Progress!

So I had a little break through today as far as communication here goes. I actually managed to have about 3 different conversations today almost entirely in Swahili...not complicated conversations mind you but it still felt good! Almost everyone here can at least communicate the basics in English, and our students at college have good English so at times it's tempting just to just use it myself. But this afternoon, walking down to buy my mayai (eggs) and nyanya (tomatoes) at the local vege stall I was reminded just how nice it is to be able to talk to someone in their language and how much more you feel a part of a place. You can see how much people here appreciate the effort. People here are more than willing to accept a mistake too and are gracious in their corrections! The process of trying to learn a language almost from scratch is giving me a new appreciation for how hard it must be for people trying to learn English.

On another note, our student teachers are in their last week at college here this week. It's going to be sad to see them all head off and to only be with 6 from now on. It's amazing how quickly you can get attached to a group of people, and these guys have a whole lot of personality and spunk. On the up side, I'm really looking forward to getting out to my school in 3 weeks and getting to see teaching here in action.

Yesterday morning the pastors (there's also a pastor's leadership college here on base) and the teachers all combined their chapel time in the morning for devotions. I have never heard such enthusiastic or heartfelt singing! When the power goes out and your source of music is a keyboard what do you do? You get out the piano accordian and carry on of course! It really did remind me though that worship is about so much more than good music or in tune singing. There was at times a distinct lack of tunefulness, but absolutely no lack of true worship in that place yesterday. I love it.