T plus 1 mois, 29 jours

everything proceeds as smoothly as ever around here, samogho source material still awaits my attention and all english learners (including felix) are improving greatly with the expert help of tom

my french is coming along, don't worry, i do get plenty of opportunities to to speak or listen every day, almost unfortunately, one of which is a mexican soap opera over the noon hour that's dubbed in french, even after a year of that show i don't think i'll be attached to soap operas, or burkina tv (oops, sorry, no offense meant) since i can already recognize each and every commercial by the first few notes of the background song, i told felix that i would be able to sing them all by the time the new year came

donna returns from south africa tomorrow along with pastor abdias and siaka, we'll see how long it is before i get wind of my stuff sent home and anything else sent here

tom and kay have an extremely deep pit in their courtyard (a bit over two seconds for an object to hit bottom) and so one day we borrowed the bolt cutters from the mission's tool shed and cut off the lock in order to check it out and put on a new lock that the flemings actually had a key to, from then we've had some fun tossing the week's trash down it and last saturday night, the flaming remnants of various old water ruined papers, it was interesting to see that, even with the help of some paint thinner, nothing would stay lit all the way to the bottom, all we need now is some glow sticks or some other form of artificial light (that won't be a problem if we can't use it any longer, or get it for that matter), anyway, i have to say this is going to be one of the most fun pieces of entertainment we've found yet, he he he

i've been getting some quality moto time in of late: a trip to somogohiri last tuesday on the moto here at the mission compound and then a trip with felix to kourinion yesterday for the church service and a visit

after church on sunday in kourinion we were invited to the house of an older church lady to pray for her and so got to see a little more of the village than just from the distance of the small grass shelter of the church building, we also shared a meal of to and sauce with some of the elder men in the church, included was an excellent sample of the local water rat, since the town is separated by a river and the rat lives along the river

i missed my first hog butchering this past weekend at the entz farm, i did, however, get some pork on saturday at home and on sunday with the flemings, nothing like the fresh experience at home, but none-the-less one of the best kinds of meat you can get

it's somewhat amazing to me to think of kansas and how it's cold enough now to be sleeping with feather beds and wearing a regular coat outside (and maybe in if you ever go upstairs in the larry and carol entz house) whereas here it's still in the 80's during the day but comfortingly cooler as night passes

the first real flashback to home (kansas home, that is) was yesterday as felix and i were returning from delivering some corn from kourinion to someone in orodara, as we passed a courtyard that happened to have those infernal animals referred to as turkeys, i was strangely reminded of kansas by their gobbles, there have been other sighting of turkeys in orodara, but i wasn't transformed into the good ol' kansas farm boy again until i heard their annoying chorus, i never would have thought that such an irritating sound would give me the first significant recollection of my other home

God has power over us
and God has mercy for us
for we as his sheep
and the people of his pasture

all i do is because of Him
thus all i do
must be for Him
and in Him

T plus 1 mois, 15 jours

i've already had lots of success with my projects this week (that is the week that started this morning), i got my hard drives working with pro tools and i got some more audio software to work with from orlando on saturday (the package was a couple cd's and took just less than 3 weeks to arrive), it looks like i've got plenty of work to do between pulling in source material and cleaning up it and other recorded material

it's pretty sweet, i just hooked up the two hard drives that i have for the mac, in a row, on one firewire cable, oh the beauty of macs, we call that a little bit fo daisy chaining, then again, maybe that's just orlando's word for as much, either way, i like it

the studio did it's first official recording starting tuesday last week (October 31, 2006), fabé, kari, and i recorded five newly translated psalms, the book of james, and the book of matthew into samogho (of course, they did all the talking, i only sat and pressed record and stop on the computer), this material will be used, all or in part, for the samogho megavoice (mv) player that is my main project this year

i've still got a few egg cartons to put on the ceiling of the studio, the east wall is also yet uncovered, as is the floor, i'm going to be getting some mats (like the muslims use for daily prayers) in storage at the church to cover the floor, the east wall has the window, door, lights, and holes for air flow which make it a puzzle to cover, there's isn't near the auditorium echo like before we started, but there's still a very short but noticeable echo on louder sounds

donna left for south africa early this morning and loren left for saraba in the middle of the morning, the mission compound is empty as always when loren and donna are gone to saraba (except for toussaint, pascal, the guard, and/or the occasional visitor), but tom and kay are around, returning from ouaga last night, thus english resumes once again in the front/main room of the studio building

tom and kay were touring SIAO 2006 (don't ask me what it stands for), an artisan festival that takes place in ouaga every two years, since kay is an artist, this was an excellent opportunity for them to see various arts and crafts from multiple different african countries, since i have a collection of carved wooden animals (a couple stone too) i asked them to possibly find something that would fit such a collection, they ended up bringing back two malachite figures, a lion and a hippo, excellent specimens to add to my collection,

of course, i should have no problem transporting them back to the states since one, they are only about two inches tall and three long, and two, i get two fifty pound bags from ouaga to paris as well as to home, a change that happened last year and of which i was informed last night by loren and donna (as of my question regarding the matter of carry on weight limit), this is quite an improvement from the supposed 20 kg (44 lbs) from ouaga to paris, any requests

this last friday night presented another opportunity for me to pray to the porcelain god, though not near as many times as the last event, i had had supper with loren and donna that evening and we had lots of good stuff, including some really good chicken from a vendor in town, based on our deductions from food properties and content at these two incriminated meals, we concluded that the cause of the problem on both occasions was the MSG in the bullion/jumbo i consumed with the foreign dishes; the first time was a dish the neighbors brought as a gift at the end of ramadan, the second time was the chicken from downtown on friday night and the sauce with which it was basted, the chicken's excellent, but now i can't eat it (or very much anyway)

evidently toussaint has the same problem and so now i must be wary of foods from town or from neighbors, i realize now that this is another God-send reason for me to be hosted by the dakuo's because justine doesn't use any bullion/jumbo in her cooking, amen for that

i also scraped the side of my left foot on my bike pedal friday night returning to the mission after ordering the chicken, thus i am learned about how easily things become infected here, don't worry, it's not infected yet, i just get to put on some antiseptic stuff three times a day that also has the affect of red dye on the location of application, so i've got a big red upside down half circle on the inside of my left foot that looks like a big bloody gash, ha ha ha, as donna said, it's better than the alternative

when God says go
you go
when God says stay
you stay
but when God says listen
you do both