Right now my pattern seems to be posting about once a month. I'll try to do better this summer!:) For those of you on facebook, I do post pictures there a little more regularly.
We finished up school and dorm at the end of 2nd week of May. We were pretty tired at the end and the tiredness hasn't dissapeared over night but we are feeling more refreshed. Aidan finished 2nd grade really well. He had a great year and loves school. He's become quite a reader and has read 6 or 7 chapter books of about 100 pages each since school let out. Of course he loves playing the wii when he gets to.
After the end of school we decided to take a break away to the capital city. For the first few days we stayed at another mission's guest house. We invited one of our school teachers to come with us for a few days. It was fun shopping and eating out! She came back mid week and we moved to a nice hotel with a pool for the remainder of the week. The kids loved the pool and Aidan has really taken off swimming, we loved the A/C although we froze at first, and eating out and not cooking was a real treat. The bummer of the week was that Pete got pretty sick with amoeba, the blessing was that we were close to a Dr. and he got tested and treated right away. Ian was prety fussy but it was a nice break from ministry and routine.
We came back home to regroup and prepare for the summer. We're covering a few extra things for people who are on home assignment until school starts and we have returning coworkers. We're helping with the guest house and guards. We've done these ministries before so they're not completely new. Pete is getting involved in working in a couple of fields. I hope to go work for a day or 2. I think we've been reminded of just how hard our village friends work to just live. Everything is done by hand, clearing the field, burning the field, turning/tilling the field, weeding, harvesting. Pray that the extra time Pete has with these guys will show them the difference of Christ in His life.
We haven't gotten a french teacher but are just working on our own. Aidan's picking up a few more phrases just playing with kids. I'm just doing some extra studying/review on my own and the kids and I have been going through rosetta stone.
Aidan celebrated his 8th birthday. It really doesn't seem possible. He and Elianna are really enjoying their time together but they're quickly learning the fine art of bugging each other. Overall they're great friends. Ian is always running along behind them hoping to keep up. He runs nearly everywhere he goes. He's starting to copy more words and we anticipate him starting to talk more soon. He loves playing outside. I'm going to include a picture of Elianna with a little baby whose mom died, probably of AIDS. He was given to on of our coworkers in the village here, he's 3 months and was 3 kilos when she got him. He has now tested positive for the same disease and is in the hospital. Pray for him, his name is Alseny. Other pictures are from Conakry and Aidan's birthday.
I'll try to add some pictures from the last month. Some of the things we've been involved in. Pete helped regrass several roofs. Our houseworker built a 'kitchen', an outdoor building to cook in during rainy season. Oh year, we're into rainy season now and the rains are increasing. Pete took some neat picture of the clouds before a storm one night. Views from the field he worked in. Other pictures are from Conakry and Aidan's birthday. How could I have forgotten, at the beginnig of May Pete and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. I made a special desert and set up a table in our backyard and we had a candlelight desert after the kids went to bed.
