Finally! It took 7 weeks, but the Birkenstocks that I ordered from eBay finally arrived in Burkina Faso! Yeah, 7 weeks may sound like a long time, but ... after the 6th week, I was seriously doubting that I would ever see them - so I was just glad that they arrived. My Nike sandals were already worn out after my first month, so I thought these would be a worthwhile investment since I wear sandals every day... and at $65 CAN I think they were almost a steal (considering that they were shipped to West Africa).

Yesterday I was invited to celebrate American Thanksgiving with a bunch of other missionaries. Americans seem to take their Thanksgiving a lot more seriously than we Canadians do, which means that I ate amazingly well (easily the best meal I’ve had in 3 months). We had roasted chicken (turkeys cost about $60 here), stuffing, apricot salad, mashed potatoes, sweet carrots, a big vegetable platter… and for dessert, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Mmmm. Again, the SIM family is really great in BF and that just makes things that much easier here.

I just uploaded the second crocodile video onto Google Video and updated the link on that blog post.

Last weekend I bought a used motto, or "mobilette", from SIM for about $200 CAN. It's got 110cc, 4 gears, and... it's fun to ride. It's good to have because now I can get around the city and go wherever I want to, and I won't have to depend on other people for rides.

We had a really great time in Togo. The MK's were really fun and the other SIM missionaries are really great as well. Here are some pics. The first is a group shot of everyone at the conference, and the second one is a shot of Dave and I at the top of a mountain that we hiked.













Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to a village called Piela to visit a few of SIM's main projects in Burkina such as the widows project, the milk for the malnourished project, and one of SIM's main health centres.

Going to Togo tomorrow to run some children's programs for SIM Togo-Benin's Spiritual Life Conference (a retreat for all the SIM missionaries in Togo and Benin).