A Woman's version of the trip!

We got a very nice 'Readers Digest' version of the trip to the bush from Steve. Now here is Janice's version, which is more of a National Geo"graphic" version!!!

What adventures and experiences! Here's Jani's:

Thought I would give you the shakedown from my point of view...Our car ride was pretty decent but once we hit the dirt road it was pretty bumpy. We all feel the bumps but everyone in the back of the vehicle got tossed around the most. But something they don't feel much of is the AC. We get it good in the front but they are just fanning away in the back trying not to sweat too much. The kids that sit directly behind Steven and I are fanning the AC air back to the ones further back, trying to share the air with everyone. We have lots of water bottles in the cooler and extra ones on top of the car incase our trip becomes longer than we thought it would be.

Once we got to a certain place Dan and his friend were waiting on the road for us. They flashed their lights at us and then took us to the unloading zone. We then had to walk/slide down a steep hill to the river where Dan's motor boat was waiting for us. The canoes were there too but we took the motor boat instead. It was beautiful and we took lots and lots of pics.

Once we got to the other side, the kids that came with me, got onto the ox cart and off we went to the house. It was bumpy and we had to duck to miss the pokey branches hanging down, oh yeah, and a few times nature called and the cows had to do their business WHILE we were on our way. I choose to just look away and not breath too deeply. :) As we drew closer we could hear the children of the village calling out and then we could see them running toward us. Even though they see the other white people around there it was all the new white people that brought about all the commotion.

We got off our sweet ride and we went into the house where Rachal was waiting for us with a nice glass of cold water and cold lemonade. Cold water never tastes as good as it does here and lemonade always hits the spot!! We had lots of good food that Dan and Rachal made us and lots of goodies that Gracey made. The boys even got into cooking. Gabe and Payton made pancakes for all of us TWICE!! I especially liked the chocolate ones!

Rachal, Gracey, Tawnee and I took a walk around the village visiting all the women and children. The ladies would see us coming and pull out their mats and offer us either tea or lemonade. One gal gave me a bowl of peanut oil. They harvest the peanuts then take the peanuts out of the shell then crush all the peanuts into a paste THEN squish the paste with their hands to expell the oil. Lots of work. I was honored by her gift.

While we were walking around a group of men sitting by the mosque yelled out to Rachal, "give me that girl." (talking about Gracey--I think they like her red hair). Rachal said that was up to her father! Dan had said that an older man in the village asked if he could have Alex but Dan told him that he would have to pay with a thousand cows to which the man laughed and said OH, I could never do that! Rachal said that term "a thousand cows" comes from the verse in Psalm 50 verse 10b "the cattle on a thousand hills" We would not sell Alex for all the cattle on a thousand hills!! But, we do still plan on sending her to YOU in a year or so......hee hee haa haa.

Oh, yeah, remember Stevens scars on his face? Well, here in the village they have scar marks from tribal markings and they ask Steven where and why he had markings on his face. They said he looked like them because of the scars. D&R's compound is really nice, they have done a great job at planting trees and putting a grass mat fence around part of their yard to make it more cozy and private from the rest of their yard. They have two horses, lots of chickens, pidgeons and four cats. Alex had fun brushing the horses and walking Lady(the momma horse)around. There is also a one year old colt but he is not broken yet so no riding him.

We went on walks and saw lots of things like elephant dung, that was really cool especially since it was fresh! On one of our walks we went to the river and talked with a family that had just moved all their stuff to the edge of the river, they will live there until the rainy season. They had a one day old calf that they let the kids pet. They laughed at how the kids made such a big deal about the baby cow since it is everyday to them and they see animals so differently then we do. Ours kids were oohhhing and ahhhhhing over this calf and putting their faces up to it and loving on it and I'm sure the chadians thought we were just WEIRD!! Esther tried to pull the calf home with us and the father even said that she should take it but we didn't let her! Like I have said before these people have so little but are always so willing to give. Always touches my heart.

The V's have a hammock that we all took advantage of. We had times of lots of activities and times of calm. It was very nice to be there.While we were there the villagers had a celebration. We celebrated with them and Dan had a goat slaughtered...some of the kids watched but my days of butchering animals is way WAY over! I stayed inside far far away! A guy from the village roasted the meat and everyone had their fill. People were coming and going over the course of the day and Dan and Rachal welcomed them all. Rachal and some of our girls did henna on their feet and hands. Only when we retured home did I learn that only married women do the henna. Oh well, they show lots of grace to us white people! The gals out front had a good laugh....I didn't do it but my single girls did!

One funny time while we were visiting the gals was when an older gal was sitting chatting with us and she asked R where my baby was and R told her he was sleeping, then out of the blue, the gals says, "does she nurse her baby?" and R says, "yes" and then the gals says, "with these like mine?" and proceeds to take down her shirt and hold out her own set of lactating devices.....everyone broke out in laughter and R says, "yes" and then the woman grabs the end of her lactating devices and says, "does she have these too like mine?" and R again says "yes, they are just the same, yes yes!" Well, since I had NO idea what was going on EXCEPT that this nice older lady had taken her shirt off and was handeling her , um well, you know, and looking at me I was a bit worried and so I put both my hands over mine and looked at everyone like---WHAT??? This brought about much laughter and then Rachal told me what had been said and I shook my head like YES, they are the same. There was a small crowd now and everyone was looking at me, like, well show us. But, I just kinda looked away and laughed, then said, "can we go now?"

There were several games of Risk played and other board games that the little ones played and Esther and Tawnee loved the doll house the girls had, and played in that lots and lots, and of course lots of slingshot activity. Rachal at one point told the kids to aim AWAY from her house since she was a bit worried they might put one of their mud balls right through her roof! The pidgeons were sitting up there!

The other thing that is new to us is being stared at and followed. No matter where we went a crowd would come and everyone would just stand there staring at us. If I took out my camera and tried to take photos of them they would run away, for some reason they were scared of the camera and SSSOOOOOOOOOO I would do this just to get them to move back. All in all it was a very nice time. We are thankful and blessed by our teammates and are glad we went on the adventure to their home.
love to all,
jani
ps. the only time the bugs "bugged" me was when I was in the shower and the pincher bugs and geckos would join me....I prefer to shower ALONE!! Shaw!

ps. forgot to tell you that a large male hippo surfaced on the other side of the river(PTL) while we were embarking from the boat to come home. He would come up then go back under the water, then 100 or more yards down river he would resurface again and so on. It was really neat to see it. He was alone as well. Dan said the males usually do that while the females and babies stay together.