then, Then, THEN!

I knew I had to kick it into gear with language learning. I told my leader to do an evaluation for me at the end of January. It will help me know where I am at and what is going well and what isn't. It is like a test, kind of. I am nervous. I already failed a goal I set for myself that I wanted to be through level 1 language study by Christmas. Yeah, what a joke! I don't know why this language doesn't stick in my brain. But, I will do the evaluation on Tuesday. I wanted to be able to go through all of the level 1 and move on to 2, but that won't happen. There are still a lot of things I need to learn in level 1. I am discouraged, but such is learning a language. I will only do part one of the evaluation and do part two in a couple of weeks.It has been a long week. Every day I was like, "is it Friday yet?". I met with my language helper every day. I went out to practice every day. I would come back home so tired and even angry. Angry at myself for not trying harder (that is me yelling at myself). Angry at some of these people who ask me to marry them when they already have 2 wives or people who ask me for a visa for USA or people who want my dress/shirt/sandals. The first few times you laugh but day after day after day after day...ugh!!! Come on people!!My house helper, who is great, did not show up on Thursday morning when it just so happened water was flowing and she could have washed clothes for me. I had a big pile since we haven't had water. Her phone was switched off so I couldn't call her. So, knowing we may not have water for another week,  rolled up my sleeves, filled up some buckets and washed a couple loads of laundry by hand. Seriously. It bites. Exhausting.Then as the week finishes, I saw no progress with language. That just bites all around. Ok, maybe somewhere in me knows I have progressed in some way that I cannot see yet but what I hear coming out of my mouth doesn't sound like progress.THEN as the week finished I was so looking forward to giving my brain a break and just watching movies. Well, as you would have it, the power goes out at 9am. It didn't come back on until 3pm. "God, can it get any worse!!!???" I was so exhausted (and with no power means no fan, so no rest, otherwise you lay in bed and sweat...not a nice feeling) and so I dutifully started studying again. I cooked some food for the week too. So, it wasn't an all-for-naught-day off, but still.THEN I tell myself to stop acting so whiny because people have it way worse than I do. I have to remind myself of all the amazing things I have in my life. I even have mangoes. I usually finish off my dinner at night with a fruit. Mangoes are in season and I am in heaven. So, I was thinking, "some people love their piece of chocolate, or glass of wine. I got me a lovely mango...(sigh)".May the language continue...only if there is a mango for me to eat!Thanks for praying for me!