What IS discourse analysis?

January 2, 2016

A week before Christmas I took part in some discourse analysis training in Florida. But what exactly is discourse analysis? It’s kind of a hard thing to explain, since it talks about subconscious things that we do when we use language, so we don’t realize that we’re doing them. However, if someone doesn’t follow these […]

Swimming in the Dead Sea? Almost check.

January 2, 2016

Floating in the Dead Sea, where you can float without even trying, is amazing!! Ok, so I’ve never done it, but the last weekend of November I got to float in Pink Lake, a really salty lake in Senegal (and if you look at the picture below, you’ll see that from some angles it really […]

I’m glad it’s not every day . . .

December 11, 2015

I’m glad that every day isn’t like the days in the picture above – getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere (literally hours from the closest electric pole or running water down a very bad road); having the car you’re in start on fire; having to wade through the water up to your […]

One of those days

October 27, 2015

Sunday was one of those days. I wasn’t feeling the best, so decided to take my temperature. The fact that I wasn’t feeling the best or decided to take my temperature wasn’t what made it one of those days, though. The fact that made it one of those days? When I took out my thermometer […]

Babies

October 21, 2015

One of my friends had a baby on Sunday, so I went to visit yesterday. Do you like the picture? The lady in the background is the baby’s grandmother, and the baby’s mother is as black as her. (Sorry if talk of black and white like this is offensive to you. If so, you don’t […]

Sometimes things just take longer here.

October 19, 2015

Sometimes things just take longer here. It’s something anyone who’s lived both here and there for a decent amount of time knows. For example . . . Last night I wanted to make zucchini muffins. If you’ve known me for long enough, you know that I could make them in my sleep, and you may […]

Banana trees

October 7, 2015

Do you know what kind of tree this is? I guess the bananas growing and the title of this post kind of give it away. Yup, it’s a banana tree. And it’s growing in our yard, together with 2 mango trees, an orange tree, a date tree, a “zaban” tree (a fruit we don’t have […]

Quiet in the back seat!

October 2, 2015

“Quiet in the back seat!” Can you picture it? A family, perhaps on a road trip. The dad is driving, trying to carry on a conversation with his wife sitting next to him. However, it becomes more difficult as the noise level rises from the kids cooped up in the back seats of the van. […]

Peas

September 6, 2015

I had a great idea. There were NTM people in visiting from Senegal, a family was coming in from the village to town, and those of us who were in town were actually in town, all at the same time. I thought we could all get together for a meal. But since if everyone came […]

You can see it in your mind’s eye

September 5, 2015

You can see it in your mind’s eye – the newly formed missionary team, getting ready to preach the gospel where it has never before preached in the history of the world. They excitedly pour over the maps of the area that they drove hours to acquire, filling in village names where they aren’t written […]