Togg nanu ceebujen

Today was a crazy awesome Senegal day. We cooked ceebujen. Well mostly we watched, but we paid close attention and cut veggies and picked through rice and whatnot. I took a million pictures of that, and also handed the paparazzi status over now and then, which would explain the many pictures of me. We ate until we were absolutely stuffed, and then, it was attaya time. We thought we were getting an attaya lesson, but instead we were given money, told what to buy, and left to ourselves. Since Angeline and I have made it before, we basically just taught everyone else. 350 CFA, or about $o.75 US bought two rounds of attaya for the five of us, which is the cost of a shot of espresso at Starbucks. We had a great time making attaya together, and even sang Beloit songs and pledged to make attaya together at school. It's really easy, it just takes a long time.

Then Addie, Angeline, and I went to the market. It was so calm - definitely the best experience so far. I bought 6 meters of crazy bright fabric for 6,000 CFA ($12) and a yellow veil for 1,500 ($3). The veil was some tough bargaining; he tried for 4,500, but I was stubborn and won out. I hit up that tailor on the way home, where I sketched out a dress, a skirt, and a pair of paints. I'm so excited! To have these three pieces made perfectly for my body is costing me just 5,000 ($10). Doudou charges me less, I think, because I come hang out with him sometimes.

While I was at the tailor's, Djibi called and said a bunch of people were still at the beach drinking attaya and watching the sun set. I showed him my attaya skills, and everyone was impressed. I was also wearing my tunic and fulaar and all day people told me how pretty and African I looked.

To top it all of, I was having a brief conversation in Wolof with a man who asked me how many years I'd been in Senegal. When I said two months, he said, "Two months! And you speak Wolof?!" I told him I thought I only spoke a little, but he said I was doing well" That made me feel really great.

So life is beautiful.

Everything got cooked in this one pot!

Beloit girls around the bowl - 9 weeks in Senegal yo!

Song of the Day

And I hope it goes without saying that I'm still listening to Kari Jobe, even though this isn't about her.

Hillsong, as many of us know, has put out about a bazillion albums over the years, and every time a new one comes out I think, "wow, this is even better than the last one". I got really stuck on God is Able, and before that, A Beautiful Exchange. My "desert island" pick is The I Heart Love Revolution because it has a lot of really classic contemporary (not an oxymoron, or is it?) worship songs. But I've realized I really like This Is Our God. I told the itunes genius to make me a playlist off of Though I'm Not Worthy by Kari Jobe, but the song I wanted to keep listening turned out to be He is Lord off of Hillsong's 17th album, released in 2008.

Oh blessed lamb once slain
Will reign forever more
His hands once bound now save
Our God will never fail

He is Lord
He is Lord
Sings my soul
He is Lord
And He lives
Yes He lives
I'm alive 'cause Jesus lives

'Tis at the cross of Christ
Where earth and heaven meet
Where sin is overcome
To God the victory

And now
Let the earth resound with praise
For our Saviour God He reigns
He is high and lifted up
Arise
For the King of glory waits

He is coming back again


And while that's a literal song, there are a few other songs in my heart right now:

"The gospel is not a heavenly demand of what we must do to be saved; it is a heavenly declaration of what God has done to save us" John Piper

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
² sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
³ Psalm 66:1
⁴

Dieu, Tu es tellement fidèle. Parmi toute ma vie, Tu avais été mon aide, mon secours, mon espoir, et ma paix. Avant que je sois née, Tu as envoyé Ton Fils, parfait et pur, pour m’amener près de Toi. Je n’y pouvais pas aller moi-même, parce que Tu es juste et mes péchés étaient inacceptable to Toi et Ta loi. Mais grâce à Jésus, la loi est abolit, et je peux m’asseoir près de Toi. Mon Seigneur, L’Eternel, Tu es bon, mon Dieu, Tu es toujours bon. Je ne pourrais jamais comprendre Ta magnificence, Ta grandeur, Ton amour, Ta fidélité, Ta grâce, ou la raison que Tu as choisi de donner toute à moi. C’est un image du Ta bonté, et pour ca je Te remercie de maintenant jusque toujours. .Tu seras toujours mon Dieu, mon Seigneur. Au nom de Jésus, Amen.

Dafa Tang (It's Hot)

I have an amazing neighbor of a mystery age (people age really well here. our Islam teacher looks 35 at the most and is 53; this woman is probably in her 50s or 60s) who greets me every time she sees me, and loves asking about my different friends, my school work - everything, and all in Wolof of course. She's helped me learn and practice a lot of different phrases.

The other day, she told me "Kate, dafa tang", and I thought she was implying that it must be hot for me because I'm not used to African summer. So I tried to play it cool and said, "Waaw, tuuti" (yes, a little). She looked at me seriously and said, "Kate, c'est pas tuuti. Dafa tang torop" It's funny because I really don't think it's terribly hot. It's certainly getting warmer, but I'm not dying yet. Then today she saw me and said, "Oooooh sama waay dafa tang, dafa tang torop" (My friend, it's hot, it's too hot) and I just agreed.

I wonder what she'll say once it's consistently in the 100s!

Kari Jobe for the Win

Djibi, my Senegalese friend invited me over for a chat today. We talk politics, religion, culture, life, music...my favorite thing he said today was actually in relation to the fact that yesterday was International Women's Day: "Every day should women's day"

Awhile back he'd asked me if I had a favorite singer, to which I naturally said Kari Jobe despite the fact I knew he'd never heard of her before. Today, he asked me when I was going to show him one of her songs, and since I had my computer with me I showed him this video:

He was really into it, and said it touched his heart, even though he didn't understand it. That's just what God does through Kari :)

Thinking Theology Thinking Thoughts

Baax na. I realized after I delved into the issue of "do Muslims and Christians worship the same God" last night, that I miss discussing theology. My pastor and I loved having these conversations on a weekly basis, and before that became regular, my IV staff worker Josh went to the tough spots with me and encouraged theological thinking.

I didn't even start thinking theologically until college really, and that's when I learned that my next subject was even an issue. Original sin. Today in Islam Babaccar (our prof) mentioned casually that a very young child didn't have sin yet. So I clarified and asked, "So Islam doesn't have a doctrine of original sin?", and confirmed my thought - this doctrine does not exist. This got me thinking, because before I ever read Piper, Stott, MacArthur, Augustine, Sturgeon, Edwards, Keller, Chesterton, Studd, and the likes, I read Romans. Specifically, Romans 5:12-21

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I have never been able to understand the argument against original sin (if someone wants to try and lay it out for me, that would be great). This passage lays things out pretty clearly: we are born of Adam, Adam sinned, thus we are all sinners. I also think that fact is what makes the other point here so great. Adam brought us death; his one sin brought sin abounding into our lives. But Jesus, in His righteousness, made us righteous in Him. He has brought life, and grace,in abundance (2 Corinthians 9:8, John 10:10). If we understand our depravity in the line of Adam, only then are we able to fully understand the good news that is the true Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

On a lighter note...I saw a beautiful full moon in the sky tonight, and teared up at the display of the majesty of Dieu, creator and ultimate artist.

"Sometimes only mentioning the name of Christ or an attribute of God will cause my heart to burn within me...Suddenly God appears glorious to me. When I enjoy this sweetness it seems to carry me outside of myself. I cannot bring myself even to take my eye from this Glorious Object" Jonathan Edwards.

"When the moon climbs high before each kiss goodnight, You are good"

Might have choreographed my own lyrical dance to this song on the roof of our school today.

Street Eats

I love Senegalese hamburgers. There's a little sandwhich stand about halfway between work and school, and I love that place. For about $2, you can grab a filling tasty burger.

I love that you get to watch the whole process: ground beef is spooned onto the grill, while a bun is hollowed out to allow for more butter. The bun is put on the grill while an egg is cracked and set to cooking. Then a mound of fries gets piled on the bun, along with ketchup, lettuce, and tomato. Cheese is grated onto the burger, and it all gets stacked together, and wrapped up.

Today, in true Senegalese style, the woman did not have change for my bill, and just walked around asking other people if they did. A few minutes later, we had success.

This picture isn't from today, and the number 11 is a BCXC thing, but it's a good look at the burger.

Neex na lool!

Why Yes -

I am a religious studies major. This is going to be my way of discussing a number of things related to Islam/Christianity/life.

First off, we have the coranic schools, which I mentioned briefly yesterday. A religious education means that one leaves his family, lives with and studies under a marabout (religious leader, teacher; students are called talibes), and memorizes the Khoran (for which there are a number of different spellings, but this is the one our Islam professor uses most often). They do not, however, learn to read Arabic or what the text means, it's pure rote memorization. If they continue on, they will learn these things, but most do not. One aspect of this religious education is dependence on God. No matter how wealthy their families are, they are made to beg in the street for money in order to buy food for the day, or food itself. It really breaks my heart to see all these little boys out in the street like that, because it's not their choice. I give small change just about every day, and I'm glad to be able to do it, but I also know that it's just one day, and one or two boys. Just because it's a little good doesn't mean we shouldn't do it right?

Next, we have fasting. It's Lent, so it's something on my mind. I'm fasting from chocolate this year, which I realized had become a comfort food of mine. So far, it's messed with daily habits, but I like that because it reminds me why I'm doing it. It inspired me to do research on fasting for my Islam class, because they have the month of Ramadan. I've really enjoyed the articles I've been reading, and even just talking to my host family about it.

In class today, we talked about the Islamic version of sainthood. From what I understand, it's an experience of God in some way, like a dream or a vision. It sounded to me more akin to the baptism of the Holy Spirit than what we in the US would think of as sainthood. Our prof said that he'd had a vision of Jesus, which I've read in books on evangelism is pretty common. I always pray for Jesus to reveal Himself to non believers...interesting.

Last night, when my friend said goodnight to me, instead of the normal "pass the night in peace, may the angels protect you", he said, "may the angles forsake me to protect you". I wanted to ask more about that in class today, but didn't get the chance. Next time.

When I tell Mamy I'm not coming home for lunch, and will see her in the evening, she is very serious about saying inshallah (God willing). Today, she also gave me a lecture on being very careful with the young men, because most of them just want money or to go to the US. She told me maybe 1 in 10 were good, which she then changed to a 1/2. She said she'd pray that my friend was the good one.

Today, I found it interesting that our prof said Jesus was divine, but it was more so in relation to Mary than in Him actually being God. I see why Muslims and Catholics can live together so well here.

Our prof often says he likes the Protestants because they lobbied for language translations of the Bible, services held in not Latin, and music - "I love that Gospel music"

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I'm putting a warning on this last segment. Some people may be offended by this, but it's coming from what I know and believe about the Lord. I am not a pastor - I have not spent years studying these things, and I do not claim that I have all the answers. For the sake of simplicity, I included just one reference; please know that there are more for each point brought up. Now, if you still want to read it, please continue.

Our Islam professor said once in passing that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. I disagree, because of the doctrine of the Trinity. The Christian God is of three essences: Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These essences are worshiped as one unique God, so without the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, I don't think we can say that we worship the same God. Not to mention that the attributes of Allah and the attributes of Yahweh are very different. Many of the names of Allah are more suited to the Christian view of Satan: capable of evil (God is incapable of evil, James 1:13), liar (God does not lie, Numbers 23:19), deceiver (that's Satan - Revelation 12:9), humiliator (God works for our benefit, Romans 8:28), destroyer (God destroys the wicked only 1 Corinthians 3:17), bringer of death (Satan again, Revelation 20), harmer (God does not work for our harm, Jeremiah 29:11), creator of the harmful (God looked at what He made, and said it was GOOD, Genesis 1), and the proud one (God is love, 1 John 4:8. Love is not proud, 1 Corinthians 13:4). There are more names, more attributes, and far more reasons than I have the expertise to understand and explain, but I think you get the idea. And while I don't claim to be a theological expert, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. If you're interested, check out this book review as well. I don't usually suggest listening to others' reviews of books before reading it, especially theological ones, but in this case, the reviewer makes some strong, biblical arguments, so I think it's worth our time.

I think that's about it for now. Jamm ag jamm