A bit about my week

Right now I’m at the bible institute again, just returned from Radio Sinai, where I re-recorded the guitar part for “Nous Les Enfants” with Melee. This is a song that was recorded by Save the Children here in Côte d’Ivoire, in French and English, which we are redoing in Tymbara and D
yula. I’m doing the guitar, drums, and maybe bass as well. Joel from church is going to do the piano. The recording “studio” there is a pretty humble setup compared to what I’m used to back home, but it’s pretty high tech to the Ivorians out here. For you who understand here is the setup: There is a sound board and some rack units that look about 20 years old, which feed into a little ZOOM device that looks ike a microphone with a voice recorder built into it. They record onto that via the line in, and then import the audio from that onto their old PC computers running Sound Forge 9. The mics are all dynamic mics, a few SM58s and what not. Actually with what they have, I’m pretty impressed with the sound quality they are able to get. I think it’s because the acoustics of the room are pretty good. I think it’s awesome that there is a chance to record music at all up here in Korhogo!
It’s been interesting to see the season progressively change lately, from dry season to rainy season. It actually rains every now and then, and by rain I mean it’s like God took a giant bucket and poured it out, or maybe a big heavenly fire hose. When it rains it pours, and les eclaires (lightning) is pretty impressive too. I was awoken at 3am this morning by a huge thunderous BOOM and then the sound of rain pelting the tin roof above my head. It’s a beautiful sound, and I had the presence of mind to record it (of course). I’m trying to compile the “sounds of Côte d’Ivoire” hehe.
I’ve been keeping busy with reading like usual, got through the 7 Narnia books, and am gonna start reading the bible chronologically as well. Also working on my memorization of Romans like usual, have 3 chapters in the bag now.
A lot of the girls seem to be getting sick and getting ameobas and what not lately, and I’ve had my fair share of sickness since I’ve been here as well. I guess getting sick is pretty unavoidable if you are plannign on spending a significant amount of time in Africa, so we all are taking it with a grain of salt. But prayers against sickness are definitely greatly appreciated.
Yesterday CJ and I accompanied Pastor Brahima and Mattias from the Dispensary to a different village for church, and to hang out afterwards. We had a lot of fun joking with each other, and CJ won a little bet we had and as a result I owe her Oreos (yes we found real oreos here). I ended the day by teaching my siblings some more guitar, and watching the news. They are saying that since Gbagbo has rejected the power sharing deal (which is kinda ludicrous IMO), that force is the only option. While I wish it didn’t have to come to this, I am relieved that at least now something is going to be DONE. They have just sat in their little meetings, resolving nothing, for months now while the whole country goes down the drain. Finally it’s at the point where they are going to get Gbagbo (or as the Ivorians here say, “our first dicator”) out of power for good. And really that will happen I believe, he has very little capability to resist if Ouattara plays his cards right.
Well, there you have it, my last week in a nutshell. ☺ Please pray for me to be a good Ambassador of Christ this next week, and also pray for my niece Bonnie and her seizures. She is on my mind a lot, and I want to see her healed and plead with God often to take them away from her without brain surgery again.

Church in the village. If you look close you can see CJ, and on the far right Pastor Brahima.

This is at Naomi's house, her sister in the back is making a mud oven!

Part of Korhogo from the top of Mount Korhogo, my house is on the left (in the "New Quarter").