The Leidenfrost Family
Csaba & Lisa Hans, Noai, Andreas, Jeremiah
AT THE EDGE OF THE VILLAGE: Musings of a Missionary Wife
by Lisa LeidenfrostBeing a missionary in Ivory Coast, West Africa is not only about dangers, hard work, and culture shock, interspersed with moments of high joy and deep sorrow. It is life found in the small and daily things, the quotidian experience which renders familiar a vastly different way of life, a life at the edge of the village.
This book collects Lisa Leidenfrost’s sketches of missionary life, compiled from letters sent home from Ivory Coast to her church in the United States, and they tell of the ordinary and extraordinary, the solemn and the playful, the mundane and the exotic, together creating a down-to-earth portrait of the gospel at work in a family and society.
For over sixteen years, Lisa Leidenfrost has lived, served, and raised four children in Ivory Coast with her husband, Csaba Leidenfrost, a Wycliffe translator to the Bakwe people.
Item # K-101, paperback, 224 pages...$15.00 - Available thru Canon Press.
Official
Name: République de Côte d'Ivoire
Official Language: French (official), 60 indigenous languages with Dioula as the most widely spoken.
Population: 15,818,068 (July 1999 est.)
Capital: Yamousoukro, is the administrative capital. Abidjan, is the financial capital.
Area: 322,463 sq. km.
Climate: The south is hot and humid. There are two seasons, wet and dry.
Economy: Agricultural; a world leader in coffee, cacao, timber, pineapples, kola and bananas. The export of rubber, and vegetable oils is increasing.
Religions: Muslim, Christian, Roman Catholic, Traditional
Government: Republic; multiparty presidential regime established 1960. President: Henri Konan BEDIE (since 7 Dec. 1993)
Average income: $1,680 (1998 est.)
Televisions: 810,000 (1993 est.)
Dense lowland tropical rain forest is the home of the 10,000 Bakwé people of the southwest Côte d'Ivoire. Linguistically, the Bakwé are in the Kru family of languages and one of still several that do not have the Scriptures in this country.
Isolated for many years by the lack of roads, the area only started to develop in the late 60's. Once a paved road was put through in the early 70's, Bakwé villages moved out of their forest locations. Today, most villages are located on the north-south paved road that connects Soubré and San-Pédro. Point your browser here for a map of the Bakwé region.
Lifestyle:
The Bakwé are subsistence agriculturalists, growing rice
once a year for consumption. Although much is available in the
way of manufactured goods today, they continue to collect a great
deal from the forest--for food, medicine, and construction. They
live in small, mostly mud and stick houses, thatched with palm
shingles that they weave. Each family will have at least one sleep-house
and one kitchen-house. They cook on wood fires in a smoky kitchen-house,
where stores of rice are kept dry on overhead racks.
Religion:
Traditional animism persists today among the Bakwé despite
the coming of Harris disciples in the 60's (animism is the belief
that spirits live in objects and effect the course of daily events).
Although still holding to the traditional animism, the Bakwé
also consider themselves Harris followers. The prophet Harris
came from Liberia in the early 1900's teaching the ten commandments
and telling his followers to worship the "one true God."
Few Harrist followers are literate but there is an increasing
desire to read and understand what is in the Scriptures. Both
the Catholic church and a handful of different Protestant churches
exist in the area.
Leidenfrosts
to the Bakwé
In September 1988, we moved to the town of Soubré, just
outside the Bakwé region, where we lived while building
our house in the village of Touadji II. After almost a full year
of building, we finally moved into Touadji II and began learning
the language and culture.
Living with the Bakwé for the last ten years, partnering with various people and organizations, we have been able to accomplish the following:
1. Establish an alphabet.
2. Publish various booklets and books in the new Bakwé
alphabet including the following: a dozen Bakwé folk tales,
2 song booklets, two booklets on health, a book on the life of
the Jews, a guide to learn how to read Bakwé for French
literates, a 116 page Primer for non-literates, a local news paper
sheet, and a yearly Bakwé calendar.
3. Begin Scripture translation (nine chapters of the Gospel of
Mark done to date).
4. A partial analysis of the grammar.
5. Several community development projects.
Our Children's Education
We continue to be committed to homeschooling. Lisa keeps busy
teaching all four of our children with me only helping teaching
Latin at this time. We test the children's aptitude every year
at an English school six hours away.
- Photo Album
- Click here to view some pictures from our work amongst the Bakwe
To be Added Later:
-Meet the Bakwé Translation and Literacy Team: YEPI Babo
Alexis (Sese), KLE Perez (Gadue), KOUAME Gnagbé Firmin
(Gbua).
-Projects: 1) Training Center, 2) Radio station
-Bakwé alphabet chart (with audio)
-Scripture portion from Mark's Gospel in Bakwé (with audio)
-Updates
-Bakwé Folk Proverbs
-Various links