Harvest Fields

Another full week and weekend for us here in Galmi!

We have enjoyed hosting several folks in our home and have been blessed with not only good food but also great fellowship.  Visitors included the Fulani and Hausa men with whom Dean has been praying (see previous post) as well as several family/couples/singles serving alongside us here.

Pizza night with the M family....

was one of our favorites!

Other adventures in baking have included fresh pumpkin from which we've enjoyed Chocolate Pumpkin Tea Bread, pumpkin pancakes, and Pumpkin-Carrot-Date-Walnut bread.  Also we've mastered the preparation of fresh coconut...

from the cracking and hulling...

 to the shredding and baking...

now we are ready to spice up our granola and other baked goods!

Plus we've been the recipients of some tasty treats from the Carrigans...check out their blog for pictures.  Warning -- they will make your mouth water!

Creative play continues to be sprinkled throughout our days here:

Tire swing

(Note our "new" housing in the background.  Hoping to move in soon...)

Girls with the dump truck...

load'em up!

And why not take a dip to wash off all that dirt?

Actually the laundry basins were empty...but G still likes to climb in and out of them.

Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the "cool" morning and ventured off the compound for a stroll through the adjacent farm land.  Green fields were a refreshing change of scenery after spending our days in red dirt.

 People were harvesting onions, peas, millet -- we even saw a few cotton plants.  

Pile of purple (sweet) onions with well and village in the background.

These children happily responded to our Hausa greetings and posed for a photo.  

It’s nice to at least know how to say “Good morning.  How was your sleep?  How is work?  How is the tiredness?”  This is the standard flow of greetings here.  Folks particularly enjoy it when Gracie chimes in with her broken Hausa phrases.

A little baby show-and-tell.

Can you find all 3 babies?

Not everyone was enthusiastic...

this shy little cutie just starred at us as we passed.

A little over a mile from the compound, we came to a local well where a small crowd was drawing up water.  

Some were filling large plastic jugs that they carry home and use for cooking and washing.  Others were watering their livestock which varied from sheep and goats to cattle...

like this big guy!

Intimidating?  Nah!  Just look at Gracie...

taking him in stride as if he's no big-horned deal!

For people here, drawing water from the well is a daily task, a necessity for life.  On the walk home we reflected on how blessed we are.  We take for granted that we can walk to the sink and turn on the faucet -- our water needs immediately met -- while so many others must walk a mile or more to a well, draw up water, fill jugs and return home...repeating this task day after day after day.

As we observe life and culture here, we recognize areas where the Good News really resonates with people here.  Such as, the truth about He who provides living water from which we never thirst again (John 4:7-14)!  Please join us as we pray for the people here...

His harvest fields are ripe.

Matthew 9:37-38

Trusting the Lord of the Harvest,

DD&G