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Utterly Depleted

If you read our October/November newsletter (or follow us on social media) then you know that I am pregnant! At this point I am now 21 weeks along and baby is the size of a banana! You may also remember that I mentioned how difficult the first trimester was. I wanted to elaborate a little. In reality the start to this pregnancy wasn’t incredibly different than my first two; strong aversions to certain foods, heightened sensitivity to smell, all-day nausea and fatigue. The intensity of these symptoms, however, were more intense than the first two times and were compounded with many other factors.

For one, while we’ve been in France for awhile now it’s still a new place and our language is still developing. We’ve often said that at any given point, even if things seem to be going well, there is an undercurrent of tension and stress. Trying to grapple with the language, build relationships with a limited ability to understand one another and longing for friends and family back home all lead to an underlying fatigue. So take all of that and add in pregnancy and it’s no wonder the exhaustion felt heightened.

Additionally, right around the time those first trimester symptoms kicked in we were in the midst of welcoming new families and then starting classes back up. Between my own sickness and fatigue and then our kids getting sick I missed several days of class. But even the days I did go I often felt so nauseous or tired that I found it hard to engage. On days off all I wanted to do was nap. In the evenings when I needed to be working on homework (or relearning the things I couldn’t focus on in class that day) I would end up just going to bed. All of this led to feelings of being behind in class and lacking motivation to even care that I wasn’t keeping up.

Another factor was more spiritual and emotional. I more often than not succumbed to laziness amidst my exhaustion and chose to spend time on lesser things instead of with the Lord. I felt the impact of this immensely.

I share all of this to give a picture of why those two plus months were so hard. And also as an explanation for why this is the first blog post in quite some time!

Being several weeks removed from this season now, and feeling SO much better in the second trimester, it can be easy to think back and feel like maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. But then I remember one of the nights when Adam and I got out on a date. We walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant to grab dinner and I just remember feeling like that outing was an oasis in the middle of a desert. As is often the case, this season hit me out of nowhere and I didn’t know how long the desert would last. I just remember feeling utterly depleted.

What’s funny is that last week I was talking to a dear friend and mentor in the States about all of this and she told me of a book she was reading called “Resilient”* in which the author discusses how to build resiliency. The tagline for the book is, “Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times”. One idea from the book that she shared with me was thinking about how your “reserves” are doing. What kinds of things have you done (or are you doing) during easier seasons of life that build up reserves to weather the difficult seasons. She encouraged me to think about how I might build up my reserves for the next time a desert season comes.

At the time of my conversation with her I had already started writing this blog post and had the title chosen, but couldn’t remember what it was. When I came back to write I thought it fitting that I had named it “Utterly Depleted” when what she and I talked about is having reserves in order to NOT become depleted. God is so cool like that.

Anyway, this idea has really been sitting with me as I process through those difficult weeks and think about the challenges ahead. In 18 days we board a plane and move to Senegal. In the time preceding that we will need to take exams (or at least Adam is), pack everything we own into the limited suitcases and totes we have, clean our apartment, finish up remaining doctors appointments and other requirements here in Albertville as well as say numerous goodbyes. On top of that we just spent 5 days in quarantine due to Covid. I’m still sick and have a couple more days of quarantine left.

Once we arrive in Senegal our teammates will help us get from the airport to our new home. We will have about a week to settle in before taking a little vacation as a team. Then we will launch into our new life in Africa. Continued language learning, cultural acquisition, adjusting to living in a huge city for the first time, helping Mia and Desmond transition, preparing for baby to come in April and the list goes on. I have no doubt that at some point in all that is ahead we are going to feel pretty exhausted, overwhelmed and stressed. It may even feel like a desert season again.

This is why we are heavily emphasizing building up our “reserves” now.

What does this mean? What can we do now to have fuel left in the tank when we feel like we’re at our wits end? For us this means prioritizing time in God’s Word daily and dwelling in prayer together and as a family. For me this means intentional time journaling and processing my emotions with Jesus, Adam and close friends. For our marriage it means checking in and talking a lot about how we’re doing and what’s ahead. For our kids it looks like slowing down to talk with them, pray with them and just be with them during this busy time.

This current season has been so sweet and encouraging. The Lord has met me with such tenderness and grace. His Word has been the most refreshing thing. I am so thankful. I am looking forward to our big move with hopeful expectation of all that God is going to do and trusting Him to continue sustaining us as He always does. I am also filled with hopeful expectation that He is using this season of rest and preparation to build our reserves in exactly the ways He knows we will need it for what’s ahead. We trust Him and also seek Him for self-discipline in these life-giving, reserve-building practices. Titus 2:11-14 have been bedrock verses these past couple weeks:

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say, ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.”

I pray that whatever season you’re in you know Jesus and the life that is found in relationship with Him. I hope that this is a season filled with refreshment in who He is and who you are in Him.

-Selina

* “Resilient” by John Eldredge : I haven’t read the book myself (yet), but my dear friend let me know that she highly recommends it!

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WAM Park

The day exams ended, myself and a few other guys went to a nearby WAM Park to celebrate. The WAM Park is an outdoor waterpark of sorts offering téléski (a cable system which pulls you around the lake so that you can ski or wakeboard, water jumps (think big water slides with ramps at the end), paddle boards, scuba diving, an obstacle course, huge rafts to relax on, a rock wall (over the lake) and even floating cabins you can stay in over night. We chose to do the water jumps and the obstacle course.

– Adam

In this picture you can see the water jumps as well as the obstacle course in the background.
This video gives you a quick panning view of the park. It was seriously cool!
In this video you can see the water jumps being used. At the end of our hour playing on these, I was reminded I am not as young as I think I am!
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Le Tour de France

One of the coolest things that we’ve had the privilege of experiencing during our time here, occurred last month when le Tour de France, often referred to simply as le Tour, made a stop through Albertville.

For those not familiar with le Tour, it is perhaps the most infamous bike race in the world which takes place every July in France. The cyclists spend three weeks traversing the French countryside. Parts of the route, called stages, vary each year while others remain the same. This year the route totaled almost 2,100 miles over the 21 stages, which means the cyclists averaged roughly 100 miles per day, and this includes several extremely intense climbs through the mountains. Each year the race ends going up Champs-Élysées Avenue, the most famous avenue in Paris.

While listening to a French Duolingo podcast the other day, I learned that the race was actually started in 1903 by a sports newspaper which was trying to create extra content to cover during the slower summer months (talk about knocking it out of the park). The race quickly caught on and now attracts the best cyclists from around the world. Historically, the race has been exclusively for men, but this summer the first women’s edition to le Tour took place as well.

The race is hugely popular here and therefore to serve as a host city is a big deal, bringing with it a lot of publicity and visitors. Le Tour is sponsored by big corporations and a parade of corporate-sponsored vehicles, called la caravane du Tour de France, usually drives ahead of the cyclists and throws out cadeaux (presents) to the spectators who are waiting on the sides of the road.

This year Albertville served as the starting location for stage 11. On the morning of the race we went down to the race route to check out la caravane. Now if you are like us, when you hear the word parade you probably think of high school marching bands, local business floats pulled by trucks and local politicians putzing down the road while throwing out candy and interacting with the spectators. Well don’t tell this to those participating in la caravane. The floats that participate in la caravane are actually vehicles themselves and they fly down the road at more than 25mph, many while blasting music and throwing out goodies such as t-shirts, key chains, hats, pencils, product samples, bags of crackers, etc. (see videos below). It was an absolutely wild experience to witness this!

After the parade we went and checked out the large plaza area where the cyclists would eventually start from. Here there was a large stage where cyclists were being introduced as well as tons more vendors giving out free stuff including temporary tattoos, stickers, snap bracelets and shots of espresso (obviously this was our favorite).

About two hours after the parade, it was time for the race to begin. We left the plaza and went and found a spot along the race route to watch the cyclists go by, which took all of about 20 seconds (see video below). I should mention that for about the first mile of their ride through Albertville, they were not actually racing. The cyclists were only casually biking through the city as more of a show for the spectators. This stage of the race began once they got out into the mountain roads. All in all, this was a really cool experience and one that we will not soon forget!

– Adam

In this video you can hear the woman ask “Est-ce que vous voulez des cadeaux Albertville?” which means “Do you want some presents Albertville?”. To our surprise, many of the adults along the route were just as excited as the kids when racing to grab the goodies thrown from la caravane.
These floats belong to Senseo, the official coffee sponsor of le Tour. You can also see in this video that everyone on the floats has to be harnessed in because of how quickly they are moving.
This was our favorite float…simply a huge bottle of laundry detergent flying down the street!
When the floats are moving so fast, so are the goodies they throw out. My tip for you: make sure you have a good grip on your phone!
Here are the roughly 180 cyclists making their way through town.

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A Neat Encounter

Last week, amidst the busyness of preparing for exams I took a trip to go grocery shopping at a nearby store. I also planned to stop into a store near it called Action to pick up some home good stuff and little gifts for friends who are moving away. What felt like a typical, if not slightly inconvenient, trip ended with a really unique and neat encounter.

Typically I go grocery shopping on Monday nights with a friend who has a car, but this week she still had enough stuff from our trip the previous Monday and decided not to go. Feeling that it would be better to be well stocked going into exams I decided to bike with a trailer to go grocery shopping. This is not an uncommon option as we live pretty close to a couple different grocery stores, but still, the time and energy it takes to bike and then lug everything back is obviously more than simply going by car.

I went into the grocery store first and got my groceries. As I went to check out, I realized that the lines were abnormally busy for Monday evening. This was a mild annoyance, but I made it through fairly quickly. Once outside I went to the bike rack where my bike was locked up and unloaded all my groceries in the trailer. As I did so a young man rode up and hovered nearby next to his bike. Eventually I engaged in conversation with him to see why he was waiting to park his bike and discovered that he wanted me to move over a space so he could get his bike in more easily. I apologized for taking up too much space, unlocked my bike, moved it, then relocked it. As I did this and he locked his bike he began asking me different questions like where I was from and if I enjoyed the mountains. The interaction was friendly enough, but something about it made me a little uneasy. His final questions before he left were if the United States was big and then if it was dangerous. Again, nothing was particularly wrong, but I was left feeling just uneasy enough that after walking to put my cart away I decided to double back and move my bike to Action with me. This was definitely out of the norm and inconvenient as there is no bike rack there, but it made me feel better.

I locked my bike up in front of Action and went in to shop, leisurely traversing each isle (it’s my favorite store to walk around and has been a go to for finding cute little homey things for our apartment that are inexpensive). I ended up not finding everything I was looking for including some luggage straps and a suitcase that one of my friends had asked me to look for. In the final isle I called my friend to let her know that I couldn’t find the things she wanted. After checking out I walked out to my bike, unlocked it and began trying to figure out how to arrange everything in my bike trailer. Suddenly I noticed someone standing nearby me. When I looked up it was a young girl sheepishly grinning and looking antsy to say something to me. I greeted her and she quickly blurted out something in French. I asked her to repeat it more slowly and she told me that she was going to speak to me in English, but that there would be faults.

She then proceeded to explain to me that she had been trying to learn English over the last year or so because she loves the language. So when she heard me speaking on the phone to my friend in English she got very excited and wanted to introduce herself. As she spoke her mother came up next to us, also grinning. It turns out that they are from an Algerian family who now live in Albertville. The girl is 11 years old and is the youngest of three siblings, all of which have desired to know English and can speak it pretty well. Both the mother and the daughter were incredibly friendly, patient with my French and seemed very excited to meet me. As I talked to them I felt the Spirit prompting me to ask if they would have any interest in getting together sometime to help the girl with English and me with French. They were very excited by this idea and the mom quickly pulled out her phone so we could exchange numbers while telling me that they would love to get to know us and cook Algerian food for us sometime. We exchanged a couple of texts later that evening to ensure we had each other’s contact information. The mom relayed to me then that they had told their whole family about meeting me and were so excited to get together.

It was one of the coolest, most random interactions I’ve ever had. As I biked home that night I praised God for the connection. I then thought through all the events that led up to meeting this mom and daughter. So many things that were inconvenient, uncomfortable and out of the ordinary. If I had gone shopping with my friend by car we wouldn’t have even been at those stores. If the lines hadn’t been long at the grocery store or I had been able to find everything I needed quickly I might not have crossed paths with them or called my friend and spoken in English. If that young man hadn’t parked his bike next to me and asked me slightly strange questions or if I hadn’t moved my bike away from that spot as a result, I would not have been parked outside Action where they found me to introduce themselves.

So many little moments and decisions on a night where my mind was occupied by so many things, but certainly not by seeking out someone new to meet. It was a great reminder to me to be more aware of who’s around me and to pray for more interactions like this, while also recognizing that it’s God who provides for and ordains each moment of each day.

Please join me in praying for this family. May God allow us to connect and build a sweet relationship that is filled with gospel conversations about Jesus! I am so excited to see what He has in store!

– Selina

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Learning to Trust (Grammar Exam Mishap)

Throughout this second semester of language school I felt like the Lord impressed upon me that I needed to take a step back from language learning. Not to step out of school or halt learning by any means, but to step back mentally, emotionally and spiritually to evaluate if I was balancing things well.

During our first round of exams I really struggled with some identity issues and feelings that I was going to fail because that’s what I do and who I am: “I am not good enough and as such I should expect to fail”. As I write this now it feels so obvious that these were lies, but at the time they felt very real. Thankfully Adam is very perceptive and has grown very good at asking me questions to try and draw out my thoughts. When I voiced these things he was able to point me to the truth of who God is, who I am in Jesus and the fact that I was believing lies. I am so thankful for his patience and tender love towards me as I wrestled through these deep-seated identity issues.

Part of this wrestling involved going to the Lord with all of these thoughts and emotions. It was during times like these throughout this semester that I felt Him prompting me to turn some of my focus away from French and onto things like physical, mental and emotional health, as well as our kids. This was hard for me at first because it feels like we should just be fully invested in language learning since that’s why we’re living here. However, at any given time in our lives we are going to have things that are seemingly our top priority, but the reality is that there are other things that must take higher priority.

My walk with the Lord cannot be put to the side for the sake of studying longer. My marriage cannot be neglected so that I can achieve one more thing in French. Our kids, and the great gift and responsibility of parenting them, cannot be put on hold until we “make it” through language school. My mental and physical health cannot be forgotten because “there’s just no time”.

Obviously our lives ebb and flow, during certain seasons there are aspects of life that need special time and attention over others, but at all times I want to be checking in with the Lord about what HE intends for that season, not what I necessarily think is best. What He has shown me is that this semester some of my priorities needed to shift, and I needed to trust HIM for the outcome of my French studies.

I have been so thankful for this change of perspective, although I know I still have lots of room for growth in prioritizing well. Regardless, God has already allowed fruit in my French learning, my health, our marriage and our parenting as a result of this perspective shift. I have not felt as stressed about class, speaking French to people or even our most recent exams. God provided a workout program and a friend to help make physical health a higher priority. Adam and I have had regular, intentional times to connect about our marriage and go on dates. We also began working through a parenting study and more intentionally pouring into the kids, even if it seems “inconvenient” for our French studies. The list could go on, but a huge testament to this was when I was taking my big grammar exam this past Thursday.

The grammar exam is a thick packet of papers with tons of questions which must be completed in two and a half hours. Leading up to the exam I felt determined that I would study hard, but not at the expense of my health or parenting (for reference, after our first exams I got sick, felt terrible for nearly two weeks and had lingering effects for over a month). I am historically a procrastinator so late nights of cramming before a test is my typical method of studying. Last week I created a plan for how to study and prayed about it, feeling peace that this was the amount of effort and focus God wanted me to have. I studied according to my plan, but still spent intentional time with the kids between studying and made sure to get good sleep. When I sat down for the grammar exam I was well rested and felt prepared. As I began I was so excited at how well I felt it was going. Even as I encountered content that was harder or unfamiliar I did not feel stressed, but would pray and do my best to remember how to answer things.

Partway through I looked up and realized I only had half an hour left in the test. At that point I flipped ahead and also realized that I was not going nearly fast enough to finish the test. I raced through as much as I could, but ended up having to leave three or four sections completely blank. My heart sunk and I felt so discouraged. I went home and cried for awhile and told Adam all about what had happened. Familiar thoughts of what a failure I am crept in. “How could I lose track of time? I’ve been taking tests for years. This is so typical me. I’m going to fail. I should have expected this”. Again, Adam helped me voice those things early and walk through sorting out truth from lies. I brought it to the Lord and, though it goes against what I think I should be feeling, I have reached a point of peace. Not because I think it will be fine, I really don’t know that for sure, but because the Lord has been telling me this whole semester to trust HIM with French.

My verses this year are 2 Cornthians 12:9-10,

“Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

I wanted to wait to write about this until I had the results of our exams, to wait until I knew I had passed despite my mistake. But the Lord reminded me that the beauty in this is not that He allowed me to pass even though things didn’t go well, the beauty is that He is powerful when I am weak. His grace is sufficient at all times and in all things. I wanted the result of my trust in Him over this semester to be that I was able to easily pass the exams and speak French fluently after just six months (haha – that’s a joke), but His intentions were for me to continue to see my weaknesses and to revel all the more in His strength.

I pray that whatever season of life you are in, you know Jesus and the sweetness of depending on Him. The sweetness of facing weakness and hardship and seeing the immense power of Christ and His deep love for us, even when we don’t feel like we are “enough”. This week I will find out if I passed or not, but regardless, I give Him the glory and pray that I can take the next step of obedience for what He has in each season of my life.

– Selina

Thankfully Adam captured proof that I’ve been prioritizing proper sleep over too much studying 😀
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Bike Trip!

France is well known for its bike culture, especially for its world-renowned race, Le Tour de France. Unlike many French stereotypes which we’ve found don’t actually check out (think berets and black and white striped shirts), the French really do love biking! And about a month ago I had the opportunity to benefit from this love of biking!

About 30 miles from Albertville, there is a beautiful city called Annecy which is situated on the northern end of Lake Annecy. There is a nice bike bath that runs almost the entire way between Albertville and Annecy so two friends and I decided we would try and make the trip there and back.

We left on a Saturday morning around 8am and we had an absolutely gorgeous day for biking. There were hardly any clouds in the sky and the temperature was in the low 80s. The first twentyish miles went by rather smoothly so when we hit the southern tip of the lake, we decided to take a turn to the east so that we could do a lap around the lake which we knew would include some hills. The hills were quite tough, but the view on the top of the lake was gorgeous! Also, the next couple of miles coasting down the slope was amazing! We stopped in Annecy for lunch and ice cream (they are known for their ice cream) before heading back.

We ended up doing the ride in about 4.5 hours and it was a really fun experience, especially since it isn’t one that I expected to have before coming to France. While on the trail, we must have seen a couple hundred other bikers, most of which travelled in groups of 10 – 20. I will say that we definitely stood out as foreigners as we rode our mountain bikes and wore normal athletic clothes while pretty much everyone else was on road bikes and wearing full racing uniforms.

To add to this, in a just a few days, Le Tour de France will actually come through Albertville. The 11th stage of the race starts in Albertville and we plan to go down with the kids to check it out. Stay tuned for another blog post on this experience!

– Adam

See below for some pictures and videos of this trip.

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A Visit from Grams!

At the end of April my mom came to visit us. This was much anticipated as it was our first visitor, but the trip didn’t pan out quite as we expected. The original plan was for her to come see us for the first part of our two week vacation. We would spend several days in Albertville then all take a train together to spend time in Paris which is where she would fly out from.

After weeks of planning and waiting the week of her arrival was upon us. Towards the start of the week my mom started to not feel well and then the day before she was supposed to fly out she tested positive for Covid! This was so disappointing, and also a little crazy as it was the first time she had gotten Covid even after having worked in an urgent care where she primarily did Covid testing over the last two years.

Thankfully we were able to rework her tickets and our timeline so that she could still come. Rather than start in Albertville, Adam, the kids and I took a train and met my mom in Paris where we spent three days sight-seeing and exploring. This was the kid’s first time on a train, but they did wonderfully! It was so sweet to arrive in Paris, exit the train station and find my mom standing there waiting for us. The kids were so excited as well and it was as if no time had passed at all since we saw her last.

While in Paris we visited and saw many places including the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur , The Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Panthéon, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Moulin Rouge, the Seine River, and Place Vendôme. We also ate at lots of amazing restaurants, tried tons of pastries and coffee and just enjoyed being together in Paris. I never would have imagined that our family and my mom would spend a vacation together in beautiful Paris, but this is one example of the beauty of living overseas! We are so thankful to get to experience new places like this and to have guests who can come and experience them with us!

After our time in Paris we all took a train ride to Albertville and spent several days showing my mom what our life is like. We went up to the medieval city of Conflans twice (about a mile walk with lots of incline). We had my mom try our favorite pastries around town, had kebabs (one of our all time favorite things here), introduced her to many of our friends, relaxed in our apartment and cherished the time we had together. It was so special to get to show her where we’re living and what life is like in Albertville.

The evening she left I walked her to the train station. We prayed together and cried as we walked. When we arrived we said a tearful goodbye and I settled her on her train headed to Chambery – with an eventual final destination of Paris where she was going to stay the night before flying the following morning. I sat waving goodbye to her until her train pulled away feeling a pit in my stomach that she was leaving and that this goodbye would be for a lot longer than the last one. Then I walked home.

To my surprise, when I arrived home, Adam asked if my mom was with me to which I laughed and said of course not! It turns out that she had mixed up her train time and I had put her on the wrong train! He had hoped we would have noticed before sending her off which of course was not the case.

The train she was on happened to be headed to the same destination as her actual train, but unfortunately with enough of a time difference (mere minutes) to cause a ton of problems. With Adam’s gentle coaching and quick internet searching, she ended up getting on a couple trains before eventually having to take a bus overnight to arrive in Paris in time for her flight. What should have been a relaxing train ride and hotel stay in Paris before flying out turned into a frantic, stressful trip trying to communicate with little to no French, navigate trains, ride a bus overnight without sleeping and then jump on an airplane. Needless to say I think she was thankful to arrive home!

Between the difficulties at the beginning after she got Covid and the chaotic voyage from Albertville to Paris at the end we have been joking that we hope she isn’t too traumatized to travel overseas again! But seriously, we are so thankful for her willingness to travel here to see us and also for the many people along her journey who were so kind to help her (ie. the person who just gave her their charging block so her phone wouldn’t die as she stayed in contact with us so we could help get her to Paris).

Since she left we had a whirlwind of activity with all of our birthdays in May, two of my brothers then our field directors coming to visit plus our studies in general. I don’t think it has fully sunk in yet that it will probably be over a year before I see my mom in person again. Saying good-bye has definitely been the hardest part of moving overseas. Her trip here was so good though and it reminded me that, though there is a great space between us and many people we love so dearly, our relationships with those people will always remain special and strong. And each time we do get those face-to-face interactions we will savor them. We thank God for such incredible family and friends who make saying good-bye so hard!

-Selina

Louvre Pyramid
Sacré-Cœur
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Fun Facts About France!

We have now been living in France for over five months, which means we are nearly to the halfway point of our time here. We have really been enjoying Albertville and thought it might be fun to share some of the more bizarre or comical things we’ve come across in French culture and in the French language.

We’ll start with the language:

  1. The French word « avocat » means both attorney and avocado. This was very comical to us when we first arrived here and, only knowing the avocado translation, were seeing signs around town for what appeared to be an office for avocados. 

2. Rollercoasters in French are called “montagnes russes” which literally translates to “Russian mountains”. 

3. They have two different words for twins: one if they are twin boys and one if they are twin girls. The word for twin girls is “jumelles” which is also the word for binoculars. 

4. The French name for a magic wand is a “baguette magique” which as you can you probably tell is literally just a magical baguette. 

5. The French language loves their vowels which leads to words like “jouaient” which has five consecutive vowels. Not to be confused with jouer, jouais, jouait, joué, or jouai which are all different forms of this same verb that all have the same exact pronunciation. I also just came across “créée” this week which is fairly unique with its three consecutive e’s.

6. Counting in French is the absolute weirdest. Things are fairly normal from 1-69 and you are feeling pretty good about yourself. But then you hit 70 and instead of having a new word like seventy in English, they call 70 soixante-dix which is literally « sixty-ten ». This continues with sixty-eleven (71), sixty-twelve (72) until they drop another bomb on you at 80 which is quatre-vingt which is literally « four-twenty ». Ninety? Yeah that’s « quatre-vingt-dix » which is literally « four-twenty-ten ». With these naming conventions they’ve turned simple counting into a mental math exercise.

In terms of French culture, here are a few things we’ve found interesting / funny / surprising. 

  1. Peeing in public is legal here. It’s not uncommon to walk up to the grocery store and there will be a guy peeing in the grass on the edge of the parking lot. 
  2. A cup of coffee isn’t really a thing in French culture. If you order a “café” which is the word for coffee, it will be an espresso. However, they do love their espressos and most restaurants offer them for after your meal. We have had no problem adjusting to this. 
  3. Food is a huge aspect of French culture and they place a lot of value on where it comes from, with a huge emphasis on local production. This means that restaurants and bakeries change their menu frequently to match what ingredients are in season. They also vary their prices based on the specific ingredients. For example, in the grocery store there may be three or four types of hummus of the same brand but each of them will be priced differently. 
  4. Lunch is a big deal here! We get a 2+ hour lunch break as does Mia in the public school system. It’s very common for many small, local stores to close for a couple of hours in the afternoon for a lunch break. 
  5. Most restaurants that are open for lunch will close for several hours before opening again for dinner. The French eat a much later dinner so often restaurants won’t open up again until 6:30 or 7. This makes having dinner out as a family very difficult since our kids usually go to bed at 7 and become pumpkins by 8. 
  6. College in France is nearly free for most students—free as in there is little to no tuition paid out of pocket. Now taxes on the other hand…

It’s been a lot of fun to learn about and experience a new culture, even if we are just here for a year. It has left us all the more excited for this same learning process in Senegal! 

– Adam

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“Fresh is Best”: Open Air Markets

One of the things that is significant in French culture – or at least in the French culture we observe here in Albertville – is that there is a high value on food quality. What I mean is that people here highly value food that is fresh, local and in-season. I think that is why there are three different open air markets a week, all of which are within walking distance of where we live.

The first is the Wednesday market which has predominantly Arabic vendors and shoppers. This is honestly my favorite market to go to for produce. The people there are so friendly and patient with my weak French and the prices are hard to beat. There is also a really tasty kebab stand there!

The second is the Thursday market which is the main French market. There are tons of vendors with produce, cheese, bread, meat, baked goods and so on. This is our go to market for whole bean coffee. Admittedly France has not had the best coffee scene compared to what we were used to in the States so we are thankful to have found this vendor (we were a little spoiled coming from living next door to an amazing coffeeshop, in a town with several other incredible coffee shops and a tea lounge!)

The final market is on Saturday morning and, while in a different location, has many of the same vendors as the Thursday market. We don’t visit this one as regularly, but do enjoy stopping by on a Saturday morning family walk when we’re going that direction.

As you can see the options for fresh produce and other food is abundant which is good since there is such a strong desire to support local. In general it seems that the French think most anything that is made or grown in France is best as well. For example, our neighbor who is French has a car and takes several of us women grocery shopping on Mondays. The other day I had grabbed some pears that were from Portugal (all the produce is very clearly labelled based on where it’s from) and she pointed out that there were pears right next to the ones I had grabbed that were far superior because they were grown in France. It was rather humorous to me, but I decided to buy one of each pear anyway to see which was better. And, admittedly, the French pear was significantly better so perhaps there is something to that way of thinking!

In the States I was so accustomed to just buying whatever produce was available and looked good and generally had no idea or concern about which country it had originated in. I have also noticed an emphasis here on buying what’s in-season, both from my friend who takes me grocery shopping and in the lessons we have done in class on food. Again, my choices on what to buy or not buy were more often dictated by price than if something was in-season, especially since most fruits and vegetables are available year round in large grocery stores in the States. This is one area of many in which we have really enjoyed learning about French culture. And we are also really enjoying all the fresh, local foods we get to try!

-Selina

Thursday market fruit and vegetable stands
Thursday market coffee and tea vendor that we frequent
Kebab stand at the Wednesday market
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Staying Close From Far Away

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy…It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart…” (Philippians 1:3-4 and 7b)

The other night some fellow students and friends of ours here in Albertville came over and we had a time of fellowship and prayer. One of our conversations was about what we find ourselves praying for the most as this can be a good reflection of what is most important to us. This was such a helpful conversation for me because I was able to reflect on how moving overseas has impacted my prayer life.

While I have known people living in other places than me throughout my life who I have labored for in prayer, I feel like recently God has been developing in me a deeper appreciation for interceding on the behalf of others. There are so many people back in Midland that I miss and long for deeply. So many that I want to just sit with over a cup of coffee to catch up, to laugh with, to share each others joys and burdens and to pray together.

Technology certainly allows a level of connecting with people around the world that is such a gift, but still, not the same as spending time physically together. There’s an additional difference when not living life together day to day in the same physical location, especially coming from a fairly small town like Midland. Between busy schedules, life circumstances, time differences and trying to navigate the ever-present tension of staying connected “back home” while also being present here, there is just realistically less time to meaningfully connect. We cherish all the memories of our time in Midland with the incredible community we have there. As such, I have felt the loss of those easy moments of fellowship, of the encouragement and challenging in small groups, during playdates, coffee dates or through chance run-ins around town. However, in those moments of grieving, or when different people come to mind I find I’m often drawn into prayer.

In the last several weeks it has been dawning on me how meaningful prayer is. I can’t be present for all of the things I used to be present for, I can’t spend the time I want to with many of people who mean the most to me, but I can have an impact on their lives in the deepest way possible; by lifting them up to the One who created all things and knows all things. The Lord loves them and knows their needs so much more than I do anyway, but in praying for others I feel a closeness to them and ability to care for them, even at such a vast distance. This power of prayer has always been present, and I know this, but the beauty of it has been so much more tangible since leaving. The verses in Philippians 1 about how Paul feels for the Philippian believers continually comes to mind as I think about and pray for so many dear friends and family around the world (and as I lift up believers in Christ around the world who I don’t even know!)

Likewise, I feel the impact of your prayers. We know there are so many who are laboring on our behalf through prayer and we are beyond grateful. What a gift it is to speak to our heavenly Father and be a part of each other’s lives in this way. Thank you and know that you are often prayed for as well, on this side of the world.

-Selina