Back to Jb?

I'm going back home tomorrow! Please pray for my road trip tomorrow. I hope I don't have too many adventures, but I'll let you know when I get home.

Only time will tell.

God amazes me sometimes (well, OK, maybe more than sometimes…). Today I was amazed because I sort of stepped away from myself this morning while I was teaching at the workshop and I felt like I was listening to myself teach. And you know, at the risk of sounding boastful, I was doing pretty good! But I know that’s only because God has given be the ability to do this sort of thing. It is not something that comes naturally from my personality, or some skill that I have carefully practiced and honed – no, it’s a gift from God. And what a privilege it is to be able to use the teaching gift that he’s given me to help further his kingdom… and have fun doing it at the same time :)

But really, if you had known me, say, 5 years ago, I don’t think you would recognize me to be the same person. I was terrified of standing in front of 3 people and speaking, let alone a room full of 30 people! And now, I’m jumping at the chance to stand up and teach something. I love being given “the stage” so I can help people learn something that’s going to help them develop their own skills and do something to help their communities. I just see it as an amazing privilege to facilitate people’s “Aha moments” (to steal a quote from Oprah!). This whole week, I’ve been privileged to see people’s eyes being opened to language and translation issues so they can convey important information to their own communities in a way that the people will actually understand it! I just love watching people get it! Even though I’m so tired at the end of the day of teaching, I’m still so energized and encouraged by seeing these folks that I’ve just met learning and enjoying the whole process of it.

And now it’s time to go eat… Teaching requires a lot of energy which needs to be replenished on a regular basis as well. I wonder if I was teaching every day, like a normal school teacher does, would it get old or boring, or would I still love every day of it? Or do I just love each day of it because it’s a novelty every time I teach a new workshop? I guess only time will tell :)

So far, so good!

Yup, all is good, so far! I was so tired after finishing the day yesterday - the first day is always the most difficult, I think, because you never really know what to expect! I had no idea what sort of participants there would be - what their English and education levels would be like, how many of them would be there, if they would be nice to me or not :)

But they all seem quite nice. In fact, at least three of them I have met before in various workshops and things back in Jb! So it was a nice surprise to see some of them again. And so far, they've all been very nice to me, in general! And none of them have been TOO nice, either! Not a single marriage proposal yet, which is a real blessing, let me tell you. They all seem like really capable, intelligent people who are really catching on quickly.

But please pray for peace in this country - there are a few things happening that are affecting some of the areas that these participants are coming from. So they are understandably distracted by what's going on over there. So pray for peace, and also pray for the participants and their families, that they will be able to trust these situations to the Lord. And also don't worry about me - we're far from any problems! I'm sure I'm in the safest corner of this country!

I do need to get to bed, though, as tomorrow is another long day!

Welcome to Y!

(sorry this is a bit of a long rambling one...)

I’ve got a little time this evening so I’ll type out a bit about my trip here, though I won’t get it posted until tomorrow…

I spent most of last week mulling over how to get here, asking different organizations that I know often drive the road between here and Jb, asking about flights from the mission aviation organizations… but nothing came up. As a general rule of thumb, I don’t take long distance public transport on my own in this country. I’ve just been in too many situations where there have been too many eager young (and not so young!) men around to want to be stuck in a little mini-bus with them for too many hours. If I got stuck sitting next to some guy who wanted to marry me, it could just be a very uncomfortable and annoying situation! So I just make it a general rule to not find myself in that situation!

But late in the week, I found out that one of the guys who works on one of the language projects was travelling through to Y on Saturday, so it was a perfect solution!

So we left our compound at about 8:15am, and made it to the bus park. Wes drove us to the bus park, though we almost got pulled over by the traffic police on the way. He didn’t like where Wes was trying to turn, but when he saw it was a clueless white guy driving, he waved us on. Anyways, we made it to the bus park and found a nice looking matatu-type mini-bus going our direction with free seats. It turned out quite nicely – we got the two seats next to the sliding door, so there was a little extra space in the “step” up to the door for my bag and my feet. I thought I packed pretty lightly – I packed my “carry on” bag for a whole week, plus my backpack with my computer and my snacks for the day. But still, I had more stuff than some of the people on the mini-bus with us. It’s amazing how little some people carry with them!

Anyways, my carry-on bag fit perfectly under my seat, and my computer got to ride on my lap the whole time, which was probably a good place for it, considering the state of the roads most of the way! The poor little thing got shaken and stirred with the rest of us the whole way!

I was thankful that I took more than enough snacks with me – bread and boiled eggs are the perfect road trip snacks. Plus I bought a few packages of halwa (very sweet seasame paste formed into a bar), a couple of small boxes of mango juice and some granola bars from home. I also had a liter and a half of water (one liter frozen, half unfrozen). It’s always hard to know how much to drink on these sorts of excursions – you never want to be the first one to have to stop to pee, but at the same time, you don’t want to completely dehydrate! I’m thankful that I’m a bit of a sweaty girl, so I generally sweat out most of what I drink and only arrive at my destination slightly dehydrated, without having to stop the bus to pee!

It’s also quite a challenge to figure out what to wear on these sorts of trips – trousers are so much more comfortable, just in terms of ease of climbing in and out of the van and over all the luggage and being able to find the most comfortable position as you’re squashed in the bus. But at the same time, on those pee breaks, it’s really much more convenient and, well, shall we say, discreet, to have a long skirt on.

Since I didn’t think the journey was quite so long, I opted for the trouser option. Thankfully, though, someone else had to pee before me, so we made a stop and all piled out of the van. As all of us women were squatting in the bush, I realized that the attire of choice seems to be a skirt with longer shorts (or Capri type trousers) underneath! It’s the best of both worlds, I guess, though it seems it might be a little on the warmer side… but it’s definitely something to try on my next bus trip.

Anyways, we did only make one pee break on the way, which was good, since the entire way there are signs of landmines on the side of the road. There are signs that tell you to stay on the road because of the mines, there are red flags and sticks with red paint on top, there are camps for the de-miners who are working.

If I ever have to be an activist for something (other than mother tongue education!), I would become an activist against the use of landmines. They’re terrible things. Their only purpose is to terrify and maim civilians. As a result of the mines that were laid years and years and years ago, people are not free to move back to their homelands. They can’t do any farming because the land is covered in mines. They can’t move freely between the neighboring villages or go to the rivers for water. People completely lose their livelihoods. Children lose their limbs and their lives. And I can’t freely pee in the bush. So go sign a petition against landmines, and support all those NGOs and UN Agencies that are clearing so many swaths of so many countries of land mines.

So we did just stop the once for peeing, and no one went too far off the road to finish their business. It’s always amazing to me how the men and women just seem to know which side of the van is the men’s room and which side is the ladies’ room! I always seem to be the last one out of the van, so it’s not usually too hard for me to figure out which side to rush off to. We did have to stop for a little while for the de-miners to do some work on the road ahead. We stopped in this nice little place with had these little huts made from grass, with lots set out for little benches. It was quite pleasantly cool in the shade of the grass huts, actually. At this little “stop” we bought some nice fresh bananas, as well. They were so sweet and delicious – you could tell they had ripened on the branch instead of on the truck on their way from Uganda!

While we were stopped for the de-miners, someone got out one of those portable dvd players and stuck in a dvd of local music videos. They were so great! I’ve heard some of the songs on the radio before, but I’d never seen the videos. One of the songs is called “Senke”, after the brand of motorbikes that scream around our city and cause all sorts of problems. The other was called “Wasaka”, which is the local word for garbage. It just showed all the piles of garbage around our city, and urged people to clean it up! It was really neat to see some of the “local” pop culture. I’d love to get my hands on a copy of that dvd, so I can show all of you when I get home! There are really just no words to describe it!

Of course, once the bus got moving again, the road was much too rough to continue to watch the dvd, so we had to turn it off. It was just skipping and jumping all over the place, plus with all the shaking and rattling, you could hardly hear the music anymore! But it was a nice little bit of entertainment to keep me happy for a while J

After several hours on the road, we finally reached our destination at 4pm. I called the folks that I was coming to meet, and they came to the bus park to get me. I was very thankful for Christopher, my bodyguard, at that point, since a white girl sitting alone in a bus park is fair game for all sorts of comments! Christopher was very kind in waiting with me until my friends came, even though he was in a bit of rush to continue on his journey (he still had a couple hours of travelling before he made it home).

The first thing I did when I got to my hosts’ house was to have a shower! It had just rained in the previous few days here in Yay, so their water tank is about ¾ full, for the first time in a few months. Which meant that their overhead shower was working! It felt SO nice to scrub the grime away from my face and hair. I had to wash my hair a couple of times before I got all the dust out, and my face was disgustingly brown with little rivers of sweat making streaks down my cheeks! I was quite the sight, let me tell you. I couldn’t even drink a cup of tea until I had my shower! And I’d never been so thankful for a bit of water in my whole life!

After a shower and a cup of tea, I took a little wander around the compound to say hello to some friends that I know here. This compound is quite a lot bigger than ours in Jb, and is really full of a ton of vegetation. There’s even a pineapple patch where they grow real pineapples! It’s really very lush and green, even though it’s the “dry” season here. The air is fresher, the breeze cooler, the stars are brighter than in Jb. So it’s a lovely place to spend the week.

I feel like I’ve had a bit of a holiday this week… and tomorrow the real work begins!

I’m a little anxious about the workshop, truth be told. I know that I know the material that I’m going to cover, and I’ve taught most of it before (though not all of it!), but we’ve arranged the timetable differently, and I have no clue who the participants are going to be… so it’s always a bit of an experiment to see if it’s going to fly! But I know the Lord has brought me and all the participants together for this week, I’ve done as much preparation as I think I could, and we’ll just have to trust that good things will result from it!

On that note, I’ve got to go outside to visit the loo (there is a toilet, but we’re trying to conserve the water for nice things like showers, rather than flushing the toilet!), then get myself to bed. It’s so nice to sleep in the coolness… Goodnight!

Yay!

I'm pretty tired, and in need of being horizontal on my bed for the next 8 - 10 hours and the internet connection is pretty slow here... so I'll keep this short, though I have no end of adventure to tell ya'll about! But thanks for praying for my trip here - it was so uneventful! It was really a very good (but long!) trip. Rather than the 3 - 4 hours I was counting on, it was, when all was said and done, over 8 hours :( But at least I had brought lots of snacks and lots of water with me!

And I didn't even get married off to any fellow passengers, because they all thought I was already married to my colleague who was accompanying me :)

More tomorrow, and hopefully with a couple of photos that I took along the way. But now, it's bed time, man. Even though my body still feels like it's bouncing up and down in a mini-bus...

Oh the adventure of it all

Since we're having a bit of a dinner party tonight, Jackie and I had no desire to cook lunch, as well.

So we went off to one of our favorite places, where you can get quite a lovely Eritrean lunch for about $7, including a soda (this is really a cheap, cheap lunch in these parts, believe me!). Anyways, after charming the staff with my language abilities, we got a very nice lunch, of course to a soundtrack which included my friend Celine.

Then we went to leave. And the car wouldn't start. So we tried to call back to the office to see if someone could come and get us, but since one of our trucks is broken down... no luck there, as someone else had to be driven to the airport!

So off we went by "footing" in the mid day sun. Now at least it rained this morning, so it certainly wasn't as hot as it could have been. But a 25 minute brisk walk in the noon-day sun... phew. I was a bit drippy when I returned. At least we were within walking distance of the compound. Otherwise, we would have had to wait an awfully long time for someone to come from the airport to fetch us, and I had way to much to do this afternoon for that sort of thing!

I have a ton to do becuase I'm going on a road trip tomorrow!

I will be in a small town near the border to help another organization with a writing and translation workshop. They wanted to have participants from 8 different language groups, but I'm not sure how many people they've actually drummed up so far. So we'll see what happens when I turn up tomorrow.

Anyways, it would be great if you could pray for a safe journey - only 100 km or so, but at least 3 hours on the road (you can imagine what the road's like!). And pray for the workshop, because I'm going to facilitate on my own, without my buddy Jackie, which is a first for me! It's always a lot of work to facilitate an entire week's workshop, but to do it on my own, well, it's going to be tiring. But I LOVE teaching this stuff, and the town I'm going to is a lot cooler and more in the forest than Jb is, so it will be a nice place.

And just this morning someone that I know (an Australian/Brit couple) offered to have me stay in their home with them in the compound, instead of in the dorm where I'd have to use communal pit toilets etc. (which wouldn't be bad -I've stayed there before, and I've stayed in much worse places before!), but it will be nice to stay in a home with someone for the week, too, so I know I won't get lonely :) That's a real answer to prayer, actually!

I'm not sure about internet access there, so don't worry if you don't hear from me for the next week. I'm hoping to return to Jb next weekend!

Ciao for now!

What to blog, what to blog...

I'm actually not feeling energetic enough to blog much of anything tonight, to tell you the truth. I went to bed at a normal time last night, but was sound asleep until quite late this morning! But when I woke up, there was a lovely surprise sitting on the counter - a loaf of brown bread with seeds in it! Yes, that's right, bread made with whole grains! Amazing. What a beautiful treat. It was flown in with friends from Nairobi yesterday. Oh, man, it's so wonderful to have something other than the whitest of white bread.

Ah, stink. The power just went off. Let me post this before the battery gives up on the internet... maybe more later?!

The Jackson 5 and the slave trade?!

Huh? Now this is even more ridiculous than our local gorilla water feature.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7858010.stm

Frightening.

Stylat Besit (Simple Styles)

I've been so inspired lately to dress more "smart". Since there's not much I can do about being sweaty all the time, I figure I might as well look as cute as possible over top of all that sweat!

Plus, the discovery of this tailor down the street is quite inspirational :) I brought yet another lovely piece of fabric to him yesterday, and already, today, I have a new outfit!
It's a bit difficult to see in this picture, but the tailor has done such a lovely job on the detailing of this one. There's a little bit of fancy embroidery across the front neckline. The front of the shirt is made in three panels, with a bit of, um, well, I can't remember the technical term for it at the moment, but that ribbon type stuff that you use on the edges of things. Anyways, the tailor has matched all the panels together and then detailed it with some of that ribbon-y stuff.

Now, I realize that a wide pattern going around my body has the potential to make me look, well, rather round. But somehow, with the panels and the detailing down the front of the top, I actually think it is quite a slimming effect. I've been really quite impressed with this tailor and how he actually uses the pattern of the material to really add to the design of the outfits. It's well cut and well-tailored. I'm really very impressed with it!

Shopping for fabric and thinking about how to make them into lovely dresses is becoming a bit of a hobby for me. Now that I have my dual sim card phone, Annamarie and I have stopped talking about phones, and have turned to talking about fashion :)

The long awaited photos

Yes, here they are, the long awaited photos of the three of us all dressed in our fancies on Jackie's birthday this past week!
So happy birthday, Jackie! Thanks for having a birthday so we could go for a nice meal at a place with a less ridiculous water feature than where I was last weekend:

Yeah, why, may I ask, does this town need a fake goat and a fake gorilla with water spraying out of his mouth? I just don't get it. Ah, the joys of living in the town :)

It's still getting hot

It was a hot one today. One of the first days of the season where it was over 40C. And silly me goes to the market in the middle of the afternoon! I'm still not rehydrated, and I can't even count how much water I've had to drink since coming home!

Anyways, it's always fun to go to the market, even when it's hot. I did put sunscreen on before I went, but I think I actually sweated most of it away, so now I've got a bit of a glowing neck and some rosy cheeks! I was pretty disappointed with the fruits and veg in the market, too. I was meant to be doing our "produce" shopping for the week. What a bust that was. All I found was a pineapple, some tomatoes, onions, two rather sickly green peppers and some eggs. There were a few bananas, but they looked awful. And a few limes, but looked equally as terrible. And I just didn't want to pay $1 for 4 miniature dried up limes!

But, I did get a new phone! I never imagined I'd buy a new phone in the market here. But I did. I had been talking with Richard about getting me a new phone when he goes to Nairobi next week - I really wanted a dual sim card phone (I currently carry 3 phones around with me... all for good reason, but I don't want to get into that at the moment). And Jackie got a good dual sim card phone in Nairobi at Christmas, which I was going to give Richard some money to buy for me. But lo and behold... we found a similar one (except this one is a Nokia, and Jackie's is a Samsung) right here in the market... for a better price! I'm absolutely amazed. Mind you, the original price that was quoted to us at one kiosk was really high, and by the time we got further into the market and Richard did some bargaining, we got quite a nice deal.

I should have taken a photo with my new phone to show you the kiosk where it came from (you'd be quite amazed!). But it seems to be a good phone, with all the original Nokia parts. So, I'll give it a try and see! So far, so good. It's already been really handy to have two of my main sim cards in the same phone! I just get so excited about new gadgets - I know I'm a total geek. But I've learned to embrace that, anyways.

Anyways, that's the excitement of the day. Maybe now I'll have some more interesting photos to post for you :)

Off the box.

I'm off the soap box! And man, did I ever enjoy the view from up there! It was all very good. I was so impressed by our government partners who came along and helped us present the material. Really, very well done. And it was all very well received by everyone, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Language issues can be very hot debates, but it didn't get too bad yesterday! People were genuinely trying to work through some of the issues and look for some good solutions to some of the challenges that we face here with respect to language and education. It was really a very good day.

And today, it was good, too, since there were several people who spontaneously, unprovoked brought up the language and education policy and talked about languages. It was really very good. God's doing good things and people are starting to realize that this whole language thing is a bit of an issue here - they're realizing that this whole starting education in English doesn't seem to be working so well!

So it was very good. But I'm tired.

I had two other excitements for the day - 1. I picked up a dress from the tailor down the street! It's SO pretty! I love it. I have a photo of it, but it's still on Jackie's camera, so will have to post it tomorrow. 2. Jackie had a birthday today, so we had a wonderful meal in a posh restaurant. I didn't even feel like I was in Jb! Really nice, and very reasonably priced (by Juba standards, of course!).

And, one more thing before I go to sleep. It seems there is something politically pretty significant happening in this country in the next few days. I don't want to say exactly what, lest I give away where I actually live (top secret you know!), but I was talking to one of my friends here tonight, and the repercussions of this thing could be huge. I mean, gigantic, especially for people I know who live in a different part of the country, but as a whole, it will affect this entire country. So please be praying for peace and stability and that the mob thing won't take over. Just pray for peace, especially in the other section of this country... ya'll who know where I am know exactly what I'm talking about, right?! Thanks for praying.

My Soap Box

I get to spend the WHOLE day tomorrow talking on my mother tongue based multilingual education soap box.

But please pray for us. I'm in the middle of a three day workshop with a group of Christian education organizations in this country. We're networking and talking about ways to work more effectively in this country. It's exciting to hear about what God's doing in terms of education here... but a bit exhausting, too, as it's just "go go go" for three entire days, including a big dinner tomorrow night with big funders (I've been invited to go along to discuss the role of the church in education and why the funders should fund Christian implementing organizations!).

Thanks for remembering us in our work here!

It's still on.

Yes, that's right. City power is still on. I'm getting a little too used to this, I think! But it's quite strange in that my routine has been so dictated by the generator over the last several months. The generator tells me when to go to work, when to go eat lunch, when to stop work, when to go to bed... it's like having a built in alarm clock for nearly every activity. Each "block" of time in my day was dictated by whether or not the generator is on.

And now... I'm free to do whatever I want. I don't have to make sure my phones and my lamp and my computer are all charging while the generator is on. I don't have to make sure to have my headlamp at the ready when 10:30 rolls around. It's just such a freeing feeling, and we're all sort of getting used to it again. The pessimist in me says that as soon as we DO get used to it, the electricity will leave us again. But the optimist in me thinks, maybe, just maybe, it will stay on this time. Maybe.

It is funny what I get used to and how my "routine" can be so easily interrupted by a seemingly simple thing as electricity! I really do appreciate having a fridge that stays cool now, and ice cubes that are always frozen in my freezer. And I especially appreciate being able to sleep with a fan on at night. It's so refreshing waking up in the morning not having sweated all night! Ah, yes, life is really good with electricity!

It did go off for about 30 minutes today, and I thought that was the end. Last June, when the power went off, we didn't have any idea that it would go off... and not come back for another 6 months. So each moment of electricity that we have now, I see as a real "bonus"!

Anyways, enough about my electricity! Even though we happily had electricity today, I spent a bit of today whining about petty little things. I feel bad about that. There are so many amazing things happening here, and I have so many amazing people to work with and an incredible job to do each day... and yet I sat and whinged about generally minor details today. I think the pile of work that's sitting on my computer was getting to me - at one point today, I had 14 separate Word documents and 3 Powerpoint presentations open on my computer!

I was just jumping from so many different things ... but I did manage to finish at least one of those power points today! And we had a good meeting at the Ministry of Ed to discuss it, which was great. We've had a really great team of people to work with on this big project with the Ministry, and today we just had a great meeting - 1 hour and we were done, because we've all discussed so many things at great length, and we all know what page everyone is on and we're all in agreement on everything. It's really been a great group of people to work with! Plus, the folks in the gov't who we're working with are Christians, and we've been able to pray for our work together, and today gave thanks for what the Lord has helped us accomplish. What a real blessing that is!

It's nearing 10 pm, and even though I don't have my generator telling me it's almost time for bed, my drooping eyelids are definitely telling me that it's a good time to go have my second shower of the day and curl up in front of my fan...

Tomorrow will be an exciting day of meetings with a bunch of different organizations and NGOs who are working in the education sector. It's always good to hear of what others are doing, get some ideas and perhaps get on my mother tongue soap box again :)

Moving up in the world!

Things really are looking up in this town. It's been very odd today, as the electricity has been on now for 29 hours (and counting!). Really, truly amazing. When it started to get dark this evening (around 6:30 it starts to get a bit dark in the house), I almost forgot to turn on the lights, since I'm really not used to being able to turn on the lights at that hour of the day. I've been able to charge my cell phones tonight, I'm able to use my computer tonight without thinking about saving some battery power for tomorrow, I'm not sweating because I have my fan turned on... really, life is changing. I'm just not sure how long it's going to last... it would just be so nice if we could have a Sunday with electricity so we can sit in front of the fan and read or nap, instead of sweating all day!

We also found this week, a new flavour of yogurt! I don't know how often they'll bring it in, but you can now get (on occassion) plain, strawberry and apple mango yogurt in this city! Honestly, this is mind blowing to me, as it was just last year that they even started bringing plain yogurt to the city. I saw sour cream once, but I guess that didn't go over too well, since I've never seen it again :(

We tried out a new Lebanese restaurant for dinner tonight. The food was quite good, but they messed up Annamarie's order a bit - she wanted steak. I ordered a kabab. However, when the food came out, both of our plates looked exactly the same. Then when we got the bill, it was written out for 1 kabab and 1 kufta. Hmmmm... not quite sure what happened there. Wes ordered a side of chips, and ended up with a stack of fries all wrapped in a pita! So it was like a french fry sandwich!

The amazing thing is that this place supposedly delivers food to your house or office! I'm really not sure how that's supposed to work - the only thing I can figure out is that they would go by GPS coordinates. I mean, it's not like we have any street signs here. To get to our compound, you go on the road that runs between the police hospital and the university. When you see the big blue container (or the police post that's locked with a toothbrush), you make a right. When you see the burned out green car wreckage, you make a left past the hut made of sticks. Then you find our front gate.

I mean, really, that's the usual description of how to find things around here, so I can't imagine a delivery service would be able to go by real directions to find anyone's house! But the GPS coordinates could really work. And since everyone and their granny seems to have a satellite phone around here, it's pretty easy to figure out your GPS coordinates. I won't reveal mine here, as you would then be able to pin-point exactly where I am and what I do... or you could come and deliver a shwarma...

Anyways, on the way home from the restaurant which served us the wrong food, but was very tasty anyways, we passed by a brand new cafe! Annamarie and I both saw it at the same time, and freaked poor Jackie out. We were both hooting and hollering, and we eventually got Jackie to turn around so we could go back to check it out. It's SO nice. They have some A/C in there, but it didn't seem to be working, so it was a little hotter than I would have liked. But everything was so clean and shiny and new, and they had a beautiful espresso machine and a very tasty custardy sort of cake. Amazing. Of course, it's owned by Ethiopians, and it is pretty much up to the standard of Addis Ababa cafes... except for the fact that it was a little warm, I felt like I was back in Addis again. So nice.

So really, between the electricity, a new yogurt flavour, the possibility of "fast" food delivered to my door, and a posh new cafe... I really feel like I'm starting to live in a capital city! It's been a very good day :)

Where's the week gone?

Wow, honestly, the week has gone so fast. I feel like I've barely blinked... and there it went. And yet there were moments this past week, where it was 38C, 40C in my office in the afternoons where my sweat was dripping faster than the minutes were ticking... it's just been hot.

But I sure ain't complaining because tonight, the POWER IS ON! Yes, that's right, folks. I am sleeping under the fan tonight for the first time since June 2008. I kid you not. Ok, the power was on for a week during Christmas, when I wasn't here to enjoy it. But really, we've had a week of power since last June. And tonight, it came on, amidst a spray of fireworks from the generator shed (which I'm really glad I don't have to deal with!). So I'm happy, and I'm just wondering how long it's all going to last... but for now, I'm just really enjoying the fan, since it's still 32C in my bedroom at 11:15pm.

Anyhoo, enough complaining about the weather - I seem to have done a lot of that this week :(

I had some serious achievements this week, the main one being the completion of our draft of the Implementation Guidelines for the Language and Education Policy. Yes, that's just what it sounds like... official government policies and guidelines... and me and Jackie had a hand in writing them. Yikes, I sure hope they're good enough! But actually, I think they're pretty darn good. Of course, there's always room for improvement, but we had a really good team to work with - two colleagues from the gov't here, and we had some really good (though marathon-like) meetings with them for the past few weeks.

And this week, we finished. Now we've learned a thing or two about government documents in the past few years of living and working here. Number one rule is that if you want anyone important to read any report or document that you've produced, you have to put it in a fancy cover. What I wouldn't give for a Staples or Office Depot to browse through the fancy report covers (have I ever mentioned my undying love for office supplies?!)... But all we have here is one of those machines that spiral bounds your documents.

I really do love some parts of my job - spiral binding documents is like arts and crafts class for adults. It's just so much fun to stick the little combs on the machine, punch all the holes in the paper and in the plastic cover, and put it all together! I love it! I know, call me crazy. I may have missed my calling as a copy-shop assistant, but at least I get to do some of it here. So the other night, instead of blogging, I spent a few hours putting together this little document, which we brought to the Ministry of Education today. Here's a photo of that momentous occassion:(by the way, Jackie and I didn't mean to both be pretty in pink today... but that's just the way it happened!).

Anyways, that was one achievement.

Um, there must have been a few other achievements, but I'm too tired to think of them at this very moment... plus, this post is getting a bit on the long side anyways.

So. I'll quit for the night. Even though I could blog ALL night long, since the electricity has been on now for 3.5 hours and counting!

It's getting hot...

You know it's hot in Jb when:

1. Your Blue Band margarine melts whilst sitting on the kitchen counter.
2. The raw sewage puddles in the middle of the road dry up.

That's all I have to say about that. Let me go and melt now.

Language Experience

We started back with our Arabic lessons again today, and had a lovely "language experience" to talk through together.

Just before the lesson, I was going home to mix up the Tang that we usually drink during our lessons, when I saw a snake cross the path behind me. Yup, a snake. He wasn't so big - maybe 2 feet long, but only 2 cm in diameter (I think). I'm not a fan of snakes, so I went to tell the guys who work on the compound that I saw a snake and where he went. So James came with me and I showed him where the snake was. He had a big stick in his hand - definitely the weapon of choice when it comes to snakes.

However, the little snake was hiding and no amount of poking and prodding in the bush would scare him out. Smart little snake!

So James left, as it was the end of the work day, and Justin, our Arabic teacher came. We started our lesson with the usual basic conversation practice. My brain is really rusty on the things we learned before, so I really need a lot of practice with just the basics again :(. Anyways, whilst we were conversing, one of Annamarie's colleagues came by to drop off her computer bag (she had been dropped at the "saloon" to get her hair done). As he walked up the pathway to our house, he was quite visibly frightened by something... it was the snake coming out of hiding!

I did not want to leave a live snake slithering around 10 feet from our front door - I've already had a snake under my bed in this country, thank you, so I asked Annamarie's colleague and Justin to kill the poor little snake. We all ran in different directions, looking for a stick with which to kill the snake. Justin found one first, and soundly beat the snake to death. He then took the body and threw it over the fence... phew, the snake was dead. Of course, afterwards, Richard asked if we had cut the head off - if you don't cut the head off, so the belief goes, a frog might come along and breath life back into the snake, thereby bringing him back to life. And somehow, I don't think you would want a resurrected snake who you had beaten to death coming back for revenge! So I'm still a little worried, since we didn't cut the snake's head off...

Anyways, after all that drama, we all went back into the house and had a good Arabic lesson about "dabiiba" and how to kill them. I also learned that people around here believe that a snake will never bite a child. And indeed, our Arabic teacher knows of plenty of adults who have been bitten and died as a result of a snake bite, but he's never known a child who has suffered from a snake bite!

Jackie was rather sad that we killed an innocent little snake... but I have to admit, in my worldview, the only good snake is a dead snake ... I fit in with the local population in that respect. They don't seem to differentiate between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes - they just kill any snake the see! I still have to learn first hand the fine art of beating a snake to death, though. Every time I tell Africans that I've seen a snake, the first thing they ask me is, "Did you kill it?", and when I reply in the negative, they always ask, "Why not?!". So one of these days, I'm just going to have to pick up a stick and kill it myself!