By God's grace

Hey everyone,

I was reminded by a good friend of mine that I hadn't yet posted on my blog site. So, while it's getting late (I still have a bunch of planning to do and packing for another week in the villages), I know I need to post something so that you have an idea of how I'm doing.

By God's grace:
I feel I am overcoming some of the challenges of village life -as long as there is soap, toilet paper and toilet seats don't matter.
I have water to drink (I bring it with me, but it's a blessing all the same)
I am learning to eat fish, and fish with lots of tiny bones . . . (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me)
I am trying to do my work, but also give myself time to work through the process that is my work, that is creating relationships with people.

Pray though that by God's grace and the strength received by the prayers of you for me that I might:
Not be stressed about my work. Not be anxious about all the details of what needs to be scheduled, who I need to talk with, how I'm going to get there, what I'm going to say . . .
Take a sincere interest in the lives of the people I'm working with (this has been a constant point of wondering for me - why isn't this happening naturally? I just thought it would . . .)
See the adventure in my work
Find rest in God, deeply fulfilling times with the Lord that allow me to go deeper with people I meet, go deeper in my work. Out of that depth, I truly believe that joy (and no longer stress) will be my sole motivator in my work and in my relationships.

Time in my first village:
Overall, it went pretty well. I was taken care of (physically speaking), and was warmly welcomed. But, there wasn't quite enough down time for me, enough time for me to stop thinking, to stop wondering about how to approach my work. About how to do good work. And not enough time just to be alone.

Granted though, the teenage boys with whom I talked during the evenings were a great source of socialization, and if I'm honest with myself, I look forward to seeing them again. I hope that those sorts of relationships build themselves, that I lend myself over to them.

Regardless, my need for time and space so that I can pray and prepare for another day is probably my greatest need. I am very certain that I will let the next village know that I truly need this time, and in the event that it is not given, I will demand it of them. That might not be received well initially, but it is just simply a necessary condition of my working among them for the week, so that I can do good work.

Of my work:
I have already learned much about my work, and I'm trying to generate new ideas about how to stimulate good discussion. Just, because work was a point of stress for me (essentially, of feeling like a bit of a failure in my ability to 'facilitate' discussions on natural resource manaagement, my entire reason for being here), I haven't been too excited to tackle it yet. And I want to be able to balance work with social outlets. So, those two areas at this point have been a bit in conflict with each other. I plan on bringing a deck of cards with me to this next village and teaching and playing a few games with the kids I meet. Plus, I received the Poisonwood Bible book from the Peace Corps woman today, so that's a big book, all in English, that I can read just for fun. I hope to take advantage of that.

There were some positive things for me though this weekend. First, I spent Friday evening with some of the Finnish folk. It was great to hang out with them. Saturday, I spent a bit of time in the city, just wandering around. I did a bit of work (wrote my weekly report), and after visiting the Forsythes (American fam), I was able to download a few movies off their computer. I ended up watching one of these movies Saturday night, complimented by a few glasses of wine and some homecooked food that I made. And Sunday, today was pretty good. I called home, called Janice, but really interestingly, I met the American woman who is part of the US Peace Corps (mentioned earlier). She actually lives not far from me, and one of the women she lives with is also the sister-in-law to the Chef de Base (Base manager Pierre Faye) of World Vision in Fatick. We hung out all afternoon (even though I had been planning on doing some reading and planning - just, I really needed this level of connection with someone, so I put work aside for the moment). I hope to spend more time with her over the weekends when I'm out of the villages.

NEwho, I hope that this is a decent enough of an update to hold you over for the next week.

Pray for me. To family and friends I talked with tonight, you all know I feel I need it right now. I just want my desires to match the way I'm feeling. And I want to get excited about my work so that it makes the stress a very minor component of what I'm doing.

May God bless you all, and thank you too for how thoughts of your prayers for me have been a blessing during the tough times. It's only been 2 weeks, and I want this transition phase to be done with!!!

Off to a village in Diakhao. Time for some more camping . . .