A Camel event

Camels! We saw a lot of camels on this Dogon country trip. We counted nearly 20 during it.

This video comes from Isaaca's family's courtyard. Isaaca is one of our believers here in Kadiolo. He was excited about us going to the conference in Dogon land because he could show us some of the sights there, and see his family.

We got to their courtyard, and didn't have much time. But they served us a very nice lunch, and then invited Caleb to ride their camel. As you can see in the video clip, the camel did not want to submit to crouching down, and protested very loudly!Understandably, Caleb didn't want to get on him after seeing this camel screaming, and acting up.

So we compromised. We all got in front of it for a picture!We did convince one of the village kids to get on the camel, and the camel did buck a bit! So maybe its a good thing Caleb didn't try to get on. Need I say that neither Ben, Lisa, Emily nor I were interested in getting on?

Unfortunately I couldn't make the video clip work. Sorry.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa

Trip to Dogon Country

Hi. You may have heard about our return from the trip to Dogon land. (Dogon people live up north near Mopti, Gao, San, etc. Many people were aware that Lisa was robbed on her way back to Bamako. Thanks for your prayers for her. She was not hurt, but lost passport, money, etc. We weren't sure she'd be able to go on to Dakar for schoolboard meetings. She was able to get a passport done same day! And she is in Dakar now.

But did you hear about what was good on the trip? Or did you see any pictures? No.
So here is a synopsis.

This past week we travelled to a village near Mopti to attend a CMA conference. (Christian Misionary Alliance.) It was a neat experience as far as the conference went, and Lisa was excited to see Dogon Country with fancy mosques, and cliff dwellings, as well as the River boats that leave Mopti to go upriver as far as Timbuktu. Emily was travelling with us, as well as 2 national believers.

Here are some of the sights we saw.

Grand Mosque at Mopti

Boats on the Niger river

This is a Mosque in a little village we went to.
Amazing how much money and effort went into it
from these poor village people.

We did have a long travel back by local buses and taxi buxes. (A taxi bus is a van with a license for 22 passengers!) A bus is like what you think of when you think greyhound. Minus the toilet, and 5 seats to a row instead of 4. You may ask why it is easy to have things stolen at a bus station. The two pics here of loading our taxi bus may explain that a bit. These stations are chaotic! People hanging all over you. You're not sure who actually works with the bus company, who is an innocent passenger like yourself, and who is up to no good! It is difficult to discern.

Here are a few transport/bus station pictures!

Loading up!

It does look a bit congested, doesn't it?

Here are the 7 of us in front of one of our transports!


So what do you do in a bus station when you have to wait a long time? We arrived in Mopti, on a little taxi bus, and had to wait 4 hours for our real bus to take us out of there to Koutiala, (where a guest house with hot water showers awaited us). My boys are armed with gameboy.

What is so interesting that all these kids want to see?

Oh---- Gameboy!

Now you've seen a bit of Mali that you may have never seen before!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Tom & Lisa Seward

Hilary's 16th Birthday

Hi. Just to be brief, here are a few pics from the week of Hilary's birthday.
We enjoyed having her home, we all had a good time together. She's back at school in Dakar now.
Her next break is in March sometime.

Birthday Girl. 16 and happy!

Churning Ice Cream!

We all had a turn, it takes about 40 min or so...

Twister!
You have to use your imagination sometimes.

We pulled out this twister game, and the kids had a fun time playing with neighbor kids.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tom & Lisa Seward

Baptism at Fourou

Baptism. Hi. Last Sunday, the drama team asked me if I could drive them to Fourou. Three men were being baptized. One of them accepted Christ when the drama team did evangelism at Bougani. He later moved to Fourou, and has been an active part of that church. He was being baptized, so the team wanted to be there to encourage him. They also prepared a special theatre peice to do for the people there.



So we loaded up the truck...



The baptism went just fine, and then the church had a nice meal prepared for us. We even ate twice. (After we finished eating the church food, a lady brought us another meal. She had been sick at the hospital in Kadiolo, and our church visited her and fed her, so she wanted to give us this meal gift as a thank you. So we ate again!!)








Breakdown! We started back to Kadiolo, but the truck began to sputter, and died. We've been struggling with a starter problem for a month or so now. The mechanic keeps fixing it, and the rough roads seem to joggle it loose again. Anyway, when the car died, we were'nt able to start it, so had to puch start it. We did this 3 times, later on down the road, about 20 min from Kadiolo, it died again, but this time it would not push start, so we sat down on the side of the road.

We had a motorbike accompanying us, because I didn't have enough seats for everyone. So we sent him on to Kadiolo to send our mechanic out to help us.









So we laughed and joked a lot while waiting for the mechanic to come.

I said, "you won't ask me for a ride again! This is my strategy, every time you ask me the car will break down!" They laughed and said "if you really had any strategy, you would have sent us out with your sick car and you would have stayed home, but look! You're sitting on the roadside along with us!"



Before too long, the mechanic came. I explained the symptoms, and he found a fuel hose that had come undone. Motors don't do too well without fuel! So he put it back together, and we drove into Kadiolo! The car is back to working again.



It was a joy to be broken down with good friends after a good day of ministry in Fourou.
Not the kind of day I'd planned, but great just the same.

Before you think I'm too spiritual, you should know that we do get stressed about things that don't work, and it is not pleasant to have your car break down on the side of the road.
And that my reaction is not always as "spiritual" as one should be.
But this day was so good at Fourou, and the company was so good, that God gave me a special grace, and we did enjoy the experience.



Thanks for stopping by!

Tom & Lisa Seward

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007

So much happened over Christmas, here are a bunch of pictures to help you visualise how the celebration went here in Kadiolo. :-)

Caleb sang with his Sunday School class. I uploaded the video yesterday, but while the video include the motions and sound, it was not a close-up picture. We gave a candy packet to all the Sunday School kids at church.

The women sang as well. They love to sing in Bambara, or Senoufo. (each language has a very different musical style!) These women were really glowing with joy Christmas eve!

Of course, if you are going to a big celebration, you have to get dressed up. Lisa, Hilary, and Emily all did their hands and feet with henna. It lasts a week or so, but is considered beautiful the day of the celebration.

What celebration is complete without food? We had a potluck at church. An african potluck is different than an American one. Everyone still brings food, but plates are made up and served to each person. Here is Emily in the forground with Pastor Youssouf, Pastor Ibrahim, and a few others. Karin is there, too. Hilary and Lisa in the background.

Plates were made up like this one. Chicken, and rice or noodles for most people. They even gave us a spoon to eat with! (I don't know about you, but I'm not too into eating with my fingers. Pizza, ok. Rice with a gooey sauce, no...) :-) This was my plate. Really good food!

I was asked to preach Christmas morning. I'm wearing the Christmas uniform. The church (global) in Mali orders a special fabric made for Christmas most years. This year, Ben, Tom, Caleb all had a shirt made. Hilary had a skirt, Emily and Lisa had dresses made. When the clothes came back, the tailor had made me a hat as well. It was a special occasion, so I wore it.

The banners behind me where made by Lisa as her gift to the decorations for Christmas at church this year. Nice Job! Dieu est avec nous. (God is with us.) and on the right, in Bambara.

We were blessed this Christmas by friends who came to church to celebrate. This is me with our neighbor, Bamba. He came with two of his children, and I think enjoyed the celebration a lot.

He stayed a couple of hours, but his daughters stayed later with Lisa to dance. Dancing is a big part of a Christmas celebration, you know. I don't imagine that your church held a late night Christmas Eve dance, but that is how we celebrate here. It is a joyous time where hymns are played up tempo, and the people dance unto the Lord.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas. May God bless you in all the things that matter eternally in 2008!

Thanks for stopping by,

Tom & Lisa Seward