New Year

It's New Year's day which means that last night was New Year's Eve which means I won't get much work done today.

My main achievement in the last week was to repair two extensions in our internal phone system and two add a new extension for some new staff accomodation recently completed. It was a great learning experience and very satisfying to get the job done and see the difference it makes to those who now have working telephones.

Last night we had a bonfire and fireworks early in the evening for the families where we made stick-bread (ask a German what it is!) and then later we had a sort of party for the adults where we played some great party games and had some good food.

Ruth, who was organising the festivities, asked me in the morning to prepare a short time of sung worship to see in the new year and I'm really glad she did. It was great to end a year and start a new one by looking back at God's goodness, provision and grace towards us over the past year and to reaffirm our collective and individual commitments to follow Him and live for His glory in the coming year.

After we counted down to midnight we were invited outside to share Tristan's Christmas present (one of the Coordinators' kids), some fireworks launched from the school sandpit. The guard dog was going crazy!Ours were the only fireworks in the sky over Kinniabour and the surrounding villages last night.

The Senegalese don't really celebrate New Year, at least not in the rural parts (which is basically everywhere apart from Dakar and Thies and maybe a couple of other larger towns). Instead the locals were celebrating Tabaski last night, the largest feast of the Senegalese calendar. As far as I understand it's something to do with atonement, probably like passover for Jews. Everyone buys a ram and kills it and cooks a big feast for their family. It's a very expensive time for the Senegalese and around Tabaski your much more likely to be stopped by traffic police wanting money and such like.The Muslim feasts always make me more aware of the differences between our school community and the surrounding villages but especially the differences between Christianity and Islam. How great it is to have my sins forgiven because of the atoning blood of Jesus on the cross!

After the fireworks all the young singles (there aren't many of us around at the moment) came back to our house and we watched a movie; a very late night indeed!