Traci’s Tracks <e-mail edition>
Issue #6, January 6, 1999

The Lost episodes....

Hi again.

Sorry for the unreasonable delays in getting this edition of Traci's Tracks on the wire. Your list manager is attempting to relocate and get adjusted to a new job. This coupled with the small matter that Traci's e-mail services in Africa have been nothing short of amazingly unreliable have delayed things just a bit.

Traci did manage to sneak back to Oklahoma for the holidays. This accounted for the missing December issues. It was good to have her back here with family and friends if only for a short time.

Again. My apologies for the delays.
charley.

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know (sorry if I missed you), I was able to take a surprise trip home for Christmas. I wanted to come home for Christmas for some time, but it just wasn't financially possible with having been home in the summer. Much to my surprise British Airways came out with a tremendous special that made it possible. Missionaries who have been out here for 15 years or more had never seen tickets so cheap. It was a great trip home of seeing family and friends, but as always the time was too short to get in touch with everyone.

I arrived back in Africa on December 31 and traveled upcountry on January 1. It was a really nice trip since it was a holiday. The roads and the police stops were almost empty so it made for nice traveling conditions.

I thought I would immediately start getting my classroom ready. That was not to be the case. They had painted it while I was gone. I wanted it to be navy part way up and white the rest. When I went in to look at it, instead of navy it was this really bright shade of light blue. I had to laugh, but I was hoping it didn't have to stay. The painters came on Monday and repainted. It is navy now and looks very nice. This meant I couldn't even start on my classroom until Tuesday. School started on Wednesday (today). Yesterday was a long day, but I was able to get everything ready enough to start.

School started today. As the first day usually is, it was a bit on the crazy side. I have 11 students this trimester. I lost one of my girls, Hannah. Her family went back to the States. I gained two new students, Peter and Caleb. Peter is from England, and his dad works in Bouake with the Rice Development Association. Caleb is from Zambia, and his dad works for the bank in Abidjan. I'm not sure what the Spiritual backgrounds of the students are but I hope to be able to get an idea soon. Please pray that we can minister to them and their families. Peter has a lovely British accent and Caleb a South African one. With those and my Okie accent even communicating in English can be amusing at times.

The choir is working hard at getting ready for the musical on February 21. I now have 27 in the 1-3 grade class, and 23 in the 4-5. I was excited to find out that 1-3 grade class still remembered all of the songs from last trimester. I'll have to wait and see how the 4-5 grade do tomorrow. We still have a lot to get done in the next few weeks.

I leave Friday afternoon to go upcountry with the Cousineaus for a Field Council Meeting. Please pray that this meeting will go well and that we will be able to accomplish what we need to and make the necessary decisions.

I'll bring this to a close because I am tired from my first day and school and I think I'll be in bed before most of my kids tonight.

Keep in touch. I enjoy hearing from all of you.

In Christ,

Traci