So here I am, still in the midst of a crazy workshop! Things are going well, after a few rocky bumps in the logistics. But the participants are keen and are really having good time. This morning, we arrived and found them all there, already working together in their groups on a homework assignment that I had given them! Amazing group of keeners.
So things are going well, and I think that something good will end up coming out of this whole workshop. It's been very interesting to get to know some of the participants and to hear about their situations. We've got some key decision makers here, as well, which could have some very good influence on the entire system of this country. Phew, a little scary, but really good, anyways.
There have been SO many blog-able moments. I wish I could blog them all! But there's just not time - I'm in an internet cafe, just waiting for all my emails to download, and I only have a few minutes left.
Please pray that we continue to have good relationships on the team here, and that we are able to work together as a team.
Also pray that I don't turn into a cow - we are being served meat to eat three times a day! I have gone from eating beef once or twice a week for the last several months to eating it three times a day! Yikes. Problem is, that's ALL they serve. Meat and bread. Meat and rice. Meat and aseeda (like a porridge). But I'm "coping up" with it ok. (that's my latest new phrase that I hear all the time here... "Coping up with a situation"...)
Will blog more later, with photos of course! I have a ton already. We're even going to be on local TV in a few days... hope my special tie-dyed mumu is clean for that day :)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Safe and Sound
So Jackie and I are busy spending some of the money! We're doing the workshop here, and there are, well a few frustrations... but hopefully things well get ironed out.
Anyways, we have food, we have water, we have beds to sleep in and we have participants for our workshop! What more could we need?!
I'm at an internet cafe and happy to be connected to the rest of the world for a few minutes. I have SO much to write, but no time... so I just wanted to post a quite note to let ya'll know that things are ok. Please continue to pray for us - especially as we work through all the logistics of holding a workshop in a place like this!
Anyways, we have food, we have water, we have beds to sleep in and we have participants for our workshop! What more could we need?!
I'm at an internet cafe and happy to be connected to the rest of the world for a few minutes. I have SO much to write, but no time... so I just wanted to post a quite note to let ya'll know that things are ok. Please continue to pray for us - especially as we work through all the logistics of holding a workshop in a place like this!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Going away!
So yesterday morning, some folks from the Ministry of Education came and plunked a suitcase full of cash down on our verandah floor. The equivalent to almost $40,000 USD in cash. Yikes. So now we have to spend it! So I've been madly trying to get things together for us to go... stationary, handouts, pens, books, library resources, mosquito nets, clothes... whatever we need to hold a workshop for 35 people for two weeks in a town that may not even have electricity. I can hardly believe that it's actually happening, but it's coming right down to the wire to really get things packed and ready to go.
Please pray for me and Jackie over the next few weeks. We got some big issues to get the participants to deal with. Pray that we communicate and listen well, and that there will be unity among the participants as they work together to figure out how they're going to start implementing the language in education policy in this country. It's a bit frightening when I think about it - the outcome of these workshops are to determine the education system for the entire country! I still shake my head at how I ever got myself into these things. But somehow, God has brought me here and has given us the opportunity to do this sort of work, in this country, at this time...
I gotta go rescue some of my handouts from the printer.
By the way, I have NO idea what the internet situation is going to be there, so I probably won't be able to blog much. But don't worry, you'll probably hear by other means if I'm dead or something :D
Sunday, November 18, 2007
An Interesting Article
I found this article on the Los Angeles Times website. I thought it painted a rather good picture of the situation at the moment. That's all for tonight.
I may or may not be travelling on Monday. Still haven't gotten the money released for our workshops! Maybe because of some of the issues discussed in the article?! That's all I have to say about that.
I may or may not be travelling on Monday. Still haven't gotten the money released for our workshops! Maybe because of some of the issues discussed in the article?! That's all I have to say about that.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
A Garden in the Bathroom
Don't have much of interest to write about today, but I feel like I should take advantage of the city electricity that we have tonight! I still haven't been able to figure out if there's some sort of system to when the city electricity is going to come or go. All I've been able to ascertain so far is that if it comes, it will come at around 5:30 pm. And if it goes, it will go around 5:30 pm. But sometimes it will be on for two or three days at a time, then it will be off for a day or two. Other times, it's one for a day, and then off for two or three. I just can't figure it out - but it sure would be nice to know if there was a method to the madness, you know.
Anyways, I just thought I would share about the quote of the day today. As Jackie and I were drinking our morning tea on the verandah (I've become SO British in drinking a couple of cups a tea every day - even when it's 35C outside!), we were watching Sunday wash our nieghbor's shower curtain. And I thought outloud, as I often do these days, that we should wash our curtain sometime soon, since, as Jackie so aptly put it, "We have a garden growing in the bathroom".
Now, that line is only funny if you can repeat it in a posh English accent whilst sipping a cup of hot tea on the 35C verandah.
Other than that, the big excitement of the day was the emergence of a kiddy pool for the baby on the compound. The baby and her mom got to sit in it and splash around during the heat of the afternoon. Sunday thought they were nuts, but I just about jumped in fully clothed. Except, of course, there wouldn't have been enough room in there for all of us :(
I also took the visiting Americans on a tour of the city, culminating, of course, in a Coke by the River. Except, of course, they were out of Coke. So I had mango juice instead, whist sitting under the mango trees. That's about all the excitement for the day. The rest of the day was spent putting some finishing touches on my teaching notes for the workshop next week!
Anyways, I just thought I would share about the quote of the day today. As Jackie and I were drinking our morning tea on the verandah (I've become SO British in drinking a couple of cups a tea every day - even when it's 35C outside!), we were watching Sunday wash our nieghbor's shower curtain. And I thought outloud, as I often do these days, that we should wash our curtain sometime soon, since, as Jackie so aptly put it, "We have a garden growing in the bathroom".
Now, that line is only funny if you can repeat it in a posh English accent whilst sipping a cup of hot tea on the 35C verandah.
Other than that, the big excitement of the day was the emergence of a kiddy pool for the baby on the compound. The baby and her mom got to sit in it and splash around during the heat of the afternoon. Sunday thought they were nuts, but I just about jumped in fully clothed. Except, of course, there wouldn't have been enough room in there for all of us :(
I also took the visiting Americans on a tour of the city, culminating, of course, in a Coke by the River. Except, of course, they were out of Coke. So I had mango juice instead, whist sitting under the mango trees. That's about all the excitement for the day. The rest of the day was spent putting some finishing touches on my teaching notes for the workshop next week!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
On the subject of teaching activities...
Jackie and I had some good fun in our Arabic class today. Since it's just the two of us, we can do whatever we want for our classes. So today, we continued to talk about a picture that we quickly threw together two minutes before we started:
I am especially proud of the blue goat that I so artistically drew. We even made cut outs of some of the animals! One of the cats, the blue goat, as well as all three birds can actually move! So today we practiced the colours that we learned last week, as well as learned some new vocabulary for "bird" and the plural for "cats" and "goats".
Today were able to discuss jumping and climbing up and eating grass and eating birds and sleeping in the grass... the possibilities for telling simple stories are endless when you have a couple of cats, goats, birds, trees, grass and flowers. And it makes me and Jackie feel pretty good about ourselves when we can move a little paper cat around a piece of paper, telling each other, "The black cat is hungry. He sees a pink bird in the tree. He is going to climb the tree. He climbs the tree. The bird sees the black cat. The bird is scared of the cat. The bird jumps from the little tree to the big tree. The cat climbs down the tree and goes to sleep in the grass."
But considering that we're still in our first month of lessons, and we only have two hours of lessons a week, the fact that we can tell a story like this makes me feel pretty good about our progress! We also have a very patient teacher who puts up with, and almost enjoys, all of our funny methods of learning Arabic - including my magic blue goat who can fly from tree to tree!
I am especially proud of the blue goat that I so artistically drew. We even made cut outs of some of the animals! One of the cats, the blue goat, as well as all three birds can actually move! So today we practiced the colours that we learned last week, as well as learned some new vocabulary for "bird" and the plural for "cats" and "goats". Today were able to discuss jumping and climbing up and eating grass and eating birds and sleeping in the grass... the possibilities for telling simple stories are endless when you have a couple of cats, goats, birds, trees, grass and flowers. And it makes me and Jackie feel pretty good about ourselves when we can move a little paper cat around a piece of paper, telling each other, "The black cat is hungry. He sees a pink bird in the tree. He is going to climb the tree. He climbs the tree. The bird sees the black cat. The bird is scared of the cat. The bird jumps from the little tree to the big tree. The cat climbs down the tree and goes to sleep in the grass."
But considering that we're still in our first month of lessons, and we only have two hours of lessons a week, the fact that we can tell a story like this makes me feel pretty good about our progress! We also have a very patient teacher who puts up with, and almost enjoys, all of our funny methods of learning Arabic - including my magic blue goat who can fly from tree to tree!
I sure didn't do THAT in school...
As I was reading an article about bilingual education programs in Mozambique today, I came across this interesting little tidbit:
“Teacher talk makes up as much as 90% of classroom time while students wait, listen or engage in reproductive activities…”
I'm not really sure what those activities are, but it could explain why there are so many people in Mozambique?
“Teacher talk makes up as much as 90% of classroom time while students wait, listen or engage in reproductive activities…”
I'm not really sure what those activities are, but it could explain why there are so many people in Mozambique?
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Stinky Internet
Well, my feet are no longer stinky, since I spent some time scrubbing my Chacos sandals this evening, after scrubbing the rest of myself in the shower, which was almost warm. Gotta love the sun-heated water thing. Only problem is that the water tank is ginormous, so the water never gets really warm.
Anyways, I digress.
The internet is stinky here tonight. Just as I was trying to have a little online conversation with a friend in an undisclosed country, the internet started acting up and we couldn't get anything through to each other. Stinky, 'cause we were both there for like, 15 minutes saying, "hello?" "are you there?". Anyways, please pray for the folks in that country (and you all know what I mean). Things continue to heat up and are getting more tense, again. Now, there is a new law that says absolutely no one, for any reason, under the age of 40, regardless of whether they have completed their national service or not, is allowed to leave the country!
So I'm not too pleased with the internet tonight. And besides that, there's a lot of discussion flying around in cyberspace by the "powers that be" in our section of the organization about what to do for internet access once the NGO that shares our internet connection vacates the compound in December. Please also pray for wisdom for all the decision makers and that there will be good communication and good understanding of all the details of the issue. I'm really fearing, dreading, in fact, being on this compound without any internet connection at all, which is almost looking like the direction these discussions are going! Not having an internet connection could be serious grounds for me just packing up and finding a new country where the internet flows ...
On that note, I have a "date" with Jackie to eat some chocolate! Dear little Grace in Uganda responded to my pleas and actually sent us some real Cadbury's chocolate, as well as a couple of Bounty bars with a visitor who arrived today. Yum yum! Tea, chocolate and a new tv series on DVD tonight. What could be any better?
Oh yeah, the ability to chat online using the internet with my buddies whilst drinking my tea, eating my chocolate and watching a dvd. Now that, my friends, is a good way to spend an evening :) (just remember where I live... we don't exactly have a whole lot of relaxation options around here!)
Anyways, I digress.
The internet is stinky here tonight. Just as I was trying to have a little online conversation with a friend in an undisclosed country, the internet started acting up and we couldn't get anything through to each other. Stinky, 'cause we were both there for like, 15 minutes saying, "hello?" "are you there?". Anyways, please pray for the folks in that country (and you all know what I mean). Things continue to heat up and are getting more tense, again. Now, there is a new law that says absolutely no one, for any reason, under the age of 40, regardless of whether they have completed their national service or not, is allowed to leave the country!
So I'm not too pleased with the internet tonight. And besides that, there's a lot of discussion flying around in cyberspace by the "powers that be" in our section of the organization about what to do for internet access once the NGO that shares our internet connection vacates the compound in December. Please also pray for wisdom for all the decision makers and that there will be good communication and good understanding of all the details of the issue. I'm really fearing, dreading, in fact, being on this compound without any internet connection at all, which is almost looking like the direction these discussions are going! Not having an internet connection could be serious grounds for me just packing up and finding a new country where the internet flows ...
On that note, I have a "date" with Jackie to eat some chocolate! Dear little Grace in Uganda responded to my pleas and actually sent us some real Cadbury's chocolate, as well as a couple of Bounty bars with a visitor who arrived today. Yum yum! Tea, chocolate and a new tv series on DVD tonight. What could be any better?
Oh yeah, the ability to chat online using the internet with my buddies whilst drinking my tea, eating my chocolate and watching a dvd. Now that, my friends, is a good way to spend an evening :) (just remember where I live... we don't exactly have a whole lot of relaxation options around here!)
Monday, November 12, 2007
Random Happenings today
So today started out fairly typically - I actually don't really like Monday mornings much because it's when everyone comes to ask questions. I'm not really a morning person to begin with, but when people start asking all sorts of questions like, "Where's the toilet paper? The truck doesn't start, how do I fix it? What tone do we need to write on the long vowel?"... It just gets a little too much for me on Monday mornings. Seems all the questions pile up on the weekend and come to me before 8:30 on Mondays. I don't really like it much, so I tend to give Jackie a bigger head start to the office on Monday mornings than I usually do. Normally, since I sit by the door to the office, I'm the one fielding the questions and acting as Jackie's Personal Assistant (in that I can filter some of the questions before they get to her.). But on Monday mornings, she's on her own!
Then we were off to the Ministry of Ed, to see where we were at with our plans for this workshop that's coming up. In theory, we're leading a workshop for 30 participants in a different city, starting in 10 days. Jackie and I are responsible for the material and the teaching, and the folks at the ministry are responsible for the logistics. Seems we'll just show up in that other town and see if anyone else happens to show up at the same time. Well, um, we'll show up, that is, if we actually get any plane tickets! I'm not really a planner, and I'm really quite flexible and spontaneous... but even I found our meeting this morning a little on the exhausting side!
By the time we got back, me and Jacks had to share a Coke as we got on with the rest of our day.
There is a workshop going on here now (for which none of the participants have shown up yet - only 3 American facilitators!), so we have a full time cook for the next few weeks. Unfortunately for me, she cooked liver for lunch today. Ew. Thankfully, I live on the same compound, so I trotted down to my house and made some lovely fried potatoes and had a tomato salad on the side. You really can't go wrong with potatoes.
This afternoon we also had our Arabic lesson, which was good fun! We have such a good teacher, and man, I really hope he doesn't run to find a new job somewhere else. He's a great asset to have around this compound! But of course, we can't pay him all that much, and he's actually quite highly qualified to find a better job somewhere else. So I would be quite happy for him if he could find a place that would pay him more, but we sure would miss him around here. It's tough keeping staff around here - everyone just wants to make a quick buck and go back to wherever they came from :(
During our Arabic lesson, I had to put on my community health nurse hat, and clean and bandage a wound from one of the old guys that's been working on the compound for almost 30 years. These two old men have been working as "carpenters" for so long, and I really have no clue what they do most of the time! They just sort of wander around the compound and pick up a few tools now and again. But they're very friendly and very willing to help fix our door when it falls apart, or strengthen a bookshelf etc. They're due to retire any day now, but I think they see this place as home, so they don't want to leave. Anyways, one of them had a nice infected cut on his finger, so I dabbed it with some antibiotic cream, wrapped a band-aid around it and sent him on his way. Another happy victim... er patient... for my nursing skills.
As soon as we were done our lesson, I was called up to the guesthouse to meet someone that had just arrived in Juba. I had met him at a meeting that I went to last month. Of course, he told me all about his plans to open a vocational college somewhere in this country. He didn't know where yet. But basically, he wanted help to open it. I was glad to have the excuse that I only work with primary schools ... so I could gracefully bow out of helping him set up a college! I hate saying no to people, even when it's a relatively random person off the street who wants me to help him set up a college!
As I was talking with him, Wes and Henry pulled up in the truck... which was riding precariously low to the front wheels. Seems they broke a spring or a coil or something. I know very little about suspension and front ends of trucks. But I do know that these roads are rough, and they can't be easy on the trucks. And I think our one little white truck finally had it. Now without Richard here... could be difficult to get it fixed. Jackie's little car has an irreparable flat battery (seems the heat is really hard on batteries, too!), so we're down to one car for all of us! This could be an interesting week...
So that's a rather boring play by play of my day. I'm going to go scrub my fingernails with a nail brush now. I already scrubbed once today, but since we're now into the dusty season, I seem to get filthy by simply sitting at the computer! Mabruk to those of you who actually kept reading this far!
Then we were off to the Ministry of Ed, to see where we were at with our plans for this workshop that's coming up. In theory, we're leading a workshop for 30 participants in a different city, starting in 10 days. Jackie and I are responsible for the material and the teaching, and the folks at the ministry are responsible for the logistics. Seems we'll just show up in that other town and see if anyone else happens to show up at the same time. Well, um, we'll show up, that is, if we actually get any plane tickets! I'm not really a planner, and I'm really quite flexible and spontaneous... but even I found our meeting this morning a little on the exhausting side!
By the time we got back, me and Jacks had to share a Coke as we got on with the rest of our day.
There is a workshop going on here now (for which none of the participants have shown up yet - only 3 American facilitators!), so we have a full time cook for the next few weeks. Unfortunately for me, she cooked liver for lunch today. Ew. Thankfully, I live on the same compound, so I trotted down to my house and made some lovely fried potatoes and had a tomato salad on the side. You really can't go wrong with potatoes.
This afternoon we also had our Arabic lesson, which was good fun! We have such a good teacher, and man, I really hope he doesn't run to find a new job somewhere else. He's a great asset to have around this compound! But of course, we can't pay him all that much, and he's actually quite highly qualified to find a better job somewhere else. So I would be quite happy for him if he could find a place that would pay him more, but we sure would miss him around here. It's tough keeping staff around here - everyone just wants to make a quick buck and go back to wherever they came from :(
During our Arabic lesson, I had to put on my community health nurse hat, and clean and bandage a wound from one of the old guys that's been working on the compound for almost 30 years. These two old men have been working as "carpenters" for so long, and I really have no clue what they do most of the time! They just sort of wander around the compound and pick up a few tools now and again. But they're very friendly and very willing to help fix our door when it falls apart, or strengthen a bookshelf etc. They're due to retire any day now, but I think they see this place as home, so they don't want to leave. Anyways, one of them had a nice infected cut on his finger, so I dabbed it with some antibiotic cream, wrapped a band-aid around it and sent him on his way. Another happy victim... er patient... for my nursing skills.
As soon as we were done our lesson, I was called up to the guesthouse to meet someone that had just arrived in Juba. I had met him at a meeting that I went to last month. Of course, he told me all about his plans to open a vocational college somewhere in this country. He didn't know where yet. But basically, he wanted help to open it. I was glad to have the excuse that I only work with primary schools ... so I could gracefully bow out of helping him set up a college! I hate saying no to people, even when it's a relatively random person off the street who wants me to help him set up a college!
As I was talking with him, Wes and Henry pulled up in the truck... which was riding precariously low to the front wheels. Seems they broke a spring or a coil or something. I know very little about suspension and front ends of trucks. But I do know that these roads are rough, and they can't be easy on the trucks. And I think our one little white truck finally had it. Now without Richard here... could be difficult to get it fixed. Jackie's little car has an irreparable flat battery (seems the heat is really hard on batteries, too!), so we're down to one car for all of us! This could be an interesting week...
So that's a rather boring play by play of my day. I'm going to go scrub my fingernails with a nail brush now. I already scrubbed once today, but since we're now into the dusty season, I seem to get filthy by simply sitting at the computer! Mabruk to those of you who actually kept reading this far!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Kindred Spirits
I spent the evening tonight with some real kindred spirits - watching the "Sound of Music"! But this wasn't any old version ... we had the Singalong version! Yup, it was like the Sound of Music karaoke, with all the words to the songs turning yellow as the von Trapps sang them.
I have never been in a room of 7 people who would not only heartily sing every word of every song in the movie, but also get up and spontaneously choreograph the "So long farewell..." song TWICE. It was great fun, I felt like I was truly among kindred spirits tonight. It's just wonderful to be with a group of people that you can just belt out completely cheesy songs with, and quote all the best lines and spin along with Julie Andrews as she whirls in the Alps and in the gazebos... Ah, it was the most fun I've had in quite a few weeks!
Most of the people there were folks who had previously lived on the same compound with us... and we're all die-hard Sound of Music fans, for some odd reason. Unfortunately for me, they built their own houses and are living across town now, so I don't see them nearly as much as I would like to. But when we spend quality time together like this, we don't need to see each other all that often... it's all about the quality, not the quantity, after all :)
And now I'm sure I'm going to have the "Lonely Goatherd" in my head for the entire week...
Friday, November 9, 2007
Time Away
This morning we set aside the entire morning to pray, along with all the other branches and entities in our organization around the world. I actually do feel like I had a few hours away - even though I was the one facilitating and organizing everything today!
Our organization had provided a bit of a powerpoint show, along with a couple of movies clips to aid in our prayer time, so it didn't take that many hours of work to prepare for the day, which was good, since I've got several other projects on the go at the moment! One of our translators here is also a very good choir master and he helped us out by choosing and leading a few songs for us today.
I think the day actually went exceedingly well! My hope was that we wouldn't spend most of the time talking about our prayer requests, but that we would actually spend most of the time praying together. My hope was also that we wouldn't spend the whole time praying for our own needs here in this country, but that we would pray for the people and projects that we don't normally think about, in other parts of the world.
And I think we achieved that, actually. No one fell asleep we were praying, everyone participated, everyone had opportunity to pray in which ever language they felt most comfortable praying in... and then we all enjoyed good fellowship over lunch, which the girls in the kitchen prepared so well for us!
It was truly a refreshing time, and I felt so privileged to be together in a room full of people from so many different cultures, who have so many stories to tell, who have such mature faiths, and to be united with them as we prayed for people all around the world.
I used this old globe that we dug out of one of the storage containers and was able to show the different parts of the world that we were praying for. And I also gave everyone a good laugh when I couldn't find Argentina. At least I knew which continent it was on...
And I still do marvel at how God has given me the ability to stand up in front of a room full of people and lead them in a half day of prayer, without even being nervous about it!
So I encourage you to spend a few minutes today to pray for a country or a project or some people that you might know in some far off corner of the world that you don't normally think about. Maybe you read something in the newspaper about something that's happening in a country you've never heard of, or you read an article online about someone in a far corner of the globe. Don't just walk away and think, "Hmmm, that's interesting". Let's spend a minute and pray for the people of that place. In fact, I'm going to go and read some BBC news right now and see who needs some prayer today...
Our organization had provided a bit of a powerpoint show, along with a couple of movies clips to aid in our prayer time, so it didn't take that many hours of work to prepare for the day, which was good, since I've got several other projects on the go at the moment! One of our translators here is also a very good choir master and he helped us out by choosing and leading a few songs for us today.
I think the day actually went exceedingly well! My hope was that we wouldn't spend most of the time talking about our prayer requests, but that we would actually spend most of the time praying together. My hope was also that we wouldn't spend the whole time praying for our own needs here in this country, but that we would pray for the people and projects that we don't normally think about, in other parts of the world.
And I think we achieved that, actually. No one fell asleep we were praying, everyone participated, everyone had opportunity to pray in which ever language they felt most comfortable praying in... and then we all enjoyed good fellowship over lunch, which the girls in the kitchen prepared so well for us!
It was truly a refreshing time, and I felt so privileged to be together in a room full of people from so many different cultures, who have so many stories to tell, who have such mature faiths, and to be united with them as we prayed for people all around the world.
I used this old globe that we dug out of one of the storage containers and was able to show the different parts of the world that we were praying for. And I also gave everyone a good laugh when I couldn't find Argentina. At least I knew which continent it was on...
And I still do marvel at how God has given me the ability to stand up in front of a room full of people and lead them in a half day of prayer, without even being nervous about it!
So I encourage you to spend a few minutes today to pray for a country or a project or some people that you might know in some far off corner of the world that you don't normally think about. Maybe you read something in the newspaper about something that's happening in a country you've never heard of, or you read an article online about someone in a far corner of the globe. Don't just walk away and think, "Hmmm, that's interesting". Let's spend a minute and pray for the people of that place. In fact, I'm going to go and read some BBC news right now and see who needs some prayer today...
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Trivia
Well, here I was giving my dear friend Grace a hard time about never updating her blog... and she came back and told me to take the plank out of my own eye, since I haven't updated mine since Monday! Sorry, Grace, and here's your update for the day.
I've been working all day. Yup, all day long. Imagine. Started out by organizing some lunch for those of us who eat in the guesthouse. Problem is, there's no gas. The warehouse is empty. Maybe two weeks and the barge with the gas for cooking will arrive in town. So we're using the charcoal "jiko" stove, and I taught the girls who work in the house how to boil water for tea in the microwave today! Jackie and I still have some gas at our house, but once that's gone... that's it. And we have a big workshop (which means a full guesthouse!) starting on Saturday. Oh well. I think everyone should just fast. After all, they're all Bible translators and it's a very Biblical thing to fast, isn't it?
Once I figured out lunch (ended up being quite a feast - lentils cooked over charcoal, chapatis made at the little stand on the corner, pinapple and papaya), I had to figure out a problem on one of the team's computer. They had a corrupted file, which is WAY beyond my ability to recover. So I came back to my office and started reading and researching and figuring out my session plans for the workshop that's coming up. In my reading today, I found some particularily interesting tidbits:
Another tidbit I read today:
I've been working all day. Yup, all day long. Imagine. Started out by organizing some lunch for those of us who eat in the guesthouse. Problem is, there's no gas. The warehouse is empty. Maybe two weeks and the barge with the gas for cooking will arrive in town. So we're using the charcoal "jiko" stove, and I taught the girls who work in the house how to boil water for tea in the microwave today! Jackie and I still have some gas at our house, but once that's gone... that's it. And we have a big workshop (which means a full guesthouse!) starting on Saturday. Oh well. I think everyone should just fast. After all, they're all Bible translators and it's a very Biblical thing to fast, isn't it?
Once I figured out lunch (ended up being quite a feast - lentils cooked over charcoal, chapatis made at the little stand on the corner, pinapple and papaya), I had to figure out a problem on one of the team's computer. They had a corrupted file, which is WAY beyond my ability to recover. So I came back to my office and started reading and researching and figuring out my session plans for the workshop that's coming up. In my reading today, I found some particularily interesting tidbits:
- the average middle class child in the United States reads approximately 1 million words a year, or about 80,000 to 100,000 words per month.
Another tidbit I read today:
- Estimates of the number of repetitions needed to learn a word vary anywhere from eight to fifteen times.
Monday, November 5, 2007
A more typical day
Well, we had a lovely interlude on the weekend - city electricty and cool weather. But today, it's right back to normal. Generator's humming, Tanya's sweating, stuff is breaking. It was nice to have a holiday from it all on Sunday. I was even inspired by the electricity and cool weather yesterday to make a big pot of tomatoe-pumpkin soup. Once again, using the pumpkin from the garden. It tasted so lovely and fresh... and the best part about it was that there were leftovers for tonight... when I was tired, it was dark, and I was hot!
I was also feeling really bad for our Arabic teacher today. Both Jackie and I were so tired - we had just come from a meeting with the Ministry of Education and have, well, let's just say an impossible amount of work ahead of us in the next few weeks! And then we went straight into our lesson and neither one of us could think straight. Poor Justin must have thought we were either really stupid or that he was a horrible teacher. He's actually a really good teacher, and I am enjoying our lessons with him. But today we just couldn't think straight.
After our lesson, me and Jackie both just sat in the chairs on the verandah, in the dark, too tired to even go and turn on the generator! Once the generator roared to life (thanks to some kind soul on the compound), and my belly was filled with soup, I felt much better. It's definitely early to bed tonight, though.
I already miss Zane, too. He's been rented out to the neighbors again to catch their remaining rats. Funny little Zane story, though. I've been training him to not use a litter box, but instead, to just go outside when he needs to, well, go outside. And it's been working really well, so far. However, when he went for a sleep over at the neighbor's house, I decided to give them his litter box, lest he have any accidents in the house. It just so happens that they haven't moved his litter box yet. And it also just so happens that they have a rip in their screen door.
So while this couple was sitting and having a very serious chat with their organization's director today, dear little Zane walked into their house through the rip in their screen door, proceeded directly to his litter box, did his business, and walked straight out again. I guess the little guy thinks he's entitled to an indoor bathroom, as well!
I was also feeling really bad for our Arabic teacher today. Both Jackie and I were so tired - we had just come from a meeting with the Ministry of Education and have, well, let's just say an impossible amount of work ahead of us in the next few weeks! And then we went straight into our lesson and neither one of us could think straight. Poor Justin must have thought we were either really stupid or that he was a horrible teacher. He's actually a really good teacher, and I am enjoying our lessons with him. But today we just couldn't think straight.
After our lesson, me and Jackie both just sat in the chairs on the verandah, in the dark, too tired to even go and turn on the generator! Once the generator roared to life (thanks to some kind soul on the compound), and my belly was filled with soup, I felt much better. It's definitely early to bed tonight, though.
I already miss Zane, too. He's been rented out to the neighbors again to catch their remaining rats. Funny little Zane story, though. I've been training him to not use a litter box, but instead, to just go outside when he needs to, well, go outside. And it's been working really well, so far. However, when he went for a sleep over at the neighbor's house, I decided to give them his litter box, lest he have any accidents in the house. It just so happens that they haven't moved his litter box yet. And it also just so happens that they have a rip in their screen door.
So while this couple was sitting and having a very serious chat with their organization's director today, dear little Zane walked into their house through the rip in their screen door, proceeded directly to his litter box, did his business, and walked straight out again. I guess the little guy thinks he's entitled to an indoor bathroom, as well!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Brrr...
Yup. That's what I said. Brrr. It started raining last night at about 4 am. And it got downright cold. I even turned off my fan. And all day today, I've been feeling slightly on the chilly side. 25C at the moment (9:40pm) and I'm feeling positively chilly. It's very unusual, since we were all suffering last week with mid-upper 30s. Even poor little Zane snuggled on my lap for a good hour and half in the middle of the afternoon, since we both needed each other to stay warm.
This cold weather has be thinking about another little problem that I've encountered. As I have a plane ticket now to come home, via Addis Ababa and London, I've realized that I have left all my "winter" clothes in Nairobi. I don't have a single pair of long pants, and not one long sleeve shirt here! So that means all I have to wear home on the plane are capri pants and t-shirts or short sleeve blouses. That's going to look rather odd while I'm hanging out in the London airport on my layover. Plus, I'm going to freeze in-flight. I didn't think this far ahead when I packed my stuff in Nairobi to come here. I just assumed that I would pass through Nairobi on my way home. And yet, with the money that I saved on the plane ticket by traveling through Addis rather than going to Nairobi first could buy me a few new outfits in Heathrow!
So, if you come to the airport to meet me, either look for the crazy girl wearing her summer clothes in the middle of winter, or look for a chic trendy airport outfitted sort of hipster :)
This cold weather has be thinking about another little problem that I've encountered. As I have a plane ticket now to come home, via Addis Ababa and London, I've realized that I have left all my "winter" clothes in Nairobi. I don't have a single pair of long pants, and not one long sleeve shirt here! So that means all I have to wear home on the plane are capri pants and t-shirts or short sleeve blouses. That's going to look rather odd while I'm hanging out in the London airport on my layover. Plus, I'm going to freeze in-flight. I didn't think this far ahead when I packed my stuff in Nairobi to come here. I just assumed that I would pass through Nairobi on my way home. And yet, with the money that I saved on the plane ticket by traveling through Addis rather than going to Nairobi first could buy me a few new outfits in Heathrow!
So, if you come to the airport to meet me, either look for the crazy girl wearing her summer clothes in the middle of winter, or look for a chic trendy airport outfitted sort of hipster :)
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Blog worthy events
Throughout the course of the day, there were a few blog worthy quotes that came out of me and Jackie's mouths... but of course, now I can't remember any of them. So this blog may end up being rather anti-climactic. I think one of the quotes had to do with the fact that we wake up every morning and find bug legs all over the kitchen counters. Yes, I said bug legs. I don't quite know what kind of bug legs they are, but they are definitely bug legs. So we're really not quite sure what happens on the kitchen counters at night. Are the rats coming out and feasting on the cockroaches? Are there spiders or bats that are feasting? Are the bugs just spontaneously losing their legs on our counters? I just don't get it. What it does mean, though, is that our counters get a good bleaching every day, since we just don't know who's dancing on them at night.
Last night, in fact, I heard some noises coming from the kitchen. Good old Zane, the might hunter that he is, was sound asleep at the foot of my bed. He was completely zonked out. But there were some sort of creatures having a little party in the kitchen, so I woke him up and threw him in there at about 2am. By 4 am, he was back in my room, biting my toes to get me to wake up and let him outside! He's a clever kitty, that one. He knows exactly how to get my attention!
Speaking of the cat, I rented him out this evening for his rat hunting abilities. Our neighbors (the ones with the baby that I love to hold) also have baby rats in their house! So I've sent Zane over a few times now to try to put an end to that little rat family. So far, he's already had a few tender morsels over there. He's spending the night tonight, so I have no one to wake me up in the middle of the night here :) I just hope he's not making a nuisance of himself over there.
Since I rented out my cat to them, Julia came over and used our oven to make an amazing chocolate cake! So I will certainly rent out my cat for a piece of fresh from the oven chocolate cake anytime.
I also went to the market today with a friend. I love going to this market here because you still see a handful of people wearing their traditional clothes and ogling at the white girls, because you know they have had very little contact with white folks before. Today, though, there was a family wearing clothes that I didn't really recognize at all. They were quite different from most of the clothes we see around here. They were similar to some of the clothes that the bedouins in the desert near where I used to live wear. They were quite stunning people - definitely of Arab descent, but certainly not from the city, which is where most of the Arabs here are from.
In fact, one of the women wanted to talk to me, but she was holding out her baby as she was calling me over. So I didn't get too up close and personal with her. I've had the experience before of people giving me their babies and expecting me to take them, assuming that I would give their baby a better life or something. Maybe I was assuming too much out of the situation this afternoon, but I just really didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of a crowded market! So I just waved, smiled, said "salam alekum" and kept on walking! But it would have been very interesting to talk with them, with my extraordinarily limited Arabic, and find out where they were from. Maybe I'll see them again, and will have a chance to talk with one of them who isn't trying to force a baby into my arms!
Ah, the joys of life around here. You never quite know what's going to happen next...
Last night, in fact, I heard some noises coming from the kitchen. Good old Zane, the might hunter that he is, was sound asleep at the foot of my bed. He was completely zonked out. But there were some sort of creatures having a little party in the kitchen, so I woke him up and threw him in there at about 2am. By 4 am, he was back in my room, biting my toes to get me to wake up and let him outside! He's a clever kitty, that one. He knows exactly how to get my attention!
Speaking of the cat, I rented him out this evening for his rat hunting abilities. Our neighbors (the ones with the baby that I love to hold) also have baby rats in their house! So I've sent Zane over a few times now to try to put an end to that little rat family. So far, he's already had a few tender morsels over there. He's spending the night tonight, so I have no one to wake me up in the middle of the night here :) I just hope he's not making a nuisance of himself over there.
Since I rented out my cat to them, Julia came over and used our oven to make an amazing chocolate cake! So I will certainly rent out my cat for a piece of fresh from the oven chocolate cake anytime.
I also went to the market today with a friend. I love going to this market here because you still see a handful of people wearing their traditional clothes and ogling at the white girls, because you know they have had very little contact with white folks before. Today, though, there was a family wearing clothes that I didn't really recognize at all. They were quite different from most of the clothes we see around here. They were similar to some of the clothes that the bedouins in the desert near where I used to live wear. They were quite stunning people - definitely of Arab descent, but certainly not from the city, which is where most of the Arabs here are from.
In fact, one of the women wanted to talk to me, but she was holding out her baby as she was calling me over. So I didn't get too up close and personal with her. I've had the experience before of people giving me their babies and expecting me to take them, assuming that I would give their baby a better life or something. Maybe I was assuming too much out of the situation this afternoon, but I just really didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of a crowded market! So I just waved, smiled, said "salam alekum" and kept on walking! But it would have been very interesting to talk with them, with my extraordinarily limited Arabic, and find out where they were from. Maybe I'll see them again, and will have a chance to talk with one of them who isn't trying to force a baby into my arms!
Ah, the joys of life around here. You never quite know what's going to happen next...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Bugs
Even though it's relatively early tonight, I have fled my verandah to the safety and comfort of my bed... more specifically, to the safety and comfort of my mosquito net. Some nights, there are just WAY too many bugs out there for me. They like to gather around the fluorescent lights that we have (only kind that happen to be installed in our house :( ) Then they drop onto me and into my water as I sit on the couch! Some nights, it's just too much for me. So I fled tonight. I took a photo of it, just 'cause I thought I haven't hardly posted any photos lately. So here's a photo, albeit a pretty crummy one, of the collection of bugs on my ceiling in my living room:
On a completely different note, we got confirmation today that we will actually get funding from the gov't to do some workshops that we've been planning for several months! This is really exciting news, but it also means that there is an overwhelming amount of work to be done in the next three weeks. It's exciting to actually get down to the nitty gritty of some of these things that we've been planning with the Ministry of Education for months now... but it's also a bit scary to actually get all the logistics of it worked out, as well as make sure we have all the materials ready for teaching!
But this is just one step in rebuilding the education systems here. This workshop will be the first of three two-week workshops which aims to get people from various parts of the country together to discuss how they're going to address the issue of languages in education. I already know there are going to be some seriously heated debates by the participants in these workshops - please pray that we're able to keep things on track and to facilitate good dialogue which will really benefit the school children in this country.
On a completely different note, we got confirmation today that we will actually get funding from the gov't to do some workshops that we've been planning for several months! This is really exciting news, but it also means that there is an overwhelming amount of work to be done in the next three weeks. It's exciting to actually get down to the nitty gritty of some of these things that we've been planning with the Ministry of Education for months now... but it's also a bit scary to actually get all the logistics of it worked out, as well as make sure we have all the materials ready for teaching!
But this is just one step in rebuilding the education systems here. This workshop will be the first of three two-week workshops which aims to get people from various parts of the country together to discuss how they're going to address the issue of languages in education. I already know there are going to be some seriously heated debates by the participants in these workshops - please pray that we're able to keep things on track and to facilitate good dialogue which will really benefit the school children in this country.
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