Electricity Craziness & Tabaski

This week our electricity has been crazy. On and off and when it is "on" it is frequently so low that the lights won't even come on at night. As a result, I am writing this at 2:30am (I suppose insommnia has something to do with it too!)--so if it doesn't make much sense that is why. We have been truly grateful for the abundance of candles that our friends in Brantford brought with them in August! It really wouldn't be too bad if our stove wasn't a North American one that has an electric starter, so it won't release the gas to start heating the oven without the starter bringing the stove to a certain temperature. Even that might not be too bad if I didn't have a whole lot of baking that I needed to get done this week for meetings and things. UGH! Needless to say this isn't the first time this week that I have been up in the middle of the night trying to take advantage of the electricity while it seemed to be functioning. Maybe it is time to consider replacing the oven, but I really appreciate the size of it compared to the typical Nigerien ones. I guess I will just have to wait to see how permanent the electric problem is.

This week was Tabaski, the 'sheep' festival as some people call it. It is the Islamic holiday where they slaughter (ideally) a ram as an atonement and remembering the ram that Abraham slaughtered in replace of his son. That means that there were two national holidays on Monday and Tuesday this week. (We are hoping that this is why the electric company has been playing with our power and that things will improve next week). The first day of the "fete" the sheep gets slaughter and roasts by a big fire for most of the day. On the second day you either go around visiting friends and neighbours to share some of your mutton or the poor will go from house to house to collect some of the meat and other goodies. Since we didn't sacrifice a lamb when we had people come to our door we gave them candies. The two older ladies looked at us as if we were a little crazy, but the kids thought it was great. I'm sure the neighbourhood was talking as about the crazy white people again. Please pray with us that our friends and neighbours would come to know the true Lamb of God that has provided for the sins of the world.