These days I’m feeling very old, since last month I had my big 3-0 birthday. It feels like I have to be an adult now and maybe even be grown up? Crazy! But even though I’m old, it doesn’t mean that I’m done learning. In fact, I’m currently in Tanzania, where next week I’ll start two more weeks of training. It’s on discourse analysis, and if you have a super good memory (maybe you haven’t hit the big 3-0 yet?), you may remember that in December of 2015 I was in the US for two weeks studying the same thing. This time, I get to learn it even more thoroughly so that hopefully one day, when the people who are teaching it (and helping missionaries around the world with this aspect of their ministry) get old (even older than the big 3-0!) and have to retire, I may be able to help take over for them, though I’m sure I couldn’t do nearly as good of a job as they do. 🙂 So see, not only am I, an old dog, learning new tricks, I’m getting ready to pass them on to others. (If you want to know what discourse analysis is, check out a past blog where I wrote it about the last training: https://blogs.ethnos360.org/susie-l/2016/01/02/what-is-discourse-analysis)
And speaking of passing things on to others, earlier this month I was in another country for a week training 2 co-workers (who are also older than the big 3-0) in PGA. You probably remember what that is, since I used to write about it a lot. It has nothing to do with golf (though I did see a golf course during my time there), but instead stands for People Group Assessment, and it’s NTM’s way of trying to find out which people groups are in the most dire need of missionaries. I used to spend a lot of time on it, but now that I’m more focused on My People I don’t have the time for PGA like I used to. So these co-workers are willing to take over a lot of the leg-work. I’m so glad!
Now, you might be wondering what in the world is happening with My People since it sounds like I’m just traveling all over Africa, and you’re right. April is the hottest month of the year, so I always seem to look for excuses to be gone at least part of the month. 🙂 But that doesn’t mean that I’ve ignored My People this whole month, either. In fact, right before Easter I was in My Village for the wedding of my host mom’s son! A wedding is a multiple day affair (see a blog post about a previous wedding: https://blogs.ethnos360.org/susie-l/2017/02/07/a-culture-game), and I enjoyed being there for that experience. (Although I have to admit that even though I don’t like fish, I was very happy the last day when I was able to change in the sauce that they had originally given me for fish sauce, since the first one was goat brain sauce and I was not a fan!) Language learning is progressing as is getting my house built (see the latest pictures of my house here: https://blogs.ethnos360.org/susie-l/2017/04/18/update-on-house-progress), and I look forward to getting back there, and hopefully even moving into a finished house shortly after I get back to My Country the middle of May.