La Sonya

Let me talk a bit about eating. I eat: Rice Cucumbers Tomatoes Onions Corn Corn and more corn Millet Gumbo (okra) Potaoey-things Millet stocks (they're like corn stocks) I was shocked by the ‘spit sauce’ because I wasn’t sure what it was. But come to find out it was the okra juice that made it look like spit. But I think I was already turned off to it. We eat it with millet, that’s like wheat kinda, and they make it in the shape of a bowl, then you take parts of it with your hand and dip it in the sauce. Not to bad, I can’t wait to try something like it in the sates and have a Tchad day with eating without utenciles. Then we often eat corn cobs for lunch, or a yummy tomatoe, cucumber and onion salad, with peanut oil and pepper. Oh, how I love it!!!! I could eat it forever. I love it all!!! Yummmmmm. We might eat the “spit sauce” at any given meal. Sometimes I get a plate of Spanish rice and I love that. I don’t think I am going to have any ...

I went camping almost a month ago. Funny thing is I haven’t stopped since! I love where I live. It took a while for the shock to wear off, but once it did I fit right into the grove of it all. I wake up early because I go to bed early. I go to bed early because the sun goes down and we don’t have electricity so what else is there to do? Well, we draw in the dirt next to our lamp or we look at the stars. One night I sat with my famil on their mat and we giggled, we did exercise stretches, back bends and learned how to say moon, stars, one foot and two feet in engish. It was fun. Good wholesome camping fun. I love to get up early. I am by heart a morning person. Just ask anyone who has worked at camp with me. Don’t ask any of my roommates, they get confused :o) In the mornings I like to take my time with my worship and prayer and just slowly soak up the day. I get to eat outside, I sit outside to paint, I read outside and I play outside. Just like with camping. On...

This blog is a tribute to all those who can’t live with out café. I get coffee every morning here. They make it in a little cast iron pot over the coals. They use little beans and sometimes they make it with citronella and sometimes with the African red tea leaves. I like it. They even serve it to me in little glasses that are from Turkey. Kari of DDC, I don’t know if you are reading this, if you know her tell her to read this. I think of you and how you ‘made’ the tea in Torba. “Slowly, you drink it slowly.” We do. We even slurp it as we drink. Yup, I get to slurp and drink slowly the café/tea every morning. It’s a good life I live. I only wish I could invite you over to make some café/tea for you so we could sit together and drink it. Wouldn’t that be nice. Well if none of you make it here to see me and I don’t get a chance to see you in America, you must come over to my mansion in Heaven and we will drink coffee out of little glass cups, and we’ll drink it slowly so we can sav...

Well the Americans left today. I was sitting eating my breakfast and I saw them drive past on the motorcycles. We counted three, then we (Mature, the father who I eat most my meals with) realized they were short one, and a few minuites later Kenny comes by on a different path, I bet he had to stop by the hospital to pick up some Beigneits (those donut holes). I told my family that I was sad they are leaving and then I had to stop because I didn’t want to cry. I knew that things were going to be changing around here and I had to face it. I hope that some where, some how they are reading this and they realize how much Liz and I both appreciated them. Today was one of the, no it was the hardest days yet. I sat by my lonesome English self in worship and in the staff meeting. Nobody else was here to speak English to. Liz is working the evening shift this week. And boy was I board because I couldn’t focus on a single word. The day turned out to be the worst yet! I was realizing how alo...

Priceless stool test—200 francs malaria test—300 francs Doxy Hycate— 350 francs Arlemeller & Lumefantrine—3600 francs Fausitar —150 francs Being welcomed into the malaria club by James---Priceless! So yeah, I am now a member of the malaria club. I don’t really waste anytime getting things done :o) I wrote that other blog about feeling sick and I apparently already had it! I had been feeling bad because of something on that Tuesday, but the following days my stomach hurt after I ate things, and I had a slight recurring headache and I was really tired. So I asked Liz if she could write me up a lab prescription test and she did. I did a malaria test where the prick your finger and put the blood on a glass thing to look at and then. . . I had to do a stool test to see if maybe what I had was a parasite. It was harsh, I almost cried with I tried to figure out what I was supposed to do, simply because I had no idea and I didn’t know how to communicate t...

I was looking up a word the other day in my dictionary. It was Chef. That is what James is the medicine-chef and during the staff meeting on Monday I looked at his door and decided it was time to find out what it meant exactly. According to my Berlitz dictionary ti means leader, boss, you know stuff like that. This isn’t the point or my story. . . my eyes then wondered over the page to Cheval—horse, nice word. I already knew that. But in the same space as horse was chevaleresque—chivalrous! “Lovely, I love that word”, I thought. Always good to be reminded of it, so I kept looking and saw chevalier—knight. Then it all hit me! Men, on horses, saving women in distress! Duh, the knights in mid-evil times were the ones who protected people; they defended the weak and beautiful. They are the ones who created chivalry!! Long live the French! A knight rode a cheval, and was very chevaleresque because he was a chevalier . Clearly I do have French in my blood because I beli...

I woke up last night wishing with all my heart I hadn’t eaten that second bowl of beans and rice at the American’s house then that little bit of food here at my hut. Oh, how I wish I could have just said NO! The beans and rice were so good and I was hungry so I ate, who could blame me?. Once I got back home (on the way back to my hut I didn’t even need to use my flashlight it was so bright out) they brought out supper for me, even though I wasn’t even hungry and I said so, but being a good mom, Teresa was like, “just eat a little bit” so I did. A small little bit. Right away I knew I had eaten too much. But I talked with the famil a bit more than went off to my hut for bed. I went to bed about normal, 8:30pm. Come about 12:30am I knew for SURE that I was not going to have a good night. On a positive note, I have gotten over my fear of using the facilities in a hole in the ground :o) and thank God that it was a drizzly night and my famil slept inside their hut so my flashlig...

I saw a baby goat lying dead today on the back path to the hospital. It was awful. It just lied there with flies on it while its mom was tied up near by. With the other baby near by alive and well. Then earlier while I was hanging out playing checkers in the peds ward with the 10 and 12 year old boys, a tiny baby was struggling to breath. I couldn’t help but keep looking over at the family bathing him in water to cool his temp down. Then some nurses came to give him a shot it looked like and then they all got up and carried the baby out of the room, he looked like he was still alive but I wasn’t certain. It was hard to focus on my game of checkers. Eventually they all came back in although the baby didn’t look any better. Who knows if the baby’s okay. People die all the time in hospitals. Why should this one be any different? I just don’t want to become desensitized to it. I don’t want to accept it as a norm and stop looking at each person as someone with a family and friends, someone ...

On the way here to Bere I sat next to a man, for more than 7 hours, who was nice, he and I tried to talk a few times. We didn’t get very far :o) But it was nice to try. Thanks to Jed I did however know how to say, “ how do you say”. Then there was a Muslim man who was sitting in front of us (facing us) and when we would stop to go throught the ‘toll booths’ he would buy food and would share with us. I of course would try it, I’ll try most anything once. I have no idea what it was but one was starchy like a potato and the other was a root. I liked it for the most part. Then there was a really cute old lady who sat behind me to the left and she helped me peel the root, she was really funny because she just took it from me and showed me then gave it back to me but apparently I didn’t peel it fast enough and so she took it back and peeled the whole thing for me. So after a while, after they thought I was sick because I was resting my head in front of me with my hands on the ba...

Funny thing here—you have to shake everyone’s when you arrive anywhere or if you are passing though a group. It seems to me that most of the people have what I have diagnosed as a dead fish handshake. You know what I am talking about, the kind where the hand barley moves and they only give you their fingers. Grosse, dead fish. After church you all shake hands and say Bon Sabot and such things. When you are entering a room full of people socializing you shake hands and say their local greeting of Lapiea and they respond with Lapia-i.e. Something really funny to do is with the kids and Lapia. Most the kids are very shy and scared of us white people. (Can you really blame them they don’t ever see white people and we have funny hair and faces with colorful eyes.) So when you are passing by them you say Lapeia and stick our your hand, they being respectful kids must come over and respond with Lapeia-i.e and shake your hand. It’s so funny because they are just SO scared some...

I am alive. Isn’t that good to hear? I think so; in fact I am glad to hear it myself. We arrived in Tchad on Tuesday evening and my body was really confused as to what time it was and where I was. My luggage didn’t arrive so we decided to stay Wednesday night as well. On Wednesday we went to get our visa stuff taken care of. It was really funny because we were sitting there and I hear a phone ring, but it was my ring in the states. I thought I had turned it off and left it in my suitcase at the mission compound we were staying at. It turns out I did, and the man who works at the gov office has the same ring. Cell phones are huge here. They can text, surf the web if they want and they can call people. Amazing. So here I thought I wouldn’t hear “my ring” for a whole year and I hear it more than I thought. My luggage came Wednesday night thankfully! And we left the mission compound Thursday morning. Crazy trip from N’djamena to Kelo, then on to Bere. CRAZY!!! We sat and wai...

i can't believe i am leaving now. i feel like i have been waiting for this moment and BAM now it's here. well here goes nothing! i think the reason i am more afraid this time(as compared to when i went to honduras) is because as someone pointed out to me, my eyes are WIDE open. I know what all this involves! i have seen the hardships, i have cried because of them, i've been out one year and i have worked in the student missionary office for two. i know full well what i have gotten myself into. yet i still go. my fear will subside, i've already started praying that God take it away, and He is. the next time i write i will be in tchad, africa. and just so you know that's a minimum of 16 hours by plane not to mention who knows howmany hours by car/bus/moter car. i can't wait! i do not say goodbye, i say see you later. so. . . "See you later"

I went with my mom and brother to Pei Wei, an asian resturant, the other day when I got back to Texas. I had some spicy food, but my favorite part was the end when I got my fortune cookies! Let me state for the record that I am not a person who places my whole life with these but I must state that they were pretty good (tasting) and fun to read. They gave me a lot to think about so I thought I would share them with you all. 1. A secret admirer will soon send you a sign of affection . thought: hurry and send me something if you are reading this you secret admirerer ;o) Besides they say it takes about 2 months to get a package and several weeks to get a letter and I really want snail mail letters!!!!!!! HINT HINT 2. You will become a great philanthropist in your later years . thought: nuts, guess an international social worker will be poor, at least till my later years when I make millions of dollars. . .okay we all know I will never be rich. But that is my choice, well I wouldn't ...

I have only a few more days left in the states, I'm eating my last taste of American resturants for a long time. I am enjoying my last bit of airconditioning, big beds, family and TV. I am excited, just afraid all at the same time. Hehe, I just thought that maybe it's like emotional dierria~eww. Okay uncalled for. I apoligize. I was reduced to by my water filter and head lamp at a BASS store, you know a fish store!! I come from Chattanooga, TN the town with abillion great outdoors shops, Rock Creek and others and I get to Texas and I have to go to a fish store to get my stuff! All well, I got a really cool filter. It's called a SteriPen. You put it in the water and stir the UV rays kill anything that could get me. Shoot, it even can tell if there is arsnic in the water. So I am safe with the filter and I can see in the dark with the headlamp. Cool. I'm set. I bought stuff at the evil walmart yesterday too. I bought about 8 boxes of that crystal light powder mix stuff, ...