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!