Hi from Senegal!

It’s now been almost a month since I left for Senegal, and it’s been one whirlwind of a month.  Thank you so much for your prayers for me as I moved to a new country – please keep them coming as I continue to find my place here, learn life here, and try to balance the many hats I’m wearing.  In a nutshell, here is what these 3 ½ weeks here have looked like:

• 2 weeks of an Advanced Language (Discourse Analysis) Workshop, where I both learned a lot and helped others with questions.  It was definitely brain-exhausting each day, but worthwhile.
• 2 days of another workshop.  It was good, and not quite as brain-exhausting as the Advanced Language Workshop
• Moving into an apartment!  Erika, a colleague here, has generously invited me to live with her in her new apartment.  That has meant a lot of cleaning, killing cockroaches, finding furniture to borrow, cleaning, moving, and killing more cockroaches (the cockroach population does seem to be slowly dwindling, though.  We’ll have to see!). 
• Trying to figure out what projects are on my plate and the steps that need to be taken to make progress on them.  This weekend I wrote 13 to-do lists, including ones for different hats I’m currently wearing: printing materials, helping others with linguistics, continuing training to become a discourse consultant, training someone else in People Group Assessment, etc.  Ahh, it feels so nice to have it all written down.  Now it’s time to work on to-done-ing the to-dos!
• Assembling and putting strings and levers on my little harp.  Yes, it made it across West Africa, and it still works!  It’s been a lot of work getting it playable again (and I appreciate the people who have helped me!), but oh is it wonderful to have a harp here to play.  😊
• Deciding on and starting to attend a local church.  I hope to be able to get more involved, but having a church is at least a start.
• Spending time with co-workers, including two long strolls along the beach.  Yeah, no snow here.  Sunny and in the 80s. 😊
• Trying out a few different local ice cream shops.  I have to know which is best, right?

Well, there you have it.  It’s been a very full 3 ½ weeks, but God has been faithful to sustain me and those around me.  Thanks so much for your prayers!