It has come to my attention that there are a few people out there who still want to support me through finances yet do not know where to give the money. To solve this problem, I have listed the place to send it.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Questions of Guinea-Bissau
Another month has passed and it is wild for me to think that there are only 10 days left in my time here. As I reminisce on the different things I have done and learned here, different things and questions come to mind like:
-at about month 5 of my stay here, Titus’ truck changed from a key start to a key + push start (an awesome red button was placed in the dash to get the thing started). What was even more fun was the fact that the car still had to be pushed to get it started, making it the ultimate ‘push start’ vehicle.
-I learned if you have pens and stickers (thank you mom, dad and Fiona) motivating the class is super easy. (Today I made them act out a short play with props and everything. It was rad.)
-if it is under 30 degrees it is ‘cold.’
-dancing solely to the beat of a drum is legit.
-to get fruit from a tree there are four methods methods. A. throw a stick at it. B. wait for the fruit to drop. C. find a long stick and hit it off. D. get a kid to climb really high and shake frantically until the fruit drops.
-another thing is here, if you want to use public transportation, be prepared to stop about a million times. This stopping turns short trips in to long ones and makes long trips into epic journeys.
-fun fact: while it may be nearly impossible for a fellow resident of the lower mainland to picture, rain actually does not fall here for a solid 7 or 8 months. A thing I have enjoyed very much even though this has contributed to the heat here.
-how are cell phones so crazy popular if there is vertually no electricity (goverment officials and some other important people in the capital city are the only ones who actually get power).
-What are the odds of me planning my trip to miss the mango season perfectly? (I love mangoes.)
-If
-why did I think going to the beach with no sunscreen in
Questions asked/thought of while in transportation:
-how does a car lose its speedometer?
-what percentage of this car is held together by tape and cardboard?
-how long does it take for a car to lose all of its interior and become a metal shell?
-are working windows a luxury?
-why is there 10 people in this car?
-how did we fit over 40 people in this van?
-is the hole in the floor to tell how fast we are going? (this one goes well with the first one)
-where does the key go if there is no ignition?
-how do you open a door with no handle?
-so, this door comes right off eh? Neat. No seatbelts either? No problem.
-if the government put lines in the road, would it make a difference?
-how is the stuff piled on top of the car bigger than the car itself?
Ok, so most of it was questions. But they hint at some fun experiences here that I have neglected to put so far or just wanted to repeat. I figured this is the shortest way to get it all in.
In further fun news, I have officially booked all my flights and have my travel plans back home set. Friends in Toronoto, I will be there from the 16th-18th.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
a shorter blog
Well, now that I have been here for a little over 7 months, it looks like I finally learned how to condense a message (at least a bit). Here are some of the happening of the last little while:
After a three week break from classes I was ready to dive back into my last 6 weeks of teaching English. However, after just one week, I discovered I had another week off due to ‘Paskua’(Easter).
I used this opportunity to go to
I also should mention that over the course of the past month I received all the other things that were taken from my house. This had good and bad results: the good, was obviously that I had my things back for use, the bad being that now we know who the people are and we have the difficulties of dealing with what to in our situation.
I have a little less then a month left here so this will be one of the last blogs you will get to see from
I have also spent a little more time on the little Kiriol learning thing. I have typed out a couple ‘lessons’ and I was wondering if anybody would be available to make it look just a little prettier. If you think that person could be you, send me an e-mail at steve_berk@hotmail.com.
So ya,
a shorter blog
Well, now that I have been here for a little over 7 months, it looks like I finally learned how to condense a message (at least a bit). Here are some of the happening of the last little while:
After a three week break from classes I was ready to dive back into my last 6 weeks of teaching English. However, after just one week, I discovered I had another week off due to ‘Paskua’(Easter).
I used this opportunity to go to
I also should mention that over the course of the past month I received all the other things that were taken from my house. This had good and bad results: the good, was obviously that I had my things back for use, the bad being that now we know who the people are and we have the difficulties of dealing with what to in our situation.
I have a little less then a month left here so this will be one of the last blogs you will get to see from
I have also spent a little more time on the little Kiriol learning thing. I have typed out a couple ‘lessons’ and I was wondering if anybody would be available to make it look just a little prettier. If you think that person could be you, send me an e-mail at steve_berk@hotmail.com.
So ya,
Monday, April 6, 2009
This is what a cashew fruit looks like. The nut grows on the bottom of it. It is juicy but you dont swallow the fruit. You just chew and drink the sweet juices. Its pretty good once you get used to it (it is a skill as the juices stain clothing).
My birthday. If the picture is large enough... note the 'candles' / matches on my cake. Hurray! (none of these people are Titus, he was in Germany at this time.)
An old blog that I forgot to post.
February ended nicely. Titus left for a three week leadership conference in
The first stop on the list was Cacini. A Brazilian named Valberto lives there. He has been there for 11 years and currently works at the school there. He also had a 24 year old visitor from
The ride there was an experience on its own. Taking anywhere between 7 and 10 hours, a trip to Cacini includes driving a whole lot on cement and then a near equal time on dirt. The vehicle of choice is a ‘Kandonga’. I am unsure of its meaning but I would not be surprised if it was Kiriol for ‘put as many people as you think you can fit in it, then stop every time you see someone on the road to see if they want to squeeze in too’. If you ever go, either sit in the front or plan on getting mighty dirty. I sat in the back and was caked in a nice layer of dirt/dust by the time I was out. The ride did have its positives though. I got to talk with some of the guys in the back and after a couple of hours somehow it ended in me giving them an English lesson. I was surprised at how well some of the guys could speak English just by working in the back of a ‘Kandonga’.
When I arrived Zalan was put in charge of taking care of me as Valberto was quite busy at the time. This had its difficulties as Zalan spoke good Portuguese and Hungarian but little English. I spoke none of his languages and had to settle for trying to talk to him in Kiriol (which is quite similar to Portuguese). Somehow we made communication work and I was grateful for the forced Kiriol practice that Zalan had to endure. Also, I was able to help out a little bit by doing some digging at the school and repairing some of the floors as the older classrooms were in rather rough shape. (I have to point out that one day we went to the beach: I took pictures, got burnt, played with crabs, went swimming, put on sunscreen and got more burnt. It was a good time.)
After 8 days of hammock sitting/laying down, reading, watching construction, helping out a bit and wondering around the town with locals I decided to make my way back to Bissau as my schedule had me going to a place named Nchumbe in two days.
This is when the commotion of the assassination of the president came in. It put my plans aside a bit, but in the end it worked out fairly well for me. I stayed in Nchumbe for 11 days instead of the planned two days and after I got a chance to visit Canchungo for two days instead of the planned 7 days. After all was said and done I got to see all the places I planned to see and walked away with an irreplaceable learning experience.
I had to go back to
It seems as though the political situation is back to semi-normality and there are currently no fears of anything going awry again. I am teaching English classes in Ingore again and African life is back to normal after a relatively eventful bit of travels.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Explosions, gunfire and more regular African stuff.
Instead of giving you the usual blog, here is my journal entry from March 2, slightly revised. I figured since I had not told you guys what my day was like, this should be adiquate: (and yes, sometimes I do journal as if I am talking to someone. Crazy? Not if I post it to others later.)
March 2, 2009
Before I tell you about my trip in Cacine that happened in February, let me tell you what has gone on the last 22 and a half hours.
Around 10 o’clock at headquarters Kevin stopped by my room before turning off the generator to note that there had been an attempt on the life of the General of the Army. He mentioned an explosion and gunfire. I figured this was something similar to the time that there was an attempt on the president’s life a couple months ago and passed it off as one of those things that happens all the time in small, poor countries in
After an hour or so I was preparing for bed thinking of how nice it would be if I had a mosquito net as the last night I was up for some time in the late hours trying to kill the mysteriously loud mosquito roaming around my room.
I woke up at around 4:24am to the worst sound. That same lame mosquito was making his rounds in my room just for the fun of it, probably taking some of my blood and giving me malaria while he was at it. After about 5 minutes of useless searching I gave up. I figured it was worth it just to go back to sleep. I lay there for five minutes thinking of how rotten my feelings were towards that mosquito. It was the worst.
I was just drifting back to sleep when at approximately 4:36 am I heard another terrible sound, much louder then a mosquito. It was somewhat familiar. If it were deeper and longer lasting I could have mistaken it for thunder, but it had more of an abrupt clap to it; a bomb. My heart rate jumped to a pretty decent speed, only to increase upon hearing the pattering of gun shots. They were similar to the sound of someone popping bubble wrap, except a little less playful. I calmed myself down fairly quickly as the noise seemed to die off after a couple minutes. I managed to convince myself it was normal African activity, plus I had the comfort of hearing the old night guard wake up and turn his flashlight on (he usually ‘guards’/sleeps near my window).
My mind was turning back towards sleep as another explosion could be heard followed by more gunfire. The second one got the heart palpitating at its peak rate for the evening, but again I was able to convince myself that it was alright. The pattern of explosions followed by gunfire continued for a decent hour and a half or so with short breaks in between. Explosions and whatnot got less concerning as it went on.
The field leader stopped by while it was still dark and mentioned that it would be best to pack the bags incase we had to evacuate. I thought this was a brilliant idea and packed up my stuff and put it outside my room.
I do not think many of us got much/any sleep that night after the first explosion. We got together when it started getting light outside and the different missionaries exchanged information. At this time it was confirmed that the General of the Army had been killed and that there was an attack at the president’s residence. We soon learned that the president and his wife were also killed in the attacks. In case the night’s explosions were not indication enough; this was confirmation that it was not an every day activity for a small, poor African country and that we should probably try leave
The streets were not the same as usual. Instead of the noise of people yelling for Toka-Tokas and the bustle of morning activities, there was silence met by the odd motor passing by. As the hours passed the streets became slightly more littered with people and I had breakfast. We decided to wait in the mission until we got some more information.
We left after we heard that it was possible to get out of the city. I went in the first vehicle with a silent/crying Nathan, I wondered what he thought of the whole situation at about 6 years old. We took back roads and got redirected a bit but eventually we made our way onto the right road (after driving a bit the wrong way on the street and passing the median at the first possible spot).
It was strange driving on the roads being the only car in sight. Every gas station was closed and we were low on fuel. By the time we got to the exit point it was clear that they were not letting anybody through. The guards were under orders not to let anybody at all through the road, and of course it was the only way out of the city.
After 2 hours of waiting and a decent amount of talking on the mission leaders behalves, we had a guard come out with us to the car, make sure everything was all right and lead us through. Apparently the bible college that the missionaries who we are staying with started was sending out the soldier’s cousin to
He drove with us across the line and got out. While he was in the car I looked at his aging gun and noted how it could use some polishing and how the tip had broken off a bit.
The only other real check point a soldier at the post was a Christian and we were let through immediately. In the end we all made it down to Nchumbe safely and that was good. For me it was not even that different of a time as it was directly in my plans to leave for Nchumbe at approximately 10 o’clock that morning anyways (we left at about 9:48).
Nchumbe is hot. The people were not joking when thy said it was the hottest area in
Despite the heat, Nchumbe is a pretty cool place. I am pretty sure it is actually the middle of nowhere, just a plot of land a bunch of kilometers off the main road. They turned it into a
I got a tour of the area and ate my first cashew fruit. They look a little like a yellow or red apple with a nut growing out the bottom. They are soft and juicy and you do not eat them, just get the juice out. The juice pours out as you eat it and you have to be careful not to get it on your clothing as it stains. Duly noted? Dearly noted? Meh. Noted.
Oh ya, I gotta mention, I ended up having my birthday in Nchumbe. I got to open some sweet presents sent earlier by my family which was rad. They baked a banana bread cake for me there. Instead of candles I had two matches. It was nice because it meant no wax on the cake. Hurray! The gifts here were sweet. Dutch Blitz can now be enjoyed here and my new mug is the talk of the town. Haza.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
EXCITING
Here it is folks, another month another blog. Except this time, instead of my usual boring stuff this one is full of all sorts of excitement like shooting a wedding (taking pictures for those who are not so hip with the camera scene), break-ins, theft, sickness, visitors from Britain and all sorts of missions related events that will keep you at the edge of your seats. I thought that after 5 months or so, life in Africa would slow down a bit and I would leave you all with nothing to read except copy and pasted information from previous blogs about my English classes but this one has all sorts of humdingerish events. (humdingerish is not a word but humdinger is… I look it up. It means remarkable or extraordinary or wild like that.)
In reality it was not terrible exciting of a time. The whole health thing just consisted of me ripping out part of my toe nail, getting a bit of malaria and having vitamin deficiency which lead to a swollen throat. What was unfortunate about it all is that it all started up within two days. Right after I sent off reports of how remarkably good my health has been so far too. I remember as I wrote it humoring myself as I wrote about my health thinking it to be bad luck. Oh well, at least each problem had a simple solution and I was back to health in less than two weeks.
The real unfortunate part of it all is that the night it was decided that I my headache was more than just a headache, my house got broken into as I was at the night gathering for church. A couple of people entered through a door my roommate forgot to lock properly, broke through my door and promptly searched for and found my electronics devices. This consisted of my laptop, both cameras and my iPod. Their unfamiliarity of these devices could be shown by the fact that they forgot to take the chargers for each one, rendering them useless after a couple hours of use.
It was interesting to note that during that same night of unfortunate events Isa (the 85 year old lady here who has been here nearly from the start), fell and broke her leg.
The next morning, as I was reporting the name brand and what not to a local from Bissau (the capital city is pretty much the only place for such electronics and even then there are only three locations where you would normally find them, at least three places where you can develop digital pictures, I never found out which was accurate. Either way, it was a promising find.) someone came into my house and told me that my laptop and my good camera had been found. Apparently those items were slightly too large to conceal and get away with.
So really, in the end I am just minus some music that I can do without and a camera that can take video (my good one cant). So it was a fairly eventful 24 hours but I got some of my stuff back so it was good. And to improve situations even more we discovered that Isa’s leg was not actually broken, it was just a bad fall. A couple days after the getting some medicine for malaria the headache was on its way out and when we discovered that the throat problem was not going away it was advised that I take some vitamins and that problem was also resolved after a few interesting days of trying to teach English with minimal speaking.
To explain my note about the British visitors I will just say that they stopped by Titus’ place for a short bit. All nine of them had children much older than I am but it was nice to have some English around the house. It was a great time and their sense of humor was much appreciated as I could finally understand some of the jokes that were being told. Another huge bonus was the extra special food being served for them meant that I got to eat like a king for a couple days. I also went on a bit of a tour with them and got to learn a few things about Ingore that had not been mentioned.
Oh ya, and I shot a wedding before all the other stuff happened. The pastors younger sister was getting married and there was nobody to take pictures so I went down with my cameras and took a whole bunch of pictures. It was a pretty rough situation as the room was super dark but flash could not be used due to the crazy amount of dust. I did manage to get a couple pictures with the help of Almamo (pretty much the most ‘western’
In the end it really was not as crazy exciting as I tried to make it in my intro, but perhaps it got you pumped up enough to finish this read. Sorry to if this was tricky to read but I wrote this while being quite pressed for time. Perhaps I will post another blog soon explaining some of the places that do not make sense and having a lot less brackets to explain things after writing them.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
In Bissau again.
I said that I was going to try put in a nice little update mid month this month. So here I am, blogging away. I will begin by describing a bit about how my new year started off.
January first I was just sitting around the house when Mora came in and said something to the effect of “Go to Titus’ house,” at least that was all I could understand (the actual conversation lasted a couple minutes). When I got to Titus’ house Titus asked me if I was packed. I, having no clue to what he was talking about, responded with a truthful no. I soon discovered that I was supposed to be going with the youth/young adults of the church to a nice little village near by that has one of the Church plants inside. (In all fairness, I had heard of the trip before, but I was unsure of its exact time/if it was actually going to happen.)
Luckily, the trip was only for 3 days so I did not need to pack much. I was soon off to the village in a van, very tightly packed with singing young people. One girl was able to sing much louder than I thought was humanly possible. When I looked back to see who it was, I was shocked to find out that she was a few rows back. I was happy the ride there was much shorter than the ride to the village for the wedding.
Once there we had a funtastic time. They killed a pig and it tasted delightful. The meat lasted the whole time too. I was fed quite nicely. The portions they gave me put the 2 liter portions Titus gave me when I first arrived to Ingore to shame. I should have taken a picture of one of the meals they expected me to eat. The first time they sent me the ‘Salad bowl’ of rice I attempted to finish it. I nearly did too, even after being approached by several courteous people who expressed that they did not actually anticipate that finish it and it was quite alright if I was not able to empty the bowl.
I was given my own room, some sort of storage room, for sleeping. I did not sleep much as my body is not used to cement. From what I gathered, other people did not sleep too well either. The second night, we stayed up as long as possible in attempt to outfox the floor from its malicious plans to cause more sleeplessness. I was able to last with the others until 5 when we decided it was time to pack it in and get some sleep before the 6 O’clock meeting. The floors malevolence was escaped but on the downside I missed the 6 O’clock meeting. (Nobody woke me up).
Throughout the three days there was a bunch of drum playing and dancing. I liked this. I tried to play the drum for a while but gave up when I realized my sense of rhythm was a little ‘off’ according to the locals.
The Sunday I got back we discovered that a woman in the church had died. Instead of a morning church service, we all went to her house. There were many people already there sitting on any and everything that they deemed suitable for sitting on. They stayed there for most of the day. The actual funeral service was at 4 because the family had to arrive still. Each time a different family member arrived they would make a sound that was a bit of a mixture between a cry and a song. Perhaps they were ‘wailing’. Whatever it was, it was a horrible, beautifulish sound. It seemed to fit the occasion well. The funeral itself did not take long. A few words were said, a prayer and a single song “Because he lives” in Portuguese (from what I could understand it was pretty much word for word the same).
The woman who died was a bit of a younger woman. Her death was due to the poor medical situation out here.
School is still going well. I just went through a rousing edition of “Sleeping Beauty” with my classes. The English was a little advanced for most of the students but I figured I would give some of the smart kids a challenge. Plus, it was nice for all of us to get a change in pace from the work book.
Now I am in
Monday, January 5, 2009
Hello from Ingore
It has been a little over a month since I was last in
The last month and a bit have been fairly good times. I taught English in the School until the 19th. Everything went quite well. I even made exams for my classes. There was an average in the mid 70’s and there was a decent spread in the marks. I was happy about this as it was the first real test I had given to them, or to any class for that matter.
Near the end I was also getting a bit better at the whole ‘teaching English thing.’ The class even gets to have a bit of fun while they learn now. Well, at least we have fun in the morning class. The afternoon class does not really have the English comprehension to get things going, but they are all good sports anyways.
I broke out the guitar for the last two weeks and taught them some good old Christmas Carols. I figured since I do not have 104.9 ‘Christmas FM’ to spark the Christmas season I was entitled to some Christmas joy in class. They were fond of this, the general favorite was “O come O come Emmanuel” all though, it did take a decent amount of time to teach them. Their songs do not have the same rhythm and stuff so it is a bit of a stretch to teach them old English songs.
I also made them draw some Christmas scenes. Due to their lack of drawing in the past, they were sub par in comparison to what would be anticipated for people their age in
When school ended the guys at Titus’ house figured it would be nice to set up Christmas decorations and stuff. We festooned Titus’ house with all sorts of wild Christmas decorations that he got for free from some American who already went back to the States. Apparently, he left all of his stuff behind and nobody wanted the box full of Christmas stuff. Titus saw the opportunity for a festive Christmas time and took it and it made for a lively Christmas time.
Kevin, the field leader and Anna, his wife, came by for a week to have a bit of a vacation. It was fantastic to have them around (and I am not just saying that because I know they read my blog). It was really nice to have a couple extra people to speak English with for a week. I soaked in understanding conversation like a Canadian soaks in sun rays on a warm summer afternoon. Denis and Almamo also came down for the week and were very nice to have around because they speak good English and are both quite joyous people in general.
Christmas itself passed a little differently then it had in the past. For one thing, it was substantially warmer. I heard it was quite the ‘white Christmas’ out in my neck of town (Canada) but here I find it difficult to even describe snow. I am yet to see a fridge in Ingore and seeing as the temperature rarely gets close to 10 degrees, snow is quite the wild concept for most.
I was able to preserve the bit of the Christmas giving and receiving. My parents had sent me a solid batch of small gifts to open. I managed to save them until Christmas day and had a good time opening them. Plus I got some nice surprise gifts from Titus and Kevin and Anna. After, I used the rapping paper to wrap up the gifts that I bought. I was surprised to see how excited Mora got over the toothpaste and toothbrush I bought him (don’t worry I also got him a watch… toothpaste did not seem like a proper Christmas gift), he is quite the excitable fellow. Other gift giving went well.
I also have to add that although this was a nice restful time for me, Titus did not seem to take much a break. He seems to be consistently showing me how much work it can be to be a missionary in
New years was very different for me as well. I was curious to how we were going to sync the time because there was no TV to have an official countdown. When I heard that we were going to have a church service for the New Years celebration I figured that was how they solved that problem. I was wrong. There was no countdown at all. I was surprised to find that the 2 and a half hour service went right through the New Year. There was not even a pause in the sermon to say, “well, it’s the new year now.”
It was only after we had the closing song that someone mentioned the New Year. At this tired eyes brightened up and suddenly the church was full of handshakes, hugs and all sorts of cheerfulness.
On a side note, I am pretty sure I broke my previous record of longest church services with hardly understanding anything. We were quite close to 4 and a half hours long. We stopped just shy of the half hour maker, apparently they were not paying attention to time markers. I am sure we could have passed it if we tried.
Well this looks like a decent enough read. I will save a couple stories for when I get to
Friday, November 28, 2008
ADDRESS (again...)
Hey, Just wanted to let you guys all know that the mail has been arriving and I love the letters you people have sent me. To my surprise they usually make it here within the month which is just splendid. Hopefully, the postal service keeps up its speedy work as the months continue. I have even received a package from my parents. Titus also recently received a package so it looks like packages are ok for the sending these days.
And for a side note, I was told people should add "via Portugal" to the address, that way the letter or package or whatever does not get lost trying to find Guinea-Bissau. So once again, here it is.
Missão Evangélica da GuineBissau
Steven Berkenpas
C.P. 49
1001
GuineaBissau
West Africa
Via Portugal
Teaching and a wedding
I was tempted to make easy work of this month’s update, that is, to simply copy and past some of the more exciting journaling onto the blog website and press the publish button. After checking up on the neat stuff that has happened over the past 30 days or so I figured that would be a terrible choice. There would simply be too much reading for you people. So now, I am going to attempt to arrange my adventures in a condensed, readable format. (AKA: a similar length to past blogs)
My introduction to teaching was fairly brief. The night before my first classes I was given two textbooks that the students were supposed to use and I was told that I should just try to get them to talk and whatnot until I figured out the extent of their English capabilities. This led me to believe that they were fairly competent in English and just needed a helping hand in proper pronunciation and I could possibly give some finishing touches on verb conjugation.
This belief was inaccurate. Both of my classes found it exceedingly difficult to grasp what I was trying to get them to do but after a ton of gestures and a lot of repetition of words I thought they would know, I got them to do a bit of work.
After two weeks of fumbling around with ancient English books intended for teaching basic English principles to the children of the
He took the role of teacher for a few days while I sat in the class and took notes on what he was doing. I even participated a bit (I aced the quizzes). As the days went by I started to see that my teaching before was similar to what I was supposed to do. My main problem was that I was just going a little too fast. Then it occurred to me, the trick to teaching is to take a simple concept and explain it over and over again until the time was up. And just like that, the many years I had spent in boring class rooms of my high school days made a little more sense.
I am still trying to learn how to teach English and I am even trying to learn how to make it a little interesting. There is still a lot of work to do in both categories, but I think I will be able to get a decent look at each before my time here is done.
So ya, I have two classes. A morning class (with kids that kind of understand me) and an afternoon class (with kinds who kind of do not understand me). Each lasts a solid hour and a half and each has up to, but not necessarily, 13 students.
Hah, and that was the condensed version. Now, I also have a cute little story about the day I went to a wedding. It was actually more like two days now that I think of it, but we did not sleep, so I was kind of like one day. Regardless, it was a pretty wild time.
The wildness began with the ride there. Somehow we managed to pack 25 yelling/singing women into a van, many of them with children. I think when all was said and done there was over 35 of us. With that number of people I would think that the road would be a nice safe calm one. Not quite, the road to the village where the wedding could better be described as a path. A 25 kilometer sand/dirt path. I still have no idea how that vehicle stayed upright throughout that ride, and I am sure the pig, who I could hear sliding around on the roof above my head, had similar ideas rolling around in his head. We hit angles that I previously thought impossible for a van to reach without falling on its side on multiple occasions during that ride.
The wedding was a fairly wild time as well and to spare you of the details, I will just say it what I have come to know as typical African; loud. The night was full of louds; singing/yelling, drums, the rhythmic beating of that sounded much like a hammer to a sheet of metal and of course, plenty of dancing. Not much sleeping though. Well I have reached my word limit for this one. I’ll tell you more about it when I get back. Good thing I made a word limit for this one, or else I would go on and on… and on still after that.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
MY ADDRESS
While I still would not advise sending packages as the people here say their birthday or Christmas packages hardly ever arrive, some mail came in within the month that it was sent, so the postal system does work.
Here is my address again:
Missão Evangélica da GuineBissau
Steven Berkenpas
C.P. 49
1001
GuineaBissau
West Africa
This one is HUGE!
K, I have abandoned the whole “keep it short thing.” This kills the record for longest blog ever by me. But I do not care. Hopefully it will give a better picture for people who are still curious about my lifestyle out here.
Friday, October 17?
I have been thinking for a while that I would be nice to list a couple of simple observations made here. I have painted a light picture of what life out here is like but I think I ought to include some of the things that are drastically different as well. I avoided this at first because the area really is not that ‘super crazy’. It actually fells quite normal. That being said, some of the different things can come a surprises. (I deleted some things from the original journaling though)
One of the first things I noted when I entered the
Clothing is also less optional for young kids. This is especially notable for the boys. They run around naked at the age of 4 or so without hesitation. Once on a car ride back from
Youngsters will often settle for what I would describe as slim tighty-whities. This basically means that they run about wearing the most minimal amounts of cloth perceivable that covers the essential body parts. If they do not have the luxuries of this small cloth, sometimes they will just wear a string around their waist. This does not cover much, but at least their wearing something?
Young people also die a lot more out here. An example could be found in the first few days of being in Ingore a child from the house a few doors down had died. The funeral precession (precession? Is that the right word, I cant figure out how to spell some of these odd words) walked passed the next afternoon, it was a sad sight.
Yet another thing that is different here involves the kids again. I will start with what happened yesterday as I walked to Titus’ house. I exited at the same time that the school ended. A couple of kids walked with me and before long they had grabbed my hands and there was soon about 8 kids all walking hand in hand along the dirt road. It was neat.
A white person is a very interesting thing for kids out here. If I am hanging out with the kids, practicing my language or just relaxing, it is not uncommon for someone to just grab my toe or stroke my arm. They are fascinated by my hairy arms and legs. My bindingly white skin also provides a mystery for the youngsters. When this is added to my immense size, it seem that I am just a ‘giant’ mystery to them.
As fascinating as I am, sometimes I think they are just a little too interested. Usually these thoughts come into my head when I am sitting near a window at a church service or just reading inside. While I do this, scores of kids will pile at the window trying to get a glimpse of the new spectacle. At church I fear this creates a bit of a distraction for me and those around me yet I am not functional enough in the language to politely tell them to go. Usually they lose interest in 10 minutes or so, if not the older of the kids will have the wisdom to notice that they should stop watching me and urge the others to move along.
I also must note that because the houses here have barred windows, it is pretty easy to make the connection between me and a zoo animal as the on lookers gather around to see the large, white skinned, red haired kid read a book.
Then again, a couple days later, a little kid was walking with her family and when she turned and saw me she ran up and said the equivalent of “uncle Steven!” in her language and grabbed my hand and walked the rest of the way to Titus’ house.
The touching of others is also far more acceptable around here. Although male and female do not mingle, the males I have noticed feel free to rest their head on another’s lap or hold hands. This means that extended handshakes are plentiful and are a thing that I had to get used to as a person will often just keep on gripping after a good 3 or 4 shakes. I have learned to casually stand there and let it happen, although once I remember reacting the Western way and did a nice wrist-twist maneuver to get out of the handshake only then realizing that he thought that it meant I did not want to talk to him.
The people here have a different concept of quiet. Where I come from, it is considered to be impolite to be all noisy and such while others are napping or studying. Here the rudeness of the situation does not even cross ones mind. I assume this has to do with the fact that there are no windows in the houses and the walls are all mud-brick and cement made. Silence is not a luxury these people have, and if you can not achieve silence why not be loud all the time?
I noticed this very early in my stay in Ingore. One time I remember was at night when I was trying to sleep and people hung out near my window and chatted up a storm in nice boisterous voices or there was the time that Kaluntan was yelling to the semi-neighbors right outside my window (also late at night).
The noise is continuous throughout the day, which can be aggravating but my best examples come from early morning experiences or late at night because this is when it seems to make the most sense for there to be a quiet time. I can accept the need be loud during the day but there needs to be silence at some time. My neighbors exemplify this perfectly. They will chat to the late house of the night (usually till about 10:30) with their thunderous voices and piercing laughter. In the morning they waste no time in starting with work. It is not uncommon to wake up early (yesterday it was at 5:50) to what sounds like the beating of a drum. What I now know is that this is the thumping of my neighbors pounding rice, preparing for it to be dried for when the sun comes out. Haza.
Oct 19
Showering here is a much colder experience. This is because I either draw the water from a bucket in my room or straight from the well. Although it is fun to shower in the outdoors and use the old school style of dropping a cup of water on your head, it would be nice if the water here was heated, but that would take far too much work. I have settled for occasionally putting water in a dark colored bucket a few hours before my shower so the sun heats it up a bit. This brings it to a nice semi warm temperature that I am happy with (in the two months of being here I have only been able to successfully do this once).
There is no city electricity here. Last year, the base in the capital city got 30 minutes of city power. For places like Ingore, city power remains a foreign technology. The main sources of power here are solar panels and generators and I have even seen a couple windmills kicking around. Titus’ house and the house I live in are powered by solar panels. Unfortunately, the lighting in my house does not work so I have had to settle for flashlights and my battery powered mini lamp. My laptop can survive for what I think is about 2 hours off the solar panel batteries. When this is combined with the 20 minutes of laptop battery life I can get a whopping 2 and a half hours a day of computer usage. Unfortunately, if I do that nobody can charge their phones and the school, who shares the electricity, is left powerless.
Oct 28
It is very likely that people, or at least a couple of people will remember me after I go. This is because there is official a little kid now named “Steven.” A kid named after me? Strange, I know, but if you look at it from their perspective it has its perks. It is customary for me to do something for them now. This is to buy a long brick of soap for the kid. This costs just under 1000 cfa. (no worries… the money works a little different here. Its actually less then $2.50). Titus laughed when he saw the boy because he frequently smiles like I apparently do.
Driving is a different experience all together here. Sure, it is the same vehicle, same gears, wheels and engine, but the rules have completely changed. They are not nice fixed rules like “stay between the lines and obey the stop signs” but rather “go where it is less bumpy and where you fit, and don’t hit thing or anybody while you do it.” They do not even have stop signs out here, and you can forget about stop lights as they need a little something called electricity. I think I can handle it though, a little more honking and a little more active paying attention and I should be alright. I think there was a missionary that has hit and killed and killed a kid in the past, so I can not take the driving thing lightly.
At the same time I am not afraid to “hit the road”, it sure beats riding in a Tooka-tooka, squished in a tiny car hoping there is no hole in the roof because when the pigs and goats tied on top urinate that means sheer trouble.
The roads are pretty wild too. Right now it is the end of the rainy season and I think this means that it is worse then usual. There are giant pot holes everywhere and sometimes the road breaks off into thousands of giant pot holes where the cars drive a little slower than walking speed. It gets a little crazier when there is no asphalt. Sometimes I think the truck is going to tip over because of the angles that we hit, but so far all four wheels have remained on the ground.
The worship style here is a little different. No electricity takes away chance of speakers which means less business up front. They do not have drum kits in
Since they do not have many instruments, or perhaps because their sense of rhythm is much better then ours, their clapping styles are little different than what I am used to. Usually they do a triple clap. It is in a regular rhythm of a nice fast four clap but they do not execute on the fourth, they leave it in silence. Other times they alternate between rapid clap and slow clap in a way that, after nearly two months, I still can not comprehend.
The portions of food I get are humongous. They call it “African sized meals” but I think they are overdoing it. I think I have seen three people here sharing a hefty meal out of the same sized bowl they give to me. After some time I measured the portions and discovered that it was just over 2 liters. Yum.
At Titus’ house the meat is usually fish but sometimes other meats make their way to the table. When we got to
Meal times are a little bit different too. In the mornings I will eat my loaf of bread (no worries is a relatively small loaf… its no big feat to finish). Almost every morning I ‘toast’ it in a pot. Not only because it tastes great, but also because it is helpful in preventing me from getting cholera. In the late afternoon I get lunch. This is the big meal of the day and is nice and fresh. Dinner is much later, the people around here eat at around 10. The large spaces in between meals give a good amount of time to feel hungry. Usually they set out food for me before they eat. This is nice because my hunger is ended a little faster.
I do not think they grasp the concept of annoying here. Right now, while I am working on the computer, Mora came in, sat about 2 feet behind me and started playing the guitar and whistling. This is not an uncommon thing to do. Probably goes along with the always being loud thing, could also show a bit about a different perception personal space. While I am not sure what it means to them, I know for me it is a little agrivating. Perhaps I will get used to it, or at least learn a bit more about it in the future.
Well, if you made it this far you are a true friend (or relative). Congrats on your reading skills. Hope at least most of it was comprehensive. I will also add that yesterday I went to the base and received 3 letters! (two sets of grandparents and Nate Smith from Costa-Rica.) While I have been warned about a 3 month wait, they only took one month to get here. Awesome. If you want to know the address I will put it up again in a bit.
Later,
Steven Berkenpas
Sunday, October 5, 2008
I am in Africa still
Well hello there, I think today’s blog is going to start off with a nice little description of a day out here in
First thing I do in a day (after I wake up of course) is get a shower. Showering in the morning is an important thing to take care of, we are supposed to shower 3 times a day or so when it is warm and if I do not get that morning shower in, it is a hard mark to hit.
After the shower I go shopping. It does not take long because the only thing on the list is bread. Once my loaf of bread is purchased for 150 cfa from one of the kids in the market, (like 40 cents or something not expensive for fresh bread) eat it, and it is delicious.
Now, here it is a toss up between Kiriol study (their language out here) OR reading books for school. Both insanely fun, so I am good to go. Sometimes for breaks I get to go outside and practice talking (in a different language of course… I don’t practice English).
At around noon (usually a bit after noon actually) I get to eat lunch. This is a feast of a meal. In fact, more often then not, dinner (which is at about 9pm) is usually composed of lunch left overs. Because it is such a long time between meals everyone eats as much as possible.
The only thing one can do after an eat fest like lunch is nap. So we have a bit of a siesta. There is nothing like a solid afternoon nap. Nothing really exciting happens until about 7pm. Then, at least at the base, the generator gets turned on and I get power. This is prime time to use the computer (my laptop battery life has dwindled down to about 12 minutes) and doing things that involve using light. Power gets turned off at 10 and sometime before 2 all go to bed.
If I am in Ingore, it is pretty much the same story except there is a lot more hanging out with local youngsters and a lot less power using. Hopefully when I get my own place (in like 2 days) I can use the solar panels for the computer. Also, Ingore has many nights of church events and when that is not going on I get Kiriol classes! Hurray.
So, there you have it. A couple people asked what “a day in the life” for Steve was like in
K, for those who want to read on I will give a nice little description of the area. The roads here are sub par. If one is lucky enough to find themselves on a paved road they will soon find a plethora of potholes to navigate around. At times traffic will come to a near stand still. This means that slightly ahead there is a giant mess of holes on the road that force vehicles to shift down and roll over at the lowest speed they can manage.
To make matters more confusing there are no streetlights, stop signs or rules of any sort. Pedestrians are found in high quantities as well because of a lack of funds for purchasing a vehicle. Needless to say, driving here has a bit of a learning curve. But with the help of a decent horn and a passenger to point dangerous things out, I should be fine.
A neat surprise here is the amount of pigs, goats and chickens. Thy are every where. They just roam around the city, not doing much. Just being animals I suppose. Guess its one of those things that happens when there are not many fridges or freezers for meat. I like to pretend sometimes that they are just walking afternoon meals. Unfortunately they create a pungent aroma which, when combined with the smells of the extra garbage out here can catch you by surprise. While walking things will smell fine then suddenly my olfactory senses are bombarded by these new odors. It is not a pleasant surprise but not much one can do about it.
Well, that is about it for this writing. Perhaps I will update the next one sooner and keep it a little shorter. That would be nice eh?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I am in Bissau for 2 weeks!
Well Hello, it has been a while since I last used this computer. I have written a few things on a paper but paper sucks. My spelling is bad, my writing is hard to read and it takes a lot longer for it to get to you guys so I will write out somewhat lengthy summary of what is going on. I expect family will read the whole thing and possibly a few friends but I will not blame you if you can not make it through this hefty report (unless you are immediate family, then you are blamed and then some).
Let me start off with describing Ingore. I have no idea how big it is. I would be surprised if the population was over 5000 or even 3000 at that matter but even in those estimates the size fluctuates a solid 40% or so. About 50% of the houses have the old school African thatched roofs and nearly all the houses are made of classic mud bricks. However, some of the better off people can afford to layer the bricks with a couple centimeters of concrete to keep the termites out and make the place last a little longer.
It is currently in the rainy season and it looks nice and green. Titus’ house is in a prime location. About 10 minute walk from the church and I would say about 7 minutes from the city center. This puts it on the outside of the town and it means that there is not so much external noise going on during the day. His house is slightly downhill from the soccer field (little less then 5 minute walk) which is nice because we head out to watch games about ever second day.
This city center I mentioned earlier is really just where three roads meet and there is some extra asphalt hanging around. This is where they have their market. The market is a neat little thing they have on Wednesdays where neighboring “cities” chip in and they all try sport there stuff. There is a lot of useful things and a lot that are not so useful. I bought the largest pair of sandals I could find (which is still had to “adjust” with a knife to get theme to fit) for shower.
There is also a daily food market. This one smells a little different because of the meat sitting out in the sun and all the fun juices that are hanging around. It has some good food there though and we get a solid amount of fresh food every day. This is mostly because there is no fridge and the food would go bad without it.
The meals I get are huge. They fill a bowl that fits two liters with rice, meat and vegetables and expect me to finish it. I have on several occasions but when I am only sitting around and reading all day my appetite is not so large.
There are two showers one is indoor and the other is outdoor. There is not much of a difference between them. The outdoor one is nice and close to the well and you get to pull up your own water before dumping it on you. There is also a little more room. The indoor shower has a big bucket that is filled with well water everyday.
As you probably just guessed, there is no running water to go along with the lack of electricity and internet and all that fun stuff. However, cell phones are not lacking. Apparently it is a lot cheaper just to put up a cell phone tower in the middle of nowhere and supply phone service for people then making land lines. I must admit, it is a little odd seeing so many cell phones in a place where the only power comes from generators and solar panels.
There is always people at Titus’ house. This makes for a friendly but noisy time. There is never silence. When the people are gone it usually means it is dark and the bugs take over the noise. In the morning birds a plenty are there to wake me up. The neighbor’s rooster really enjoys his morning scream fests about 5 feet from my window which is far from the ideal spot unless, of course, the “idealness” of the spot is rated by how much it irritates me, for then finding a more perfect spot would be difficult.
Most of the people are young people from the church or soccer teams. The oldest of the group is Timoteu who is a solid 28 (he is also my English teacher). The youngest of the group that hangs around is about 3 or so. His name is Marcus (Marcooos) he is a funny little guy that still is afraid of me.
The church here is about 300 people strong. It is the only church in Ingore. There are also 13 other churches that this church started and helps support. Unfortunately there is only one pastor for all of the churches. He is a nice local guy, but recently he has had a stroke and is in
Right now it is still rainy season so there is no school and regular life sits at nearly a standstill for many of the people. Things will pick up when the rainy season ends and the roads become a little more reliable. I will have to teach some classes starting mid October which should be an interesting challenge.
Well, I think that catches you up for the most part. In October I will start teaching English 3 hours a day along with regular meetings and all that fun stuff. I will have a better idea what life is like out here once the rainy season ends which should be around when I start teaching school (fancy that). Until then I will use the time to get some of my reports done for school and to get a decent start on the local language, which is coming a long, but coming along slowly.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
I am in Ingore... almost.
Hello and greetings from
I have toured around
If you are interested enough to look at the pictures (which are not available to you yet due to slow internet connections in the area) you will find some of the activities that I have taken part in such as, touring the city, looking at spiders outside my room, washing my clothes and wearing new clothes made by the lovely locals.
Today I get to do something quite exciting. I travel to Ingore, the “city” I will be staying in. I am not quite sure what it will be like but when I talked to Titus the other day (who by the way seems pretty rad) it seemed like a splendid time. Apparently he wants me to play sports and hang out with the young people. And get this, their favorite sports are volleyball and soccer. Now soccer was a given, but volleyball? The odds can not be too big on that one. (for those who do not know, I play lots of volleyball.)
I probably will get off another report in a little less than two weeks. Apparently there is some sort of convention or conference or whatever that we all have to attend and it will be near the internet café. Haza. Well, I am off again. Later all.
Monday, September 1, 2008
I am in Bissau
Hello and greetings from Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. I just finished a full day and a half of travels to get here and I am a little tired as I did not get much sleep. In case you guys are wondering the flights all went well. I did not lose anything (to my knowledge) yet and the person was actually at the airport to pick me up when I got there which was a nice surprise. He even wore bright orange, green and red African clothing to make himself easy to see. How Practical.
It is nice and hot/humid here which makes for a pretty overall warm time for me. I am not used to this type of heat. Lucky for me it is the rainy season so it is not too warm and the dust is down a bit.
This week I am staying in Bissau at WEC headquarters. After that I take off with Titus to Ingore for the remainder of my trip. I should be able to get to the internet later on this week so thats a plus. Maybe I will get some pictures on the facebook group or something. I still have not tested the internet speed but I think I should be fast enough.
So ya, the roads are a little sketch here, no lines or anything so they drive just about anywhere. I will probably have more to say about the city once I have seen it but so far my experience is limited to driving to the WEC base, the WEC base itself and walking to the internet cafe. Overall, I would say its a pretty neat place. I cant wait to get some sleep and see what it is like when fully awake and aware of surroundings.
This could already be too long so I will close it by saying that I will hopefully get another one in this week and then it may be a month or two before I get on internet again.
It is nice and hot/humid here which makes for a pretty overall warm time for me. I am not used to this type of heat. Lucky for me it is the rainy season so it is not too warm and the dust is down a bit.
This week I am staying in Bissau at WEC headquarters. After that I take off with Titus to Ingore for the remainder of my trip. I should be able to get to the internet later on this week so thats a plus. Maybe I will get some pictures on the facebook group or something. I still have not tested the internet speed but I think I should be fast enough.
So ya, the roads are a little sketch here, no lines or anything so they drive just about anywhere. I will probably have more to say about the city once I have seen it but so far my experience is limited to driving to the WEC base, the WEC base itself and walking to the internet cafe. Overall, I would say its a pretty neat place. I cant wait to get some sleep and see what it is like when fully awake and aware of surroundings.
This could already be too long so I will close it by saying that I will hopefully get another one in this week and then it may be a month or two before I get on internet again.
Friday, August 29, 2008
AN ADDRESS
Hey all, I have an address. Be warned though, it can take up to 3 months for mail to come in. I may not receive that awesome Vancouver/Edmonton/Halifax/Costa Rican/wherever post card/letter for quite some time. I am not sure how fast my mail will get out there either.
In other fun news, my orientation is finished and now all I really have left to do for the trip is get on the plane. It was a good time getting to know people at the WEC base here in Hamilton. I guess my next update should come from a far off land if all goes as planned.
Missão Evangélica da GuineBissau
Steven Berkenpas
C.P. 49
1001
GuineaBissau
West Africa
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