Oh Friday Nights in Gabon

So, a lazy saturday morning here. Just got back from helping Romie (a professor at the C&MA Bible School) at her yard sale because she and her husband are leaving in a week or so. Anyways, went out with the other interns last night for dinner. We also went with Mama Jeanine's youngest son Yoann who is nineteen. Nice to have another guy my age, and he is a good English speaker.

We left the house around 7:00 to catch some taxis to the other side of town. Took a taxi from our street/cartier to Snee, which is a big taxi hub a little ways away. (we had six in the taxis every time) From Snee we headed to the restaurant, but our taxi got stopped at the big market police stop. We believe it's because we, except for Yoann, are all white/American and there were six of us packed into the car. Anyway, we all had to get out and show the police our passport copies and the driver had to pay him like 2,000/3,000 francs to continue driving us. So we got to the restaurant around 8:00 after that whole ordeal. At the restaurant, they only had burgers left out of everything on their menu, or say they said, so we all got cheeseburgers and fries. Got our food around 9:00 (same time the Straw's walked in, the only other white people we know in Libreville) and then Lindsay got a milkshake before we left. She wanted it to go, but the concept isn't really prevalent in Gabon. She got them to put it into my empty waterbottle, which I had just chugged down about 2 minutes prior... So we boarded a taxi back to the house. This taxi was the coolest ever because it had stuffed animals everywhere and lights and rap music playing (in english). I started out in the front seat with the driver and Yoann, but my butt was too much on the clutch so the driver made me move to the back while he was driving. So I squirmed my way to the back, which already had the 4 girls in it, and rode laying across their laps. Got to about 2 kilometers away from the house and the driver pulled to the side of the road. Is this where you're dropping us off? What's going on? Yoann's exact words as an explanation, "He go pee-pee." He definitely stood outside of the taxi and went... Oh Gabon. Finally got back to the house around 10:00. Oh what a night.

It was great getting to know Yoann because he is a great guy. He is eager to learn more english and has many things in common with all of us interns. He also has a facebook so after we leave, we will all be able to keep in touch. Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch. I am excited to see where Yoann goes because he has two more years in high school here and then he wants to pursue an education hopefully in the states. We'll see. God is very much working in his life. He has a faith that is strongly influenced by his parents, Pastor Jean-Mark and Mama Jeanine. But it is his own faith, he has gripped it and runs with it everyday. Truly a testament to how God works.