top twelve

Of course it’s when all sorts of interesting things are happening that I don’t have time to update my blog. The past couple weeks have been very full so I’ll just give you the highlights. Here are the top twelve things from the past dozen days:

1.    Finishing part one of the Christmas project. With a little help from some PHC high school boys, we managed to get all the Christmas bags packed and pretty much all the photos taken before Barb, Christy, and Brenda left on Thursday.

2.    Being a guest speaker on the Radio. Last week Barb, Caitlin and I were interviewed for a “True Love Waits” program on the radio. It was cool! (Now I can say I’ve been in North American newspapers, I’ve been on South American television, and I’ve been on Central African radio!)

All set up to go on the air

American girls eating African fish at a French restaurant

3.    Eating out at a French restaurant. I tried crème brûlée for the first time and it was as good as it sounds.

4.    Figuring out the bus system. Now that Barb is gone, Caitlin and I get to venture out into the world on our own! We have figured out how to ride the busses and catch taxis. The kids at the PHC center like to help us out.

Paterne peeking out of his classroom

Me and Paterne

5.    Picking out a sponsor child for Kristine and Sean. Telling Paterne, a spunky little 10-year-old, that my sister and her husband were going to be his sponsors and giving him their picture was one of the best things I’ve done since coming to Africa. Paterne has been asking for a sponsor and it made him SO happy to have a sponsor!! Now every time he sees me he gets the biggest smile! (I like Paterne because his favorite thing to do is play soccer. We kind of got into trouble for playing soccer in my office and being too loud. Oops!)

6.    Decorating for Christmas. Now that I’ve got Christmas lights strung around my living room and a tiny little tree my house is all ready for Christmas.

7.    Going to a concert at the Alliance Française. There were a couple African choirs performing Christmas songs in the outdoor theater palm trees wrapped in Christmas lights, and if that wasn’t enough to put me in the mood for Christmas, Santa showed up too!!!

8.    Making friendship bracelets with Nicole. She is the 16-year-old daughter of one of the Central African pastors here. A while ago she asked me if she could come over and have me teach her how to make friendship bracelets because she liked the one I was wearing. So she came over and we had a good time hanging out and chatting in Sango.

9.    Watching a French movie at Brigitte’s house. Brigitte is a German woman who works for UNICEF. She invited Caitlin and me over to her house to hang out with her and a co-worker, watch a movie and eat dinner. Even though I don’t know much French it was still fun!

the Bangui sign

10.  Hiking up the mountain to the Bangui sign with Wilfried, Jeff Gill and Mark Simms. We left home at 5:30am yesterday and hiked for about two hours total. There’s a beautiful view of the city from the mountain! We had a big breakfast at Wilfried's house when we got back.

the group fearless hikers (minus Jeff who was taking the picture)

11.  Making chocolate chip cookies! I decided that in honor of Tim Hock’s birthday on Sunday I would make him cookies with American chocolate chips and brown sugar. It reminded me of home and made me so happy!

12.  Hanging out with PHC kids... always a highlight!

Hanging out with my little friends!