T plus 5 jours

i am beginning to understand more and more french, by no means am i close to perfect, however, i can respond every once in a while, though i be not secure enough to do so, and i can grasp much of a any average conversation; ha, all those years of french and this is all i can do, gotta love my language skills

meeting pastor abdias coulibaly today was an interesting event, we talked about many things related to the studio and set up to meet there tomorrow and work on cleaning it out so that i can set up the equipment as soon as possible, for now i am possibly setting up in my room at the compound

also, pastor abdias has worked out my housing situation with felix and justine and i will learn of the details tomorrow when donna is present to hear as well, he only informed loren and i today at our meeting that he had it finalized

well, it turns out that i haven't seen a monkey yet, then again i am in a "city" and probably won't see many all year, thus the chances of me getting one as a pet are quite minimal, also, it would most likely add another responsibility to a year that can easily be occupied elsewhere, though it would have provided a welcome distraction from other puzzling/troubling thoughts

it's kind of nice to take life slower for once, the break in the afternoon is absolutely beautiful, also, the sun seems to set much earlier and then there's not much else to do but have supper, converse a little, and then go to bed, it'll be nice throughout the year

oh what i would not like to give for a maybe a little taste of america again, yet i've realized that it's wonderfully fulfilling to not see waste like in america, nothing is wasted here, not even the cicada that kay fleming killed today, after leaving it on the floor and coming back a few hours later, most of it was gone due to the ants that had been at work in their absence, then again, evidently these two inch long cicada are also caught and eaten by the children, evidently they have some decent body mass to them, hmm, sounds like a tasty treat

need i be hesitant in my walk

need i stumble on a pebble

must i be distracted by insignificance

must i ponder secondary things

i am learning to be burkinabe, and

God is teaching me to be a missionary

T plus 4 jours

i see a little more of this beautiful country everyday, the bus ride out to orodara gave some good views of the stumpy trees and fairly widespread vegetation in the southern and eastern parts, farther from the desert and closer to the ocean

it truly will be interesting to learn more of islam as i grow up in this city of predominantly muslims, loren and donna asked if i wanted to read about a certain topic this year since they have quite a personal collection of books and so i am soon to be set up to read all i could ever wish on islam and muslims since they have an extensive collection of books on that topic, the year will tell whether i wish to move on to other topics as well

i continue to be reliant on God to keep me going amidst tiredness (not too much jet-lag, just the normal college kid needs more sleep kinda thing) and lacking in connections with more familiar things, especially because of the language barrier that i have kept in front of myself, partly still pride in not wanting to make a fool of myself and also perceiving that i do not have quite the vocabulary that would be good to have for relatively fluid conversation, i look forward to living with felix and justine so that i may feel more comfortable in showing myself the great fool that i am

God is faithful

God is just

God is willing to help me out

God is willing to let me learn

God is the one with his hand over all

God is the one who never sleeps

God is God

God is my God