I haven't been hijacked...

... though I haven't blogged in three days!

The hijacking has come to a peaceful end, but the plane might not be flying this way for at least another 5 days!

So, no Richard, but (perhaps more importantly) no yogurt, no Arabic newspaper, no cargo of any sort coming from there to here. Funny how you don't really realize how much you depend on air transport between major cities until it's gone. I still find it hard to believe that it's been almost a week now since there was a plane from the capital city to our little sub-capital city.

But things have been going well around here. I've been doing lots of computer stuff - I'm still trying to make the Thunderbird email program work properly on one of the teams' computers. It's still defeating me, but it seems to be defeating one our computer techies who's working on it remotely, as well. But there have been some problems which have not defeated me and I have been able to successfully keep the computers here running happily! I have also done my weekly computer training workshop with the teams here, which is a lot of fun. I just like teaching - whether I'm teaching people how to write or how to plan a multilingual education system or how to use a computer. It's just fun to be able to help people grow in their capacity to do their jobs better. It's so rewarding to see people learn things that help them do what they want to do.

I've also been out a few evenings, which is why I haven't been sitting around on my couch blogging! I went out for dinner with a few people to celebrate the birthday of a medical student who is here for a 6 week internship. It was good fun, since we went to a restaurant which I've not spent much time at before. I was quite impressed with their menu, and it was a very comfortable, cozy sort of place to sit and enjoy an evening out. They even have board games there to play while you wait for your food :) So we played several rounds of "Speed Scrabble" while waiting for our burgers to come.

Last night was another night of board games! Some other friends hosted a potluck and games night - so I Boggled the night away after stuffing my tummy full of good food.

Problem with both evenings is that I had to leave a bit early - both parties were held on the opposite end of town from where I live. So even though it's only 5.5 km away, it takes a good 25 minutes to navigate the crazy roads between there and here. And I have to be home before everything goes dark at 10:30pm when I have to turn off the generator. Plus, I really don't like being out on my own, even in the truck, much later than that. It's much safer here than in, say, Nairobi in terms of actual crime (like car-jacking or robbery), but there are a few drunk drivers and drunk soldiers with big guns out on the streets at night, so it's not really too comfortable as a white woman being out alone in the midst of all that (though you rarely hear of any real problems). Once Jackie and Annamarie come back we can go out together, but when I'm on my own, I'd much rather come home a bit early and miss out on some fun at the parties and be safe! (Are you happy to hear that, Mom?!)

I've been taking it a bit easy this morning - for the first Saturday in a LOOONNNGGG time, I didn't go into the office! Instead, I sat on my verandah and answered all the necessary work emails.

But now I gotta go turn off the generator and see if I can help with lunch - the cook in the guesthouse didn't show up today, so I'm not sure what's happening...