random thoughts sunday and monday

Saturday was graduation. It was really nice. The students were all dressed up; some of the guys even wore 3 piece suits. It was great to meet some of the families of our students. I’ll admit it was interesting as the students went through and accepted their certificates to shake their hands and then have them give me a kiss where they touch their cheek to my cheek on both sides of the face. This is a French custom- I hope you have seen this before, and then you might know what I mean. (My Americanness was a little weirded-out by the closeness of it, but I made it through) After the official ceremony was over, we all had some snacks and took lots of pictures. It was so much fun.
Sunday we went to church with Rich. This church was also very small in size- about 36 people- 1/3 were kids. Lebena, one of my Advanced English students, sat next to me and was nice enough to interpret most of it. It was great! He also pointed out some of his sisters, his mom, and nieces and nephews. (Lebena is from a family of 11 kids, so almost all the kids that were there were related to him.) Lebena will be teaching at BAO school next year- school starts in October! Yes- I am excited to say that they will have school even though Bonnie and Rich will be in the states with Bonnie recovering from chemo. There are enough great students that will be able to teach all the classes. Isn’t that great? The only bummer part is that there is no one to cover teaching Bible all 4 days of the school week, but they are going to try to have a local pastor come to teach at least 1 day.
We are going to be going to the beach again tomorrow. We have gotten to go 2 times already- so this is a great treat to go one last time. The ocean is pretty warm- kind of like our lakes feel around the middle of July. We are usually the only ones out on the beach. (When I get home I will post pictures- sorry, it just doesn’t work well for publishing from this end of the world)

It’s great to get the E-news from church. We are praying for you. Thayer’s- have a super great trip. I am excited for you like you wouldn’t believe. God is with you and in control.
Love, Kim