August in General + Weekend

This weekend was a pretty good one, I'm still frustrated with some things, but overall I got to rest a reasonable amount but also to be helpful a reasonable amount. I went to another wedding reception the Sunday afternoon, gave the dog a haircut, and generally did some hanging out with the Pennoyer family. The kids are very amused by the southern accent I can put on--I think I had them laughing for about a half an hour just telling them what "y'all come back now, y'here" meant :)

August, of itself, I think was a good starting month for me. I can't believe it's already over, but it is and so here is what I think: I hard some really hard moments, though they were few, and there are things I have discovered will be hard for some time, but there were also some very good times. I have not needed much here, as most of my needs are supplied, so I spent in total, about $85 American. People have been incredibly friendly, but it's hard to get to know them and feel like I have real friends since I can't always communicate well--that's one of the hardest things. I still feel like I don't have anyone (other than God) here to turn to yet, and it will probably be that way for awhile.

More later about August, but for now I have devotionals.

Okay, I'm back now. Back to what I was saying: I am learning quite a bit of Albanian, I suppose, but it's still difficult since even when I can understand what someone is talking about, I still can't really understand the specific content. It'd be nice if the Albanians made anime that I could watch subbed into English, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. We'll see what happens when my new roommates get here--they may have a tv they'd be willing to let me use sometimes (there are a reasonable amount of American movies subbed into Albanian, so I could get some reading practice in).

In terms of my actual work:
School, however, has been great. Christopher is an easy one to teach and now that we have his desk, he seems to be focusing better and doing a great job of it. Every now and again he tries to rush through his work and makes goofy mistakes (hmm... never heard of a smart kid that did that before) but otherwise he does very well.

Worship team is good, but not easy. I really have to rely on God because we've only had one practice in the month I've been here and most of the time I don't even know the song order before the first service starts. But, I seem to be doing okay since people have said that I did well.

Therefore, praise God that things are going well--it's good to feel like I belong here because of God, I just need to feel like I belong here in terms of getting to know people. Please continue to pray for me--September looks to be slightly hot again and the mosquitoes seem to have revived!