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