Bonjour! Merci! Au Revoir!

These past couple of days have been so busy and full! I hope that I can write about everything. It has been about five full days of being in Africa and tonight I felt how long it's been and experienced some real homesickness. As cheesy as it sounds, I haven't heard my parents' voices since I've been here and for some reason that really hit me hard today. Not that I have not enjoyed my time here so far. I absolutely love the Bradford family and am loving becoming a part of their family. Andrew has most definitely become a part of mine and it's nice to become a part of his. I think another thing that has been hard was that it was definitely difficult getting out into the culture these past couple of days. I've been re-learning some french and also learning some of the native language... which I don't know how to spell it but it sounds like wooluff (haha probably butchered that). It's been very interesting to say the least.. lol

Yesterday I went out with a volunteer team to go prayer walking and evangelizing. I had no idea that I would have this opportunity while I was here. I will tell you, it definitely took me out of my comfort zone. We met this one woman and the volunteers told her about the story of Jesus through our translator, Pop. Her eyes watered as we told her about the peace that passes all understanding and I could clearly detect fear in her eyes. She had to have been so scared of what would happen to her if she chose to believe. That was very hard for me to take. It was also so difficult seeing all of the beautiful children running around in the dirt and looking so intently for love. I just wanted to scoop them up in my arms, but they were afraid of me because I'm so pale and different. I also got hit on a lot and some of the men wanted to take pictures with me. I was uncomfortable, but Pop kept me very safe (as well as God of course). Mr. Scott told me that it was because they viewed me as a ticket to America. So strange. It was definitely a bit of culture shock seeing all of it, but I also felt so close to God because I was literally praying the whole time for His guidance and protection.

Today, Andrew and I went on a walk to the mosque and also to what used to be a beach, but was now a construction zone. We still got to see some beautiful sights, but we were not able to go swim. It's okay though because I have been promised that we will all go swimming soon. I am very anxious to get in the ocean. I love love LOVE the ocean. I hope that we can go multiple times :)

Well, I put most of the pictures up on Facebook, but I know that some of you are just keeping up with my blog and not fb... so here are some pictures for you :)

This is some of the african food I have been eating. Don't ask me what it's called... because I cannot remember! Haha :)

Well that's it for now! Thank you all for praying for me and being invested in my life. Love you and miss you!

Love, Kimmy