New Friends All Around

So something unexpected has come with our return. Everyone is making new friends. As I'd already mentioned, word has gotten out about my Moore speaking skills (or lack thereof) and that has won me some new buddies in Vridi. Mike has turned into a tea drinker so that he can hang with some new buddies in Marcory. Some men drink a mint tea that goes on for several rounds. The tea gets weaker and sweeter as you go. I'd found some guys that get together every afternoon to drink tea. They kept wanting to talk to me and so I figured I'd introduce them to Mike. They are very friendly, but also very closed to the gospel. We'll see how it goes in the long run.

We'd found a little basketball court that the kids played at some. Now they took down the goals, so there is no way to play there, but there is a soccer field right beside it. As we've been in the area for the last few weeks, Caleb has gotten more comfortable with the kids there and has started to play soccer with them some. Fortunately sports is a universal language and their love of sports helps them all to just all hop in there together.

Most of the kids in that neighborhood are Ivorian and the little girls are usually busy helping mom or when they are a bit older than Karis, getting their own work. We've run into a few girls, but girls don't usually play ball. That means that Karis would have to make small talk and that is more complicated than just language skills. It means knowing what a little girl that age would talk about here. Since that is complicated, Karis has had a hard time finding buddies. She had a buddy during our first year here, but since she moved away, not much else.

Yesterday I had our pile of kids out and about. They were all grumbling except for Ben who was enjoying the stroller outing. The big kids knew that the walk was going to be over 2 miles round trip and weren't thrilled about that. Caleb was griping that he wanted to go play soccer with his new buddies, but that involved a separate 3 mile walk that I wasn't up for in the hour or so before I had to start dinner. Since he's twelve now, he thinks he can do anything, but I didn't want him making that long trip alone including crossing a 4 lane divided highway. Since we all know that moms of 12 year olds are all mean, you get the gist of the conversation. Finally a few blocks from home, we found another group of boys playing soccer and so he joined them with promises of being home in an hour. Karis, Ben and I hit the road and as we were just about home, we ran into a pack of girls on bikes. There must have only been 7 or 8, but as we stopped to talk to them they were all talking at once and I thought there were 50. After there initial shock that children in the US don't speak French they speak English, we had a few other interesting discussions. They each pointed out the houses they belonged to, right on our road, but behind HUGE walls. After I carried on with them for 20 minutes or so, I left Karis to talk to them. First I had to pry her fingers off of my shoulder and pull her out from behind me. Then Ben and I made a sprint for our gate and slammed the door. ;) She was afraid at first, but after a few minutes, the girls had begun to be buddies. When they all had to go home a half hour later, they were all sad and we tried to figure out when they could get back together. They wanted to come to the gate to get Karis this morning at 9, but since today is Sunday that didn't work. They were here around 3 this afternoon when Caleb and Karis went out to greet them. They took them back to one of their houses to swim. Since they had 3 nannies with them, there were no worries! Now I just need to hook Ben up with a family like that, I can sit around and do nothing all day! Unfortunately school is an all day affair here, so there will only be the weekends to play, but that is better than nothing! We are so thankful for new friends.

Now if I can only form my new Vridi friends into storying groups, we'll be all good!

Love,
Heather