Sunday, August 30, 2009
Pictures
My camera doesn't connect to the computers, but Erik's does. Check out is blog in the links to the left on my blog. :-)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Ministry with Lighthouse
This week has been much better, thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement! We had a couple of days with water in which I took two wonderful showers, but now we're back to no water and I've gotten really good at soaping and rinsing myself with only one or two cups o water.
This week is also better because instead of orientation to a strange city, we're on a schedule of doing things and getting things done. We've begun our Krio lessons (Monday-Wednesdays at 1:30-2:30) and the teacher is really good. He's taught the previous Servant Teams and is really good about teaching nuances in the culutre along with the language. It's very helpful.
Also on Mon-Wed we have tutoring downtown with the teenage bys who are in the Lighthouse program. So far, I've read with Santigi, Papani, and Morris, help[ing them with their English pronounciation and words they didn't know. I've also started teaching how to make friendship bracelets from camp and the guys really like that. Erik is teaching juggling and it's amazing how fast they all pick it up.
Tonight (Thursdays) they have their actual Lighthouse meeting which is more or less a kind of youth group. They have a Bible study, small group discussion time, and worship. It's been really good getting to know they guys and a lot of them are very funny and really helpful. Theuir English is better than our Krio, but we all need work and so we help each other as much as we can.
Friday is my sabbath and I plan on celebrating it with some local chocolate bars, and reading the Lord of the Rings under a huge tree I found in a quiet place. Quiet places in Freetown are more rare than snow, basically, so it's very precious to me.
In the meantime, I feel that the phrase "getting into the swing" aptly describes the past few days. I'm not there yet, but things are getting more familiar and I understand what is going on. Your support is definitely felt and greatly needed, so I thank you so much for your prayers and the messages you have sent me.
*Also, so you know- the keyboards here are trash and so my typing is probably pretty awful. Since I'm paying for my time on the internet, I don't really have time to go back and edit, so please forgive mistakes made by sticky keys. :-)
This week is also better because instead of orientation to a strange city, we're on a schedule of doing things and getting things done. We've begun our Krio lessons (Monday-Wednesdays at 1:30-2:30) and the teacher is really good. He's taught the previous Servant Teams and is really good about teaching nuances in the culutre along with the language. It's very helpful.
Also on Mon-Wed we have tutoring downtown with the teenage bys who are in the Lighthouse program. So far, I've read with Santigi, Papani, and Morris, help[ing them with their English pronounciation and words they didn't know. I've also started teaching how to make friendship bracelets from camp and the guys really like that. Erik is teaching juggling and it's amazing how fast they all pick it up.
Tonight (Thursdays) they have their actual Lighthouse meeting which is more or less a kind of youth group. They have a Bible study, small group discussion time, and worship. It's been really good getting to know they guys and a lot of them are very funny and really helpful. Theuir English is better than our Krio, but we all need work and so we help each other as much as we can.
Friday is my sabbath and I plan on celebrating it with some local chocolate bars, and reading the Lord of the Rings under a huge tree I found in a quiet place. Quiet places in Freetown are more rare than snow, basically, so it's very precious to me.
In the meantime, I feel that the phrase "getting into the swing" aptly describes the past few days. I'm not there yet, but things are getting more familiar and I understand what is going on. Your support is definitely felt and greatly needed, so I thank you so much for your prayers and the messages you have sent me.
*Also, so you know- the keyboards here are trash and so my typing is probably pretty awful. Since I'm paying for my time on the internet, I don't really have time to go back and edit, so please forgive mistakes made by sticky keys. :-)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Intentional Poverty
It sucks.
One of the main components of this trip is that I am voluntarily and intentionally living in poverty as a form of solidarity with the poor to whom we are ministering.
For the past few days my compound has been without water and I've been hydrating myself from these awful stale tasting bags of water that we buy really cheap and taking bucket showers (that is, pouring maybe a little more than a pint of water over my head). When the electricity is out at the same time as the water it's impossible to stay cool and to sleep. The worst part about all of it is that a nicer place is well within what I can afford and I could have all the showers and fans I want. It's exasperating.
But as I was writing about this the other night, I realized that Christ "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped at" and He could have called down legions of angels to save Him from the Cross, but He didn't. He chose to suffer with those whom He loves and the thought that I am trying to follow Christ's incarnational footsteps makes this intentional poverty so much more feasible.
Please pray for me as a continue to struggle with this. Not that I have water or electricty, but that I learn to be okay with not having it and that that change of attitude will help me connect better with these people.
One of the main components of this trip is that I am voluntarily and intentionally living in poverty as a form of solidarity with the poor to whom we are ministering.
For the past few days my compound has been without water and I've been hydrating myself from these awful stale tasting bags of water that we buy really cheap and taking bucket showers (that is, pouring maybe a little more than a pint of water over my head). When the electricity is out at the same time as the water it's impossible to stay cool and to sleep. The worst part about all of it is that a nicer place is well within what I can afford and I could have all the showers and fans I want. It's exasperating.
But as I was writing about this the other night, I realized that Christ "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped at" and He could have called down legions of angels to save Him from the Cross, but He didn't. He chose to suffer with those whom He loves and the thought that I am trying to follow Christ's incarnational footsteps makes this intentional poverty so much more feasible.
Please pray for me as a continue to struggle with this. Not that I have water or electricty, but that I learn to be okay with not having it and that that change of attitude will help me connect better with these people.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Freetown
I figure I'd better give a bit of a description of where I live. Freetown is (as the WMF handbook says) a major urban center in the Third World and so I imagine that it is actually more or less like you imagine it from that description.
It's loud, reeks of pollution, full of poor and rich people, has horrendous traffic, and there is no place at all to be alone. When you walk down the street, one must be super-attentive. Cars brush by inches away, honking everytime they get near a person (which is every other second) and the sidewalks sport gaping holes that look down to the drainage system. Freetown was well equipped to handle the rain it gets with deep gutters and covered tunnels that double as sidewalks, but these are in terrible disrepair. It's easy to get lost or simply not see the city because you must keep your eyes down to keep from falling waist deep in a hole. When it's really raining it's impossible to tell the difference between a shallow puddle and a deep entrance to a gutter- a couple small children slipped into a gutter during a major rain the other day and were sucked under and drowned.
When it rains that much, the streets turn to red rivers that flow out into the sea. Some of the major roads are paved, but most (like mine) are red dirt with chuncks of decades old asphalt poking out. My Chacos have taken on a dingy reddish appearance because I walk so much on my road by the Freeman's.
When I was preparing for Freetown, I had read that they get 300 inches of rain in August which I had a hard time believing. I don't anymore. It's true. And yet today we have a sunny day (at least for the morning) but it will rain again soon. It's always humid and very hot when the sun is out (though today is the first day I've seen the sun since the airplane). During rain temperature is typically in the low 80s which I appreciate.
This post is getting long, but I had some questions to answer. Speaking of which, if you want to know anything, just add a comment below and post your question there and I'll try to answer it in my next post.
Thank you for all your prayers! They really are making a difference!
It's loud, reeks of pollution, full of poor and rich people, has horrendous traffic, and there is no place at all to be alone. When you walk down the street, one must be super-attentive. Cars brush by inches away, honking everytime they get near a person (which is every other second) and the sidewalks sport gaping holes that look down to the drainage system. Freetown was well equipped to handle the rain it gets with deep gutters and covered tunnels that double as sidewalks, but these are in terrible disrepair. It's easy to get lost or simply not see the city because you must keep your eyes down to keep from falling waist deep in a hole. When it's really raining it's impossible to tell the difference between a shallow puddle and a deep entrance to a gutter- a couple small children slipped into a gutter during a major rain the other day and were sucked under and drowned.
When it rains that much, the streets turn to red rivers that flow out into the sea. Some of the major roads are paved, but most (like mine) are red dirt with chuncks of decades old asphalt poking out. My Chacos have taken on a dingy reddish appearance because I walk so much on my road by the Freeman's.
When I was preparing for Freetown, I had read that they get 300 inches of rain in August which I had a hard time believing. I don't anymore. It's true. And yet today we have a sunny day (at least for the morning) but it will rain again soon. It's always humid and very hot when the sun is out (though today is the first day I've seen the sun since the airplane). During rain temperature is typically in the low 80s which I appreciate.
This post is getting long, but I had some questions to answer. Speaking of which, if you want to know anything, just add a comment below and post your question there and I'll try to answer it in my next post.
Thank you for all your prayers! They really are making a difference!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Hello from Sierra Leone!
My friends, family, and wonderful supporteres, forgive me for the technical difficulties I have expereienced over the past few days. I spent thousands of leones waiting for this site to load (don't be too stressed about that money though, it was probably only like 60 cents) and now I can finally let you all know how things are.
The trip was good (loooong but good) and we arrived in Freetown after taking the ferry across the bay after dark. I live in a poor neighborhood (but not a slum) in a small compound run by and elderly couple. Erik and I share a small corner where we have our own gate (and therefore some privacy) and a little room about 6x15. The girls are further out of town with a nice lady named Auntie Sally and some people she lives with.
At first, I was tired, a bit culture shocky and I missed everybody. The first night was rough, but since meeting more of the staff and hearing about what we're going to be doing, I feel much more at home. We're spending most of our mornings to ourselves (but optional prayer and praise time with the staff on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) After lunch we will go to our Krio lessons, then tutor from mid afternoon until dinner. Fridays are days off, Saturdays are for ultimate frisbee on the beach, and Sundays for church and a long lunch.
But all of that is starting next week. This week has been all orientation: learning the city, customs, having lunch with staff members. We've actually had a lot of free time where we just sit around and talk in cafes or whatever and I think it's really good to ease into all of this.
In the meantime, I know I just threw a lot of info at you, but in short my team is great and while I'm not used to living in a city (or constantly nearly getting hit by cars) I'm really liking Freetown. The food is great and Mama Freeman makes Erik and I really tasty dinners. Well that's all for now. more will come later as I actually begin the above described schedule.
The trip was good (loooong but good) and we arrived in Freetown after taking the ferry across the bay after dark. I live in a poor neighborhood (but not a slum) in a small compound run by and elderly couple. Erik and I share a small corner where we have our own gate (and therefore some privacy) and a little room about 6x15. The girls are further out of town with a nice lady named Auntie Sally and some people she lives with.
At first, I was tired, a bit culture shocky and I missed everybody. The first night was rough, but since meeting more of the staff and hearing about what we're going to be doing, I feel much more at home. We're spending most of our mornings to ourselves (but optional prayer and praise time with the staff on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) After lunch we will go to our Krio lessons, then tutor from mid afternoon until dinner. Fridays are days off, Saturdays are for ultimate frisbee on the beach, and Sundays for church and a long lunch.
But all of that is starting next week. This week has been all orientation: learning the city, customs, having lunch with staff members. We've actually had a lot of free time where we just sit around and talk in cafes or whatever and I think it's really good to ease into all of this.
In the meantime, I know I just threw a lot of info at you, but in short my team is great and while I'm not used to living in a city (or constantly nearly getting hit by cars) I'm really liking Freetown. The food is great and Mama Freeman makes Erik and I really tasty dinners. Well that's all for now. more will come later as I actually begin the above described schedule.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
"Have fun in Africa" ...?
With just a few days before I fly out for Sierra Leone, I've been going through a number of goodbyes and well-wishes (as well as lots of packing and double-checking the stuff I need), but something I've noticed is that a lot of people tell me to have fun in Africa. Now, I myself am guilty of this little conversation bit (I love telling people to have fun when they're going to do something that's not fun at all... take the GRE, clean a toilet, etc.) but sometimes it just doesn't make sense, even ironically.
Let me just say it: I'm not going to Africa for the fun of it. I may have no fun at all these next four months and that doesn't mean that it's a failure. Then again, of course it's me and I probably am gonna have fun (most of the time, I just can't help it) but I want to remind myself that my fun or enjoyment is no the purpose of this trip. That's too self-centered for what this really is. I'm going to live in poverty and share in suffering with people, sometimes showing them love just by crying with them.
I suppose that's enough of my theorecal talk- here's some hard facts I know you're all interested in. I've found out that Erik (the other American guy on my team) and I are going to be living with a Sierra Leonean couple, Mr. and Mrs. Freeman (who I'm told are old and cute enough to squish) and their family. I'm excited about living in a home with a family because it means so much more personal interaction, more in-depth culture experience and most of all love. It's great living in people's hospitality- they just love you so much and you can't help but love them right back!
Also, I have a mailing address. It takes two or three weeks to get there (so you might want to send something now... but not after Thanksgiving) to me at
Ben Goller
PO Box 545
Freetown, Sierra Leone
West Africa
Thanks so much everyone, for your continued prayer and support. Pray for me this Saturday and Sunday as I fly from Indy to DC to Heathrow to Freetown. It's gonna be a long exhausting trip, but I'll be excited to arrive.
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