well toto, we’re not in the village anymore!

My fondest memories of Africa include sleeping in a dung hut, waking up to a rooster crowing, and crawling out of my mosquito netting to see the beautiful African sunrise across the bright, clear sky........Boy, was I in for a surprise here in the bustling seaport city of Freetown!

I have so much to explain about my first few days here, yet so little time to do it, so I’ll try to hit the highlights. I arrived into Freetown late last Tuesday night. Thankfully, I did not suffer from much jetlag, and so was ready to go Wednesday morning. I was taken to meet the neighbors. Right next to our compound are two tiny tin shacks, which are home to close to 20 people. Afterwards, we went for a walk around our area of town, and down to the nearest market. Although we technically live in Freetown, we are more on the outskirts so it is less busy, but I can definitely tell I’m in a big city.

The next few days were pretty similar, taking walks around town to get acquainted with things, attempting to learn as much as possible about the culture, building relationships with the neighbors, and preparing for Sunday’s church service, which is held in the front of our compound. It went well, although since it is outside we have a big tarp covering for protection from the sun, and it was so windy that it nearly blew off, causing an almost constant distraction, especially for the children’s service, but we made it through.

Today I had my first adventure into “Freetown proper,” or the main, downtown area of the city. It was crazy! I think our driver almost killed us on at least three occasions. There really aren’t any road rules at all, but hey....this is Africa! After we got back home (safely, thankfully), we had our first language lesson. Although there are several languages spoken here in Freetown, the most common and widely used is Krio, a creole language that blends broken English with over 20 different African languages, although the English is predominant. It’s strange because once you start to understand it, it’s really just a slang, jumbled up English with improper grammar (according to our standards). In some ways it should be easy to learn, since many words are the same or at least similar to ours, but at the same time it is very difficult to get pronunciation right and to teach yourself to speak with a grammar that you’ve always been taught was incorrect. But it definitely means a lot to the people here that we are willing to learn, so I’m trying my hardest to get it down.

Anyways, I’m sure by now you’re tired of reading, so I’ll try and wrap things up. On Wednesday we have a children’s service where I will be starting Chronological Bible Storying, so pray that God can use me through that and that the children will be able to understand. Thanks again for your continued prayer and support.