Zoo Day

I had a fun last weekend in Texas.  I spent Saturday with my friend and classmate Esther from South Korea.  Here I am in the picture with her and her kids.  We visited the Tyler zoo and saw every animal there.

Hello giraffe!

We just happened to be at the penguin exhibit at feeding time.  So cute.  There was a breeding box area where they make nests out of plastic drinking straws.

Can you see the elephants behind me?  It was really hot out so everyone was trying to stay in the shade. 

in Texas, meeting the world

I love the internationalness of the base here. I guess even my base in Mali is pretty international - quite a few countries are represented by our staff. So maybe I especially notice it here because I am meeting people from other countries that I'm not as familiar with.
The photo above shows the big world map in the prayer chapel, it is covered with post-it note prayers for different places. And below you can see the feast that I got to eat some of last weekend when there was a party in the dorm/house that I am staying in. The family that manages the house is from Brazil. Their mother and brother have been here visiting for a few months, but they will leave this week, so there was a going away party for them - I think around 30 people packed into the house. There was music and talking in Portugese, and more food than anyone could eat. It was so fun. But most enjoyable to me was to notice the way that people from so many corners of the globe could be friends and have a good time together. I hung out with new friends from South Korea and Japan as well as these lovely Brazilians. 

Two times since I have been here I have had the chance to meet French-speaking Africans. Both times were after the Sunday night service that is held on base. There are some staff that work and live off the base and so I don't see them on a daily basis. The first one was a man from Burkina Faso, and he had done a training school many years ago at my base. Talking with him (in French of course) was like a magic salve to take the edge off of my homesickness for Mali. I had the biggest silly smile on my face for quite awhile after talking with him. Then a few days ago I met a woman from Cameroon. She also said she had done a training school in Mali many years ago. (its really a small world after all within our group sometimes) After speaking with both of these people I was thinking about how far my French has come in the past 3 years. I try to encourage myself that one day I could be at a proficient level with my Bambara too.

103 days without JP, day 70

Its been 10 weeks now.
70 days.
And still a month to go.
Too long to be apart.

I think he looks pretty cute in this picture. (its amazing how attractive a man can be wearing an apron and doing work such as washing dishes!)

Completely off the point side note: Here he is actually holding a pig's tail.  He had bought a large slab of freshly butchered pork and hacked it into freezable pieces with a machete.  Me, being not a meat eater and quite sensitive to blood and guts, I stayed out of the kitchen until it was done and all evidence had been thoroughly cleaned up.  JP thought that the pig's tail would be a nice treat for our puppy and kitty, so he cut it in half.  I kind of thought this was weird and funny so I took a picture.  I was going to take a picture of the dog and cat chewing on their bits of tail too, I figured they would sort of play with it and chew on it for some time.  But such photos do not exist - the cat grabbed his piece and ran away so that the dog couldn't steal it from him, and the dog swallowed his in one gulp. 

at school in Texas

(not me in the photo, but this is what one of the classrooms looks like.  The ESL students are almost all from South Korea.)

 

This past week we had our first teaching practicum for the TESOL school.  (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)  We had to prepare a lesson on a certain topic (mine was on "adventure") and then suddenly we were each taking our turns standing alone in front of a class of ESL (English as a Second Language) students.  When I found out that I'd be teaching so soon I felt really nervous and unprepared at first.  But after thinking about all of the speaking I've had to do in front of much bigger groups, and especially doing teaching in French, I realized that it probably wouldn't be that bad after all.  And it wasn't.  It might have even been "fun" if there weren't teachers and some of my classmates filling out evaluation sheets in the back of the class as I taught.
I have a couple more practice teaching opportunities coming up.  I am quite busy with homework.  I am learning a lot and I'm excited to think about how I might be able to use this in the future. 

I don't think these birdies will be in their nest much longer.  They are on one of the buildings I walk past all the time here, and every time I stop to admire them.  Their momma flys back and forth bringing them something to eat, and I usually try not to get too close as I don't want to get my eyes pecked out by the momma, but I really wanted a picture of them.

school's in session

I have been at a YWAM base near Tyler, Texas for 5 days now.  I had seen pictures and read about it on the website, so I knew that it was big (over 350 acres) but its really something else to experience it in person.  There are dozens of buildings all spread out over the campus, and it's dotted with lakes and ponds - I was told that many years ago this was a fish hatchery place. (not quite sure on the terminology on that, a fish farm?)  Then it belonged to David Wilkerson (the Cross and the Switchblade pastor guy) who then sold the ranch to YWAM super cheap.  Now there are something like 250 staff here, with every imaginable sort of ministry, and many different training courses year-round filled with students from all over the globe (but it seems that they come especially from South Korea).  I am here for 4 weeks to earn a certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).

My first week of class was great.  A normal day looks like this:  Breakfast in the cafeteria at 7am.  8:30 is group prayer time. 9-12 is class.  We break for lunch and start class again at 1:30.  At 3:30 we have work duties - mine is to clean in my dorm (bathrooms, floors, windows, ect) until dinner at 5.  Dinner at 5 seems so early to me - at home we often eat around 8!  After dinner we have had time to do homework, but we may have some night classes next week. 
Because the campus is so big and the buildings spread out, I get lots of opportunity to get outside for a walk.  It's a good 5 minute walk from my dorm to the cafeteria, and my classroom is a bit further.  I've done some exploring too, and these photos are from my walk last night. 

This dog came barking and running toward me when I walked past his house.  It could have been an intimidating moment, but I love dogs and hoped he wasn't as ferocious as he seemed so I squatted down and talked gently to him and offered him my hand palm-side up to smell, and after that his tail was wagging and I think we're friends now.

Its cool when you can see the moon when its not night yet.  I also love that the little lakes here can be so glassy smooth and they make a nice reflection of the trees.