Dogon Country

Lori and I were blessed to visit Dogon Country last weekend and be a part of village life for a few days. Lori has some friends there with the Peace Corps, and so we got to "get inside" rather than be tourists. The Dogon people received us as honored guests. We ate with the chief 2 evenings, got to dance with his wives, learned how to do a proper greeting in Dogon, tried to carry peanuts on our head, and played with kids.

Random Pictures - Bamako

The Zoo

BAMAKO

Mali... right there next to Burkina Faso

August 19... Arrived in Mali!

Fun Facts about Mali:

• Timbuktu is in Mali
  
• There is hot season, rainy-hot season, and hot-hot season
• That's all I have for now. More to come as I blog...
  

Kenyan Adventures

Kenya Airways experienced a strike which began the day we arrived to Kenya. What was supposed to be just a short stopover ended up being 4 days of being stuck in Kenya. Our days were spent being in line all day with thousands of nervous passangers (leaving the hotel at 4am to get in line), and then racing passengers for a hotel reservation (which was non-existant when we arrived to the hotel with our vouchers), waiting for overwhelmed hotel shuttles for hours, then hitching rides with newly-made-friends to race to the next hotel before the shuttles arrived with the then-extremely-angry passengers. Other than being extremely exhausted, we very much enjoyed the random friends we made from all over the world. This opportunity gave us a chance to talk to people from Kenya and many countries in western Africa. We were also greatly reminded of how God is in control and takes care of us, even when things seem out of control.

Reflections - Namibia

As a team, we studied the book of Ephesians together. I was so blessed by studying this book in depth, personally and with my teammates. I discovered that the book is filled with many super-long sentences loaded with deep truth. Here is one of those sentences:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

that according to the riches of his glory

he may grant you to be strengthened with power

through his Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--

that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints

what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Winter in Namibia

Being from Minnesota, I had to take this picture of our friend James all bundled up for the 40 plus degree weather Namibia has at night in winter.