to my friends (and family...included in friends)

i love all u guys. i love hearing from all of you, letters, packages. thank yous....

1. jackie i got your letter and i love the longness, i didnt finish yet but when i do i will write u back, that doubles for brad only jackie's letter triples yours.
2. my deacon family. i love the package you guys sent and thanks mrs vanmeter for the monthly letters
3. mom--everything... packages, phone calls, love, letters
4. larry and sandy, christina and ryan, Grandma and grandpa....
5. younguns and church peeps for all your prayers

how i live, my daily routine:
get up, talk say hello to the neighbors, hug my little neighbor sister, pull a bucket of water (i take bucket showers), sometimes wash clothes (by hand, same bucket, getting more water from well). make breakfast or eat bwee... it is corn flour with sugar boiled... it is actually very good.

Going to work, work varies but right now i bike across town to explain accounting to people and use their computer to type documents.
Otherwise take a zemi (motorcycle taxi) to visit with groupments and give formations on savings and loan groups.

Come home for repo (12-3). Eat, read, take tiny nap.

Take 2nd shower. It is hot now and i can take 2 or 3 showers in a day to rinse off... sexy i know.
sometimes i will talk with artisans in village.

Preparing dinner. I cook by candle light. The electricity doesnt always work; and there isnt a light in my kitchen. Main foods: rice, noodles, yams...mostly rice... tomatoes, onions, peppers; fish. Problems with cooking: i don't have a fridge so everything has to be eaten within that meal or the next one.

Then i will visit with my neighbor friend or his sister. In answer to someone's church question from before... i was going to the baptist church for awhile but then i started going to the chuch around the corner from my house with some of my friends. it is in local language, but someone usually tries to translate for me. It is suprising how often they talk about bad spirits and praying against voodoon. I am also potentially teaching a song that i translated from english into french to the choir. i am trying to learn some songs in fon.

Killing coackroaches. This is a nightly ritual. I go to the bathroom in one of three holes in the grounds... latrines. i put gasoline in the latrine and they left. they are starting to come back but i know the secret now.

sleep. crawling into my mosquito net covered bed, sometimes reading a book, or the Bible, saying my prayers and going to bed.

so there are alot of other things i do for work... visiting my homologue, talking with different businesses, typing a manuel for this training program i am creating, talking with people and making connections that turn into something more for work. all in all this is me, more to come.