What am I doing?

I still ask myself that question... haven't figured it out yet though :) I'm still slightly amazed that I'm living in Africa.

Anyway, things are going well here… at times it seems slow, but then I’m reminded of all that I need to be learning and then I think of how far behind I am! I am currently taking French two times a week, but he teaches mostly structure and grammar so I am left to learn vocabulary on my own. I bought Voltaire (written in French) and have started writing on index cards words I don’t know and looking them up. I also need to learn about teaching conversational English and getting a curriculum together for that. I’m also helping Tim with short term team planning by designing a spreadsheet to plan out the summer teams. I just love excel! (The sad thing is that I really do!) But more than that - I love being able to help – to use my gifts to make something better!

All this requires some time management because we're fairly active, doing day to day stuff and special projects. This week's special projects are finishing up the building of the addition and buying stuff for the people down in Bongolo. We're leaving Wednesday to drive down for a Field Leadership Team meeting. We'll be there till either Saturday or Sunday.

Oh yeah and then Tim has also assigned me a few books to read on cross-cultural ministry... really good stuff that gets you thinking about things you don't ever realize. Ex:

TIME... some cultures are time oriented (like America) when church starts at 9am it starts at 9:00 or 9:05; they tend to get aggravated if they wait for more than 15min or 30min

Some cultures are event oriented (South America, Gabon) when church starts a 9am that means church will start when everyone gets there, which could be 9:00, could be 9:30, could be 10am... it's just when everyone gets there; they tend to get aggravated after having to wait 1 or 2 hours

Just some neat stuff that if you learn and understand it really helps to cut back on frustration. For example when I first got here I thought I'll start my TESL classes at 7pm and I will teach to whoever is there. Since then I have learned we tell people we start at 7pm plan on teaching from 7:30-8:30 and then don't plan on leaving till 9pm.

Life is different here, but good!