Happy 2015 to you all!! :-D
We still can't believe it's 15 years since all those 'millennium bug' scares and predictions of the world ending... We must be getting old!
Well, New Year seems to be a bigger deal here than Christmas, presumably because Muslims and Christians celebrate New Year! Christians here tend to welcome in the new year with a church service, so we did the same thing here, meeting at church at 10pm...
Before that, we headed to our local buvette for a quick bite - spaghetti and omelette (with yummy turkey sausages) as usual!
Once at church, we spent some time (nearly an hour actually) sharing different ways God had blessed our lives during each month of 2014. It was a highly encouraging time: one guy shared how God had freed him from his 33-year smoking habit (365 days without a cigarette) much to the surprise of everyone who knew him, another shared how God had proved him innocent when someone took him to court over something he hadn't done and another shared how God had spoken to him through a Bible verse and completely transformed him at a time when he was deep in depression and about to give up on his faith... And my personal favourite, from a 9 year old boy: "I would like to thank God because my dad said we were going to kill a goat for Christmas but [frowning] we didn't kill a goat... But [big smile!] today I ate TWO chickens!!" Lol... That kid loves his food - and sadly his family doesn't always have much money to buy food... But he obviously had a blessed last day of 2014!! :-)
Our first day of 2015 was allocated for a spring clean as our apartment was really really filthy... Like disgusting! The amount of dust and the number of cobwebs in this country is incredible... And cleaning seems like even more of a waste of time here than in Europe as about 10 minutes after cleaning, everything is covered in dust again!
Here are some before/after pictures...
Yes those windowsills are both supposed to be dark grey. The orange one... Caked in dust. Minging or what?
Neither of us are big fans of cleaning so it wasn't the most wonderful day in the world (two tired and grumpy people + dust and dirty rags = not a good combo!)...
But the job is done now and the result is pleasing!! :-) Time to chill...!
The highlights of the day were: 1) a visit from the lady across the road who we've been buying lunch from for the past few days (rice pancakes with a salty spicy peanut powder and tomato sauce) - she just wanted to wish us a Happy New Year and introduce herself properly, and 2) a visit from our neighbour Christian with a plate of couscous and chicken that his mum had made for us for the new year - an answer to Etienne's prayer for couscous and my prayer for not having to cook!! God is good!!
Wishing you all a new year full of joy and not too much cleaning...! ;-)
We still can't believe it's 15 years since all those 'millennium bug' scares and predictions of the world ending... We must be getting old!
Well, New Year seems to be a bigger deal here than Christmas, presumably because Muslims and Christians celebrate New Year! Christians here tend to welcome in the new year with a church service, so we did the same thing here, meeting at church at 10pm...
Before that, we headed to our local buvette for a quick bite - spaghetti and omelette (with yummy turkey sausages) as usual!
Once at church, we spent some time (nearly an hour actually) sharing different ways God had blessed our lives during each month of 2014. It was a highly encouraging time: one guy shared how God had freed him from his 33-year smoking habit (365 days without a cigarette) much to the surprise of everyone who knew him, another shared how God had proved him innocent when someone took him to court over something he hadn't done and another shared how God had spoken to him through a Bible verse and completely transformed him at a time when he was deep in depression and about to give up on his faith... And my personal favourite, from a 9 year old boy: "I would like to thank God because my dad said we were going to kill a goat for Christmas but [frowning] we didn't kill a goat... But [big smile!] today I ate TWO chickens!!" Lol... That kid loves his food - and sadly his family doesn't always have much money to buy food... But he obviously had a blessed last day of 2014!! :-)
Our first day of 2015 was allocated for a spring clean as our apartment was really really filthy... Like disgusting! The amount of dust and the number of cobwebs in this country is incredible... And cleaning seems like even more of a waste of time here than in Europe as about 10 minutes after cleaning, everything is covered in dust again!
Here are some before/after pictures...
Yes those windowsills are both supposed to be dark grey. The orange one... Caked in dust. Minging or what?
Neither of us are big fans of cleaning so it wasn't the most wonderful day in the world (two tired and grumpy people + dust and dirty rags = not a good combo!)...
But the job is done now and the result is pleasing!! :-) Time to chill...!
The highlights of the day were: 1) a visit from the lady across the road who we've been buying lunch from for the past few days (rice pancakes with a salty spicy peanut powder and tomato sauce) - she just wanted to wish us a Happy New Year and introduce herself properly, and 2) a visit from our neighbour Christian with a plate of couscous and chicken that his mum had made for us for the new year - an answer to Etienne's prayer for couscous and my prayer for not having to cook!! God is good!!
Wishing you all a new year full of joy and not too much cleaning...! ;-)
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