Steve and Casey Cretsinger Experiencing Tribal Missions in Guinea, W. Africa 
We'll do anything to keep cool
Okay, right now my neighbor is cooking up some MONKEY in the back of our houses! I came outside and Steve said you should go over and see what she’s cooking – there is just this pile of brown bones covered in flies and she’s pulling apart the meat – she seemed surprised that I’ve never seen anyone cooking a monkey before! I told her we only see our monkeys at the zoo.
We are continuing to get adjusted to things – especially the heat. Some nights I just lay there awake forever thinking about how hot I am. I worry about the boys getting anymore mosquito bites – I’m not sure how many more our bodies can handle – so I’m up making sure that they are covered to keep the bugs away. Last night we had fans all night long and it was absolutely wonderful.
We went to the market yesterday with out host and she took me to the stand where her family sells material and we’ve been measured to have some African clothes made for us. We’ll have to send a picture after it’s made and we can model our new styles for you! It was a very hot trip for the boys. It’s quite a walk when it’s so hot outside and you have to be careful that you aren’t run over by the cars and motorcycles. It takes a couple of hours it seems to just get a couple of things so it’s tough on the boys. I don’t think that we’ll make them go very often. They would much rather be playing soccer all day with the kids on our front porch. The minute that the boys step outside in the morning, the kids start coming. Usually we have at least seven on the porch at all times. It can be a bit frustrating being a referee all day, but Micah and Malachi are doing awesome with their French, so that’s good. Ephraim is having a harder time adjusting to sharing his toys – most of the kids have at the most one toy at home, so when he brings out his toolbox they attack him for a toy and he FLIPS out. We’re working on it.
We still haven’t heard anything about our crates, but we’re hoping maybe this week sometime it will come in. We’re also looking forward to getting some of the furniture that we ordered from the carpenter – especially the three beds for the boys, because sharing a bed all together is getting a little old! Without reliable power it’s hard for the carpenters to work, so it’s going slow.
Malachi just asked me if they have a Los Tres Amigos (one of our favorite places to eat) here and I had to sadly tell him no. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to just have food prepared for us instead of looking at these random ingredients that are here trying to figure out what in the world to make for my family to eat. Once this month of “quarantine” (as I like to refer to this time where we can’t go to the mission center or see other missionaries) is over we’ll be able to get meat and food that I know what to do with. For now, we’re eating a lot of bread.
Tags: adjustments
