"A Day in the Life..."

“A day in the life of…”
A peek into the reality of transition-living
For the Cotarelo family


Well, this phrase “a day in the life of,” usually depicts a “regular” or “normal” patterned lifestyle…one of generally predictable events and schedules…the term “transition” thrown into the mix gives a slight deviance to a day’s description…but I will give you a peek.

Background specs… Andy and Alison- We call the Southeastern US “home” but home is really wherever the pillows are! We’ve spent years teaching professionally and two serving at Dakar Academy in Senegal. We are currently back in Thies, Senegal since December and staying until July working in agricultural missions to complete an internship for ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) and as a vision trip for our family in full-time missions work. We are partnered also with UWM and MIS. We have two preschoolers: Saar (4) born in Senegal and Reuben (2) a NC tarheel!

Transition living for us has taken the form of living in eight different places since March ’07 through support-raising and moving to Senegal. We rejoice at the fact – it is a fact to us – that God’s provisions for us are always perfect and perfectly placed. This doesn’t mean it’s easy, but His plans are for us to prosper and have hope for our future.


May I just prelude here a bit with the key acronym TIA, which stand for “This is Africa”! The concept behind TIA is when something doesn’t go as you may think or expect it should is it probably TIA in action…

So the “day”… in a few short stories.

The morning…
Crispy baguettes arrive at the neighborhood boutique stand at around 7am daily and on this particular morning, Andy’s goal was to simply acquire four of these tasty loaves and get home. Well, relationships and greetings are extremely important in African culture and when it comes to “quickly” – personal interactions never really are! So, off to our favorite boutique and the greetings begin…”Hello!!! How are you?? How is your family? How are you?? How is your work?? How are you?? How are your children? How are you?? So, who will you vote for President?? How are you?? Good, Good! And of course all this greeting is going on in multiple languages and with much hand shaking AND with a calm and composed air about things (even though Andy had less than a few minutes to get home and get to his meeting!!) Well, only one baguette was available and so that meant off to another boutique down the sandy street and around the corner. Again the greetings commenced while Andy pushed away his Western mentality of “get in and get out.” So, in the end, the bread was acquired, relationships were strengthened and the team understood why Andy was a bit late to the meeting because…TIA!

The Mid-Day…
One day when Andy was visiting a village, during the mid-day “repose” time the team gathered with the village farmers and Chief under the shade of a large neem tree to discuss agriculture. This particular visit was influential to Andy because the need for an Agriculture Resource Center was expressed directly from the farmers themselves.
It was a dry and dusty time of day and the heaviness of feeling tired and hot from touring their gardens manifested in their hungry stomachs. The air was still, yet the discussion was active. Even the Chief participated by stating that he understands the importance of agriculture to the health of his village. Even though our “normal” schedule is to have lunch at this time, there was no break to eat, in fact, in the village, they only have one meal a day. After the visit was over and the team squeezed back into the SUV, Andy ate and shared his packed lunch. One man accepted some of Andy’s sandwich and in the midst of chewing, asked “is this beef or pork?”…well, Andy wrestled in his mind with the fact that Muslims don’t eat pork and was this man a Muslim???. Answering in truth, “it is pork” Andy experienced a mix of social blunder and reality check as the man expelled the masticated mass into his hand and chucked it out the window. TIA.

The evening…
We’ve been staying in a guest house while renovations occurred on the house we will live in until we leave Thies. One late evening our electricity had been on the fritz and finally went totally out. After some phenagaling, Andy decided to ask for some help and was referred to a trusted electrician. He called him up and within 15 minutes was atop our roof masking-taping the live wires back into place…putting us fully-operational again….and for just 10,000 CFA (about $22). Only here would you feel this sense of true community and wild and sometimes crazy creative problem solving. TIA



The most amazing thing is…is that God is clearly at work herein Africa …even through TIA events…