just like coming to africa... we're stuck here!!

so here we are, all stuck in libreville! surprise! air maroc is on strike once again. we were supposed to fly out late last night but couldn't... they told us we would fly out tonight instead but now that hasn't happened either. now the word on the street is that we will be flying out tomorrow afternoon and arriving in new york on sunday afternoon. if everything goes properly i should be home on sunday night! pray that it goes right!!

this extra day and a half has made me want to leave and get home though. before i didn't feel like i was ready. now i do... even though i would love to stay here too. but, all we are doing is sitting in hotel rooms playing rummy! which is fun, but not what i love to do here. i just have to accept that it is time to come home and that i can come back sometime in the future!! i am absolutely in love with this place!

here we are in the restaurant racking up our bill for air maroc!

partying it up in one of our hotel rooms playing rummy... and eating ice cream and cappuccino's... again on air maroc!

here is lindsay and i with our 'air maroc hate page'
(just after we found out we weren't leaving again tonight)

baby shark doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo

for our last day in gabon we did another medical clinic! and what interesting thing did we see today? 2 dead baby sharks! not sure how far out they caught them... let's just say i'm glad this happened on our last day!

dead baby sharks...

the whole gang!

hope house farewell

today was so hard to say goodbye to all of those kids. needless to say, there were tears - lots of tears. they were told that today was our last day too... so when we were saying goodbye they clung to us and didn't want to let go. i didn't want to let go!!! it was a perfect last day though! those kids are perfect :)

naomie

boomba, josue, masunda

pointe denis

we had our last beach day today... and we went to the best beach of them all! the sun was scorching hot... i don't know if i have ever experienced such intense heat! i didn't burn though :)

melissa leaves

and now we're down to all the interns (minus torey) and tim & meredith! i can't believe that we all go home in only 3 days! where did the time go?

danielle, leanne, zach, tim, christian,
hannah, marley, melissa, lindsay, meredith

dan & alicia and allegany leave

we said goodbye to our last team and dan & alicia tonight. it is going to feel so quiet around the house now.

olivia, anita, jacob, scott, heather, ben, and matt

alicia and dan

caravane medicale

today we split up the allegany team - half at the job site and half at the medical clinic. i was at the medical clinic. we had an amazing day even though there weren't many patients who came. after lunch we had an awesome time of prayer. we started off with the gabonese sharing their personal prayer requests and then the americans (and canadians) chose one gabonese and prayed for them. then we switched it... we shared our prayer requests and they prayed for us. then we prayed for the allegany team and dan & alicia who leave tomorrow... and then we prayed for melissa who leaves on monday... and then they prayed for us interns that leave on thursday... and then we prayed for the presidential election... and then we prayed for the medical team! i was so overwhelmed with emotions while they prayed for us leaving. part of me wants to leave to see family and friends but today a larger part of me didn't want to leave at all. i have a feeling this last week is going to continue to be very emotional :(

the medical team gave dresses to the girls and shirts & shorts to the guys! they're too nice!

torey leaves ='(

it's a sad night around the stmo center. we had an intern leave tonight. we will never be complete again! torey left a week earlier than the rest of us and so we had a very tearful goodbye and took our last intern photos of the summer. of course that means that we will do our makeup and our hair! (i found out that when i straighten my hair it goes wavey and when i curl my hair it also goes wavey... i guess i'm just stuck with wavey hair!!)

zach, torey, marley, hannah, danielle, leanne, and lindsay

this is more of an accurate representation of what we're really like...

funny story... one of our vans died when we were on our way to the airport. so we all jumped into one van and this was the turnout...

langley leaves

langley was our team that was out here for the longest. like all the teams we've had this summer it was sad to see them go. there were some tears at the airport that hopefully means we will all remember this trip and how God changed us and used us here in gabon.

jenna, mike, shelby, jason, shannon, and tasha

august 4-7 - back to okolassi

after digging the foundation with the faith team, we headed back to the site to pour the footers with the langley team! it was cool to be back there and continue the work that was started. we also got to hang out with the kids again which was awesome! they are such good helpers. this is the church where the whole church (besides maybe 5 people) are children.

moving dirt to make the ground flat

jump rope break!

dirt delivery... that turned out to be clay...

church at nzeng ayong

we went to church at nzeng ayong, where we spent the week working on the new church. during the service they presented us all with gifts. the boys got shirts made for them and all the girls got dresses made. it was so unexpected and i was overwhelmed with how much they care about other people. i really felt like i didn't deserve anything! after the service they put up a tent and made lunch for us. we even had servers! and they all wore matching patterns. they were so cute! they said this was all "a little something" they could give us for all the work we did. really, i think they made the bigger difference in our lives.

our african 'mama' dresses

the lunch thrown for us

our matching servers!

july 27-29 - nzeng ayong

we spent 3 days working with a church in libreville, nzeng ayong. we partnered with the youth and adults in the church to continue building a new, bigger church for them to gather in. during the week we really got to know the people and had a great time! hands down the best work project (for me) this summer.

cooking with the mama's

dance lessons

french class!

faith leaves, langley arrives

this time around we had no break between teams. literally, faith was at the airport and heading to morocco on the flight that langley came in on!

july 17-20 - bongolo!

since the internet was down for 2 1/2 weeks i am going to give a brief overview starting from where i left off...

we took off on the 9 1/2 hour bumpy road to the bongolo hospital. we took it easy for the night and learned about the history of the hospital. the next morning we went to church and then got a tour of the hospital. on monday the team went to work while hannah and i helped out in the kitchen! it was a different kind of work than i'm used to here... it was a nice break! on tuesday we left to go back to libreville. it was a short trip... it would've been nice to stay longer... but it felt nice to get back to libreville and have our intern team complete again!

squished in the van (like this for 9 1/2 hours)

bongolo hospital

faith from ohio

sorry, i know it has been a while since i have updated! i have been having too much fun with our newest team! actually, our interns have been separated for the first time! danielle, lindsay, and torey left for bongolo hospital with a team from massachusetts - southshore - while hannah and i are here in libreville with a team from ohio - faith.

this week we have been busy digging more foundation and pouring cement to build another church in a village called okolassi. this church is very unique because it is literally a church built on kids. everyone that comes to church in that village is a child. and now they are going to have their own church! the coolest thing is that those kids have been helping us with the work and so they have some ownership over the church. what an amazing story to tell people - that you helped in building the first church in okolassi! pictures to come later!!

intern night out

tonight our next team comes in so that means no more fun - kidding! we are really excited for them to arrive. another team comes in on sunday so we will be a full house!!

so last night tim and meredith had a date night, and that left the night open for the rest of us! so we invited some of our gabonese friends to join us for dinner at birdy's bar, which is not a bar but a restaurant! it's a very beautiful place - outdoor and there are actually tons of birds around. there is also a pet store (with a lot of colorful birds) at the same location. and a gift shop. it's pretty much everything all in one! so, us girls got all dressed up and headed out for a night of fun! and lots of laughs were shared =)

zach, joseph, dan, christian, yoann
torey, melissa, danielle, alicia, lindsay, hannah, me

hope house project

i have a rather sad story to share with you today. pastor israel, his family, and the children at the orphanage had a decision to make regarding the hope house. the owner of the house they are renting is looking to sell and so they could either purchase the house or move. since the house is not what they are looking for long term to house all the children they have decided to look for another place to live.

God did answer these prayers and someone in their church has given them a piece of land that is close to the school. the only thing is that the land does not have a house on it and does not have any water or electricity yet (it is supposed to be coming eventually).

tomorrow we are going to look at the land to see what kind of work needs to be done on it. please keep the hope house in your prayers! it is a home to 19 kids who would otherwise have even harder lives. it is an amazing thing pastor israel and his wife are doing for these children! we all trust that they are in God's hands and that he will take care of them!

if you would like to help out with this project to provide these kids with a home you can make a donation to the hope house. please send a cheque made out to the C&MA and list in the memo area "hope house gabon" and send it to:

The Alliance
PO Box 3500
Colorado Springs, CO 80935
Att: STMO - Gabon - Matt Peace

** please note that any amount given in canadian dollars will be in u.s. dollars on a tax receipt.

saying goodbye to lancaster

tonight we had a teary goodbye with the lancaster team. it was sad to have them leave. the house seems so different... so quiet without them. they were an amazing group and they will be missed a lot! our next team comes in on sunday, so we have a few days off to have a little rest... and i can work on getting rid of my unwanted cold!

lancaster!

5 days and 4 nights in ebel-abanga

don't worry, i am still alive and well! we have been roughing it in one of many african villages for the past 5 days! it was quite a sight... 28 air mattresses with mosquito nets on a patch of grass on the side of the road! so those were our beds for 4 nights. every night we "slept" to the sounds of roosters, traffic (and they always honked as they went by), dogs, and snoring. we even got to witness an all-night ceremony with drums and dancing! it was quite the adventure.




these were some of the kids that hung out with us the whole time. the oldest is goomba goomba, then apoona, and the youngest is manya. just so you know, i have no idea how to spell their names... but that is how they sounded!!




during the days we cleared land and dug foundation for a church that is being built. we found multiple snakes that look more like worms (they were small) but are apparently very poisonous. we weren't sure if they were serious or not... a little bit of a language barrier there! this was a huge stretching point for me. i absolutely hate bugs and i came in contact with a lot of colorful and disgusting bugs. i'm not gonna lie, i hated that part of it. if we could just eliminate the bugs that would be wonderful!

clearing the land


digging the foundation

by the end of the trip we were very happy to go back to libreville and have a toilet, instead of a box with a hole in the ground, a shower, instead of bathing in a creek, and a bed indoors, instead of being moist throughout the night and barely being able to sleep. spending time like that really makes you think about what you take for granted at home. thank God every day for what he provides for you! we are blessed back at home, so much more than we even know!

canada day in gabon

happy canada day! no, we did not forget about the most important canadian day even though we're not in canada. we started our celebration this morning by putting canadian confetti on the tables and sticking canadian flag toothpicks in all of the bread.




after dinner danielle and i had cupcakes ready (complete with more canadian flag toothpicks) to hand out to everyone. meredith and tim were even in to it - they were downloading the anthem to play as we handed out our "surprise dessert." and when we finally went to give them out... what do the american's (most) do...? start singing the american anthem :( so tim, meredith, danielle, and i went back in the kitchen and came out eating our cupcakes and then they had nothing but good things to say about canada. canada day is so much better in canada.

the town of ntoum

i tried to post this yesterday but it didn't work... i am really trying to keep this current!!

yesterday we brought our lancaster team to ntoum to do a medical clinic! one of the girls shared her testimony which resulted in many kids that came to know Jesus! also, some of them performed a malaria skit (that i helped put together because of my experience last year). we were missing some props but overall i think it went pretty well! next time i will make sure we have buckets and stuff. and then we went to work with the medical clinics.

for most of the day i was "playing" with kids/attempting to talk to them. i was telling them the english words for some of their french words. they seemed to like that game! they also love getting their pictures taken, so i have a lot of those! they are so adorable, i'm glad i have pictures to prove it! we also gave them a soccer ball and the gabonese whipped the americans (obviously because they are amazing at soccer).

side story about marley

we're not exactly sure what the cause of this is... but we are guessing that yesterday after church while we were greeting people i was standing in an ant hill. i first noticed tiny red dots on my right foot but didn't think much of them. they weren't itchy and they were small. but then today they seemed to have multiplied and are now on my left foot, are getting bigger, and they are sooo itchy! here is a nice picture of my feet... well as nice as my "african feet" can be! you might need to look really close to see the dots! if you even want to look that close!

putting lancaster to work

our first team, from lancaster, arrived last night! we got them all settled and gave them an awesome orientation and then this morning put them to work cleaning out the hospital's warehouse. not only did we get filthy, we also got rained on... and we all thought we were in gabon's "dry season." they were all really good sports about it and i think we all had a good time!

clearing out the junk

dust masks

all the medicine we moved in

bunk house completed!

today we did the final touches and finished the bunk house! now the guys have somewhere to sleep while they are here. our first team arrives tomorrow, so we finished up just in time! it doesn't look like much now... just wait until the room is filled with air mattresses and it will look more comforting!

before/during

after - so much brighter, isn't it? :)