the things I seem to leave out

There seem to be a number of things that happen that I forget to write about here.

For example, friends and I were looking for Goree Island several weeks ago. We got lost and stopped to ask for directions by pointing at the brochure. The guy we asked immediately jumped into the car with us to show us the way. (I was told this could happen.)

I am house sitting for 1.5 weeks. I consider it my trial run at parenting. So far so good...I think. At least we're both still in one piece. I had a slight disappointment though. I wanted to make us really good smoothies. I had the recipe all ready to go. It was from a missionary that was an amazing cook. Unfortunately the recipe flopped b/c it tasted a lot like banana. We don't like banana flavored things. We were so excited for smoothies too. Sadness.

The sand is starting to get pretty deep. My roomie and I got stuck in it with a truck. Fortunately there were a bunch of vendors selling sunglasses and they pushed us out.

That's it for now...I think ;)

addition

Ooo ooo. I thought of something I left out of my last blog. So on Tuesday they announced over the intercom we were running on chapel sechedule (which means shortened classes). Our study hall was convinced we had an important speaker, say the ambassador from Botswana. Then we learned that we were having another lice check. Hurray for getting to comb through students' hair looking for bugs ;)

...then I remembered I live in Africa

It's strange, but sometimes I forget I live in Senegal. Life has become routine which I guess is a good thing. Then little things pop up that remind me that my life is very different compared to this time a year ago.

For example:

Bob the gecko is back. I'm letting him stay b/c he's eating lots of bugs...or so my roomie tells me.

I bought some cheap cereal and noticed there were bugs in the box. I started eating the cereal b/c I thought they didn't penetrate the plastic...I was wrong.

I sat down to watch a movie with someone tonight and the electricity went off. Fortunately it came back on in 15 minutes, but it wasn't too surprising to experience the power cut.

There have also been good things about living here.

Examples from the last two days:
I am house sitting for a family. I was able to watch a movie, eat Ben & Jerry's from the carton, and have a nice time. I love being able to build into my students outside of school.

I can speak openly about my faith, my struggles, etc in youth group and not find it awkward.

I have a study hall who is like a family. They pretty much rock. We now have our secret stash of candy which they really enjoy.