It was straight to the clinic after that, one week after we'd been there for my sickness. They'd given me antibiotics for a chest infection and iron tablets for my anaemia (no wonder I was feeling so exhausted). With Etienne's symptoms, they assumed that he had an intestinal infection, so gave him a couple of injections as well as some antibiotics and something else (not sure what!). So here's what our breakfasts looked like over the past week:
Life in this country is really hard sometimes! But mangoes never fail to cheer us up :-)
This week has seen some serious progression of the church building, including the re-building of the wall that fell!
It's a shame we won't be here to see the building to completion but we can always come back and visit in the future.
Exactly four weeks from today, we will be landing at Heathrow airport!!! :-D :-D :-D
Anyway, we're back on our feet now and wanted to share a few little things that happened in the last couple of weeks.
Last Friday, Denise and Maman Jean came round to make the unleavened bread for our Communion service. It was the first time they had made it on their own (Elmire taught them how to do it once a few weeks earlier) and it took several attempts to get it right. Cooking bread on a charcoal fire is not straight forward! They persevered for a few hours and finally produced the goods (which I forgot to take a picture of!).
Here they are in action :
And their mischievous helper, petit Jean :
In the evening, we had an unusual sky... It felt somehow bigger than usual and clearer... As we were on the bike going to church, I tried to describe to Etienne how it seemed different, more UK-like, and he suggested that the dust that usually fills the air seemed to have disappeared. It's amazing how accustomed we have become to a dust-filled environment! If we keep going on about how clean the air seems when we return, please forgive us! Here's the beautiful Friday sunset:
After church, everyone stayed behind so we could phone Pastor Badé in America. There was a real party atmosphere - everyone was so excited to be reconnecting with Pastor and they especially enjoyed making jokes about the 'cold' weather over there ;-)
On Sunday, Etienne woke up still feeling unwell (he'd had really bad diarrhoea since Thursday), and we were in the middle of a conversation when suddenly he jumped out of bed and vomited all over the corridor floor... I can't begin to explain what the smell was like, but I thank God for two things: 1) that He gave me the strength to clean it up, and 2) that the floors here are covered in tiles rather than carpet!! Poor Etienne then dragged himself to the toilet where he hurled several more times. It was straight to the clinic after that, one week after we'd been there for my sickness. They'd given me antibiotics for a chest infection and iron tablets for my anaemia (no wonder I was feeling so exhausted). With Etienne's symptoms, they assumed that he had an intestinal infection, so gave him a couple of injections as well as some antibiotics and something else (not sure what!). So here's what our breakfasts looked like over the past week:
Life in this country is really hard sometimes! But mangoes never fail to cheer us up :-)
This week has seen some serious progression of the church building, including the re-building of the wall that fell!
It's a shame we won't be here to see the building to completion but we can always come back and visit in the future.
Exactly four weeks from today, we will be landing at Heathrow airport!!! :-D :-D :-D
