T plus 4 mois, 25 days

since it's been a little while since i wrote, about a month, hopefully i haven't forgotten too much, but you never know with me, ha ha ha

there have only been a couple big events of late, the first of which was the wedding of nicodem and grace on the 27th of january, it was a wonderful wedding, with tom and kay doing the reflection/message for the service, kay delivered a small message on God's transforming power which tom used in his model with water and wine to signify the marriage being transformed by God in the coming years, tom got nicodem and grace to answer a few questions and drink some water and besop (the available "wine") for his interactive model bit, it was an excellent reference to Jesus' first miracle

the second of two big events was my trip to ouaga on the first weekend in february, it was quite a stay with a scottish/irish dance one night, a movie another, and third, the super bowl, and all three ending with me getting to bed well after midnight, i would tell the stories all in one paragraph, but that would violate maximum rather than the minimum of the 5-to-7-sentences-in-a-paragraph rule

the first night was the dance followed by a few hours of cards at mary hendershott's place, games like nerts and oshaw kept us entertained until 3 in the morning, the second night i stopped to visit jeff and tany warkentin and stayed to watch walk the line after a day of swimming at the american embassy and walking around downtown ouaga, the third night, of course, was the super bowl, jeff and i went to the american embassy and were the only ones watching the american forces network (afn) broadcast of the game, unfortunately, we didn't get to vote on the best commercial since all we saw were the ridiculous afn commercials, and, since we're 5 hours behind normal starting time, the game ended around 3 in the morning, followed by me getting up the next morning to catch the bus to bobo at 10 o'clock

the big story/adventure of the weekend was on the return trip to bobo, we stopped in boromo as usual for lunch and i went off to buy some bread, taking only my camera and change with me, since my camera bag was attached to the top of my backpack, i simply took the camera and ended up getting asked about it because one of the locals, a photographer, say it across my back, we talked a little bit, me all the while knowing that i had a bus to catch, and finally gave him my email address and told him to look around on the internet for a camera and send me an email if he found anything, as i returned to the bus station, i saw that my bus had left without me, fortunately, another bus from the same company pulled in shortly after, i talked to the driver and showed my ticket from the other bus and so was able to get a ride to bobo with this second bus, all in all, only arriving in bobo about an hour later than i would have had i caught the right bus

i was able to stay with blaine and michelle in bobo for monday night, monday evening i went to watch the super bowl again that a friend had taped and so got to see the kick off return by evan hester, since jeff and i arrived late for the live event, though again, no commercials, since this was a broadcast on espn out of south africa, i was able to borrow this tape, giving tom the opportunity to watch the big game here in orodara, all inclusive, an eventful, yet gladly repeatable weekend

the last set of stories that i find blog-worthy, chronologically place, would be at the very beginning of the entry, but since i found a satisfactory intro in putting the previous stories first, i figured it would work, these two events happened here in orodara and even within a couple days of each other, both somewhat frightening, yet quite funny in retrospect

first, i went to the tailor's and gave him some material for some pants and also had him fix the big rip in the back of my jeans, he was able to fix the jeans in about 5 minutes, but he took the rip, folded it over and sewed it on the inside, taking about a three-quarters or full inch out of the back side, when i saw it i was somewhat taken aback, but decided to try it, then i put them on at home and found that they were a bit smaller than before and so fit rather snugly around my hips, i took them back and got a proper patch sewn in and now they work wonderfully, though the material i gave him for the new pants was too short and so chose to have him make a shirt from that and go get another length for a different color of pants, all is in good working order now, i think i have finally found a way to get pants with long enough legs and small enough waist

second, and more horrifying, last night felix and i stopped at his tailor's to pick up his new pair of pants, when he looked at them he decided he wanted a different cuff at the bottom, so, to my horror, the tailor took a pair of scissors and cut off the old cuff, aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, thus taking about an inch off of the length of the legs, maybe it's just me and my excessive tallness always being worried about finding sufficiently lengthy pants, but felix didn't flinch, anyway, now with the cut edge, the tailor sewed another cuff, as far as i knew, not like the type that felix wanted and almost identical to the one before but shorter in length, in other words, another half an inch gone, when i came out of my room this morning i met felix and saw he was wearing his new pants, i didn't get a look at how short or long they were, i'm sure just fine, but i have a feeling he doesn't give to big a hoot

i did finally get a response from ed in israel about my last set of samples i sent him, the feedback was generally positive along with some helpful comments, after the meeting in samoghohiri for the order and content of the mv player, this last gate has been opened and so the work and progress on the project should flow relatively quickly and smoothly to the end, or quite near it

i continue to learn more and more about burkina life and local perspectives on the world, seeing new windows of knowledge and opportunity, i'm currently reading shane claiborne's the irresistible revolution and starting to ask some of the same questions he does, there are quite a few books that are starting to add various types of light to life and making it rather interesting, so much to read and so little time to do it

when we see God
we are afraid
when we don't see God
we ask why not

for as walk away from God
He calls and waits patiently
for it is not a perfection
but a work in progress