From July 16

I'm not as smart as my friend Kendrah, and haven't figured out how to back-date my posts, so you'll just have to bear with me...

Am sitting on my bed in my own private tukle, listening to a little Third Day on my computer, since there is a generator giving us electricity until… well, I have no idea until what time! All I know is that I am not responsible for shutting off the generator J

We got off to a bit of a slow start this morning. We were all ready to leave at the crack of dawn… well, ok, we woke up at the crack of dawn, and were ready to leave at 7am. So we loaded up the landcruiser with all of our luggage, the driver climbed in to start it up… and nothing. Something was wrong with something and the car wouldn’t start! So a bunch of guys got out there and tried to push start it a few times… to no avail.

So they pushed the landcruiser out to the main road, and left me, Jackie and Elizabeth just sitting there at the guesthouse! Eventually, Elizabeth followed the landcruiser out to the main road, leaving me and Jackie. Eventually, I decided to go and load up on water etc. for the day at the corner store at the main road. So that just left Jackie sitting on her little stoop in the guesthouse. Eventually, she also came out to the main road, where we found a nice tea lady to make us some tea with milk.

Of course, you have to be very, very specific in asking for tea in your tea with milk. If you don’t clarify yourself a few times, you’ll end up with milk without tea! It’s not the first time it’s happened to me, even though I’m sure both of us are using the right Arabic words to ask with tea with a bit of milk! But I’ve realized that even Moses often gets his milk without any tea, and has to go back to ask for some tea in the milk! Just another little adventure of living in this country…

Eventually, after a nice cup of hot milk with a bit of tea for breakfast, our truck showed up again. Seems they got the problem fixed, whatever it was. Moses had already given the guys who helped push the car a little “tip”, but of course, once they saw the white girls get into the car, their price for pushing the car skyrocketed! It’s nice to be able to tell people that we have nothing to do with the money for this whole adventure and the car doesn’t belong to us, anyways! But I have to admit, I get frustrated somedays when all people see with my white skin (well, ok, my skin is more pink and blotchy most days!) is a bunch of big dollar signs. Why can’t I just be a normal person?! Anyways, it doesn’t happen all the time, so I shouldn’t complain…

We were just happy to be on our way again! The road was quite something, actually. It’s the major highway, but just wide enough for one landcruiser! On both sides of the dirt track are tall, tall grasses, lots of big trees, and the occasional village. There’s certainly no space for oncoming cars to pass, so you sort of have to negotiate and try to find a little clear place near a tree or something to pull into so the oncoming car or truck can pass!

I really felt like I was in “Africa” today, driving down that road. It was so beautiful – sunny sky, a million shades of green in the trees, grasses and crops surrounding us, women walking down the middle of the road with water on their heads and babies strapped to their backs with colorful swatches of fabric. I know, stereotypical, but that’s exactly what it was today!

There were times when I almost started to feel claustrophobic, though. You really couldn’t see ANYTHING through the grass and foliage! If someone had pushed me into one of those fields of grass, I never would have been able to find my way out again. Somehow, I like to be more out in the wide open spaces, where you can see a little bit of what’s ahead or behind! You could hardly even see the sky in many places, since there were just way too much stuff growing.

One of the things that grows around here are hardwood trees – mahogany and teak, to name a few. They also grow maize and all sorts of vegetables, as well as pineapples (so I’ve been told, but have yet to actually see any with my eyes). The most remarkable thing was that all of the children who were obviously on their way to schoo, with their little UNICEF bags, also carried their hoes for digging in the gardens. All of the schools around here incorporate agriculture into their lessons. They do a bunch of practical work in the school’s gardens, which they then use to feed themselves and the teachers, and at the same time, they learn about agriculture, and science and all that. I think it’s great!

Another thing that is great is the fact that I can go to sleep tonight… so I’m going to do just that. Tomorrow I gotta stay awake during Jackie’s teaching time!