“We’re go, Flight.” Countdown: T-minus three weeks.

So I’m watching Apollo 13, one of my favorite movies. I never fail to cry during the take-off scenes. How can one conceive of the emotions of a lunar flight crew? The adrenaline, the excitement, the anxiety, the delight . . . the terror? How is the human mind capable of such a wide array of simultaneous emotion? I’m not going to the moon, or even into the stratosphere. I’m merely going across the pond to a small country in Africa. And yet I’m filled with exhilaration, anxiety, suspense . . . thrills, chills, and spills galore. All those emotions that we humans can only hope to experience, if we’re very, very fortunate. Already this is quite a ride, and I haven’t even begun the packing.

After the film’s launch sequence, I began listening to my lessons in Moore, one of the many local languages spoken by the Burkinabe. Is that pronounced more, as in Beth and Tom Moore? Or is it moray, as in the eel that I’ve petted? In the MP3 files produced by the PC, one of the phrases in Moore is: "Omar doesn’t need a beer." Now these MP3 files from the PC consist of a whoppin’ 20 minutes of practice. Yep, just 20 minutes – it’s intended as an intro. A completely mind-numbing, freak-me-out, overwhelming intro. Forget the ol’ phrase, it’s Greek to me. No more. New phrase: It’s Moore to me. Do they even use the traditional alphabet of most western languages? I think not.

Imagine: you’re given a quick gloss-over in a completely foreign language so that you can hit the ground speaking a few polite phrases . . . and one of the phrases that they’ve carefully selected is: Omar doesn’t need a beer. I absolutely LOVE that! Burkina Faso! Is this a great country, or what?! OK, so maybe Omar doesn’t need a beer; but why doesn't Omar need a beer? And after another 20 minute session in Moore, will Kathy? We can only speculate.