French studies and visits

These weeks I am involved in a "refresher course" in French in the city of Aix en Provence, just a little ways outside of Marseille. Many people have asked,"you already speak French, why are you take a French course?" But as I use to say to our staff in Africa, language learning starts when you get off the plane in your country, and it ends when you leave. I am grateful to have some time to focus on language skills, and I am learning a great deal. The course runs July 17-Aug 4.

Just before the course started I had a visit from my colleagues Francisco and Stephanie Ramos. It was great to have then in Marseille to see a bit of what I do and what my suroundings are like. Here we are at the Pharo park looking over the old port.

At the end of July I had another trip to Belgium to connect with our colleague Karen Benson who was on her way back to Africa after a short visit in the US. Steve and Barb Swanson gratiously hosted us, and we did a day trip to the Holland coast.

Coffee break