So African thunderstorms are completely different than anything I have ever experienced before. I mean, I experienced rain beyond my wildest dreams in Ireland, but the stuff here overshadows that like a mid '90s Nebraska O-Lineman over, well just about everyone who had the balls to line up in front of him! The storms contain so much RAW power. It is ridiculous actually. The other night was a spectacular display of lightning for about 2 hours before a massive storm swept through Agbang. And I mean MASSIVE, this thing lasted until just now (roughly 3 p.m.). And the thunder? my gosh it shook the foundation of the monastery (which I am glad to say is pictured on the right - new photos!). And the French word for thunder is tonnair. It just sounds cool! Something else that I found surpising, might just be me but nonetheless, the word for lightning is éclat, and the phrase for it is l'éclat de tonnair. I thought it just a little strange that the lightning when translated litterally belonged to the thunder, because technically speaking it is the other way around!
As you can probably tell I am in high spirits today! Not only am I in Kara a day before I normally come in (aka football scores come in to Agbang a day early :) I was able to talk to my mom and dad for the first time since I've been here! I don't count the first experience where I got about 10 words in over a crappy transmition. This was the first real conversation that took place, and surprisingly it didn't really hit me until I sat down for an amazing lunch with one of the monks at his sister's house. It actually, for the first time since I have been here, hold your breath ladies and gentleman, brought me to tears. It was pretty hard to hold them back in the presence of other people, but I managed to do it. And looking back reflecting on it, I don't know what was more astonishing, that this was the first time that I have almost cried in over, actually I have no idea how long, or that I talked to my parents and little bro!
Ok enough sappy stuff, I haven't...correction, I have had the time to prepare a few more blog updates, but lacked electricity so I was not able to use the time I had for that purpose. However, I did manage to get this written and also was able to upload some long overdue pictures! There should be a decent variety of things ranging from my room to the monastery, dining area, church, to a couple of football matches (one from Lomé and the other from the school here in Agbang)! Some of the pictures are my experiments with different artistic and photographic expressions so I hope you like them!
Adios... until tomorrow!
Oh and the Huskers stats looked pretty pathetic against the JACKRABBITS, so someone send an email to Bo for me expressing a desire to see some better numbers on both sides of the ball in 2 weeks against K State! That same person can also send an email to Mac down at UT with "haha" written as the subject line!
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