So I put this off for a while, seems like a fair amount of significant events have passed in the last little while, and writing it all out seems intimidating. I don’t want to overstate or belittle anything. So begins my attempt at and interesting and accurate account of the last few weeks.
BAPTISM. So before I mention the actual baptism you must know of the events precede the event. I had 30 hours of a baptism class, in French, in the heat of the day, rounding my Sunday up to about 6-7 hours at church. It was pretty intense, the subject matter was well organized and not incredibly difficult but again I state that it was all in French which is exhausting. After completing this there were several interviews to evaluate my clarity of mind and biblical knowledge. Again in French and again made for an exhausting day. But after experiencing the actual baptism, I know that it worth it. The baptism was said to start at 6, which came to about 9 or so. The event was attended by an approximate five thousand with around 430 people being baptised. Crowd control was the Chadian boy scout hitting with sticks to drive the crowd back… awesome. They called our names and sat us in columns for rapid deployment. After everyone was seated we had a service. There were 23 church bodies represented, all of which had a representative come up and say something or lead a song. (the next day revealed an awesome sunburn restricted to half of my face) They then filed people out in groups of 20 out to the water, the host pastor said a quick word and all dunked at once. Then it was a pretty quick loud and high energy process, people singing clapping. It was incredible. Path through the crowd to a mass changing area(rice sacks sown together, 20 guys SO tightly packed, it was insanity), I sincerely doubt I’ll ever forget that walk. After changing came the pictures, a lot of people said I was the first white guy to be baptised there, I remain sceptical, but people were really excited to see me do it. A lot of pictures. Then to one church for a service/dance party. Then to our own churches for communion. Lots of people walking with us, it was the closest to celebrity status I will ever be. Then a bunch of people came back to our house for food and song until late at night. I slept like a champ that night.
CHRISTMAS So it was not Christmas. It was a lot of fun and I’m so grateful for the experience I had, but it was not Christmas, I straight missed it this year. Not a complaint! So Christmas here is awesome, not a gifts thing, it’s a family and community party bonanza(pronounced banan-za like part banana… you should be told) Christmas day was basically a 12 hour party starting at 5 pm through the night until the sun began to brighten the sky. It was a ton of singing songs and playing games. They play a lot of follow the leader style songs, they stand in the middle and the circle follows. Lots of reactions games, but all musically oriented. Very cool, very inclusive, very difficult for newcomers who don’t speak the indigenous language… It was really a lot of fun. They bought and killed a whole cow, we ate all night. It was a delicious jovial celebration the way I imagine much more appropriately celebrates Christ’s birth.
VACATION I’m so lazy, I don’t want to write anymore, but if I don’t, I risk forgetting details when I’m 30 (if you know me it’s likely I’ll start forgetting major details in about a week) and international assault from my mother. (if you’re in my mother’s home church group you should talk to her about her rage issues. now mom, read how many people have read this and now think you’re scary). So me and the amazing MCC team my new home town Chad and our team from Burkina Faso went to Benin for “a week”. Our airline cancelled three times. Once delaying our departure and two days adding another 5 days to the tail end of our trip. It was a really nice trip. It was wonderful getting to see the other people working in similar situations. We ate ice cream that almost brought a tear to my eye.(be it actual quality, or the “food tastes better when you’re hungry”) We spent some great time just hanging out, taking it slow. I can’t overstate how nice it was to see everyone. We did take a few day trips to take in a little history, we saw one of the major ports in the slave trade. Saw things like old tree’s the sold slaves would have to walk around as a sign of cleansing( the tree had medicinal elements to it used for cleaning wounds) their lives of Africa. It was pretty shattering. We have a pretty messed up history, and I always wonder what I would I have done if I was there, and what will my great grand kids look at in my life with disgust. We spent new year’s there, which was fun, we spent the whole time on our balcony watching all the little firework demonstrations around us.
GOAT…. I killed a goat. I won’t go into details other than a feel like a little of my inner child has died, but I feel like I’m one step closer to that ever elusive standard of “man”…. Maybe at least I’ll grow in some of the patchier areas of my beard.
Summation: Chad is great; I’m starting to really find some of the charm here. I still find things that make me double take, but I was talking to my mom on the phone and (and after one of her usual screaming fits in which she told me she was going to sell our cat just to upset me) I said that it is starting to feel like I’m living here. Not like I’m spending time here until I go home, but that I need to prepare an exam for my 6eme(one perk of teaching high school in the French system is that everyone calls me prof, I feel important) class and I want to see some of the people i would almost call friends. (I haven’t had the “define the relationship” talk yet, but soon…. Soon.) It’s good, thank you for all of your prayer and support.
