La religion dans la famille (religion in the family)

I love getting to do a homestay. Love.

Being a religious studies major, many things fascinate me. The biggest at home is that the children (13, 20, 25+?) all have to be told, usually several times to pray. It doesn't seem like they don't want to, more that's it's not of personal importance. In the US, it's reversed. Young children are reminded to pray, and by the teens (if not sooner), kids usually choose for themselves, and assuming they choose to follow a religion, they dictate their own prayer life. Maybe it's the element of choice. People here don't stop being Muslim the way people in other places stop being Christian, etc.

I know for me, the day I made that personal commitment to Jesus, I wanted to spend time with Him. It's of utmost importance to me, so it's interesting to see religion as more of a routine. That's not to say beliefs are not sincere; it has more to say about the characters of the Christian God and Allah.

I'm proud to serve the God of deep, pure sacrificial love.

Ba bennen yoon (until next time)

(Ps. Every day English becomes less natural. My journals are almost entirely French. Today, there was more Wolof than English! So, what I'm saying is, bear with me. Things might get interesting)

Nit nitay garabam (a person is another person's remedy)

This phrase expresses the communal nature in Senegal. It's why it's important to greet everyone, not just the ones you know. It's the reason there are no public restrooms; you can just walk in to anyone's home. People spend time together here.

This is a lesson I believe God has been teaching me over the past year or so. I talked not long ago about learning to really enjoy time spent together with others. It says in Genesis that "it is not good for man to be alone". And although most Senegalese people are Muslim, I'm sure that's one thing from the Bible that they can certainly agree with.

It reminds me of a phrase from South Africa: a person is a person through other people. I spent nearly an hour talking about friends and family with my host sister (6). The concept of friend isn't really used so much when you live with people, like I live with my friends at school. So as I pointed out pictures, I said they were brothers and sisters. She said, "Tu as une grande famille. C'est bon" (you have a big family. That's good).

To be alone is a miserable thing here. It can be hard for the toubabs to understand, but it's a way of life.

Mangi Fii Rekk

One of the other girls from my school said she was feeling a bit homesick. I tried to think if there were anything that I'd been missing-food, luxuries, people. And I really hadn't been having those feelings for anything at all. Sure, I like those things and people back home and it will be nice to play my guitar and drive around with my sister, but right now, I must borrow a phrase from the Senegalese: mangi fii rekk.

It means "I'm here only". In Senegal, it is important to greet everyone you know (and often people you don't know too). Not greeting someone is basically they don't have worth; they are an object (you wouldn't greet a bottle of water!) Mangi fii rekk is the response to the equivalent of "how's it going?" It means that you are taking that moment to spend time with them. Time spent together is highly valued here; upon meeting my host family, I put my things in my room and joined them (I have 3 sisters who live in the home. Amy works full time and is around 25 or 30; Zainab is a student my age (she's a granddaughter), and Assy is 13 (granddaughter). Tonight, my mom's (also Assy) married daughter, Aida came to visit. It was very fun to see the family in action.

Back to the point: in embracing Senegalese culture, it is impossible to be homesick, because we are only here. As Christians, with every place on earth that we find ourselves, we know that this is not our final home. It gives us the freedom to be fully there, wherever we are.

PS God has been teaching me so much already it's blowing my mind. The verses and insights I get are just incredible! I will have to expand more at some point.

On Parle Quelle Langue? (What language are we speaking?)

Today, the rest of the Beloit crew (4 other girls) arrived, as well as a group from Franklin College. The FC people are only here for 2 weeks, and it's already clear we have different preparations and expectations. For example, none of them speak French, while for us, proficiency was a requirement to go on the program.

It's amazing the rate at which people can move between French and Wolof, and even the occasional English words. We all discussed how fascinating it is. People will even ask a question in one language and the response will be in another! I found myself doing the same in my journal, writing mostly in French, switching to English, throwing in the Wolof phrases. It's just a part of life here.

We went on a bit of a tour of downtown Dakar, leaving us anxious to start our "real" lives here. We're moving to host families tomorrow night, and I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited.

And the accompanying verses:
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:


“ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:


“ Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Revelation 5:11-13

Bed Nets and Jet Lag

I'm very spoiled right now with constant internet. This may change once I move in with my host family.

A friend of mine who travels overseas a lot said that if I could stay awake until nighttime, jet lag would be a non-issue. Easier said than done. I was given a lot of time to rest yesterday, and though I wouldn't feel tired, the more I laid down the less I wanted to get up. I was also fed a lot of really good food. And yes, somehow I did make it until about 9pm. That's very early, especially here, but I really hadn't slept and I wanted to be functional when the other students got here.

Getting the mosquito net situated was interesting. For some reason I had difficulty spreading it out in way that would be comfortable to lay under...not as simple as you might think. I found it a little challenging to fall asleep, even though I was so tired, because of the net and the noise outside my window. The mosque is not far from my building and there was a lot of singing/chanting last night. Early this morning, I heard the call to prayer. I wrote a lot in my journal yesterday about wanting to meet other Christians and hear their stories.

I got this verse this morning:
Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Ezekiel 3:8

Man Dama Toubab (I'm a foreigner)

I still haven't slept since...well I don't really know when, so bear with me here.

Stepping off the plane was incredible. It honestly took my breath away, realizing how faithful God has been every step of the way. I could smell the ocean, and wow was that perfect. I made it through immigration/baggage/money changing/customs/finding my ride in a blend of English, French, and Wolof. I was given some time to rest, and I discovered that I could get on the internet. I sent messages to friends, and then just went to God in prayer.

I read things in the Bible like Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven (Lamentations 3:41) and in my French Bible, I read from Psalm 139, You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me (verses 2-3, 5). The verses from Psalm 139 are some of my favorite traveling verses. Some translations even say "You know my travels and my rest"

And when we took a taxi carrying water "home", and children pointed me out, calling me toubab, I started thinking. Without Jesus, we do not belong in God's kingdom. We are the outsiders, the foreigners, the ones who do not deserve to be there and don't even speak the language. But what Christ did was unite the world. No more are we strangers; we are friends, even family.

In my head, this all fits together somehow.

Anyway, I haven't really taken pictures yet, but I took one of the room I'm staying in right now. That door is to a private bathroom. There's also a t.v. (which I haven't turned on), a small refrigerator (which people keep giving me liters of water to put in it). I laughed because the mosquito net looks just like the princess canopy I always wanted :) Just 15 years too late.

In His Hands

On Friday morning, around 8am, I'll be heading to the airport to embark on an incredible journey. A part of me is still in awe. The other is surprised and my own wonder. I've been planning this for over a year, when I started filling out my application for the program. Yes, despite the fact that I've been talking about Senegal for this long, it didn't feel real until recently. There were bursts of excitement at getting approved and buying plane tickets and learning Wolof, sure.

It was last week, though, when I picked up my anti-malaria pills that it all started to sink in. And all week I've woken up in the morning thinking, "I am going to be on the other side of the world in 6...5...4... days" And although this has bred some tremendous excitement, it's also fostered nerves.

So when a friend called to see if it would be a good time to have the gov team pray for me, I eagerly accepted. It reassured my comfort not only in the Lord's presence and provision, but in His plan. It just makes me so excited to be a part of it.

Just wanted to share this verse that I read that I think goes along with all my feelings quite well:

"For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the LORD. Jeremiah 39:18

I will trust Him