Hi everybody :)

Alright so I am living in Korhogo now with my new family I’ve written below some of the things I’ve done in these last weeks. Enjoy.

1/26 and 27 was ALOT of walking around meeting the different pastors in Korhogo and getting to know the town. It is beautiful here! There is a man made lake in the middle of the city. Hopefully get to meet my family soon.

1/28/11 I went on an Evangelical mission with one of the local churches to a smaller village. Alyssa, I and Jason all piled in a big truck with about 30 other people. On the way we stopped for some gas and then we were on our way to the church. It was a really bumpy ride along with trying to make conversation. We get to the village where the church was at and had a quick drink of this sandy liquid type stuff. Yeah didn't taste the best but hey I was SUPER hungry. After that we split up into groups. I was with Madame Sorro and two other IBB students ( Students from the bible school where I stayed in Korhogo before I moved in with my family). We had little packets with pictures showing the gospel. We went to about 4 or 5 houses where the discussion got pretty heated at times. I remember thinking, Gosh this is awesome I'm out here doing exactly what I came here to do!! This is amazing. At each house I was asked to do a closing prayer in English for the people we were talking with.

Little did I know the party was just beginning. After we ate we walked a little ways down from the church to a big screen where they showed the Jesus film. After that everyone danced and danced all night long. Seriously from about 11 at night until 6 in the morning. I showed off some of my dancing skills for a little while but by 2 in the morning I was like , I NEED SOME SLEEP! I thought I was going to need to sleep outside on the bench but then they hooked Alyssa and I up with a room to sleep in. At 6 in the morning they woke us up again to go back to the Christian church in the village. We prayed, ate breakfast, and the leaders from the different groups that went out to evangelize gave reports about what had happened. The awesome thing was I think 7 people came to Christ! wow! I felt really blessed to be apart of this event. Evangelical out reach African style is pretty sweet.

On the way back home we are all piled in the truck again. We had to stop because there was a guy on the side of the road with a whole pig that he had just killed. All they guys pile out with some money. They all circle around the pig the guy whips out his machete and starts whacking off parts of the pig to sell to everyone. Everyone buys their share and we are off again back home. So pork was for lunch the next day. Can't get any fresher then that!

1/30/11 Got introduced to my church. Naomi and I stood up infront of about 150 maybe 200 people. We stood up there for about 10 minuets. The whole service all together was about 3 hours long. Lots of singing and ALOT of preaching. It was long but good.

2/2/11 I moved in with my family FINALLY!! I live with a family of five. I have a mom dad and three little brothers ages 5, 10 and 14 and I also live with a niece and a nephew ages 17 and 19. All together there's 7 of us.

2/10/11 So my life over the past week has been learning ALOT of French. Basically it's like I went to Africa all over again. I can't believe how quickly your mind picks up a language when it's all you have to communicate. It's crazy. The hard part is that every time I learn something in French my family teaches me how to say it in Chimbada which is the the local language here.

I am definitely a city girl! I live right on a main road. People are always coming up to our gate to buy cool water. My mom sells it.

Right now my days are pretty much waking up at 7 eating breakfast and then seeing what I can fill my day up with. There is a lot to do. Everyday it's amazing how fast the time goes by. I'm just getting to know so many people. I'll go with my mom to the market to by groceries. I'll go visit people in town. I'll go up to IBB where I used to live and hang out visiting different people or using the internet. It's hard to get up there though because it's a pretty long bike ride playing frogger every time you cross a street.

This past week has just been settling in getting used to really living like an Ivorian. I love just hanging out with my family and especially my mom. Mama Soro. She's great! We sit on the porch together as she teaches me little phrases in Chimbada.

I love meeting so many new people that I know I'll be building relationships. Soon I'll get to talk with the pastors of my church for ministry opportunities. I'm beginning to realize that since I am pretty much a three year old right now in society with my knowledge and language skills, it's more about the relationships then the work I'm actually doing.

I sleep SO much because my brain gets tired. I need to realize that it's only been one week in this new life. It'll get better and I'll learn so much in the future.

So to sum up my first week in my home equals ALOT of good times and a lot of awkward moments as well figuring out what is expected of me in this culture. It can be really confusing sometimes what is acceptable and what is not. Geez alright. I feel like my life couldn't get more confusing. haha! It's good God has got it all under control. It's by His power that I can do this.

2/10/11 Found out that my little brother Emmanuel age 14, likes to take his sling shot and shoot birds out trees to eat later. Great. He thinks they taste great. I said it was sad for me. He doesn't care. Geez little brothers. Emmanuel also likes to catch lizards roast them on the fire then give them to me for a snack. Thanks bro.

2/11/11- 2/12/11 One of the pastors of the church I'm attending brother died. He lived way out of town in the village. I went with most of the church to the village for the funeral where it turns out most of the church has sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents who live there. I got to meet everyone and see where the roots were of my family. Like what their childhood must have been like before they moved to the city. There were huge fruit bats thousands of them that live in the trees above the village. From time to time they would fill up the sky. At night they all headed off to find food. I remember looking up at the moon and seeing thousands of bats flying over head. It was a challenging couple days for me though. The pastors brother was not a Christian. Although I just heard that he accepted Christ in the last week he was alive. Pretty amazing. Anyway this funeral was very different because he was buried in traditional anamist way.

Ok that's it for now.

Prayer requests

political situation

French always for me

the friends and relationships I'm starting to build right now

my church that I go to

Thank you for supporting me