Old friends

God is good. When I left the place that I lived before coming here, I left some really good friends who I thought I would never see again.

And today, I got to see two of them again! Whoo hoo! They have left their own country and have ended up here, like so many others from that country. One of them is quite happily settled here - he has a job teaching, a fiancee, and he speaks the language quite well. The other, though, has more recently arrived and is waiting for a visa to the US... pray that he gets it so that he can go and take advantage of his scholarship and acceptance to a graduate program at a university there.

Anyways, we had a wonderful visit with them! I'm so thankful for the people I'm staying with - Audrey was great in talking to them on the phone and helping us find each other (none of us know the city very well!). She even walked down to the corner with me so I could find them, and allowed me to host them in the house with juice and large amounts of water.

I'm still so amazed by the fact that I can walk around the streets here in the middle of the afternoon when it's 45 C outside and hardly break a sweat. It feels SO good!

Back to my visit with my friends - we had a great time. It was just so good to see them. We went to this cute little pizza restaurant down the street and had some sodas and a bit of pizza together. It was really a very nice time, and I even felt like I was back in that place where we all were together.

Later on, I went with one of the nieghbors here who is working for the same organization that I work for, and we walked down to one of the nicest grocery shops I've seen in a while. You could even push a cart up and down the aisles! I bought a few treats there to take back to Juba, including a bit of shampoo and yummy raspberry jam. I also bought some chocolate chip cookies and some fresh milk to dunk them in. Yum yum.

It was really nice to walk down the street with her, getting to know her, and not having to worry about stepping in a puddle of... well... you don't want to know what of... and not sweating, but enjoying a bit of warm sun (well, ok, it was pretty hot sun... but...). We took a rickshaw home, which was a bit fun, as well. I love those little three wheeled vehicles, although there was a pretty crazy traffic jam on the way and there were a few moments where I sorta had to swallow my heart... but oh well. We survived, and once again, I was really remembering why I like this place so much!!