Wind, Weather, and Friends...

I sit here in my house at 11:54 pm on a Saturday night. I am wearing long johns under my pajama pants, and I am sitting next to a space heater. As I listen I hear the wind blowing loudly outside, feel a bit of a breeze through my thatched roof and hear the doors creaking and banging because of the wind. What a place this Africa is! Just a few days ago it looked like a winter wonderland....now it is just cold and windy with no snow.

My last two weeks have been full of training, driving, listening to, and planning for Outreach Staff. They are a great bunch of young adults, but I didn't realize how draining it can be to be "on call" 24 hours a day. It really hasn't been that bad, but it has just been different.

Things here "work wise" are going great. I really love working with Alece and I certainly don't have time to get bored!

Relationships aren't as challenging as I thought they would be. My housemates and I are very different, but we are learning to communicate with each other and getting to know each other well. We have fun times, just sitting on the couch or on Jennifer's bed....chatting about the day or just laughing. Jennifer is my resident laugh box...she always has a laugh....no seriously she does. It is refreshing because sometimes I just need to "lighten up" and Jennifer helps me do that. She is also pretty direct with me and will let me argue with her a little until I understand myself and feel understood. I really love her and and am excited about the next few years that we get to live together.

Brittany is my other roommate. She is an amazing cook, is generous, and has a very wacky sense of humor.

Kelly and Rebecca live in the other "girl house"....

Kelly is the Californian. She is gorgeous like you would expect someone from California to be. She is outgoing, funloving and LOVEs games...which puts her on top of my list!

Rebecca is from Arizona and is a lot of fun as well. Reba, as we call her, can be very sarcastic and loves to bet on things. She is great with people and is incredibly reliable and loyal.

Dave and Josh are the "boys".

Dave is the creative services director and is from Florida. He is a NASCAR fan and loves to just hang with us and watch movies. He has become the resident poker champ....with me on his heels!

Josh is our all around FIX IT, BUILD IT, KILL IT guy. He is a youngun at 20, but you wouldn't know it when he has a tool or a weapon. Bunnies beware, Josh has been known to hit you with a car, kick you, and then kill and skin you with his leatherman. Josh is incredibly competiative and so he likes a good game of poker too....to bad I got that third ACE the other night to give me a FULL house of Ace's over 10's and him a full house of 1o's over Ace's. :)

So, you get the idea....it is cold here...we are busy with lots of outreach going on (Teams, teams, teams) and we are living life.

I'll try to get testimonies from ministry on my website soon...but until then check out the galleries on the Thrive website (http://www.thriveafrica.org/).