Relaxation

Already two days down this week from my "holiday" or vacation. I haven't written much these past few days because there has not been too much to write about. However, I have truly enjoyed doing not much of anything and just lounging around talking to Sheila and John.

Yesterday Alice invited me and Sarah, a short term missionary who I met the other day, over for lunch. This was a nice way to get to know Sarah. She is here for two years! She will be helping with the ESL ministry here which I got to see last time I was here. I am hoping to get together with her in the near future. Anyways, she had to leave, so I just stayed around at Pete and Alice's. I had fun playing Barbies and wheel barrel races with the kids along with getting to talk more to Pete and Alice. I am thankful to have them so close! Alice also suggested that I try the skype calling to cell phones or home phones. I called Eddie and the reception was great. He was surprised to hear my voice!! :) So, last night, as I was waiting for my parents to land in the states from their trip to Punta Cana, I added some minutes to my skype account. I called my grandparents and then my parents just as they were landing. SO good to hear the voices of family yesterday! My parents and I then connected back up later last night when they got home and tried our first skype to skype conversation. Last night and tonight was similar...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The electricity and internet here in general are a little crazy. The electricity usually goes out at least once a day for fun. And the internet decides when it wants to work. I think that the dial up is another problem with skype. However, I still got to briefly see my parents and hear their voices. :) Tonight Eddie came over, so I got to see him, too! It is pretty amazing that something like Skype exists even in Burkina Faso! Yay technology!

Well, today I went to school with Sheila. She worked on report cards, and I began my lessons for next week. I will be teaching Language Arts to the Kindergarteners. They do the Letter People here which I did and LOVED when I was in Kindergarten! I will begin with Mr. P and his pointy patches. Today was interesting with planning and just how it is different with fewer resources. The school has a lot of resources; however, I personally do not. I was used to having little things like my lesson book, sticky notes, excess paper, my printer, etc. Being a planning freak sometimes, I must say that it is killing me to know that I have something at home that would be "perfect" for a lesson. But, I am learning to work with what I have, and I have to do much more creative but simpler things. I never thought twice of copying something at my last teaching experience, but that is not the case here. If there are more than 10 copies of something, you have to fill out a special sheet. Even though this sounds silly, this has been really hard. I have realized how wasteful I was during my last teaching experience. This is a new way of thinking for me which will be good...but hard. Good news...I did end up packing my sticky notes and found them this afternoon. SO exciting! :)

Big news of the day...I am going to get to see FARIDA!!! She is my compassion child, and I just found out this afternoon that things are confirmed for Decemeber 11. Thank you to those of you who have been praying. This has made me so excited, and I have been thanking God for working this all out! Now, I am praying that God will prepare my heart and hers along with other members of her family for our future encounter. I know that it sometimes is an awkward thing for the child, and I want her to know how much she is loved by me and most of all by God.

Well, tomorrow I am going to exchange some money into CFA or Franks, and then Sheila and I are going to go shopping. It should be fun! I guess the craft show thing I was talking about a few days ago begins on Friday. So, I am anxiously awaiting that, also!

It is now 1am here in Ouagadougou, so I must peace out! Love you all! :)