It’s nothing spectacularly entertaining, but just to give you an idea of what our days are sometimes like, I’ve jotted down some bits of this & that from our Tuesday:

Bonjour Monsieur café.

Early morning:

Shawn wakes up, feels a bit under the weather, makes coffee [Kenyan beans, roasted himself, drip brewed].
Jenn still in the “waking up/trying to actually get up” stage. When suddenly she hears, “Jenn? Jenn? Jenn?” from right outside the screen window. {This may show you how much privacy we have} Still in bed and half awake, she quickly responds by yelling back to the person standing on the other side of the wall, who thought that their name had been called. Nope, no names had been called. This girl is still in bed and hasn’t called out to anyone yet!

Mid-morning:

Shawn checks email, catches up on world events via the internet, drinks that first and second cup of coffee.
Jenn eats oatmeal, greets Mami, gives her a few instructions for the day, reads emails.

We say hello to Roxy who is anxiously waiting at the front door.

Shawn reads and studies the passage that he’ll be preaching from this Sunday {Acts chapter 11 and 12}. He compares the passage to different translations of the Bible, as well as different languages.
Jenn continues with what she started yesterday: working on a ministry news update. Email us at shawn_deatley@ntm.org if you didn’t receive our last update and want to!!
[Just throwing in a little shameless commercial for you *wink wink*.]

Early afternoon:

Shawn begins to type out his lesson, thinking through some cultural implications, examples, and analogies to make it applicable to the people and culture here.
Jenn stops over at Yassine’s house {our motherly neighbor lady} with a big bowl because she wanted to give us some of the rice she picked last weekend {hooray ~ bug free rice}. Casual “How are you? How’s your husband? How’s your family” greetings are exchanged.

A guy from the church in Kabrousse stops by, we visit. Shawn gives him something he needed for his pigs, he continues on his way.

Afternoon:

Lunch is served. A Mami special: smoked fish sauce with carrots, cabbage, and onions, served over rice.

Stop in for a plate of rice, smoked fish and veggies!

Shawn lays down for a rest because his drowsy head cold has taken over. Plus, we’re living in a “siesta culture”, one might as well take advantage of it!
Jenn responds to some questions from a lady who works in the communication department with our mission in Sanford, Florida. She’s wanting to write an article about the 2,000 Christmas boxes we’re getting ready to distribute this weekend. {We will post a link when it comes out!}

A team meeting is planned for this evening at our house.
Plans are in the air since a few of the team members aren’t feeling the best…

Late afternoon:

We fill out more tickets for the Christmas box distribution.

We fill out the name, girl/boy and age so that these tickets can be given to the kids at school. They will bring the ticket on Saturday when we hand out the boxes so we know who gets what.

Dinner plans are contemplated. What to make? What to make? Anyone have any ideas? Anyone?
We had the classic spaghetti, garlic bread and salad last night. YUMMM!!

There are a lot of kids running around during this time of the day. Many of them stop by to see Roxy.

Tonight’s meeting is a go!
Shawn is up and ready for this evening’s meeting {in just one hour} and is preparing his notes.
Jenn answers more questions for the article.

Evening/Night:

The frogs and crickets come out. They sing a loud chorus.
Shawn calls his Mom on Skype.
Jenn makes bruschetta for our team meeting {a lil’ appetizer to hold everyone over!}
Our meeting goes well and more details are pinpointed for this weekend’s shoebox distribution.
Dinner is served. PIZZA!! Our all-time fave. Usually we save it for a Friday night treat, but we decided to make it a Tuesday night treat this week.

Pizza, one of our favorite meals, even here in the village!

Jenn Skyped with another missionary living about an hour away to try to orchestrate a time that a visiting college student /missions intern can come and help out at their orphanage this summer. Plans are underway!

Things are quiet now, aside from the crickets and frogs. Our neighbors are all out until late tonight. He drives a taxi and she sells food on the side of the street, her babies asleep nearby or on her back.

Thanks for spending {what felt like} a long day with us.
We are grateful for another day to serve a good God, in whatever avenue he brings our way.

From our home to yours,

s&j

Coming up TOMORROW ——-> another Dear ____ , post!