Steve and Casey Cretsinger Experiencing Tribal Missions in Guinea, W. Africa 
I’m combining the first few emails that we sent out during our first week…
15 hours of flying, 5 hours of driving, 5 hours of waiting in airports – and we’re here in Guinea! We did the give boys a little “help” with sleeping and it definitely worked with Micah – I don’t think he remembered the last 6 hours of the trip! Ephraim did surprisingly well on the long journey and we only had a few spilled drinks and moments of thinking “what are we doing?”! Malachi did great as long Mommy stayed right next to him the whole time.
I’ll admit that the heat is a bit overwhelming right now, so we’d appreciate your prayers as we begin to adjust to being hot and sweaty all the time! There are a few fans for during the night, so that was blessing. Micah was awake in the night crying a lot for home, but seems to have forgotten about this morning, so I’m thankful for that. There isn’t power during the day, so right now it’s just HOT.
We’re spending today and tomorrow here in the capital city learning where important places are and doing a bit of shopping for things that we need until our crates arrive. Please be praying for those crates too! We’d really like to see them in the next couple of weeks.
Tuesday morning we’ll head up to see our new house and start getting settled in. The battery on our computer is almost dead and we don’t have a way to charge it at the moment, so this will be the last email until then.
2nd email
Dear Friends,
We’ve made it through our first two days in Guinea – which may not seem like a lot, but we feel like we’ve faced plenty of challenges already!
Our first meal in Guinea was brought to us by our host family – it was really great of them to go to all the effort, but it wasn’t quite the “kid friendly” meal that we were hoping for! It was typical rice and sauce made with fish – fish heads, gills, bones and all! The boys took one look at what was put on their plates and then looked at us with pleading eyes to get rid of it – Ephraim wasn’t quite so polite – he just said “this smells bad”. It’s a little hard to explain in French without being impolite that our kids aren’t real big fans of fish heads.
It’s been a very hot couple of days for us. The only time that there are fans is when there is town power – just a few hours out of the day. Last night there were no fans and the dogs outside were barking like crazy and all of us were awake and I think I hit my first moment of thinking “okay, it’s time for a good cry.” Just then Steve came into the room with a cold rag and put it on my forehead – that’s love, huh? It’s amazing what a difference a fan makes in this heat! We can’t wait for our crates and to get them going!
Please keep praying for the boys. They’ve had a couple of rough nights crying to go home and asking for Gramma’s house. Last night as they were crying, we tried reminding them why we’re here. We said that we need to tell the people about Jesus. Micah said “Can we just do it real quick in the morning and get back on the airplane?” – if only it was that simple!
Today was a day of shopping around the town – looking for a few things that we won’t be able to find where we’ll be living. It was a very long day for all of us!!! There are no traffic lights or stop signs and seemingly no rules for the road except to just honk at people to get out of your way! It was hot, dirty and we were exhausted when we got back. It takes so long to get anywhere and since you have to barter for every price there is no just running in to grab something. You have no idea how much I was missing Target today! We went to the marche’ today – I’m not sure how to even describe it. It’s just shack after shack of vendors but there is no real paths and it goes in circles on the inside, so it’s just suffocating. The people come running at us to sell us everything imaginable because they think we have tons of money. Two seconds after going outside you are surrounding by people all yelling prices at you and trying to get you to take things. The kids totally didn’t understand – men just kept putting toys in their hands and they thought they were being given gifts – what an exhausting experience!!!
Okay, have you had a good chuckle at any of our stories? It’s a little more funny as I write this email, but not much!
Tomorrow we are heading up to our new home – a fun five hour drive with no fast food or rest stops. We are excited to see our new house though. It will be nice to unpack our totes and start to feel a little settled. We’ve been assured that our hosts will have lots of African food waiting for us! It may seem like a silly thing but I am really struggling with not having a fridge or a freezer. It’s really hard to think about what to make for meals that our kids will eat without anything you’d use from a fridge. Please be praying that I won’t get too frustrated with how things are.
3rd email
Hello Everyone,
It’s been a week today since we’ve been gone, but there are times when it feels so much longer. We’re covered with bug bites and rashes, but we’re still alive. I’ve decided to keep our emails pretty real and let you know exactly how we’re feeling and what we’re facing.
We arrived at our house on Tuesday and I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was still a bit of a shocker. I just keep telling myself “okay, we’re camping for a few years”. It’s been a big adjustment to say the least. We don’t have power except for a couple of hours at night when Steve fires up a generator that is here so that we can have lights to take a shower and enjoy a fan for a little bit. Everything is just so different. No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to keep the dirt and bugs from invading every space. The showers are just standing in a little indent in the floor while water covers the entire bathroom. Did I mention that the water is cold and that for hours from time to time during the day it just shuts off completely?
The boys are having a hard time too and we’d appreciate your continued prayers for them. We are still all sharing a bed at night because they are terrified of being even a few feet from us. It’s making for some very long nights! Ephraim is starting to go a little crazy penned into our house with the big wall around it. There isn’t really anywhere for him to run around and be free – so his destructiveness is on the rise.
We can get baguette style bread easily here, so we’ve been eating a lot of bread. We don’t have a way to keep meat cold so we haven’t had any yet, and we’ll probably wait until our crates arrive from the states and we can get our power system set up and our freezer going. You have no idea how much we are looking forward to seeing those crates! We are so excited to think of having enough power to have fans during the days.
Yesterday was Micah’s birthday and we took a taxi – giving a whole new meaning to the word taxi! – to a place about an hour away that has restaurant. Micah really wanted pizza and french fries for his birthday, so we went there and enjoyed a nice lunch to celebrate.
Everyday we learn something new about life here and we’re trying to take it in stride. Outings are hot and very hard with the boys and so we’re learning what works and what doesn’t for our family. I wish I could have you all join us in this for a day, so that you could really understand what things are like!
Tags: adjustments
