One School Break in Africa

One School Break in Africa

Our two oldest grandchildren are in college. When we heard they were traveling to West Africa for their 2024-25 school break, we became the "worried grandparents." On the phone we gave them travel advice, especially the tricky connection at the Paris airport, where you have to get on a shuttle bus to go to a different terminal for flights to Africa. We also assured them of our prayers. As these two grands, Titus and Emma, prepared for their trip overseas, we were brought back to a time twenty years ago when our oldest daughter visited us in West Africa during her first Christmas break from Bible College in Michigan.

The year was 2005 and Danielle was travelling alone, from Detroit to New York to Paris to Dakar to Conakry. She left the cold winter of the Midwest behind to come back to the country where she had lived and grown up since age 5, when we first moved there from N.H.

We were concerned about her safety travelling alone, as nervous parents tend to be. But Psalm 121 (the traveler’s psalm) was a comfort, especially the last verse: “The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forever.” Interestingly, the French Bible has it: <<L’Eternel gardera ton depart et ton arrivee, des maintenant et a jamais.>> This gives the idea of God protecting our travels, from departure to arrival. Although there were no airplanes in King David’s day, it still made me think of our daughter being protected during her flights from America to Guinea.

Over the years we discussed the idea of our children getting baptized in a local river near our village. It is called the Tingilinta River. It never worked out, but we spoke of it again when Danielle was preparing to come back for School break. All three girls were excited about it. Here are some pictures we posted in our newsletter for January 2006:

Danielle and I stepped into the river, hoping no crocodiles would suddenly show interest!

Michelle and I praying for our three daughters, along with several missionaries and African believers.

The girls had their hair braided during that Christmas break.

This is what our family looked like in West Africa 20 years ago. (Our son Michael was already married to Nancy and they were in missionary training, so they were not in the family photo this time.) It looks like summer, not a winter break. That is because it is always summer in Guinea. We did have two seasons: Rainy Season, and Dry Season. It rained almost every day for the six months of rainy season, and it never rained for the six months of dry season (except the surprising “mango rains” that sometimes came out of nowhere in dry season!)

This photo shows a bridge the villagers built to replace the fallen tree bridge in the photo above.

The day arrived for me to drive Danielle to the airport in the capital city, six hours away. She said goodbye to her mom and two sisters. While I was loading her suitcase in the car, she went to the front yard to give her last goodbye hugs to our dogs, Tigger and Skip, and to her cat, Smudge. Michelle was looking out the window at this touching scene, and she cried. Goodbyes are, and always will be, so very hard. After twenty years this memory still brings tears to our eyes.