2 1/2 Weeks in Francophone Africa

What a whirlwind! Here was my itinerary during the past few weeks (including layover cities): Colorado Springs – Atlanta – Amsterdam – Cape Town – Johannesburg – Lubumbashi – Nairobi – Yaounde – Nairobi – Johannesburg – Cape Town – Paris – Atlanta – HOME!

I began my trip with one day in Cape Town on my way to West Africa, and a ½ day on the way back. I filled that time seeing old friends Mark St. Pol, Fritz van der Lecq, Mawethu and Lisa Ncaca, and Heather Lane. If you have followed our blog since we started it – when we moved to South Africa in 2007 for my two years of studies at the University of Cape Town – then these will be familiar faces.

Next stop: four days with Dr. Jean-Marie Nkonge and his family in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. It was a privilege to be a guest in his home and to enjoy the warm hospitality of his wife and two daughters as well as the sights, sounds, and flavors of the DR Congo’s second largest city. Dr. Nkonge is the Francophone Programs Director for our Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership program and a wonderful man to work with. We talked for hours and hours about all aspects of our program – what is working, what needs improvement, and how we can be more effective.

From there, Dr. Nkonge and I traveled to Yaounde, Cameroon, where we convened a gathering of the presidents and program coordinators of our eight academic partners in Francophone Africa. The Masters program was created ten years ago by DAI and is administered globally by me and my team of seven others. Although it is “our” program, our purpose is to create academic partnerships with local Christian academic institutions in the developing world who accredit the program and assist us in administering it on their campuses.

The program began 10 years ago with three partners, one of those in French-speaking Africa. We now have 17 partners in 18 countries throughout Asia and Africa. In French-speaking Africa, the program is now taking place in the following countries: Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Chad, Senegal, Central African Republic, and Cameroon.

We had a wonderful meeting with the presidents and program coordinators of our Francophone partners. Organized by Dr. Nkonge, the meeting was a wonderful time for relationship-building and fellowship, as well as to examine the program in these contexts in order to share what’s working, what’s not, and to discover how we can provide a stronger program in these countries. It was a wonderful time to connect with these amazing men and women. They are doing much with very little. I have great respect for each one of them, and am grateful to be partnering with them.

What would be a visit to Cape Town without time with these guys?! Mark St. Pol and Fritz van der Lecq.

Mawethu and Lisa Ncaca, dear friends of ours from our Cape Town days (2007-09).

Another close friend Heather Lane, with Hannah.

Jean-Marie and his daughters brought me to a local game park to see the animals.

We stopped on the way home from the game park to buy sugar cane from a little girl who was selling it alongside the road. My first time trying it - fibrous but sweet!

Jean-Marie and Esperance with two of their four children, Rachel and Laura. They were wonderful hosts during my four-day stay in their home in Lubumbashi, DR Congo.

Game park pix.

From DRC to Yaounde, Cameroon, for a three-day meeting with the presidents and local program administrators of our 8 French-speaking academic partners. 

Dr. Jean-Marie Nkonge, our Francophone Programs Director, on the left; I'm on the right. Two attendees/academic partner presidents in the middle.

Many of the taxis had messages on their rear bumpers, such as this one. Others included "Love Jesus," "Prudence," or Bible verses.

A typical roadside shop in Yaounde, Cameroon.

"Emergency stinky!"

Ever since a neighbor two doors away had a house fire (in January; thankfully during a snowy spell so it didn't spread, but the house is being gutted and renovated), Timo has been increasingly fascinated with emergency vehicles. Like a lot of little boys, he always notices a siren in the distance when we are outside, and he loves playing with his fire trucks and police cars, and talking about fire hoses and "everybody safe".

One morning this week we were playing in the living room when he looked up at me suddenly and said, "Emergency stinky, Mommy!" He collected all his rescue vehicles next to the diaper changing table and used his hammer as a telephone, "Timo talk phone. Emergency."

Now, what would make this story even more impressive is of course if this was the impetus to get him started on potty training... But nope. We're still in the "prep phase" - talking about it a lot, sitting on the potty in clothes, reading books about the potty, waving bye-bye to poop (from diapers) in the toilet, etc. He hides behind his treehouse or a chair when he's gong poop in his diaper. But he has a ways to go before he really starts wearing underwear. Okay, this is too much information for the readers. Suffice to say, it will happen one day! (But going to take a bit longer than it did with Gemma!)

Meanwhile, look who turned 4 months old, and is started to hold onto toys a bit more! Mostly slobbering all over his fingers.
 

Timo was in a clean diaper at this point but still talking about the emergency. He looks so much like Gemma here, I think.

When Jim is away

Jim is currently off on a 18 day trip (for work), with time in South Africa, DRC [Congo], one night in Kenya, and Cameroon. I'll let him write more about it in a forthcoming post. Though we aren't able to get a hold of him on the phone whenever we like or know with regularity when he will contact us (because some of these locations do not have consistent electricity), he has been able to phone us once, email three or four times, and we even got to Skype this morning. Timo was very excited to see Daddy on the screen, and immediately said, "Daddy play Timo? Daddy read books Timo?" Every day that Jim has been gone Timo has asked three or four times, "Daddy home now?"

While Daddy has been away, Timo has taken to wearing his "sunshine hat" most of the days, inside and outside. It's a wool cap that Jim got in Nepal on a trip in 2013. Here he is having a snack - an especially exciting snack because I let him get out a spreader and eat bites of peanut butter straight from the jar.

We got about a foot of snow right before Jim left, and another few inches in the days immediately following. So during Mats's morning nap, I got my daily exercise shoveling and sweeping snow, while Timo would stomp around and explore and try to shoot hoops in the backyard. It was between 10-20 degrees all last week, but Timo never complained while outside (except to cry when I told him we couldn't take the sled and go for a walk, leaving Mattias inside by himself!).

"Ohhh, huge snowball, Mommy. Timo throw!"

Suffice to say, we have spent most of our days so far hanging around home. We did get out of the house once to the library and once to the grocery store, and to church on Sunday morning - wow! I talked to other adults! ...on Jim's previous trips, I discovered that being a single parent is really tiring because there's no break, and no one to come in and relieve the troops. Troop, that is. By the end of the day, I've finally got both boys in bed and then... walk in the kitchen to wash a big pile of dishes and then into the living room to fold a pile of laundry. Let's just say that I give myself a lot of positive reinforcement in the form of dark chocolate to get through those tasks.

This time around I knew what to expect and I made sure the fridge was fully stocked and I had plenty of pre-made meals in the freezer. It has helped SO much to not spend a lot of time cooking and doing meal prep. And it helps that Timo is a great eater - tonight for supper we had black beans & rice, and salad. He ate a bowl of rice & beans, and then chowed down on salad. I'm pretty sure he ate as much as I did. (What do you think of that, Auntie Rachel?!) It may be a twisted mothering thing, but when my children are sleeping well and eating well, I feel so proud and happy.

Enough for now, I need to finish folding the laundry and have my nightly cup of rooibos tea!!

"Jesus book"

Recently we have started reading The Big Picture Story Bible with Timo (the one that Gemma loved and wore the spine out on!). Like Gemma, he will also sit with Daddy for a long time and read chapter after chapter; they haven't read it cover-to-cover yet, though! And in fact he gets the book out himself and looks through it even more often. "Timo read Jesus book," he'll say, and lug it out and sit on the floor, turning pages and examining the drawings. (Thank you, Gail Schoonmaker, for your colorful and interesting illustrations.)

Note: I brushed Timo's hair with a part briefly before this photo, and a few minutes later he put his hand up and rearranged it, quite purposefully, to do away with the part...

And what's chubby-cheeked Mattias up to, in the meantime? Oh, just trying to grab toys and slobbering all down his front.

Brotherhood, 3 months in

Almost 4 months in. Timo has changed from calling his brother "Bobby" (his pronunciation of "baby") to now: " 'ti-tas." Tee-tas. On occasion, "Mats". Mahts. Or Mats. 

Mattias absolutely LOVES to watch Timo playing. When Timo is not reading books, he's racing and crashing his cars in the living room. "Oh, big crash! Mommy, big accident! 'mergency!" Mattias sits in his bouncy seat or Bumbo seat and takes it all in. Now that Mattias is starting to hold onto toys and tries to put things in his mouth to slobber on, Timo sometimes brings him toys (or bonks him on the head with them).

Meanwhile Timo LOVES to "snuggle" with Mattias, e.g. crush him or lie on top of him. I have to bite my tongue sometimes from saying, "Timo, No!" and just let them crush each other for a few seconds before I gently step in. (I usually fail at gentleness on my part, and I can't help but call out and rush over. It won't be too long before Mattias catches up in size & weight, though!) Timo also likes to try and help Mattias roll over when he is laying on his stomach. Actually he is getting pretty good at helping him. Mattias rarely cries at that; he just looks surprised.

The best part of the day for the two of them is right before Timo's naptime. They both sit in the rocking chair ("Timo hold 'ti-tas. Mommy sing baby song.") and suck their fingers/thumb, and I sing a song or two, and then we say good-night to Timo.