Busy Days

These last few months have been incredibly busy.  Mike has traveled often and we have hosted 2 volunteer teams as well as adding a semester missionary to our midst.  After Mike's return from the states and then South Africa, we had a team here from Calhoun, LA.  It is always a joy to have them here with us and this time was no different.  They were so sweet to bring us many things we were missing from the states in addition to bringing some things to Ben who had a birthday while they were here.  The other team we had was a group from our home church in North Carolina.  They were also great as usual.  They were kind enough to pack in some Christmas presents we had sent to them along with bringing a suitcase for our new teammate who is getting situated here with us.

Back in August we had two young ladies come to work with us for the semester.  Unfortunately, one of them had to return to the US after only two weeks.  The other is doing a great job here with us now.  She lives with our dear friends the Kassous and is working hard with them.  Several of us girls took several days to go to the beach here to celebrate the middle of her term and to encourage her to finish well.  She has less than one month left with us and we will all be sad to see her go. 

My friend Viviane has been an amazing help to me during this time.  She is taking great care of our semester missionary, who has become a member of their enlarged family.  She's helped me through many difficulties when Mike was out of town and she continues to be a great friend.  I'm always so grateful for my precious little sister and my little brothers that were born into my family, but am also thankful that at 36 years old, God saw fit to give me a big sister as a gift of His grace and mercy in my life.  She is an amazing ministry partner, an example to me of what a Godly African woman looks like and a wonderful friend/confidante.  At her side, I've learned so much.  She is a blessing to work with and to have in my life.

Since I love so much to be right in the middle of life here, I'm always looking for new opportunities to learn more and to fit in.  The quest for that in the last few months has added a few new items to the things that I have eaten.  Food is not at all to be wasted here and so even the normal items that I eat on a usual basis end up being totally new experiences when eaten with my friends.  Almost every part of every animal is to be eaten when it is presented including: skin, bones, cartilage, joints, organs, etc.  Up until this point in my life, I wouldn't consider myself a picky eater by our standards, but there are things I don't eat for example: skin, bones, cartilage, joints, organs, etc.  Hee hee!  One day while sharing lunch of chicken, which is a treat here, I was polishing off (from my point of view) a piece.  I had eaten the skin, because even I know that is necessary, and thus deemed myself finished with that piece of meat.  My friend asked me, "Why do you just play with your food?"  Hmm, I thought I was doing pretty well, but as I looked from my scraps to hers, there was a notable difference.  Mine still looked fairly intact, whereas hers was a tiny pile of chewed up bone remains.  "I don't guess I know to eat it right," I said, and thus began my instruction.  I'll have to say that I am still very American, but my pile of bones now resembles less the intact creature I started with.  I've learned to chew off the joints and get those down as well as chewing off pieces of cartilage and what not.  I can get every scrap of meat and skin off of most bones and on occasion can be convinced to gnaw off the tip of a thigh bone and suck out the marrow.  I can't say that I particularly enjoy all of the extras I'm eating, but I will say that my gag reflex is coming more under control every day. ;)  Please do refrain from letting me know how any of those things I have to eat are going to kill me or harm me in any way.  The eating is hard enough as it is. 

After my initial instruction in eating a chicken, I moved on to bigger and better things.  I can now proudly say that I have eaten bush rat, porcupine and snails.  Bush rat is not so bad and I actually chose to eat porcupine a second time.  I have had other encounters with bush rat as well.  Given a long list of things, I might not choose it, but there are many things here that I do prefer it to.  I have a hard time eating his little hand.  Same thing with the frogs here.  Most parts of most animal go into the sauce, so you've gotta figure out how to get it all down.  The frog was totally intact.  And so goes my culinary education. :)

It has been a great few months for my language abilities as well.  Being able to spend so much concentrated time in language has given me a further boost.  Having a very close friend and ministry activities pretty much every day as well as the times that Mike was gone when I mostly spoke small bits of English with the kiddos when no one was around, really helped me to be more comfortable in language.  It's such a blessing how God uses hard times to hone our skills and make us into who He wants us to be. 

I've got many more photos to add and much more to write, so I suppose I better move on.  Come on out and visit us and I'll cook you up some of my new recipes!!

With love,
Heather