Weekly update #2

Another week has gone by since I last posted here to let you know what's been going on. I'm not sure it feels like it's been a whole week, but a lot has been going on.

I got a little glimpse of what the school is like when I sat in on Jen's science class last week. One of the students was sick, which really just meant there was only one student in the class, so I took notes for the sick kid. Not very good notes, it seems, since Jen told me that neither of the kids did the lab report the right way. Friday was the end of the 1st quarter, so now there's a two week break before second quarter starts. Normally it'd be just one, but we have a new accounting system going into place currently, and that involves a lot of training.

Which brings me to my next topic. John Oliver arrived here from Sanford last Wednesday to start training on the new software on Thursday. He works at headquarters as a programmer, and this (the new software) is his project, so he gets pretty excited talking about it and all of its features, which is nice for those of us learning because he can teach the tricks that a normal user might not know. He can also fix bugs while he's here and add in enhancements that are useful for places like Guinea. The goal for Thursday and Friday was to get the store part of the system up and running well enough to open the store on Friday. I'm not sure if I've mentioned the store yet, so for those of you who don't know, there's a small store in the mission center, stocked by a couple who drives to a city about an hour away once a week to do shopping in bulk. They bring everything back to a buildilng here, sort it out, price it according to the prices they paid, and let the missionaries shop there twice a week.

Anyway, long story short, after a long day of training on Thursday and some hectic preparation on Friday, we were ready to open -- barcodes on everything that could take them, barcodes printed by the "checkout" for items that couldn't, everything added to the inventory on the computer (or at least almost everything). Took a little getting used to doing it this way instead of just writing down numbers and totaling them, but I think overall it was a success, and it's nice to have itemized receipts with prices and what we bought.

This weekend, Jen and I made use of a couple of bikes around the center and took a bike ride out on the road toward town. It was nice to get away from our little duplex and the mission center and see a little of Guinea at the pace of a bike. We rode a few miles toward town, up to the top of a hill (where I'll need to go again sometime for some pictures), and then back past Hamdallaye the other direction on a dirt road, filled with potholes. We realized that it's almost as fast to bike on those roads as it is to drive because the drivers are swerving all over to try to avoid as many potholes as possible.

Saturday night, the women in the group got to do a ladies' night out to a port city that has a few restaurants with semi-American food. For someone like me who has barely tasted Guinean food, it probably wasn't quite as exciting, but some of the ladies couldn't wait to sink their teeth into a bacon cheeseburger or some ice cream. All in all, it was a good time for getting to know a little bit more about some of the people I'll be living with for the year and some good food, all at the same time. (I got a fish dish instead of a bacon cheeseburger, but I may have to consider the cheeseburger for future cravings).

On Sunday, I got a chance to lead a few worship songs for the missionary fellowship. I don't know that I was that good, but people seemed to sing along, and I enjoyed it. There's talk of possibly having more of a band, with another guy who plays guitar, a lady who plays keyboard, her husband on djembe, and a guy who apparently has a bass. I think it would be cool if we could get something going.

This week, training has continued on the new software. More stuff with the store, and then a lot of new stuff with the bookkeepers and other account holders. I sit in on all of it, trying to pick up the accounting information enough to be able to help with the computer part of it later. It keeps me busy all day, and it's been a blessing having a roommate who's willing to cook enough lunch to share with me every day, since I wouldn't really have time for it on my own.

Overall, it's been another really good week, and I'm looking forward to the third. Hope you're all doing well, too!