The weekend

Here I sit in my little “monk-ish” room in the convent (I guess that should be a “nun-ish” room, then, but somehow it just doesn’t convey what I mean!). I’m listening to my radio – switching between the BBC and a local station which plays American 80’s music! It’s so great. Funny, just heard on BBC that a communist has become the new prime minister of Cyprus. It will be interesting to see how that goes! (now I'm just posting this blog that I wrote last night in a word document...)

I’m just typing this out tonight in preparation for getting online tomorrow, so I don’t have to think of what to say once I get to the internet café!

I have a very odd sunburn today. We went adventuring yesterday, and I sort of missed a few spots when I sunscreened myself! I don’t think I’ve ever had my hands sunburned before, and it looks rather odd. I got the sunscreen all the way up and down my arms, but I missed the section on the ‘hand’ side of my watch! When I was finished slathering myself, I rubbed the ‘extra’ sunscreen into my fingers, but not onto the backs of my hands. So I have these two little stripes of bright red along the backs of my hands! I’m SO glad I remembered to wear my sunscreen on the rest of my arms and neck and face, or I’d be suffering today.

We went out to Naivasha yesterday to walk amongst the animals. There were 7 of us in a van (2 Germans, an American, a Ugandan, a Congolese, a Dutch, a Canadian, a Montanan sheep and a Kenyan driver), and we went from Nairobi down into the Rift Valley. Of course, we had to stop at the overlook, which was gorgeous.

It was also really nice to see the mountain that I had climbed last year when I was on a little holiday with a friend. Feels so nice to see some familiar things again!

We drove down the mountain side, and then on to the Naivasha Country Club. From there, we hired a boat to take us over to Crescent Island, as was suggested by a friend here. It was ‘safety first’ for all of us, as we donned our bright orange life jackets.

We spent the next few hours wandering around on the island – moving among the animals! It was like walking around in a zoo, but there were no fences! There are supposedly no predators on the island, just zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, gazelles, bushbucks… and you can just walk around them! It was just incredible!

The landscape was gorgeous, and there were SO many animals around. We just walked around with them and took photos and enjoyed the nature. It’s hard to get Prossy to smile in a photo, but you can see here how close we got to the giraffe! And look at the herds in the background, as well.

There were also some really cool plants and flowers on the island, and it was just wonderful to walk around and enjoy it all.

I think we were the only people on the island, other than the park rangers, who disappeared somewhere as soon as they figured out we didn’t want to pay them to follow us around the island! I felt like we had stepped into a whole new world, one that was so far removed from all the garbage and dirt of the city. I didn’t see a single plastic bag or plastic water bottle for almost 3 whole hours (well, other than the water bottle I was drinking out of J)! It was amazingly refreshing.

It also just felt so nice to be outside, to feel the sun, but to not be sweating! I had almost forgotten how nice it feels when the sun just warms your back, and you’re not constantly trying to find ways to get out of the sun… which would probably be why I got a funny sunburn J

Once we were tired of wandering around the island (and hungry for lunch!), we took the boat back to the other side, and sat on the lovely grass at the hotel and had chicken and chips for lunch. Yum. They even had real ketchup, rather than the neon pink gel that they call ‘tomato sauce’ in this country! I just had to take my shoes off and feel the grass beneath my feet while we sat and ate our lunch. Hew (the little lamb that used to live with me when Grace was there) was also really enjoying the grass (obviously, I haven’t had a pedicure in a while!).

The rest of the day was spent looking in some little shops, driving around the town, and making our way back up the mountain to our little convent. It was just a lovely day all around. Felt SO nice to be out of the city for a day… as much as I love the city, it’s nice to be out of it once in a while!

I had a wonderful day today, too. I walked to a Vineyard church with some friends this morning. It was like being transported back to Canada, actually! The church is in a very high class neighborhood here, and is full of expatriates – I haven’t seen that many white people in one place since leaving home! But we were singing songs just like at home, there was a powerpoint with the sermon, which also included a little ‘multi-media’ presentation. It was wonderful! It’s so nice to worship in a place where I feel comfortable and where I feel like I fit, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb. But it was also a little odd, being in the middle of Africa and being in a church that felt so North American!

It seems to be a really good lively, vibrant church, which has a lot of different ministries and outreaches in all corners of this country. The whole sermon was about how to respond and what to do to help in the current situation of political upheaval here in Kenya. They really do care about this country and her people. So I certainly can’t fault them for worshipping together in a very Western style. In fact, I think people need someplace to go where they can be refreshed and supported in a way in which they are accustomed. I mean, that’s what my work is all about – helping people experience and know God in a language and a culture that they understand and identify with. If I expected a bunch of international workers to worship in an “African” style all the time just because they’re living in Africa, well, that would be a bit hypocritical of me, wouldn’t it?!

We found a friend at church, and he offered to drive us all back to our convent, which was nice, since it was starting to get a bit hot outside, and it was getting pretty close to lunch time!

After a nice lunch of roast chicken, I decided to take myself out for coffee at the little mall down the road. It’s about a 20 minute walk in the opposite direction from the church. But I’d already had a long walk in the morning, and people here weren’t too keen on me walking on my own (I think they’re a bit paranoid, since I walked around this neighborhood on my own last year when I took that course here), so I jumped into a matatu (a little bus – like a 15 passenger van, which runs as public transportation) and in 5 minutes, I was at the mall! Wow, it was so nice to sit on the little patio, drink a latte, write some letters, read a little, and watch people wander by. I also went to the book section of the big Nakumatt (sort of like a Superstore at home) and admired some of the books for a while. After a couple of hours, I jumped in another matatu and came home.

I must admit, it felt nice to know how to catch a matatu and be able to get to where I wanted to be, on my own, without depending on anyone to take me there! I learned how to take those little busses on my own when I was here for my African Cultures course last summer – if I learned nothing else during that course, it at least gave me a little confidence that I can actually get around this city using public transportation!

Of course, I don’t have any photos of that part, since I didn’t want to carry my camera or anything with me! I feel quite safe taking the matatus and being out on my own during the day here, but I don’t need to take unnecessary risks by bringing anything other than a notebook, my cell phone, and enough money to buy a snack and a taxi home (in case of emergency!).

When I came home, I had an SOS message from our conference facilitators. They needed to print the handouts for our sessions tomorrow, but couldn’t make the printer work… so I was able to rescue them with the proper printer driver. I’ve also had two others here ask me to help them figure out some of their computer problems. I was trying to be quiet with my technological abilities, but I just can’t sit on my hands when I see people having trouble with their computers! Tomorrow night I have a “date” with a Congolese literacy coordinator to help him figure out some issues with his laptop. I also cleaned up a computer from a Ghanaian colleague – I gave him homework today to do some serious file management! I tell you, I just can’t get away from computers! I guess being the second to youngest person here at the conference comes with some responsibility to help out with all these newfangled computers J

OK, now I’m rambling and I’m amazed if any of you actually made it this far without falling off your chairs, sound asleep! Speaking of sleep, I should do that now, too, since I get to hear about mother-tongue based multilingual education all day tomorrow! I can hardly wait J

Still Alive and still not really online

Yup, back at the Intnernet cafe. Might be the only time I get online for the next few days... sigh, this is getting really hard on me. I can't keep up with all my friend's blogs... so if you're one of the blogs that I normally read, you have a few weeks here where you might get away with not updating yours :)

Meetings are going well. I'm learning a lot. But I'm also realizing that I will never be a strategist. I'm not really into writing visions and missions and outcomes and strategies. But that's what you're supposed to do when you work in my organization. Sigh. I just wanna teach people how to read!

I did hear a very encouraging report from someone from Ghana today, though. The teachers in his program were recipients of some backpacks and school supplies that I helped to collect from schools back home a year or two ago. Those teachers were SO excited and motivated by the fact that people in Canada actually cared enough to send even their used backpacks to them! So thanks to you folks out there who helped with this backpack project!

OK, gotta go catch the van back to our little convent where we're staying. It's fun staying with nuns for a while - they cook amazing food - but they aren't really into selling Coke or providing Internet. Oh well... it's probably good for me for a while :)

Still Alive and not online

In an internet cafe. Only have two minutes left. Stink. I miss my internet. But the meetings are going well.

Internet Deprived

So I HAD been thinking that I should "fast" from the Internet for Lent. But then I realized that would just about kill me, so I recanted on that and chose a different "fast" instead.

But then, on Sunday, I traveled to Nairobi to attend a literacy conference here with other people from all over Africa who do similar work to what I normally do (well, minus the rat hunting and sewage clean up duties).

Anyways, in all the emails that I got before the conference, they were saying that there would be email facilities available at the conference center. Of course, that has not yet materialized! Gack! So I'm internet less.

Thankfully, I have been able to come into town with a kind-hearted local friend and we are sipping iced coffee and surfing (or, well, maybe bobbing about) on the painfully slow internet.

Here I am, just now:
Anyways, other than feeling completely cut off from the rest of the world in a conference that's, ironically, all about "connecting", it's been going quite well. The center itself is GORGEOUS. It's a catholic retreat center, so feels all calm and peaceful. I actually woke up in the middle of the night the first night because it was TOO quiet! Seriously, too quiet. I felt a bit claustrophic in my little room - private room with my own HOT shower! I've really, really enjoyed the hot shower aspect of life here. Here's a picture of the shower - one of the highlights of this place:
The grounds are also beautiful - lots of gardens and flowers. I went for a little walk in the garden yesterday and just smelled the nature around me. I could actually smell things like woods, and trees and things other than, well, the, um, not so nice smells of my normal home!

The literacy connection conference is quite good, as well. I've met with some old friends and already "connected" with some new ones, which is good. I'm still a bit daunted by the fact that I'm with all these big-wigs in our organization, and I've already been told by one of my "heroes" in this field, that she really wants to invite me to a workshop in Bangkok where they'll be working on some multilingual education curriculum stuff with some seriously amazing people. She's asked my boss here if I can go and join them for that... so depending on how things work out... maybe I'll get to go see a completely different part of the world! I'm not holding my breath for actually going, but I AM feeling quite honored that she thought about inviting me to this "invitation only" workshop. What a blessing it is to be able to have a time to get to know and learn from so many of these experts! I'm still not sure what God is doing, or why He's giving me all these opportunities, but I'm enjoying every minute of it :)

Who knows when I'll get to connect again, but hopefully it will be in a couple of days.

This is... well... I won't say what it is lest I get anyone in trouble!

The BBC article linked below is just one example of the decisions that the government there has been making over the past couple of years.

UN Troops Trapped

Please pray for the folks in Eritrea, especially my friends who are also stuck there.

The bestest neighbors in the whole world

Tonight we took our neighbors out for dinner. They've been living here since the beginning of January, and they have made our lives SO much sweeter here on the compound. They're a great combination of ethnicities: Dutch-Canadian.

They have also been doing so many of the things around here that have needed doing for a LONG time. Fixing everything and anything, cleaning everything and anything, and just basically being all around nice people! Margreet is also wonderful to have around because she's willing to go on little adventures with me all the time. Any time I need to go on any errands, she just jumps in the truck with me - and even opens and closes the gate for me so I don't have to get in and out of the truck :) Now that's mighty neighborly.

Unfortunately, they're only here for a short time :( I'm already starting to miss them, since they'll already be gone by the time we come back from Nairobi. So we took them out for dinner tonight, just to spend some time with them. It was a minor adventure finding the restaurant, but I'm glad we perservered because we had a great meal in the end!

One of our friends here had told us about a restaurant that is run by the Sacred Heart Sisters (um, those would be Catholic sisters... even though the name sounds like a cool all-girls band). We had the general gist of an idea of where this restaurant is, but since there are no street signs, and few landmarks - turn left at the thatch hut and bamboo fence - we were just sort of following our noses. We managed to leave the compound before dark, which facilitated our actual finding of the right place, unlike a couple of our previous adventures in finding new locations!

When we got close to where we thought it SHOULD be, I had the honour of jumping out of the truck and using my new found Arabic to ask directions. Of course, the answers to my directions always came in English, since the people I was talking to were speaking much better in English than I was in Arabic!

Anyways, we did manage to find the place and had some lovely chicken and chips. The chicken wasn't as good as our usual chicken place, but the chips... oh man, the chips were AMAZING. But the chicken at the other place is truly amazing. So I was having a little conversation online with my sister (yahoo messenger is amazing!) about my dilemma - which restaurant do I prefer. Which is more important - a good chip or a good chicken? It's very important to spend time pondering these deeper questions of life, especially across the miles on yahoo messenger :)

But it IS amazing that I even have this dilemma - this time last year, there was one place to buy chicken and NO places to get chips! This town has really come a LONG way. Now there are at least 5 places to get Ethiopian food. 2 places to get Chinese food. 2 places to get pizza. And I can't even count the number of places to get chips. Me, I like development :)

To Blog or Not to Blog...

I somehow feel compelled to blog tonight, but I'm not quite sure what to blog. So maybe this is going to end up just being a list of random thoughts.

• I like living in a place where you can show up for a birthday dinner bearing a can of tuna and be the person who brought the nicest, most appreciated gift.
• I'm learning to drive like a local (though minus the hit-and-run propensity).
  
• I had to come to a complete stop in the truck today because someone coming out of the traffic police hospital simply stuck his hand out in front of him and then proceeded to walk out into the middle of traffic... right in front of me.
• I've almost enjoyed washing my dishes myself this week... but that's mostly because I know the end of that is in sight :) We had to, well, ask our house-help substitute to not come back to work. She BROKE the drawer in the bathroom that holds all of my goodies (i.e. extra shampoo, sunscreen, lip balm), after, of course, she had been told not to touch or use any of our goodies. She also got red nail polish all over the beautiful little pouch that I got from my sister for Christmas :( That really made me sad. It's one thing to use my nail polish, but it's completely another thing to purposefully wipe it all over my stuff. I'm SO thankful that Sunday is coming back next week to keep our house in order. It saves SO much time every day to have some help. Plus, it's good fun to work with her and practice my Arabic when she's around.
• We had a really good Arabic lesson today - we were telling each other stories! Poor Justin (our teacher) had a pained look on his face when Jackie and I started telling our little stories... but he's really quite patient, and it's fun to see his face light up when we really "get" something.
  
• I'm getting ready to go to Nairobi for some meetings where I'll be seeing some good friends again. I'm looking forward to that - plus, it means a whole three weeks without having to touch a generator!
  
• I'm also really looking forward to the whole hot shower thing in Nairobi. I seem to be suffering from a really bad case of dirty elbow crease syndrome. I just can't keep the dirt out from my elbow creases. Even after only being here for a month, I have a thick layer of dust covering my body. If you don't look too closely, it looks like a pretty nice tan. But then, if you start sweating... it starts to wash away.

Maybe I should post a random picture tonight, too, just to complete the randomness of this blog.
This is the neighborhood duck pond. I have to swerve to avoid the ducks on one side and the puddle of raw sewage on the other every time I drive down our street.

On that note, time to go turn off the generator!

Mmmm... pudding

Since today was Jackie's birthday, I had to try to figure out something a little special to do for her. It's pretty hard to think of exciting things to do for one's birthday in a place like this! So we took her out for dinner at a restaurant of her choice - a new one that we've never tried before. And it was actually quite good. Nice chips, and it was quite posh decor, as well. There was even A/C!

Including paying for Jackie's food between three of us, the bill came to about $15 each, so it wasn't even all that pricey! I think we'll be going back there - in fact, we'll probably stop there for lunch on our way to the airport on Sunday! Yup, I'm going on a trip! Whoo hoo! Two and a half weeks in Nairobi for some meetings. Should be interesting - I got a list of the participants for the conference today by email. Some of the folks are old friends of mine from other literacy courses that I've helped to facilitate in the past, and some are people who's names I've heard about or read about but have never met. And most of them are Africans who are in leadership positions in literacy programs in their respective countries. So I'm really looking forward to the meetings, and sharing info and ideas with them.

I'm always a little awestruck at conferences like this - I'll be right in the thick of things with people who are so much more experienced than me! Most of the people going are in real leadership positions in their countries; I just get to go basically because the two of us (me and Jackie!) make up the entire literacy department of our organization here in this country! But I am so thankful for all these opportunities that keep getting thrown my way to rub elbows with these highly experienced and respected people all the time; I know I'm going to learn a ton over the next few weeks.

Oh yeah, right, I was talking about Jackie's birthday. I didn't get any photos, but I managed to make a really nice chocolate pudding for dessert this evening. I was going to make a cake, but it ended up that we didn't have enough flour. Plus, it was 37C in the kitchen this afternoon, and turning on the oven didn't appeal to me, either. So I went through the "More with Less" cookbook (thanks, Carla!) and found an easy recipe for chocolate pudding. Yum yum! It was a great dessert, especially since Annamarie had the brilliant idea of spooning it over bananas.

So even though most of today was spent sweating and staring at the computer screen and trying to reformat a book in Word, which was a horrible mess of mixed styles, wrong page sizes and strange spacing, a nice dinner with friends and a good bowl of pudding has ensured a very happy ending!

And now I have to go turn off the generator. Goodnight.

Dusty Season has begun.

It's been heating up here, which means that the dusty season has begun. This morning, I made a nice fresh cup of Kenyan coffee (imported in my housemates' suitcase) in my Tim Horton's travel mug. What a great mug it is - I use it every day, twice a day, for either hot or iced coffee. Yum yum. Of course, I give my mug a nice wash before using it, so it was freshly cleaned this morning. During the making of the coffee, a guest came round to talk about some bits and pieces of business, so I offered him a cup of coffee, as well. By the time I had finished making his coffee and had sat down to start drinking my coffee, a layer of dust had already settled on the lid of my mug!

Imagine - in less than 15 minutes, a layer of dust had coated the top of my mug. It's just downright sad when I start thinking about all that dust - there are a lot of 15 minutes in every day, which means layers and layers of dust on everything. And I wonder why I wake up coughing every morning!

But really, life could be a lot worse... just look at those guys that were hit by the bus yesterday. Their families probably don't care too much today about the dust on their dishes.

And Lent is also going well. I have given up reading my novel before bed, and am now using that time to read some a John Piper book and to do a little more spiritually "edifying" reading. And it's been really good to set that time aside, and feed myself a bit, rather than just reading for pleasure. How is your Lent starting out?

On the Road Again

Today, in my role as tour guide for the masses, I led my entourage on a bit of a "drive in the country". First, of course, we filled our bellies with Ethiopian food at my favorite Ethiopian restaurant. We even had a nice cup of freshly roasted coffee to keep us alert on the road.

We crossed the bridge with no problems - I had brought along my travel pass and passport, just in case, since you never know what documents you're going to asked for at the checkpoint at the bridge. I guess everyone was having their nap this afternoon, though, since there was no one at the checkpoint to even stop us and ask us for anything! So I breathed a little sigh of relief and kept on driving.

Since we had a farmer from Alberta in our tour group, we were going in search of some cows. Lucky for us, we found some just on the other side of the bridge:We took some photos and kept driving a little ways down the highway. Here's the good stretch of open road.Of course, we stopped to read the sign boards:
Good thing we had all been to the bathroom before we left the restaurant, so we didn't have to stop on the side of the road!

We didn't actually go too far, as there's not much to see - just a bunch of scrubby bushes and the occasional group of huts. During the rainy season, it's quite nice and green, but during the dry season, it's well, dry.

So we turned around and came back into town. I took the group to my favorite restaurant by the river, which is getting posher by the week! It's a nice place to sit and take photos of the river. Unfortunately, one of the guests at the restaurant wanted to push his weight around a bit, and when he saw that Linda was taking photos, he came to ask for a photo permit. I'm not quite sure why he decided he wanted to make trouble - he wasn't in uniform or anything, and didn't even work at the restaurant. But we were done taking photos anyways, so we just left a few minutes earlier than we would have anyways.

We had had a really nice, peaceful drive in the country, but once we got back into town, it wasn't quite as peaceful! As we were driving back along the main road, we were witness to a pretty horrific accident. We were on this road, which is the main street through town:
Since I was driving, I saw the accident first, but I still can't quite piece together the whole thing. Basically, a mini-bus (similar to a 15 passenger van, which serves as public transportation here - called a matatu in Kenya, for those of you who know...) had hit a pedestrian. Then, I think, someone stepped out in front of the mini-bus to make the driver stop, was also struck. The mini-bus then drove right over the second guy. The mini-bus was in the oncoming lane, coming towards us, and was swerving a little, since he had hit two people at quite a high speed, so I was concentrating on getting our truck out of the way and not getting hit, as well. Thankfully, there wasn't as much traffic on the road as in the photo above, and I was able to get all the way over on to the far edge of the road.

The mini-bus driver just kept driving, and didn't stop at all. I have no idea how far he kept driving, or what happened to him, since he also had a bus full of people who had witnessed the whole thing.

Here, mob-justice reigns supreme. So I can understand why the driver kept on driving - had he stopped to help, he probably would have been killed by the group of people who would have gathered around the scene.

I, too, made the decision to keep going. It was quite an instant decision, as it all happened right in front of our eyes, but I figured that a truck full of white folks would NOT make the situation any better, and in fact, could have put us in danger of the mob, since we wouldn't be able to communicate what we saw, and who knows what the mob could start blaming us for. Plus, none of us have any medical training, so we wouldn't have been of any use in that area, either. There are no ambulances in the city to call, so our cell phones wouldn't have helped anything, either.

Just around the bend a little ways, there is a bakery, which we were going to stop at anyways, so since I was shaking, and needed to stop driving for a few minutes, anyways, I stopped at the bakery and got down to the business of buying bread, just so I had something to do for a few minutes to keep myself busy! It was also a good vantage point from which the others in the truck could safely see what was happening. As I suspected would happen, a large group quickly formed around the scene of the accident, and one of the men was loaded into the back of a pick-up, and I presume taken off to the police station (you have to take any injured person to the police station BEFORE taking them to the hospital here!). The second man was left in the middle of the road - we presume he had already died.

Now that I've thought about the situation, I think I did make the right decision in driving away from the scene, so at least I feel good about the split second decision that I made. So at least I'm not feeling guilty about driving away or anything - and there are no laws in this country which say that you have to stick around at the scene of the accident. In fact, in all of our contingency/safety plans, we're told to flee the scene if we are involved in an accident, and that's simply because of this mob-justice mentality that there is here.

But witnessing this accident today makes me so thankful that I, nor any of my friends or colleagues here, have been involved in a road accident yet. I don't take our safety on these streets for granted! Please pray for the families of the people involved in the accident today, and please pray for forgiveness and mercy for the driver of the mini-bus. Revenge killing is also a big thing around here, and I have no idea what the other passengers on the bus would have done to the driver once he stopped driving.

Also, please continue to pray for our safety as we travel around the town to meetings and for shopping etc. This is now the fifth, but worst, traffic accident that I've seen in only a year of being here. It's only God's protection that has been keeping us safe so far (but don't worry, Mom, I'm a careful driver, too :) ).

Two More Hats

I wore a couple of different hats again today, as usual!

Today I wore the "tour guide" hat, and bombed around the town with a truck full of visiting Canadians :) We have a little plot of land over on the other side of town, towards the mountain. So I took them out there to see it. Then, I had heard that there's a new restaurant out on the edge of the mountain, so I thought that would be a nice place to stop for a cold Coke. I asked Richard how to get there from where the plot of land is, and he said, "Go past Margaret's house, then follow the track toward the mountain."

Well, easier said than done, as I know which one is Margaret's house, but there were several little tracks going by her house. So I just chose one of them... then a little way further, there were a few more little tracks branching off... and a little further, a few more tracks. Anyways, I just kept heading towards the mountain and in the general direction that I thought the main road would be... and surprise, surprise, after going up and down a few ravines, over a few humps in the road, through a few compounds, we made it to the main road at the foot of the mountain! I'm really glad we ended up on the main road, because I really don't think I would have found our way back to where we had been, and I wasn't too keen on having to drive around for hours on these tiny little dead end tracks, trying to figure out how to get back home!

Anyways, it was quite a nice tour of the town, as I rarely get to go out and just drive around aimlessly just for the fun of it. And while it was pretty hot and sweaty and dusty (remember, it's 37C, we have no A/C in the truck, on dusty little tracks), it was good fun because the roads are just so rough! You really have to "drive" - shifting gears to get up and down the ravines, figuring out which part of the ridge to keep the tires on to get the best traction... it's just fun to be able to let the truck do what a truck is meant to do!

Plus, our handy guy installed new shocks on the truck this morning, so today was the maiden voyage on the new shocks. Wow, what a difference it made! I was gushing about how smooth the ride was, while my passengers were all bouncing around in the back seat, thinking, man, this girl needs to get out more!

I brought my tour group safely back home, and then it was time to wear yet another hat. The whole house-helper thing just didn't work out, so we decided to let her stay home until our normal girl can come back to work. It's just not worth it, as she's doing more damage in the house than she is doing good!

So that meant I had to do the sweeping today. Here's one of three of the piles that I swept up from the floor in our living room:
This wasn't the biggest pile, either! So I'm just praying that Sunday comes back on Monday, because I just don't think I can face these dunes every day for too many days!

Anyways, tomorrow is Sunday. My Canadian friends wanted to go for a "drive in the country" tomorrow. I'm going to do my best to please them, but I really don't know how it's going to work out! There are check-points before you actually leave the city and get out to the "country" and they just don't let you out for a little "drive in the country"! One of them suggested taking a picnic with us. I definitely vetoed that idea, since you'd have to eat your picnic in the truck anyways - you can't actually go off the road because there are so many landmines as soon as you step off the road! Plus, they don't exactly build road-side picnic tables here like they do at home!

So it could be interesting to go for a drive in the country tomorrow, but hey, I'm game for anything! At least I'm hoping we can get across the bridge...

Life is looking up!

I did the happy dance of joy, leaping through the halls of the guest house and skipping around the trees because the city electricity came on this afternoon at about 6pm! This is only the third day of electricity that we've had in the last two and a half months! Whoo hooo!

Of course, getting the city electricity comes right on the heels of our super handy men's visit - they have now set up the internet kit so that it's all running off of batteries and we can use the internet even when the electricity is off. That makes a HUGE difference to my quality of life, that's for sure.

AND, we discovered take-away chicken tonight, too. I roasted up some yummy potatoes in the oven, AnnaMarie stopped at the grilled chicken place on her way home from work, and we had a wonderful chicken dinner, with lights and a fan on :) Wow. Amazing.

Oh yeah, I got some work done today, too. I'm helping one of our colleagues at the Ministry of Education typeset a book. I LOVE doing stuff like that, but when someone else, who's not exactly computer literate, does all the typing and formatting, it's a bit of a nightmare to try to go back and make it look pretty! But in the end, I just love making a little book out of it all and making it look nice.

My cold is getting better today, too. I was suffering for a few days this week - it's not so nice to feel feverish AND be hot and sweaty just because it's, well, hot and sticky outside. I'm just so thankful I've yet to be really, truly sick. The thought of really having a fever in this weather is not pleasant. So please continue to pray that I stay healthy here!

Now, since I have a whole night of internet surfing ahead of me, I've got some webpages and blogs to catch up on!

Shrove Tuesday

Lent begins tomorrow! But instead of the "traditional" pancake dinner tonight, we took Richard out for Ethiopian food. Mmmm... the last time I ate injera, I was in Ethiopia! So my tongue had been craving the deliciousness of it, and I finally got to go out tonight. We tried a new restaurant here - there are now 5 Ethiopian restaurants here that I know of, though we usually end up going to the same place, mostly because it's been too dark always to find any of the other ones by the time we get out of the compound for dinner! The funniest part of dinner tonight was meeting this guy who we had met before in a different restaurant that we went to with Richard. He was happy to see Richard and "his wife" (clearly meaning ME) again. I'm still not sure why this guy assumed that I'm Richard's wife, especially since we were sitting around the table with both Jackie and AnnaMarie! Anyway, we had a good laugh about it.

I also had a very successful shopping trip today - I found little cakes for a farewell "tea" that we're having tomorrow for one of our colleagues who is leaving. Because I used my few words in Arabic, and smiled prettily, I got some free candy out of the deal :)

AND, this is the best part, I found YOGURT! Mmmmm.... I've been searching in vain for yogurt for the past two weeks - the one shop where they used to have it all the time is getting sick of me coming and asking, I think. They don't even say hello to me anymore, they just say, "no yogurt yet", and I carry on my way. I didn't even bother getting out of the car as I passed by today, and they let me know that there was no yogurt!

Oh, and I actually did get some good work done today. I had to bring some documents in to the Minister of Education, as well as a print out of a report that we wrote to a consultant who's also working there. It's always a wild goose hunt around that Ministry to try to track people down. The Ministry is a collection of pre-fab buildings, with desks and chairs lining the inside of each one. No one has a specific desk assigned to them, and no one seems to sit in the same place on any given day. I honestly feel for them, because I don't know how anyone could ever get any work done in that sort of environment! I mean, they don't even have their own desks on which to leave a pen or a piece of paper, not to mention a filing cabinet or anywhere to access any sort of information.

Anyways, having to wander around and find various people can also be a good thing. I was asking around to find the consultant when I was ushered into a nice air conditioned box inhabited by another consultant who's working on the "Education Act". So I had a chance to sit down with her and have a really nice conversation about the act, and to advocate for the language policy within that act. It's always very informal, and you sort of have to be on your toes whenever you go over to the Ministry, because you just never know what sort of impromptu meeting is going to happen!

I should get going - I need to go and clean up some of the sand dunes in the house before I go turn off the generator and get into bed. The girl who's helping in the house didn't actually show up for work today - perhaps I made her feel really bad yesterday when I asked her to wash her name out of my table cloth (for some reason, she had written her name with pen on the table cloth which was on top of the kitchen table!). I'm all about literacy, but couldn't she have at least found a piece of paper to practice writing her name on?!

Oh yeah, and I wanted to write a bit about Lent, which starts tomorrow! We had a great discussion on Sunday evening in our little International Fellowship about Lent. It gave me a lot of food for thought, and I'm praying that this time of Lent will be a really good one. I'll write more about that tomorrow...

For now, since I haven't posted any photos in a LOOONNNGGGG time, here's a photo of Zane, feasting before his lenten fast begins tomorrow. One of our friends got invited to the UN grocery store this evening. There is ice cream at that shop. Of course, the freezer doesn't get enough electricity to actually FREEZE anything, so we had to eat it all up this evening :) Zane got to lick out the bowl.

House Helper

Well, I haven't cleaned up after our house help yet today.

We normally have a wonderful girl helping us in our house - because there is so much dust around here, you literally have to sweep the sand-dunes out of the house every single day, so Sunday is a life-saver here. She works for us for a few hours each day, and during the rest of the day, she is finishing her secondary school certificate.

However, last week, she asked for two weeks off so she could study for her final exams. But she has a younger sister (which could be anything from a full sister to a step sister to a second cousin three times removed) who could come during the day and help us keep the house a little bit clean.

So that's no problem - Sunday is an amazing girl - always so pleasant and smiling, amazingly tidy and clean, and completely trustworthy. Last Saturday, Sunday brought her sister in, and they worked together for the day, so Sunday could show her sister the job and show her how things work around the house.

And man, it's been an interesting week since then! On the first day she worked in the house, I came back from the office and realized that she had taken a shower in our bathroom... and sampled every single bottle and lotion and potion that was sitting in the bathroom. She even used our leg-shaving razors and left her hair all over them! I had to clean hair out of my brush, as well cleaning clumps of hair off of our bathroom counter and out of the sink! She had also used all of our faceclothes and Jackie's bath towel. And somehow, had gotten mud all over the sink and counter top. And she left it all... didn't even think to wipe the counter before she went home for the day! She had also left her flip flops in the middle of the floor, as well as leaving the iron (still switched on) and ironing board in the middle of the living room.

Of course, I didn't discover this until she was already gone, so I couldn't do anything about it.

The next day, she worked for our neighbor, Wes. The next day, we heard him talking about the fact that she had sampled all of his things in the bathroom - shampoo, razor, comb etc., and didn't clean any of it up, either! Plus, she had put all of his soaking wet clothes all nicely folded into his closet!

So, we asked our local friend, Henry, here to come with us to have a little chat to her, since she doesn't speak a word of English and our Arabic is, well, less than fluent! We trotted down to our house here where she was busy sitting on the couch. Henry had a little chat with her - sorta like a father having a little chit chat with his daughter. It was really kind of sweet. She started to look a little bashful, and as he was telling her that she must NOT, under any circumstances, use any of our stuff, she was trying to hide her toenails... which looked a remarkably similar shade to mine...

Anyways, things have improved in the department of her using our stuff, but I still come home every day and tidy up after her, as well as clean the bathroom! I also had to hang all of my soaking wet clothes out on the line, after she had stuffed them back onto my shelves! Today in our Arabic class, we learned the words for "wet" and "dry"... guess what we'll be trying to communicate to her tomorrow!

Wii!

We opened a bowling alley last night right here in our big village!

Some friends of mine brought back a Wii video game system from the UK at Christmas. So last night, about 20 of us gathered for a bowling tournament. K had brought hot dogs (you can find little sausages in a can in some of the shops here - very expensive though), and even hamburgers! I brought popcorn, and there were sodas!

Somehow, even though I've never Wii bowled, I won in my group (even though I only bowled a 157), so I ended up in the "Tournament of Champions" at the end of the evening. Of course, I was bowling against real champions, so I soundly lost.

Uh oh, internet's being worked on, so I'll have to finish this later...

Brrr....

I didn't sleep too well last night. At first, I thought it was because I was still excited from all the fun I had last evening with my friends here. But then, as I was in my waking-up haze this morning, and reflecting on the fact that I hadn't slept too well, I realized that I was really, really cold. Yes, that's right, I said COLD. It was 23.5C in my bedroom this morning, and only 22C outside! So sleeping in my tank top and light cotton capri pajama pants, with only a sheet for covering was a bit of a chilly affair. But it didn't even occur to me that I would be cold at this time of year in this place.

It's SUPPOSED to be hot. And I mean hot. I think normally, during the day, it would be high 30's, or close to 40C. But yesterday, the hottest it got was 32C. Weird. But I'm certainly NOT complaining! Normally, I'd be not sleeping well at this time of year because I was laying in my bed sweating all night. Global warming? Hmmm.... I'm not convinced!