Musoma Musings: My Month in Bullet Points

So I kept holding off on writing a post, for what reason I do not know, and now the month of June is almost gone. That truly is amazing, for it has been quite a month. So I'll just pick out some "lights" (both high and low) from the past month.

Training sessions with our translators: At the beginning of these sessions, I was quite literally in a cold sweat. Full blown freaking out nearing on anxiety attacks. Yet as the month has proceeded, it's gotten worlds better, thanks to God alone, for I am fully certain it has nothing to do with me. I've started to really enjoy teaching, and I feel like my Swahili is slowly improving, at least to the point where most basic communication isn't traumatizing. Praise the Lord!
Earlier this month, around the time of my freak-out sessions, I was struggling with the fact that I didn't feel any hope, and I also saw people around me struggling with this same thing. One morning, I was lead to read the first few verses of Romans 5: that suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope. I've never considered anything I've faced as worthy of the title "suffering," but I decided that I was in pain, so I would count it. I also realized that I wanted the hope first, in the midst of the suffering, but I see that God builds our character through the suffering and persevering. When we go through it, and trust God with the results, that's when we have true hope. I also looked at Hebrews 12, where we are told that the discipline of God is proof of his love. If he didn't discipline, it wouldn't be love. And it says that discipline is painful, but that it doesn't last forever. For the first time in my life I think, I really felt like God was saying to me, "Ellen, I love you enough to put you through this. And trust me, the work I'm doing in you is worth it." So now the new fight is to view the pain in my life as evidence of God's amazing love for me.
I've been working through a prayer journal that goes through the names of God and invited you to pray using those names. I've done things like this before, but in this case, a friend of mine wrote a prayer for me at the beginning of each week in the journal. Every Monday I look forward to reading what she has prayed for me. What a great way to start the week.
I teach several guys at the office English, and my favorite word to make them say is "rarely." Tanzanians have difficulty distinguishing l and r and don't use that first vowel much either. I seriously want to record there attempts for when I need a good laugh.
Alias and Lost and Doctor Who: aka my evening entertainment in the month of June
My first experience with amoeba. Yes, I had an amoeba living in me and was well aware of the fact. I got to experience a local clinic, where you bring your personal "sample" in a matchbox to the lab. I walked in, gave the man my matchbox, he took a little blood (malaria test), and 45 minutes later learned I had amoeba. And let me tell you, that antibiotic is strong. I don't think I got out of bed for 24 hours.
After having amoeba all weekend, I returned from work early in Monday to find our househelp wearing only my blanket while her clothes were drying. I said nothing, but went right to bed.
I baked oatmeal bread for the first time, little sketchy, but turned out pretty yummy

Well, that's my month in a series of bullet points, and I'll add a couple pics, so it can be my month in bullet points and pictures, though the pics are older than that. Oh well. Happy June!