A little prickly..

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My throat is really sore and prickly today. (No, that cute little baby hedgehog in the photo wasn't part of the delicious barbecue we had when working with the boys at the orphanage in Mbour.) The sore throat could owe its origin to the soaking we got when a torrential tropical rainstorm took us by surprise and flooded the roads on our journey from Mbour back to Dakar. (Yes, that middle photo really was taken out of the car, and not out of a boat!) But it's more likely that my sore throat was caused by the excessive air conditioning on the overnight flight from Dakar to Madrid..... which felt something like sitting inside a freezer. All the passengers were asking for blankets, but there weren't enough to go round. The lady sitting next to me had an asthma attack... and by the time we reached Madrid at 4 am this morning, I discovered I had lost my voice, and that my throat was all red and swollen. It hurts to swallow, so I'm not eating any food on my first day back in Europe; instead, I'm drinking lots of hot lemon with honey, and hoping to recover from the throat infection before it can slip down and become bronchitis.

Apart from feeling rather unwell today, I look back on the month in West Africa with great thankfulness. We saw God do lots of encouraging things, both in and through the teams, and we can return home knowing that our investment made a difference, both physically and spiritually. I'll send some more news this weekend in my September newsletter.