February 19 "Ecclesiastes--Greek for teacher. Yes, Greek, in the Old Testament"

Saturday was day of the Bible study. We arrived back at Pioneer Camp by 8:30 a.m. and studied God’s Word until about 6 p.m. with a  few short breaks. It was very well done, though. I have a much better understanding of Ecclesiastes now! By the way, did you know that the word Ecclesiastes is Greek? And it's in the Old Testament! Why? (These were questions I was being asked.) I did enjoy myself the most on the part about education because I felt I could contribute to the conversation about teaching and education. Made me feel like I was at home, talking in my apartment about the educational system! Here are some highlights/random facts of the day: 1) Cows were mooing during the first hour of the study this morning. 2) We read an article about a Malawian man who had 11 divorces, 1 current wife, 5 current girlfriends, and 15 children. He thought God’s command to populate the corners of the earth was directed right at him. His wives and girlfriends don’t get mad at him according to his charm, or so he says. 3) Lunch was a delicious chicken and veggie salad with peanut dressing. YUM! 4) SOOOO many people walk around in the pitch darkness at night in the middle of the road. I’m surprised we haven’t hit them in the car yet. 5) Women here can carry 25 KG bags of maize meal on their heads without the use of their arms for support. 6) We ate Malawian pineapples and bars made from Malawian ginger. They were gooooood. 7) Between a few of the different missionary wives, we now have places to stay when we visit Vic Falls and Malawi. And I met my cousin’s friend who works for the medical mission in Malawi; hopefully we can visit her station too! 8) Before dinner we had an hour break and a number of us (there were 11 total) took a walk. We were walking down a dirt road through the tall grass and on this walk I truly felt like I was in Africa. So far, being in the capital, I haven’t felt that. But this seemed more authentic. Unfortunately, we didn’t turn back soon enough, so we ended up walking in the darkness for the last ten minutes. 8) We saw our first wildlife in Africa (besides the bugs, spiders, frogs, and lizards). It was just an owl, but it was still pretty cool because we walked up really close to it. 9) After we came back, we ended the night with some ice cream and a movie, but the intellectual exercise this weekend just made us both sleepy and we fell asleep pretty quickly tonight/during the movie.