A good excuse

So today as I went to meet with our Dinka team to start marking the little tests that we gave our students in the teacher training course on Saturday, I was met with an excuse of why I couldn't get any help in doing the marking. Akol told me, "My brain has been typhoidized." That's not an excuse you'd hear every day at a course back home!

I really thought that Africa was going to win today - the first thing that I had to deal with this morning was a broken down network connection box for the office. So in my little dehydrated mind, that meant a full day again of climbing up and down ladders and diagnosing the problem. But as it turned out, it was pretty simple to change, and Jackie graciously came along and helped and gave me some moral support through it all! The second thing to go kaput this morning was the satellite phone. Note to self - sat phones are not at all worth the $1000 that you need to buy one! I've made the silly thing work once. That's it.

And then the third thing to go kaput was the scanner. I spent over an hour scanning something that should have taken 10 minutes. That's just the way things go. As Jackie put it, "Juba breaks things." So far, everything except the Sat phone is back going again, so perhaps I'm winning, instead of Africa today!

One of the other highlights of the day was helping Grace haul boards again, and then being told by the girl who helps in the house that I'm lazy! Me and Grace aren't quite sure what that's all about! I have a feeling she's been seeing everyone else painting and hauling rocks and boards and digging ditches all week, and I've just been doing my computer work and going back and forth to meetings... so I'm sure she doesn't quite realize how much work I've actually been doing all week!

Oh yeah, I also learned a new word today. Winger (that's with a j sound for the g, so it's more like "winjer"), which means, "complainer". Jackie said today that she feels like a winger, so we're going to start making up some good old Winger songs together.

Now I've gotta go do a photo shoot for Grace the cook, who's here from Uganda. Those Ugandans LOVE photos, let me tell you!