Love

Happy Valentine's Day xoxo

To church

David and I had the chance to attend church with our friend Aaron and his family. After the service, we walked to his sister's house and were served a huge lunch. On the way, one of the little girls started singing the name Jesus over and over. She looked up at David and said, "That man looks like Jesus." Then she turned to me and said, "And you look like Mary."

Stare Down

"You going to cry??"

(David and Mariama, our neighbor.)

Shortly before we left Sierra Leone, we went to a place called Big Market. Apart from a few small spots along the beach, Big Market is the only permanent souvenir market in Freetown. The bottom floor is crowded with carvings, baskets, and household goods, and the top floor has stall after stall of women selling locally-made items like gara (a tie-dyed fabric) and country cloth blankets.

After a few minutes downstairs, we made our way down the aisle and up to the second floor. We stopped at quite a few stalls, loaded up on batiks, blankets, and precious outfits for the new babies in our lives, and headed back toward the stairs. A woman we hadn't talked to blocked our way and told us to come look at her stall.

"No tenki, we get already. We di go now." But the woman insisted, "You must come see my things."

David said apologetically, "Sorry, we don't need. We don't need. Next time." The woman turned to David and asked abruptly, "Are you going to cry?" We looked at each other, clearly confused.

She continued, "I don't need. I don't need. Are you going to cry??" We laughed awkwardly and walked down the stairs. It took us a moment to realize she was mocking David, to his face.