(Here's the new team, around the table: Meredith, Stephanie and Tim Hickman, Tim, Steve and Audra Bach)
Sunday
We went to church at Primier Comprement. This is where Pastor Jacob and his family have been for the past 9 years. Pastor Jacob basically built the church up from nothing, and now he’s been transferred to another church in Nzeng Ayong (which sounds like “zion”). This Sunday was his last one at this church. You could tell how much the congregation loved him. There were a lot of tears, but at the same time it was a celebration for all that Pastor Jacob has done for them. Each group of people, the men, women, youth, worship team, kids, even the elders, all got up and sang a song (or 3) for Pastor Jacob and his family. I got a couple videos of this. The youth even had choreographed dances to their songs.
After the service, which went from about 10am to 1 or 2pm there was a big lunch for everyone.
(A lady preparing lunch)
Lunch was exciting because we got to try to Manatee. It tastes rather like beef, I suppose their nickname of “sea cow” is rather accurate. The pieces of meat had really thick fatty skin on it, which I was relieved to see no one eating. I got to try pounded mantioc as well. This unusual dish is made of mantioc root which is pounded, and then rolled in leaves and tied and soaked in water till it gets a little sour. I’ve also heard it referred to among missionaries as “the slug.” It’s not all that bad as long as you don’t have to eat it plain.
Monday
We went to Jacob’s new house and scrubbed down the walls in the living room, kitchen and porch. We also scraped the paint off the ceiling and then painted all these rooms and the ceiling. You have to mix the paint yourself to get the color you want and it was really thin, so we had to put on 3 or 4 coats and then they made up a slightly darker and thicker paint and we put on one coat of that. When we went back Wednesday it looked really nice, which was good because when we left it was rather splotchy and some were worried about how it was going to turn out.
(pre-painting...Tim H. is scraping paint off the ceiling and Tim is watching him.)
(After painting, and Audra, and Meredith in the doorway)
(here is the whole group. L-> R Back to front: Steve, Tim, Yoann, Tim H., Stephanie, Pastor Jacob, Audra, Bertrand, Meredith, Me, Immanuel)
Then we came back and Mamma Jeannine and Pastor Jean Marc came over for dinner. They shared their testimony with us and how they got into their current ministries. Pastor Jean Marc was president of the National C&MA church for a while, which made Mamma Jeanine head of the alliance women. But their hearts are really for doing the clinic and Operation Christmas Child, and Pastor Jean Marc also works with working with disabled people and their families. They teach the families how to help the disabled family member and the work with the disabled individual to help them learn how to function better.
Tuesday
We went to the first village with the clinic. 
(Steve and Audra outside of one of the houses in the village)
The eye people were on vacation so we only had the general clinic. Which is sad, because I wanted to see what they do for the eye clinic, but since eye exams take forever and a day, they generally mean you’re at the village till sometime in the evening, and as it was we left by 4 both days.
We began with the “Samba” song. I found out that this is a universal Gabonese word for welcome.
Then we did introductions and a skit on malaria prevention. I was the star of the show. We began with a scene where I put out a can and a bucket and laid down to sleep on a sheet.
(me sick with malaria)
These are bad things to do though. Because then the rain came and filled up my bucket and can with standing water. So I had malaria because of my regular bad habits. The Mosquitoes (Tim and Meredith) bit me, and then got my malaria-contaminated blood (represented by strips of cloth) which were then passed along to a pregnant woman (Audra), and old man (Tim H.) and a baby (a water bottle tied to Stephanie’s back).
So they all got sick, and then Meredith drove an ambulance in with Steve to save the day by making us all well with medicine. The crowd loved this, especially when the crippled, old Tim, throw away his stick and gave Steve a flying hug. It was pretty funny. In the last scene, I had learned my lesson, and now punched holes in the bottom of the can so it wouldn’t hold water, flipped the bucket upside down, covered up with the sheet and then had a mosquito net as well.
After the skit Audra gave a testimony which led into Pastor Jacob presenting the gospel. A lot of people responded positively to this message, and they were taken into the church to begin a discipleship class which they will be invited back to attend so that they learn more about Christ.
After this we had Operation Christmas Child (even though it’s not quite Christmastime yet). There were a lot of kids, and we didn’t have many boxes for boys, just for girls, so we had to go through the boxes and cobble together gifts that would stretch out the boxes so there were enough for all the kids and so the boys didn’t end up with jewelry and Barbie dolls.
The clinic started up while I was helping out with the Christmas boxes. They would check in with Mamma Perrine, then get their blood pressure and weight taken by people from the team, then they would go to Mamma Jeannine for a consultation, she would diagnose them and then write down what meds they should get and then Meredith and I would drop the pills in little bags that Mamma Christine or Mamma Perrine would mark. So I learned a bunch of medicine names in French and got better at my French numbers.
(This is the clinic, I'm behind the drug table, the lady in the hat is Mamma Jeanine. In front of me is Mamma Christine and Meredith)
Before I started playing pharmacist though I was talking with Yoann, Gideon, and Nema (3 of Pastor Jean Marc and Mamma Jeanine’s kids). They invited me to walk to the river with them, so I followed them and Yoann tried to explain stuff to me. He knows some English, he’s actually pretty good at it. Gideon and Nema don’t really know any. They showed me the bridge I posted a picture of and Yoann explained that it’s breaking down. Comforting thing to know when you’re standing on it. Then we walked to another part of the river where we walked out on a giant fallen tree over the river. They got a picture. It was one of those moments when I realise I’m in Africa. It was neat. Then we walked to a nearby village where we ran into Tim and parts of the team who had driven there. We saw a cotton bush and an olive tree. The olives are inside tennis ball sized pieces of fruit. Then we walked to another part of the river where there were several kids swimming. The bank where we were standing forms a small cliff, that drops about 6-8 feet to the river. One boy who was walking with us from the village demonstrated how he could do a running leap off the edge and do a flip into the river. Then he and other kids started showing off all kinds of different dives and jumps into the river. After watching and cheering them on for a little while we headed back.
We arrived just in time for lunch, which was quite good. I like African food, which I think is a rather good thing. I’ve found it very handy that I basically like everything. We had porcupine which was really salty so that it was somewhat reminiscent of ham, mantioc, plantain and chicken.
(that's a picture of pounded mantioc - it's pounded, then wrapped in leaves and soaked in water till it's sour)
After lunch we continued with the clinic till around 3, when we headed back home.
Wednesday
A bit of a rest day, we went to Arnie and Cheryl’s so we could check email (since our internet was down basically all week) then we went to show the team the land for the church that I wrote about in another post and to have a picnic lunch, but when we got to the area we were going to have the lunch, someone there thought it was a good idea if we paid to eat there. Tim thought it was a bad idea so we went and ate in Pastor Jacob’s yard instead. Then we helped them move all their furniture and stuff into a truck and unloaded it at their new house.
(loading up the truck at Pastor Jacob's old house)
In the evening we went to the internet cafe since the internet had been down. It’s only about 1 dollar for an hour, so it’s pretty cheap. When we got there a girl volunteered her computer and Tim asked her to help me. I didn’t really need help, and she ended up sitting next to me watching me check my email. I was a little frustrated, till I realised that here I had a perfect oppurtunity to get to meet someone. So it turned out that we used most of the hour to talk and show each other things. She knew Tim because one of them teams this summer worked with her church. So she told me about the girls she had met and where they live in the US and played me a song she likes on YouTube, and I showed her facebook. It was really pretty fun. Her name is Joyce, and she knows some English, not a lot, but between her English and my French we were able to talk fairly well.
Thursday
Another village day! We did basically the same things. Although this time it was all more familiar. And this time I switched roles with Meredith in the malaria prevention skit.
(Tim and I as a mosquitos, Tim H. as an old man with malaria,and Audra as a pregnant lady with malaria)
And Stephanie gave her testimony this time.
The Operation Christmas Child was a little different. The villages are supposed to make a list of the kids there because Pastor Jean Marc has to have a name for every box he hands out. The list we had had 17 names but there were tons of kids, probably 60 at least. So the kids stood in a line outside and would get sent in by groups of 3 or so. We were frantically trying to divide up the toys into gender and age appropriate gifts. It was fast paced. Then they sorta turned into a bit of a mob, all wanting things.
It’s one of those situations when you can’t help but realise how little they have and how much we do have in the U.S. These kids probably don’t really have any toys, they all wear whatever they happen to have, which leaves lots of little boys in pink and little girls with just a pair of pants. They seem pretty happy though. It’s funny to think about how much we assume are necessities and then to see how little people can really get by with.
Lunch was good here too, there was really tasty chicken and little fish. They looked kinda like catfish, but I tried not too look too hard since the hole head was still on them and that sometimes makes it a little hard to put it in your mouth. At first I just took a bite of it, and discovered that I just bit through it’s spine meaning I had a million little fishbones in my mouth. After that I figured out that you could eat the meat off the sides, along the spine without having to choke on bones. That was a pleasant discovery. There were also these fantastic yams. They were thick slices, something like steakhouse fries, and they were amazingly tasty.
Then it was back to the clinic for the rest of the afternoon. This clinic hit a little harder, maybe because I saw more pain, maybe because I heard more about what the people were suffering from. The whole day left me thoughtful.
(In the village after seeing everyone. L-R: Gideon, me, Yoann, Tim H. And that's Pastor Jean Marc in the background in the white t-shirt and baseball hat)
One little boy had been left with his grandparents by his mother who was “promiscuous.” He was sick, but nobody was takening care of him. He was even left at the clinic for a little while. He had a fever, and they asked for a tylenol for him to take right away, I handed it to him, and he couldn’t figure out how to swallow it with water, so he just chewed it up, along with another medicine. The poor kid couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old, but he didn’t complain at all, hardly even made a face at chewing up the medicine. Then they gave him some liquid medicine and had him sit by mamma Jeanine until his fever went down. They cut his fingernails just because no one else had, and they needed it. I felt so bad for this poor little kid that no one was caring for. Mamma Jeanine explained to his grandparents that they had to take care of him though.
Another man came through with a huge tumor on his neck the size of a fist. He had another on his foot. Mamma Jeanine said it was cancer and he won’t live more than a year.
Other people had AIDS or Syphilis.
Another woman had an open abscess on her foot. We cleaned it out and put Dora the Explorer bandaids on it instead of the leaves the woman had been using to cover the wound. She cried, and flailed while Mamma Christine cleaned it. It was a terrible sight that made you hurt so deeply for her.
The whole day was an eye opener into the pain of other people. The goal of the clinic though is to show the people how to care for themselves. Many of the people have arthritis or little problems, so we give them tylenol or Ib profen or multivitamins and then hopefully they see how it works and then they can buy these for themselves at the drugstores. And of course, we present the gospel, which is really the biggest help for them. We can hand out some medicine, but it won’t do any long term good for the man with cancer, or AIDS, they need something much more permanent. They need Christ and his love.
Friday
We went to Monteuet, the market. It was pretty large. You could get pretty much anything you need there. We walked through the meat market section—I don’t think I have ever been assaulted by so many smells in my life. There were monkey heads and hands on display. A funny thing that looked furry, and we later found out was tongue. Lots of slabs of beef and whole fish and spices in bags and containers. It was pretty cool. I don’t know that I felt very hungry after walking through there though...
We went out to lunch at a little restaurant on the beach. We all got cheeseburgers, and to our surprise, they came with an egg on it. I thought it was pretty good. Not everyone liked it though. 
(The cheeseburger with an egg on it)
After we got back in the evening Joyce came by to visit. So we sat and talked. The team didn’t seem to be particularly interested in talking to her. But She and I managed to discuss what we’d done that day what she wanted to be one day (a secretary, an artist and a singer). Since she wanted to be an artist I showed her some of the things I’ve been painting here with my handy-dandy travel watercolor set. She liked it. And we talked about what she studies in school, our favorite colors and bunch of other things. It was fun. I was surprised at how much we were able to talk. We stuck mostly to French since I think she knows less English than I know French. But she wants to learn English. So once we would figure something out in one language we’d translate it into the other. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday
Back to Santa Clara. The waves weren’t quite as deadly this time, although I stuck pretty well to the river inlet instead of the ocean.
(Me on a boat we made in the river at the beach)
I met the Thelanders, they came with us and the Solvigs and Straws.
On the way to the Beach I rode with the Thelanders, so Keir told me all about Bongolo and the different things I can do there. It sounds like I will watch their kids some and help with their homeschooling, and help out as Keir’s assistant, doing mostly administrative things. I might teach English to a few doctors, and I’ll be able to help at the well baby clinic and different churches and church plants around the area. All in all, it sounds fantastic to me.
(Luke and Sarah, the kids I'll be watching in Bongolo at the beach)
I’ll update more on that though once I know more. For now they’re making sure everything is ok with the head people there. But the plan is for me to go down on the 29th.
Sunday
We drove down to Ebel Abanga where there is a church plant meeting on a ladies porch. They actually just got a pastor who graduated from the Bible school at CFTAC and so he drove down with us. The church is about 3.5 hours away on crazy, curvy, pot-hole-filled roads. It was very exciting. On the way we stopped at the equator for a bathroom break and to get pictures.
(Me at the equator)
That was pretty cool. Tim H. preached, and we sang lots of songs. They even did a conga line...I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a church service before. They were really nice, and after the service they showed us the new pastor’s house where we had spam and corned beef sandwiches. Then we drove to their plot of land for the church and parsonage. They’ve cut down most of the trees on it but they still need cleared off and they’re trying to figure out how to get rid of the big pieces. It looks like a big job. Especially since the ground is littered with thorny bushes and trees. They can burn up the little stuff, but the bigger things will need cut up and hauled away somewhere by someone. Then they will have to build. They have a pretty organized plan and schedule though which is a bit unusual, but good.
After praying for the church and the land we started the 3+hour drive back. We got back, got showers and went out for pizza.
Monday
This was the team’s last day here, so we went to some artisan villages. We saw a soapstone factory. Soapstone is indigenous to Gabon so there are a lot of carvings of elephants and heads and ladies and maps of Gabon and just about anything you could want in soapstone. The Factory consisted of a few people sitting around and hacking at pieces of stone with chisels and saws and large knives. It was neat to watch. Although, I was really sick this day. So I just sat on the sidewalk and watched while everyone else looked at the finished carvings inside. Then we went to a woodcarving place. There was a lot of neat stuff here as well, although the carver didn’t seem very interested in bartering. He wouldn’t lower his prices for anything, and usually you can get it down to about half of what they ask at first. He had a creepy skeleton chair there. It looked like a sitting skeleton and where his lap would be was board for the seat of the chair. Someone asked how much it was, and he explained it was for a witchdoctor.
Then we went to the tourist market. This is a little market with lots of vendors (mostly Muslim, they have a whole area set aside for prayer) who all sell basically the same things, but some will have more of one thing than another and of course all the carvings are slightly different since they’re all made my hand. We were here a really long time as well. There was much haggling for salad tongs.
In the evening we went to Mamma Jeanine and Jean Marcs for dinner. Bertrand came with us. They had made a lot of food and then Pastor Jacob ended up coming over too. I was still really queasy, so I didn’t get to eat any of the food, but it looked amazing. I got to hold baby Timote though. So it worked out. After dinner, Pastor Jean Marc and Pastor Jacob shared thanks and prayer requests with the team. And then the team did the same. We sang songs and prayed. It was a great evening. Around 8:30 we had to head off to the airport though. The team got their bags checked in by probably 9:15, and we played Golf (the card game) till they had to go back to go through security and get on the plane at 10:15. The Tim took Meredith and I home because their plane was going to be a bit late and he went back to pick Chuck up since he was coming in on the plane the PA team was leaving on.
Tuesday
So Chuck is now here, and he’s put together a course for discipleship and leadership for me to do. And we’ll talk about that and get that going soon. Today I’ve been really sick though, so I slept and rested a fair amount. It’s unfortunate though, because my friend Joyce came by, and she brought all her friends, but I was throwing up in the bathroom so Tim asked them to come back tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I’ll be better by then. I’m fine as long as I don’t eat food, but that can only last so long really. I got some Sprite tonight though to stave off dehydration. At least I don’t really feel too hungry.
So Prayer requests:
- That everything will work out with going to Bongolo
- There are a lot of options of what I can do at Bongolo, so please pray that I will have wisdom to decide what to do
- Please pray that I will get better soon, I really miss being able to eat !
- Please pray for the pastor and the church in Ebel Abanga, he’s there now, but it’s probably hard to jump into a brand new village so far away, and he has a house but other than that I think all the furniture he really has is a mattress. They don’t have a church building yet either. They have land but they still need to clear it out and build a church and parsonage.
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