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We recently had the privilege of going through the CUTE workshop here with fellow missionaries who are in the language learning process with us. The principles we learned are part of the Growing Participator Approach by Greg Thompson. The idea is that as we learning language and culture we are growing in our participation as well as our ability to participate in our new community (Senegal). The goal of the workshop was to help us better understand the method we are using for learning French, both the theory behind it and the the practical steps in order to accomplish our goals in language learning. In the mornings we were reviewing, learning and understanding the concepts and practical steps. In the afternoons we were with our nurturer (person who is helping us learn language and culture) putting the new tools into practice. The format was wonderful, in the morning you think you understand it clearly, until you try to actually follow the steps with your nurturer in the afternoon. It really helped solidify the principles and methods so that we will be able to put them to work.

So why CUTE and can these principles get CUTER?
C – Communing – Becoming a real, interesting, valued person in a growing number of host lives
U – Understanding – Becoming someone who host people can talk to and share their burdens with
T – Talking – Becoming someone host people can listen to and interact with
E – Evolving – Is an overarching principle of the first 3 meaning we seek to grow and keep changing as our ability to do the first 3 increases
R – Redemption – How God is at work in our “language learning” to draw people to Himself and change their hearts.

Please pray with us as we go through this process of changing, learning and growing into servants of the church here in Senegal.

From Cute Language Learning Workshop 2012, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 1/24/2012 (4 items)

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From Jada Looses her Frist Tooth, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 1/24/2012 (2 items)

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From Decorating for Christmas 2011, posted by Jonathan-Jenny Roundy on 12/08/2011 (20 items)

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Waly and I at Thanksgiving

I want to share a fun story from our experience of learning culture (way of living or doing life) here in Senegal. I must admit that too often I think of the things that are different from home and that I am having difficulty adjusting to.  When I do this, I miss out on so much that is positive about the culture here in our new home, Senegal.

One of the things that takes up a considerable part of our days here in Senegal is getting our kids to and from school.  We have experimented with different ways of getting this accomplished.  Taking the city bus, taking taxis, taking the bus one way and a taxi the other way, getting a taxi for the round trip etc.  After all of this experimenting,  we were beginning to think about trying to find a taxi driver and make an agreement for him to do the round trip every morning and afternoon for an agreed upon taxi fare.  An aspect of culture here is that you have to barter with the taxi driver for the fare EVERY time.  Each taxi driver may or may not be willing to adjust there fare, so you may have to wait for several taxis to go by.

One evening I was down visiting our friend Waly at the boutique (corner store).  Waly’s friend and neighbor, Mbarick came into the store and was sitting watching TV.  Mbarick then said something to Waly in a local language (Wolof).  Waly then relayed to me that if  I was outside at the bus stop with the kids a few minutes before 7AM that Mbarick would take me and the kids to school each day on his way to work.  Waly noticed that where our kids go to school is on Mbarick’s way to work, and he had asked Mbarick if he would be willing to drop us off at school each morning. (Right now the kids are riding to school with Sharon, who also takes her daughter to the same school each morning, but we wanted to share this story with you to get a window into our world of adjustments.)

This story fits into some of what we have observed here in Senegal which is that people just help each other.  All of the time, not just close friends, but even people they don’t know.  Another example, on our way back from French class we can spend a considerable amount of time at a bus stop.  We started noticing partially full taxis stopping and filling up with people from the bus stop.  We also noticed personal vehicles and even company vehicles stopping and people piling in for a free ride.  We asked our language and culture helper about this and she shared with us that this is common here.  People understand that transportation is hard, especially in our neighborhood, so they pick up those waiting for the bus and take them to the round-a-bout in the neighborhood, which gets them well on their way to where they need to go.

We are so thankful for those that are praying for us as we continue this process of understanding our new context here in Senegal and adapting to the culture here.  It is all so new and different.  We continue to be reminded that we are in a new culture now for just over four months.  This means that, in a lot of senses, we are like four month-olds here in Senegal i.e. we have a TON to learn and we do not know very much.

African version of a Jack-o-Lantern

While our fall festivities didn’t include our usual trip to the pumpkin farm or romp in the leaves, they did include a lot of fun! At Emmanuel & Elena’s school, the senior class put on an evening of fun events and good food!

Elena in the process of winning the sack race against all boys

Jumping for Joy

Jada zipping by on the zipline

James enjoying a grapefruit soda...yep, grapefruit!

These few photos should give you a peek into our first 2 months:

Jenny & Eliane Headed out to Market

Meeting and getting to know Eliane has been an important highlight of our start here in Senegal. Eliane comes to our home every weekday helping me keep the house clean (it’s an endless battle against the dust which is reportedly tame this time of year!), keeping our crowd fed, and offering valuable perspective on life in Senegal. Eliane is a dear sister in Christ and fast becoming a dear friend! We are blessed by her!

Roundys with Jerome and Vildene

Our new church family at L’Eglise Presbytérienne de Hann Maristes has also been a blessing to us. Our pastor and his wife, Jerome and Vildene, have taken care to help us get to know our new city and to get to know life in a new way here. We greatly appreciate their friendship, their patience with us, and their care for us!

James and Jada Supervising the Filling of the Waterbed

Getting settled into our new home has been a team effort, and that’s a team that includes more than just our very cute children! We’re so grateful to our mission team members who worked so hard before and since our arrival to set up our house!

During our first month here we were able to meet many of the NTM missionaries ministering here in Dakar. They welcomed us warmly: after we shared our testimony with the team, the kids enjoyed a sleepover while we got down to business, a game of Settlers!

All Dressed up to Attend the Wedding

The Bride and her Brother Wally

What an honor to attend our neighbor’s wedding! We were invited to celebrate the marriage of our friend Wally’s sister. Our neighbors really know how to have a party–with good food, finely dressed guests and music and dancing long into the night! We really enjoyed being a part of the celebration and getting to meet more of our neighbors!

Emmanuel and Elena Start School at Dakar Academy

James and Jada Start School at L'Ecole ABC

Also in the past 2 months we’ve all started classes. So far Emmanuel and Elena are thriving in their new school! This is an answer to prayer in a huge way! They were very nervous about the new school and it was a bit of an adjustment, but it hasn’t been a rough one. On the contrary, it’s been amazing to hear their accounts of their school day told with such joy! Their school is an American school and all their classes (except for French class) are in English.

James and Jada completed a “vacation course” at their school and the main school year commences this next Monday. They are going to a small school that is held in our church. Their classes are all in French. We have already seen an improvement in their French speaking at home! Thank you for your prayers on behalf of our kiddos!

Jonathan & I have also started classes–French language classes. We meet 2 hours every morning with our French language instructor. Our vocabulary is stretching and expanding daily! We’d appreciate your prayers during this time of intense language and culture acquisition. We will be focusing on this for the next year in order to reach a language level at which we can communicate well with those we minister alongside.

God has brought us many blessings during this difficult time of transition. We are thankful to Him for your prayers and for His presence through the last months and going forward! We look forward to what He will bring us through in the next months!

Getting ready to blow out the candles

With all of our different moves, it seems that we make them before August when Emmanuel’s birthday is, so he usually gets to be the first one to celebrate another year of life in our new context.

Enjoying cake and ice cream with friends

Thank you so much all of you who have been and are praying for our family.  Part of adjusting to our life here in Senegal is to build new friendships.  Emmanuel having friends to invite to his birthday is a direct answer to your prayers for friends for each of us.  Please continue to pray for us as we build relationships here in Senegal.

The force is strong with you young roundy

Boba Fett - loving the dress-ups

We are so excited with Emmanuel for his new bike

Please pray for us as we parent all four of our children through this transition and beyond.  We truly need wisdom from above to parent each one of our children.

Horse Carts are used commonly to transport just about everything

There are lots and lots of cars around town, but these horse drawn carts are a common site.  They carry food, drinks, bricks, cement and all kinds of other things.  The other day we were in a traffic jam at a round about and I saw one of these horse carts right in the traffic jam.  I wonder what the horse thought of the stop and go traffic?

Casino? Yup, its a grocery store

One of the grocery store chains around town is called Casino.  I found it amusing when our host family was driving us around town that the grocery store was called Casino.  We really enjoyed checking things out in this store, because it is air conditioned!  There are not slot machines or black jack tables in here in case you are wondering.