January 2014

Hello everyone!  It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of January!  Time flies when you are having fun right.  I realize that it has been quite some time since I have shared here.  School has been pretty typical although I am trying to ensure that I cover all I need to cover before I depart for the US at the end of March.  It is slowly coming into reality that my time here in Chad is coming to an end.  Two months is not much time in the scheme of things.  I have been trying to spend a little extra time with the kids doing extracurricular type items for school, a little art, music, gym, etc.  It is interesting to think about some of the experiences they are missing out on while being homeschooled.  It is fun to try and ensure that I can at least fill a few of those experiences before I go.  I am not saying it is easy, especially when our schedule is interrupted.

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting a group of other YWAM staff members from other parts of North Africa and Spain.  The beginning of the week was preparing for their arrival, resulting in me doing school with all the kids on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.  Then while the team was here we provided a number of meals for them, provided a place to sleep a few nights, and offered the wonderful shower.  It was fun to get to know these wonderful people, even if it was just for a short time.  It was an exhausting week, but I enjoyed it a lot.  It is always nice to have new people to talk to and to break up the routine of our everyday life.  This week we are slowly getting back into the routine of things as well as catching up on sleep.

Back to normal… well almost….

80's kick back after having my hair braided for over a week

For the first time since I was a little girl, I had beads and braids in my hair!  Marianna started braiding my hair outside and soon a couple of neighbor girls came and helped.  Then Marianna decided that I too need beads at the end of my braids like she and Katie had.  It was fun while it lasted!  It was pretty funny though, all three of us shedding beads and hearing the bouncing of them across our tile floor.  So that is the fun thought for this update.

I am currently trying to plan my summer travels.  It seems like much of my travel will be dictated by weddings.  So now I am focusing on how to be the greatest amount of help and the least amount of burden.  All this from Chad where the internet has been deciding to not function properly!  Anyway, this is a brief glimpse into my life and I promise that this coming weekend will have something a bit more put together instead of simply random thoughts!

Enjoying our hippo walk… The vegetable lady said people weren't wanting to cross the river due to hippos.

So what do we do?  Go looking for them of course!  We saw about six - mostly submerged in the river.

Hard to spot, but dangerous… Nothing like a herd of hippo driving the vegetable prices up in the market!

Nap time on the front porch…. Yup sometimes the cat thinks it is a dog - loves water and naps in the exact same way!