Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

April 27, 2017

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 […]

A Culture Game

February 7, 2017

When you’re confronted with a world of unknowns, where you have no idea what’s going on around you, I find it’s often helpful to try to find things that remind you of something you know. That way the new things have some kind of place they can rest in your brain. These last few […]

A Day in My Life

September 9, 2016

Lots of people have asked me over the past few years what a typical day looks like for me here in My Country. I haven’t been able to answer because every day is so different. But let me give you a glimpse into what this Monday looked like, since it shows some of the joys […]

You know you live in Africa when . . .

September 6, 2016

I receive breaking news e-mails from CNN and BBC. I also receive breaking news text messages from a Burkinabe news source. You know you live in Africa when this was the breaking news text message you received yesterday (direct translation from the French): “News: The research team of the police of the city of Fada […]

Scatterbrained

August 25, 2016

Do you ever feel scatterbrained? That’s how I’ve felt a lot lately, and I feel like this blog post is rather scatterbrained, too. But hopefully it will help give you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately. Looking to the future with My People As I said in a recent post, it’s hard […]

One step forward and one step back

July 5, 2016

How many of you remember songs that you learned in elementary school? I may be the exception and not the norm, but I remember quite a few. One about cows chewing their cud for the sesquicentennial of the state of Wisconsin, the Pennsylvania Polka, one about Christmas songs and candy canes from 1st grade, ‘She’s […]

My kora – like an African harp

June 17, 2016

Look at my Christmas/birthday present! Ok, so I know it’s kind of late for both (my birthday was in March), but sometimes I’m kind of slow at getting around to things. So I saved up my birthday and Christmas money, and voilà, I have a kora! A kora is a 21-stringed instrument, and is kind […]

“Meet my husband’s girlfriend”

June 2, 2016

Yup, that’s what I heard on Sunday when I was back in a village in my people group, sitting with my friend Minata. There was another young lady there, with her one-year-old daughter, and after a while Minata asked me, “Do you know this young lady?” When I said that I didn’t, she told me, […]

An awful first

May 24, 2016

On Friday, just before going to the wedding, we stopped at a new village in our people group that I had never been to before. It reminded me of many other villages in the people group, except for one thing. One awful thing. One thing that I had never done before and hope to never […]

I bet you can guess

April 25, 2016

In my last post, I said that when I got back from my vacation I’d post a few pictures and then you’d know where I went. Well, here you go! If you can’t figure it out, I think that you’ll need to go back to history class. 🙂 Yes, Jen rode on him and I […]