A First - Giving a Lesson in French!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to give my first lesson on the "L'amour de Die pour vous est vu dans la creation" - God's love for you is seen in His creation.  Fortunately Suzanne who was translating from French to Moore (the local tribal language) understood my limited French and the lesson seemed to go well.  I asked the women if they would memorize Gen. 1:31a and if they could recite it on Monday, I would have a special surprise for them.  For most of us, memorizing a verse is an easy thing.  But these women can't read or write.  Suzanne would recite the verse and they would recite after her.  When they heard there would be a special surprise for knowing it, they really worked on it!  All during the morning you would hear them break out in reciting the verse and if someone made an error, someone from across the room would correct them. 

At the end of the lesson I asked them if they thought they were beautiful.  It was an easy answer for them - "Yes, they thought they were beautiful".  When I was talking about this with my French teacher this morning, he asked what women in the U.S. would say.  I told him that I thought most would think they were not - that they were too fat or too skinny and that would start the list of all the things they could find wrong with themselves (self included!).  Daniel said that a woman who is heavier is viewed as more beautiful here.  If a women doesn't gain weight after six months of marriage, the rumor is her husband isn't providing for her.  It makes sense in the third poorest country in the world - if you have food you gain weight and if you're starving you're thin.

I had the pictures of the women that I took on Monday printed.  I had included their names (as best I heard them).  The women were so excited about the pictures.  They talked about them the whole morning.  But at first I could see that they were giggling about something and I wondered if it were the spelling of their names.  Sure enough, that was what it was.  I didn't know how to ask Suzanne in French how to spell them correctly, so I wrote my name on the chalk board and pointed at a specific letter.  Then I went to one of their names and pointed to a specific letter and asked bien or mal (good or bad).  She understood me and was able to give me the correct spelling.  We had so much fun through the process.  Two new women joined us and I'll have to guess at the spelling until Suzanne can see it printed.  With names like Zakinatou and Ilboudo you can understand why it is a bit of a challenge.  What I admire about these women is that they are transparent - no hidden agendas.  They are kind and loving. Their day-to-day life is hard, but they seem to always be happy and ready to laugh.

Zakinatou

Ilboudo

As I was giving the lesson yesterday, two goats came in to see what was going on.  Near the end a rooster joined us for awhile.  Almost every woman had a baby that she either had sleeping tied to her back, or nursing.  I noticed that when one of the babies started to urinate, the mom would hold them over the floor.  There are no Pampers in Sector 30.  After the baby finished, the mom would take a straw hand broom and spread the puddle so that it would dry quicker.  The floor was dirty to begin with, and the women would put their babies down to play, crawl or lay on the floor.  The difference in life perspectives really hit me.  They live in mud huts with dirt floors and have no idea of germs.  There were several babies there that appeared to be malnourished.  They nursed often, but never seemed happy and were lethargic.  Hopefully we can get the moms to give those babies water with crushed moringa leaves so that they can get stronger.