Life in Community

Living closely in community with others enables a great deal of living life on life with one another.  In addition to our houses being physically close to one another, the majority of our neighbors do laundry and bathe at out door wells, along with grill and smoke fish outside.  This results in people being around all the time and a great deal of awareness of what is going on with one another.  For example, we often hear small children throwing tantrums, usually in the morning when they don't want to bathe.  Conversely, our neighbors hear when the boys are running around the house or when we took Evangeline outside the other night because she had croup.  The next morning one neighbor confessed she thought it was a cat making the noise.  

As we continue in language and culture study, living in close community with others is very beneficial.  John and I have probably been to more weddings during our five years here than we have during the whole rest of our lives.  Weddings are a big deal and the guest list is usually quite extensive.  Though most weddings look pretty similar to us, I recently had to the chance to see some of the preparations first hand. 

Preparations often begin four days to a week before hand.  Aside from decorating the house, food preparation and invitation delivery are the main tasks for the week before the event.  

Whitman and Evangeline standing against a decorated wall at the groom's house.

This living room area will be used to host and serve guests a meal before the ceremony.

Invitations are usually printed at a shop, but stuffed and addressed at home.  All invitations, when possible, are hand delivered by at least one male relative in traditional dress.  (above right)

 I visited the groom's home a couple times prior to the wedding to see all that was taking place.  Relatives and a couple skilled cooks were, like usual, asked to come help.  Though I stayed only for an hour, the main task of the day was to prepare the ingredients for the sweet and spicy fried cassava.  

Women peeling shallots.  

There must have been close to 10 pounds of shallots.

Once they were peeled, they were sliced, all by hand.

Preparing the sweet and spicy coating for the fried cassava.  

The coating consists of shallots, chilies, garlic, and palm sugar.

Mixing

After shredded cassava and peanuts are fried, it is placed on a large tarp to mix with the boiling hot coating.

It was amazing to the see the mass quantity of ingredients being prepared.  The finished product was then stored at the groom's house.  And I only witnessed one menu item among many being prepared.  

At the end of the week we attended the wedding together as a family.

The groom being accompanied by all his guests to the bride's house,

 middle in green and under an umbrella.

The wedding ceremony takes place at the bride's house.

It was a clear and sunny day, so the umbrellas were used for shade as most people fear any kind of tanning of the skin.

In other news...

Evangeline

"Pack my toys! I'm going to Grandma's."

For the first time in her life...

It is nearing the time our almost two-year-old will set foot in her "passport" country (or country of citizenship) for the first time in her life.  Yes, we are returning to the States at the end of this week for about a six month stay.  We are looking forward to many things about our time, but mostly the opportunity to connect with the dear people in our lives that though far away by distance, have been closely involved in all going on here in Barat.  

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible! 

Life in Transition

We are very thankful to be transitioning well into our new neighborhood.  It is hard to believe we have been in our new house for two months now. 
Though transitioning has been stressful, the Father has decreased the potential stress in a couple very unexpected ways.  Every since we moved in, the city water has been on at least 5 days per week.  The pressure is also high enough to travel eight feet up into the house without the use of our pump.  Secondly, our garbage service has also been very frequent and regular.  Both of these aspects have been significant blessings as water and garbage had become quite irregular and undependable in our previous neighborhood.

Along with the increased dependability of our utilities, we have all gotten into a regular routine in our new surroundings.  Caedmon and Whitman still leave for school about 7am, but they walk instead of ride the motorcycle.  I, Erin, spend my mornings going to the market, which is now about a 10 minute drive away, studying with a language helper twice a week or studying by myself at home, and playing with Evangeline.  Neighborhood kids often come over in the mornings as well to play.  After lunch, while Evangeline naps, we continue with our previous schedule of homeschooling for Caedmon and Whitman.  After the boys have finished their school work, they most often go outside to play with the many neighborhood kids.  Evangeline and I will venture outside as well, to feed goats or visit with the neighbors often sitting in front of or below their houses.

The 'Three Musketeers' and Evangeline

These three little 4 year old boys are our immediate neighbors in front, to the right side, and behind our house.  They can always be found playing together and often seek out Evangeline.  

We frequently sit and help a neighbor make pastries during the afternoon. 

    

Sitting with neighbors and friends. 

There are many kids Evangeline's age.

The lady in the middle is my current language helper.

Caedmon and Whitman often play with the many other kids under our house.

 They play various local games or anything else they make up.

Evangeline loves the goats many neighbors' raise.

Since the first week of living here, she has learned the Barat word for goat and asks daily to see the goats.

Drying fish on the local soccer field.

Though we still live in the same city, this area on the outskirts feels very different, much more like a small village.

The majority of men are either fishermen or construction workers.

Women will sell fish, walking around with coolers or trays of fish, or lay them out to dry.  Once dried, the fish are sold in cities far away.

Squid and fish gifted to us.  

As we spend more time in this community, we are learning how relational and dependent they are on one another.  

If you need something, you ask, maybe indirectly, a neighbor or family member.  The request is often fulfilled without any qualms.  Your fulfilling the request is later answered either when you need something yourself or with a gift from the fruit of your or your husband's labor, as pictured above.  

There was a period of a couple weeks where I received more fish and squid then I knew what to do with.
I'm still learning the best way to prepare these items.

Evangeline holding a smoked fish.  

She loves fish about as much as goats. 

Though she knows both the English and national language word, she tends to use the national language word more often and get very excited when she sees fish up close.  

Evangeline with a little boy from down the street who is about 5 months younger.

Evangeline with my language helper's son. 

Evangeline has learned the names of many of the neighbor kids her age.

Literacy Program

Another regular activity has been the Literacy Program John started in coordination with the foundation he works for.

Every afternoon at 1pm, four young women teach grade school children to read.  The twenty or so children range from first to fifth grade.  Just last week a fluency element was added to help those who already can read or have just finished the literacy part.  

Aside from our daily activities, living in a community allows us to more easily participate in other events.  Shortly after moving here we experienced the holiday celebrating the birth of their most beloved prophet.  Though we have seen the celebrations before, the shape they took was just a little different in this tight knit community.

Whitman and Evangeline sitting on the horse a neighbor girl rode.

Children who finish reading their holy book all the way through celebrate on this holiday by riding a "dancing" horse in a parade.  The parade had at least twenty horse, each with two riders.  

Caedmon having a try.

Our neighbor who celebrated her accomplishment by riding in the parade.

She wore traditional clothing and her family prepared a meal for guests.

Whitman

An additional activity sponsored by the foundation John works for was an instructional course on deep sea diving safety.  John led an instructional meeting for about 6 fishermen.  The men travel to another island to deep sea dive to catch fish and collect Sea Cucumbers.  They typically stay on the island for two months, working, before they return to their families here in Barat.
 

John leading a Diving Safety Course

Though we settled pretty well into our new surrounding, we are still learning how to interact with those we live among and when and how to set boundaries.  Cultural differences seem so much more pronounced in this area.  Many little things we could never anticipate as we lead our lives so often from our own cultural up bringing's. 

Children come over, sometimes to play with Caedmon, Whitman, or Evangeline, but more often desire to play with all our toys.  Our screen doors have been an unexpected blessing in setting boundaries with children.  We have latches on the doors so Evangeline cannot leave on her own.  The latches also keep children out as they often come up onto our porch and just stand peering in at the doors and window.  I often feel bad not inviting children in, but if one or two are allowed to come in, it is quite rude to not invite in the rest, which sometimes reaches up to 20 kiddos.   

A load of children's books accidently washed.

One afternoon we left before the literacy teachers were finished.  We asked them to put the book in our washing machine, which though it is up stairs on our porch, it is outside.  We though this would protect the books from any unexpected weather or random children.  What we did not anticipate was the random children coming up on or porch and playing with the washing machine.  We returned home to find the washing machine finishing a spin cycle.  

Thankfully we could all laugh at the destroyed books, but it was a perfect example of how our culture led us to expect our porch to be a safe, private, personal place to store items.  So as we learn, we grow, which hopefully will lend us to become better communicators and friends in the future.  

My Superstar Wife

She'll pose to show our foreign audience the absolute MONSTROSITY of a banana we were gifted.

She's willing to be right at the center of an ever-growing crowd in order to clean and steri-strip an in-shock neighbor's bleeding wound.

The grinder he dropped cut his leg in three places, eventually requiring 12 stitches.

She'll receive guests morning and night to take out stitches and bandage shoeless mishaps.

She teaches (the often beligerant) Caedmon and (the just as often uncompliant) Whitman from 1:30 to 4:30 everyday.

And she still finds time for regular language study sessions with a neighbor, and nearly EVERY DAY after homeschooling, she musters the energy to take Evangeline out for over an hour to drop in on our neighbors' houses before preparing dinner.
Thank you SO MUCH for your role in lifting her up in the stresses of cross-cultural living. She has been truly in full bloom here the past few weeks.

Moved In!

 We did it!  We moved into our new house.  For the past five weeks we have been living among a dense group of Barat people who use their language first and foremost everyday, and whose ancestral ways and beliefs are still very strong, even amidst the majority religion. 

At the end of January we said good bye to our brick house of four years on the east side of town and hello to our new stilted wood house on the west side of town.  Though a large truck took most of our things on a Sunday, the entire first week was used to move the remaining odds and ends that I, Erin, had not been able to pack prior to the arrival of the truck.  Thankfully the owner of the truck brought a crew of guys which provided us with sufficient man power to move everything into our new house with the fewest possible peering eyes.  Regardless, we did receive various comments about there being more stuff every time that week we brought another box on the motorcycle. 

Not much order or thought put onto the packing of the truck, which some of our furniture had the marks to show.  Thankfully all arrived safely, even the people!

We hired a mini-bus driver to haul a load of stuff a few days later.

He was very skilled at tying our bikes onto the bus, all with one length of rope.

     The Sunday prior to the move we hosted a "thankfulness" party.  I, along with a great deal of help from the neighbor ladies, made mung bean pudding again and served rice flour balls filled with palm sugar and rolled in coconut.  We found out that these parties are usually used to ask for blessings for the new item, be it a house, car, or job for example.  

Pressing coconut milk

Cooking mung bean pudding

Thankfully neighbors had the equipment needed to make a large quantity.

Ready and waiting for guests

Our first guest, a neighbor.

He proceeded to ask blessing on our house all on his own initiative.

Other friends and neighbors

Only men came to enjoy the treat in our living room.

Many kids showed up for pudding at our back door, while most women stayed at home.

Later the neighbor women that helped me took portions of the pudding around to the ladies that did not come.

Friends from our old neighbor hood came to visit later that evening.

Neighbors from our old street came that evening.

     

We decided to hold our "thankfulness" party before moving to decrease the peering eyes and potential questions.  It worked our wonderfully because we had much more floor space to accommodate a great deal of people.  Though we did not really have cleaning supplies, nor a kitchen, clean up was easier without having to work around any furniture or boxes.  Once again putting on an event like this would not have been possible for me if it had not been for the help from my neighbors.  

We spent our first night in the house after the party.  

It was quite like camping as we slept on the floor and did have a kitchen.

Moving Day
A full living room.

A kitchen waiting to be filled.

The sink faucet and drain still needed to be hooked up.

We did move into a bit of a construction zone that Sunday.  The kitchen sink had not yet been installed, trim around windows and doors needed to be finished, the bathroom needed grouting, screen doors needed to be hung, stairs needed to be stained, and two more support braces needed to be added to the house posts.  The plumber spent most of our 'moving day' installing and hooking up the kitchen faucet, while service men worked until night time installing our air conditioners brought from the old house.  Our builder used the rest of the week to finish the rest of the other details, while I grouted the bathroom.  Thankfully, now, three weeks later, unpacking is finished and the work on the house is done, aside from a few details like paint touch ups and decorating.  

Building a house has been quite an adventure.  I had often dreamed of it as building enables you to design various aspects specific to your taste and select specific details suitable for your family.  Building a home in a different culture was quite different than expected.  We acted as the 'main boss' individually hiring each type of skilled worker.  There was a wood worker who did most of the building and a mason who was responsible for the bathrooms, along with the plumber and an electrician.  We were the ones who had to coordinate these men and the uniting of each man's work.  The result of their individual work was good, until it met with the work of another skilled worker.  So the place the cement floor of the bathroom meets the wood floor of the house for example is a bit of an eye sore.  There were many other little things that turned out different than we expected, like the quality of the mudding, sanding, and paint job.  But as we consider the entire finished product, we have an incredibly wonderful house, especially since we were asking the builders to do many western things they had never done before. 

Some of my favorite aspects are the wood floors, lots of big windows, the back-side door that you can open just half at a time, lots of counter space, and our clothes line on a pulley system right next to the washing machine.  

A pretty good view out the kitchen window.

The moon one morning.

Our Kitchen

A half door, counter space and big windows!

Our clothesline, about 10feet off the ground.

Many neighbors were rather confused at first as to how we could reach the laundry.

Handy placement!

We are so thankful the building is complete and we have moved into a location so very suitable for language and culture learning.  As we hope to be here many more years and see much fruit, the hard work now truly begins.  As we continue to adjust to our surroundings I am reminded that this blessing of a house, that you so faithfully have helped see to fruition, is a gift that we are tasked to use for the ultimate eternal goal!  Please lift us up as we endeavor to do this!

Moving Time

 Welcome to our new home is Barat!

The view of our house from the dead end road on which it sits.

     As you can see, the house is not quite move in ready.  A few more cosmetic details need to be finished, such as sanding and staining the floors.  Trim and baseboards have to be installed.  Doors need to be hung, along with painting of the kitchen, bathroom and third bedroom.  Then there are a couple more major details to enable us to really live there.  The kitchen cabinets, which are finished, have to be installed and the last bit of plumbing needs to be connected.  
    When I just look around, the house really seems almost finished!  Aside from the few last details, moving time is nearly here.  We have been dreaming of, planning, and trying to execute this move for sometime now.  It will bring us into much more regular and consistent language and culture exposure.  It is also a very needy community, making it a fitting location for John's foundation work, and especially eternal work.  On the other hand it will also be a big adjustment.
     The community we will be moving into is very poor in comparison to where we live now.  The majority of the men are fishermen or laborers, like those working on our house.   Most women do not work outside the home.  Those that do sell fish, pastries, other homemade food, or incidentals.  None of our neighbors to be have running water in their homes.   The women all do their laundry by hand.  Kids are left to play, wander, and roam freely, even those as young as 2 years old.  Education is not a priority and parents do not spend much time intentionally teaching their children.  Personal property and private space is not a value in the community as we might hold.  If our builders had not hung the front door, where there are stairs, kids would just wander in and play freely with whatever they found inside the house. 
    Our different ways and values have been obvious living here in Barat, but they will be even more highlighted once we are living there within this new community.  Every time we have moved it has taken both us and the community around us time to adjust.  Thankfully our mornings and schooling of the boys there will help ease this transition.   Yet, I ask that you will all be thinking of us during this time.  Our boundaries, though they might be different than theirs, such as kids and adults alike dropping by at any hour and freely coming right into the house, or peering in windows if doors are shut, will take time for us all to learn and adjust to. 
     The actual move itself is an area of concern for us too.  We seem to average a move every few years so the actual labor of it is not too daunting.  The Barat people are very community and relationally oriented.  This results in people just hanging around and the givving of a great deal of help.  Thus, we expect many helping hands when it comes to actually moving in.  Help is a huge blessing, but what concerns us is the difference in personal property, space, and taboos.  From previous experience, we foresee many eyes examining our things as they are moved and then followed with questions about how much did that cost, or what is that, or comments about the great quantity of stuff we have.  Not to mention we will be moving a washing machine, an oven range, and individual beds and dressers for our children, none of which our neighbors have.  There have also been times when we have had people over to our current house for a meal or a visit and they freely wander around opening doors and looking around.  Thus, we find ourselves in this funny situation of wanting to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of people being around as we move, yet they are offering help which would be an immense blessing.
    The fact that this move and new home is even possible is because of the partnership of so many of you and the great blessings He has given us.  We desire wisdom, patience, thick skins, and the ability to focus on the positive as we under take this move.  Thank for lifting up this next step!

We spent an hour at the house on Sunday.

Caedmon and Evangeline under the house playing with a chicken.