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!