November

Beautiful Boundiali from the small mountain

On Wednesday, twelve, very tired, white (but much tanner) people cried and laughed and held each other tightly. The first three weeks in the village were rough for my team. They were not very happy weeks, but that doesn’t mean they were bad weeks. Without being able to take every one of you here to see, the best I can describe it is very different and very difficult.

Many of the elements of western life that bring comfort or joy are absent in the Ivorian village. In America, I have a way that I sleep, eat, use the bathroom, and talk that I am used too. But I found in the village, that often I am lying on my straw mattress at 2:00 am wondering why there is a party outside my window and if I’ll be tired when I wake up in the dark around 5:40 to start work. Breakfast will most be likely be left over rice and sauce or cabato (a dish made from corn and water that tastes like tofu). The toilet is four walls with a hole in the ground. And if any of the previously described things happens to be stressful, have fun trying to explain that to your sister who only speaks Senoufo or your mom who’s never seen a washing machine.

Upon arriving in our villages, it is custom here for each of us to be given a new name in whatever is the maternal language of our family. So on my first morning, after crying a good portion of the night, I was informed that the wife of my dad’s older brother, who had been living with my family, had given birth last night to a girl. Therefore, my dad gave me the name Nibondjéwin which means good stranger because I had brought “bonheur” or goodness/joy to the family. There is another girl on my team who received Nèrigèsoho which means the union of two families and two churches.

Our lives here are strange and hard, but we live alongside our families and churches here, and at the end of the year none of us will be the same. The same night I cried because I felt alone, my aunt probably shed a few tears in pain. We are so different and yet so similar. It baffles me the ways that our lives intertwine and affect each other. Through all the difficulties and discomforts God always reigns and he is working here. I know that I have learned a lot, and it is my prayer that God is using me to spread his kingdom as well.

 Love Katie

This is my church during Senoufo service. There are approximately 200 people who regularly
come on Sundays to the Senoufo service and 100 for the french service.

Prayer Requests

-          Chrissy and I will start a girl’s bible study that meets every Sunday evening in January. This will be the first girl’s bible study the church has ever had in Boundiali (they’ve had one woman’s study) so please pray that many girls will come and pray for Chrissy’s and my ability to communicate in French.

-          The pastor here (my host dad) shared with me that as the leader of a congregation of 300, not to mention a family of eight he often feels very discouraged. The pastoral job is one of the lowest paying in Cote d’Ivoire (My family lives on $3 a day and the food from their fields). Although, he said God always is faithful I want to pray that others in the church will rise up to take responsibility as well. 

My room

My 2 year old sister Abigaël who is always eating. She is one of my 6 siblings.