God will give us rest

hey all. the past week has been a bit rough for me. i think i'm starting to step on a lot of people's toes and it's becoming clear that i should go home soon. i'm getting very frustrated by the lack of communication about things and the long pointless african meetings. school has started here again and that makes it tricky for the things i'm doing. i can't commit to teaching for a term b/c i won't be here long enough, so i have a bit more down time in my day. i'm trying to prepare things for going with popo to his village next week. i'm not sure that peter is happy about me going to kogelo, and i really don't understand why. i've hardly taken a break over christmas, so i don't think it's that. there will be 2 other MSTs here to carry on. basically people get upset about things but they don't explain why. plus there is a lot of tension between victor and peter right now and it's making things less than stellar. i feel bad b/c i haven't been overly friendly to Melissa, the new MST. she is only 18, and i can't help but keep thinking she's the same age as my former students last year. in any case, she's nice, and we get along fine. she can't believe i've been here since june. sometimes i can't either.
fortunately, i have the haven of maria's house, which has really helped me. last night i taught her to make play dough and gave her a bunch of books. she's going to use them to volunteer at a school. she kept hugging me and was so grateful.
Despite all of the muck, I know that I'm here to serve God and not man. I pray forgiveness for the things I have done wrong, but after that I'm trying to focus on moving on. I cannot please everyone. I take comfort in this verse:
Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
I pray that you would all remember this, as i know things in the U.S. are difficult now. the economy is bad and january is cold. but God can give us strength. I try to remember that our lives here are so temporary and in the long run, these little petty problems have no meaning.\
we were able to get out the Bibles we gave the kids at BOLM yesterday and use them before doing a puppet show of jonah and the fish. so they haven't been stolen or anything. they were in some of the classrooms, which makes me think they are being used a bit.