Christmas in May
We had the opportunity to help hand out Operation Christmas Child gifts last week. How amazing was it being on this end of things for a change. The kids were so excited. It was so amazing seeing children get these boxes full of things, when they probably only have one toy to their name. What an amazing ministry! If you don’t do this each year… please do! There were not enough shoeboxes for all of the kids! We need MORE shoeboxes!! Here are a few pics. The rest of them are on our Flickr photo page.
Shoeboxes!
Lots of kids!
I was able to hand out about 6 boxes! We all took turns.
Holding on tight!
These kids never heard their names called. They did get boxes, but not for their age range.
Happy!
Some pics!
Boy style tea party!
This was our first American style meal here in Dakar. Our hosts are still cooking our meals for us. Which is good and bad all at the same time! haha! We miss familiar food. But the time together and the culture learning is so valuable. This is egg salad sandwiches on sub style bread we buy at a bakery down the road. The potatoes are actually white sweet potatoes that a lady downstairs fries up and sell each evening. They are so good. We ate those in Guinea, too! And note the best part… Chick-fil-a BBQ sauce!!!! =)
What a mess!!!
I was asked to teach these ladies how to bake a cake. So I agreed… even though I always bake cakes from a box! haha! I didn’t realize I was agreeing to a 4 hour long marathon of making at least 20 cakes! We cooked Senegalese style… which means on the floor! You wouldn’t believe what a mess it was at the end!!! It ended up being a great time of language learning and relationship building! It was exhausting but good! (This is what I did for Mother’s Day!) 
Notice Emmaus is testing the batter while we are all distracted taking a picture. What a mess he made! =)
Our work space. This was towards the beginning. The mess got much worse! And don’t forget the 4 cockroaches I smashed while we were doing this! =) Â They were such good learners. Except I just simply could not get them to add the ingredients in the right order. The baking powder was always forgotten and added in last! haha!
The first cake that Banna ever made in her whole life! She did a pretty good job!
Canaan's fort!
Canaan showing me his fort!
Banna and Lellie!
The kids new bigger bath buckets! They like bath time! =)
I (Deb) was throwing up again last night… not fun! Instead of having a super busy day today… I had to lay around and do nothing. Kinda nice, kinda not! Haha! Hope you enjoyed the pics. I was so bored just laying here, so I thought I would try to get something done! =)
Stowaways
I can’t believe this is our first post since arriving! It definitely feels weird arriving as a ‘new missionary’ all over again. We do thank the Lord though for our three months of experience in Guinea which have already helped us immensely during our first week and a half in Senegal. We were definitely more mentally prepared and weren’t as shocked by many of the differences between Senegal and our home countries. From the date of our arrival we have about three weeks until we start our language and culture course. That gives us time to settle in, un pack and spend time getting to know our Senegalese host family and our neighbourhood. It has been a great time in regards to all those things. We are beginning to feel at home, indeed, Canaan often tells me how much he loves his new home! Our hosts names are: Jean-Lucien and Banna Diatta. Jean-Lucien works at a local University while Banna works at home with their daughter and also sells vegetables in a local market. We get along well with them though there are the inevitable miscommunications as we get to know each other across cultures. I remind myself often that we are not the only ones learning here, they too are learning our culture as we interact.
This afternoon we did some unpacking and found a grueling discovery. While taking clothes out of a box I was smacked in the face by a horrid stench that almost made me gag. I quickly found the culprit: a tiny, half decomposed mouse. I quickly disposed of it only to immediately find a second.  I tweeted my discovery only to find a third, fourth and fifth.
just found two dead mice in one of our boxes. Those poor Guinean rodents never got to see the light of Senegal. #fb
Norm Copeland
normc
Four the mice were tiny while one was larger. We suspect that a pregnant mouse somehow got in while I was packing the box and gave birth enroute. A very sad tale!
We are leaving on a jet plane!
Our time here is almost over. What bittersweet times it is for us… looking forward to so much and leaving so much behind. We are so extremely sad to leave our families and all that we call familiar. But we are so comforted by God and his perfect plan for our lives and the lives that we will impact with our lives.
Last night was so very productive. We spent the entire day packing and organizing. Then after dinner and after the kids were in bed, we brought all our suit cases to the living room and told my sisters and dad that I needed them to pack them in for me in an organized fashion and to really watch the weight. It was the most incredible thing they could have done for me. I got everything ready to go and to be packed and they packed it in for us. It was so amazing. Thank you so much. You have no idea how amazing that was! =)
Then this morning, my sisters and Canaan and Emmaus and I went our for a morning/afternoon of adventuring! It was a much needed time of just having fun, spending time together and spoiling the boys. First we went to Bright Child (a huge indoor playground). We stayed there for a few hours. The kids had a blast. It was a perfect morning to go. There were hardly any people there. Which was an amazing blessing, Emmaus get very overwhelmed in any situation with lots of people. It was so fun! Here are some pictures from our time at Bright Child:
All of us!
Our little builder!
Emmaus is loving it!
Next we went to lunch at Panera Bread! I love Panera Bread and will miss it so much! After lunch we went to Old Navy, it was right next door. =) Kathleen and Gregg and Christy  have sponsored some Senegalese children. Kathleen and Gregg sponsored a little 3 year old boy and Christy sponsored a 5 year old girl. We picked up some clothes for them. We figured we would take the gifts over with us and either drop it off at the World Vision headquarters in Dakar or mail it to them. After Old Navy, we went to the little play place right outside of Old Navy. The kids really enjoyed that. I have no idea what is so fun about those mall play places, but the kids loved it! Here are some pics!
My sweet boys!
Emmaus having fun!
Happy!
After the play place we headed to our car and spotted the water fountain thing. Of course we had to top off a fun day with some water play. This was super fun. Both the kids and the aunties ended up pretty wet! Luckily we had extra clothes for the kids in the car. Fun was definitely had by all!
Canaan
The water is about to come out of there!
Now for the rest of the day we are going to try to finish up all the loose ends, finish laundry, packing up the stuff we haven’t been able to pack yet, because we are using it! Tomorrow morning we are going to have a nice little brunch as a family. Having brunch as a family brings back so many memories of holidays and fun times. We will be headed to the airport sometime after lunch. We want to be there really early since the airlines are all still trying to get back to normal from the Volcano. We plan on getting there and doing an official weigh in on our bags, do any shifting that needs to be done and then seal them up. Â We will have a 12 hour flight from LAX to Paris. Then a too short 2 hour layover in Paris and then a 6 hour flight down to Dakar. Please pray especially for Emmaus. This is going to be tough with him, he is at the age that we can’t explain to him why we have to stay in our seat for 12 hours and why he can’t go running down the aisle anytime he wants or why he can’t move around much because of the person sitting in front of us. He does NOT sleep well on planes. Not at all! Please pray he will sleep and that he will be calm during the long flights. We only have 3 actual paid for seats. And with the volcano… we are assuming the flights will be booked solid. I don’t have much hope for an extra seat… but we serve the God of miracles… so PLEASE pray for a MIRACLE! =)
We covet your prayers during this time of transition and leaving our families. You can pray for the kids! What a tough thing to go through at such a young age. And you can pray for me (Debra). I am emotionally really struggling with going back. Our three months in Guinea were a real whirlwind trip for us. We went through culture shock, malaria, parasites, civil unrest, loneliness from being under house arrest and ultimately having to leave everything behind and come home.  I know things wont be quite as crazy this time around. But its still a tough thing to go back. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. We are so so blessed to be serving such an incredible loving GOD! What a privilege it is!
We can’t wait to update you all from the other side of the world. We are hoping to get internet up and running soon! It could be a couple days to a couple weeks! You just never know is Africa!!
We love you so much!
Trying to stay organized! 2.5 days left!
Today we did a lot of organizing, sorting, packing and that kind of stuff. I have been trying to keep my brain in order. Instead of having a million things floating around in my head, I try to write everything down. I have several sheets of paper floating around. At the begining of the week we used the big dry erase board to schedule our last week. Now that our last week is more than half over, I was able to erase a bunch of it to use as our organizations center. Here it is!
External Brain!
I have been listing things that I woud like to take if we have extra space (doubtful!!) And things that are around the house that I would be likely to forget, because they are where they belong! Haha. I have also been listing what things I want to do when on the calendar. I also started a section that was a list of other people to do. My family ask all the time what they can do for me. I usually say… “hum…. I am not sure… something!!” So I have been trying to think of what they can do for me when they ask and writing down ideas. I took this picture this afternoon… it is already much fuller than in this picture. This has really been helping me to have less stuff floating around in my head and stressing me out. I really don’t feel stressed about the packing… just wanting to be done… I hate this stage. It seems like we do it A LOT!
Please continue to pray for us! I am battling a nasty cold, that is sapping my energy. Hopefully it wont be too bad by the time we get on our airplane. Â This evening was so wonderful. My whole family went out to dinner. It was so nice to sit down with everyone and just enjoy a nice meal together. We had a lot of fun. We are truly going to miss them! Just being together is so sweet and I am so so so very thankful to God for this time he has given to us as a GIFT of being together. I will never forget it and I just thank God for every minute he gave us together.
Please pray for Canaan. He is really starting to notice things are changing. I cleaned his room today and went through his toys. He is very concerned about his stuff going in the suitcase and not actually going on the plane with him. He has been telling me that his animals will be very sad and lonely in the suitcases without him. So sad. I think that taking my kids over seas is the hardest part for me. I do not get to spoil my kids or even give them normal things that kids get. I can’t just take them to a park, or go get the their latest craze at a store, or get them their favorite snack whenever they want. I feel so sad taking them from their grandparents. These thoughts often bring me to tears. But every time I think about that, I have to remember that God has a perfect plan for all of us. He has the very very best in mind for my baby boys! And God’s perfect plan for them is going to live in Africa! I LOVE that I can be content in that and have 100% faith in the Lord in this matter. (Of course I can have total faith in God in all matters!)
Anyway, thank you for praying! We need it and we LOVE that you take us to the feet of our Father. I know that God absolutely loves talking with his children!
The two sweetest boys I know!
4 days! Seriously?!? Shopping!!! BBQ Sauce!
4 days left. We are definitely feeling it now. We have been pretty busy. All of our time is scheduled and filled up! We are really hoping to get all of our running around, organizing, packing, etc done as soon as possible. We have a few things we would REALLY like to do if we end up having the time… that is if we use our time wisely and get things done in a timely manner. One thing I want to do is take the kids to Bright Child again. That place was so fun, and I am so sad that we wont be able to take them to places like that in Senegal. Another thing we really want to do is get my wedding ring fixed. This entails a drive down to LA though. It is a hollow ring… and with the amount of humidity and with the extreme amount of time I spent washing my hands in Guinea… the skin under my ring was 100% of the time wet… When we came home from Guinea my finger was so messed up I didn’t wear my ring for 5 months! SAD! We want to take it to a special jeweler and see if they can fill it in partially and also size it up so that it is larger and gets more air in there. I really don’t know if we will have time for that… but I am praying to God that we will have time! =)
Yesterday and today were spent running last minute errands, buying things for us and for people in Senegal who have requested things. Yesterday I did my Thousand Oaks shopping and today I did my Camarillo and Oxnard shopping. Yesterday for dinner we had a couple of supporters over for dinner, to fellowship and talk! It was nice time of hanging out and saying goodbye. Â Today for dinner my sisters and brother in law and their friend Rich came over for dinner. It was a sweet time of spending time with family. Tonight we will be going over to my sister’s house for our final episode of LOST! We will attempt to download them off of the interent while we are in Senegal! There are only a few more episodes left in the whole series. We only missed the end by a couple of weeks.
Today Norm and I went to lunch at one of our favorite fast food spots… Chick-fil-a. We are so sad to be saying good bye to it and pretty much any other restaurant we like for the next 4 years! I LOVE LOVE LOVE their BBQ sauce. Its so yummy… probably because they use  lots of sugar. =) I wanted to grab a few extra packages.. but then I thought that just helping myself wouldn’t be the best idea. I asked Norm if he would go ask if we could buy a few. He went up and asked the manager and he said that they can’t sell them, but then he said, “Just hang on a sec.” He then went a grabbed a bag and loaded about 30 packets in the bag! I was sooooooo excited!! What a cool gift! Having little things like that are so fun in foreign countries. Makes me feel more at home.
BBQ sauce!!!
Today when I came home from my shopping, I piled all of our purchases on bed and took a picture. A lot of the stuff we got was for friends and a lot was for us! Â Check it out!
Supplies, gifts and fun things!
Flights resume!
Just a QUICK update to let you all know that Air France has resumed flights! The volcanic ash is now not a problem to our flight to Africa! =) Just keep praying that it doesn’t blow back over there! Thank you for praying and it looks like we will be getting to Africa as planned!
6 days! Last Sunday! Geocaching! Senegal fact #12
Wow! Today was a crazy day! Wonderful and tiring! =) We went to all three services at church. It was fun sitting through the worship part of each service and singing the song set 3 times! We were able to share the very basics with each service about whats up with us. Then after church we had a luncheon where people could come eat, fellowship, ask questions and say good bye! It was so fun. We had a great turn out. I think we estimated around 70 people. My dad bought pizza, cookies, salad, dressings, and drinks… for all those people for only $130 bucks! What a deal! Thats is approximately 2 bucks a person for the entire meal! Praise God! It truly was a bittersweet time saying goodbye to such dear friends!
After lunch, Norm, Canaan, my dad and I headed off to do some last geocaching. Geocaching is not really possible in Africa. There are possibly 8 in Senegal… I know we will find them! But that is not very many to keep us going! We absolutely love geocaching! But that is just one of the things God has for us to give up! We will love doing more when we come home next. It was a nice afternoon of hiking and spending time together. We got home around 6pm and we are all whooped! We ate dinner and put the kids to bed. I think tonight we are hoping to just take it easy before the crazy hectic week begins!! So much to do this week. Â I will do my very best to keep you guys updated! But I will probably not do one post everyday. I will try… but it is more likely to be every other day.
Today’s Senegal Fact #12
We received a picture of our host family! We are so excited to be meeting them soon!
Jean-Lucien, Bana, Laleigh and Victorine
This is Jean-Lucien and Bana Diatta and their daughter Laleigh and also a lady that lives with them, Victorine. Â This picture was taken about a year ago. Their daughter is now 16 months old. Emmaus and Laleigh are almost excatly the same age! How awesome is that! Â We are so thrilled that they are so willing to sacrifice so much time for us to show us the ropes, help us settle in, feed us when we first arrive and so much more!
Having a host family is so important to our ministry. If we arrive in Senegal and are greeted by only missionaries, are oriented to the country by only white people, and the only people we go to when we have questions are missionaries, we will never integrate into the Senegalese culture and be effective missionaries in Senegal. We naturally as human beings gravitate towards our comfort zones. Obviously, English and American culture are comfortable to us. French and Senegalese culture are OUT of our comfort zones. So if we break the comfort zone as soon as we get to the airport in Dakar, our lives in Africa will be so much more valuable.
Praise God for providing Christian host families for us!!!!! They are truly invaluable to our ministry!
17 month comparison!
Canaan 17 months
Emmaus 17 months
Emmaus looks so much older than Canaan! But actually Canaan is about 3 weeks older than Emmaus in these 2 photos! Emmaus is much leaner and taller! But guess what?! Canaan has grown FIVE inches in the last 10 months! No wonder all of his pants go up to his ankles! He only gained 3 lbs in that time! But thats pretty awesome considering in the last 3 years he has gained 4lbs!!
Emmaus now weights 23lbs. Canaan hit that weight well before his first birthday!
Canaan and Emmaus love each other so much its so cute. Although… sibling rivalry has already started! OH NO! Haha! Emmaus has just started trying out his smacking skills, especially on Canaan! He does not like it when Canaan gets in his way. Well, I guess we are going to have to teach him that hitting is a big no no in our house.
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