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The sociable SG and I went to church in a village this past Sunday. Since SG knows everyone (from her stints in a girls' school and many other ministries), I get a lot of invites to villages and events that I wouldn't normally.
(Well, alright, she gets invited - I creep. People here are uber-friendly, so it's all good.)
First we visited a house neighboring the church which contained a few very fun women. I was offered as a wife to a poor guy who happened to be sitting there. I'm pretty sure he refused. Ohh. Shut down. (Just threw that story in there to show you that some guys here do have standards.)
We got to see a baby dedication during the service (wherein the family dedicated their other three children at the same time), and there'd been an all-night sing the night before in honor of the dedication.
After this, we had lunch at the family's house, again there was dancing and much braiding of hair. Seeing the poor little girls screaming their little heads off as their mothers/random women calmly braided their hair into beautiful designs was... interesting. And off-putting. As if the girls don't have enough to deal with, they have to undergo this horrible process every... whatever, two weeks or so? It looked absolutely miserable. But the end product is... worth it?
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I'm still really looking forward to Christmas celebrations here, but SG hasn't decided exactly where she'd like to go, so if we could have prayers to find just the perfect place and atmosphere of worship. I'm pretty much a lost cause in terms of understanding either French or English, but I love the songs and the spirit of joy that fills the churches here. As well, since I mentioned that I'd actually really enjoyed the one night we unexpectedly stayed with a pastor's family (that I meant to blog about... heh heh), we were talking about going to the bush again for a night... As the Spirit leads!
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An Inuit translation of Isaiah 53:6 says, "We all, like penguins, have gone astray..."
I learned this fairly early on in my time here, thanks to a wonderful Wycliff-ite, and it amused me to no end. I thought I should record it for posterity.
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The first Messiah performance is on Sunday. Please pray that it would go smoothly and be a blessing for everyone there: the audience, the soloists, the instrumentalists, the choir... me...
(I ask specifically because I've skipped a few practices and during the last one, I 'meep'ed early when there should have been absolute dramatic silence. That would be awkward to do during a performance in a cathedral. And the Amen Chorus is my nemesis. Pray that I can even mouth the thing well enough that I don't look like a goon.)
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The school is having its annual Christmas concert on Friday (which is also my birthday), so that should be fun! Again, prayers for each of the students, parents, and guests who are going to be there would be much appreciated - that performances go off without a hitch and "Rock the Cradle" echoes to heaven!
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Just for you, Tisha: No, my fiance has totally ditched me! He just wasn't serious about the relationship, you know? Men.
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Lizards are sensing that my guard is down and that I barely notice them anymore. Thus they have resorted to pooping in my bed and recruiting frogs. As I was innocently walking from SG's house to mine last night, a frog ran into my shin and fell onto my foot. It lay there, dazed, for an eternity as my brain evaluated the many options open to me as a higher mammal - ranging from screaming to dropping a grenade onto my foot. In the end, the frog reacted faster than my entire CNS.
(How's that for survival of the fittest?)
I made a sound that suggested I was coughing up a hairball and scuttled to my door, kicking my legs as high up as they would go all the way there.
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It is cold enough now to sleep without a fan.
No, you didn't read that with enough excitement. Read it again. And put some oomph into it.
It gets up to 30 degrees Celsius during the day and then drops cold enough to warrant the use of a blanket. Mali is a strange, strange land.
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And now, I wish you all a very good day; work hard, and may the lizards get lost on their way to poop in your bed.
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