Africa 3rd post :)

Africa 3rd post

Hi Mom, ( everyone!)

Things have quickly fallen into a rhythm here.  I teach 3-4 lessons a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, but we’re always out and about.  Elder Lafleur left our trio on Friday, so Elder Zurcher and I have finally started our companionship for real ! It’s kindof funny that I’ve just started my « first » transfer after already being here for over 2 weeks.  That alone is crazy to think about.  On Wednesday I will be starting my 8th week in the mission, including the MTC. What the heck.  Time isn’t flying by, it’s at warp speed, and I’m somehow keeping up.  I’m hardly that tired when I wake up at 6 :30, and when I go to bed at 10 :30 I always crash into bed.  Anyway, all that to say that I know that 2 years is a long time, but before I know I’ll be on the plane home. 

We went without water in our apartment for 5 days.  We had to go down to the shop next door to by a bunch of bottled water just to stay alive.  Otherwise, we were sweaty, sticky, smelly, and just gross for the whole time because there wasn’t even water to take a bucket shower and we weren’t going to waste what we had to drink.   It was tempting though ! Finally, we were sitting down at breakfast, just totally in the slumps, because the power had been shutting off too, when we heard the water start to spurt out the faucet in our bathroom (which we left on so that we would know when it came back on) and everyone shot out of their chairs and started hollering.  It was so funny.  We did white kid dances for a while in celebration. We filled up all our bottles and jugs and cans and anything that would hold water for the next time it shut off.  Takiing a shower was heaven.  I’ve never appreciated running water so much.

On Friday I had my first African rainfall ! At first it was kinda light, and all at once it just started pouring down, torrential sheets of huge raindrops.  We stood out on the balcony and put our arms over the edge just to get a taste.  Let’s just say it was delicious.  It ended a lot sooner than I had hoped, and then when we went into our study room, the rain had battered the open window and shot dirt all over the place, so everything in there got filthy.  Totally worth it though.

There’s this funny thing that Cameroonians do when they’re on the phone, which is just hanging up as soon as they’re done talking to you.  They don’t say bye, *click* ! So you’ll say something like, ok we’ll see you tomorrow ! And they’ll just hang up.  At first it seems kindof rude, and then you just laugh because you’ve been in the sun for too long and your brain has lowered the bar for anything funny.  Anyway, if I do that when I get back, that’s why.

I’ve been eating a lot of tasty snacks like pig feet, chicken bones, goat skin, and fish eyes.  I’m surprised I haven’t had the opportunity to eat insects yet.  I’m sure it will come.  Everything has been a lot more scrumptious than I thought it would be, so I’m thankful for that.  I just smile, grab a huge forkful, and shove it in my mouth, and I’m usually pleasantly surprised.  I’ll have to feed you all a typical Cameroonian dinner when I get back ! All we really need are the leftovers from what they sell in the store, haha.

Another funny thing that I’ve noticed lately is all the naked hobos walking around.  One day we saw 3 different guys, just walking around butt-naked.  Usually their hair is all matted and unkempt, but one time I saw a guy who was bald.  I feel so bad, but it’s just so ridiculous that you kindof laugh it off and try to erase the scar that’s been etched into your brain forever.   I’m just trying to imagine these people in the States.  The « law » here is very much not present.  I’ve seen the police maybe 3 times the whole time I’ve been here, and only once in an SUV.  Like I’ve said before, traffic laws are limited to (and not always followed) driving on the right side of the street and stopped at stop lights.  That’s it.  Anything goes, especially in round abouts.  There’s no such thing as « right of way. »  Please make me drive with someone who has a brake on their side too when I get back.  I might need some adjusting to civilized driving conduct.

I got to try my hand at translating for the first time on Sunday for our senior couple sister, Sister Gailey.  She’s so nice.  Elder Zurcher and I went to Relief Society to translate for her.  It was really hard, actually.  Some people talk a lot fast than others, and some people use a lot different vocabulary than others.  And sometimes you just have no idea how to translate something.  As soon as you open your mouth to translate something, whatever they’re currently saying gets lost as you’re talking.  I’m amazed at professional translators, but I would love to train my ears to listen as I’m talking.  Future career possibility… ?

I went with Elder Zurcher to buy a sanja, which you’ll see in the pictures I’m attaching.  Sorry I don’t send very many by the way, they’re just really big and take a long time to send.  I’ll try to send more though ! It’s beautiful, and I feel like a boss when I’m wearing it.  They usually wear them when they have a special occasion like a baptism, a wedding, funeral, or something like that.  The men tie it off on the right side, the women on the left.  There’s usually a shirt and hat they wear too, but I haven’t gotten one yet.  I’m sure I’ll come back in a complete bobo by the time I’m done with the Lord’s work here. 

I’ve been learning some more Douala, and now a bit of Bassa.  It’s so fun.  I wish I had a book to study from, but I just take notes as they teach and go from that.  I did have a Bible in Douala, but I just copied down the Lord’s prayer and I’m currently working on that.  Apparently I pronounce it very well !  You’ll hear it when I get back ;)

Oh snap, I almost forgot about soccer.  We finally got to play on Saturday, and it was just flat insane.  It was on a damp sand « field » with no lines, and the goals were about a foot higher than they were supposed to be.  But we still had a nice ball to kick around, and the field wasn’t even that bad to play on.  It was basically like turf without the little black things that stick to your socks and follow you back home and get into everything you ever owned.  Sand can be washed out.  Anyway, my team of about 22 elected me captain for some reason and put me in the center as number 10 usually plays, and gave me a captain band to wear on my arm.  I tried telling them I didn’t deserve it, but they insisted.  On one of the first plays, I missed a header by like a foot off the right post.  I stole the ball once and was one on one with the goalie, but when I stole the ball it was rolling too fast for me to get to it before the goalie, so we collied on the ball and I went flying face first and slid in the sand for a good while.  By this time people had been lining the field to watch, and everyone started cheering, it was so fun.  That’s about all I did the hour that I played.  The missionary who transfered in and took Elder Lavering’s spot said that the guys on the sideline were saying « le blanc joue ! » which means, the white kid can play !  I was very proud haha.  My companion is a baller too.  I was happy to play with him, and everyone was talking about how they were surprised that white people could play soccer.  Which is funny, because the way our team played was to kick the ball as far as you can every time you get it.  There was no middle play.  And everyone yells at each other.  In the second half, a fight broke out and all the voices dropped about two octaves and everyone was yelling and holding people back and it was just nutso, in the words of my companion.  All in all, I had a great time and I can wait to play again in two weeks.  We had this big fish barbecue afterwards, and then I got to go to a baptism for the other branch.  It was a very special experience.  I love it.  I can’t wait to have my own.  You’ll be sure to hear all about it !

We wanted to visit a chocolate factory here, but you have to type up a request to visit with your name, phone number, e mail address, objective and purpose for visiting, and all this stuff before they will let you come in.  It’s kindof silly.  Elder Zurcher said they had to do that in Congo to be able to play on a grass field, but when they wrote it out on paper they wouldn’t even accept it.  How ridiculous is that ?!  Anyway, we’re still gonna try.

That’s about all I have for you, and I’m sorry that I left all my notes at home.  I’ll try to bring it next time so I can catch you up again !

I love and pray for you all.  Please keep me in your prayers, I need them every day.  You’ll hear from me next week !

Elder Garland

Bonjour ma famille !

It's always so good to hear from you.  Not a lot more to write about, but things are definitely happening! I'm so jealous you got to see grandma, it sounds like she's doing great and that you had a blast together.  I'm happy to hear about the kids, although I've only heard personally from Carly.  Get the others to write me please! I'm also happy to hear about Sadie, that's also comforting :) 

Good luck in Phoenix if I don't hear from you before then! How is the team doing? Any new stars? That's so crazy that Kimo was working the hoe for the gym, how funny! Did you get any pictures with him? What was the student's name who emailed you? I'd love to hear from him!

I get to play soccer on Saturday, we didn't get to play last week. I didn't get a guitar either, which I'll explain later. As for my health, I've been really good! Taking all my vitamins, etc. I eat super well. I'll also explain later!  I get to the cafe late enough, don't worry! I think if you use dearelder I can get something? My companion got something once. I'm not really sure, but it's never very reliable. Happy valentine's day to you too! It didn't really exist here haha. 

I’ve had an interesting week, but I can’t believe it’s already gone.  Time is already flying by super fast.  So fast that my hair grew like a quarter inch and I had to get a haircut.  So instead of paying the $4 it normally would have cost at like a “professional” hair salon, I just had my companion shave my head.  Don’t worry, it was a full inch, so it doesn’t look horrible.  It feels a lot better in the sweltering heat we’ve been having.  I went to look for a guitar after sending out emails last week, but the store was closed for the “fete des jeunes” holiday. I was pretty GAH! about it.  Anyway, I went to a zone party across the city and we played cards and had a big spaghetti/ice cream party, it was awesome.  In the other district’s apartment they have Congolese, Malagash, American and Canadian elders.  It’s pretty diverse around here, if you can imagine.

I’m just realizing that I may have already talked about all that, so sorry if that’s all just repetitive…anyway, we had a long week with a lot of lessons.  We do very little contacting outside of the taxi.  Most people either call us or pull us aside off the road.  I know I already mentioned that, but it happens every week.  One of our investigators is a woman who has been a pastor for 20 years, had a dream about two white guys walking in front of her house, and then the next day my companions walked by and she called them over.  It’s crazy, and that’s not the only time I’ve heard of that happening!  Most all of the people who want to meet with us have awesome stories about how they’ve been searching for the truth and we “happened” to be walking around their neighborhood, or something like that.

This week has been really cool because I’ve been fed a ton real Cameroonian food by the people we meet.  One of the dishes is called “bombolo,” or “baton de manioc,” which is this sort of plant that they crush into a flour, put into long leaves and soak for days in water.  Then they unwrap it and it’s like this chewy stick of white…stuff, haha.  It doesn’t have much taste, but it’s pretty good I guess!  We ate “mucom,” a mashup of pistachios and “piment” (the spicy plant here) wrapped around a piece of meat.  It’s really spicy, but really tasty.  Probably the most famous dish here is ndolé.  It’s a plant that’s washed really well, mashed up (are you seeing a pattern here…?) and washed, and mashed up and repeat for a while.  It’s kindof of like mashed spinach, but different taste.  Still good.  I haven’t actually eaten anything I don’t like!  We ate that on the side of bombolo, and a whole mackerel fried over a barbecue.  They put the fish in front of you, and you just dig into its sides with your fingers.  Sometimes our investigators bring out forks because they think we won’t eat with our fingers, and then they love it when we just use our hands.  They’re so funny. One of our investigators made us a meal one night, and it was so good.  She gave us a small avocado salad, mixed with carrots and lettuce and a sort of mayonnaise sauce, then a spaghetti omelet, with tomatoes and green peppers mixed in.  To drink, we had a hot cup of condensed milk (I think…) diluted with water.  It was actually super dang delicious.  That whole meal cost 950 Francs, or $1.90.  How crazy is that?! Everything is SO cheap here.  Another meal we had was a fish called mouru douce in a delicious tomato sauce, with ripe plantain and potatoes on the side. I had never eaten plantains before, they’re pretty good when they’re ripe! These were boiled, and I’ve had them fried also, which taste like sweet potato fries. There was also a sort of bombolo, but this was called “mintoumba,” because it was mixed with red oil and piment. I liked it better than the bombolo. We eat So. Good. All. The. Dayz. 

I forgot it was Valentine’s Day until my companion reminded me that night.  Missionaries don’t have Valentines anyway, so whatevs. 

I need to tell you about the dote here.  When a man wants to get married, he has to ask the parents of the woman, and they give him a list of things he has to buy the family before they can get married.  I mean for the parents, the uncle and aunts, the grandparents, everybody.  So a lot of people just don’t get married, or they spend forever working so they can buy all the things they need to get married.  It’s ridiculous! One man we met had to buy a car for his girlfriend’s parents before they’ll let him marry her.  If he just says forget about the stupid dote and marries her anyway, the family will talk to the local tribe leader and they usually send someone out to kill him.  It’s wacko.

I also learned that it’s best to fight off witchcraft between 1 and 3 a.m. because that’s when the demons come to take away your spirit, which is different than your soul.  I didn’t follow super well, but it was crazy.

One time I stepped in a stream of nasty, probably radioactive water, and I made a joke about my toes splitting into multiple toes, and that they were going through miTOEsis.  It was hilarious at the time.  I don’t know what you think, but I hope the corner of your mouth at least twitched a little bit.  Missionary humor here is…particular. 

Last night we were at a mangez-vous (when our investigator makes us a meal after a lesson, which is called a rendez-vous) and we kept hearing this meowing coming from inside the house.  So we were like, oh you have a cat? They said, no we just put it in a sack and hung it from the ceiling to eat later.  So that was nice.  My companion was like, ohh yeah you don’t wanna let the cat out of the bag about that.  And no one got it but me.  But yeah.  It was a little dark humor I guess.

We had a great day at church. In our Sunday school class, the teacher hardly has to talk at all.  He asks one question, 12 hands go up and the rest of the time is spent giving everybody the chance to give their opinion or build off of what someone else said.  It’s so funny.  Everyone talks.  Then in Sacrament, this woman talked about the women of the Church and what their role in raising families should be and it was just fantastic.  She brought up Proverbs 31, and that made me think about what I should be looking for in a future lady friend. One guy came to church with a “pogne de princier,” or “sanja” in Douala, which is basically an African skirt.  It was so cool, and I can’t wait to go buy one in the market.  I’ll be wearing one basically from then on.  Sanja, Chacos, shirt and tie.  Classic missionary attire. 

I learned two different quotes in French that I really like as well. One goes, “Ne quitte pas celui qui t’aime pour celui qui te plaît,” which means don’t leave the one who loves you for the one who pleases you.  Another is “l’homme est qu’il est, non ce qu’il a,” which means a man is who he is, not what he has.  Just something to think about.

There’s this local language called Douala, which is basically a tribal language.  They have a Bible in Douala, so I’m gonna learn how to do the Lord’s prayer and surprise some of our investigators.  It will be epic.

We haven’t had water for the last two days.  It’s been really rough, taking showers out of a bucket an all.  I use maybe two pints of water to wash and rinse myself.  I’ve never appreciated my shower more, or getting water from the tap.  Hopefully we’ll be able to find water somewhere so we don’t die of dehydration.  Thankfully our electricity is still on, for today at least.  The last several days it’s cut and we had to sleep soaking in sweat because our fans weren’t on.  On Friday night, they had karaoke in the bar right next to our apartment until like 3 in the morning.  It was so loud, it was impossible to sleep.  I even had earplugs and moved into the front room, where I was battered by traffic and late-night roamers on the main road in the front of our apartment.  We have to leave the windows and doors to our balcony open or else you could fry an egg on the floor (that was a little eggagerated, sorry…LOLOLOL), it gets so hot.  I heard so much about how the Africans love to sing, but no one told me that they weren’t very good at it, haha.  They sing their hearts out, but I’ve heard very few good voices.

I got to play a guitar for like 5 minutes today.  It was old, had crappy strings on it, and was really out of tune, but it just felt nice to cradle it in my arms for a while.  They lady working the shop came and took it away from me because we weren’t looking around at everything else, but my heart was full anyway, so I let it go.  I plan on coming back next week.

That’s about all that’s happening, other than the mangos that are starting to come into season.  I ate about 4 the other day.  I could’ve eaten 40 if we had them.  Nothing like you’ve ever tasted. Fresh off the tree and into your mouth.  And my Malagash roommate companion showed me how to cut them like a real African, so I’m pretty much pro.

I love you all, and I’m so thankful to be able to write back home.  I miss you.  I’m 4% done with my mission already, and before I know it will be 40%, and then I will only have 4% left!  I already can’t wait to hug every one of you.  Stay in school, don’t do drugs, and I’ll be back before you know it :)

Elder Garland

First post..Africa!

Ok so finally I can write!

The last time we were here, the lady couldn't get us the username and password, so we sat at the computers and played solitaire for like an hour before finally she got us what we needed, but by then we needed to go, so we planned on coming back today.

ANYway, I had an awesome trip here.  I'm currently in Douala, Cameroon, and it looks like I might be here for most of this year, unless I go to Gabon during the summer, which will open up for missionary work!  Other missionaries go to Yaounde in Cameroon, or Pointe Noire in the Congo.  Everywhere they go it's the same story - lots of awesome people ready to receive our message.  The Church is growing so fast here.  It's Africa's time!  Otherwise, the culture is pretty much the same too.  I see a white person every couple of days, usually it's a Frenchman here on business (Douala is like the economic capital of the country, and Yaounde is the political center).  It's super humid, but the sun isn't very bright in the sky.  It's really polluted here.  Their French can be really hard to understand sometimes.  There's Anglophones and Francophones here, so sometimes we teach in English and sometimes in French.  There's so much I want to write about, but I left my fetchin journal at home so I can't go back and look at notes! 

I'll start from when I left the MTC.  I got up at 3:30 in the morning and met up with Elder Fernandez on the bus to SLC.  We just so happened to be one gate away from one another, so we got to hang out together until he boarded. I'm so excited for him.  I waited a couple hours to fly out to D.C., and by the time we got in it was like 5:30 p.m.  I had Potbelly's for lunch, which was SO good, and I got to talk to this awesome guy who owned a concrete company and built basic structures all over the 3rd-world for homeless people to live in.  He was great. I was super glad that I got to call home, even though I lost all my quarters.  I hope that collect call didn't cost too much ;)

My flight from D.C. to Brussells was really interesting.  I might a group of people headed towards Douala who were doing missionary work there, but more of the building houses and giving shoes and glasses away.  I talked to two sisters maybe a little younger than myself about what I was doing, and gave them a Book of Mormon.  They were pretty sold in their own conviction, but it was great just talking to them and answering all their questions.  I didn't really sleep this whole time, so by the time we landed in Belgium I was whipped.  I met some Cameroonians women while I was waiting for my next flight to Douala, and they looovveedd talking about religion.  I shared with them everything I could about Mormons and what we're about, and they ate it up.  I wish I had a BoM to give them, but I never picked up a French one at the MTC.  Hopefully they'll just remember my words and look into it themselves!

We talked like the whole flight, which means I didn't sleep then either.  I was running on 30 hours by the time we landed.  

The country side changed drastically in comparison to the snow-capped mountains I left behind.  Jungle vegitation and winding rivers welcomed me as we touched down in the setting sun.  It was beautiful.  It wasn't until I stepped off the plane that I was hit with a literal wall of heat.  I immediately started sweating through my pants and shirt.  The blanket thrown over my shoulders didn't help.  I went through customs in a breeze (so different than back home...), and when I didn't see anyone waiting for me in the correspondance area I didn't assume the worse, but went to get my bags in this huge room filled with hundreds of people surrounding the baggage claim.  There was a balcony looking over the floor, but no one who seemed interested in a solo white missionary.

About 5 minutes after setting up next to the belt, it started whirring and eventually started kicking out bags.  Another 5 minutes, and everything went dark.  The power in the whole building shut off, and we were all stuck in the sweltering heat, just looking around at nothing.  I had eyes on me the whole time it felt like.  No one was coming to get me though, and that started to worry me.  Another 10 minutes and the bags started coming out again.  I got mine and decided to take a lap around the building just to make sure I wasn't completely alone.  I was only three quarters of the way done when I saw two, out of place white folks standing on the balcony with a badge, waving at me.  Relief.

They met me out front, where some guys tried to take my bags and wheel them away, looking for some change.  I had to insist on taking them myself, but they followed us all the way to the parking garage, where the lights went out again.  There was just enough for us to find the truck and pack up and drive away.  The senior couple was really nice, and asked a lot of questions about me.  They've only been here 5 months, had zero French training, and have just been loving it.

Once on the road, I was immediately disoriented.  There was a mad rush of traffic coming in seemingly every direction.  People were on motorcycles and cars, bikes and walking around.  The motos weaved in and out of traffic, as did the cars.  There are basically zero rules when it comes to driving.  I didn't see a single speed limit sign, or any sign for that matter.  There were no dividing lines down the middle of the street.  People were honking at every turn, as if that's how they communicate here.  Turns out, it is! I'll talk about that later though.

So finally we got to my apartment, where the couple had brought ice cream and rootbeer for rootbeer floats.  The elders in the apartment (Elder Lafleur and Elder Zurcher who are both from Utah are my trainers until Lafleur leaves next week, then the other companionship is Elder Adriamamanji from Madagascar and Elder Lavering from Lake Stevens, Washington!) welcomed me with open arms.  They were so excited to meet me that they made cheeseburgers to welcome me.  It was about the last thing I expected to eat my first night in Africa.  We stayed up for a while, eating and visiting, until the senior couple left and I had to unpack.

The apartment is so much bigger than I excpected, too.  We live in one of the nicer areas of the city.  There's no air conditioning, so we use fans every night to blow air on us and keep the mosquitos away.  That hasn't always worked.  I have probably 10-15 bites on my feet and ankles, but it's way too hot to sleep with my blanket over me.  The mosquito net makes it hotter, too.  My first night, the power cut off right as we were getting ready to shower, so I was preparing to bucket shower when we said a prayer and it came back on in the middle of our prayer.  It was awesome.  So I took a cold shower, and have only taken cold showers since I got here.  Not because there's no hot water, but because it's so freakin hot, all day, every day, in the apartment and outside, that it just feels so good to take a cold shower.

I didn't sleep too well my first night, and hit a big wall of fatigue the next day.  Thankfully we were having a zone conference, so we didn't have too many things planned for the day as far as teaching goes.  We did get to see some people, and I was blown away by the poverty.  I mean, I pretty much expected it, but when you're sitting down in a 10x10 foot house, where the bed barely squeezes between the wallsm clothes hanging across the ceiling to dry, and there's only a tiny fridge and stool to take up the rest of the space, you really start to realize in what circumstances these people are living in.  I was in another "house" whose "walls" were just wrapping paper nailed into dirt.  Roofs are usually made of tin or straw, as are the walls.  They just have so little, it's astonishing.  Coming back to my own apartment is bad enough, and I already dread coming back to the United States.

The people are wonderful.  They're so friendly; almost everyone says hi to us on the street, and most want to shake our hand.  They have this special handshake where they snap fingers using the other person's middle finger.  I'll have to show you when I get back.  I love talking with them.  They're engaged immediately.  A lot of them come up and talk to us without any push other than their genuine curiosity.  It makes contacting pretty easy.

We take a lot of side roads and back alleys, if you can even call them that, and I'm amazed at how well my companions know the area.  They've been here for several months though, so I guess it makes sense.

I got to Skype the mission president on Friday; he was in South Africa with his wife who had been sick but got better, so he wasn't able to meet with us in person.  He and his wife are wonderful people.  The rest of the day we spent meeting with previous rendez-vous my trainers had already planned out, and everyone we met was awesome.

Getting to and from our appointments is a little ridiculous.  There's about a zillion little yellow 5 seaters rolling around, and you just wave one down, yell out where you're going, how many people are going, and how much you're willing to give for it.  If the driver accepts, he honks. If he doesn't, he keeps driving.  It's just chaotic, all day.  But it's so cool.  I can't believe I haven't been in an accident yet, the drivers are so wreckless.  They drive on the other side of the road until someone is coming at them, but we always seem to make it to our appointments alive.  Thank goodness for silent prayers.  Each trip costs us like, 500 francs.

The currency is the Cameroonian Franc, although they share money with Gabon, Congo, and the Central African Republic.  It's about 500 francs to the dollar.  So when I got here they handed me 10,000 francs for spending money, which is like $20.  It makes buying things simple; you just multiply by two and take off three zeros haha. An hour of internet time is 500 francs, which is awesome.  Food is relatively cheap, too, unless you go into Casino (which is French and reminds me of France so bad).

There are push-up lizards, as Elder Lafleur calls them, that run around.  They're about a foot long, and they're always bouncing up and down on their forearms.  It's actually pretty comical.  Then there's this bird that always sings the same song, which I wrote down in music notes but can't read what I wrote. If that makes sense...I see a few chickens here and there, a couple raggedy dogs, some small birds flying around.  other than that, there's not many animals in the city.  Lots of avacados, papaya, and pineapple.  Mangos are starting to fall off the trees, and we almost got hit by one as we were running the other day.

We excercise every morning, starting with a run around the block, and then using this super old weight bench made of broken plywood and a really rusty weight bar, with concrete blocks on the end of it.  It works though!  I want to play soccer sometime with the locals, so maybe I'll get to do that on Saturday morning when they get together.

Elder Lafleur makes us all dinner every night, and we just pitch in money to get food on P-Day for everything we need for the week after we create a menu. I've been eating really well, and haven't gotten sick.  It's bound to happen at some time though, right...?  We even grind up peanuts and make peanut butter.  We have a water filter in our apartment, so that's nice.  We fill up tons of 1.5 liter bottles and keep them stored in case our power goes off, which it does at least once every other day.  I've gone to sleep 3 times so far with no fan on me.  It's really hard to fall asleep, and I almost always wake up in the middle of the night soaking in sweat. C'est la vie!

Church was really cool.  The members, and even those we teach are always so sincere in their prayers.  I love it. We have this shoddy organ that one of the members kindof knows how to play, so sometimes we just get a starting note and sing the hymn a cappella. 

P-Day was kindof stressful yesterday.  We cleaned our apartment, studied for a couple hours, and then went out to teach someone, but they asked us to come back later.  So we went to lunch at this restaurant to eat shwarmas, which are like, Lebonese bread wrapped around cooked meat and peppers, and it's wicked good.  It only cost 1000 francs.  We spent a long time shopping because we had to go to different stores to get stuff, and then the internet didn't work, and then the place where I wanted to get a guitar was closed, so we'll go back today.  I've been dying without it.  I really hope they have something for me...

Anyway, that's about it! My first 6 days here have been incredible so far.  I can't believe I have over 700 more to go haha.  It seems surreal, but I know the time will fly.  What a weird thought that is.  Anyway, I love you all so much and I'm so excited to write back already.