It's a GIRL!!!

Ok so it's a baby girl and we've named her Zelle. She is adorable and funny and quite loving. She was abandoned at a teammate's house and she knew that we'd been looking so she brought her by and we fell in love!! Ok here she is...



But in all seriousness, some did abadon this adorable puppy and she's not like most of the African dogs. She is super friendly, playful and really likes people. So we didn't have a choice...we had to give her a good home. Our night guard, G, is really excited to have a dog to keep him company. He is smitten with Ani, so we knew that he would love Zelle. Oh and if you are wondering about the name...her legs are so very long and she jumps around like a gazelle...hence zelle (zel lee).

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Being flexible

So we’ve been in our city for a little over a month now and I had my first really bad week. It was one of those “Ugg I live in Africa” weeks not “Yay I live in Africa!”. I started to wonder if I would ever get used to all these little things that have not been normal for me in the past and all the things that are just done differently here.

It’s been hard for me to get used to the color of the bottoms of my feet…black. My feet are always dirty. Not just dusty…dirty. Will my feet ever be the same color again?

It’s been hard for me to get used to the pace of things here. Slow. Slow. Slow. Things are just slow. Internet is slow, people are slow, eating is slow, animals are slow. The only thing that moves fast here are the taxis and they move too fast!

It’s been hard for me to get used to not being able to fix my hair. Those of you who know me know that I like my hair. I’m used to straightening irons, hair dryers and wearing my hair down as much as possible. That’s just not possible here. My hair has to be curly and pulled up off my neck and off my face. Which means no pretty hair for P!

It’s been hard for me to get used to how things are handled here. The car breaks and it gets repaired with crappy parts so that it will run for a little while. The washing machine breaks and no one can fix it. The fans don’t work…just deal with it until an electrician might be able to come out and look at it. Oh did I mention that it took 4 days for the car to be fixed and then it broke down 1.5 days later away from home?

But when I look at the faces of my neighbors, the kids, and my teacher I feel such sorrow. Because they don’t know the Father that I know, they don’t have hope, unconditional love, and forgiveness (Eph 2:12-13). They live fearful of death because they don’t have a promise of where they will end up. Then I know that I will get used to all these little things that don’t matter. Like constantly dirty feet, sweaty armpits, frizzy hair and washing food with bleach water. These things evaporate into nothingness when I start thinking about my neighbors who I’ve come to cherish going to hell because I can’t yet speak the love of Christ in their language. Then “Yay I live in Africa!” seems like a much better way of looking at things (Col 1:27).

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Charades

Charades…this is a game that I have resorted to playing with people here.

At orientation in VA, a guy came to talk to us about how best to learn a language. He said that we’d get frustrated and start pulling out words and phrases from any other language we might know in order to communicate. I had hoped this would mean I would pull out from the depths of my brain the French I so earnestly learned in high school. Unfortunately it has meant speaking Spanish (which I only know three words), charades and even….wait for it…..sign language….yes you read that correctly…. Last night I tried to spell something for someone in sign language who wasn’t deaf and who only speaks Pulaar.

Fortunately I have started language school so hopefully this won’t last forever. Otherwise this will be the longest game of charades in history…maybe I could get into the Guinness Book of World Records? Food for thought!

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