Sweet Friendships

As we are starting to pack and mentally prepare ourselves to leave this place, we are also forced to begin thinking about some of the friendships that we have made over the past five months that we will soon be leaving behind. There are many missionary women and moms here that I have grown quite fond of over the past few months. Not only have they helped me survive what has undoubtedly been the most challenging thing I have ever undertaken as a wife and mom, but they have also continually inspired me by the way they live their lives here year after year. I know we will stay connected to these families and their stories, so I am refusing to say any permanent goodbyes when our plane arrives in a few days. :)

Marc is also starting to process leaving behind some of the sweet friendships he has made with the other physicians he works with as well as with the nurses and translators that he has spent so much time with over the past few months. From the beginning, Marc formed a really special bond with one of his translators, Mamane. We have had Mamane in our house more than anyone else who works with Marc. He coaches the little kids on the soccer field which is in close proximity to us so he occasionally stops in to say hello or eat a meal with us. His English is very good so our conversations are always enjoyable. Our kids really like Mamane and Hailey has even learned how to call him by name. He is very kind, humble, and has a bold desire to share his faith with those around him. Marc is really going to miss this friend.

We hosted one of the nurses from the hospital and his family a few weeks ago. Rufai is from a different people group in Niger called the Tuareg. The Tuareg live mostly in northern Niger and have a lighter skin color than the local Hausa people here in Galmi. There has been some violence among his people in recent years so he left and came here for some temporary refuge and discipleship. He does hope to return at some point to share more with his people about the love God has for them.

Rufai, his wife, and his seven year old daughter from his first marriage, came to eat pizza with us. He told Marc that he really wanted to try pizza since he had heard so much about it. I don't think they were too crazy about it when it was all said and done. :) His daughter was really enthralled with our nicely painted concrete walls. They are painted with a very slick and shiny white paint and she was running her hand over the surface during dinner. Her dad apologized and said that she had never been in a house like ours before. I forget that our humble house with concrete floors and walls is still so very nice compared to what most people here live in. 

We really enjoyed getting to know this family. Their daughter was very sweet. I thought she would make the perfect new mommy to one of Hailey's baby dolls that we had brought with us from home. She was beyond excited to take this doll home with her after dinner.

Rufai is only 34 but his first wife passed away shortly after giving birth to his youngest son (he has two children, ages 7 and 3). He has been married to his new wife for two years now. They are of different religions which is not out of the ordinary for this culture where one religion is so dominant. They were married when she was 17. Rufai told us at dinner that she suffered a miscarriage last year and is still very sad about losing that child. They are hoping to have another child soon.

There is a social pressure placed on women here to be able to have many children for their husbands. Sadly, some husbands will divorce their wives for someone new if their wife becomes infertile or goes through menopause. What is really heartbreaking to me is that when the husband leaves her, he can take any of their children with him. The woman is then left with nothing. I can only imagine that many women feel devalued and without worth if they struggle to have children.

Have I mentioned anything yet about the sweet woman who has been helping me keep house over the past five months? Hasira comes in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to wash our clothes and help clean the house. Even though we don't speak the same language, she has been such a wonderful presence in our home during our time here. She loves on our children and has really eased the burden of the housework here for me. I could not have done it without her. 

I really wanted to show how much I have appreciated her by having her whole family over for a meal. I didn't know when I extended the invitation how many were actually in her family, but she was so grateful when I told her she could bring everyone that lives in her house (which I found out would be 4 children, 1 grandchild, and a husband). We also invited a translator from the hospital to come and help navigate us through our conversations. We did not know before our meal that Hasira's husband is actually one of the anesthetists who works at the hospital. He and Marc have been in surgery together nearly every day for the past month! Her husband speaks some English as well so we had a great time. They have 9 children together, and 4 of them plus a grandson still live at home. I think the ages of the children who ate with us were 15, 13,11, and 8 though all of the kids looked smaller than a typical eight year old from home. Their grandson was two. The kids had so much fun playing with Eli and Hailey's toys. And for the most part, our kids did a good job with sharing. I think they were just excited to have so many new kids to play with.

I put all the kids (minus Hailey who sat with us) at a table together. They giggled through the entire meal! I served black beans and rice with cornbread and we had an assortment of fresh fruit for dessert. I think it went over a little better than some of the other things I have served people here. :)

At the end of the night Eli put several cars in a bucket for his new friends to take home. It was really sweet.

This picture below really gets me tickled. All the kids were busy playing with Eli's Thomas the Train toys when Eli ran into the kitchen to get one of our empty powdered milk tins and a plastic spoon. He put it on our table and started beating on it like a toy drum. Hasira and her husband were laughing so hard at him. I'm sure they thought his choice of a toy was quite funny when he had many fancier things to play with.

Sweet, sweet, friends. Thank you Lord for bringing these people into our lives.