Posts Tagged ‘village life’

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Becoming a blacksmith

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
Learning the ropes of being a blacksmith

Learning the ropes of being a blacksmith

We’ve just given my mom a new reason to fear for the life of her grandchild…maybe not quite that drastic, but we’re definitely making her nervous!  Malachi is completely fascinated by all things dangerous.  To him, if there’s no element of danger to something then why bother doing it?  So, it comes as no surprise that he thinks the blacksmith in our village has the coolest job.  Burning coal, pounding out burning metal, and making it into tools and weapons…how cool is that?  Steve has taken Malachi to visit the blacksmith several times as he is always making tools for us to use around here.

Then Steve had the idea that instead of Malachi just watching the blacksmith at his shop – how about we recreate one here at our house for Malachi to use whenever he wants???  Doesn’t that sound like a completely safe idea?  So, we’ve been buying up the needed items to start his shop and we had the blacksmith make Malachi his very own set of blacksmithing tools.  He was so excited to see it all come together.  Then we had Sajo (the blacksmith) come out for the day to show Malachi how to position everything and how to get started on his own.  My boys were completely enthralled with the process.  It’s totally a boy thing as Steve says.

You start a fire and get the charcoal burning.  Then you have a fan that you turn by hand to blow air into the coals to keep it burning hot.  You put the metal into the coals until it’s flaming red.  Then pull it out and quickly start pounding into the shape you want.  After a few pounds the metal cools and back into the coals it goes.  You just keep doing this process.  My boys think it is the greatest thing that now they make their own arsenal of weapons right out back.

This definitely falls under that catagory of “only if you grow up in Africa can you do this”.  I told my mom that Children’s Services would probably be calling if we were home in the States.  As dangerous as it may be, I do love that my kids share in an important part of the culture they live in.  This is how stuff is made and I love that they are learning about it.  I love that it helps build relationships even more with the people around us.  It’s all about sharing in each others lives!

Keeping those coals nice and hot

Keeping those coals nice and hot

Getting started on his first project

Getting started on his first project

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It’s important to them…

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Getting some action shots

Getting some action shots

Soccer is a VERY important part of life over here.  Soccer is THE sport.  I’m amazed when I see boys and young men running in 120 degree heat gearing up for a big match.  Every boy dreams of becoming a famous soccer player.  The market walls are lined with uniforms from all different countries.  When you live in a pretty remote village with no means of transporation and nothing much to do – a soccer match with a rival village team is a big deal.  Notices are written down, (and then usually brought to my house for me to make photocopies) passed around to different groups, and everyone shows up at the soccer field to watch the big game.

It’s just a gravel field at the edge of the village, just homemade goals, but you’d think they are celebrities.  If it’s going to be a big match then they rent speakers and microphone so there can be announcers yelling loudly through the whole thing.  Our village just had a week long soccer match with different grades playing each afternoon.  The boys who spend their afternoons at our house were playing one afternoon, so Steve went with the boys to cheer them on.  He took a ton of pictures and then when they came over for Bible Study he played them as a slideshow.  They loved it.

It may seem like a trival thing, but we want to be involved even in the soccer games.  Whatever is important to them needs to become important to us.  We need to show our neighbors that we care about the things they care about.  It’s the only way that we can become a part of the community.  Praying for these moments of outreach…

Such serious determination

Such serious determination

Presenting the team

Presenting the team

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Village happenings…

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Thursday, November 17th, 2011
The twins with their mom

The twins with their mom

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything…not for a lack of things to write about, but a lack of time to get it written.  These are some seriously hot days we’re in the midst of and I am plain exhausted by the time I put the boys to bed.  My brain has turned to a pile of mush after a day of homeschooling, visiting in the village, cooking, laundry and I’m find myself thinking “tomorrow I’ll get something posted”.

Just a little update on a few things…

The little twin babies that we are feeding in the village are doing so well.  They are getting little double chins and I’m so happy see it!  Their mom is so proud of how well they are doing and she is so excited to take them back to her home village to show her family.  She has learned how to prepare their bottles and she has learned how to make the special food for herself as well.  So, she is going to go back to her village for a week to see her other children and see if she can handle things all on her own.  We’re going to weigh the babies before she goes and when she comes back to see if they did okay.

We actually have another baby that we are feeding now too.  The mother had no milk as well and the baby was sick and starving.  With medicine he is getting healthy and both he and his mom are eating much better.  We have hired a women in the village to oversee the feeding and care for these women and babies during the days.  She is thankful for the extra funds for her family and it is a great comfort for me to know that they are all being well fed these days.

The rainy season has come to an end and I’m hoping that the huge amount of malaria illnesses will decline too.  So many people have been struggling with illnesses.  We have a lot of operations this month – it seemed we had an outbreak of appendixes rupturing there for a week or so…very odd.  But, these medical visits and hospital runs continue to give us opportunities to show love to the people of our community and gives a chance to gain their trust.

The people in the village are busy finishing up bringing in their crops.  They are hoping to sell it for a good price and enjoy one month of actually having money to buy things…then they go back to struggling again.  Everyone that borrowed rice or peanut seed from us at the beginning on the planting season is bringing us back double what they took.  We are going to have someone show us the best way to store the seed for the coming year and then next year – those who participated won’t need to borrow any funds from anyone for their fields.

I have another post that I want to write about the Bible teaching that Steve is involved in, but it will have to wait until the next post.  There is a lot going on these days…your partnership is vital to what we’re doing here!

Starting to fuss, but look at that double chin...yeah, she's growing.

Starting to fuss, but look at that double chin...yeah, she's growing.

I know he's dressed in pink, but it really is a boy

I know he's dressed in pink, but it really is a boy

This is Mamoussou - she is taking care of the moms and babies at her house

This is Mamoussou - she is taking care of the moms and babies at her house

This is my namesake, she is growing SO big. I don't think Guineans are used to seeing babies get so chubby!

This is my namesake, she is growing SO big. I don't think Guineans are used to seeing babies get so chubby!

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Tiny but growing

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Monday, November 7th, 2011
Little baby Alisan

Little baby Alisan

They were each just three pounds when they came to us.  Hard to believe that two little twins had made it that far and were still alive. Their mother was exhausted and unable to provide any milk for her babies.  We decided to have the mother move from her village – which is very remote – and come live here in our village to seek care.  A family offered to have the mother and the babies move in with them while we tried to get them on the road to recovery.  We worked with our local medical clinic to make a plan.

The mom began a diet of corn, fish, rice, and peanut.  She was so tired when she first came.  They babies were starving and crying all the time.  She was trying to feed them, but was unable to give them enough.  So, she desperately needed sleep and to get her strength back.

The twins were six weeks old with sunken faces and just looked so sad.  They were so hungry!

Using formula is a rare occurance here.  Guinea does not want mothers to use it unless absolutely medically necessary. Even if they can get a doctor’s clearance, the formula is completely beyond their financial means.  The formula costs would be the same as feeding an entire family.  And, culturally, women don’t nurse other women’s babies.  So, most often, these little ones who cannot get enough milk from their mother’s will eventually starve to death.

We did not want to see that happen with these two little precious ones!  The mother started her special diet of food to gain more milk and we started giving the twins formula for every other feeding.  It was a big deal to see two babies with bottles in the village. Many other ladies came and sat around to watch and I was so excited that I could be there to show them exactly how to prepare the bottles – and I showed them how to feed them.  They drank it right down!  I was so afraid it wouldn’t work, but they were really hungry.  Their mom was so visibly relieved that she couldn’t stop smiling and thanking me.

It’s been a few weeks now and they are really growing.  They’ve gained over 2 pounds each!  Their mom is so much stronger and more rested.  They were telling me that in their village, when the ladies saw how tiny these two were, that everyone told them they needed to poison the babies.  People said that they were demons.  But, the mom said that she knew she was supposed to go for help.  She says that we missionaries were brought here to show everyone in her village that these babies aren’t demons.  Some people came from her village this past week and she showed them the twins and said “see, you believed they should die, but look at how they’ve grown”.

I love that we can show Christ’s love in ways like this.  I love that God continues to bring people into our lives and gives us the opportunity to be a blessing.  Please keep praying for this family…keep praying that through all this their hearts may become open to hearing the Gospel!

So tiny

So tiny

The twins with their mom

The twins with their mom

Growing more every day

Growing more every day

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Building with a purpose

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Thursday, October 27th, 2011
Putting the trusses together

Putting the trusses together

Steve loves when his construction skills can be a part of seeing Bible teaching move forward.  He had a great opportunity to see that happen a few weeks ago.

A team of co-workers, living about 2 hours away, had just begun daily Bible teaching sessions when disaster struck.  Everyone was meeting together in a building that the village uses for community events.  Right before the teaching began, the roof fell in on everyone.  Thankfully there were only minor injuries, but looking over the damage revealed that faulty trusses were to blame. That’s where Steve was able to help.

The missionary team there talked with the village and the leaders asked to be taught how to build them correctly.  The missionary team then asked if Steve could make a trip out and see the job done.  Steve headed out with his right hand man, Mohammed, and a couple other guys from here on center.  Steve was glad to see excitement in the faces of the men as they started the project.

It was a lot of work to get everything built and set up in just over a day, but when you’ve got the huge team that Steve was working with – you can get a lot done in a short amount of time!  Steve really enjoyed his time there.  Getting to know people and teaching building skills is his favorite combination!  He’s thankful that he can use his skills to help the village move forward with their Bible teaching…

Here’s a few photos of them hard at work…

The portable command center

The portable command center

It takes a lot of people to hoist those trusses

It takes a lot of people to hoist those trusses

Working with the team

Working with the team

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Answered Prayer

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Visiting with friends

Visiting with friends

Ever have one of those times where the thing you have been praying to happen suddenly does happen and then you want to tell God “wait, I’m not quite ready”?  Yeah, that’s me this week.

Our prayer for so long has been that God would not just give us surface friendships with the people around us, but would give us the real friendships where we truly learn what is going on in peoples lives.  In the months since we’ve been back, God has been answering that prayer, but it feels like things exploded in the last couple of weeks.

We have spent more time at the hospital in the last two weeks doing “ambulance runs”, visiting the sick, getting to know doctors than we did in the two months before.  It’s given us an incredible amount of time to sit with families, show compassion, and show God’s love.  It’s a been time of everything from infected teeth to circumcisions to malaria and typhoid.  Pray that these moments would continue to draw us closer to our community.

Our son, Mohammed, has a very sick, elderly mother who lives about 10 hours away from here.  She has been getting more ill in recent weeks, so Mohammed has brought her here to our town to look after her.  He believes that she is possessed by demons because she talks to people who aren’t there.  We think that she had a stroke some time ago and may be suffering the effects of that.  It’s hard to know because the medical care is inadequate when it comes to serious problems.  It could be Alzheimer’s, it could be any number of things, we just don’t know.  Mohammed has been having chickens sacrificed and concoctions being made by people doing traditional African medicine.  While we don’t agree with it, we are thankful that he’s being honest enough to tell us about it and not hiding it.  It’s giving us opportunities to share what we believe with him.  We are encouraging him to seek the counsel of a Guinean pastor who understands this culture much better than us.  It’s an overwhelming situation for him and we pray that we can be an encouragement to him.

Our family in the village decided to circumcise their girls this past week.  It was really hard for us and we had shared with them that we didn’t agree at all with what they wanted to do.  But, while it makes me angry that they chose to do it – I am thankful that they didn’t hide it from me.  That they are willing to talk about it.  Because you can’t begin to change things if you don’t even know they are happening, right?

A while ago we wrote about a little boy that was near death when he came to us.  Since then we’ve been getting to know the family and developing a friendship with them.  They live not far from us and the father has had Steve come to visit his fields a couple of times.  He told Steve this past week that because we saved his son, he wants his entire extended family to hear the Bible teaching! How awesome is that???  So, Steve is beginning this new endeavor this week.

These are just a few of cultural insights that have come up this week.  There are many more, but this is already getting pretty long!  We are so excited to see God throwing open doors for deeper relationships…our heads are spinning with it all, but we’re thanking Him for answered prayer!

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Guinea is back in school

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Proudly showing off their purchases

Proudly showing off their purchases

School officially started this week here in Guinea and I’m not sure who’s more ready – the kids or Steve and I.  The last month has been a constant whirlwind of activity as students have tried to earn the money needed to go back to school.

Although to actually go to school is free – you have to pay for a uniform, shoes, notebooks, chalk, a little chalkboard, and you have to pay for every exam that you take.  So, for most families in our village, these costs add up to just too much.  When you are just trying to keep everyone fed, there isn’t the extra to send eight kids to school.  To get even four kids outfitted with everything that’s required it would be two months salary or more.  There are no bank loans, layaway or credit cards.  So, most families just choose the one or two that will get to go.

All that to say that the summer break can get crazy for us as everyone wants to earn enough to go to school.  Kids even as young as eight were here asking for whatever work we could come up with.  Steve got creative with some different projects and we had quite the summer work crew.  It’s great to see the teenagers and young adults working hard to earn their school money.  They kept envelopes here with us and we added to their savings.  They were all very excited to come and show us their supplies and let us know that they were set to go.

We have a couple of students who need to village this year to go on with their education.  They have had to find a room to rent with someone and are trying to adjust to living more on their own.  We told them that we would help them with an “allowance” each week so that they could concentrate on their studies and not have to worry about how to pay for that room or what to eat.  The stipulation is that they have to bring home a note from their teacher on Saturdays that tell us that they are working hard and doing well in school.  I feel a bit parental about it, but they all said it was a good idea and would make them work harder.  If you’d like to “sponsor” any of these boys, just let us know.

Of course, not everyone can work for their school fees.  We have quite a few single moms that are just unable to come up with the money to send their kids to school.  Actually, it’s not just the single moms.  Any mother – married or not – is responsible for what her kids need for school.  We sent them to town to make a list of what they would need and how much everything would cost.  We are so thankful for the generosity from people back in the States that made it possible for us to sponsor so many kids to go to school.

We were more than ready for the work projects to come to an end, the lists come to an end, and the kids to head to school.  But, again, we thank God for these opportunities to show Christ to our neighbors and be a part of our community.

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My afternoons…

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Just a little smile

Just a little smile

Being a missionary isn’t usually a whirlwind of excitement.  Sure there are exciting days and those are the moments we all love to write home about.  But, for the most part, it’s just those quiet moments of sharing life together.  I love my afternoons in the village.  I love being in their houses, around their cooking fires and hearing all about their days.

It’s those times when I find out how everyone is doing, who is sick and needs medicine, and the latest news of what’s happening in the village.  I love being just one of the ladies as toddlers crawl all over my lap and kids dig for candy in my bag.  I love talking about the important things in their life.  It’s in those moments when I remember why it’s so important to be here.

We’re here to share in the day to day.  We’re here to know their joys and heartaches.  We’re here to have the friendships that allow us to share our faith.  For me, it all begins in my afternoons…

Mothers and daughters preparing the meal together

Mothers and daughters preparing the meal together

Girls go around selling just a woman needs for that evenings meal...one onion, a little smoked fish, one square of seasoning, a few peppers...only buying for one meal at a time.

Girls go around selling just what a woman needs for that evenings meal...one onion, a little smoked fish, one square of seasoning, a few peppers...only buying for one meal at a time.

Sweet little Daouda - I love cuddling this little cutie!

Sweet little Daouda - I love cuddling this little cutie!

All in an afternoon - dinner, babies, kids running everywhere, just the usual craziness

All in an afternoon - dinner, babies, kids running everywhere, just the usual craziness

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This isn’t a story you’d hear in the States

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Bummed he can't go running around with his friends

Bummed he can't go running around with his friends

Do any of you remember the Little House on the Prairie episode where one of the kids falls down a well? Or the news story about the little girl who fell down a hole in her backyard and the whole country watched as she was being rescued? These memories stick in our minds (or maybe just mine) because it’s so out of the ordinary for us. We don’t say “oh yeah, he fell down a well last week” in passing conversation. But, shockingly it happens way too often over here and a few weeks ago we had a huge scare with Moustapha.

Everyone here gets their water from a hand dug well – lowering a bucket down to the bottom and pulling up the water. There are many wells in the process of being dug, or ones that are waiting for the cement walls to be built up around the outside. A group of kids were running through someone’s courtyard and they all ran over a rotting piece of plywood that was covering a well that had been dug, but wasn’t finished. The plywood broke, sending Moustapha down to the bottom of the well. That’s a 60 foot fall…. and into the water at the bottom…and the boy can’t swim…and the bottom is filled with natural gas in the air…yeah, pretty scary. One of the village men was quickly tied to a rope and lowered into the hole to go down and get him. (by the way, he needed to be tied to the rope because the gases in the bottom of the wells make people pass out quickly and they needed to be able to haul them up in case that happened)

They came running in to get us telling us that they had just pulled Moustapha out of the well. This is where our American minds say “WHAT??? You pulled him out of what???” People were starting to gather at the house the way they do when someone is dying! Steve quickly decided that he needed to get him to the hospital for x-rays. His mom was crying so hard that the Father decided she couldn’t go and sent his 2nd wife to the hospital instead. (Imagine that one in the states!)

So, of course, we get to the hospital and find out that there is no power for the x-ray machine, so he’ll have to wait for the next day. God was definitely protecting this little guy. We really expected a lot worse news than just a sprained ankle. They put him in a cast anyways on the back of his foot/leg to keep him from walking on it. But, just a few days later, the cast was off because they said “it needed to be washed”. I laugh even as I write that.

The good news is that Moustapha is again chasing after all the bigger kids (with a little limp that gets better each day). We went to the family that owns the well that he fell in and asked what they were going to go about it since a kid had fallen in it. They looked at us a little funny and said “he was the 4th kid that’s fallen in and no one’s died yet.”

…Let’s see if you count all the cultural differences between us in that story!

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It’s been a long month…

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Praying at certain times of the day

Praying at certain times of the day

This week brought the end of Ramadan for everyone in our village.  It’s been a month of fasting, special prayers, and feasting at night.  A month more dedicated to pleasing their god than any other month.  It’s been a very long month for me, so I can’t imagine how long it was for all of them.  It was filled with frustrating conversations with moms who won’t drink all day and so have sick, starving babies.  It’s filled with days of watching people work in their fields – sweating terribly – and they won’t even swallow their spit.  It’s filled with special, more fervent praying.  It’s hard for us to sit back and watch all this – watching how hard they are all trying to make their god happy.  To make themselves worthy of his favor.

We’re thankful for the opportunities to learn more about their religion, however, and to learn how we can challenge those beliefs.  We’re thankful that even though we don’t share those beliefs, we are able to still care immensely for each of them.

This month came to an end with a day of feasting, which turned out to be a tough day for us.  In past years we have been a part of the feasting that we were invited to and gave out candy to kids as part of their customs.  But we have been talking with someone who left this religion and became a believer and his thoughts have really challenged us.  He advised us not to share in the feasts by visiting with people and to not follow the culture on this day especially.  He said that we have to stand firm on this or the people will think that we are in fact being won over to their religion.  He shared a lot from his heart and since he knows so much more than us, we decided to follow his lead.

We’re glad for the opportunities to learn from the wisdom of those around us.  We pray that we can continue to use this guidance so that we may make a greater impact here.  Pray for the people here.  Pray for their hearts and minds to see that everything they try in vain to do is really worthless.  Pray that they will seek after Jesus who already did all the work for them.

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