It's been a while since I've updated anything on here, so to catch you up on my life, here are some highlights of the last few weeks:
I had the wonderful opportunity to serve at L’Arche, an international organization that works with the mentally handicapped, especially focusing on community living between both handicapped and non-handicapped individuals. I helped out with housework type chores: sweeping, laundry, dishes, and cooking. Since I have had a lot of experience working with handicapped because of my mom, it was actually one of the most comfortable experiences I’ve had working with Ivoirians. It’s funny how some things don’t change no matter the culture.
The director of the bible school for our churches here, Kéo, came to teach us classes on Côte d’Ivoire, the history, government, politics, education. It was great to get a general overview to help understand the specific context we’re a part of. He's back this week to teach us about the history of Christianity in Côte d’Ivoire, which I’m really excited about.
Despite not being able to participate in all the festivities because I didn’t feel well, Christmas was wonderful. We had a lot of good food, great people, and ended the day with a secret santa gift exchange. That way everyone got at least one really special gift.
This past week we’ve had a break from our regular schedule and so all of the girls took a trip up north to visit Korhogo and Ferké. We visited missionaries and ministry opportunities, did a little exploring of the area, and had the chance to relax and enjoy a new area of Côte d’Ivoire. One of my absolute favorite parts was hiking up 'Mount' Korhogo, I always love enjoying God's creation and getting a bird's eye view of things.
We celebrated New Years on campus with a big meal (including a pig we roasted on campus), a bonfire, dancing and worship. 6 of us Journeyers celebrated last New Years in St. Louis at Urbana (an InterVarsity missions conference, attended by around 20,000 people, where most of us actually discovered JourneyCorps); so this was actually our second New Years together, even though we didn’t all know each other yet last year.
Another highlight of these last few weeks has been the book Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja. It’s the story of Fauziya’s fleeing from her native Togo to escape from female genital mutilation and a forced marriage. She eventually reaches the United States and is imprisoned as an illegal immigrant. It isn’t necessarily a feel good read, but it is an amazing story. It describes the West African/Muslim context with a personal perspective and although it’s not exactly what I’ll come into contact here, it is very similar. It also describes the hardships of being a refugee, the agony of prison life and the human rights violations that can occur anywhere, from a small town in West Africa to a prison in Newark. Definitely worth reading.
Some days it’s easy to ignore the political situation here, actually most days I almost forget it completely. Despite the relative peace we’re experiencing in the north, there is more than just a little turmoil around Abidjan (as many of you have been reading on the news). Côte d’Ivoire is a small enough country that it seems everyone has family in Abidjan and so is greatly affected by whatever happens there. So please join us here in praying for a peaceful and swift solution. If you want to keep up with what’s going on you can check out reuters.com.
I only have a few more weeks here on campus, then I'll be sent off to another town (most likely) to live with an Ivoirian family and get involved in a specific ministry!
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