On Our Way Back Home!

I should have written to you yesterday but we were 17 hours returning from the bush! We got in last night around 1 am and we just all went to bed. We traveled in 2 vans, leaving Kifosso at 8 am. Around 8:40 one van broke down - a broken bolt on a rear axle, so most of us piled into the other van while some stayed with the stuff and we limped along to the nearest town because that van was having trouble with the fuel line. so to shorten the story, we waited 6 hours in the town of Koury for both vans to be fixed, and then carried on. After 2 flat tires and numerous stops at check points we finally made it home, long after dark and over a very dangerous road for bandits. Fortunately I guess, it was Ramadan, so most people were celebrating and not cruising the highway. We felt very protected by God. So we are now a few hours away from leaving. We went shopping this afternoon and bought ice cream. We are all anxious to get home. It's been a very tough 2 weeks, much harder than last time, with 3 people dying, 2 of them little ones, but also many coming to the Lord.

Bye for now. I'll write from Paris. Love to everyone!

Back in Bamako!

Looks like this will be my last time to email until after the bush. Only Madeleine has a computer here and it is slow. Our flight to Bamako was on time and it was so amazing to have a window
seat ans watch the map on the tv to identify where we were. We could see the coast of Africa with the Atlantic beyond it. It was incredible! I saw a long row of windmills in France which made me think of you and God's hand in our life. There was a nice Italian man beside me who didn't speak a lot of English but we managed to converse a little. I stayed back today while the rest went to buy dresses and had a vary interesting chat with Pete and his wife, the missionaries who run this house. He is fascinating.

All afternoon we packaged pills for the pharmacy and now we are getting ready to travel in the morning to the bush at 5 am, assuming the nationals will be here on time. We are going to a very dark place, I guess, but their last 2 weeks were great, so we will go in God's strength.

In Paris Nov 2010

We are safely in Paris where we met the rest of the team, 2 from South Carolina and 1 from Long Beach, California. Emily and I are SO disappointed not to be able to take our tour into Paris but we just have to suck it up. I'm sure there is a good reason why we can't. We arrived here at 12 noon, alomost 4 hours late, and we leave at 4:10. I actually have enough euros left from last time to email. There are still some colored leaves here and lush green and golden fields, from what I could see from my center aisle seat. It is a bit overcast, but still very sunny and 60 F, so it is a very nice day.

I actually slept on this flight, from what I can estimate, about 5 hours, so I was very thankful for that. I woke up to them nudging my elbow with breakfast. That is a miracle in itself. Emily had 2 empty seats beside her on the plane and I had 1, so we weren't cramped.

So Emily and I just got back from cruising the stores in the airport. Stuff is unbelievably, grossly expensive, but pretty to look at. Murray bought a laughing cow, a stuffed toy that laughs and rolls around. We are going to put on our dresses so that we will not offend anyone when we land, so I hope it is not cold on the plane.