Ode to Ice

Cold and crunchie,

Best little munchie,

Oh how I miss you ice.

I'm so sad.

That my tooth went bad.

Now all because of a drill

And just a little fill

I can't sit back and chill

or experience the thrill

of a sweet little,

crunchie little,

icy little cube.

Well, let's just say poetry has never been my strong suit! :) Only something very important like ice would inspire me to bless the world with my juvenile poetic efforts.

One of the Sweetest Sounds on God's Green Earth

We had about an hour downpour and then about 5 more hours of intermittent rain. Anyone who's ever lived in this part of Africa knows how treasured the sound of rain is.

After the rain, I found a spot by a window looking out onto the street below and it proved to be some very interesting people watching. Everything made more interesting by the enormous amounts of water in the streets. It wasn't too long before one of my students, Kay, came along and joined me at the window. Here is some of what we saw...
Everyone rolls or hikes up their pants and wades through the water. The cars make huge splashes as they pass.I loved this guy riding the motorcycle with his knees practically up to his chin so his pants wouldn't get wet as he forded through the water.

So that's it...the view of the street and here were the two people watchers.

Evicted!

When one moves into an apartment, it is usually desireable that it be unoccupied, n'est-ce pas?

When I moved into my apartment last Tuesday night, I realized quite quickly that I wasn't the only occupent. Something capable of scurrying very fast was also calling it home. I didn't scream like a girl or anything but I can't say that it was particularly appealing to be sharing my living quarters with one of these guys. A gecko - I could have handled. A lizard - had to be evicted especially because he was not potty trained! However, after chasing him fruitlessly around my bedroom, I gave up when he disappeared and decided to wait for his next appearance. This afternoon as I was reading a book on my bed, I saw him drop from the window onto a pile of clothes so I ran to get my broom. I chased him around and out of my room and under a closet. Using the room I tried to sweep him out but heard him scurrying which gave me a fright at which point I pulled up on the broom and it snapped in half. Ooops!

I went in search of something else long, leaving the door wide open for his retreat back into my room. Argh, so I opened the outside door wide so he had plenty of opportunity to exit the building and then began the chase again around the room and out and under the cupboard. This time when I swiped under the cupboard he scurried out to the living room. Not easily evicted - this one! So I opened the door out to the office below and swiped at him again. Finally, after a few back and forth moves across the wall he made a break for the open door. Eviction complete! Hope he can't squeeze back in by some odd chance. If you happen to work in the office downstairs...I'm oh so sorry to have sent him your way but not at all sad to have seen him go! :)

Jet Lag Brings On My Return to Blogging

Life on the road is really not condusive to blogging hence the reason you haven't heard from me in over a month! But alas, the roadtrip has come to an end and I'm settled in to my new home...only one problem, my body has not settled in to its new time zone. So here it is 3am and I am wide awake. What better time to make my return to blogging.

What could I tell you about that has happened in the last month?

I could tell you that on my road trip I got to go from house to house visiting all my friends and their families. I had an absolute blast seeing how their children were growing and of course, singing them my favorite song about the Five Little Ducks. It's usually a hit with kids but their parents might have been happy to see me and my song hit the road due to oversinging. :)

I could tell you about spending the 4th of July with my friend Jen and her nephew, Travis and their whole family. I could tell you about how after spending all day with Travis on the 4th of July. He sat down beside me and looked up at me with a very quizzical expression on his face and said, "Do I know you from somewhere?" Cracked me up!

Or maybe I could tell you about all the encouraging notes and conversations I had with people along the way who are praying and interested in the ministry God has called me too here in Niger or the blessing of being commissioned at Parkway Bible Church.
Then there is my last night in Toronto spent with my Mom and Dad and my friend Chellaine playing crokinole. It was intense! (or intensely embarassing if your name is Beth or Chellaine.)

Or I could talk about how hard it was to leave behind two of my favorite people on earth!

But I think it might be time for me to go back to bed....

Finding Treasures

You wouldn't know it to look into my apartment but I am actually planning to leave here on Tuesday morning. This afternoon I've been busy cleaning some seldom cleaned niches and I happened to run across some treasures...a thank you notes from a friend with whom I learned a lot about forgiveness, a letter from a friend about the incredible weeks leading up to the birth of a first baby...you know stuff that I've stashed to pull out at a later date. It's cool because it reminds me of how God has moved and worked in my life and the lives of my friends!

Stashed in with all that were some letters and drawings from important kids in my life. For example, this one from my friend, Malik. "Just a pencil drawing," you might be thinking, "Not much of a treasure!" But Malik and I lived through some very challenging moments and through him, God taught me that He can work miracles in my heart. I loved this kid and this drawing along with a year end thank you note from his Mom are incredible treasures.

Then there is this letter. It's a treasure because it just makes me laugh. Why you might ask? Because it's a request from a student for me to go and teach my friend Leonard how to read...Ms. Leonard could run circles around me in the reading department. Not only that but she was pretty much responsible for teaching this little guy everything he knew about reading.

There is nothing more interesting or entertaining than a kid's perspective!

A Favorite

Here's my favorite pic from our return to Quebec. Grand Falls, the horseshoe falls east of Niagara, are in the background. And now I'm back in Quebec, my mom and dad helped me clean my apartment all day Saturday. It was a big job and I was thankful for their helpful.

Today it was back to class to face none other than the -a word that could strike fear in the heart of any French language learner! Of all the possible things, we had to end with this? So I got up and studied for about 20 minutes and wonder of wonders when I got to class, it didn't seem half as hard as it did before! Thank you, Jesus!

Seeing the Sights - Day 6

Charlottetown it was! The birthplace of Canadian Confederation. We toured a little museum that related the history of those first meetings in which politicians from the various territories discussed the possibility of uniting. P.E.I. seems a somewhat insignificant place for these meetings to take place but apparently the Islanders didn't want to leave their island to come to any meetings so the rest of Canada came to them. Mom & Kent are on the steps of the building in which the meetings were held. Here's a view of the inside of the building.Here I am chatting it up with Sir John A. Macdonald discussing matters of confederation and what it was like to go to a high school named after someone as important as Canada's first prime minister himself, Sir John A. Macdonald.After a day of history we treated ourselves to some COWS ice cream. The ice cream was good but their t-shirts are even better. If you are Canadian and like hockey you would get this one. Here's one that Starbucks lovers might like. Really ingenious take offs. Loved them!