Getting used to things around here...

Hello family and friends!

We are beginning to get in a routine here.  One of the biggest challenges we have faced is grocery shopping for 5 (without a car) and dinner planning.  We have 3 small grocery stores in our neighborhood, 2 within pretty close walking distance, and the other is almost a mile away.  Each has things we like, so we tend to hit them all during the week.  There is a larger store in the city, but it is a drive from where we live and I can't check out a car yet, so we rely on friends to take us when they are going.  It is kind of like a 3 story Super Walmart or Target, where we can do all our grocery shopping.  This may sound boring to you, but it has been a struggle to figure out the most efficient way to do it in a country where there isn't much efficiency.  We are definitely learning patience here...nothing happens quickly!

One thing we are thankful for is rain!  We are in the rainy season, but there hasn't been much rain.  The farmers outside the village have been struggling with little rain, so hopefully the recent rains will help turn things around.  Just before a rain comes, the wind blows very hard.  I found this out the hard way when I left our glass doors open one night to get some airflow downstairs and woke up at 4 am to the doors slamming against the frame!  Is sounded like someone was trying to pound their way into our house with a hammer.

As for school updates, everyone has seemed to hit a groove 3 weeks in.  Things have settled a bit with Lindsay after the initial craziness of sports physicals, reviewing health records for new students, managing health issues for other students, and teaching 9th grade health.  We enjoy getting to have lunch each day together and often with the kids as well.

Daisy has made a great friend network.  She has a group of girls that like to hang out together after school.  She also started soccer this past week and is enjoying it way more than she thought.  Middle school youth group started on Thursday night this past week and she has some friends that go to that as well, so we are thankful that she is building some good relationships with people at school.

Reid and Sam love playing soccer with school friends at the end of the day!  Since the campus is enclosed, we can let them roam free with their friends, which sometimes poses a challenge finding them when we are ready to go home.  Reid is doing junior basketball on Monday and Thursdays on campus with a few other friends.  His highlight this week was getting to hold a chameleon! One of the 8th grade students found one on the soccer field and now Reid is on the search each day for one.

As for me, I am helping with middle school youth group.  I am a small group leader for 7 eighth grade boys, a few of which are in my class as well.  I feel blessed that I can be a teacher and a youth minister to my students.  I am also helping to coach junior basketball for Reid.  Here are a few picture from the past week:

This is a Kaak.  It is filled with ham and cheese.  Lindsay and I shared one for lunch.  It is from a local restaurant that takes orders and delivers to the school for lunch...very tasty!

Reid loves to explore our backyard.  He found this bird's nest and filled it will shells from our yard.  Yes, our backyard has shells as ground cover instead of grass. 

On our way back from the grocery store that is a good walk from our house, a rain storm came through.  We decided to wait it out on campus, but Sam had a good time playing in it.

We have BIG bugs here in Senegal!  This guy was hanging out on a locker just outside my classroom.

This is something we are trying to do as well.  Lindsay has an app that puts together a 1 second every day video.  Here is ours from August: (hopefully it will work as an insert, but I will upload it to my facebook page as well if it doesn't)

Tune in next week when we will attempt a family trip to the beach via taxi!

We love you all and miss you very much!

-The Mussers