Update Via Dial Up

Fu Yanni Fellow Missionaries,

I hope all is well with you guys; sorry it has been so long since I have updated but I have been getting settled into my new home in Dano and getting onto the internet is quite a time consuming task, it takes about 30 minutes to load up the page where I can update! I believe that last time I updated I was in Ouaga and planning on leaving the next day; there were complications. The girl, Hilary, that we were picking up from the airport (who is staying for 9 months but is starting at the same time as me) actually had a seizure on the plane on the way to Burkina Faso. She was ok afterwards, in fact it is amazing how God works. The family she was traveling with was a family that has kids who have had seizures before and so they knew what to do, as if that wasn’t enough, as she was seizing and falling towards the ground guess who caught her? A doctor from Burkina Faso who was sitting next to an American woman who was fluent in French and was able to translate what the doctor was saying. Basically the best possible situation for her to have a seizure (if she had to have one overseas that is), isn’t God amazing? At any rate they got to Burkina Faso fine and Hilary was feeling alright; unfortunately none of their luggage made it to Burkina Faso. So the next day a group went on to Dano while Hilary, Chad, and myself stayed in Ouaga to wait on bags and so that Hilary could get some tests done to make sure that she is not going to have anymore seizures and the tests came back good. After all that we arrived in Dano Sunday afternoon just in time for team worship.
The heat here is pretty intense; during the day the temperature hovers at just over 100 while at night it gets down to a chilly 90. This is amplified by the fact that the humidity is comparable to Houston during the summer. Basically I sweat all the time except for when I am taking my 3 minute shower. The reason I can’t take longer showers is because water is low right now; what that means is that we take short showers, we don’t wash clothes in the washer, and we go by the old adage “if its yellow let it mellow if its brown flush it down.” I have definitely been going through culture shock as I try to get used to everything going on here. I am taking language lessons and I have already had my first big language oops; I meant to ask a fellow language learner how her children were and ended up asking how her breasts were…it was a pretty funny moment that we all got to laugh about, the first of many times I am going to be making a fool of myself learning language. All joking aside learning Dagara is very difficult but also fun; I have found it frustrating not being able to speak to people. I found a boy in Dano that I am going to be good friends with this summer, his name is Adriema (I think) and he speaks some English. Between French, English, and Dagara we may actually be able to have some conversations! His family is a family of devout Muslims and they are some of the sweetest people I have ever met. Mr. Barry (the head of the family) is always laughing and always wanting to talk and have tea, I love going down to his shop in town and just sitting around talking and laughing while we try to communicate. Mr. Barry is the Johnsons (one of the missionary families) night guard and they have known him since they first arrived in Dano and just recently he has agreed to sit down and read through Mark with Andy Johnson! Please pray that he is receptive and that his whole family can come to know Christ through this; it will likely be a difficult transition for them because the whole family is Muslim and he is not actually Dagara, he is from another tribe known as the Phillani tribe and so it may be difficult for him to find a church to go to. Please pray that God not only changes his heart but the hearts of his family and that God provides a good community that they can connect with. I hope this makes sense, I am trying my best to explain it. I will update you on how things go, the bible studies start tomorrow night. I love you guys and I will update again in a few days! I will also post some theological musings eventually, I have had plenty of down time to think and write; I look forward to sharing these thoughts with you all!

Your fellow missionary,
Ryan