When We Are Coming Home

As our stomachs are finally settling from our 2 week journey around Guinea with limited control over our diets and no control over the road conditions, we’re already looking towards our return to the US.

We’ve begun more earnestly asking God what’s next for us. Honestly, it’s a little frightening, because we’d almost prefer to say, “All right, we did our time, we think we deserve to live in comfort and be with our friends now. You’re welcome, God.” But we do believe that God’s plan for us will always be better and more exciting than our own. It has been eye-opening to see not only ministries here, but to see/read/hear about voids and problems and hurts all over our world. Sadly, the solutions seem so slow and complex.

WorldVenture graciously and strategically broke protocol in letting us leave for Guinea without being fully supported. This would allow us better overlap with our target group of students and professors and we’ve already seen that strategy pay off. The idea was: Go now, and stay until you run out of money.

This may seem like a lot of money, but in Guinea the exchange rates is 7000 Guinea Franc for ever $1 USD.

Despite our frugal lifestyle (we spent $75 on food in January-do that math: $1.25/person/day) the “run out of money” part is approaching. Despite being eager to get home, we also want to stay here as long as possible. We have enough money to last us through the end of March and plan to pay for April out of our personal funds. 

As we try to balance between trusting God and being responsible, we feel confident that we can handle this. God provided someone to live in our house so we only have to pay half our mortgage while we’re gone. God provided someone to watch Fenley (our dog) for free until we return (we kept his papers to make sure we get him back). He gave us money through ZipAfrica bags, a benefit concert, our work, cold calls, a weightlift-a-thon, garage sales, odd jobs, and many of you: our close friends.

We’re going to trust Him to provide what we need cover the rest of our mortgage when we return, to get Fenley back, hold us over until Brandon returns to Global (whose offer of a job was another God-send) and Hannah finds work, and to cover our costs of living here. Guinea ministry money, personal money…it’s all God’s money right?

Maybe you have a desire to be a part of God’s plan to fill those needs both here and in Indiana. There’s an easy, tax-deductible way in that gray button right over there >>>.

Photo Tour de Guinea

After almost two weeks of traveling, we’re back in Kankan. Here’s a rundown of some of our journeying:

We were able to visit two gold mines in Kouroussa. The hot, dusty, remote tarp-towns full of shovels, 160 foot deep holes, noisy generators to pump air into the pits and to wash, re-wash and finally hand-wash the tons of dirt made it obvious why gold is expensive. It takes a very keen eye to catch a flake of gold in a mound of gravelly sludge and most of what we saw was just dust.

We traveled south about 4 hours to Kissidougou and visited some Swiss missionaries and a Guinean-run Telekoro Bible school. The director of the Bible school told stories of how Paul Ellenberger (whose grandchildren went to school with me, Brandon) begged Guinea’s first president, Sekou Toure, to let him stay in Guinea when foreigners were booted and Communism embraced. As a childhood friend, Toure let Paul stay and a few years later, on Paul’s behalf missionaries were slowly allowed back in. 

From there we drove within 35 miles of the source of the Niger River before the 1986 Peugeot 505 station wagon with a lift kit that was our carriage, had the clutch disc come apart. We paid $15 for a 13 mile tow over grungy roads behind a pickup truck. The tow rope broke 6 times which left about 2 feet between the cars by the time we arrived in Marella where we would spend the next 5 hours. We ate a 75 cent plate of peanut sauce in a “truck stop” restaurant while the nearby vultures watched. Literally. The cost of 2 sets of clutch discs, gas for the two mechanics to ride their moto 80 miles round trip, labor for 4 to remove the engine to replace the disc, plus the tow was $90!

After seeing a troupe of wild red monkeys cross the road (Hannah’s favorite part of the journey), we arrived in Kindia 17 hours after leaving Kissidougou. We spent the night at an interesting hotel: no electricity, lights, towels, sheets, running water, soap, bath mat, or toilet paper. Fortunately, we had most of the necessities in our luggage. To be fair, it only cost us $7. 

We spent 5 nights at a Kids in Crisis Center for orphans and abandoned children. We figured after all the rice/sauce and mystery meat we had eaten, we should splurge on burgers, chawarmas and pop for a few days. We did a little grocery shopping (skipped the $11 box of Frosted Flakes) and took a few taxi rides. For 15 cents a “place” (not necessarily a seat) we could ride between major intersections. We were a little surprised the first time the driver slowed to pick up a passenger when we were already 6 deep plus a nursing baby in the 1980’s Nissan Sunny (google it).

We attended the GBU Board meeting (which lasted 7 hours) to learn about the finances, work, vision, and projects that GBU is undertaking throughout Guinea. We were also able to get 1 year visas for $100 each (our last round of 3 month visas cost $160 each). We visited the Blackwells, Americans living in Conakry, and learned about some of the cool projects they’re undertaking with the elite businesspeople in Conakry as well as some ladies traveling on MercyShips. 

Leaving Conakry led to 14 hour trip including a 7 hour stop to replace the fan belt and whole fan system. We spent yet another day on the side of the road waiting—marveling that we could be on the side of the road typing emails but have to walk to a stream to get 5 gallons of radiator water to carry back to the car. We spent the night in Mamou where Brandon’s aunt and uncle went to school in the 1960’s as well as Wes Stafford (former president of Compassion International and author of “Too Small to Ignore”). 

From Mamou we continued deeper into the mountains and in Labe we experienced weather in the 50s and spent time with the Blessings, another WorldVenture couple. We were able to worship in a classroom with some University students Sunday morning (and place our tithes in a colander), and with a small Fulani gathering in the afternoon (and place our tithes in the leader’s baseball cap). While in Labe, the fan and belt broke again. It was repaired in time to start the journey home but while in the mountains, the bolts that the lug nuts are fastened to (to hold the wheel on) broke loose. We limped the last 4 miles into town with two half-tightened lug nuts holding one of the rear wheels on. 

After skipping our fourth meal on the road and evenly coating ourselves in dust, we bounced into Kankan 12 hours later, happy to be back.

We both loved be able to see so much of Guinea but we mourned the fact that God didn’t call us  to one of the cooler, more beautiful parts! It was also encouraging to see so many different ministries as well as so many youth taking responsibility and engaging in ministry voluntarily without someone else prompting or pressuring.