T plus 15 jours

the studio work is coming along nicely, i got some of the lessons for loren and donna's radio program pulled on to the mac, it looks as though everything will come together nicely and i might start recording with pastor abdias next week sometime

"la table ronde" is going on this weekend here at the mission compound, we met last night, got an overview of aimm's work here and the current situation on a bunch of things, i also met a bunch of the missionaries that are still working in burkina, phil and karen bergen, blaine and michelle , and anne kampaore, it was good to be part of their discussion on staying mennonite and evangelising through relationships rather than through large blanket campaigns

the dakuos have received me well, as i did not doubt they would, and i am beginning to settle in to their family on some levels, though i still don't understand half of what passes between them, felix and i talk a fair bit of english together and so i am learning what he perceives in this curlture and his beliefs on many things, and he still maintains that i do not ride a bicycle to the studio everyday, i ride a horse

one thing i have heard previously and also pulled from the conversation last night was that this is a culture of fear, as phil said "when the child asks if there are monsters under his bed his mother will reply 'yes, and they will eat you if you talk to loudly,'" with this came their concept of missionary work as being involved with relationships rather than making converts

another good quote came from loren "mennonites are like manure, if you heap them in a pile they begin to heat up, but if you spread them out in the field they can start to do some good"

God offers freedom

Jesus said "follow me"

and i chose a relationship with both

T plus 13 jours

today was the first full day of work, no more messing around with the software and microphones (like in church when they leave the microphones on after the service), i got some samples of the story of amos recorded with two different tape players, deciding which one gives the best recording and thus which one to use to collect all of the cassette material, oh yeah, i also fried a speaker by hooking it up to 220V without flipping the switch in the back from 115V to 230V, we'll see what it takes to fix, it doesn't look to be worst case scenario (i promise i won't do that again)

i moved in to felix's house last night at 11:30 (my time) and got everything set up, everything is going well, it looks to be a good year, the kids are great and felix and justine are very kind, it is good that felix speaks english so that i am not lost at all times for these first few months

i still have plenty of time to read, i think i will be doing a immense amount of that this year, still plugging away at sherlock holmes, i'm thinking i'll have to save some of that to read throughout the year, i'm also starting things fall apart by chinua achebe (we read a critique by him of the heart of darkness, joseph conrad, in ap english), i've got a few books on islam to read after i finish the achebe book, and, yes, loren and donna do have "celebration of discipline" (which i plan to read)

when felix took me to the studio this morning on his moto, we noticed that the children said "toubabu ca va?" but didn't greet felix as well, interesting, i also had a talk with felix at lunch yesterday about black people changing their skin color to try to look white, he is disgusted at the practice, coincidentally, the first time i say anybody that had done this (besides michael jackson) was as i was riding home on toussaint's moto that same day

God is showing me africa

God is revealing their lives

God is pointing out my privileges

God is showing me that i am a white man