Back in Conakry

We arrived safe and sound in Conakry the very busy capital of Guinea. Last Tuesday we left Macenta with 9 people in the car. I guess if we had known beforehand we would have hired a taxi just for us. But it was a bit too late because everything was packed on the roof of the car.
The planned time to leave was 10 o’clock, so we were ready by 9:30. Surely we should have known, that African time is different from European time, meaning when they say 10 they mean at least 11 or 12 o’clock. And so it was. The car arrived late and until everything was loaded I think it was around midday when we left.
After 4 hours drive we made a stop in Kissidougou a village where other missionaries work for SAM. The next day we started our journey at 6 am, this time we were on time.
During the travel we made a few stops and we arrived totally shattered at 8 pm at our house where we were staying.
The next day we unpacked and just sorted out our suitcases. Fixed the toilet, the bed and hang a shower curtain up.








Since then we have attended a bible study group which meets here in our house, we have been to an English speaking church service and also we have meet a young man who will be our French teacher for the next few months. Today actually we had our first lesson. It seems like that he is a good teacher.

Tomorrow we will be going to the ‘Centre cultural’ to sign in for the formal French course. We thought it would start today (at least that is what the lady told us on the phone), but after we arrived in Conakry and we called again she said, that we missed the ‘sign in’ day and we can’t start today. I am a bit surprised that there is actually a ‘sign in’ day.

Praises:

• God is so good, he watched over us during all our travel
• Our suitcases we left here are found in tacked and safe
• We also thank Jesus for our accommodation (it is a prayer request also though) because we feel privileged of living in a house, having a roof over our heads, something to eat everyday and clean water to drink

Prayer requests:

• On the other hand, the house we live is located on the road, trucks pass by in the night and often, like yesterday night, we have somebody who turns on the music so loud and was talking into a speaker, that it was very hard for us to sleep. This is quite common here since we arrived, so we miss the quietness of Macenta (at least until 4 am).
• The weather is very humid and it is hot. We don’t have to do anything, just sitting, and the sweet just pours out. Our body needs time to adjust to the new conditions.
• Also that the Holy Spirit will open our ears to understand the Guinean French and give us a tongue to speak
• Since we are back here, the first few days, esp. Friday to Saturday, was very hard for me. During transition times (tiredness, lack of sleep, new adjustments, new people, feeling we aren't making any progress of speaking, living with somebody else etc) it is often that the enemy doesn’t sleep. I think yesterday we started to get back on our feet, but we would still value your prayers. When I was reading Gods word, a few sentences ‘jumped out’, I will share them another time.

Thank you so much. Without you, standing behind us and praying for us, it would not be possible to do what we are doing.