Home...for a while

Asalaamalekum!!!

I am so happy to be writing you from my village!! As I said earlier, I am living with my same family from last year. It was so great to see the look on their faces when we walked through the gate for the first time. They tell me I've forgotten all my wolof (the language they speak here), but I think that I'm doing pretty well remembering.

There are many of the same faces around our compound as well as many new ones that we are excited to get to know. I have two new roommates, Khadija and Mariama (yes, the same name as me) in Senegalese) They are doing great picking up language and culture and I can tell that everyone is going to think that they are tons of fun once they get a little more language under their belt.

Family dynamics seem a little different this year in that we seem to spend more time together and the 'mom' figure in our house, has allowed us to jump right into her routine with her and we seem to be an instant part of the family again (a bit different than last year when we had to convince them that we actually wanted to spend time with them and learn about them)

We have only been with our family for two days now (we had several days of orientation first) so, not a whole lot has happened, but we have some exciting 'plans' on the horizon! Please be lifting up:
1. for relationships with our family as they continue to grow and that our Father would direct them towards Himself.
2. for my roommates and all the other volunteers around Senegal as they continue to adjust to a very different culture.
3. for our relationships as I return to work at the clinic next week.
4. for new relationships at a new Talibe (street boys) house we will start at next week. Their teacher is friends with some of our brothers and sisters here and has been having dreams about our Father. pray that we would be able to show His love.
5. for health, as issues never seem to be far away in Africa.

Thank you for your support!! Please continue to check back for more!!!

Just for fun; VERY African things I'd almost forgotten about:
1. marriage proposals lurking around every corner
2. little kids looking under my skirt to see if I'm actually white all the way down to my feet
3. walking over bits of goat because its the only way to get through the burning field of trash without catching on fire
4. falling down. I don't know what it is about the sand here, but every now and then I find myself not only falling, but finding myself, seemingly out of the blue, sprawled on the ground with no idea what I've tripped over.
5. the hording of change. people here are so reluctant to give away their small change I had to go to 7 boutiques to buy a can of coke!!
6. false advertisement. Id forgotten that when the picture on the box of cookies shows a chocolate cookie with cream in the middle, I am just silly in expecting an Oreo and should just enjoy my vanilla waffer :-)