Demain, Je ne fais rien

So we have some of our Students, group shot (they didn't know i was standing there) the bottom is from the tennis tournament, and NÖel who headed back to Mali today.

Yay, the first section of school is over. I have three weeks off coming up which means mostly sleeping in a little and then being board most of the day if I don't get out of the house. However good news for me, I've found the tennis community. There's a group who plays at the US Embassy on Mondays and Fridays, consisting of now three Americans, an Aussie, a Frenchman, and a Burkinabé. Even better news, there is a small snack bar at the American Embassy Recreation center, they have, tacos and MILKSHAKES!!!!!!!!! What more can an abroad American ask for other than mutilated ice cream and Mexican food, NOTHING I say nothing.

I feel like I'm finally getting settled in a bit. Making some friends who have nothing to do with the school which is SUCH a blessing. There are some baptist missionary types who live near us, I play tennis with Charlie and his son Caleb. They even gave me a ride home, wasn't that nice of them. I think I'll spend most of my time off playing tennis and paling around with the Frenchman and the Cuban who work for the World Food Program.

Today I ate foot. I mean I ate toe. I mean I ate tô, pronounced toe and fairly odd like eating a foot. Imagine if you will, cafeteria mashed potatoes that have sat out too long, that's what it looked like. Imagine if you will the movement of jello, cause that's how it moved, trust me I most likely spent close to 15 minutes just playing with it in the bowl, it was very exciting (jiggly, jiggly, jiggly). Now then for the texture, uh...I'm going to stick with old cafeteria mashed potatoes only hotter. Don't you think for a second we ate it plain either, Gladiss cooked us up a new sauce today, new meaning it wasn't some variation of a red sauce, this one was green, with loads of spinach and beans? and some beef. I thought the whole thing was flippin delicious, but my house mates did not completely share that sentiment.

Got a letter from the Wesley Seminary crew this week. A letter of letters, they were all wonderful thank you all for the encouragement. Some need special mention however, Andrew Greenwood's wonderful boost of confidence through what must be the absolute epitome of an Andrew statement, "Remember when we went to 2 Amys and couldn't figure out the check? I know you'll do great in Africa." Thanks for that Andrew. From other people worth mentioning, "If you see a camel spit on it for me"..."we are [donkey's]"(edited for content) yes that's very true...I really appreciate all the cursing in the letters that's lovely glad some of you still know how. After I finished editing all the letters I went back and enjoyed them...and yes I know my blogs aren't perfect either.

I'm excited because the Premier League starts tomorrow in England. Sido and I and perhaps some of the other teachers are going to head to down-town to watch the match. Sadly NÖel has gone back to Mali, so no more adventures until we can meet again. Most of the school day consisted of dancing and sinning and watching Elf.

In the spirit of the John Wesley quote that I read the other day from Charles Yrigoyen's "Holiness of Heart & Life" I may look to see if there's extra work I can do with my down time with some of the groups. Quote is "if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike", this was in a letter he wrote to a Roman Catholic. As I push forward I think this will be more true everyday. So long as we avoid letting our focus slip from love to difference the long stretch of this year will be very productive.

peace,

Ben