Aaron and Amy Speitelsbach Missionaries in West Africa Plunging into a new culture without getting drowned
On October 6th we began our "new life" in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Since then we feel like 4 year old kids who do not know how to behave nor how to eat, nor how to communicate more than on a surface level!
This can make even the simplest living really stressfull. But fortunately we have a really neat host-family who takes care of us and explains to us everything step by step. That way we hope to grow faster than a 4 year old child, and be mature in about a year! 
As a matter of fact, it seems that we are adopting fast to our new environment, the extremely hot food with lots of rice and the temperature with its humidity.
We have gotten to know a lot of new people and are trying now to find out how to interact appropriately, while making new friends.
Back form 2 week survey trip
In the midst of our French studies here in France, we had the opportunity to visit the Glaro people in Ivory Coast, among whom we will work as church planters.
We had a busy schedule visiting different villages and people where we were offered traditional food and drinks. As you can imagine, we experienced much more than we ever could express in words.
It is about a 12 hour drive from the main city to where the Glaro people live. It is not necessarily a long distance, but rather the roads are in "rough" shape, making this trip a test of patience and endurance. However, most of the roads we took did look much better than the one in the little picture above.
The Glaro people gave us a very warm welcome and were glad to hear that the work which had begun before the evacuation in 2002 would resume soon. Lesley Wolfe, one of the missionaries who started the work there, was with us during that trip. She has just recently returned to the village where she will be working on translating the Bible while awaiting our arrival in Ivory Coast.
We were surprised to see that there is a big diversity of ethnic groups living in those villages in the middle of nowhere. Often, they can only communicate between themselves in French. This made it quite evident that it is indeed important to have a very good grasp on the French language. Therefore, we will continue our study of French in the city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast after our arrival there in the fall of 2008.
To see pictures from our trip, go the the photos tab and look under the Glaro people.
Survey Trip in April 2008
We are excited about our upcoming survey trip in April, but would also appreciate your prayers.
Please pray for both safety and health in this trip, good interaction with the Glaro people, and wisdom in making decisions for the future.
We are hoping to locate the best place for our future ministry, as well as working out some logistics, such as where we can buy what kind of supplies, or where we can get access to the internet, or where to withdraw money…. and so on.
You can also pray for Lesley Wolfe, our co-worker, who is in Ivory Coast right now, and will be moving into a Glaro village soon.
Survey trip to the Glaro People
We are quite encouraged by our progress in learning the French language. By now we are able to understand quite a lot, even though communicating back is still challenging.
To make further plans for settling in among the Glaro people in Ivory Coast, it became apparent that a survey trip would be necessary. In mid April, during a school break here in France, we will fly down to Ivory Coast for 2 weeks.
Our co-worker Lesley Wolfe has been there for a few months by now and both her and a member of the NTM leadership in Africa will join us for this trip.
Please pray for both safety and health in this trip, good interaction with the Glaro people, and wisdom in making decisions for the future. We are hoping to locate the best place for our future ministry, into which Lesley would then soon be moving.
We then hope to join Lesley in the fall or winter of 2008, after finishing language school in France and making a short visit to the US.
The little things in life…
As you know, various items to which we are accustomed in the U.S. cannot be purchased here in France. For instance… Breakfast Sausage!
Even though French food feeds pretty good, sometimes we still have that craving for some real American food – such as sausage, biscuits, and gravy! But where do you get the sausage???
Well, sometimes… you just have to make your own!!!! In a recent experiment based on a recently discovered recipe, I managed to make breakfast sausage out of ground hamburger. And, believe it or not, it actually taste very close to "real" sausage. Matter of fact, I do believe that was the best "sausage gravy" that I personally ever made.
Well, that may not interest all of you, but I do have to say that little things like that can actually be quite exciting while living oversees…
Trying our language skills at an open market in France.
We are looking for some things we can buy that look familiar, but even though we find some, how do you tell somebody how much you want, if you only know the word for 1kilo…
Right, you buy in large quantity!! (1kilo is about 2 pounds) But who wants to eat 2 pounds of fresh green beans at once??
Well, our language skills are improving daily and we understand more and more. That makes life here a little easier.
Other than that I don’t know what else to say… I guess a student life is not that interesting after all. That’s probably why we also sometimes get out for a hike or a bike ride… as you can see in some of our pictures in our Photos.