Nelly’s Niamey Niger News

Lornel is a difficult name for Nigerien's to pronounce so many just call me Nelly.

We had a full and blessed week. The hot season has begun. Each day the temperature seems to climb a little higher. It cools off to a brisk 87 F at night and warms to over 100 each day. Scott's Fulfulde dictionary is progressing well. This week will be Scott's last week to work on it, as the following week we are taking a trip to Maradi. We are planning a get together with the Fulani missionaries this Friday to give them the dictionary software and the most updated dictionary file available. Scott would like to teach the missionaries how to use the dictionary program and of the importance of using the correct Unicode characters. We are going to Torodi on Thursday- Friday for a quick trip. We will be observing a Literacy class and staying with the Kaspers. We hope to visit with Hamsatou and Her husband. Also hope to ride a camel.

As we mentioned last week we were able to visit with some missionaries and nationals this week. One highlight from those visits was getting to know a missionary named Lisa. She is beginning to teach the Bible chronologically in a couple of Fulani villages. She is also the author of one of the dictionaries that Scott is working to combine.

Canadian Team in Town AIDS presentation and Orphanage visit
The team of 12 teens and adult leaders were from Alberta, Canada (Western). I spent the day with the team on Wednesday. In the morning they went to a near by school and did an AIDS presentation for a large group (maybe 150) of 7-10th grade students. The presentation was in English, then translated to French. The students were very attentive and knew many of the answers to the questions about HIV and AIDS.
In the afternoon they went to an orphanage run by Believers. The team brought balloons, bubbles, inflatable beach balls, and some candy for the kids. The children just loved playing! There are about 30 children who live in the orphanage. Usually the reason the children are there is if a parent has died. The children can live in the orphanage until they are 18. I enjoyed playing balloon games with the children, seeing their smiles, and taking their pictures. We also accompanied this team on a picnic at a plateau overlooking the Niger River.

Exploration one of our joys in life
Saturday Scotty and I decided to try out the city’s transportation system, so for 400 CFA (.40 cents /person) we asked in French to be taken to the Petite Market! It was great to get out and just explore! We found we really enjoy exploring together! The Market, wow, what a life here! It is just crowds, veggies, meat, fish, fresh peanut butter, spices, people asking you to buy from them, people asking for a “cado”, a gift of money, people trying to carry your bags, just about anything you can imagine to use for cooking, it is there, African Style!

Praises

• God answers our prayers
• God provided flour for me on Friday when I needed it! (I was making bread, ran out of flour, when all stores were closed, a missionary helped me out!)
• For our safety, health, and our time here in Niger.
• We have been learning much and have seen so much about translation work.
• Last meeting of God’s Girls was on Thursday. Praise the Lord for the encouragement that being a part of that group was to me personally.
• For the numerous opportunities to be a blessing. I taught the memory verse 2 times, and got to teach the story of Ruth.
• For the way God has directed us to different Nationals here. Without us knowing the language, he has provided English speakers to help us learn language, and make friends, it has been so incredible!

Prayer

• As we wrap up the internship requirements this week
• Scott to finish his part in the dictionary and other assignments due
• Trip to Torodi Thursday night to Friday morning safe travels
• As we prepare to say goodbye. (This won’t be easy.)

An Insider's Perspective

Making New Friends
About a week ago, I met a gentleman on the street as I was walking home from work. His name is Omar. He could not speak much English, and I can't speak too much French or Zarma, so we had difficulty communicating. After trying for about 15 minutes, our guard told him of the other Omar who might be able to translate for us. Omar was not home so he told me he would come back the following day at 4:00. He did come back but Omar was sleeping. He came back another day with a gentleman named Adama. Adama speaks fairly good English so we were able to communicate through him a little. This past Wednesday they came again and we talked on our porch for a couple hours. Lornel made Oatmeal Apple Cinnamon Muffins for us to share. I told them of my desire to learn to make green tea the way they make it. Omar told me that he would bring his materials and make tea with me the next time they visited. We also got talking about the poverty that abounds in Niger. I discovered that Omar is unemployed. They told me that it is extremely difficult to find jobs. The jobs usually go to someone in the family of the owner of the business. If you do not come from the right family, it can be nearly impossible to find a job. Adama is working as a French tutor and barber to help put himself through the university. Adama told me that he believes that Polygamy plays a big part in the poverty cycle here in Niger. He comes from a family of 16 children and his father has 3 wives. Niger is an extremely poor country to begin with, but by men taking multiple wives it makes for too many children to be provided for. The children are not able to get an education and often do not get the nutrition that they need. He told how many of the children that do go to school do not get any lunch to eat, which makes it extremely difficult for them to concentrate and there learning suffers. Many end up dropping out of school.

Hamsatou's Wedding
We attended Hamsatou's wedding on Saturday or at least part of it. The portion that we were invited to, I would describe as Henna Ceremony and reception for the bride. We never saw Boubakar. We visited for about 3 or 4 hours. They wanted me to take some pictures of the guests. Many of the women including Lornel were decorated with Henna. As we walked home from the wedding, God directed our steps to come across the home of a man we had been praying for at SIL. He is the father of the receptionist here. He is dying of cancer. We visited with him for a few minutes and gave them some dates that we had bought as we were walking. A couple hundred meters after we left that home, we met two women who talked to us for awhile. One of the ladies is a Christian. She invited us to her home. We went and met her family and visited with her for a few minutes. We invited her to our house tonight. So by the time we arrived home we were very tired, but thankful to the Lord for directing our steps.

Our calender here is quickly filling up. We are having several missionaries and nationals in our home this week. Lornel keeps saying how hard it will be to leave Niger and I have to agree with her.


Prayer Requests:

• For Hamsatou and Boubakar as they begin married life together
• For God to work out all the details of putting the dictionary together

Praises:

• For continued good health
• For God's Sovereignty in all things

A Heart for Africa

Highlights from week 6!

This week has gone fast like all the others! Hamsatou came Monday to teach language to Lornel, and cooking lessons. For our cooking lesson we made rice and sauce, and she shared with us she is engaged to be married, Saturday March 17.
Wednesday we invited Hamma over for dinner. He is part of the Fulfulde translation team. We enjoyed hearing his testimony, and sharing a meal with him. Lornel made her famous chocolate cake for dessert! She made it two layers and in the shape of a heart. Lornel had given a section of one of the layers of cake to Hamsatou earlier that day. Lornel told Hamma the the cake was missing a piece because we are leaving a piece of our heart in Africa. At which time I noticed that the top layer of the heart cake resembled the shape of Africa. Take a look at our web album and see what you think.

Language Bloopers…
Monday night we ran into a man who greeted us, and said hello Madame and Mousier, and we had no clue what he said as his accent was thick, and we didn’t know if we should repeat the phrase as it could be a new Zarma night greeting. Finally, the lights went on in Scott’s head, but not mine, then he had to tell me what he said, then, the lights went on, and the man said in French, it’s good! We laughed as we walked home.

…earlier that day I had another blooper in my language lesson. Hamsatou has been teaching me the names for all the parts of the face, eyes, nose, mouth, head etc. In a sentence pointed to my head and said, Dum wanni Hordema. I said, that doesn’t sound quite right what is the name for head? We discovered I had said, “this is my big spoon” We both laughed really hard!

Praises

• We had a refreshing safe time in Torodi.
• We have observed many aspects of translation, ministry, and Niger.
• God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think!
• For YOU! We cannot say it enough! We are so thankful for your prayers and encouragement!
• The dictionary is progressing well at 3500 of 6000 complete.
  
• Scott's finger is doing better. This week he alternated using the mouse with his left hand and right hand.
  

Prayer requests

• Pray for safety as we will be taking a ministry exposure trip to Marodi on April 3rd – April 7th. We will share more on this in the weeks to come.
• The Dictionary project ½ way done! Pray God will help Scott as he works on this task!
• For Hamsatou as she Marries Boubakar, a Muslim man who proposed to her about a year ago.

Breaking in a new pair of sandals

Hello from warm and sunny Niger! We have been so encouraged in our time here! I am titling this weeks blog entry as breaking in a new pair of sandals. Just before we left Chicago, we went to an REI garage sale and found some cheap sandals for me (Lornel) to wear in Niger. We found some that were super cheap, but they were a bit small. We thought they would work, and 5 weeks into our trip, the sandals are starting to feel comfortable! I really like Africa! It is such a needy place, and we have not scratched the surface of the needs, but we are making friends. Language has been an important relationship building tool. No matter what mission field God calls us to full time, we likely will have to learn 2 languages, so this is really good practice!

Trip to Torodi
This morning we are taking a long weekend trip to a town about an hour away from Niamey. It likely won't be an hour drive, as we are getting ready to board a "bush taxi" within an hour.

We are visiting a missionary family that works in literacy among the Fulani.

1. Praising God for his steadfast love and faithfulness in our lives.
2. Praising God for you! When I miss home and friends, I look at the refrigerator, and read the names of people who are praying for us! Many of you said, that our picture is posted on your refrigerator, so I thought it would be appropriate to put you on ours! You encourage us, and we cannot state that enough!
3. Praising God for his good plan He has, and that He will show us all the unknowns!
   
4. We are still very healthy

Please pray for safety as we travel today Thursday- Sunday
Scott's Dictionary project progressing, he is having alittle pain in his finger due to use of it on the project.


We love you all!