Acclimation!

Hello all!
Oh, how I wish I would have kept up my french from high school. I was thinking about it and I can't even remember my french teacher's name. Sad. These past three days have been wonderful! Our site coordinator graciously gave us two days to rest and acclimate ourselves to the time zone and this new country. It is only five hours difference, but I still find myself tired around the times that I am tired in the U.S. It is getting better though! The weather here is perfect! The rain has not started yet, so it is still dry, cool, and vacant of mosquitoes (which I'm very happy for). I think it is in the 80s with a nice breeze, but it will gradually get hotter and hotter. The skies are hazy and unclear because of the hammattan. This was the huge wind that comes from the Sahara bringing with it feet of sand. They do their best to keep the street and sidewalks semi clean of the tons of sand that this wind carries. After the first wind the sky will be clearer.

We have been meeting people, getting to know the Eby's (Tim, our cite coordinator and his family), exploring Dakar, learning about the culture in terms of money, religion, and etiquette, and planning the next six and a half weeks.
Today we helped Tim at the church. He is furnishing an apartment for their church /district center, so we were able to help him deliver things and begin to fix it up. Our team (me, Katie Schuman, and Talitha Edwards) will actually be moving in there in a few days to be there for about a week.

Driving around the city is the most fascinating thing. Sometimes it takes an hour to get to a place that is normally 20 minutes away because of the crazy traffic. While we drive we ask Tim many questions and really learn about how the Senegalese people live. We see all kind of transportation: mainly taxis, buses, shorter buses called car rapids (that's not the correct term at all.. it's in french and I forgot it. French class starts on Monday!), and motorcycles as well as horse and buggy. There are people everywhere, and the traffic is unbelievable. There are no lines on the roads. There are no signals or stop lights or stop signs. People are driving in and all around the entire road. It is amazing.

For lunch we had our first Senegalese food on the street. It was a chawarmer. It was like a chicken taco with fries in it. It was good. I love this new stuff. I am definitely in the fascination stage of culture shock.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the church and met some of the youth group. It is mostly a lively group of guys that loved to laugh and joke all in the name of Jesus. We sang songs in French, English, and Wolof. It was so fun. I couldn't help but have a huge ridiculous smile on my face the entire time as I watched them praise the Lord in song in the midst of this Muslim atmosphere. It is Friday, which is the day that everyone goes to the mosques to pray their five prayers. We can here the call to prayers almost anywhere in the city and you can see mostly all the men driving or walking with their mats. So anyway, it was a wonderful encouragement to here such love and heartfelt praise to God almighty.

This evening we had fellowship with another missionary family that is from Ghana. We ate and played Wii games and board games. It was a very fun time, and it is so interesting to see the missionary lifestyle. It is awesome.

Being here for these short three days has already opened my eyes so much and I am so thankful. I'm so glad that I have 6 and a half more weeks here. They will be filled with much more fascination, excitement, and challenges. I want to thank everyone for their prayers. I see God working here in my team and this mission here all the time. This would not go on without them. love love