Jim & Tim

Last night, it was so much fun to reunite with a dear friend and colleague, Jim Kennell. Jim is currently doing PhD work at SMU in Dallas and is returning to Benin for some preliminary research. He'll be in the country for a couple of months. If you've followed our lives in Benin for a number of years, you'll remember Jim was a teammate of ours among the Aja from 1998 until 2002 (and several years in pre-field preparation). We have kept in touch and it was great to see him last night. It's so much fun having a good friend around to talk to about work, family, friends, faith, and all things in between!

Tomorrow night, Kelly's cousin Tim Chapman is flying in for a week-long visit! We're so thrilled about this too! Thanks so much to Darcy and those 4 wonderful kiddos who are letting Tim come this week....I know you all miss him already (keep checking here for photos all week). In the Aja language, when you are asking about someone, you always reference them by their mother and their father. Tim was raised like a brother to Kelly yet technically he'd be her cousin. When I was announcing his visit, I used the term "brother" because they are of the same family....I thought I was simplifying the matter. But again in Aja, because of the polygamy issue, people will say, "same father/same mother" or "same father/different mother". Because they have met Sam and Andy during their visits to see us, my Aja friends wanted to know if Kelly's "brother" Tim was "same father/same mother"...I said, "NO". Then they deducted, "so, it's same father/different mother?" I said, "NO." Finally I just said, "when the whole family all gets together, Tim is there." They finally understood....I think. I may have just given my father-in-law another wife. Sorry Morton, I'll try and clear that up.

-RV