Traci's Tracks <e-mail edition>
Issue #1`Sun, 1 Nov 1998

Congratulations!

You now have a copy of the first ever <for this week anyway> installment of Traci Epps' tales from the Dark Continent. Just a couple of ground rules please:

If you know anyone that needs to be on this list feel free to reply with their e-mail address and name.

If you decide to reply, please do not use the "reply to all" option. Just reply to me. If I need to make a correction or send something to Traci, the 50 or so people on this list may not want more mail by default. Also; there is a web page under development where these e-mails will be made available and hopefully, if I can get the server space there will be a message board.

If you are interested in a very good website that has a detailed overview of life in Cote d'Ivoire's capitol, Abidjan, try this link:

If you want some detailed information about the country here is another good link:

Thank you for your time, prayers, and encouragement.
charley.

Possum Ranch Publications.
<In the event you find spelling or grammatical errors please try to ignore them>

Dear Family and Friends,

I know that you all have already received notice that I am going to start sending an email newsletter. Let me tell you some of the reasons why I want to do this. First of all it isn't because I don't want to keep personal contact with you and to send messages directly to you. I want to keep everyone informed of what is happening here at ICA and this is the most economical way for me to this. We pay for both the email we send and receive here. We pay by the message and by the length of the message. I found myself writing 15 or 20 messages that all contained a lot of the same information, the last week or two weeks events. With this newsletter, I can just send that information to the States in one message and have it distributed to all of you. I can still reply to your personal messages, but you will receive the main bulk of the news from the newsletter. Please don't let this discourage you from writing to me! I look very forward to receiving email. It is so nice to be able to have contact with the outside mail. It is funny to see the crowd around the email computer when it comes in. It is a very important time of the day. There are lots of smiles for the people who received mail and groans from those whose name is not on the list. My only request is that you try not to send me forwarded mail. I do enjoy reading all that funny stuff that goes around on the internet, but it is just to expensive to enjoy it here. If you do come across something that you feel that you just have to send me, please include a personal note to me in it as well. Please don't just add my name to general mailing list so that I receive everything that gets sent around.

I am going to try to put out a short newsletter every week or two weeks just to let you know what is happening. Please realize that our email and phone lines are not the most reliable. It is not uncommon for email to be down for several days or a week and on occasion two weeks. You ought to hear the groans then from those who love to see their name on the email list. And yes, I stand guilty as charged on this issue. I'm probably one of the loudest groaners when my name isn't there.

Ok, now for the news. Some of this will be a repeat to some of you who were already receive new pretty regularly from me, but there are those who haven't been so I need to fill everyone in so we are at the same place.

We joke around here how that the main topics of conversation are the weather and health. It is true. It seems just about every conversation involves those two topics somewhere. I guess because there are at the front of people's minds most of the time, and those are the two areas that I am going to start with.

The weather---It is getting hotter, but at least we are still getting rains. We are at the end of rainy season, but it is still so nice to have the rains to come through to cool the place off. Soon the rains will leave and the temperatures will continue to rise. I just keep telling myself that right now is not too bad, because I know February and March are still

coming.

Health and Safety --This is a major concern right now and everyone here would greatly appreciate your prayers. We have had an unusual amount of injuries and illnesses in the last few weeks. I'll mention as many as I can think of so you can remember them in prayer.

Larry Charter (dorm dad in Bethany Dorm) has been down a couple of weeks with hepatitis. This last weekend he came down with malaria also. They had to put him back on IV's overnight to get him over the hump. He is a pretty sick guy.

David and Laura Belle Isle (one of my student's parents) have come down to stay and help out in the dorm while Larry is recuperating. Pray for them while they are here, and their work in Abengorou while they are away.

Jessica Charter (Larry's daughter-elementary student) broke her arm almost by her shoulder. She is having to keep it strapped to her body not a real comfortable thing in very humid weather.

Richie Carmichael (a high school student) also has malaria. His mom is down from Timbuktu to help take care of him.

Dianne Marine (Beth-Eden dorm mom) has malaria and has been really sick.

David Eagleton (high school student) broke his leg playing soccer last week. His dad who is a FWB doctor in Doropo was here for field council so he was able to cast it.

Laura DeRuiter (middle school student) broke her foot by turning the wrong way.

Carla Smith (high school student) hurt her wrist playing soccer.

David Grudda (middle school student) fell while roller blading and split his lip. He had to be taken to the Baptist Hospital in Ferke to have it stitched. It was quite a job.

Katie Campbell (one of my students) has missed 3 days of school recently from being sick.

Emily Trosen (elementary student) has been down the last two days with a high fever.

This is the list that I can think of right now. Each day it is almost like we wait and see who is going to be sick and if anyone is going to be hurt. These are just the ones who are still sick and injured. I can think of several more who are still recuperating right now. Please pray for the health and safety of the school.

The biggest news of last week involved our school sign. We had a concrete sign in front of the school that said Ecole Baptiste. We had it until last Thursday evening when a bus went off the road and collided with it and sent concrete flying in all directions. We don't know what caused the bus to go off the road. With it being one of the small African buses it could have been for a lot of reason: no brakes, blow-out, loss of steering, or any combination of those. They are not the most safe and sound vehicles. It is a praise item thought that it did not hit the guard house or the electric poles and that the guards were able to warn some of our African workers that were in the path of the bus. There were only a few injuries of the people on the bus. The senior class was planning on putting up a new sign this year anyway. I guess they have extra incentive now.

Also another prayer request is to pray for the Darriet family, especially the father, Frederic, who is not a Christian. Helene', the mom, teaches French at ICA and English at the French school in town. She has only been a Christian for a couple of years. William is in 4th grade. He was in my class last year. Alexandra is in 1st grade, and Nicholas is in the pre-school at the French school. He is 3 years old. This is a really special family to me. I spend a lot of time with the kids. William and Alexandra are usually in my classroom most days after school, and William often comes to my house once a week when he stays after school for an evening activity. This last weekend, Lizzy, the high school English teacher who lives downstairs, invited the Darriets to supper. She invited me, too. I'm sure it was mostly for kid entertainment. It was a fun evening. Of course since they all spoke French that is what most of the conversation was in. I was able to keep up with some of it, but I was also busy with the kids. I am praying that all of these different contacts that we have with Frederic will help him be more interested in Christianity and that he will see his need of Jesus.

Also for those of you who don't know, this year I am teaching 3rd grade and music. It is going OK, but it isn't the easiest thing. The hardest thing is to keep the energy level up for all of it. Pray that I will be able to do my best in the music class and teach the kids what they need to learn.

This is a lot longer than I intend most of my messages to be. I don't want to bore you all, but to keep you informed and entertained when the kids give me good things to write about. Keep in touch! Don't forget that I still want to hear from you and to find out what is happening on your side of the world.

In Christ,

Traci