Maninka is one of the few languages in West Africa that has been reduced to writing using their very own script. Maninkas are quite proud of their alphabet, known as N'ko which is quite different from the English alphabet. I have started studying N'ko with a new Maninka language helper named Daouda. I will teach him French, and he will teach me N'ko. So far, we have had a few lessons. My goal is to teach N'ko literacy and to end each lesson with a story from the Bible.

Now that the rainy time of year is here, the growing season is in full swing. Each morning the village becomes a ghost town as all but the very old and the very young go out to cultivate the fields. They plant rice, manioc, sweet potatoes, peanuts, fonio (a very fine brown grain the size and color of sand), ochra, millet, field corn, and yams. Groups of 12 to 20 women go out to weed the rice. I join them about once a week. It's a great way to work on my language skills and to get to know the women.

We start at about 9 a.m. and line up along the edge of the field side by side. Slowly we work our way across the field chopping at weeds and scraping the dirt around the stalks of rice with our hoes. While we work, the women talk about their families, village gossip, recipes, the price of food items, and sometimes we sing songs.

We work until about 1 p.m. when the field owner's wives arrive with huge basins of food on their heads. The women arrange themselves sitting sideways spoon fashion around the basin of to (manioc pounded to a powder, boiled in water to make a paste-like dough). Pieces of to are broken off and dipped into a sauce thickened with dried ochra powder and flavored with onions and lots of hot peppers. They eat without dripping, but I usually make quite a mess. After lunch, the women face Mecca to say their prayers and take a little rest. Then it's back to work!

It's backbreaking work, and I am usually exhausted by 2 or 3 p.m. But they stay at it until 5 p.m. and then chop wood, carry it home on their heads, and cook supper for the family. Then they start all over the next day at another field.

I enjoy going with the women and sharing their work, their food, their conversation—and I want them to hear about Jesus and see Him in me, too. Pray for me, God's language-learning ambassador in the rice field.