Starting tomorrow, I plan to eat injera every day for the next 11 days! Mmm... I can hardly wait!
Yup, I'm off on my summer holidays tomorrow! I'm supposed to arrive in Addis Ababa at about 8:30pm tomorrow evening. I'll spend the next day with Hiwet, one of my dearest friends who lives there, then other friends Janet and Steve are coming from various directions (Steve from Canada, Janet from Kenya) and we'll go do something fun. Not sure what we'll do yet... but I'm armed with a Lonely Planet book and a vague notion of the fact that I want to see old churches and eat injera.
So please pray that we all get along well (you never quite know how you're going to get along with people when you're travelling!), and that I have a restful time. I really need a rest, 'cause I'm tired. And pray that details work out, too... you never quite know what's going to happen when you try to do budget travel in Africa! But I'm sure it's going to be an amazing time.
Since blogspot blogs are censored in Ethiopia, I won't be posting until I return... and hopefully will have some stories to tell... though not TOO many stories...!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
A little Tantrum
Yes, I threw a little tantrum today. I started my big project of preparing the handouts and workshop materials for our next Ministry of Education workshop way back on Wednesday. It is now Friday night, and the project is still not done. Basically, this project just means a bunch of grunt work of printing out the materials that we've prepared - about 7 1/2 reams of paper worth of handouts (that would be, um, about 3800 double sided handouts - most of which have to be stapled together and hole punched). Since I'm going on holidays on Monday, and we're leaving for this workshop basically as soon as I get back here, I needed to get this project done before I leave... hence the trying to start on Wednesday thing.
Alas. I am about 4 reams into the project and have already gone through 4, yes, that would be 4 cartridges for the laser printer. Keep in mind, I do not work in a normal office where you simply throw the old cartridge in the recycle bin and find a nice supply cupboard with another cartridge in it. No, I work in this place where you have to drive all over town to find a cartridge which may or may not have been sitting in storage in a container in the 45C sun for 6 months or a year or two. I work in this place where you have to fight your way through the adoring throngs of men to get to the counter at the stationary shop where you have to be charming, yet tough, to bargain for a new cartridge (which is probably just an old one that someone has refilled and then stuck it in storage in a container for a year or two). Then you may or may not get one that actually has all its working parts and you will spend anywhere between $90 and $150 USD, plus an hour or two driving around in the heat and dust.
Thankfully, Richard is a dear. He realized that I was on the verge of losing it yesterday afternoon, after switching the second cartridge, so he went with me to the shops. That helped. He also spent a couple of hours fiddling with various cartridges, switching toner drums and replacing broken pins and cleaning them all up in an attempt to make them start working again. But before I finally got one that worked this afternoon, I did throw a little tantrum. I mean, really, how hard is it to just make a printer work?! I'm sure it's not the printer's fault, but more a symptom of the fact that I was all sweaty and drippy from just changing the printer cartridges, I was tired since I didn't sleep too well (that's a whole 'nother story - between the rats and the gunshots last night...), and I was running out of generator hours (it's been over a week now since we've had a minute of city electricity). So it was all brewing together into that perfect storm sort of thing. And I had myself a little tantrum! But boy, it sure did feel good to get it all out!
Anyways, I'm feeling much better now, though when I was printing again this evening and my fourth cartridge started running out of toner. So at 9:30pm, I quit. Tomorrow morning, I'll try the newest cartridge that Richard rigged up from the remains of the last two cartridges that died on me!
I am so ready to go on my summer holidays! I'm still debating whether or not to bring my computer - I think I will, and leave it in the city with my friend when I go travelling up North. I just feel "safer" with my computer with me. It's like making sure I bring my brain with me. How odd is that, eh? But Ethiopia is notorious for it's bad internet - and in fact, they have blocked all blogspot blogs! So there won't be too much blogging for me over the next few weeks! But don't worry, I'm probably not quite dead yet ... just on holiday.
Alas. I am about 4 reams into the project and have already gone through 4, yes, that would be 4 cartridges for the laser printer. Keep in mind, I do not work in a normal office where you simply throw the old cartridge in the recycle bin and find a nice supply cupboard with another cartridge in it. No, I work in this place where you have to drive all over town to find a cartridge which may or may not have been sitting in storage in a container in the 45C sun for 6 months or a year or two. I work in this place where you have to fight your way through the adoring throngs of men to get to the counter at the stationary shop where you have to be charming, yet tough, to bargain for a new cartridge (which is probably just an old one that someone has refilled and then stuck it in storage in a container for a year or two). Then you may or may not get one that actually has all its working parts and you will spend anywhere between $90 and $150 USD, plus an hour or two driving around in the heat and dust.
Thankfully, Richard is a dear. He realized that I was on the verge of losing it yesterday afternoon, after switching the second cartridge, so he went with me to the shops. That helped. He also spent a couple of hours fiddling with various cartridges, switching toner drums and replacing broken pins and cleaning them all up in an attempt to make them start working again. But before I finally got one that worked this afternoon, I did throw a little tantrum. I mean, really, how hard is it to just make a printer work?! I'm sure it's not the printer's fault, but more a symptom of the fact that I was all sweaty and drippy from just changing the printer cartridges, I was tired since I didn't sleep too well (that's a whole 'nother story - between the rats and the gunshots last night...), and I was running out of generator hours (it's been over a week now since we've had a minute of city electricity). So it was all brewing together into that perfect storm sort of thing. And I had myself a little tantrum! But boy, it sure did feel good to get it all out!
Anyways, I'm feeling much better now, though when I was printing again this evening and my fourth cartridge started running out of toner. So at 9:30pm, I quit. Tomorrow morning, I'll try the newest cartridge that Richard rigged up from the remains of the last two cartridges that died on me!
I am so ready to go on my summer holidays! I'm still debating whether or not to bring my computer - I think I will, and leave it in the city with my friend when I go travelling up North. I just feel "safer" with my computer with me. It's like making sure I bring my brain with me. How odd is that, eh? But Ethiopia is notorious for it's bad internet - and in fact, they have blocked all blogspot blogs! So there won't be too much blogging for me over the next few weeks! But don't worry, I'm probably not quite dead yet ... just on holiday.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
So much to say, so little battery power...
Yup, all evening, I've been thinking about all the things I wanted to write on my blog when I finally sat down to it tonight. But alas, it's nearing midnight, I'm almost out of battery (both in my computer and in my body), so I guess I'll have to leave some of that blogging till later. Maybe I'll just have to let you think that I was going to write some brilliant, deep, profound entries tonight, and the only reason why I didn't was because my computer battery died (and of course, we haven't had city electricity for about 5 days now).
But I was musing tonight, as I made tea for the guards, cooked dinner, cleaned up dinner, made tea for my housemates, did my laundry, filled the water filter, cleaned out the food cupboard (as I realized in the midst of making all that tea that a little creature with big teeth has developed a taste for Lipton tea bags) that I don't know if I could be a mother! I was thinking about how constantly all you mothers have to work - you never get a chance to sit down and play on facebook, or read a book, or have a chat with anyone... people are constantly asking you for things, you're constantly having to cook something or clean something or bring someone tea (or milk or water or something)... and I just don't know if I could do it all the time! It gets tiring!
Mind you, after all that was done, a shower never felt so good! Since I was doing a bunch of running around today, which included a lot of driving in the dust and heat, by the time it was time to clean myself up, I was filthy. Dust and sweat are not a good combination! And my hair was also full of dust and sweat, and felt like straw! Yuck. I'm so thankful for the amazing leave-in conditioner that my dear hair cutter (um, what's the English word for someone who does your hair?!) sent to Africa with me when I went to see her at Christmas time. If anyone needs a fantastic haircut from a wonderful woman in my hometown, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Judy. I have to admit, I haven't had a haircut in several months, and it actually is growing out quite nicely - just like she said it would! I've even had a few days this week where I've thought to myself, "wow, you're having a good hair day today"! Of course, that only seems to happen in the rainy season, when it's sticky and humid out... the wavy hair somehow makes up a little bit for the disgusting drippy sweat :)
Anyway, why am I wasting battery on this?! Oh no! Low battery... gotta post... goodnight!
But I was musing tonight, as I made tea for the guards, cooked dinner, cleaned up dinner, made tea for my housemates, did my laundry, filled the water filter, cleaned out the food cupboard (as I realized in the midst of making all that tea that a little creature with big teeth has developed a taste for Lipton tea bags) that I don't know if I could be a mother! I was thinking about how constantly all you mothers have to work - you never get a chance to sit down and play on facebook, or read a book, or have a chat with anyone... people are constantly asking you for things, you're constantly having to cook something or clean something or bring someone tea (or milk or water or something)... and I just don't know if I could do it all the time! It gets tiring!
Mind you, after all that was done, a shower never felt so good! Since I was doing a bunch of running around today, which included a lot of driving in the dust and heat, by the time it was time to clean myself up, I was filthy. Dust and sweat are not a good combination! And my hair was also full of dust and sweat, and felt like straw! Yuck. I'm so thankful for the amazing leave-in conditioner that my dear hair cutter (um, what's the English word for someone who does your hair?!) sent to Africa with me when I went to see her at Christmas time. If anyone needs a fantastic haircut from a wonderful woman in my hometown, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Judy. I have to admit, I haven't had a haircut in several months, and it actually is growing out quite nicely - just like she said it would! I've even had a few days this week where I've thought to myself, "wow, you're having a good hair day today"! Of course, that only seems to happen in the rainy season, when it's sticky and humid out... the wavy hair somehow makes up a little bit for the disgusting drippy sweat :)
Anyway, why am I wasting battery on this?! Oh no! Low battery... gotta post... goodnight!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
I guess I should keep writing...
I sent out a newsletter the other day, and I've been SO encouraged by all the responses I've gotten back! I guess that's one of the rewards of taking the time to write a newsletter - all the wonderful encouraging emails that get sent back to me! So thanks to you all who actually took the time to read my newsletter!
And a lot of you actually said that you read my blog, too, which is also pretty cool. I guess I'll keep writing it :) And I promise I'll try not to make it too boring. One of my goals with this blog is just to help folks at home get a little glimpse of daily life here, and to have a record for myself of some of the really, truly odd situations that I find myself in here! Because really, there will never be another place like this ever again! Jb at this point in history is completely unlike any other place ever! And what a privilege it is to be a part of it!
I've got 11 minutes before it's time to turn off the generator. I've made tea for the guards, I've fed the cat, I've made sure there is tea and coffee in the guesthouse for the morning, my belly is full of all sorts of wonderful food, and I've already had my evening shower. It was definitely a two shower day today - very humid. It's been trying to rain, and I need it to rain because my pumpkin plants are wilting. But it's just not raining :( And I keep forgetting during the daylight hours to water my little garden! Well, I remembered this evening whilst playing squash with Annamarie, but by the time I got home from that, it was dark again, and then I had to rush into the shower so we could go for our dinner.
I'm so pleased to say that my favorite Ethiopian restaurant, which is very close by my house, has a new menu with LOWER prices! How often can you say that a restaurant has lowered their prices?! So we went there tonight and man, it was just as tasty as usual, with just as much food, and a couple of dollars cheaper for each entree! A real highlight in my day, let me tell you.
One of the other highlights, much to the amusement of some of our translators, was that the truck came from Uganda! It has nothing for me on it, just a bunch of office stuff and personal things for a family that will move here next year, but I was SO happy to see this truck finally make it across the bridge! Poor Richard has been working his tail off for weeks to get all the right letters from the right people with the right stamps on it to get this truck across the border. And finally, today, it came rolling into the compound! I happened to be working on some computers in one of the translation offices (installing new fonts and keyboards), and before I realized it, I was squealing with delight. Yup, literally squealing, which I didn't even realize until the translators all burst out laughing at me!
Oh well... sometimes I wonder what those guys think of me - a bunch of middle age African men and me... They're all very fatherly towards me, which is quite nice. In some places, I know a bunch of older men would have trouble working with me, since I'm just a young girl, and what do I know?! But here, I think the fact that I can keep their computers going for them gives me a bit of respect! Plus, some of them have daughters who are my age, and I think they all feel a bit protective of me, too :)
Oh, look at the time... gotta go shut off the generator.
And a lot of you actually said that you read my blog, too, which is also pretty cool. I guess I'll keep writing it :) And I promise I'll try not to make it too boring. One of my goals with this blog is just to help folks at home get a little glimpse of daily life here, and to have a record for myself of some of the really, truly odd situations that I find myself in here! Because really, there will never be another place like this ever again! Jb at this point in history is completely unlike any other place ever! And what a privilege it is to be a part of it!
I've got 11 minutes before it's time to turn off the generator. I've made tea for the guards, I've fed the cat, I've made sure there is tea and coffee in the guesthouse for the morning, my belly is full of all sorts of wonderful food, and I've already had my evening shower. It was definitely a two shower day today - very humid. It's been trying to rain, and I need it to rain because my pumpkin plants are wilting. But it's just not raining :( And I keep forgetting during the daylight hours to water my little garden! Well, I remembered this evening whilst playing squash with Annamarie, but by the time I got home from that, it was dark again, and then I had to rush into the shower so we could go for our dinner.
I'm so pleased to say that my favorite Ethiopian restaurant, which is very close by my house, has a new menu with LOWER prices! How often can you say that a restaurant has lowered their prices?! So we went there tonight and man, it was just as tasty as usual, with just as much food, and a couple of dollars cheaper for each entree! A real highlight in my day, let me tell you.
One of the other highlights, much to the amusement of some of our translators, was that the truck came from Uganda! It has nothing for me on it, just a bunch of office stuff and personal things for a family that will move here next year, but I was SO happy to see this truck finally make it across the bridge! Poor Richard has been working his tail off for weeks to get all the right letters from the right people with the right stamps on it to get this truck across the border. And finally, today, it came rolling into the compound! I happened to be working on some computers in one of the translation offices (installing new fonts and keyboards), and before I realized it, I was squealing with delight. Yup, literally squealing, which I didn't even realize until the translators all burst out laughing at me!
Oh well... sometimes I wonder what those guys think of me - a bunch of middle age African men and me... They're all very fatherly towards me, which is quite nice. In some places, I know a bunch of older men would have trouble working with me, since I'm just a young girl, and what do I know?! But here, I think the fact that I can keep their computers going for them gives me a bit of respect! Plus, some of them have daughters who are my age, and I think they all feel a bit protective of me, too :)
Oh, look at the time... gotta go shut off the generator.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Update on our patient
And thanks for praying for our friend here who was sick yesterday. We did indeed get him on a flight to Uganda this morning. So I spent most of the day in the airport with him, just to make sure he did, in fact, get on that plane! The doctor in Kampala confirmed that it is, in fact, a kidney stone. Ouch. Those don't sound fun. But at least he's at home now, and knows what it is. Still doesn't make it feel better while it passes, but at least he's home where there is better medical care available.
Someone else said it best.
Somehow, I stumbled onto this guy's blog while he was living in Ethiopia. Now he lives back in the States, and I still read his blog. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about reading some random blog - I sometimes feel like it's a bit of an invasion into the poor guy's privacy or something... but then again, he's the one who puts it all on the blog to begin with! And who knows but there are random people reading about all the odd details of my life that I put out here for all to see...
Anyways, that's not the point of this post tonight! I just wanted to link to this guy's post, because it expresses so well how I feel sometimes!
It's called "Lasting effects of ferengi life: the shoulder shrug"
(By the way, "ferengi" is what they call foreigners in Ethiopia. I could write a nearly identical post, calling it "Lasting effects of khawaija life...", which is what they call foreigners here)
Anyways, that's not the point of this post tonight! I just wanted to link to this guy's post, because it expresses so well how I feel sometimes!
It's called "Lasting effects of ferengi life: the shoulder shrug"
(By the way, "ferengi" is what they call foreigners in Ethiopia. I could write a nearly identical post, calling it "Lasting effects of khawaija life...", which is what they call foreigners here)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Ah, Sunday...
I had a wonderful sleep in this morning - I didn't even open my eyes until after 9am! Things like that make me realize just how much I need more sleep here! Anyways, I had a nice slow start to the day... which is good because it sure didn't stay slow.
I was just settling in to listening to a good John Piper sermon on my MP3 player, when Jackie came running out, saying that one of our colleagues visiting with us this week was in some serious pain. And man, he was in some serious pain! We went to his bedside and he was not doing well at all. So then, we had to figure out what to do about it... sounded a bit like it might be kidney stones, but we're not doctors, so what do we know?! Unfortunately, the doctors in the local hospital probably wouldn't know, either - plus, the poor guy couldn't even sit up in his bed, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to get him into a car and to a clinic, even if there was a clinic to go to.
We do have a friend who used to be a GP in the UK, who we normally call on for such things. But of course, he's in the UK at the moment. So we tried the next best thing - we called an NGO that we know which does a lot of medical work in this country, just to see, if, by any chance, they had any doctors passing through town.
Lo and behold, a Dutch doctor was there... but she didn't have a car there. So I jumped in the truck, drove 20 minutes across town, and fetched the doctor. She examined him, and hasn't really said exactly what it might be. But she did give him an injection of some serious pain killer, which helped a lot. I then drove her back to her place. Then, I had to help someone fix his computer, as it wasn't sending any emails. Then I had to take a crew of visiting consultants to the River for some lunch, which meant driving across town yet again!
By the time I got home, it was time to check on our patient, and by then, the doctor had come back around to check on him, as well. He was, thankfully, doing so much better, I'm sure due to the pain medication that she had given him. Still no good diagnosis of what exactly it is, but at least the pain is under control for now. Tomorrow we'll make some decisions about what to do with him - if there's no change, we'll probably put him on a flight back to Entebbe, as there are no medical facilities here. Of course, in theory, if someone is med-evac-ed on a commercial flight, they need to have a medical person traveling with them. Thankfully, the organization that this doctor works for happens to have quite a lot of nurses around at the moment, and she said that probably one of them would be able to fly with him, if need be. So that might be my job tomorrow - arranging for flights for them tomorrow!
Anyways, he doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger of anything too serious - just pretty uncomfortable. And I'm so thankful to God that this doctor happens to be in town, and that she (and her nurse side-kick, who is also a friend of mine) are so willing and able to use their skills to help out. Funnily enough, as we were coming, the doctor was telling me that her previous experience in the Netherlands was in gynecology and pediatrics - so she's never really worked on adult men much, except for here in this country :) But I guess some of the doctor training crosses over from kids and women to adult men!
If you're reading this tonight, can you please pray for our friend here, that he'll have a good night's rest, and also that we will be able to make good decisions about what to do tomorrow. And please give thanks, too, for doctors who just happen to be around at the right place at the right time to be able to help us out with these sorts of things.
If anyone happens to be a doctor and feels like they want to come and work as a GP here... you're more than welcome! Or maybe I need to come home and go to medical school...
I was just settling in to listening to a good John Piper sermon on my MP3 player, when Jackie came running out, saying that one of our colleagues visiting with us this week was in some serious pain. And man, he was in some serious pain! We went to his bedside and he was not doing well at all. So then, we had to figure out what to do about it... sounded a bit like it might be kidney stones, but we're not doctors, so what do we know?! Unfortunately, the doctors in the local hospital probably wouldn't know, either - plus, the poor guy couldn't even sit up in his bed, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to get him into a car and to a clinic, even if there was a clinic to go to.
We do have a friend who used to be a GP in the UK, who we normally call on for such things. But of course, he's in the UK at the moment. So we tried the next best thing - we called an NGO that we know which does a lot of medical work in this country, just to see, if, by any chance, they had any doctors passing through town.
Lo and behold, a Dutch doctor was there... but she didn't have a car there. So I jumped in the truck, drove 20 minutes across town, and fetched the doctor. She examined him, and hasn't really said exactly what it might be. But she did give him an injection of some serious pain killer, which helped a lot. I then drove her back to her place. Then, I had to help someone fix his computer, as it wasn't sending any emails. Then I had to take a crew of visiting consultants to the River for some lunch, which meant driving across town yet again!
By the time I got home, it was time to check on our patient, and by then, the doctor had come back around to check on him, as well. He was, thankfully, doing so much better, I'm sure due to the pain medication that she had given him. Still no good diagnosis of what exactly it is, but at least the pain is under control for now. Tomorrow we'll make some decisions about what to do with him - if there's no change, we'll probably put him on a flight back to Entebbe, as there are no medical facilities here. Of course, in theory, if someone is med-evac-ed on a commercial flight, they need to have a medical person traveling with them. Thankfully, the organization that this doctor works for happens to have quite a lot of nurses around at the moment, and she said that probably one of them would be able to fly with him, if need be. So that might be my job tomorrow - arranging for flights for them tomorrow!
Anyways, he doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger of anything too serious - just pretty uncomfortable. And I'm so thankful to God that this doctor happens to be in town, and that she (and her nurse side-kick, who is also a friend of mine) are so willing and able to use their skills to help out. Funnily enough, as we were coming, the doctor was telling me that her previous experience in the Netherlands was in gynecology and pediatrics - so she's never really worked on adult men much, except for here in this country :) But I guess some of the doctor training crosses over from kids and women to adult men!
If you're reading this tonight, can you please pray for our friend here, that he'll have a good night's rest, and also that we will be able to make good decisions about what to do tomorrow. And please give thanks, too, for doctors who just happen to be around at the right place at the right time to be able to help us out with these sorts of things.
If anyone happens to be a doctor and feels like they want to come and work as a GP here... you're more than welcome! Or maybe I need to come home and go to medical school...
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Not for the Squemish
Warning: This post tonight is not for the faint of heart!
I had such a day today. Started off running around with the usual interruptions to the tasks I had set out before me today (editing the technical report of our workshop as well as finding some vernacular literacy books and getting them in shape to email to one of the nuns in a Catholic Diocese who wants to do mother tongue literacy in their education programs).
One of the interruptions came when the young woman who helps us in the guesthouse with the cooking and cleaning asked me for some ibuprofen for a headache. No problem - I have a very well-stocked first aid bucket, which we keep for such a time as this. So off I went to the storage area where we keep the well-marked first aid bucket.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the lid. Someone had mistaken the clearly marked first aid bucket for a trash (garbage) can! Worse yet, they had thrown their leftover canned meat (the African version of Spam) into it... and I know who it was because I remember seeing them eating from these cans of meat... and it was nearly 3 weeks ago that they were eating of these cans. So, imagine, leftover canned meat in a sealed bucket, in temperatures in the high 30s (C) (90s F). Not a pretty sight. I have never in my life seen so many maggots and so many maggot eggs. Like I said, this is not a post for the squeamish. Quite a bit of stuff had to just be thrown away, but because of where I live, much of the stuff that is in that bucket is not available locally, and is therefore quite precious. So Mary and I took some of the latex gloves from the kit, a big bowl of bleach water, and started wiping. Thankfully, almost everything in the kit is sealed in plastic, or in glass or plastic containers, so it's pretty easy to wipe it all down. A lot of the bandages and things like that couldn't be saved, though, and they had to be thrown away.
After we wiped everything with bleach, I set everything out in the sun to dry, and to hopefully kill anything else that was left on them. It's amazing what the African sun can do - did you know the UV rays from this hot sun can actually purify water and make it safe to drink? But man, while were were cleaning stuff, it was truly disgusting. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. Some of the cardboard packaging for various bits were completely covered in maggots and their eggs. Ewww.... makes me feel gross just thinking about it! I took a shower this afternoon and completely scrubbed myself from head to toe in antibacterial soap, just because I felt so gross from it all!
It took us much longer than I anticipated to get this stuff all cleaned up, so I ended up working through lunch... and no one bothered to save me anything to eat :( So then I had to come home and cook lunch for myself.
Sometime in the midst of all this, I realized that I had fallen victim to the Nairobi Eye, a small beetle which lives in these parts and looks like this:
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They're just tiny little things, and I'm normally somewhat aware of them, but somehow, sometime in the last 24 hours, one landed on the back of my neck, and I squashed it. If you didn't want to read everything on the link above, I'll give you the long and short of it - if you squash them, their blood is poisonous, and causes a burn sort of thing on your skin. It's not serious, just stings like a bad burn. Apparently it goes away in a few days... though I just read online that you're supposed to wash all your clothes and bedsheets etc so it doesn't spread the poison to other parts of your body... sigh... well, it's 1am and I'm not about to get up and wash all my sheets and clothes! I've already washed the little "burn" with antibacterial soap and water and put some antibacterial cream on it. Are you seeing a pattern with my antibacterial soap today?! But don't worry, it doesn't hurt that much, just a little irritating, and I'm sure I won't even feel it in the morning.
However, I had quite a respite from living in Africa this evening - one of the folks who rents a house from our organization (a Christian businessman) took me and Jackie, along with Annamarie (who is his office manager) out for an amazingly posh dinner tonight! We went to the fanciest restaurant in town, and had a wonderful meal! We even had dessert and cappuccino. We sat there on the edge of the River for a few hours, just laughing and talking and enjoying good food. It was a real treat, since I really couldn't justify (or afford!) that restaurant very often! It was nice food, and better service than you get in most restaurants here, but it's really the company that makes for a good night out, not so much the food and wine! It was good company, and we had a few very good laughs. I'm really starting to appreciate the South African sense of humour :) And the best part of the evening was that I didn't have to pay a cent - our friend even drove us in their company's air conditioned SUV! It was so nice.
Then I came home, and it was right back to Africa again - just now, as I went to arrange the pillows on my bed, I felt something a little funny inside my pillow case. Then that something funny started to move! With a bit of a squeal, I dropped the pillow on the floor, and saw it start moving again. I ended up having to pick up the pillow and shaking out the pillow case - lo and behold, a 6 inch long lizard jumped out of my pillow case!
Oh yeah, did I mention the baby cobra that was killed in the yard yesterday? All of our local staff were saying, "ooohhhh, one bite from him and you are finished." I might start wearing my rubber boots in the evening as I walk through the grass to turn off the generator...
Hopefully I'll have something other than snakes, bugs and lizards to write about tomorrow!
I had such a day today. Started off running around with the usual interruptions to the tasks I had set out before me today (editing the technical report of our workshop as well as finding some vernacular literacy books and getting them in shape to email to one of the nuns in a Catholic Diocese who wants to do mother tongue literacy in their education programs).
One of the interruptions came when the young woman who helps us in the guesthouse with the cooking and cleaning asked me for some ibuprofen for a headache. No problem - I have a very well-stocked first aid bucket, which we keep for such a time as this. So off I went to the storage area where we keep the well-marked first aid bucket.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the lid. Someone had mistaken the clearly marked first aid bucket for a trash (garbage) can! Worse yet, they had thrown their leftover canned meat (the African version of Spam) into it... and I know who it was because I remember seeing them eating from these cans of meat... and it was nearly 3 weeks ago that they were eating of these cans. So, imagine, leftover canned meat in a sealed bucket, in temperatures in the high 30s (C) (90s F). Not a pretty sight. I have never in my life seen so many maggots and so many maggot eggs. Like I said, this is not a post for the squeamish. Quite a bit of stuff had to just be thrown away, but because of where I live, much of the stuff that is in that bucket is not available locally, and is therefore quite precious. So Mary and I took some of the latex gloves from the kit, a big bowl of bleach water, and started wiping. Thankfully, almost everything in the kit is sealed in plastic, or in glass or plastic containers, so it's pretty easy to wipe it all down. A lot of the bandages and things like that couldn't be saved, though, and they had to be thrown away.
After we wiped everything with bleach, I set everything out in the sun to dry, and to hopefully kill anything else that was left on them. It's amazing what the African sun can do - did you know the UV rays from this hot sun can actually purify water and make it safe to drink? But man, while were were cleaning stuff, it was truly disgusting. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. Some of the cardboard packaging for various bits were completely covered in maggots and their eggs. Ewww.... makes me feel gross just thinking about it! I took a shower this afternoon and completely scrubbed myself from head to toe in antibacterial soap, just because I felt so gross from it all!
It took us much longer than I anticipated to get this stuff all cleaned up, so I ended up working through lunch... and no one bothered to save me anything to eat :( So then I had to come home and cook lunch for myself.
Sometime in the midst of all this, I realized that I had fallen victim to the Nairobi Eye, a small beetle which lives in these parts and looks like this:
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They're just tiny little things, and I'm normally somewhat aware of them, but somehow, sometime in the last 24 hours, one landed on the back of my neck, and I squashed it. If you didn't want to read everything on the link above, I'll give you the long and short of it - if you squash them, their blood is poisonous, and causes a burn sort of thing on your skin. It's not serious, just stings like a bad burn. Apparently it goes away in a few days... though I just read online that you're supposed to wash all your clothes and bedsheets etc so it doesn't spread the poison to other parts of your body... sigh... well, it's 1am and I'm not about to get up and wash all my sheets and clothes! I've already washed the little "burn" with antibacterial soap and water and put some antibacterial cream on it. Are you seeing a pattern with my antibacterial soap today?! But don't worry, it doesn't hurt that much, just a little irritating, and I'm sure I won't even feel it in the morning.However, I had quite a respite from living in Africa this evening - one of the folks who rents a house from our organization (a Christian businessman) took me and Jackie, along with Annamarie (who is his office manager) out for an amazingly posh dinner tonight! We went to the fanciest restaurant in town, and had a wonderful meal! We even had dessert and cappuccino. We sat there on the edge of the River for a few hours, just laughing and talking and enjoying good food. It was a real treat, since I really couldn't justify (or afford!) that restaurant very often! It was nice food, and better service than you get in most restaurants here, but it's really the company that makes for a good night out, not so much the food and wine! It was good company, and we had a few very good laughs. I'm really starting to appreciate the South African sense of humour :) And the best part of the evening was that I didn't have to pay a cent - our friend even drove us in their company's air conditioned SUV! It was so nice.
Then I came home, and it was right back to Africa again - just now, as I went to arrange the pillows on my bed, I felt something a little funny inside my pillow case. Then that something funny started to move! With a bit of a squeal, I dropped the pillow on the floor, and saw it start moving again. I ended up having to pick up the pillow and shaking out the pillow case - lo and behold, a 6 inch long lizard jumped out of my pillow case!
Oh yeah, did I mention the baby cobra that was killed in the yard yesterday? All of our local staff were saying, "ooohhhh, one bite from him and you are finished." I might start wearing my rubber boots in the evening as I walk through the grass to turn off the generator...
Hopefully I'll have something other than snakes, bugs and lizards to write about tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Road Tripping
I will try to post as much as I can about my big road trip, since it's probably the only time I will ever drive that section of road, ever! Not that it was awful, because it actually was far from awful, but quite honestly, there are very few people that I would trust to be out on that road with, and my traveling buddy this time just happened to be one of them!
Richard and I set off just after 6am on Saturday morning. We were planning to leave at 5:30am, but they don't actually open the single bridge across the Nile until 6am. So we spent the time between 5:30 and 6 am drinking tea and trying to figure out which hedgehogs were girls and which ones were boys. My friend Grace in Uganda needed a new little hedgehog to be a wife to her boy hog (his previous wife, sadly, died giving birth to hog-lets late last year). Of course, we didn't quite know what the Ugandan border authorities would think of us importing non-native species into their country, so we very carefully packed the two little girl hedgehogs in a nice little milk tin (without the lid), shared our fried termites with them, and carefully slid them under the back seat of the van.
And we were off!
It was gorgeous, actually, as we were setting off as the sun was just rising. Of course, we didn't really stop to take too many photos, so I snapped most of the trip photos out the window as we bounced along the road, resulting in some blurry photos... but maybe I'll just pretend they're slightly artistic or something :)
We drove for a little while, with Richard talking his way through the military checkpoints. He was very wise in packing the van full up to the rafters - making sure that we didn't have any space left to carry any soldiers and their guns. However, every time we stopped, I started praying that the soldiers would let us go on our way without any trouble. My Arabic isn't great, but I know that at least once or twice, he referred to it not being appropriate to carry soldiers with "his wife" (um, that would be me!) in the van! I didn't mind that - anything to prevent the van from getting filled up with soldiers and their Ak-47s!
We made a couple of stops in the bushes by the side of the road. Thankfully, there weren't too many trucks or busses on the road, since it was pretty hard to do one's "business" very far off the road! Between the dense bushes and the landmines, I couldn't get far enough into the bush to be very hidden! And there are certainly no gas stations (um, that would be petrol stations for you Brits) along the way. The first "proper" gas station we found was over 12 hours into our journey. But we were prepared for that - we had several jerry cans full of diesel riding along in the van with us.
We also had several bread rolls and big bucket of ground peanut with us, so we stopped once in a while to make a few little peanut butter sandwiches.
You can't see it, but my hands are full of bread and peanut butter in this picture, that's why I look so happy :) There were also some reminders that we were driving through a former war zone ...
Yes, that would be a tank (and a not so old one, at that) on the side of the road.
The scenery was truly stunning, though hard to capture with a camera from a bouncing van!
Here's a view of the border town. You go over a sort of ridge, which has amazing views from the top, and then go down a little winding road, hugging the side of the ridge down into the river plane. Gorgeous.
We got out of the country with no problems. Just took running in and out of a few different offices at the checkpoints. The hard part was making sure we got to the check points before the busses did! We sure didn't want to be stuck in line behind all those people.
Once we got to the Ugandan side, we also got quite thoroughly checked by the Ugandan border patrol - they took everything out of the van, opened all of our bags and boxes (and we had a ton of stuff, as Richard is moving his household belongings down there). The whole time we were hoping they wouldn't find the hedgehogs. At one point, the soldiers asked Richard to move one of the suitcases out, which would have left the little hogs exposed in plain view, while the other soldier started walking around to peek in the windows. Good old Richard made up some excuse to put the suitcase back before the soldiers could peek in. We noticed at that point that the hogs were making some serious squeaking racket in their little milk tin, but perhaps the soldiers thought it was the funny looking white girl in the front seat making those silly squeaks!
So we got into Uganda with no problems, though Richard ended up having to pay a bit of an import "tax" on the jerry cans of diesel we had in the truck - we tried to argue with them, since there weren't exactly any gas stations on the way, so we had to carry our own diesel... but they didn't go for it.
I was pleasantly surprised, though, by how friendly the Ugandan border police and soldiers actually are. You really can just joke and laugh with them all - something I wouldn't dream of doing with the soldiers around here! So it made it all much less stressful, and almost kind of fun. The really funny part came when we crossed over the border - in this country, people drive on the right side of the road. In Uganda, they drive on the left side of the road. However, when leaving this country, you have to drive about 20 km before you actually do anything official to cross into Uganda. So on that stretch of road, it's a bit ambiguous as to which country you're actually in, and therefor, which side of the road you're meant to drive on! We witnessed a bit of a dance between two oncoming motor cycles, as neither one of them quite knew which side of the road they should be on!
Of course, it's really neither here nor there which side of the road you're SUPPOSED to be on - it's really much more practical to just drive on which ever side of the road has fewer puddles, potholes and cows.
One 250 km stretch of road took us over 10 hours! And that's without any stops... except for one stop in which we suffered a couple of casualties. We thought after the stress of the border patrol, we should stop and have some termites - both for me and Richard and for the little hedgehogs. Once we got the hogs' tin out of the car, though, we realized that both of the little girls had gone to meet their maker. We're not sure if they made some kind of suicide pact, that they didn't want to live outside of their home country, or if they knew they were going to become victims of an arranged hedgehog marriage, or if they just couldn't handle all the bumps on the road... but anyways, they didn't make it and were (un-)ceremoniously left in the bushes in Uganda! I didn't even have a photo to remember them by :(
Anyhoo, we enjoyed the rest of our 18 hour drive, and made it across the Nile River before it got too dark to enjoy the waterfall.
Just after the water falls, we stopped by the side of the road and got some dinner - roasted maize, roasted cassava and a huge bag of mangoes. And it all cost about a dollar for the two of us! About a 10th of the price of what it would have cost here for the same thing!
By the time it was dark, we were on paved highway (even with lines painted down the middle!), so we were able to make a lot of miles. Of course, there were still a lot of miles to go, and still some bad stretches of road... so we didn't make it to Entebbe (on the outskirts of Kampala) until after midnight. We were, to say the least, somewhat tired by the time we got there! Richard dropped me off at my friend Grace's house, and I finally had my hot shower :)
The next day, I went to stay with a family that I know in Entebbe, since Grace had previous plans to go away for a few days. I had a great time with this family, though, and I always just feel like part of the family when I'm with them. They live right near Lake Victoria, so I was able to spend a few hours just sitting on my own by the lake, reading, writing, and just enjoying its beauty. It was incredibly refreshing!
I would have loved to have stayed longer, but I've got work to do here, so I flew back home on Tuesday morning, after just a few short days in EBB. But really, what a difference just a few days away can make!
And now, unless I get myself to bed, all those days of refreshment are going to be wasted!
Richard and I set off just after 6am on Saturday morning. We were planning to leave at 5:30am, but they don't actually open the single bridge across the Nile until 6am. So we spent the time between 5:30 and 6 am drinking tea and trying to figure out which hedgehogs were girls and which ones were boys. My friend Grace in Uganda needed a new little hedgehog to be a wife to her boy hog (his previous wife, sadly, died giving birth to hog-lets late last year). Of course, we didn't quite know what the Ugandan border authorities would think of us importing non-native species into their country, so we very carefully packed the two little girl hedgehogs in a nice little milk tin (without the lid), shared our fried termites with them, and carefully slid them under the back seat of the van.
And we were off!
It was gorgeous, actually, as we were setting off as the sun was just rising. Of course, we didn't really stop to take too many photos, so I snapped most of the trip photos out the window as we bounced along the road, resulting in some blurry photos... but maybe I'll just pretend they're slightly artistic or something :)
We drove for a little while, with Richard talking his way through the military checkpoints. He was very wise in packing the van full up to the rafters - making sure that we didn't have any space left to carry any soldiers and their guns. However, every time we stopped, I started praying that the soldiers would let us go on our way without any trouble. My Arabic isn't great, but I know that at least once or twice, he referred to it not being appropriate to carry soldiers with "his wife" (um, that would be me!) in the van! I didn't mind that - anything to prevent the van from getting filled up with soldiers and their Ak-47s!We made a couple of stops in the bushes by the side of the road. Thankfully, there weren't too many trucks or busses on the road, since it was pretty hard to do one's "business" very far off the road! Between the dense bushes and the landmines, I couldn't get far enough into the bush to be very hidden! And there are certainly no gas stations (um, that would be petrol stations for you Brits) along the way. The first "proper" gas station we found was over 12 hours into our journey. But we were prepared for that - we had several jerry cans full of diesel riding along in the van with us.
We also had several bread rolls and big bucket of ground peanut with us, so we stopped once in a while to make a few little peanut butter sandwiches.
You can't see it, but my hands are full of bread and peanut butter in this picture, that's why I look so happy :) There were also some reminders that we were driving through a former war zone ...
Yes, that would be a tank (and a not so old one, at that) on the side of the road.The scenery was truly stunning, though hard to capture with a camera from a bouncing van!
Here's a view of the border town. You go over a sort of ridge, which has amazing views from the top, and then go down a little winding road, hugging the side of the ridge down into the river plane. Gorgeous.
We got out of the country with no problems. Just took running in and out of a few different offices at the checkpoints. The hard part was making sure we got to the check points before the busses did! We sure didn't want to be stuck in line behind all those people.Once we got to the Ugandan side, we also got quite thoroughly checked by the Ugandan border patrol - they took everything out of the van, opened all of our bags and boxes (and we had a ton of stuff, as Richard is moving his household belongings down there). The whole time we were hoping they wouldn't find the hedgehogs. At one point, the soldiers asked Richard to move one of the suitcases out, which would have left the little hogs exposed in plain view, while the other soldier started walking around to peek in the windows. Good old Richard made up some excuse to put the suitcase back before the soldiers could peek in. We noticed at that point that the hogs were making some serious squeaking racket in their little milk tin, but perhaps the soldiers thought it was the funny looking white girl in the front seat making those silly squeaks!
So we got into Uganda with no problems, though Richard ended up having to pay a bit of an import "tax" on the jerry cans of diesel we had in the truck - we tried to argue with them, since there weren't exactly any gas stations on the way, so we had to carry our own diesel... but they didn't go for it.
I was pleasantly surprised, though, by how friendly the Ugandan border police and soldiers actually are. You really can just joke and laugh with them all - something I wouldn't dream of doing with the soldiers around here! So it made it all much less stressful, and almost kind of fun. The really funny part came when we crossed over the border - in this country, people drive on the right side of the road. In Uganda, they drive on the left side of the road. However, when leaving this country, you have to drive about 20 km before you actually do anything official to cross into Uganda. So on that stretch of road, it's a bit ambiguous as to which country you're actually in, and therefor, which side of the road you're meant to drive on! We witnessed a bit of a dance between two oncoming motor cycles, as neither one of them quite knew which side of the road they should be on!
Of course, it's really neither here nor there which side of the road you're SUPPOSED to be on - it's really much more practical to just drive on which ever side of the road has fewer puddles, potholes and cows.
One 250 km stretch of road took us over 10 hours! And that's without any stops... except for one stop in which we suffered a couple of casualties. We thought after the stress of the border patrol, we should stop and have some termites - both for me and Richard and for the little hedgehogs. Once we got the hogs' tin out of the car, though, we realized that both of the little girls had gone to meet their maker. We're not sure if they made some kind of suicide pact, that they didn't want to live outside of their home country, or if they knew they were going to become victims of an arranged hedgehog marriage, or if they just couldn't handle all the bumps on the road... but anyways, they didn't make it and were (un-)ceremoniously left in the bushes in Uganda! I didn't even have a photo to remember them by :(Anyhoo, we enjoyed the rest of our 18 hour drive, and made it across the Nile River before it got too dark to enjoy the waterfall.
Just after the water falls, we stopped by the side of the road and got some dinner - roasted maize, roasted cassava and a huge bag of mangoes. And it all cost about a dollar for the two of us! About a 10th of the price of what it would have cost here for the same thing!By the time it was dark, we were on paved highway (even with lines painted down the middle!), so we were able to make a lot of miles. Of course, there were still a lot of miles to go, and still some bad stretches of road... so we didn't make it to Entebbe (on the outskirts of Kampala) until after midnight. We were, to say the least, somewhat tired by the time we got there! Richard dropped me off at my friend Grace's house, and I finally had my hot shower :)
The next day, I went to stay with a family that I know in Entebbe, since Grace had previous plans to go away for a few days. I had a great time with this family, though, and I always just feel like part of the family when I'm with them. They live right near Lake Victoria, so I was able to spend a few hours just sitting on my own by the lake, reading, writing, and just enjoying its beauty. It was incredibly refreshing!
I would have loved to have stayed longer, but I've got work to do here, so I flew back home on Tuesday morning, after just a few short days in EBB. But really, what a difference just a few days away can make!And now, unless I get myself to bed, all those days of refreshment are going to be wasted!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I'm home!
I just came back from my road trip, which was fabulous! It's amazing how refreshing a few days away from Jb can actually be. I think I had my first real days off in a few months! So wonderful. The drive was great - no problems at all... but I'll write more about that tomorrow. It's late now, and I should go to bed. But I'll compose a bit of a blog about my journey tomorrow. Just to remind myself of where I was yesterday... I'll post a photo:
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The day's happenings
Yup, another typical day here. Started with trying to figure out what to cook everyone for lunch. I had a bit of a brain wave and decided to put avocado in the salad today, just for something different! At $1.50 US for each avo, though, I don't think that's going to happen every day! It's hard to think of creative things to cook, which the guesthouse girls know how to make, and which can be made from local ingredients. It's a serious challenge to come up with something every day. But I was impressed with my avocado idea today. People here have a very different idea of "variety". They are quite happy to eat the exact same thing, every single day, day in and day out. That doesn't quite work for me, though. I need a little variety in my diet, which is hard to do around here!
Anyways, once lunch was sorted out, I jumped in the truck to bring my arts and crafts project from the weekend over to the Ministry of Education. With a bit of serious defensive driving under my belt, to avoid a head on collision with a full size pick up truck that was out of control on MY side of the road, I navigated my way through the construction zone which is the Ministry of Education. Seriously, every time I've been there in the past 6 months, I've had to go in a different way, and find some new little corner to park the truck in! But I managed to get into the Ministries "complex" and put my truck in a corner, and march my way through to the right building. They've now put up a big gate, so you have to walk through this little guard post to get into the compound. There's always masses of people gathered at this guard hut, trying to get into the Ministry for some odd reason. And there never seems to be anyone looking very "official" to figure out who gets to pass and who doesn't. Fortunately, each time I've been there since this "system" has been put in place, I've been able to sort of just sneak in behind someone else who seems to know what they're doing. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but a white girl who seems to know where she's going is usually allowed to pass through these sorts of gates!
Anyways, I managed to find my people in the Department of National Languages, which, again, is housed in a different office every time I go there! So it always necessitates a quick phone call to Moses to figure out where he is. They were quite happy to see my little art project, and were as pleased as I was with the results. The challenge then came to stick it on the wall. I didn't think to bring my own tape to stick it up with, so a search for tape was begun.
While this search was going on, I was standing in the hallway, holding up my side of the poster, and chatting with Moses about how his wife delivered their new baby girl into his hands a few days ago! Finally, Elizabeth declared that there wasn't a single roll of tape in the entire Ministry of Education (which I don't doubt to be true). So she proceeded to take the chewing gum out of her mouth, which she had been chomping on, broke it in half, and stuck one half of the wad on Moses' corner of the poster and one half on my corner. Voila. No tape necessary. My art project, which I sweated over on the weekend, is now stuck to the wall of the Ministry of Education with a wad of chewing gum. Don't worry, it's not going to fall down, because Elizabethe declared that she would go back to her office and chew some more gum and reinforce the stickiness later.
I was then pressed into service to fix their computers. I'm a little grumpy with Microsoft because of the fact that you have to save Office 2007 documents in a special way so they can be read on "old" computers (that is, computers that are running anything OTHER than Office 2007). For someone who has just learned how to "save" a document, and doesn't even know how to make a new folder in Windows yet, making sure they save their document as a different file type is, well, just a little complicated! And poor me, supposedly the computer "expert" couldn't even find the "save as" command in Office 2007. Oh well. In the end, I got it figured out.
However, I was there long enough to be offered a cold bottle of pop. I got an apple drink this time - it's basically carbonated artificial flavored apple juice. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?
Finally, it was time to get back to the compound, where I was late for my appointment to help one of the Bible translators here make a call on the satellite phone to his home community. They live out in the hills, a few hundred kilometers South East of this city. He had to call them to ask them to be prepared for a consultant check of some of the translated portions in their community next month.
Once that was done, I finally got to dig into that avocado for lunch. Then, after answering a few emails and organizing a few literacy books that I had brought as examples to some meetings earlier this week, I was off to town. This time, my first stop was my local Eritrean shop, where I purchased a bunch of supplies for the guesthouse - milk powder, soap etc., as well as had a nice little chit chat with the folks who own the shop. It's great to have "my" shop to go to, where I know they will have what I need, and the nice young man will carry all the heavy stuff out to my truck for me.
Then I carried on my way to town, where I checked the mail box. Of course, I was the only one here who didn't get any mail :( Even Richard got some mail from Libya! Then I walked a block up the street, where I was surprised to see a big steel bike rack sitting in the middle of the road. Of course, I don't know who's going to use it for their bikes - I think I've seen 4 people riding bikes around here since I came. I mosied on my way, through the exhaust cloud of the generator, over the gravel and sand piles, and into the airline ticket offices. I had to stop at two different offices to purchase tickets for my upcoming trips.
Of course, both of those tickets have to be confirmed closer to the departure date. In the Ethiopian Airlines office, I asked if there was a phone number I could call to confirm the ticket... so the young man in the office there gave me his card (I was surprised that he actually has a business card), and mentioned that I could call him at "any time", with the emphasis on "any" time. Somehow, I don't think he meant I could call him just to confirm my ticket...
Back to the office. Found Jackie trying to install some fonts and software on a bishop's computer. We couldn't figure out how to do it. It's some odd "mini-computer" which I have never seen before. Finished some more emails, thought a few more thoughts, and then jumped in Jackie's car for a game of squash!
As we were sweeping out the squash court, we unfortunately realized that someone had decided to use the corner of the court as his own private outhouse... so we were very careful NOT to hit the ball into that corner. Fortunately, it was the far corner... but we played on, because it's the only squash court in town, and we weren't going to let a little stink drive us away from our exercize!
A cold shower awaited me at home. Whilst I showered, Jackie and Annamarie chopped some veggies to put on top of pasta. One of the literacy workers from the homeland arrived at the guesthouse today, so he and Richard came to our house for dinner, which made for a nice little dinner party. Of course, we didn't start eating until 8pm, so we didn't move from the table until 9. By then, I had to go make the tea for the guards and lock up the office for the night.
Phew, by about 9:30pm, my day officially ended with a request for an English grammar book from our night guard. He's studying at the university during the day, and is need of some English help. Maybe when I'm in Uganda I'll be able to dig up an English book for him. There are certainly none available in this town... ah, something to shop for in Uganda!
And now this post has become much longer, and I'm sure much more boring, than I intended it to be. So I'm stopping now. Good night!
Anyways, once lunch was sorted out, I jumped in the truck to bring my arts and crafts project from the weekend over to the Ministry of Education. With a bit of serious defensive driving under my belt, to avoid a head on collision with a full size pick up truck that was out of control on MY side of the road, I navigated my way through the construction zone which is the Ministry of Education. Seriously, every time I've been there in the past 6 months, I've had to go in a different way, and find some new little corner to park the truck in! But I managed to get into the Ministries "complex" and put my truck in a corner, and march my way through to the right building. They've now put up a big gate, so you have to walk through this little guard post to get into the compound. There's always masses of people gathered at this guard hut, trying to get into the Ministry for some odd reason. And there never seems to be anyone looking very "official" to figure out who gets to pass and who doesn't. Fortunately, each time I've been there since this "system" has been put in place, I've been able to sort of just sneak in behind someone else who seems to know what they're doing. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but a white girl who seems to know where she's going is usually allowed to pass through these sorts of gates!
Anyways, I managed to find my people in the Department of National Languages, which, again, is housed in a different office every time I go there! So it always necessitates a quick phone call to Moses to figure out where he is. They were quite happy to see my little art project, and were as pleased as I was with the results. The challenge then came to stick it on the wall. I didn't think to bring my own tape to stick it up with, so a search for tape was begun.
While this search was going on, I was standing in the hallway, holding up my side of the poster, and chatting with Moses about how his wife delivered their new baby girl into his hands a few days ago! Finally, Elizabeth declared that there wasn't a single roll of tape in the entire Ministry of Education (which I don't doubt to be true). So she proceeded to take the chewing gum out of her mouth, which she had been chomping on, broke it in half, and stuck one half of the wad on Moses' corner of the poster and one half on my corner. Voila. No tape necessary. My art project, which I sweated over on the weekend, is now stuck to the wall of the Ministry of Education with a wad of chewing gum. Don't worry, it's not going to fall down, because Elizabethe declared that she would go back to her office and chew some more gum and reinforce the stickiness later.
I was then pressed into service to fix their computers. I'm a little grumpy with Microsoft because of the fact that you have to save Office 2007 documents in a special way so they can be read on "old" computers (that is, computers that are running anything OTHER than Office 2007). For someone who has just learned how to "save" a document, and doesn't even know how to make a new folder in Windows yet, making sure they save their document as a different file type is, well, just a little complicated! And poor me, supposedly the computer "expert" couldn't even find the "save as" command in Office 2007. Oh well. In the end, I got it figured out.
However, I was there long enough to be offered a cold bottle of pop. I got an apple drink this time - it's basically carbonated artificial flavored apple juice. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?
Finally, it was time to get back to the compound, where I was late for my appointment to help one of the Bible translators here make a call on the satellite phone to his home community. They live out in the hills, a few hundred kilometers South East of this city. He had to call them to ask them to be prepared for a consultant check of some of the translated portions in their community next month.
Once that was done, I finally got to dig into that avocado for lunch. Then, after answering a few emails and organizing a few literacy books that I had brought as examples to some meetings earlier this week, I was off to town. This time, my first stop was my local Eritrean shop, where I purchased a bunch of supplies for the guesthouse - milk powder, soap etc., as well as had a nice little chit chat with the folks who own the shop. It's great to have "my" shop to go to, where I know they will have what I need, and the nice young man will carry all the heavy stuff out to my truck for me.
Then I carried on my way to town, where I checked the mail box. Of course, I was the only one here who didn't get any mail :( Even Richard got some mail from Libya! Then I walked a block up the street, where I was surprised to see a big steel bike rack sitting in the middle of the road. Of course, I don't know who's going to use it for their bikes - I think I've seen 4 people riding bikes around here since I came. I mosied on my way, through the exhaust cloud of the generator, over the gravel and sand piles, and into the airline ticket offices. I had to stop at two different offices to purchase tickets for my upcoming trips.
Of course, both of those tickets have to be confirmed closer to the departure date. In the Ethiopian Airlines office, I asked if there was a phone number I could call to confirm the ticket... so the young man in the office there gave me his card (I was surprised that he actually has a business card), and mentioned that I could call him at "any time", with the emphasis on "any" time. Somehow, I don't think he meant I could call him just to confirm my ticket...
Back to the office. Found Jackie trying to install some fonts and software on a bishop's computer. We couldn't figure out how to do it. It's some odd "mini-computer" which I have never seen before. Finished some more emails, thought a few more thoughts, and then jumped in Jackie's car for a game of squash!
As we were sweeping out the squash court, we unfortunately realized that someone had decided to use the corner of the court as his own private outhouse... so we were very careful NOT to hit the ball into that corner. Fortunately, it was the far corner... but we played on, because it's the only squash court in town, and we weren't going to let a little stink drive us away from our exercize!
A cold shower awaited me at home. Whilst I showered, Jackie and Annamarie chopped some veggies to put on top of pasta. One of the literacy workers from the homeland arrived at the guesthouse today, so he and Richard came to our house for dinner, which made for a nice little dinner party. Of course, we didn't start eating until 8pm, so we didn't move from the table until 9. By then, I had to go make the tea for the guards and lock up the office for the night.
Phew, by about 9:30pm, my day officially ended with a request for an English grammar book from our night guard. He's studying at the university during the day, and is need of some English help. Maybe when I'm in Uganda I'll be able to dig up an English book for him. There are certainly none available in this town... ah, something to shop for in Uganda!
And now this post has become much longer, and I'm sure much more boring, than I intended it to be. So I'm stopping now. Good night!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Alpine Club
My fellow Canadian here has started the "Jb Alpine Club"! We had our first official outing on Sunday morning. And what an outing it was!
At about 8:20am, three truckloads of intrepid hikers gathered together at the Tomb (no, that's not the name of the newest nightclub, it's the actual tomb of the revered former President of this place), and off we drove to the Mountain. No need to say which mountain we all drove off to, because really, there's only one mountain to climb. However, there are basically three different "peaks" to the mountain, so that's at least 3 different hikes for the Alpine Club members to enjoy together. Before the Alpine Club came into being, some of us climbed up the front, lowest peak to enjoy an Easter Sunrise service.
But on Sunday, the group of us attempted to climb up the highest peak, so we could get a view all the way around, and not just over our city.
It was quite the hike on the way up - more of a scramble in a lot of places, actually. But it was just beautiful - because it's rainy season, we hiked past little babbling brooks, through fields of bright green, thigh high grass, and enjoyed the shade of broad green leaves from the trees. There were wild flowers and scents of green life. It was a world away from the mud, the trash and the decidedly not fresh scents of the town. And it was just a 15 minute drive, and a 10 minute walk into the valley away from my front door.
The hike up was pretty steep, and though we did get an early start, it was still a bit steamy on the way up (the cold temps from last week have somehow evaporated :( ). Thankfully, the founder of the Alpine Club has just returned from a trip to China, where the elderly Chinese women act as "sherpas" and follow hikers up the mountains there. Whenever you stop to take a bit of a breath, the Chinese women are right there, fanning your face and cooling you off a bit.
Now that's something I could get used to!
We finally all made it to the top! And enjoyed the cooling breeze and the beautiful view.
Some decided to take advantage of the healing waters of the mountain at the top and had a little mini-spa moment.
Of course we had to have a group shot at the top. I figured there were enough cameras in the mix, trying to get the whole group, so I didn't bother to put my camera there... and I'm still waiting for someone to email me the group shot.
One of the Alpine Club members had been up there a few times before, and he knew a new way to go down, which required much less clamoring over rocks and much more strolling through fields of wild flowers. 
It was here that Jackie, my British-German housemate who normally accuses me of being too "effusive" started gushing about how beautiful it was up there and what an amazing hike we were on and how wonderful it was to be out of the city and how lovely and green it was... I think my habit of gushing about lovely things is starting to rub off on her! But it really was lovely and gorgeous and refreshing...
And one of the best parts of hiking in Africa is the "Dr. Seuss" type foliage that you come across all the time... which I need to start taking more and better photos of before the rainy season is over and it all turns to brown dust again!
The hike was over much too soon, but I believe there will be another outing of the Alpine club again soon, and I'm already looking forward to it! (By the way, I probably shouldn't say this because Mom will probably flip... but... just so you get a taste of life here... the Alpine Club is just starting in earnest now because, well, um, up till now, there have been too many landmines on the mountain to really safely hike... but now it's been declared safe, and there are lots and lots of paths traipsing everywhere on the mountain...)
At about 8:20am, three truckloads of intrepid hikers gathered together at the Tomb (no, that's not the name of the newest nightclub, it's the actual tomb of the revered former President of this place), and off we drove to the Mountain. No need to say which mountain we all drove off to, because really, there's only one mountain to climb. However, there are basically three different "peaks" to the mountain, so that's at least 3 different hikes for the Alpine Club members to enjoy together. Before the Alpine Club came into being, some of us climbed up the front, lowest peak to enjoy an Easter Sunrise service.
But on Sunday, the group of us attempted to climb up the highest peak, so we could get a view all the way around, and not just over our city.
It was quite the hike on the way up - more of a scramble in a lot of places, actually. But it was just beautiful - because it's rainy season, we hiked past little babbling brooks, through fields of bright green, thigh high grass, and enjoyed the shade of broad green leaves from the trees. There were wild flowers and scents of green life. It was a world away from the mud, the trash and the decidedly not fresh scents of the town. And it was just a 15 minute drive, and a 10 minute walk into the valley away from my front door.
The hike up was pretty steep, and though we did get an early start, it was still a bit steamy on the way up (the cold temps from last week have somehow evaporated :( ). Thankfully, the founder of the Alpine Club has just returned from a trip to China, where the elderly Chinese women act as "sherpas" and follow hikers up the mountains there. Whenever you stop to take a bit of a breath, the Chinese women are right there, fanning your face and cooling you off a bit.
Now that's something I could get used to!
We finally all made it to the top! And enjoyed the cooling breeze and the beautiful view.
Some decided to take advantage of the healing waters of the mountain at the top and had a little mini-spa moment.
Of course we had to have a group shot at the top. I figured there were enough cameras in the mix, trying to get the whole group, so I didn't bother to put my camera there... and I'm still waiting for someone to email me the group shot.
One of the Alpine Club members had been up there a few times before, and he knew a new way to go down, which required much less clamoring over rocks and much more strolling through fields of wild flowers. 
It was here that Jackie, my British-German housemate who normally accuses me of being too "effusive" started gushing about how beautiful it was up there and what an amazing hike we were on and how wonderful it was to be out of the city and how lovely and green it was... I think my habit of gushing about lovely things is starting to rub off on her! But it really was lovely and gorgeous and refreshing...
And one of the best parts of hiking in Africa is the "Dr. Seuss" type foliage that you come across all the time... which I need to start taking more and better photos of before the rainy season is over and it all turns to brown dust again!
The hike was over much too soon, but I believe there will be another outing of the Alpine club again soon, and I'm already looking forward to it! (By the way, I probably shouldn't say this because Mom will probably flip... but... just so you get a taste of life here... the Alpine Club is just starting in earnest now because, well, um, up till now, there have been too many landmines on the mountain to really safely hike... but now it's been declared safe, and there are lots and lots of paths traipsing everywhere on the mountain...)
Friday, June 6, 2008
Weekend Plans
So here I sit on the verandah, all snuggled in my hoodie, thinking about the day ahead, and waiting until I have to turn off the generator at in half an hour. It's a whopping 24.1C this evening. And I'm freezing. When I say I'm snuggled in my hoodie, I actually mean that. My nose is even cold. I honestly don't think I can call myself a Canadian anymore. I'm actually planning to sleep in my sleeping bag tonight, and am looking forward to a nice snuggly night! It's the best sleeping bag in the world - the MEC Equatorial model. Highly recommendable.
Anyways, looking ahead to the weekend. What does it hold? Well, Saturdays are usually work days around here, but at least I have a few arts and crafts projects on the go to keep myself entertained. My first project is the culmination of a whole week of work. Last week, poor Richard was up to his elbows in the sewer system, since people had been throwing all sorts of things down our poor toilets, and it finally clogged the whole thing. So I made a sign for each of the guesthouse bathrooms:
Of course, we can only print in black and white, so I had to color them all in with my trusty sharpie. Then, I had to take them across town to get them laminated. My dear Arab friend there, who keeps telling me that he wants to be my friend, was very happy to laminate them all for me... but I'd have to go back later because of course, he had to wait for the electricity to come on before he could laminate them. So I went back the next day, and much to the amusement of the crowd gathered in the little shop, proceeded to try to understand what he was trying to tell me in Arabic. In the end, by the reaction of the gathered crowd, I decided it was probably better that I DIDN'T understand what he was trying to ask me!Anyways, I now have all these beautiful red laminated signs which need hanging in the bathrooms. Richard thinks we should put a string on them all and tie them around the necks of the guests when they come to stay with us... just in case they forget and try to throw something else down the toilet. That Richard - he's the only person I know who can go and visit with a big Minister in the government in his shiny shoes, come home and 2 minutes later be up to his elbows in sewage... all with a smile on his face! Anyways, I'm trying to spare him the grief and hoping that people will stop throwing things (like boxes and towels!) down the toilets!
So that's one project. The next arts and crafts project I've got for myself comes from the Ministry of Education. Moses, from the Ministry, printed a bunch of photos from our last workshop with them, and he wants them to be posted on a poster for display at the Ministry. It's a great idea, and will give the Department of National Languages a little bit of much needed publicity. But I completely blindly walked right into the project. Moses was asking for my advice on how to do it, and somehow, in the midst of explaining how I thought might be the best way to do it... I got volunteered to actually execute the plan! Oh well, I really don't mind these sorts of projects... but it does mean I might have to go and visit my Arab "friend" at the stationary shop across town again to find some glue!
Speaking of Moses, I got a great email from him today:
Praise the Lord, my wife gave birth this morning at 4.45 am with baby girl, we were going to the hospital on the way we were caught up, and she delivered in my hand, that is piece of news about me.
I'm really not sure what they were "caught up" in, but I just have this image of deal old Moses helping his wife give birth in the street at 4:45 in the morning! That poor woman! But anyways, I'm thankful for the safe birth of another little baby. I think this is Moses' 17th child (he has 3 wives).
My third project for the day is to do a bunch of finances - I've got to balance all the receipts with the money that Jackie left for me while she went on holidays last week. Blah. I'm not looking forward to that part of the day!
In the afternoon, I'll probably end up driving one of our visitors and one of the translation teams over to the cathedral so they can visit with the arch-bishop, as well. Hopefully the rain will stop by then so we don't get stuck in too much mud on the way there - though it would be fun to practice my 4 wheel driving skills again :)
Seems I've got a few things to do tomorrow, so I'd better go and turn off the generator and snuggle down into my sleeping bag!
I'm really not sure what they were "caught up" in, but I just have this image of deal old Moses helping his wife give birth in the street at 4:45 in the morning! That poor woman! But anyways, I'm thankful for the safe birth of another little baby. I think this is Moses' 17th child (he has 3 wives).
My third project for the day is to do a bunch of finances - I've got to balance all the receipts with the money that Jackie left for me while she went on holidays last week. Blah. I'm not looking forward to that part of the day!
In the afternoon, I'll probably end up driving one of our visitors and one of the translation teams over to the cathedral so they can visit with the arch-bishop, as well. Hopefully the rain will stop by then so we don't get stuck in too much mud on the way there - though it would be fun to practice my 4 wheel driving skills again :)
Seems I've got a few things to do tomorrow, so I'd better go and turn off the generator and snuggle down into my sleeping bag!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
How long did it take to build Rome?
So yes, I DO actually get some work done around here. Today I was at an all day meeting with some of the "partners", which means other NGOs who are working in the education sector. Because this country is really just emerging out of decades of war, systems are, well, not really in place for basic things like education and training teachers. As a result, the vast majority of any sort of education work that's done around here has been done a bit piece-meal, by lots of different people in lots of different ways. Most people aren't even using the same syllabus or curriculum in their schools! So you can imagine what a challenge it is to pull all these different ideas together to start to come up with a more standardized system that can work for the country as a whole, and be more "owned" by the Ministry of Education.
So with the blessing of the Ministry of Education, all of us who have done any sort of work or who have any sort of materials for teacher training have gotten together to try to come up with something more unified and something that's been tested and proven "on the ground", so to speak.
I have to admit, I don't usually relish the thought of all day meetings, but this one was incredible! We got so much work done together. I think it helped that we were a smaller group, and that we were all committed to the task that we had set before ourselves.
Of course it was a good meeting for me because everyone there also listened to me as I got on my soap box about mother tongue teacher training. If you're going to have teachers teach in the local languages, you also need to train those teachers how to do that! In fact, most of the teachers need to be taught how to read and write their language, before they can even start teaching a child how to do it. Not a simple thing in a country with at least 63 recognized languages and no textbooks to be found. But people are getting the message that language is kind of an integral part of a child's education, and I think we're starting to make some headway. In this country, it's not at all unusual to have teachers who have barely passed the 4th grade (and this is not like our 4th grade - probably more equivalent to our 2nd grade) being trained as teachers, which means they are often barely literate in any language.
It's not every day that I come away from meetings about the education system in this country with a smile on my face! So today was a good day, and I'm actually feeling like there's hope for the education of the children of this country... unfortunately, this isn't a feeling I have after most meetings that I end up at.
But God is good, and I know that with his strength and wisdom, we'll somehow muddle through and build up the education system here. And in the meantime, I just have to remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day... and we're not just trying to build a city, we're trying to build an entire country!
So with the blessing of the Ministry of Education, all of us who have done any sort of work or who have any sort of materials for teacher training have gotten together to try to come up with something more unified and something that's been tested and proven "on the ground", so to speak.
I have to admit, I don't usually relish the thought of all day meetings, but this one was incredible! We got so much work done together. I think it helped that we were a smaller group, and that we were all committed to the task that we had set before ourselves.
Of course it was a good meeting for me because everyone there also listened to me as I got on my soap box about mother tongue teacher training. If you're going to have teachers teach in the local languages, you also need to train those teachers how to do that! In fact, most of the teachers need to be taught how to read and write their language, before they can even start teaching a child how to do it. Not a simple thing in a country with at least 63 recognized languages and no textbooks to be found. But people are getting the message that language is kind of an integral part of a child's education, and I think we're starting to make some headway. In this country, it's not at all unusual to have teachers who have barely passed the 4th grade (and this is not like our 4th grade - probably more equivalent to our 2nd grade) being trained as teachers, which means they are often barely literate in any language.
It's not every day that I come away from meetings about the education system in this country with a smile on my face! So today was a good day, and I'm actually feeling like there's hope for the education of the children of this country... unfortunately, this isn't a feeling I have after most meetings that I end up at.
But God is good, and I know that with his strength and wisdom, we'll somehow muddle through and build up the education system here. And in the meantime, I just have to remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day... and we're not just trying to build a city, we're trying to build an entire country!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Um...
Goodness, for the first time ever, I think, I don't quite know what to blog about this week. Does that mean all the strangeness of Jb is actually becoming quite normal? Does that mean it's time for a holiday to get a bit of perspective so things that really aren't all that normal start to seem un-normal again?!
Let's see... some highlights of the past few days:
Let's see... some highlights of the past few days:
- I enjoyed driving almost the entire way to my friends' house on a paved road for the first time! They are slowly making their way around a "ring" road for the city. I drove about 3 km on pavement, which is just about the entire length of the road, so far. Really cuts the drive down, timewise. Instead of bouncing along at 10 - 15 km/hr, I can go about 35-40 km/h on the pavement! Truly amazing. But the nurses and doctors in the hospital here have been complaining that the patients admitted due to motor vehicle accidents ("MVA"'s for those of you who watch ER or Grey's Anatomy) has dramatically increased. And I've seen it with my own eyes. It's especially frightening at night - the other night when I was driving home, I counted 15 motorbikes cruising down the road WITHOUT LIGHTS! Honestly, it's just insane, and really scary. So if you happen to think about me, please pray for my safety as I drive. Thankfully, I don't have to drive all that often.
- Zane caught two rats in the guest house kitchen yesterday evening! Richard was trying to help him out, but Zane didn't want to share in the fun. So Zane took the rats, one by one, in his mouth and got as far away as possible from Richard. I'm so proud of my mighty rat hunting cat. He's been earning his keep lately. His keep, by the way, has been all the chicken bones he can eat! Annamarie's office is in the same building as a nice restaurant, and she has asked the kitchen staff to save all the old chicken bones for Zane. He must be the most well-fed cat in the city - munching on the leftovers of chicken meals that cost the equivalent of $20!
- I found a place just near my house that will take and print passport size photos. And you even get to choose the colour for the background. I chose blue, to bring out the blue in my eyes :) I have to renew my travel permit soon, so I need some new photos, but I left my whole stack of them in Nairobi last time I was there, for some reason. Around here, you learn to travel with a stack of passport photos, 'cause it's amazing how many documents you end up needing to supply a photo for! The photos will only cost me $7 for 12. A steal of a deal (though in Nairobi they're about a quarter of the price :( )
Monday, June 2, 2008
Entering into the cold season!!
Today was a gorgeous day! I woke up to the sound of gushing torrents of rain on our tin roof at about 6am. I had to snuggle deeper into my sheet and actually had every fan in the house turned off, since it was so cold - only 25C in my room at 6am. I had to warm up some water to have a little bucket bath this morning, too, since it was just way too cold to stand under a shower of cold water!
It stayed rainy all morning - which meant that no one showed up for work until between 10 and 11am! People just don't move in the rain. Public transport doesn't move. People have huge raving rivers to cross to get out their front doors, and they get so cold when they get wet. So people just stay put when it's raining.
I didn't even make it across the compound to my office until about 9:30 this morning, either... mostly because I knew no one else would be there, and it's really hard to balance my coffee, my breakfast, my computer and an umbrella while trying not to sink in the mud. So I thought finishing my coffee and breakfast at home would be a good idea today!
It stayed grey and drippy for the rest of the day, which has already put the roads in quite a state. I was driving and doing some errands, including dropping some people off to visit a Bishop this afternoon, and trucks were slip-sliding all over the road, and there were a few puddles that I just didn't know if I would make it through. And that was just on the main road through town! I'm thankful for 4 wheel drive and that I know how to use it!
At the moment, it's 24.8C in the house, and I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, my longest skirt covering my legs down to my ankles and my nose is actually cold. Weird, eh? I mean, who ever thought you'd get an actual cold nose at 24.8C?! Can I still call myself a Canadian?!
It stayed rainy all morning - which meant that no one showed up for work until between 10 and 11am! People just don't move in the rain. Public transport doesn't move. People have huge raving rivers to cross to get out their front doors, and they get so cold when they get wet. So people just stay put when it's raining.
I didn't even make it across the compound to my office until about 9:30 this morning, either... mostly because I knew no one else would be there, and it's really hard to balance my coffee, my breakfast, my computer and an umbrella while trying not to sink in the mud. So I thought finishing my coffee and breakfast at home would be a good idea today!
It stayed grey and drippy for the rest of the day, which has already put the roads in quite a state. I was driving and doing some errands, including dropping some people off to visit a Bishop this afternoon, and trucks were slip-sliding all over the road, and there were a few puddles that I just didn't know if I would make it through. And that was just on the main road through town! I'm thankful for 4 wheel drive and that I know how to use it!
At the moment, it's 24.8C in the house, and I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, my longest skirt covering my legs down to my ankles and my nose is actually cold. Weird, eh? I mean, who ever thought you'd get an actual cold nose at 24.8C?! Can I still call myself a Canadian?!
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