Just to let you know I'm alive

Yeah, so there's not too much to say today... another day of class, which was really interesting. I must admit that I don't completely agree with everything this professor is saying. I mean, I know he's been in Africa for 40 years, but there are some things about culture in general where I don't think you can make such broad generalizations like he's doing. Perhaps my whole definition of what a culture is is a lot more narrow than his. He's only defining cultures based on the languages that they speak... and that's a very broad definition of a "language". Anyways, there are a few points on which I disagree... but he's not exactly the type of person that you disagree with!

The main professor that I have, though, is brilliant! She's a Kenyan, from the Western part of the country, but is a lecturer at one of the Universities here in town. She wears beautiful African clothes, and teaches in a very African style - she tells stories instead of giving a list of points. I like that. Most of her stories have to do with her children and her family, and they always just make such a nice point! I could listen to her speak for hours. And of course, we have a lot of discussion time in the class, which is interesting because there is such a mix of people in that class! Kenyans, a Liberian, a Ghanaian, a nun from Columbia (yes, South America!), an American who teaches ESL in the States, and another Canadian who works in the slums here in the city. Really, a great group to get to know.

This evening someone who lives in the same compound with me has invited me over for dinner and games. I guess my homework can wait until a little later :) For now, I'll just post the latest Zane photo, from Jackie who I left back home.

Isn't he sweet?! Now that I've seen a few cats here in this country who are fat and rolley-polley, I like Zane's panther-like sleekness all the more... even if the folks here think he looks funny. Don't tell Zane the Kenyans think he looks funny - it might hurt his feelings!

Safe and Sound

Yup, safe and sound here in Nairobi. I have successfully taken the matatu all by myself twice now! And I took it once with Elizabeth, my big boss in the organization who is also taking courses at the college.

So far, so good. I have realized how athletic you have to be to take the matatus, though. Matatus come in all shapes and sizes these days - from "proper" busses (like a Greyhound), to converted highway trucks (lorries) to small 15 passenger vans. And they all come with their own challenges to jumping in and out. Personally, I like the bigger busses, but the drivers tend to start moving before you actually get to a seat, so if you're not careful, you end up in someone's lap when the driver makes a sudden move (which is fairly common in Nairobi traffic!).

Here's a picture of a typical matatu. I don't take my camera with me, so this is one that I found online... but this is what it looks like.

The challenge of the converted lorry today was trying to climb into the cab. Elizabeth and I were going together this morning, and there was only one seat in the back of the bus, so the conductor sort of shoved me into the front. Wearing a slim skirt, I had to pull myself up into the cab of this giant truck, with my backpack and my coins for the fare in my hands. The driver was already starting to pull away from the curb, and I was trying to find something other than the male passenger sitting next to the driver to grab on in order to pull myself into the truck before I slid out onto the road side! Yesterday, the only seat left was right where the conductor usually sits... so the three other people on the bench scootched over as far as they could, but the conductor still ended up practically sitting in my lap! And then of course, when you get out, none of the drivers want to stop for very long, so you usually have to just jump out and pray that your feet hit the ground all in one piece. I just don't understand how these women can do it in their fancy stiletto sandals! They are the true athletes.

Here's a photo of the bus that I was stretching myself to get into this morning, again, from the Internet somewhere.The challenge of the small mini-bus kind of matatus is trying to get in and out. You usually have to squash in past a lot of people to find a seat in the very back. And then when one person wants to get out, everyone else has to get up to let them out! This is where being tall is a real disadvantage.

Granted, the matatus are loads better than they used to be here. There are actually laws now that say each vehicle has to have enough seatbelts for each passenger. So they're really not supposed to squeeze another passenger in... and they normally don't. There are also very set fares now, so the conductors can't ask for more just because you don't know the way or because you have the wrong color skin. So it's really not that bad going back and forth each day using the matatus. In fact, it's quite interesting to watch people! And amazingly enough, no one makes a big deal out of the fact that there's a white girl on the bus. No one yet has asked for my hand in marriage. I haven't even heard a mutter of a "hey, baby!". So really, I can't complain at all.

And here's one of my own photos from last year of the typical traffic that I go through each day. I'm glad I don't have to drive!
And now it's time go to for dinner with some friends. My friend will drive us through the traffic towards a lovely Ethiopian restaurant here.... I can taste the shiro already!

With all my athletic tricks getting in and out of matatus, at least I won't be gaining any weight while I'm here! Oh, that reminds me of something funny today in class. My Kenyan professor was greeting us, and she was greeting someone in the class who she hadn't seen in a year or two. Her comment to the student was, "I can see that life has been good to you!". That's African code for "My, look how fat you've gotten!". I hope they don't say that to me too many times once I leave Nairobi :)

I love weekends

Yup, so I spent my first Sunday alone, without the Internet yesterday. I resisted the urge to walk down to the office in the afternoon just to check my email and blog. Aren't you proud of me for resisting?!

So now I'm here in the office and have been having fun catching up with people and saying hello. I'm off to get my hair cut in a few minutes! Yay! That sure will be nice to have a real haircut again - even though people here are saying that it looks great. Thanks, Judy, for a great haircut that still looks good after 4 1/2 months of not cutting. But still, it will be nice to get it cut.

It was also SO nice to be in church yesterday. I almost started bawling in the middle of the service, just because I didn't realize how much I miss being in a nice big church, with good loud worship, with people that I know are true believers. Yup, it was refreshing! And a good reminder of the privilege that it is to meet freely, and to meet and worship and pray and hear a good sermon in my own language!

I gotta go. Going to bring my computer home before my haircut so I can have it at home tonight... tomorrow starts my big day at school!

Saturday in Paradise

OK, so maybe Nairobi isn't exactly paradise... in fact, I'm really missing my own home back in my dusty, dirty, smelly, sweaty place. But I'm enjoying some of the luxuries of life here. I went with some friends to a lovely mall this morning, and bought some luxury items like nice smelling handcream, fresh milk, contact lens solution, bacon, and flea remedy for Zane. I even had a lovely sandwich with real beef and chicken, all oooweey and goooweey in bbq sauce and slathered in melted cheese. Mmmm... very nice.

I think I'm experiencing a bit of culture shock, actually. Nice roads, beautifully clean shops where you can get anything you want! It's nice to be here for a bit.

But there is still a little bit of Africa here. The zipper on my skirt broke for the second time today, so I took it to a little dukka right outside our gate. There is a tailor who sits there, so for $1, I'm getting a new zipper put into my skirt. I'll pick it up on my way back home from the office here where I'm Internetting for a while. It's nice to still have a little bit of Africa outside your front door!

I'm also listening to an interview that my cousin did in his church a few weeks ago. So far, it's really good - I'm proud of that cousin of mine. You can listen to it, too, as it's posted on the web at the New Hope Church website.

Part of it is talking about Internet addiction. Yikes! I think I'm actually addicted to the Internet. I guess the first step is admitting your addiction, right?! So now I can do something about it. I think the next few weeks is going to be good for that, since I'll be stopping pretty much cold turkey! But I'll still get my emails... so you can keep emailing me, even if I don't post very often...

Oh right... why am I here?!

And just in case anyone is wondering what in the world I'm doing here in Nairobi...

The organization I work for requires its members to have some sort of orienation to Africa before they live here long term. Well, I've sort of been living here for a while, and have never actually had any orientation!

So there is a course at Tangaza College, through a Catholic University in the US, which is a 4 week immersion course in African Studies. This morning I went with my supervisor here (who has taken courses here and has recommended the college for my orientation) out to the college to pay my fees and figure out how to travel there. If you look at the links, I'm taking the African Cultures: An Overview course.

I also got the syllabus and course information while I was there. It looks like it's going to be a brilliant, but intense, course. Basically, every student is assigned a Research Assistant, who is a local person. You work together with this person to do primary research on a topic of African culture - it can be pretty much any topic that you happen to be interested in which fits the broad themes of the course. Three days a week are devoted to lectures at the college. The other three days of the week (yes, it's 6 days/week!) are devoted to running around town, interviewing people and doing research with your assistant. The assistant is supposed to be able to help you find people and resources and help you get around the city on public transport and all that. It also includes a weekend visit to the homeland of your Research Assistant, somewhere outside of Nairobi! So that will be great fun, I'm sure!

It seems like it's going to be pretty intense, and quite tiring, as I'll probably be travelling around the city a lot. But it's a great opportunity to really get to know some aspects of the culture, and to be able to really talk to local people about some topic that I choose. I already know that I want to do research into some sort of education topic... just not sure quite what yet.

I would appreciate your prayers for my safety as I cruise around town on public transport, as well as for your prayers for a good relationship with my Research Assistant. It seems that the assistant is really quite key to the whole experience, and it would be great to have someone that I could really have a good relationship with. Please also pray that whatever topic I choose to research will be a real help to the work that I'm doing in literacy and education in my "normal" job.

So all that being said, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog in the coming weeks! At the moment, I'm in the office here near where I'm staying. But once classes start next week, I'll probably only use a dial-up connection for sending and receiving emails :(

Nairobi

And now I'm enjoying the cool, fresh air of Nairobi! When I was here before, I thought that the road in front of the office here was a horrible road. Somehow, it doesn't seem so bad anymore. When I was here before, I thought that there was so much garbage and dirt on the roadside. Somehow, it doesn't seem so bad anymore. When I was here before I thought the drivers were crazy. Somehow, it doesn't seem so bad anymore...

I went to meet someone in YaYa Center yesterday afternoon. It's quite a nice mall here in town, when you're drinking a latte in the center court, you really feel like you're back home in North America. It's even full of white folks! Because of the way things worked out, I only had a small window of time to see this friend, so I had to run almost directly from arriving to get a taxi to YaYa. I didn't even have time for a shower to wash the dust from my feet. So I was still smelling a little like my previous home when I arrived in YaYa, and I didn't really have time to mentally prepare myself for the excursion back to the land of the clean and Westernized.

So I had a bit of culture shock there. I also needed to buy a few things, so I went into the main grocery store there. Funny, but I really was slightly paralyzed by the choice! So I didn't buy anything more than just the basic things that I've been craving - milk in a carton (not the UHT or powdered variety), vanilla yogurt, granola cereal, mince meat (um, er, ground beef in Canadian speak), chedder cheese, shampoo, nice smelling soap, a chocolate bar, and some apples. I also bought some ear wax remover... well, because of the crazy ear wax problems that we all seem to have back in Sudan!

I forgot about orange juice, though I had some on the plane and I couldn't believe how nice it tasted. I'll have to stock up tomorrow on OJ. Mmmmm.... OJ.

Anyways, I had a nice visit with my friend Karinya. She just returned from visiting with my dear friends back in E-land! So I got letters, and I got to see photos of them! I even got a new nitzala shawl and some powedered shiro to make into a lovely meal sometime. It was just so good to hear first hand news of that place. And I'm so glad that there is yet another person who knows my friends there, and can understand why I love that place so much.

In the evening, I got home, made myself a cheese burger, had a lovely hot shower, and went to bed, snuggled under a heavy blanket. Mmmmm... I feel like a new person already. But I'm also already missing Zane and all my friends back home!

Safe and Sound

So I did make it here, safe and sound, as it turns out. Thanks for praying, because really, the trip was about as smooth as you could expect!

Jackie took me from the guesthouse to the airport, and I was checked in, had my passport stamped and had my luggage looked through all in less than 15 minutes! Then, of course, the plane was late arriving, so we were over an hour late in leaving. But oh well. Of course, I met some friends in the airport so I had someone to chat with whilst waiting.

The flight itself was nice. We flew right over the Ngong Hills and on the edge of the Rift Valley! So it was beautiful. Once I got to Nairobi, there were only a few people ahead of me in line at the Visa counter. So that only took a few minutes. Then as soon as I walked down the steps into the baggage hall, my bag was there. Then, as soon as I walked out of the baggage hall, there is a desk where you can book a taxi. I paid for the taxi right there, and the nice man in a suit and tie escorted me out past the waiting throng and to the taxi. He even opened the door to the taxi for me :)

I knew exactly where I was going, so the taxi dropped me right inside the compound where I'm staying. The only glitch in the plan came when the keys weren't left where they were supposed to be. But then I just walked up to the little kiosk outside the gate, bought some airtime for my cell phone, which actually works in this place normally without fail, called the woman that I'm sharing the flat with. She was working at the office which is just a few blocks from the house, so she ran up and brought the keys.

And I didn't break a sweat throughout the whole operation.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

As I sit here and wait for a whole swack of documents to print, I'll just update my blog for a minute... The documents are some of the plans and articles that I've been making and using for the workshops that we're planning, starting in August. It's hard for me to do things so far in advance, but since I'll be a student for 4 weeks, I've got to get my head around some of these things now.

The more I think about the work that I've been doing here with the Ministry of Education, the more I see God's hand in his guidance in it all. The things I'm doing now - planning literacy and education workshops and sessions, isn't quite as scary to me since I had a bit of practice in lesson planning and teaching back at CanIL last year. The fact that I'm working with Moses, who was a participant in a course that I helped with in Nairobi 2 and 3 years ago is also God's hand in it all. I certainly wouldn't have the same sort of relationship with Moses that I have now if God hadn't somehow worked it for me to be at that course in Nairobi.

The more I think about it, the more I can see how God has been preparing me for the past few years for this huge job of being involved in helping to plan a national education system. I had no idea at the time, but God certainly did. It's a good reminder to myself that there are no wasted steps - God is using each new thing that I do for His purpose, and for His glory. I know that this next step and short phase in Nairobi will be exactly the same. I may not know exactly why I'm going to take this course at this time, but God does, and he has ordained that this is where I should be going tomorrow.

On that note, though, I would appreciate prayers for smooth travels. Even though I do know my way around Nairobi a bit more these days, I still get a little nervous arriving at that airport. You just never know what's going to happen, or what kind of taxi driver you're going to get. And I have a very short window of time to meet together with my friend tomorrow afternoon who is on her way home from my beloved E-land! She will have some letters for me from my friends there, and there is only a window of a few hours to meet her. So if I get too delayed at the airport, I might miss her :( And that would be stinky.

Gack! I'm leaving!

Yup, I'm blowin' this Popsicle stand. Except there aren't any popsicles here. The ice cream man does come around every day, though, faithfully playing his annoying music. He has moved on from "It's a Small World" to "We Wish you a Merry Christmas". And yes, he is an ice cream man. At least, he's a man who pushes a bike (yeah, I've never actually seen him riding the bike) around town, with a little cooler on the front which says, "Ice Cream". I don't know that I would want to eat any ice cream, if there is any, that came from his cooler. You may as well just write on the cooler, "Salmonella for sale"!

Um yeah, to get back to the point. Yes, I am leaving this beloved land. I leave on Thursday morning to go to Nairobi! Phew, I've hardly had a chance to think about it, but now that I've started the packing process, it seems a bit realer. And I'm starting to get a little nervous, since I'm going to become a student again!

I'm becoming a bit more laid back by being here, too, since I just thought this evening that I haven't actually heard anything back from the college where I'm taking the course about when or where I'm supposed to show up sometime early next week! Oh well. I guess I'll figure it out sometime, somehow. In the meantime, I still have to get myself to Nairobi, out of the airport, with my luggage, into a taxi and to my new home where I'm housesitting for the next month. I'm going to try for the first time, to just get a taxi from the airport when I arrive. I have the name of a good, reputable taxi service, I know where I'm going to, and I know what the price should be. I even have a Kenyan SIM card for my phone. So we should be ok. Oh, maybe I should make sure I have some Kenyan shillings in my purse... let me go check that... Yup! I've got enough to make it home in the taxi.

So things are starting to come together for this trip... just maybe a little more at the last minute than I'm used to! But hey, I had my ticket a whole week in advance, so I'm not leaving everything COMPLETELY until the last minute.

The challenge of the evening is figuring out what to bring with me and what to leave behind, and trying to take stock of what I have and what I need to bring back with me from Nairobi to keep me going through the next 5 months that I'm here from August until December. All this whilst trying to keep the mossies away and prevent malaria. I think I got about 10 bites tonight just puttering around my room. So if you don't hear from me in a few days... it's either because I've died of malaria, or I haven't managed to connect to the Internet in Nairobi. One or the other.

And I know which one I would prefer!

Funny little bugs, crazy cats and good movies

At the moment, I'm sitting in my bed, watching the little bugs scurry around the screen. I'm in my bed, inside the mosquito net, but somehow, these little gnat type creatures find their way inside! It never ceases to amaze me how they find their way in and find their way to the light. I've almost given up reading at night because they swarm around my headlamp, and they even get in between my glasses and my eyes. Yuck! But I know I'll miss these little bugs when I'm gone :)

My cat was going nuts tonight and following the creatures that are starting to play football again in our ceiling. I'm not sure what kind of creatures they are -either bats or rats. But something was up there tonight and they sure were having fun doing something. Zane was going nuts down on the ground, running after the sounds. He even jumped onto a table to get a little closer to them! He's really turning into an amazing hunter. I've offered his services out to the nieghbors to get rid of the creatures that lurk in their house at night...

This evening, Jackie and I watched a movie - we had a private viewing with just the two of us, since we're both a bit peopled out these days. We borrowed the neighbor's "Akila and the Bee", and what an amazing little film. I feel all warm and fuzzy all over, and somehow, it makes all seem right with the world again. My mood and feelings are so affected by movies and music and books these days, so I think I need to be careful of what I feed my little head. And this movie was just about perfect in every way. I highly recommend it... though I'm sure everyone except me has seen it years ago!

Well, Zane is all tuckered out from his playing this evening. I'm all tuckered out from trying to put together lesson plans all day, and playing a round of badminton with Jackie. Our nieghbors also got a new badminton set, which we have put up behind the guesthouse. What a brilliant game for here! Of course, I get sweaty... I mean, very sweaty, but Jackie was really making me run and lunge! She's a tennis pro-star, so she knows how to move the birdie to all the corners... phew, I sure did get my exercize. But actually, we're well enough matched that we can have some fairly decent rallies. I think frisbee golf has been put on the sidelines for a few weeks - between pilates and badminton, there's just no time anymore!

Sorry, this STILL isn't a very interesting entry. I need Grace back so I have something funny to write about! I'm sure there have been plenty of entertaining things happening over the past few weeks... but they just don't turn into a very big deal without Grace around to laugh with :( Grace, come back to us, please! Or at least update your own blog, I mean, really, it's the least you can do for me!

Will Strange Things Never Cease?!

I had quite a relaxing Sunday today - did some tidying up around here, since everyone (well, almost everyone - our American friend got left behind here in Juba! Really, he didn't make it onto the flight!) had left on Saturday morning back to their respective places.

So today Jackie and I completed cleaning up the tent, I also tidied up a bit around the house and washed some clothes which really needed some washing. I'm so thankful for the washing machine here in the guesthouse... though once we move to our own house, we're back to handwashing, I think... unless we can persuade someone to let us use the machine now and again :) Oh wait, me and Jackie ARE the guesthouse managers, so that shouldn't be a problem...

This afternoon, after our fellowship meeting, we were set to have a potluck dinner, since Ian is back with us for a week. What an incredible testimony that man is to the faitfulness of God. He said a few words this evening in the group, and man, I was getting a little choked up. Seeing Ian here without Pam really makes it real that Pam's gone - but he told a story about her last days, and it was so clear that Christ was really the core of who she was. She didn't really understand or know anything else - not even her family - but she did speak of Christ, and of her desire to see the other women in the hospital also know him. What an amazing testimony, eh? I pray that Christ can be such a core to me that if I know nothing else, He will be so true to me that I will know him.

Anyways, that's not one of the strange happenings, just a musing that's going on in the back of my head this evening.

Jsut as we were getting thigns set up for the potluck, which I was running late for anyways, a big truck rolled in with MORE stuff from Uganda. No one told us about this truck that was coming.... it just showed up! And it showed up at the same time that everyone else was showing up for the potluck and at the same time that I was trying to finish my salad, set the tables, and clean myself up to host a party!

Anyways, we ended up getting the truck mess sorted out. Then after our little service, one of our guests who was supposed to show up last night showed up just as I was getting the food out of the refridgerator for the potluck. So I showed him to his room.

Then the next strange thing that happened is that Chris came over to see if I wanted to play games, and I was just checking facebook to see if there was any action... and I saw that his wife had arrived in her destination and was waiting for my friends in that place to show up and take her out! It's just so weird to look on facebook and have immediate news from that country, and then knowing that she's with my friends this evening. Sigh... really, it makes me quite homesick for them. But it's strange how God works all these things out.

And now, the strangest thing of all. During our game of Settlers, the electricity went off in 2 of the houses on the compound (guesthouse included), but not the third. So we turned on the generator - not much you can do to suss the problem in the dark. But then, when the generator was turned off tonight, there is enough power coming through the system to charge my computer, and to run our internet server, which runs off electricity. But not enough to run any of the lights or fans... hmmmm... I guess in the midst of getting our friend off to the airport, sorting out the stuff from the truck, planning my bilingual education curriculum and figuring out how to pack and what to pack and what to do in Nairobi once I get there... it's going to be a busy week! I hope we don't have too many more strange surprises this week.

Of course, tonight it's hot and sticky - not cool and rainy like it has been. So without the fans tonight, I'm a little on the sweaty side. Yech.

Photos of the past few weeks

Cyndy's been taking photos, and I got them off her camera today. So here are a few photos of the past few weeks.

The first is a photo of our group in front of the Dinka church. I had to include it just so you could see how cute I look in my dress :)
The next photo is almost all of our houseguests from the week.
Imagine hosting all of them in YOUR house for 2 weeks straight! Don't forget that we had a Kenyan welder, a Ugandan cook, me, Jackie, Richard, Sunday and Vicky in the house at the same time... Phew, it was a housefull, let me tell you!

Ever wonder what a Bible translator actually DOES all day... well, here are a few shots.

Paul, the guy in the photo below is one of my favorites this week. He's the youngest of the crew, and is from one of the bigger language groups in this country. While I know you can't really generalize a whole people based on a few... I think I like this particular language group - everyone that I've met from them has been gentle, humble and kind. They just all seem to have kind faces and wide grins!

Life and Death

Unfortunately, Sunday’s sister died the other day. It’s very sad – she was in the hospital for a few weeks, but they seemed to treat her, and then discharged her and sent her home. She died a few days later. The girl was just small, about 6 or 7 years old.

So this afternoon, Vicky took Jackie and me to visit the family. We got quite a lot of attention as we drove through the neighborhood – I don’t think they’ve ever seen white women driving a truck down that road ever!

We reached the compound which is a collection of 5 or 6 mud and thatch tukels. It’s quite a large compound for this area, actually. The whol compound was full of chairs and people sitting around chatting, and even playing games like dominos. There must have been 50 people sitting in the compound! We were greeted by one of the women who works in one of the houses on our compound – she is also Sunday’s relative somehow. Sunday’s father came and greeted us first thing. His English was not bad, and he started to explain to us all about what actually happened. Seems the girl got sick again at home after she left he hospital, but he was told not to bring her back to the hospital – they discharged her once, what more could they do? So he ewnt to the pharmacy and got different kinds of medicines, gave her various injections of different things… I didn’t quite follow all that he was saying. But I was wishing that the girl could have seen a proper doctor. I have so little faith in most of the doctors that around here. If you are a proper doctor, please, won't you consider coming to serve the people in this place?! They are dying unnecessarily.

The father wanted to show us where the girl was buried… and so we walked about 50 feet further into the compound to the mound of dirt next to one of the tukels. Seems she is buried right next to her brother who died a few years ago.

We were then ushered into the little tukel where Sunday and her other sister sleep. It was so nice – I was quite impressed. The walls were all covered in posters of everything from 50 Cent (um, yeah, that would be the hip hop “artist” 50 Cent – he’s HUGE here), to Ethiopian dancers, to Jesus. Quite an interesting décor, but it was all very nice and neat! The beds were so nicely made and the everything put away in its place. No wonder Sunday thinks Grace and I are pigs!!

It was very nice ot be able to sit inside and away from all the curious onlookers as to why these khawaija were sitting around in the compound. Sunday seated us with her two sisters, and we chatted a bit. Of course, we were served Cokes and bottled water, which was very nice, but makes me wonder how anyone can afford to water and feed so many guests during these funerals. Seems to put such a burden on the families when they already have burden enough. But I guess that’s also why you bring gifts. We went with a half Western and half African way of expressing our condolences – we had a nice card which we wrote to Sunday and her family, but tucked a little something into the card to use towards the funeral arrangements.

We did end up having a nice visit with Sunday and her sisters, even though they don’t speak much English at all. But it’s in visiting like that where I learn more Arabic. I wish that I could do it more often. Now that I know where they live, perhaps I’ll be able to go and visit again, since there are a lot of sisters there who I could sit and chat with for a while.

We didn’t stay too long – just long enough to drink our Cokes. The sky was looking rather threatening, and we didn’t want to be stuck on those “roads” through the neighborhood if it truly did start to pour, so we used that as an excuse to take our leave. I don’t think we left too soon – we were there for about an hour. At least Sunday and the family know that we cared enough to stop by…

We did find out that Sunday’s father actually has 4 wives – two are living here in town, and two are outside town! Each one has their own tukel on the compound. I still wonder how all of that works… it’s so common here.

If you think of it, please pray for Sunday and her family. I’m not sure where they all stand in their faith, though they say they are Christians. While I didn’t completely understand all that he was saying, I sort of got from the father that somehow he thought it wasn’t a completely medical reason that the daughter died. It did sound like he was somehow blaming some sort of spirit that took her. Even in the church, these traditional beliefs about curses and witchdoctors etc. are still very much alive and well here. So please pray that Sunday and her family would know Christ and would know his comfort. Please also pray for Jackie and me as we get to know Sunday and also show Christ’s love to her.

Errands again

So this afternoon I did a few more errands. I was so proud of myself that I went to Victor's Shop all by myself! I didn't have a Richard to hide behind, but I just strode in there like I owned the place and asked for the fluorescent light tubes that I needed.

Victor's Shop is the most amazing place. It's quite a large shop, but local standards. Of course, you can't shop along the aisles or look at things on your own. You stand behind the counter while the guys in the coveralls bring you things to examine. The best way to get the proper screws or pipes or whatever seems to be to bring the old one in, weasel your way through the crowd and shove it into the hands of a guy in coveralls. Last time I went there, though, I did attract a bit of attention from the men around there... unfortunately not from the rather handsome son of the Greek owner :(

Victor's Shop is sort of like HomeDepot and WalMart all rolled into one. If you want something for your house of your building project, you go straight to Victor's Shop. And if he doesn't have it, he'll bring it in for you. Really, quite amazing.

Another thing that I saw today which made me chuckle was a young man walking down the street, doing the usual swagger of a teen-aged boy around here, and wearing a cute little boy scout shirt, complete with the troop number and badges!

Errands

I never thought a few errands could take so long! This afternoon, Jacks and I fled the compound again to do some errands. Three and a half hours later, we were home! We went to the bank, to the travel agent, to buy a new gas canister, and to see if we could find some Coke. On the way back, we saw that the diesel tanker was standing outside one of the gas stations, so we stood in line and got ourselves half a tank of diesel in the truck! That's quite an achievement these days, since the diesel is hard to come by.

But it is encouraging to drive around town once in a while. You see how some roads are improving, how there are new things available and infrastructures are coming along.

Plus, I always feel a bit like Dora the Explorer, bouncing around the muddy roads in my truck! I'm slowly learning what the best way to get over the big lumps in the road are, and I'm not so timid anymore to just power through certain mud puddles, praying that we won't get hung up on anything in the middle! I never imagined that I'd be 4-wheel-driving in the middle of my city! Even though it does take a lot of concentration, and I come home rather exhausted and sweaty, it is quite a lot of fun! Driving back home isn't going to be very exciting now that I'm used to this!!

What have I become?!

I have two confessions to make. I really can't believe that I live in such a place and yet:

1. 1. I run around the compound, tromping through the sand and mud and puddles in a pair of bright pink Crocs. Yes, that's right. Crocs. Bright pink ones. Did I mention that the Crocs are bright pink? Funny, I don't have second thoughts about running around in a large blue tie-dyed mumu, but when it comes to Crocs, which every North American seems to have these days, I feel rather, well, silly. (by the way, the Crocs were left for me by a wonderful woman who came to volunteer here for a few weeks. She was great, while I do feel silly running around in Crocs, I have to admit that they are MUCH more comfortable than flip flops and they float in the puddles... what more could a girl ask for in a pair of shoes, really?)
   
2. 2. I signed up for Facebook yesterday. Already I'm slightly addicted to see who's left messages on my Wall. I still don't quite know why people can't just send me a normal email like they used to, but I kept getting these invitations to join Facebook in my inbox. Every day, someone new wanted to add me. And I resisted for weeks. Maybe with Grace being gone, my resistance had worn thin. So I joined. And now since our router isn't working, the only place I can get a strong enough signal to use our neighbors internet connection is on my bad.

Those are my two confessions. While I am surrounded by mud and thatch huts on all sides, goats bleating and chickens squacking outside the gate, I kicked off my bright pink Crocs, sat back on my bed and checked my Facebook wall. How crazy is that?

Ah, names

I've always been fascinated by names, actually. The whole thing about living up to your name, and your name sort of shaping your character. Back in the Hebrew days of the Old Testament, names were rather important and God liked to change them when he did something significant in someone's life. And here in Africa, people judge your character by your name. They make decisions on how to treat you according to your name. In our culture, your name is your identity. We want to be known by our names. It's like in the theme song to "Cheers"... "you wanna be where everybody knows your name... da da da da dum dum..." It means something when someone takes the time to know and remember your name.

So why is it that someone here has suddenly started calling me "Tammy" today? It wasn't just once... it's been several times now. And I'm sorta wondering how to tactfully tell him that actually, that's not my name without making him feel like a dork. Because it is a pretty dorky thing to do, to suddenly forget someone's name, isn't it? I mean, I have to admit that I've also done it, but I admit that I can be pretty dorky sometimes. But I don't always want my dorkiness pointed out to me. And I'm sure I would be even dorkier if my name actually were "Tammy" (sorry if there are any Tammy's reading this, but I don't THINK I actually know any Tammy's anymore...).

So if anyone has any sage old advice of how to tactfully remind someone of your name... let me know!

Progress is being made...

... in getting us some new power adapters for our internet router! We have this amazing guy in the UK who does whatever he can to give us techie support when we need it. And it just so happens that someone is leaving tomorrow from London en route to Nairobi and then to here in a few days. He's even willing to go meet her at Heathrow in order to get these new power adapters to us!

Truly amazing. I feel blessed and supported by this British chap, and it's a blessing to know that there are people out there who are trying to do what they can to help us out.

Snuggly Sunday

So me and Zane are snuggled under the covers on my bed at 3 on a Sunday afternoon. I've had a hot cup of tea, Zane's had a nice fish head, and I have a good book... which I'll read as soon as I post this blog. The rain is falling and looks like it will continue to fall for quite some time. It's great to have a chance to snuggle under the covers on a Sunday afternoon, knowing that there's nothing I have to do except try to stay warm and enjoy my book. God knew what he was doing when he made Sunday afternoons, and especially rainy Sunday afternoons!I skipped church this morning, since there was really no room for me in the truck that went. They already squashed 6 people in the cab of the Hilux pick up (ok, it IS an extended cab, but still...). It was a very convenient excuse for just spending some quiet time at home without anyone around. I danced through the halls for a minute, and then shared some chocolate with Jackie before listening to a sermon on my MP3 player. Yup, it's nice to have some peace and quiet now and again. I think Zane even enjoyed the time alone, since he came and sat on my lap for a while.

Last night was a hoot and a half, though! Two of our neighbors are enjoying their birthdays this weekend. So we had a little BBQ last night! Who would have thought that it would rain too hard and be too cold to stand outside around the BBQ?! But we all managed to fit into the neighbor's sitting room and had a wonderful time. The meat on the grill was amazing - there was both leg of goat and a big side of beef, as well as a bit of chicken and some fish. Yum yum. I was a complete mooch last night and went empty handed except for a little dish of sweets! But I DID help K to chop veggies for the salad and brought over some chairs... Sometimes a girl's gotta be a mooch, just because it didn't seem too feasible for me to walk through the rain to the market yesterday to pick up a bit of meat for myself to slap on the BBQ!

The party was great because we even played good party games! I love being in groups of adults who can be silly with each other. Another interesting observation was that there was only one person last night who is still in his 20s. And even at that, he was the birthday boy who will be turning 30 tomorrow. Everyone else was in their 30s or above... Man, I'm getting old...

I seem to be relying on the kindness of our neighbors a lot lately. In fact, the very fact that I am snuggled in my bed and online at the same time is due to their kindness. Our router is broken, so I can only access the Internet through their connection... which they've kindly given me to wep key to! Somehow, Jackie and I need to find a way to fix up our Internet again for everyone else to use this week. Wouldn't be so bad, except that we have a house full of people who like to use Internet here for the Psalms workshop that's going on for another week!

The kinder these neighbors are to me, the more sad I get to know that the time with them is limited. They will all be leaving soon so that other folks from our organization can move in. But I'm a little curious as to exactly how and when that's all happening. I can foresee an awkward situation coming up in a few weeks when someone is planning to move up here and have a house ready... but no one curretnly on the compound seems ready to move out... I guess I'm a little bit glad that I'm not going to be here when that all takes place - I hate awkward situations. But I pray that relationships can remain intact through it all!

Sorry, this isn't a very exciting post. But our Richard and our Grace are gone, which means there's just not the much entertainment around here these days!

Rain!

And, just because I haven't put any pictures up lately...

Here's a photo of the puddle that was collecting in our living room this afternoon.

And this is the cause of the puddle in our living room. Yup, that would be a bullet hole straight through the styrofoam insulation and up through the zinc/tin roof! Don't ask me how we have a bullet hole in the roof of our living room... but that's what it is!

So since they're not the most brilliant photos, here's a cute one to commemorate Grace and Zane's final cuddle.
Can't you just tell how upset little Zane was to say goodbye to Grace?!

Welcome here!

Oh boy. We have a newcomer on the scene. He's American, bless his dear little heart. He's an older chap, and has lived in Entebbe for a few years. And, well, he just doesn't quite seem to get the fact that things are not, well, exactly normal around here yet!

I'm sure he's a wonderful guy - I think he's just experiencing some culture shock about living in this place. Because really, there is no place like it on earth, and I guess if you come here with expectations that things will work here like they do even in other parts of Africa, you will be in for a surprise. People deal with their culture shock in different ways, and I think he's just dealing with it in trying to compare everything to what it's like back in Entebbe.

This also makes me wonder why Jackie and I don't get so excited about things here. I guess we're just more laid back than other people?! Maybe I didn't have real high expectations about what things would be like?! Or maybe God is just being especially gracious to me and allowing me to actually enjoy some of the crazy situations that we find ourselves in here!

Brrr...

Yup, it's a cold one, that's for sure. Imagine, this afternoon, I turned off my fan because I was freezing. I arrived at a meeting without a drop of sweat dripping off my brow! I'm sitting here all wrapped up in a shawl, drinking hot milk. And it's only 24C in the house here. I'm going to absolutely freeze next month in Nairobi.

Today was a pretty good day, though. We had a productive meeting with the Ministry of Education. Jackie made me lead the meeting today, which was a bit scary, since both the heads of the department were also there! These guys command a lot of respect, and it's a little frightening to be the facilitator of a meeting with them there. It's a challenge to find the balance between getting some work done, and making sure everyone is heard, and finding some compromise in how to do things most efficiently. I do enjoy the challenge!

Hmmm... without little Gracie here, there just doesn't seem to be much of any fun to talk about! I still kinda miss that girl, even though I've cleared out my room a bit. It just seems so empty in my room without her! Sigh... so sad. my couch is just turned into a junk catcher now. But at least all the junk on my desk is all my junk, and not anyone else's :)

Puttering in a guesthouse

I'm starting to think it's almost time to move out of the guesthouse. While I love people, and I love being able to show hospitality to folks who are constantly coming and going, I have to admit that it gets a bit tiresome some days! Tonight, I just felt like puttering around the kitchen... I wanted to eat what I wanted clean up a few things, put things where I wanted to put them, hang out in my PJs on the couch with funny looking sticky-uppy hair and listen to whatever music I want, maybe even bake some cookies...

But I live in a guesthouse which, at the moment, is full of people that I don't know! So they are currently sitting on the couch watching a movie that I'm not really interested in. I'm hiding out in my room! Imagine, extroverted me hiding from people in my room... that's when you know it's getting to be time to have my own house!

Actually, it makes me appreciate Jackie that much more - she is really much more of an introvert than I am, and she deals remarkably well with the coming and going of all these people in our house all the time. Oh wait, it's OUR house... it's a guesthouse! But when you've been living here for 4 months, it really starts to feel like home.

And, well, quite honestly, I really miss Grace! This afternoon I sort of wandered around the compound, quite aimlessly, looking for someone to talk to, because my Grace was missing. I ended up finding Richard, and he, too, was all alone doing his wiring. He misses her too. So we at least could commiserate with each other. I guess I'll get used to life after Grace. But I am a little lonely. Funny how someone who I've known for really not all that long can become so much a wonderful part of life and can leave such a big hole when she leaves! Sigh... let's mourn a little for Grace.

On the upside, though, I was doing my pilates this evening with my two neighbors. We did a section on the DVD entitled "Burn". Yeah, wrong section to try when there was no electricity (meaning no fans!). All of us were sliding around on our mats, dripping in sweat, and ending up in little balls on the floor because we just couldn't keep up with the woman on the DVD! Really, we were quite a sight... at least we all like each other well enough that we could all have a good laugh together about the situation! I think we'll be leaving the "Burn" section of that DVD for a while, and will try to master the "Abs" and the "Buns and Thighs" sections before going back...

Sunday

It's Sunday evening, I'm sitting in front of my fan, cloistered in my room with my hot milk, thinking it's almost time to warm up some water for an evening bath. I've realized that you actually DO get cleaner when you wash once in a while with warm water! Who would have thought 3 months of washing with only cold water would build up so much grime?!

When I was in the kitchen making my milk, I was playing with my kitty a little bit. He's really filling out and turning into a cat these days. I think his kitten days are almost behind him. But since it's quite cool this evening, he was being a little playful, just like he was when he was a kitten. Grace left her ball here, so Zane found that in the dining area. He was so cute, hunting the ball and batting it around the dining room. The really funny part was when the ball got stuck in the corner, or if it went into the kitchen and stuck around his food and water bowls, he picked up the ball in his mouth, trotted back to the middle of the dining room and continued playing! Smart little cat, that one :)

Anyways, that wasn't really the highlight of the day! In fact, I was out of bed before 7am today in order to go to the Dinka Anglican service. Because of the workshop that we're having here, we happen to have a person here who has been very involved in the Dinka work. As well, there are a couple of Americans here who also happen to be visiting who are also very involved in the work - they were part of the contingent with the bishops yesterday. Anyways, one of them was preaching during the Dinka service this morning, and since Cindy wanted to go anyways, I thought it would be a good excuse to put in a show there. During our teacher training course, all of the participants kept asking me to come to pray with them in their Dinka service, so this was the first time I actually went. Somehow, I need a good excuse to get up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning to go sit through a 3 hour service in a language that I know 1 word of!!

But the service ended up being really good and I did enjoy myself. Being the white folks, they invited me, along with the other visitors to sit up on the stage. Thankfully, there weren't enough chairs up there, so being the young one, I deferred to my elders and let (or made?!) them sit up front in front of everyone! I got to sit between two nice Dinka gentlemen. For the first time in a long time, I felt positively short sitting in church this morning! It was great!

There were almost 800 people there, and I was so impressed with the service. It was all in Dinka (except for the sermon which was given by one of the Americans and translated by one of our very own Dinka :) )

The thing that struck me the most was the fact that they were singing their own songs in church. So often you go to churches here and people are either trying to howl their way through old English hymns that they don't understand, or they try to translate the old English hymns into their own language, which never seem to quite fit with the melody and music. But the Dinka have their own songs, sung in their own language, in their own style. They've got the whole call and answer thing going on with a few different drums keeping the time. Not a single electric keyboard, thankfully!

The whole liturgy is translated into Dinka, along with the New Testament readings. The Old Testament is currently being translated by our team here, so they don't have any Old Testament reading during the service.

You can tell that the Word means something to these people. They pay attention, they sing and worship from their heart. It was really great to see!

So even though I didn't understand the vast majority of the service, it was really a very encouraging morning. It was a great first hand reminder of what I'm doing here - the very reason I'm here to do my literacy work is so that there can be more churches like this one, where people are understanding and growing and knowing God in their own language.

We actually even got to go over and visit with the Archbishop of this country, as well as most of the other bishops and big people in the heirarchy of the Anglican church here. It's a whole new world, let me tell you! But I got a nice cold Coke out of the deal, so I certainly can't complain :)

A full service guest house

So I've survived the day! Phew. It was a long one. I'm looking forward to my episode of Smallville tonight... but I'll be so lonely without Grace to chat about it with...

Anyways, starting from this evening, we can add a new service to our list of services offered here in the guesthouse: after your haircut by Tanya, which takes place as you are seated on top of the septic tank, Jackie will clear the wax clogs out of your ears using my headlamp and a syringe. For some reason, we're all suffering from extra-ordinarily waxy ears, which aren't clearing themselves! So tonight was my turn to get the ears cleared out. Since Jackie had a mammoth wax clog cleared by Dr. K yesterday, she became my doctor this evening and cleared out a much smaller clog, but it's cleared all the same :)

Sorry for the disgusting details, but yeah... that's life around here!

On a crazier note - we almost got completely smoked by a police truck today. Due to a strange series of closed roads, we found ourselves on a road that was blocked off. We were the only ones on the road, I thought. So I stopped to wait for the guy to move the blockade enough for me to drive to the open road. As I was stopped... I looked in the rear view mirror just long enough to see that a brand new police pick up was screeching and skidding to a stop just a few feet from the back of our pickup. Why he didn't see us to stop earlier, or why he didn't just go around us on the wide open road, I'm not sure. Just another one of the perils of driving around here. I appreciate your prayers for safety as we drive around on the roads.

Just to give an example, in order to get your driver's license here, you take your car to a big open field. You show them that you can start the engine. Then you drive around a few plastic orange pylons in the wide open field. If you can do that, and succussfully stop your car, you are made the proud owner of a driving license. Yup. Scary.

Back to the generator...

Yup, so we're back on generator power. Oh well.

Grace left this morning. Oh well.

"Oh well" is Jackie's British understatement of the year. So really, I think, "Oh well" with a proper British accent and somehow, things don't seem quite so bad.

I already miss my Grace. Oh well.

And we have a house full of strangers. And I served tea to 3 Bishops and two big-wigs from the States this morning, all before 9am. Oh well.

Maybe this morning I'll go and have a Coke by the Nile, after we finish all of the shopping that needs to be done for this huge workshop that's going on here for the next two weeks.

For now, I guess I'll just do some tidying up and clearing up after Grace. Oh well.

More later, maybe, if I can find some generator time...