"Thirty, Flirty and Thriving"

And how did this 30 year old spend her first day in a new decade? Changing truck tires and mopping up raw sewage, in between organizing a teacher training program, figuring out how to send a text message on the satellite phone, and serving Coke to the Executive Committee members. I love living in Juba! Really, where else can you do all these things during the course of a single working day?

Grace and I were actually going to wash the old truck this afternoon. As she was backing it into the "washing spot", I happened to look at the front tire. This is what it looks like:
Can you see the little split right down the middle of the tire? Just as I noticed the split tire, we also noticed that Richard and his old men had all of the hoses in the back of the guesthouse because the sewer system had become all backed up...

So instead of washing the truck, Grace and I learned how to change the tire on the truck. The first challenge was getting the spare tire out from underneath the truck.
Then, while Grace was doing that, Richard had the sewage leak under control enough for me to start cleaning up the sewage that was flowing through our room and into the verandah. Man, that was a messy job. I felt really bad for Richard and his old men, as they had the REALLY stinky job. I was doing my best to keep Zane out of the little river in our room, and filling up the mop bucket with lots and lots of bleach!

By the time I had the floor cleaned up, Grace had the tire changed ... only to realize that the spare tire was completely flat, as well. Oh well... all in a days' work here in Juba!

An opportunity to travel out to a different town has come up this weekend. I'm praying that things will work out with the timing of the teacher training that we're starting this weekend, too. If the truck can wait for me, then I can go. If not, then, well, I'll stay here, and we'll see what happens... But it would be GREAT to be able to go out there and see what this country side is like, finally!