This last week was one of the best here in Cote d’Ivoire yet. Each journeyer, including me, stayed in a family here in Bouaké for one week. It was awesome. This is not the family I will be living with in a month and a half or so. All of the families are Christian and local Ivoirians.
The idea is to get a taste of the culture, work on our French but the biggest reason we were there was to build relationships with the people who live in each house. In my host family there are 9 people. The mom and dad, who I call Tonton and Tantie (terms of endearment for uncles and aunts here), are in their 30’s I think and have 2 sons one is 7 and the other 4 years old. Tonton’s sister lives with them also, she is 22. Two of Tonton’s nephews live there, they are both 17 and one of his nieces, who is only 15 is there. A daughter of a close friend of their's lives there too, she is 14 I think. They are all there for different reasons, some of them for school and others to help the family and a couple of others. Having so many extended relatives living with the family is quite normal for an Ivorian family.
I went into the family without any expectations. Ok well I tried to put them all by the way side. I faced all of my fears before I went and gave them to God, who gently told me: I am your strength, I am your capability, trust me. So when I arrived I simply took everything in. I was amazed, really, their house was so charming with matching furniture, colorful tile and a bathroom any westerner could easily respect. Then they treated me like a princess at the beginning of the week. I definitely had mixed feelings about that, but that is how they always treat their guests, it is normal here. Since the idea was to also learn how to do things the way they do them, I asked several times to help with chores like cooking, dishes, laundry, sweeping and the like (all completely different than how we do them in the west). I did get to do a little bit of each of the things I mentioned. Also I got to help one of the nephews with his English homework from school. That was neat because he was one that really helped me in French (because he does know a little bit of English). But most of all I was surprised at how soon I felt completely at home there. After just 3 days of the 7, everything they do seemed like the most natural, most normal thing in the world, like I had lived like that all of my life. And I did get to know them! Even though we only had a week together, I was really sad to leave them and I definitely want to go visit them whenever I can. The amazing thing about that is that my French is still actually really terrible. It took a lot of effort and patience on both sides to communicate anything and sometimes it still didn’t happen. We did it, and some things don’t really take words to communicate and there was a ton of that too. God gets all the credit for this because I know these people and I barely can understand how with the language barrier, but just like he said, he is my strength and ability, the fruit of the spirit was evident on both sides too, something that only he can do! My french did improve too! It was a privilege to stay with my Ivorian brothers and sisters and a real blessing in so many ways. I can’t wait to continue to build these relationships and I am very excited for my long homestay in just over a month.
Also, I have 79% of my monthly support, praise God! If you would like to be apart of what God is doing here in Cote d'Ivoire either in prayer or support please visit my about page to find out how.
No comments:
Post a Comment