October Birthdays

Sannu-greetings- this past month has been a month of birthdays. Westen celebrated his 13th birthday on the 12th. We went out to a nice restaurant that served Chinese and middle eastern food. There was a man there who made leather belts-so westen ordered one and then received it a week later. Later that evening we had chocolate cake with chocolate icing. The next weekend was Kezia and Riana’s 9th birthday. There were 3 other girls from their school about the same age celebrating about the same time so a big birthday party was organized with mrs Harley (their teacher) leading some organized games. I found some African shirts for them and some watches for their birthday. Then I celebrated my birthday this past weekend (you can guess my age). I found some clothes for myself and we went out and had pizza with mark and Brenda and their family. The kids and I all thought of our family and friends back home and wished we could have shared our birthdays with you all. We seem to be sleeping better at night as a family now. The girls, i think, are finally staying in their bed for the whole night. The night noises do not seem to bother me as much and i think our family is finally getting into a routine. Westen and i get up early and set out for our morning walk at about 5:45 am. The sun is just beginning to rise and there is a low fog in the air. We then get our breakfast with the family and then we journey into jos for school. Randy and i are in intense hausa language study. It is difficult at times to let go of our English language with its grammatical structure and syntax and take on a new language with its tonal nuances and relational pronouns. We have a great teacher who is very patient with us when we goof up. Our house is basically set up in vom. There are a few things we need like adding some counter top in the kitchen and furniture items such as a bigger bed for randy and i that are being made by a carpenter. The evenings at home are spent studying and we are in bed by 8:30pm. We are slowly meeting other families on the compound and have started to go to a local church in Vom. The services there are about 2 hours long. The kids did quite well today. Anyways- yauwa-sai an jima—means- good-bye- until later---charlotte