Easter and Camp!

Spent the Easter holiday with our new "family" here and loved it!!  Seriously, love the people we work with.  Couldn't have asked for a better clan :)  Fun silly games, worshiping together and of course, delicious grub! 

The Easter bunnies hiding eggs... aren't they cute!?

Tug-of-war madness!!

Egg-toss...

We had an English camp with our University students this week..  It was a blast but also extremely tiring!  Here's just a few of the hundreds of pictures taken over the week :)

Eating around the bowl..
Amanda and I want to get shirts made that say, "I survived ceeb five days in a row!" :)

I really do love my job.  During this lunch meal, we were having a conversation that stemmed from the issue of slavery since we had just visited Goree Island.  It's amazing to me how the people here hold no grudges.  Our conversation focused on the idea of forgiveness - is it truly possible?  what does it mean to forgive?  is it a one-time deal or is it a process?  

Teaching the small group Grammar Session.

Some fun gals!

Please can we notice that this fish has TEETH!?

We had a scavenger hunt around Goree Island - this is the "recycled cowboy"  ...can't you tell?

Our group was a little "communication challenged" so we weren't able to do a lot of the items on the list so we decided to make the pictures that we did take fun :)

Our group shot!

In other news, I started driving this week.  I've been practicing shifting gears on the side roads but I had never gone past third gear.  I called our team leader last night to see if he would ride along for moral support this morning on the big roads - he says, "Why don't you come pick me up?"  UMM.. you mean drive on the big, scary road to get you?  Well, alright then.  I was glad though because if I'm scared, I need to be gently forced to do something.  And driving went REALLY well..  A huge blessing.

Classes start back up again this week.  Cannot believe we're already halfway through April.  Time is flying by.  This session will be finished before we know it and then summer will be here!

Lots of things happening now and around the corner!  We're hoping to start a study with some girls that we've met, English classes in full gear, getting a children's club up and running, prayer walking our neighborhood, tons of teams are filing through, continuing visiting the friends we've already made, attempting to improve our Wolof language abilities...  Loving Him and loving lifeeeeeeee!

London: The land of pretty buildings, flowers, and of course, the Queen!

London in 33 words:
The Queen, Les Miserables, Wicked, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Countryside, Stunning Buildings, Flowers, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, London Tower, Trains, Mind the Gap, Tesco (England's Walmart), people waiting in lines, red buses, ENGLISH!


What I did NOT see:
Sand and unfinished buildings.


This was a lovely 5 days!


Here are the pictures:

Tower Bridge!

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace!

In front of BH Palace.. the Queen was in residence as Monica informed us since the flag was there!

:)

This is the statue of Wesley at some huge cathedral - can't remember the name! haha

Big Ben!!!!!

Obligatory Phone Booth Pic!

I'm seriously in love right now...  I've never really cared so much about pretty trees, grass and flowers but since they are no longer apart of my life, I appreciate them much more!

Big Red Buses everywhere!

Some horse in front of some important building - I think maybe where the PM lives.. I dunno!  I'm such a good tourist.

Well, the people we were with left in a hurry and told me the directions- that was clearly a mistake!  But uncharacteristically, a nice British man stopped to help us which led to him telling us to walk instead of taking the tube... was a hilarious conversation.. would have had to been there..

I was in nostalgia heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is the McD's that fed me french fries every single day! :)

I want you all to make your best Ninja noise!

We had a Pizza/Game night with our two Pre-Intermediate Level English classes.  This started because I learned that one of my students from Chad has never eaten pizza in his life.  I seriously could not believe it so I couldn't in good conscience end classes this session without them having had pizza. 

The pizza was good but what was even better were the games that we played... 
Honey- if you love me, you'll smile and Ninja were the best two of the evening. 

Enjoy these video clips to give you an idea of how fun our evening was.  We really do love these students and most of them are returning in the second session with us starting up in April!

This game was a serious hit!  I wish I could upload all of the videos because they are hilarious!  Brings you back to your youth group days, eh?

I have high hopes that this game will take Africa by storm!

Please continue to lift up our students and ask for opportunities to share more than English and games!  :)

Highlights of my job :)

So it has taken quite a bit longer to get to this point than I initially thought it would but I can honestly say that I'm enjoying (most aspects) of life here.  I mean, I think that I'll miss people from back home and the convenience of a Chick-fil-a until the day I return but there are lots of little things that make life here, as Amanda would say, fantastic :) 

Here are a couple highlights:

This is teaching English at its best folks! What I lack in training to do this, He has certianly made up for with passion :)  By the time I leave class every day, I'm seriously covered in chalk!

The students want to learn English and I have so much fun with them!  This particular day we were going over body parts and I decided to draw a person so they could practice.  That person, I told them, was Amanda.  We labeled her.  It's truly amazing how far they have come in so little time.  I really was scared out of my mind the first day of class but now things are pretty smooth!  Also, we're making our way through (in English, French and Wolof) the best story ever told in class! It's truly a blessing to teach these guys! 

We had a game night for the University English students that we teach.  We played charades, scrabble, and Never Have I Ever.  The games were a hit and it was so much fun to see the students out of their serious element- just to cut back and let loose with them. 

Peeping Toubabs

Amanda and I can look out our bedroom window and the apartment complex adjacent to us is unfinished.  However, there is a family that has taken up residence on the second floor.  Amanda was the first to become infatuated with watching this family.  There is a little girl who would walk out on the ledge (this would NOT be okay in America) and play with the rocks, throw the rocks off the ledge into neighbor's houses, brush her teeth, put a bucket on her head and yell out fish names (like the fish sellers in the streets), etc.  We were stricken with this little girl.

So sometimes the mom would come out.  Amanda noticed that she was pregnant.  This made us really happy to know that a second child who would be as cute as the first was on it's way.  So we've been watching this family for a while now.  We've been careful not to be seen.  Hence the name - Peeping Toubabs (foreigners). 

One day, as we are driving along, Amanda (being the CIA agent that she is) sees this family selling peanuts not too far from our house.  So then, anonymously, we start buying their peanuts because we love them.  We give the girl candy.  The first time we gave it to her, she smiled a huge smile and said, "Ca va? Merci" (How are you?  Thank you).  So we continued to go.  But after that, something changed and instead of being happy to see us, she would immediately start wailing.  We were so upset because we love this child... haha!  We just continued to give her candy each time.. Pavlov's classical conditioning at it's finest!

Another time, I decided to call her name from our window.  It was hilarious because each time I did it - she went into a room looking for her mom because I imitated her mom's voice pretty good :)

Soon afterwards, we heard a newborn baby's cry.  We were so excited!  So we decided to meet this family formally and the way to do it was to bring the baby a gift :)  I consulted our language teacher on exactly what to say to make us seem less the creepers that we are.  I had an entire speech ready.  "Hello, how are you?  We are your neighbors.  My name is Mariama.  This is Aminata.  We would like to get to know you.  We brought a gift for the baby."  So we knock on the door concrete wall that serves as the entrance to their house and the little girl comes down the stairs.  Luckily, she didn't start crying but just announced to her mom still above that it was the toubabs.  So the mom leans over the balcony and tells us she doesn't understand Wolof.  We were devastated!  There was no way to communicate because they are from another country in West Africa.  We gave her the baby gift and I was able to say in French "gift for baby" but we left disappointed we couldn't get to know them.

We call our language teacher (aka person to call for anything and everything) and tell her the situation.  So we decide that someone in the family must know Wolof.  We set a day and time for her to go with us to where they sell peanuts and find out who speaks Wolof.  Luckily, the mom's brother and husband both speak Wolof so we were able to sit down with them for a while and talk.  The little girl is still scared of us but we learned alot about her - the funniest is that she would brag to her parents that "she had toubabs that give her candy" and that she likes to be called "toubab" because her skin is light.  We had a great time with them!  I got to hold the newborn baby and we learned his name and I invited us to the naming ceremony.. haha!  There are advantages to living in such a forward country- I can invite us to things :) 

Today, we were walking to go catch a taxi and we passed by them and just said hello and waved.  Next thing we know, the little girl is running after us with her uncle.  So we give her candy!  The uncle says to us, "She was upset because the toubabs passed by without giving her candy.."  haha!  I looked at Amanda and said, "You know we're going to have to keep this up for the next 1.5 years!"  We don't mind.  We're just happy that the little girl loves us too.  They say that money can't buy love... well, we've discovered that candy can! :)

Sometimes I wonder...

... when exactly my quota of "maximum number of awesome people allowed in one's life" will be hit.. 


If you know me at all, you know that I absolutely LOVE reminiscing.  I always have and probably always will.  So naturally, with a lot of down time on my hands recently (thank you, elections), instead of doing something productive like study language, I look at pictures.  [I'll study soon... promise!]  While this probably does not help in any way, shape or form the fact that I miss these people like crazy, it is just a reminder, once again, of the fact that I am blessed to have so many truly amazing people in my life.


So here's a fun trip down memory lane - some of my all time favorite pictures!  From 2009 onward (because if I went any further back this would be even  more ridiculous.. plus these past three years have been my favorite!)   :)

I've been blessed with a great group of girls both from P-lak and Tally!  Caro's wedding was definitely one of the funnest!

And next up:  Audranator's wedding! Look at those lovely, store-bought flowers ;)

Who can forget P.R?  Team Marty won the Frappe race! :)

V for Victory!  This goes down in the books as all-time, best-planned, best-executed prank!

And just more pranking...  Martin's yard got it good that night!

"I saw the train, which looked like a train.. which was strange.."

Orlando, 2009

One of my favorite pictures..  

"Don't Stop Believing"

This week forever changed my life.  I'm so grateful that He used this time to open my eyes to what a great, big world we live in.  Haiti 2009

 

When I came out of the lovely "funk period" as my friends called it, we decided to hike part of the AT.  I have no idea what in the world I was thinking.  That was pure torture.  Exercise in it's most evil form.

One of my favorite pics.  Four of my favorite people.  <3 you Satchers!

 

And this started the first annual Friend Christmas Card pictures! 



And then there was that one time that Chachi got paid to just hit the ball.. I almost got kicked out because they thought I wasn't old enough to play...  Ashley got to run down Pi woman... and Brittany.. well, let's just say you're the best athlete TRBC has ever seen!

Doing what we do best!  Being absolutely stupid.  And man, I wish I had brought my footie PJ's over ;)

 

Indo..  Loved this place.  Loved these people.  Part of my heart is still there.

I had the best welcome home crew!

 

Love Game Day with the gals!

Chachi's wedding!  Acting a fool! 

Three of my four nieces!  To the rest of my family - you all need to start letting me take your pictures!

And the 2nd Annual Friend Christmas Card pic!  I'm upset that you all didn't do one this year and crop me in..

The ABSOLUTE love of my life!  Holy cow I miss my Soph Soph!



Some wonderful buddies from training :)

The MONSTER has purchased her plane ticket to come see me!  I'm beyond stoked and counting down the days...

Well, if you've survived this little trip down memory lane, congratulations!  Thanks for letting me indulge in remembering of some great times..  I'm making a lot of new memories here and now - brand new faces, scenery, smells, you name it..  It's all different.  But I wouldn't trade it for anything :)  See you all in 1.5 years!  I'm just a Skype call away!