God's sense of humour?

(By the way, our internet has been TERRIBLE for the past few days, so I'm going to try to keep this a little short to try to use this window of working internet to post something...)

As "partners" with the gov't in education, we were invited to the Education Day celebration today. Conveniently enough, the celebration was held at the University campus, which is only about a 10 minute walk from our compound. Actually, at the moment, since all the roads to our area are closed off with huge piles of dirt, it would take about 20 minutes to drive to the University! The festivities, which was supposed to include a parade of school children, songs, dances, poems, and lots and lots of speeches by various people, was supposed to kick off at 9am. I left the compound a little before 10am, knowing that things like this usually start and hour or two late. It's a fine balance, because I hate being late for things, but at the same time, I don't like to just sit for hours in the sun, just wasting time.

Anyways, I had quite a pleasant walk, because it wasn't yet too hot (it was a bit overcast this morning!), and since the road was closed, there wasn't too much dust or traffic to navigate through. However, I arrived at the appointed spot, and the folks were still just putting up the tent. No plastic chairs in sight, which meant that the start of the festivities was a long way off.

So I wandered back home, but by then, the sun was out and it was getting pretty hot. I had one of my lovely African dresses on - they look great, but they're not really the coolest outfits in the world - heavy material, fitted a bit closely to the body. So I was quite drippy by the time I turned around and walked back. Of course, the place where the festivities were held was on the far opposite end of the University from our place, so it turned out to be more like a 15 - 20 minute walk.

But I got back to the compound, fortified myself with some cold water, followed by a cup of tea with my colleagues, did some work on my computer, and then headed out again just before noon. Of course, the conversation over tea centered around how many cows my father needed for my marriage. I set a price of 500, since that's a fairly unattainable price... at least for the folks who were asking me today.

This time, there were soldiers at the door, asking to see the id for everyone who was going in. So that was a good sign that something was happening - it meant they had the security in place for the "big guys" who would be making the speeches. So I had hope in my heart as I walked through the heat of the day to the far end of the University, sweat trickling down my back.

But alas, there were only a few people milling about. One of those milling happened to be someone that I know from the Ministry, so I went over to greet him. He told me that the festivities would begin at 3:00. He then invited me to sit with him and wait. However, I was not about to sit there for another 3 hours, waiting for the thing to begin! So off I went, back home again.

In the meantime, an email had gone out at about 11:45am which apologized for the inconvenience, but the festivities which were meant to start at 9 were now postponed until 3:30pm.

So, fortified with more water and some lunch, I had quite a long internal debate about whether I should go back or not. The main thing that was drawing me back was the fact that the person I talked with earlier in the day had told me that the Minister of Education was going to be saying something about our organization in his speech... so I figured I'd better go and see what he was saying about us this time.

But I was not too keen to walk all the way back again in the hot sun. I know a 15 minute walk doesn't sound like much... but when the sun is beating down and it's 38C and you have to walk through the dust, with the children following you and calling out, "morning, white person, good morning!", it's all just a bit much some days!

But, I didn't really have a choice - couldn't drive there, plus our truck doesn't have A/C, so it would have been just as sweaty in the truck on the way there... as I was leaving, I made a bit of a snide remark to Jackie about how someone needed to offer me a Landcruiser with A/C instead of cows for my hand in marriage...

So off I went, just after 4pm, trudging out the door. I have some Eritrean friends who have opened a little drinks shop half a block down our road, so I stopped there for a minute to say hello and get a nice cold bottle of water... and just as I was leaving the shop, a white Landcruiser with A/C pulled up beside me. Hanging out the window was someone that had been in the course I facilitated in Yay a couple of weeks ago! He saw I was "footing", so he asked where I was going... and lo and behold, he was going to the same place! So I hopped in and drove the rest of the way in the A/C!

When I got to the tents and plastic chairs which were set up for the festivities, things were just about to start... but I first had to greet someone that I know quite well in the Ministry. He's a good guy, and I've really appreciated the help he's given us in the past, so I always try to be friendly with him. Poor guy always gets stuck being the Master of Ceremonies for all these celebrations, too. I feel for him sometimes.

He ran off to do the last minute prep, and I went and found a seat, somewhere near a quick exit, in case I got too bored and wanted to leave a bit early. After a few minutes, I saw this MC fellow coming straight towards me. Sure enough, he was looking for me - turns out, the guy that was supposed to open the whole thing in prayer hadn't shown up, but they were ready to begin then and there. So he asked ME if I would open the whole thing in prayer! Good thing I didn't have a chance to think about it, or I would have gotten really nervous. But they were starting then and there, so I followed him up to the stage, he introduced me, and gave me the microphone. So there I was, opening these festivities in prayer, in front of some very big gov't officials, half the University, UNICEF and UNESCO people, NGO folks of all types... and me, praying.

Obviously, the Lord wanted me there, and even sent an air conditioned Landcruiser to get me there on time! But it's certainly not what I expected to be doing this afternoon, especially since I was debating whether or not to even go back the third time! But I must admit that it's nice to know that at least the folks in the Ministry recognize that I'm working with a "faith-based" organization, and that I am a Christian, who is open enough about my faith to pray in front of hundreds of people! It was quite the privilege to be able to lead those folks in a prayer for the education of the children of this country, and to pray for the teachers and the officials who are in charge of things, and to pray that the Lord would be glorified in the development of the education system here. So even though it was quite terrifying, it was also quite a privilege!

Another funny little bit to this story is the fact that last night, as I was praying together with my usual little group, I asked for prayer that I would be a bit more motivated in getting some more exercize and not being quite so lazy... and what do you know, I spent a good part of the day wandering back and forth to the University, and not sitting on my butt in front of the computer! I guess God's answering my prayers with a little external motivation to get things kicked off!