La Sonya

I love Christmas here. My famil goes all out. I’ll tell you about it soon. Just wanted to let everyone know that all is well here. I feel the Christmas spirit and it’s beautiful. My famil has been working for the last few days to prep for yesterday and today’s activities/feasts. They included a lamb, lettuce, peanut oil and lots of people. Hope that’s enough to wet your appittite for my upcoming blog about it all!! Just so you know I am heading out tomorrow after Liz and I work the night shift at the hospital. The 4 of us (Hans, Esther, Liz and me) are going on our big adventure to Camaroon. Yup, that’s right we are going international! Ohh, Ahhh, Ohhh!!! I know it’s exciting and new. Doesn’t get better than that! I will hopefully have internet so I will have some new blogs up and hopefully some new pics as well! Pray for us on our journey we’ll be back the 3rd –ish of 2000 and 8!!!. Thanks. Love you all!!

Is a blue heron clean or unclean?

Thanks Joe, Will, Kenny and the amazing Christine!!! My kids went nuts over it. It took them only a small amount of time to catch on, then it was like wild fire. We played it 5 times and I won all but one. Must be all the language study helping my brain. They all wanted to win so badly we ended up playing into the night by the glow of the moon! Luckily the cards are huge – the size of a Christmas greeting card. *champ = field Can I just state for the record that there are no starving student missionaries at my ut. It is such a huge battle to fight sometimes. They are a giving culture and fat is beautiful. So sometimes not only do I have my Ama telling me to eat the whole huge plate of rice, potatoes, beans, or whatever the meal might be sometimes the kids join in! Then I’ve got Nano saying, “Oh Sonya just a bit more” or Clarice telling me I haven’t eaten anything yet! Sometimes at breakfast Mature will talk to Ama way over by the kitchen hut and say – in French – that I don’t have much...

Sometimes I’m a little scared. I feel God calling me to be a prayer warrior here. Constantly I see a need and feel a pull. The millions of kids that need to see Jesus and know true love. Those who work at the hospital, our plan for a VBS/FLAG (Fun Learning About God) camp in the spring, my kids and famil, Liz, Hans, Esther, where God is leading me here in Béré, and after. Not to mention all my friends at the hospital. Esrom—the first person I’ve ever given any form of Christian literature to all because He wanted something to occupy his time. He is now reading Steps to Christ in French and he loves it! All of the people I’m communicating with back home. I feel a huge fear because I don’t know how to do this. I’ve stopped getting up so early – well at least not at 4:45 anymore and the early mornings aren’t always regular. I know God can provide but prayer is a big deal. And sometimes well, a lot I’m afraid I won’t do it or I’ll just fail. Forgive me my self doubt. Give me strength. I do...

I figured out why lots of meats taste like chicken – because chickens eat everything! They’ve eaten spaghetti, rice and a plethora of other things I have dropped from the table while I am eating. I’ve even seen them eat frogs too! Who knows what else they’ve eaten. Hense the reason lots of things taste like chicken. . . or is it chicken taste like lots of things and what we say taste like chicken doesn’t really taste like chicken but frog or something else. Thoughts to ponder from Africa. Our lives are changing again!! We’re turning into a real live mission hospital. If all continues to go as planned we will have a real live pilot and his family all complete with a real mission plane. Wendy and Gary (fellow comrade graduates from Southern) are moving here to start work on a mission plane program here in Africa, the same organization that David Gates started in South America. Their kids are so cute and sweet. Even more people here who speak English. We now have our own tribe of people,...

I keep forgetting that next week is the week of Christmas! It seems to be just flying by us all. Soon it will be my big birthday the huge-O 25!! Yippie, start sending the over the hill cards now :O) I hope that during this time you are all able to take some time and turn off all the electricity, run down your computer batteries and sit by a fire with those you love and just be. It is the greatest thing in the world. I wish it for all of you. In that time of no electricity I also suggest that you talk about all the amazing things God has done for you in your year. Trust me there is a lot that He has done for you, just look. While I am celebrating my hot holiday here, dancing to my Topouri music I will think of all of you, and pray that one day we can all sit together in front of the fire and turn off the electricity and just be.

I know that with the holidays coming it is harder and harder to sit down at a computer to write. So to help us all out with communication I have created some ready made notes. All you have to do is cut and paste, fill in if needed and send to sreaves@southern.edu . If you want to make it even easier all you have to do is reply to this blog, just know that I can’t reply to you unless you leave your email address. Enjoy the holidays. Ready made note for those who have a little bit of time (cut and paste): My dearest Sonya, It has been _______ since I last saw you. I read your blog (once in a while/ never/ ALWAYS) _______ . It always makes me feel ________. I wanted to take a moment to let you know that _____________. And that I have a ________. I hope to see you again when you return. I love you (more than I love cheese/ like I love my brother/ truly madly deeply) ___________. Signed, forever your avid ________... Or for those of you who don’t have any time at all to write: Hey Sonya, S...

Started an iv the other day. Found out today I can’t start them anymore, because I am not a trained nurse. Fine with me because less responsibility for me. Having a Christmas staff appreciation day for the staff – hence the title staff appreciation. We are going to show the nativity story in English because apparently the French in france could care less about organized religion. But we are going to read the story in French and nadjere before the movie starts. Swallowed a tiny pill last night before I went to bed with out water, not the first time i’ve done it and now it’s stuck in my throat. Ugg. It hurts. Don’t know how to get it out. Any ideas? I’ve been teaching Mowgli to shake, but I call it Lapia. Not to bad so far. I’m also working on sit and speak. But I don’t really know how to do that. Any ideas?

I love knowing that I am being prayed for. Do you know the feeling? It’s a deep love from people because they love you enough to ask God to help you. It’s a feeling of being remembered by those you think of often. It’s a sense of peace because you have lots of people petitioning God for you, the more the better. There is power in prayer. Thank you for taking the effort to pray for me. Know that you too are in my prayers from Africa.

Last Thursday Sarah (Appel) and I went to Lie (I have no idea how to spell it I just know it is said Lie) to get some more meds from the public med place. Two of the nurses came with us because they weren’t working and wanted to visit their family there. It was a nice little drive, just 30 min on the road going away from Kelo and N’djamena. Then you get to the river right on the outside of the village and you can pay to take the truck across or you can get out and take a canoe and just carry the stuff back, it’s not far to the market and pharmacy. So in order to save 3,000 CFA we took the canoe. The village is nice; it’s bigger than our little back in the bush, Béré. The market was open and we got to look at a bunch of material to make curtains for the new rooms. Then we ate some beef noodle pasta stuff at a restaurant. (I tell you I am turning more and more into a carnivore every day! Not that I like beef) we loaded up on all our supplies and headed back, as we got cozy in our canoe t...

Long time no talk! We’ve been pretty busy here. Last Thursday Liz, Esther and I moved into the big American house! Our friend, Allison, who has been staying with Rich and Anne, needed a place to stay while Anne and Richard went up to N’djamena for some meetings. So we volunteered to stay with her in the house so she wouldn’t have to be along. Ahh, nuts all five of us getting to stay under one roof for a whole week . . . :o) Needless to say it wasn’t like pulling teeth. So we are now on Tuesday and we will go back to our respected huts on Thursday evening. Let’s get honest now. I have decided that the two places of living have their ups and downs. I will list them starting with the Hut: Hut + Speak French Not worry about cooking food Own living space I get to love a family I understand the culture much faster I am exposed to the culture Hut – Harder to see the others Feel guilty about not spending time with my hut fam. Pressure to eat all of the food Certain eating times N...

Ramadan came back yesterday for his next dose of meds for TB. It was so nice to see him again. It’s amazing how much better he looks. I think if I was in the states right now I’d be mailing things all the time. I’d plant a garden, go camping, and participate in Sabbath School and Church. I’d clean and decorate my house. I’d live and love all those around me. I’d feed lots of people – always, I’d open my home to those in need and I’d give thanks everyday to God for His providing all of that.

I’ve been letting my mind wander lately about what I’ll be doing next year. It’s so amazing and exciting because I know God is guiding in my life. I’ve got camp to go back to – Praise God for camp Alamisco. But after that who knows?! I emailed Boston College about reapplying. We’ll see what he says. I could settle down again in Collegedale area and work, maybe Colorado is still calling my name to work as an adventure based counselor. Perhaps I’ll go west to California or East to New England. Really I’m willing to go wherever God leads. Because wherever He leads things are bound to happen. I’ve got not fear in Christ. Look at how He’s lead in the past – SAU for 5 years with hard times, Honduras for a year, my internships for school – all 3! Working at camp Alamisco and all the great friends I have from there. He’s led me here to Tchad. A place where He has taken me out to the wilderness so that he can speak tenderly to my heart and create me to be a true woman of God. By looking at all ...

Four months tomorrow. I can’t decide if that’s a long time or not :o) A day or so ago I watched the livestock network again. It was called Fowl Play. The chickens were everywhere. They were searching for food but in the process they would get angry at each other. The mother hen would cluck and peck at any other chick that came close to her chickens. The “teenage” chicks would pick random fights with each other. When they did they would circle each other then run at each other and chest butt/claw at each other then repeat. Chickens are strange yet tasty. . . I’ve had more poultry since being here than I think ever in my life –maybe. On Sunday I helped pluck a pentad- guinea fowl and watched Ama heat it to get all the feathers out – which are amazing to look at and see how they grow. Then I helped her cut it so she could prep it for the sauce. Not to bad tasting either.

We’ve gotten reports from the northern states of the USA that snow has already fallen in droves. Well I’ll have you know the mornings around 4:45am I’ve had to put on my hoodie, socks and pants most every day since Turkey Day. It’s gotten quite cold. A frigid 70F. I’m glad I brought my Alamisco hoodie other wise I’d freeze! Mock us if you must for being cold with 70F temp but we’ve embraced it for the winter temp it is. Besides when the sun isn’t there to warm you get cold. My only concern now is how am I ever going to survive in the AC? I remember the summer I came back from Honduras. I worked for FLAG (Fun Learning About God) camp on a traveling team and every Sunday when we drove I had to ware a long sleeve shirt in the van and take it off when we got out because my team wouldn’t let me turn the AC off, they kept saying something about it being hot in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina in July . . . go figure.

That’s what my famil did last night. And I enjoyed every min of it. Nano wanted to listen to Topouri music last night on my cassette tape player. So we did and of course we listened to some good dancing music. They all said I danced well – so HA! SDA bad rhythm and white girl syndrome. They were joking and saying, “Oh, Sonya you’ve been to Fianga [their village]” and in translating the song Ama said it said, “Sonya dances well, welcome Sonya to Fianga”. I told them it was because I live with people from Fianga and I eat their food. We all laughed and danced some more. While I was dancing I thought about Adventist and how as a church they don’t encourage dancing. I’m not sure what our local church things but to me being there with my famil under the stars dancing to music on an old cassette tape by the glow of a lantern I knew Jesus would have done the exact same. At that time it was all about a relationship with them, about knocking down barriers there will be time for doctrine later. ...