T plus 3 mois, 22 jours

passing in to the new year was a slightly different experience, as again, the weather doesn't remind me of january in kansas

the new year's eve "party" was a service at the church from 10 to just before 1 of the new year 2007, there was singing and a message, very similar to any other service held at the church for any occasion, this lasted for the first hour and was followed by testimonies and prayer for the last hour before midnight, testimony to many blessings of the past year and prayer for them as well as current prayer requests and future ones for the new year, at midnight we all got up and greeted one another with the african new year's meeting of heads back and forth (similar to the french greeting each other with kisses on the cheek except touching temples with the person you are greeting) followed by much wishing of health, wealth, etc. and then song and dance, the service was closed with more prayer for the new year and for the projects planned for the church, of course, after all this i decided to call the states and say hi as well as mentioning the phenomenon (or maybe not) of my already being an hour and a half into 2007 while the festivities for the changing of the year were just getting started in the states; new year's day was held in greeting friends and relaxing, enjoying the break from work and school

this year (in africa that is) i will be seeing three different weddings, unless more are planned for later, the first in doumbala, the second just before new year's here in orodara and the third at the end of january, also here in orodara; the one before new year's was that of pastor benjamin of the djigbera church, unlike in doumbala where the whole service was outside in the churchyard, the overflow crowd was outside the church building while family and such were inside, there wasn't the dancing and singing before the service began, though there were a few numbers during the service, afterwards, there pictures with the happy couple and family and many various church groups followed by a meal and the giving of gifts, all in all a nice big party

there are always a few peculiarities with songs or service content, but that always happens in the states too, however there are a few consistent differences; during the service, the bride and groom sit on some nice comfy chairs at the center of attention up front, sitting with them are their witnesses, one for the bride and one for the groom, similar to the best man and maid of honor, but not followed by any groomsmen or bridesmaids

the wedding to come is at the end of january, though i haven't heard of weddings occurring at other times, i would guess that now during the "cool" months in dry season when everyone isn't out in their fields is the time to have your wedding, nicodem and grace, two people from the orodara church will be the honored ones, nicodem is the older brother of josua, one of my friends in the church "youth group," and grace is at the older end of the "youth group," so each wedding i know more and more of the honored ones

besides weddings and parties at the church, there isn't the largest amount of raucous fun going on around orodara, tom, kay, and myself went to bobo for two days, one night, instead of going to ouaga over new year's, there was some unrest in ouaga, unsanctioned military actions and some recommendations from the canadian embassy to stay at home or not travel to ouaga if possible, plus, tom and kay weren't feeling at the peak of their game, were down because of sickness after christmas, thus we got to watch a couple bowl taped bowl games at the cma, christian missionary alliance, guesthouse, with a cheap decently quick internet connection we were able to check email and call some family/friends on skype (a cheap internet telephone service), a good break after having two weeks off for christmas and new year's

kari, fabé, and the entzes are getting together here soon to begin working and deciding on an order for the mv player, eventually giving me some more work to do, i'm also waiting for a response from israel on my latest set of samples, in the mean time, i'm putting mini disk source material on the computer, unfortunately the long way (playing it and recording it on the computer), so i have a little time to read or work on my french by watching subtitled movies and stopping every five minutes to look up the new word, making each one take a time and a half of normal, all included in the price of education

when we are silent
we serve,
when we love
we pray,
and when God talks,
we are silent