So here I am, sitting and sweating in my in my little wicker chair on the patio, renewing my friendship with the two-tailed lizard, the praying mantis, Scamper the cat, and Templeton the rat. Little Templeton has already enjoyed a snack of the popcorn that we brought with us. Not to mention renewing my friendship with all of the folks that live and work on our compound here! It really felt like coming home. Our Dinka, along with Dario, were all in their container, Alec and Pam were sitting down for lunch under the tree, Richard's "old men" were working away, fixing a screen door in their little workshop area. Elizabeth and her dinky Dinka are no longer with us, as it just wasn't working out with Elizabeth's work. So I'm already missing our little dinky Dinka, but I brought her some books, so we'll have to go visit them.
We didn't have any trouble getting here. I did have to pay some overweight, but it wasn't any more than I thought it would be, and ended up being quite reasonable. Considering I've never in all of my travels ever had to pay overwieght or ever had to ship anything anywhere, I think I'm doing pretty good! Our flight was quite pleasant - a little tiny propeller powered plane, in which they kept the door to the cockpit open the whole flight! I had a great time watching the pilots fly, and looking out the front windows of the plane! We even got some mango juice to drink - well, I did at least. Grace was sleeping when the stewardess came around with the cups, so she didn't get any. I guess I could have shared mine with Grace, but I didn't want to give her any Canadian cooties.
We got through the immigration and all that with no problems, and sat and waited for our other friend here to come and fetch us in our truck. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. Grace and I were sure that she was just hiding on the other side of a pillar somewhere...
Finally, we decided to jump in a taxi. And of course, with our luck, we arrived back on our compound and our truck was gone - Jackie had just left for the airport to get us! I had been watching for the truck on the way to our compound, but somehow, we didn't pass each other, which is quite something, considering how few cars there are on the roads here.
Anyways, it's good to be back. There are improvements - the most dramatic of which is the fact that the city electricity has been on for two days straight now! So we're actually able to run the ceiling fans, including the newly installed ones in our room, in the kitchen and in the eating area. Wow, what an amazing difference it makes to have a fan! There is also a washing machine for clothes, and two very eager and motivated girls working to keep this place spic and span!
It's also dry/dusty season here. So most of the grass is dead everywhere in the city, and flying into Juba, we had to think for a few minutes as to whether we were flying through a low hanging fog or a dust cloud. Of course, it was a dust cloud, just hanging here in the air. But I must admit, I like the dry heat better than the humidity from last time I was here!
Phew, I'm getting tired, though. I still need to write about the excitement that we had last night during our last night in Entebbe. The story includes gunshots, so I want to make sure I write it down, but I'm so tired at the moment...
You can also look at Grace's blog for some photos of me from the last few days. I STILL haven't uploaded my photos, so take a peek at Grace's blog.
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