Take Two

Well it has been seven months since my last post.  I  spent a week in Shady Grove Adventist Hospital after having hip replacement surgery on April 4th, then another week at the Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland next door.
After many weeks of physical therapy outpatient there, and doing modified floor pilates at Fitness First, I am now ready to start thinking about my return!


Tenatively I am thinking of returning mid-January and leaving mid-March before it gets too hot.  I say tentatively, as I have been checking the price of airline tickets and am suffering a bit of sticker shock.  Not only do there not seem to be any bargains out there, but the rates for travelers who stay over 30 (sometimes 21) days are usually considerably higher. Today's Air France economy rate is $2,321, which is definitely out of my budget range, so it looks like I am going to have to do some more checking around ... or travel more creatively.



I have stopped at the local Dollar Store so I have picked up some items to take with me for the Ouagadougou Médiathèque Municipale (Ouagadougou Public Library) as well.  As you recall, I mentioned that the shelves were quite bare and there was no so-called media at all.  Since the children's room was pathetic with nothing colorful on the walls, I've picked up some bright lettering and craft items that they may be able to use to make the room more inviting.  I was careful to buy items that were bi-lingual (English/French) so that the library staff could use them without any difficulty.

One good thing is that the SIL library is going to be included in the National Presbyterian Church's Christmas Missions Gift Market this year.  This long-time tradition at NPC is an alternative means of giving to a particular mission or ministry in behalf of another person.  This means that this year people will be able to give towards barcodes, or a label-maker, or shares of computer software for the library!  I will be competing with many worthy organizations and causes, so I hope that some "shoppers" will see the importance that getting the SIL library brought into the 21st century by getting its resources on the Web.  This would mean that the library's holdings would be available to its users in the field online, without having to make a special trip to Ouagadougou.  As the library is open only limited hours, this in itself will be a big help.  For example, a SIL translator in northern Ghana could easily consult the library resources of those working on a related language in southern Burkina Faso without having to make a special trip, or asking a colleage to check for him or her. In addition, many of the SIL documents can also be made available in as PDF files so that they can be consulted online with the simple click of a mouse.