Tad's Life

Sunday we were at the Phare in the morning and for lunch for the Ouakam congregation's worship service and feast. I've posted on that already over on the Phare blog. That night the UWM misionary team and friends gathered at the Duttweilers. We had several visitors beside Allison and Matt. Nabrissa Oliveira-Bard surprised us all. She is here for the wedding of one of Pastor Tim's daughters this coming Saturday, but Jose and France-Lise somehow neglected to tell us she was coming! The Cotarelos are here, too, for their six-month internship out in Thies. He was a teen when we were in North Carolina for our training back in 1990. After teaching at DA a couple years, they went back and did some training in horticultural development. Eventually, we may have them for the long-term. Also, of course, this is Aaron and Sara's first Christmas with us. Aaron is the new UWM guy who actually grew up here. Anyway, we had a wonderful time visiting and singing and doing a "Chinese gift exchange." [I'm sure that offends someone. Sorry. I don't know what else to call it.]

A couple of days later and skipping over many stories of shopping wonders and vehicle adventures , we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas morning at home. Allison and Matt have posted photos and descriptions, so I'll try not to repeat either. We still have a tree, though this year it suffered in the process. The barrel we store it in ended up outside at the Phare and rain got in a bit. So we had to clean up a bit of rust! And then I went to straighten what I was sure was a metal piece and found that wood doesn't really like being bent that much! Now the top of the tree lists a bit to the north.

We did Christmas stockings, as usual... Well, honestly, that does sound better than Christmas sweat socks, doesn't it? We have no fireplace now, so they ended up suspended from the entertainment center doors.

We took turns opening the gifts in the stockings and those new to the custom (Matt and Ouseynou, Gretchen's husband) joined in with lots of spirit. Gretchen introduced us to the Pfeil practice (Shawn's invention??) of making wildly wrong, but humorous guesses. A pack of gum must certainly contain keys to a new car. An obvious pencil must contain a rolled up treasure map.

We eventually worked our way into the major gifts and that too proceeded in good order and patience. I continue to apply my father's sadistic approach to unwrapping Christmas presents: one-at-a-time, slowly and with politeness. It really is more fun that way as we enjoy each other's pleasure!

In the end it was a wonderful time. Jonathan, in fact, declared it his best Christmas ever!

We've had lots of guests at the house in the last days and two very special ones arrive tomorrow. Allison and her boyfriend, Matt Navarre, are flying in Sunday night for a nice long stay. We've spent the day today moving beds and creating space in our apartment. We're quite excited and a bit nervous, as I'm sure they are.

They are keeping a web log for their trip with photos and thoughts and all. You can connect to it at www.xanga.com/africatrip. I've also added the address to the list at the right side here on our blog.

But it has been a month of visits.

Mark Harris, a fellow Pennsylvanian (Brooksville, a couple hours due west of where I grew up) and UWMer spent a night with us last week, in spite of a cat allergy. He and Marcie are good friends of ours. They lived at the Phare one year with us while Marci studied French, before heading up to Kayes, Mali, to work with the Bowers. They have been home in the US since last spring. Marcie gave birth to boynumber two, but they have had to extend their stay as they try to find a way to get her arthritis back under control. Mark is out for a couple weeks to teach at a pastors' conference in Mali. It is the fruit of lots of miles driving on bad roads and hours talking with pastors to encourage them to think big and work together. They surprised him and organized this conference expecting him to be back by now. He was excited to come back. Anyway, he got here to Dakar expecting to zip on out, but discovered he had problems with his car "papers" and ended up needing to stay longer than his room at the Phare was available.

We also had Andy and Allison Cotarelo, and their two boys, over for supper on their second day back in Senegal after an absence of a few years . They taught science at DA from 2002 to 2004 and I'd dig up an old photo of them like I did for Mark, but I'll need to get to the office first! Since then, they did some ag development studies at ECHO, down in Florida, and are here to do a 6 month practicum with a horticultural project. They'll be living out in Thies (soon, they hope) but have been staying at the Phare until they got their feet on the ground. It's been great to reconnect.

The Friday night that Mark ended up staying with us, we also had Daniel Liberek over for a meal and a conversation. Daniel is our UWM regional Director and a great guy. (I stole this photo off of the UWM website. That's why it is not quite right.) Daniel's folks were UWM missionaries in Belgium. We first met his dad, Sam, back when we were living in Canton, Ohio, at a Faith Community Church missions conference. Daniel's mom is Belgian, so the US is more of a second home than a first. He also joined UWM after attending Columbia Bible College and has pastored a church and led the work there for some time. One of his more recent duties includes overseeng the West African region for our mission and he was down to do some consulting and some visiting.

We also had Pauline, a young French nursing student, spend the night this week. She came to see what Jane was up to with her talibé work. She is down here in Senegal doing a practicum with MIS at their hospital and taking the opportunity to see other medical ministries. Her Dad and Jose were roommates at Bible school, so she is an old family friend.

Busy days and good ones. Wouldn't you like to be our next guest? We have a spare bed and lots of places at the table!!