Agri-blog

Yup, today was agricultural day on the compound.

The women who work in our guesthouse have already made use of a few spare patches of ground to grow some greens, as well as some pumpkin (which I just noticed yesterday!). Their gardens are growing so much better than any garden I've attempted in the past few years here. I've been itching to try my pumpkin experiment again, though it's with a bit of fear and trembling since the whole experiment was so disappointing last year.

But we're still a little determined. Since I've now realized that the women in the guesthouse must know where to procure some good pumpkin seeds, I'm going to ask them for some seeds tomorrow.

And Annamarie planted a little beef tomatoe plant today. Several weeks ago, a friend of ours who lives in N. Uganda came to visit, and she always comes bearing gifts of produce! In her garden, they grow these lovely big beefy tomatoes - the kind that we slice up and but on burgers at home! Which is a really nice change from the every day Roma variety that we get here. Annamarie planted some seeds from a poor little beefy tomato that didn't fare so well on the bumpy roads, and now we have little tomato seedlings growing up! They're so cute, and this morning, Annamarie moved them to a bigger tin can, to give them some extra space to grow and thrive and bear fruit.

I also planted a couple of avocado pits into the ground in front of our house. I haven't had so much luck keeping the seeds that I've stuck in a jar of water alive, so I thought I would try the direct-to-the-dirt method. My local friends here told me that they will grow like that, as long as you plant them with the right side up. So I dug a few little holes in the area in front of our house, and hopefully in few weeks, I'll start seeing some baby avocado trees sprouting up. Avocado plants/trees are really beautiful - lovely shaped leaves. So I really hope these ones grow.

But like I said, I haven't really had much success at all with gardening here. Others have gardened on this same compound with astounding success. But me, not so much. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong... but maybe, just maybe, this year will be better. I still have hope in my heart.

A different world

There used to be this TV show on called "A Different World", which I LOVED! Well, tonight, I really felt like I was in a different world! I went to visit a friend who works for a pretty posh consulting firm here. She's actually a fellow Canuck :) She lives at one of the camps near the River, but she sure isn't camping! We've had a few meals at the restaurant by the river there, but I've never been into the little bungalows that they've built on the property until tonight. And I was so impressed! For starters, these little houses are permanent structures - made out of cement and tiles, instead of pre-fabricated containers or tents. And they're really nicely designed, private little places, with a little sitting area, a big bed-room/sleeping area, a little kitchenette and a bathroom. Hot water and A/C, of course! And so tastefully decorated with kikoys made into curtains and little throw-pillows.

We ate some amazing food from the camp's buffet (BBQ pork chops, if you can believe!), some pizza, and some brown bread with cheese. Really an amazing meal, though a bit hodge-podge (what else can you expect when you're riding off the coat tails of someone's buffet privileges - though in our defence, she said her company pays for 21 meals a week for her, and she only eats 5 or 6, so she didn't feel bad about adding an extra pork chop onto her plate tonight!).

As we munched, we watched "Confessions of a Shopoholic" - the bootleg version ('cause that's all you can get around here!). It was really a very funny movie, and even funnier because people in the theater where the movie was being recorded kept standing up and walking in front of the camera! Gotta love the boot-legs!

But it really was like stepping into a whole different world this evening - one where things are clean and stay that way because you live indoors, one where you actually close the windows and doors and you don't hear everything that's happening outside (It was so quiet in that little cabin!), and one where you actually can sleep under a duvet because you can turn the A/C on the whole night and not even think about who's paying for it!

Such is the life of the "other half" in Jb! But my friend has invited me back anytime, especially if I want to come and enjoy her satellite TV sometime! I'm thinking that satellite tv and some A/C sounds like an amazing way to relax once in a while!

Finalement!

Our tailor has been away for quite some time. But finally, he has returned! So Annamarie and Jackie and I went to collect our lovely new things.

I got a fun new dress made. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - it might become the "new mumu", as it's really comfortable with its loose swirly skirt, yet still has a very feminine and fun sort of style to it.



Cute, eh? Perfect length for me here - covers my knees, but isn't long enough to make me look like a complete missionary.

I also got a housecoat/robe made from some fabric that was given to me as a gift. The yellow background, plus the big splotchy pattern isn't really my taste, and makes me look a bit sickly, so I thought I could just get a robe made from it. It will help keep me decent when I'm running around the house in the mornings, or when someone calls me out of my bed to ask me a question. And it doesn't matter if I look sickly in my housecoat! Here I am modelling it on top of my beautiful dress.


Ah, vanity, vanity. But it's really quite a lot of fun to buy fabrics, to decide on different dress designs and to wear something a little more exciting than a t-shirt and a long missionary skirt (though, um, er, that's what I was wearing today before going to the tailor - at least I had my fancy beads on which impressed everyone. Impressed everyone so much that one of the workshop participants told me, "Ah, now you are ready for marriage...")

Finally, a couple of photos

Just for you visually oriented readers... I actually took out my camera during this evening's festivities! So instead of writing a bunch, I'll post a few photos. For the past month, we've had Eileen back here in Jb working with us. She lived with us on the compound for almost a year before she moved to Australia to work with the "diaspora" language projects there. But she comes back to us about twice a year and helps us so much with some of the technical linguistic stuff, as well as some translation checking etc. And she's just a hoot to have around - such a dry witty humour, it often takes a few seconds to catch on to her jokes, but they're so hilarious when you actually "get" them :)

Anyways, to celebrate Eileen, we went out for a Chinese feast, followed by a nice macchiato. We had sweet and sour chicken, cashew chicken, sizzling beef and a huge pile of noodles. So tasty. I love this particular restaurant because it used to be a house, so there are separate rooms where you can go and sit. Each of the rooms has a lovely A/C, so it's nice and cool. And I found out this evening when I went to go for a "short call", there was a bathroom right off the room in which we were sitting! There was a toilet, with a seat, with running water! Will wonders never cease...

I forgot to take a photo with all the food (I was too busy stuffing my face), but I got a photo of the satisfied diners afterwards:

Here is the lovely light that we dined under. It's actually pretty cool because it changes colours - from red to green to blue, and all shades in between!

I think it might be what one might call, "tacky"... or, perhaps more euphemistically, "kitsch".

Following the dinner (and a wonderful trip to the loo!), we went to visit my Eritrean buddies at the "International restaurant", where they serve lovely macchiatos (as long as the power or generator is on!). Since there's a huge football (um, I mean, soccer) match (game) on tonight (Man United vs. Barcelona in some Champions League), the inside was jam-packed with people watching the match (game) on satellite tv. So we moved out to the little verandah to drink our coffee. I wanted to take a few photos, but sitting on the side of the road in the evening with a bunch of white folks and flashing your camera everywhere is a good way to draw attention to onesself. So I turned the flash off and got some rather "artistic" photos of the experience :) Here's one of Jackie about to indulge in a macchiato.


(oh, someone must have scored - the whole town just went up in a roar!)

Now I must run along and check out the score on the internet or something because this is going to be the hot topic of conversation tomorrow in our Arabic lesson - our teacher is quite a football (soccer) fan!

A holiday!

You know you've been in a place for a while when you start marking holidays by reminiscing about what you did last year, or even the year before, on the same holiday. Somehow, it makes a place feel a bit like home to have these memories... especially when there are still people around who share the memories of what happened last year on this day!

So yes, today was a holiday, and it took a little while, but Annamarie and I finally remembered what we did on this day last year. Today's holiday wasn't spectacularly memorable - though maybe that's a good thing! I worked from my verandah for most of the morning (it's so nice to be able to sit with my laptop on my lap, put my feet up and sip some coffee whilst answering emails and doing my normal work)! Then I put some order to the computer container - it was a real mess since getting its floor repaired a few weeks ago. I'm generally a very untidy person - unless it involves work stuff. I want my computer stuff to be tidy and all the boxes of extra bits to be all lined up. So I went in there armed with a bucket of water, some rags, my broom... and I put order to the place again, shifting boxes of equipment around etc. And it feels so much more relaxed in there with everything in it's place!

Anyways, after my little mini-clean-a-thon, I went with Annamarie and two other friends to a little cafe, where we were looking forward to a bit of soft serve ice cream and a little macchiato! What a treat it was going to be... there are only a couple of places in town where you can sometimes get ice cream... and this is one of them. Except that they didn't have any electricity. So no ice cream. And no macchiato. We could have had tea or nescafe, though. Or a cold-ish soda. So we sat outside on their little patio and drank Cokes. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should have taken a photo or two to show how we celebrated this holiday! Coke with a couple of friends - actually, it was very good company, and good conversation, so it was a good way to relax! Next time I'll take a photo or two, though, as I realize this blog is getting rather text-heavy. Sorry 'bout that.

I won't tell you what holiday it was today, lest it reveal my top secret location to ya'll. But it's a pretty big deal for this part of the country, so much so that most of the shops were closed today, too. So I couldn't even do my guesthouse manager duties and buy more milk, sugar and nescafe for the guesthouse! I guess I'll have to go out again tomorrow :(

A lovely Sunday

You may or may not be interested to know that the person who was trying to leave yesterday was actually able to leave this morning! So everyone who was supposed to leave this weekend has now left. So it really is possible to leave this place, if you're really determined!

So that was a good start to a Sunday. I had an even better start, since someone else drove her to the airport and i got to sleep in a little :) Actually, I slept in quite a lot. It was cool enough to actually stay in bed until about 10am! SO nice. It was a beautiful cloudy morning!

After listening to a sermon from my home church (though my friends, if you're reading this, you need to upload some more sermons - I listened to the most recent one today, and it was from Easter Sunday!), I headed out for lunch with some friends. We feasted on Lebanese food - so nice. Lots of meat. I've been feeling a bit meat deprived lately - a little "flat", so maybe it's a bit of a lack of iron? We don't get much in the way of iron here, so I really feasted on some grilled meat today. Yum yum. And of course, it was just nice to spend some time with friends that I haven't seen in a while, as well as meet a new folk who is going to be around for a while.

A quick stop at the road-side market to buy the basics for the week - tomatoes, green peppers, bananas and pineapple, plus a stop at the Eritrean bakery where the guy talks my ear off in Tigrinya as soon as I say my few little words, and it was back home again.

Once at home, I had a relaxing time reading a bit, listening to a bit of music, before it was time to bundle back into the car and head off to our Bible study group/church thing. I love that group - it's really one of the highlights of my week. And it's even better now that I don't have to host it at our compound every week - that was becoming a lot of work! We just started doing a new study tonight on the book of Daniel, and I think it's going to be good. Quite applicable to our situation here, I think.

After our little church/fellowship was through, we stopped off at my favorite Ethiopian cafe for some fresh juice and a samosa for dinner (yum, more meat!). When I'm in that place, I feel like I"m back in Addis Ababa - the smell of the espresso, the sound of people speaking Amharic, the music, the pastries... it's really amazing. By Jb standards, it's relatively inexpensive. But it's still at least 10 times the price that the same things would be in Addis! Anyways, once again, it was a nice time to sit and chat with some friends and have a light supper, without having to cook anything at home. The juices are amazing - they make freshly squeezed juice from pineapples and avocados! The only place in Juba I know that makes fresh juice like that.

And now, I've just scrubbed myself with a nice exfoliate made from apricot shells, so the sweat and grime has been washed away. When we've been driving around in the dusty roads all day, I just get filthy (no A/C at 35C+ temps with 70% humidity means you have to keep the windows open and still become a pool of sweat!). The sweat trickles down your brow and the dust sticks to the sweat. So at the end of the day, I end up with a bit of ground in grime. Hence the necessity of a bit of apricot stone scrubbing once in a while!

Now, my belly is full, I've been encouraged by dear friends and some reading of the Word, my skin is clean and cool, and I have a soft bed to fall into, refreshed and ready to face yet another week!

Trying to leave...

Not me. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon! But we had two people who were trying to leave here to go back to their respective places. So far, only one has made it out! One was supposed to check in around 9:30am this morning, so we took her to the airport... and brought her back again. Her flight was delayed by several hours, so after she got all checked in and handed over her luggage, she came back to the compound! Since the bathrooms at that airport are nothing to brag about, nor is there anything that even resembles a "food court", it's not such a nice place to sit for several hours while you wait for a delayed plane!

Anyway, it just so happened that she had to go back to the airport just about the time that our second traveller needed to check-in. So off we went to the airport again. This time, traveller one was able to just walk right in through the security section and go and wait for her plane. Traveller two had no problems checking in and getting her luggage through "security" (where they peek into a corner of your bag!). And she went through the security to go and sit in the "departures" lounge (I must say, I miss the days when you could just sit in the departures area with your departing people!). Anyways, she went in and got frisked by the woman (ain't no electronic scanning equipment here!), and I departed.

A couple of hours later, I got a phone call. Her plane was cancelled, so could I please come and pick her up from the airport! By this time, it was after 4pm, and planes can't land in this airport when it's approaching dusk - there are no lights on the runway! So they will try to leave again tomorrow morning, first thing.

So we were 1 for 2 today in the leaving department!

I also went to a fun little shindig tonight. It wasn't at all my usual crowd - this was the UN crowd. Some folks that I know from our work with the Ministry of Education are leaving, so we got invited to their farewell. And it was quite nice. There's always a bit of awkward small talk with the occassional unknown person (and everyone there was unknown to me!), but I soon ended up talking to a really interesting woman who has lived all over before settling back here, where her parents are from, though she hasn't really lived here. She's also married to an American. So it was really interesting to talk to her about languages and culture, and growing up in a third culture, and cross-cultural marriages etc. She was really easy to talk to and really has had a fascinating life!

However, Jackie and I don't like being out late, so we were some of the first to leave - people were still just coming in the gate as we were leaving! Does that mean I'm getting old, or what?!

Adventures in Eating

Well, ok, it's not really adventure-some, but I've had some pretty good meals this week! Tonight, with our Ethiopian food, we were served iceburg lettuce! Yup, that's right. Real lettuce! It was so cool and crunchy and wonderful. I can't remember the last time I had salad made with real lettuce. Normally, salads here consist of tomatoes, green peppers, onions and a bit of cabbage for the "leaf".

I also had a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese for dinner a few days ago! Amazing stuff, that mac 'n cheese! I found a couple of boxes of it in this little shop in Entebbe when I was there last month, so I scooped them up, and brought them here with me. And wow, it was worth it. It's the cheeziest, man. True comfort food.

And those were my adventures in eating this week.

The rest of the week I just ate the staples around here - stew made from green leaves and peanut sauce over sweet potatoes, stew made from a different green leaf made with tomatoes and served over rice, beans and rice, beef stew and rice, chicken and chips, and garlic bread! Thankfully, the woman who's cooking for our workshop hasn't been able to find any whole fishes in the market yet this week :) So I've been safe... but Zane is really missing his fish heads, poor little guy. I think he got in a fight again last night, and seemed a bit "hung over" all day from it. I examined him, though, and it seemed his ego was hurt more than his actual body! He's gone out again tonight... so we'll see if he can keep himself out of trouble!

Puzzling part 2... and a half

So I started blogging yesterday to work out some of what I had been puzzling about... and I had quite a post started. Then I got interrupted. Then the internet went down because of an incredible rain storm last night. So. It didn't get posted. In fact, it didn't even get saved. And now it's nearing midnight again, and I just don't quite have the energy to write anything more than a bit of fluff :( Sorry.

I'm still puzzling a bit about this whole thing between comfort and suffering and what we're meant to do. One of the translators here is taking an online theology course, and one of his assignments this week was to list 10 ethical dilemmas that Christians face today and then to write a bit of a discussion of those dilemmas. This translator usually brings his assignment questions to me to clarify some of the English, and to make sure that he's on the right track about the answers. So today we had a short little question about what are ethical dilemmas. And this whole issue that's come up about my personal comfort and Christ's suffering was forefront in my mind. I think it is a bit of an ethical dilemma here - how much of the resources that God has blessed me with should I use for my own personal comfort when my Christian brothers and sisters here have so little? Should I go out and spend $6 on chicken and chips for lunch when my friends can't even send their children to school because they can't afford to buy them a uniform? Should we pay for the generator to be run for several hours every day so I can be cool in front of a fan when my neighbors live in mud huts and hardly have enough money to buy charcoal to boil their water for tea?

I don't know. It's a bit of an ethical dilemma. It's one that I've thought about a lot over the past few years living in places like this. And the conversation I had with an expat colleague here the other day made me realize that some people have some very different views than I do on this whole issue!

I'm still puzzling over it, and I think I probably will for a very long time. In fact, I HOPE I puzzle over it for a long time, because I don't want to become callous or insensitive to the situations of the people around me. I don't want to live in a comfortable little bubble that's all about me! And yet, I know that I simply would not be able to live here long term without some things that I have grown accustomed to. So it's all about finding the right balance, and trusting that the Lord will give me peace about how he wants me to use his resources for the glory of His kingdom... but unfortunately, that's one of those things that's easier said than done!

Puzzling

I'm puzzling over something in my mind today, precipitated by a conversation I had earlier. I started a post about it, but I realized as I was typing that I'm really not doing justice to the issue at hand. So I'll leave it for tonight, and hopefully find some "space" to write it out properly tomorrow. It's an issue I'd like some of your input on... so watch this space :)

But for now, I'm feeling rather warm, and it's time to go to sleep!

A tough decision

Tonight, I have a decision to make. I can blog. Or I can watch an episode of the West Wing (I'm only on Season 3, so please don't give anything away!).

Since all I did was run around the compound giving out money and making sure everything was running smoothly today, I don't have much to blog about! I didn't step foot outside of the compound today (though that doesn't always necessarily mean I had a boring or non-adventurous day!). But today, it just means that I had a pretty mundane "manager" sort of day. I had a few projects on the go that I was "managing" - a new floor in one of the offices where all our computer equipment is kept, laundry, lunch and tea, finances for a staff member who is moving house, some email discussions on some computer software, logistical supplies for the workshop (ie, procurement of white board markers, erasers, masking tape etc.)... so in the midst of all those little projects, I probably walked a few kilometers back and forth on the compound, and I couldn't get into any projects other than clearing out some emails in my inbox.

Really, a very un-bloggable day. So I think I'll go and watch an episode of the West Wing :)

A milestone

Today we defrosted the freezer for the first time ever! Yup, we got our refrigerator/freezer when we moved in here two years ago, and haven't ever defrosted it before! So today was the day. And man, we found quite a few goodies hidden in that little freezer! I didn't realize I had such a stash of Milka chocolate! I guess we'd better eat up! It felt like such a "normal" thing to do today - defrosting the freezer. I guess I really am "at home" in Jb!

I also spent quite a lot of time just running around and taking care of things today. The guesthouse manager is away for her holiday, but we have a bit workshop starting tomorrow. I hope to be able to sit and listen in on some of the sessions for the workshop, as it's on Scripture Use - a topic I don't know too much about, but obviously overlaps a bit with translation and literacy work!

I've stepped into the role of "interim" guesthouse manager, though, and it's a bit of a thing. For instance, two extra people who weren't on the list showed up needing a place to stay. So I packed them into the guesthouse, and hopefully no more extras will show up! I also had to quickly do some laundry this morning, because there weren't enough clean sheets and towels for everyone who was meant to stay in the guesthouse.

I also did an airport run this morning - dropping a few folks off and bringing back a few folks. It was one of the easiest, least chaotic airport runs I've ever done, I think! The main road that we use is even open at the moment, so it wasn't too crazy of a drive.

Annamarie and I also went on a trip to the tailor - we haven't been in several weeks! Annamarie has a really cute little dress which I've wanted to get copied for a while now. It's kind of a 60's type dress - fitted bodice with a cute flirty sort of flare skirt. We watched "The Secret Life of Bees" on Friday night, and I was so inspired by all the cute little dresses that they all wore back then. And this dress of Annamaries just fits that style... but in a nice summer dress sort of way. So yesterday in the market, I got some fun material, and today I took it to the tailor. It's going to take longer than usual because the tailor needs to get a new part for his sewing machine from Kampala... but hopefully that will come soon. I was quite impressed because I was carrying on quite the conversation in Arabic with our deaf tailor :)

I'm also getting him to make me a sort of a house-coat/robe. It's only a matter of time before the towel that I usually run around in falls off... so I thought it would probably be good to get a robe made before that happens! At one of the courses I facilitated a few months ago, I got a gift of some fabric, so I'll use that. It's quite a nice fabric, but is a yellow background... and I usually look a bit dead in pale yellow. So I think a housecoat will be a great use of that piece of material. Probably there will be enough left to make a skirt, as well. Have I mentioned how much I love fabric and going to the tailor? My stylists will be happy to know that I'm wearing my mumus less and less and even am growing out of wearing a t-shirt every day. I'm almost starting to look "smart" on normal office days! I still don't do matching shoes with all the outfits... but maybe that's still to come?!

There have been a few other bloggable quotes today, as we have a few visitors from elsewhere here this weekend. It's really quite a lot of fun to see people's reactions to this place sometimes. It helps me see things that have become so 'normal' through different eyes again, so I realize that certain things around here really aren't that 'normal'. I was talking to a new friend tonight who has been here for only a couple of weeks. She asked me how long I've been here, and when I told her that I've been here for 2 1/2 years, she said, "That explains why you seem so comfortable here". And that little comment made me realize that, yeah, I guess I DO feel pretty comfortable here. It is home. For all it's quirks and idiosyncrasies and frustrations and challenges... it is home. And I do feel comfortable here. And it kind of surprised me that the realization of that surprised me.

Rain

I don't really have much to say today, and I really should go to sleep soon, since I was up until 4am yesterday. There was a bit of a party yesterday just on the other side of our fence. Well, ok, it wasn't a "party" exactly, but it was "prayers" for a funeral of some sort. Except that when people here have "prayers", it's not a real solemn quiet affair in the middle of the afternoon. Nope. Preparations begin in the afternoon, with the set up of a big tent (like a marquee tent - is that the right word?), tons of plastic lawn chairs and several big speakers. I mean BIG speakers. Of course, you set all of this up in the middle of the road.

From about 9pm, you will start testing out the sound system with the electric keyboard and microphones and speakers. Did I mention that you need some big speakers? You also need to make sure that the speakers are pointed directly at your neighbor's compound, just in case they don't hear you clearly.

Then, when your guests start arriving at about midnight, you start to crank up the volume. As loud as it goes. Actually, maybe you don't need to crank the volume - I think the things just come with one volume setting - as loud as it could possibly be.

Once your guests have arrived, you proceed to shout into the microphone repeated "hallelujahs", and sing and sing and sing many many many songs. But because the speakers are pointed directly at your neighbor's house, you will not be able to hear yourself - so it's not necessary to sing in tune or even to keep time with the "canned" drum beat of the electric keyboard.

You can play some "worship" songs, but also some secular songs with a good dance beat, just in case people start to nod off around 2am. The important thing is to just keep shouting into the microphone and keep the music cranked because you wouldn't want your guests (or your neighbors) to sleep until the sun starts lighting the horizon, around 6:30am. Most importantly, as soon as you see someone start to nod off, you must shout "hallelujah" into the microphone. You really don't want them to sleep, after all. Because keeping them awake all night is surely a good way to convert your neighbors. Even those neighbors who are already Christians will begin to convert to a different religion because they don't feel so charitable towards you at 3:30am when all they want to do is sleep, but they can't because their bed is vibrating from your speakers (did I mention that you have to have some big speakers?).

At least tonight all the parties are a little farther afield, rather than 20 feet from my bedroom (keep in mind we don't have class windows - I live in a screened in house only, so I hear everything that goes on out there!).

At the moment, I can hear about 3 different types of music wafting through the night from three different celebrations somewhere. Someone was playing the usual Celine Dion, followed by her co-patriot Shania. Someone else is playing some "traditional" East African pop, while someone else is playing something that sounds a bit like a hip-hop dance something or other. None of it goes very well with each other, and they've all cranked it up even louder than usual so they can be heard over each other.

I think I'll put my MP3 player on to BBC and let the Brits drown it all out - at least that way I'll be lulled to sleep...

Precisely 9 minutes...

... before the generator goes out and plunges me into darkness once again. Just me and my computer. I've been sitting here for the last few minutes with my computer, musing about the fact that perhaps I need a hobby. Or perhaps I need to stop living vicariously through other people's blogs who keep going on fabulous holidays to resorts. Or perhaps I need to stop reading Hello! magazine. Maybe I just need more exercize.

I don't know, but whatever it is, I've had a few moments here where I've been feeling that perhaps I just need something... don't worry about me, I mean, this feeling has lasted an entire... let me see... 14 minutes so far. And my personality type is such that I have a really short attention span, so I'm sure that by the time the lights go out in exactly 7 minutes, I will have gotten over myself and I will feel quite happy with my computer, the episode of the West Wing I'm planning to watch tonight, and a good night's sleep.

However, it is also still over 30C in my bedroom at 10:21pm, and when the gene goes off... so does the fan. So it might be a rather warm night tonight. As Jackie said, "I won't need my track suit tonight".

Anyways, I had quite an encouraging visit to the Catholic sister's bookshop this afternoon. They have been selling a book that my organization produced some time ago on how to learn the local language here. And people have really been buying it. When I went to go and pick up the money, the Sister there asked me what other books we have in our organization, so I told her about the mother tongue Bible portions that we have, as well as some of the literacy and development books that we produce in the mother tongues of the people.

She was so interested and wanted to come see our book shop... but of course, we don't have a bookshop. So she offered us a little corner in their bookshop to sell some of our books! What an amazing offer! So we have to sit down and work out details etc., but it's so exciting and encouraging that other people are interested in helping to get people reading in their own languages! And it really came quite out of nowhere, actually. So I'm very encouraged by this little step... who knows how it will all actually work out, but at least the possibility is there :)

See, I've forgotten that I need a hobby already! Only 3 minutes left... I'd better go find my headlamp.

Adventure on my doorstep...

I had such a typical little walk today. Why do things always happen when I walk to the corner for something simple?! We had a lot of people around from various corners of the country today, so we all walked around the corner to grab a bite to eat. I love that place - the waitress there is so friendly and always greets me with such a nice smile. It's starting to feel quite like home. And when a waitress likes you... well, you can order basically anything you want :)

Anyways, after lunch, since I had invited some people over for dinner, I thought I had better get some ingredients! We don't keep much stock in the house, and it's tough to keep fruits and veg fresh, so we end up buying things basically when we need them. Believe me, when you don't have a Safeway or Superstore around the corner, it's really the only way to do it! So Richard decided to just walk the extra half block with me from the restaurant to the main road whilest the rest of the crew went home.

I'm so glad that he came with me. As soon as we got to the corner, some drunk guy came right up to me and asked me, "Why are you so beautiful?". I didn't really have a good answer to that question. Hoever, he was headed directly for me, so I quickly ducked behind Richard; you never quite know what a drunk man in uniform is going to do in a situation like that. Turns out, he knew Richard! So Richard took his hand and kept the guy away from me while I bought some bananas from the woman sitting at her little banana stand.

As soon as I was finished my buying, Richard deftly put himself between me and the drunk guy again, and we crossed to the other side of the road where the women were sitting in the shade selling tomatoes. After buying my tomatoes, we continued up the main road for half a block, to get back to the other road that goes to our compound. On the way, we passed the bus cum garbage truck, picking up some trash from the Ethiopian restaurant (which, of course, doesn't actually have any food - they only serve beer and other assorted beverages!). I may have blogged about this bus/garbage truck before. But I've never seen it on my street, and I've never seen it close up before. Richard took a couple of photos on his phone of the thing, but I didn't get the photos from him yet. Hopefully tomorrow...

I love the fact that they took the very same bus that I travelled on before, blocked up the windows, cut a big hole in the back, and now it drives around town picking up garbage. Love it.

As soon as we got past the garbage truck, we had to climb over a bit of a cliff in the middle of the road. A few months ago, they started doing some road-works on our main road. Because the President drives down our road to get to his church each week, they are actually in the process of paving our road! However, the company that was doing the paving had some sort of problem with something, and they actually stopped working for a few months. So we were bouncing over a half-finished road for the last several weeks! Now they're finally working on it again. However, that means there's this big cliff smack dab in the middle of the road, and no one seems to know if it's two way traffic or one way, or which side of this cliff is actually the suitable one for driving on.

So just as we got past the garbage truck and I stopped squealing about that, a pick-up truck came along and wanted to go around to the other lane... up and over the cliff, trying to come back down again on the other side. Except that he sorta got himself hung up. Pick-ups are rear-wheel drive, and his back right tire was just spinning free and clear up in the air, while his other tire just kept sinking further and further into the mud as he tried to spin his way out of his little predicament!

Richard went to try to give the guy some help... but it didn't work. They were trying to get the truck into 4WD, but there was some problem with it, it seems. In the meantime, a little herd of cows with their giant horns came rambling by. I think Richard wanted to make sure I didn't get trampled by any stampeding cows (especially since their shepherd was probably from his own tribe!), so he quickly abandoned his quest to get this pick-up unstuck, and came to make sure I didn't get trampled by the cows.

With a quick wave and a "dehaando?" called out to the Eritreans who own the little soda shop halfway up our street, we ended up making it back to our compound with no further incidences!

Now keep in mind, all of this happened within the space of about 10 minutes, within two blocks of our compound! Life truly is an adventure when you live here.

This seems like an appropriate time to share Jackie's new law of Physics that she's discovered (Jackie was actually working as a physicist before joining our organization!). It only applies in Jb. The rule revolves around spontaneous breakage of just about anything that can be broken! From tea cups in the kitchen cupboard to zippers on my shirts, something that could have been "whole" when you put it in its place, can somehow spontaneously destruct by sitting on the shelf or in the closet. It seems that the rule applies most strongly to those things that are not available locally!

I think someone needs to come and do a study on this new law of physics!

Gotta love dinner meetings!

I'm not feeling up to snuff tonight, but I am alive, and I'm appreciating the fact that our internet is working this evening. We had quite the rain storm this afternoon, which means that our satellite internet switches off :( So I was missing our internet all afternoon! I think I got less work done without the distraction of the internet than I do when I can switch my brain off once in a while and let some thoughts simmer while I check BBC or facebook!

I did have a bit of excitement this morning, though. I managed to get a letter signed by someone in the Ministry of Education that I needed signed! Whoo hoo! That was a real achievement. And the man who entered into negotiations with my colleague in the Ministry for my hand in marriage last week upped his offer for me today, too. And all that even though I was dressed like a missionary today. Huh, go figure.

This evening I had a dinner meeting, so I didn't get home until relatively late (like 9pm!). I must admit, having a meeting over dinner is really the way to go - especially if the folks you're meeting with are hosting the thing. So while you stuff yourself with hummous (though the Lebanese restaurant we went to ran out of hummous!!!), you can get down to business. A very civilized way to do things, if I do say so myself. "Business" dinners and lunches obviously don't happen very often in my world!

The whole foot thing

By the way, I think God is trying to tell me something. Since I posted yesterday about the pedicurist and the amazing humility that it would take to wash someone's stinky, sweaty, dirty feet here, the whole thing about the foot washing has come up in a couple of other places. Yesterday evening, I was flipping through an old Oprah magazine that we have laying around (it's a year old now, so I've forgotten everything that I read in it when I brought it back with me from Canada last year!), and there was an article about, what else, but a woman who went to a foot washing service in her church in the States somewhere. And then, this morning, since we had electricity, I went online to listen to a sermon from my home church. And what was the topic of the one that popped up first - you guessed it. The whole foot washing thing!

It struck me from these two other sources how intimate the whole foot washing thing is. I mean, it's easy to take the "lesson" from the whole foot washing thing as being the fact that we should humbly do acts of service for those around us. That we should be servant leaders. That we should not be afraid to get down on our hands and knees and do the dirty work.

But it's more than that, too. It is a very intimate thing to wash someone's feet. I mean, most of us don't really feel comfortable with strangers touching our feet, or touching a stranger's feet (ok, unless it's a professional pedicurist, and I've only had three pedicures in my whole life, but it does take a bit of getting used to to have a woman washing and scrubbing and getting all the toe jam out of all the knooks and crannies of your toes).

So I was quite convicted today of the fact that in order to serve people, I don't just have to give them some money for their school fees, or give them a ride to the airport or bring them a cup of tea once in a while. No, it's more than that. It means getting down and getting to know someone. It means getting to know them so well that I know that their first toe is longer than their big toe, or that they lost their baby toe nail in a childhood accident... or whatever it is. "Washing someone's feet" is uncomfortable, and it's intimate (not in a sexual sense, of course, but in a way that you have to get to know someone, and be willing and able to be known by them, as well).

It means that I need to be able to get up at 5:30am when someone feels sick and just needs an ear to listen, without complaining about it! It means that I need to be able to sit and listen and take the time to talk when someone asks for help. It means that I need to be interested enough in people's lives to ask questions and take the time to listen to the answers and think of creative ways to serve them - not just do whatever's most convenient or quickest. It also means that I need to be known, as well, and to let people serve me, when I need it, and be open to that reciprocol sort of relationship that results between the washer and the wash-ee.

It ain't easy, but I think God's trying to tell me something this week! And I'm reminded of it every time I look down at my beautiful pink toe-nails... which I washed and scrubbed and painted myself...

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to let everyone who reads my blog know how great my mom is, since it's Mother's Day today. My mom rocks, even though I don't get to see her all that often, she's really a great mom. I also have a sister who is an amazing mom. She mothers her little tribe of growing boys in astounding ways. I know I couldn't do what she does every day! She's also truly amazing. So I'm thanking God for them both today. Make sure you go and tell the moms in your life how much you appreciate them.

Pedicure, anyone?

I had to take a quick walk to the street corner this afternoon to buy some more phone credit. On the way there, I saw something that actually made me do a double-take. Right in front of the gate to my favourite neighbourhood restaurant, there was a man sitting in a plastic patio chair. The fact that the man was sitting in a plastic chair in and of itself wasn't odd - those plastic patio chairs are used for everything here - from actual outdoor furniture to living room furniture to restaurant furniture to office furniture and everything in between. But the fact that there was another man kneeling down at his feet giving him a pedicure was odd.

Yup, that's right. They were sitting on the street corner, and the pedicure man had his little basin full of creams and lotions and potions and all sorts of pedicure implements, and he was busy scrubbing away at this other guy's foot with some sort of pumice! The pedicur-ee was sitting on his plastic chair in the shade, enjoying a cup of tea!

Apparently, in some of the neighbouring countries, it's quite common for the pedicurist to wander around town, toting his equipment with him, and stopping folks on the street to sit down and have a bit of a scrub and some toe nail shaping. But I've never seen it before, and I certainly have never seen it here in Jb.

But considering the guy didn't seem to actually have any water or soap or anything else with him, I was feeling pretty bad for the pedicurist. I mean, seriously, feet here are absolutely disgusting! And I do mean disgusting. Remember, we don't have a sewage system. We don't have garbage men who collect the garbage. We don't have paved roads. And it's usually hovering around 37 - 40C. So considering the amount of crap (literally) that you walk around in all day, sweating buckets. Phew. You wouldn't get me touching someone's feet with a 10 foot pole! It's bad enough that I have to wash my own stinky feet!

And yet, I have a feeling that this is kinda what Jerusalem was like in Jesus' day, too. And there was an awful lot of foot-washing going on in Jesus' day - his feet were washed with costly perfume, and then he himself got down on the ground and washed his disciple's feet. Honestly, the humility and servant-hood that those acts took have never really meant much to me until I moved to Africa and saw just how disgustingly dirty people's feet can actually be!

Gastronomy

Man, I've been eating well this week, thanks to Richard!

Last weekend, Richard got it into his head to bake some cookies for us! You've gotta love a man who can go from fixing the car and building a house to baking cookies! I made quite a contribution to these cookies, as well - I stuck the cloves into the tops of them.

He made so many cookies, so we've been eating them all week with our afternoon tea. They're so deliciously light and flaky and, get this, BUTTERY! Yup, Richard even brought the butter from the city up North in order to make these delicious treats for us! The last time I had butter was when I was on the plane on the way here - I licked out that little butter pat, I tell you.

And then yesterday, we had a pizza feast! Richard made us some wonderful pizza - we even managed to find some mozzarella cheese at the "supermarket" downtown! Amazing stuff, I tell you. This town has changed so much since we first got here. We imported the salami (from Nairobi with Annamarie) and the pepperoni (from a visitor who came from the US), but the fact that you can buy mozzarella cheese sometimes... wow. Really, things have changed. Obviously, you pay quite the price for it. But it's worth it once in a while, if you're going to make pizza! I meant to take a picture of the beautiful pie when it came out of the oven. But alas, I forgot. So here are the leftovers, of which I ate from for lunch today:

And counting in the amazing pot of lentils I made the other night... it's not a wonder that I'm feeling rather, well, rotund this evening :(

Domesticity

I think I'm finally being domesticated! I have a pot of lentils stewing on the stove in preparation for lunch tomorrow! I'm actually planning ahead with my food, instead of running to the corner restaurant for lunch at 1pm! But that corner restaurant sure has been good for us here. So far, I've eaten there 4 times this week. But when you consider that it costs me $2.50 for a handful of small tomatoes, $1 for six small bread rolls, $2.50 for a couple of bananas... paying $3 for a whole bowl of beef stew, two pieces of local flatbread and a little side of cooked greens (kinda like a kale sauce), I don't think it's such a bad deal! I'm just waiting for the prices to shoot up there, though, as prices are going up everywhere.

I'm sure my lentils will be tasty tomorrow, I hope. I'm not really all that practiced at cooking lentils, as they take a bit of planning ahead. But they sure do smell good on the stove at the moment! I've got a meeting planned at the Ministry of Education tomorrow morning, just before lunch, so I'll pick up a couple of chapatis (like greasy tortillas) to eat with my lentils, and it will be a perfect lunch (I hope!).

Part of my "domestic" duties today included serving cold water and sodas to the guys who were lifting up our new water tower today! I also had to do a bit of first aid when one of them stepped on a nail. Since I wasn't much use in the muscle department, I thought I should make myself useful in the role more traditionally expected of women!

It was quite the feat of engineering this morning, I tell you. I don't know if I mentioned before, but for the past several weeks we've had the water tower sitting across the pathway to our house. It was quite the jungle gym to climb through in order to get to our front door!

Richard had been hoping for the past several days that our friend who has a crane would stop by for a visit... but he's no where to be found. So, Richard put on his thinking cap and figured out a way to get this tower raised using some good engineering and a lot of brute strength!

First, the tower had to be swung around so that the top of the tower would actually be the top of the tower once it was lifted.

Then it had to be placed exactly in the right place so the "feet" would land on the metal bits which were poured into the concrete foundation.

Here's part of the work force (those formerly known as "Bible translators") examining the target for the tower. Notice how close the concrete foundation is the house? It's also only about 10 feet away from our front door!

So as sun started scorching the land, the troops gathered (in all there were 16 guys out there). The first task was to lift the tower and swing it around into a good lifting position - one that would allow it to be lifted straight into position, without hitting any power lines or roofs or trees.

It took about an hour of shimmying and shuffling the thing to get it into a good position for the lifting. The only casualty was part of our beautiful frangipani tree which shades our front door. It sheared off quite a large section, but those bits got happily replanted in other sections of the compound, so they will hopefully continue to live a long and prosperous life (apparently, with frangipanis, you can just plant a section of the branch in the ground, and they'll start growing again!).

I was hovering around the whole operation this morning, taking pictures and just being amazed at how a bunch of guys can move a really heavy, awkward structure! Some companies pay thousands of dollars for their staff to go together to |team building" retreats - we just give our team an impossibly heavy, large object to move, and voila - team building exercizes! Another good reason for me to just hover on the edges of this team building exercize was the fact that it was mostly happening in the local Arabic. And if things started to go wrong, or the balance of the structure got off or something, there was suddenly a flurry of instructions called out in Arabic. Had I been in the middle of some of that without actually understanding the instructions... well, someone could have gotten seriously hurt!

Here's a few more pictures of how they ended up lifting the tower into place:












And of course, I forgot to take a photo of it all once it was completely done! But it all landed exactly in the spot where it was supposed to, and ended up being absolutely and completely level, which even Richard was surprised at! Thanks to the guys on the roof of the house with ropes, the guys in the front and in the back and on either side with ropes to steady it while the others pushed the structure up with big metal poles, the tower raising went off without a hitch! I'm still amazed at how they did it, and how they all worked together to get it done!

I missed a few of the key moments, as I was off getting cold sodas for everyone and nursing Adelino's foot. And man, was it ever hot today. Those poor guys were sweating buckets - I was sweating and all I was doing was standing there and watching! So I also had to do the rounds with the cold water a few times, which they all seemed to appreciate!

Anyways, now that the water tower is up, I'm looking forward to climbing up and checking out the view! We have another water tower, which has been up for ages - but it's been up for ages, and the ladder is really quite a frightening thing. So I haven't climbed up that one. But I've seen the ladder to this new tower being welded on, and it's a whole lot sturdier than the old one, so I am looking forward to climbing up there one of these days! I'll be sure to share the view with you :)

I'm sure my lentils are about cooked by now... so I'd better go rescue them from the stove...

Just a wee headache.

I had a bit of a funny day today. I woke up at about 7am, as my neighbor was chatting with himself about a computer program that we use for our translation work. Yes, we hear everything through the screens and open windows. Privacy? What's that?

At 7am, though, I was feeling the tinges of a super headache coming on. But my pain-killers have already been eaten by various people on the compound (including myself, of course). I kept thinking that I must stop at the pharmacy and pick some up one of these days... but I never did. It's not like it's expensive stuff - a box of 20 tablets of paracetamol (kinda like Tylenol) costs about $0.50! Must be the cheapest thing to buy in this city, I tell you.

Anyways, I didn't have any in the house, so at 7am, I thought I should just go to back to sleep. However, when I woke up again at about 8am, my head was hurting so badly that it was causing me to feel quite nauseous. A good man on the compound offered to run to the corner pharmacy and get me some pain-killers, which was really very kind of him. Also, I wasn't able to call Wes and wake him up with the news that I had a headache... because obviously, he was already awake at 7am!

All I could do was pop a few pain-killers and try to eat a bit of yogurt for breakfast. It all just seemed to make me feel worse, so I eventually just put myself back to bed! The young woman who cleans our house, plus her little baby, were cleaning around me, and putting stuff in my room... and I was completely out cold. I just slept like a log, for about an hour and a half!

When I woke up, I was still pretty groggy - you know that feeling you get when you can hardly lift your limbs? But my headache was pretty much gone! And I was starting to get hungry, so I had a cup of tea and a few biscuits, and I was good to go back to the office! I'm so thankful that I've generally been very healthy here. It's a rare day when I "call in" sick to the office.

So I don't know what was causing the headache - maybe I actually did get rather dehydrated last night! Maybe there's a change in the weather coming - though nothing changed today. It was just plain hot again. Maybe tonight it will rain?! Maybe I need to drink another litre of water before bed tonight so we don't have a repeat performance tomorrow.

I didn't want to "over-do" it today, though (on the advice of Annamarie!), so I took off a bit early from the office and started sewing some curtains for the office! I'll take a photo of them tomorrow and post them. But they're really quite lovely, if I do say so myself! I just love all the patterns and colours in the fabrics here. I just can't get enough of them.

As I was sewing, a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go walking with her at the UN compound. So I dropped everything, put on a t-shirt and baseball cap and off I went to sweat with my friend. I was already a bit drippy from the effort of sewing the curtains... which tells you a bit about how hot it was today! But in the end, I had a really nice walk with my friend. It just felt good to get out and about a bit, even though it was a rather sweaty affair. Friends are good to have. Especially friends who motivate me to get some exercize, and will love me through the sweat :)

I've been led on.

Tonight, I feel like I've been led on. The rainy season is a tease. We had a brief flirtation, and I was tantalized by the cool breeze and the freshness of the air for a brief, fleeting moment. But oh, the rains are fickle. They have already moved on, leaving me high and dry.

The electricity has followed suit. Perhaps the rain and the electricity have run away together, never to return to this fair city.

Yup, that's right. It was just plain hot again today. 40C this afternoon (39C in my office), and not a cloud in the sky... yet the humidity is building. It just needs to rain again to get all the moisture out of the air, and I'll be a much happier camper!

Tonight, we don't even have electricity to run the fans, and the air is so still. Not a breath moving. So, yeah, it's a bit hot. I gotta drink some more water before I go to sleep, so I don't dehydrate whilst sleeping.

But it does remind me of a passage from Isaiah 58 which is quickly becoming very near and dear to my heart. It was read again at our Sunday evening "fellowship" a few days ago:

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Truly, I live in a sun-scorched land, which is so in need of rebuilding! There are so many things and people here that need restoring, and I want the Lord to use me in that. I want to be a well-watered garden in this place, living out of the spring that never fails!

And, speaking of springs, I'm feeling a dehydration headache coming on already... so let the hydration begin!

Where have I been!?

Obviously, I haven't been online! I can't believe the last time I posted was Wednesday! Sorry. Really, I have no idea where the last few days have disappeared to!

So to make up for it, I do have a few photos of the last few days...

Thursday, I was busy getting ready for teacher training which was set to begin on Saturday. I had to make up for the time that I didn't spend preparing on Wednesday! In the afternoon, after work was through, I went with Richard to the market to buy some food (since I have to cook lunch for myself, too, I seem to run out of food halfway through the week after shopping only on Saturdays!). We had a good time in the market, though there were slim pickin's. Not even a banana to be seen! And $1 for 3 inch long cucumber! So I'm not feeling too optimistic about the coming rainy season - once the roads turn into mud-pits, there's nothing that's going to get through. And it's already starting :( But it's not like I'm going to starve or anything - I just might get tired of eating meat and bread and tinned tomato paste! I did find a giant zucchini, which was quite an amazing find!

After my little jaunt through the market, Richard and I went to visit one of his relatives, who has a beautiful plot of land just outside the city on the market end of town. Because it's rainy season, the land is all green and beautiful. The road to his compound is much better than the city roads to our compound, that's for sure! He's building a beautiful house out there, and was asking Richard for some advice about the building. It's a lovely place - all tiles and en-suite bathrooms! I met two of his four wives who live there with him, plus a handful of his twenty children. I kid you not.

On the way back to town, I had a very interesting conversation with Richard about cultural norms for marriage and the customs in his tribe. I'm still not sure how I feel about some of these traditions - I can see the purpose and the reasons for some of the traditions, which generally were very good at making provision for taking care of women and children. Generally, all of the traditions of marriage were meant to make sure that widows and young women were protected from enemies and wild animals, and provided with food and shelter, because back in the day, women couldn't provide those things for themselves. And in the rural areas in this country, women still can't provide those things for themselves - they do still need a man to protect them and help with all that it takes to just eke out an existence. So sometimes it makes sense.

But other times, when people have moved to the city, when the women are educated in their own right and they no longer need to be protected from the hyenas at the gate, it doesn't seem to make as much sense any more. In the modern city life, it just seems to favour the men, and doesn't really have much advantage for the women who are involved in these polygamous situations.

But it's so common here, and it's something that I've been seeing again and again. I admit that I haven't quite made up my mind on it yet; these are just my initial thoughts. (And please don't take this as me being judgmental, as if I'm thinking that my own culture has got marriage and relationships all exactly right, either! I could go on and on about the pervasive attitudes in my own culture that I don't think are the way God designed it to be, either!).

Anyways, we had a nice visit with the relatives, and I've been invited back by both the wives for a visit at some point. I might actually take them up on the offer, as they are both highly educated and spoke very good English! We might actually have a few things in common to talk about, and then I might really get a glimpse into what it would be like to be a "co-wife"!

I didn't take any photos of that little outing, though. Sorry.

The next day was Labour Day, so I celebrated the day by labouring most of the day :) I did sleep in a bit, which was nice, and in the afternoon I took some time off to go for coffee at the Ethiopian cafe with a couple of friends. Back in the compound work camp, though, people were working hard!

These guys are building a new water tower, just outside our front door. Eventually, it will pipe water to our kitchens which has gone through a filter to take out some of the hardness (at the moment, the water we drink is off the hardness scales, which just can't be healthy, especially if you have a history of kidney stones!). But it's a lot of work to make a water tower! The welded bit has been laying down across the path to our house for several weeks now. I was just getting used to running through the obstacle course, when they did some more work and changed the obstacles again!

On Friday they poured the cement to lay the foundation for the tower, and tomorrow they plan to lift the tower into place!

You've gotta love the assortment of work clothes around here - everything from shorts and white undershirts to dress slacks and flip flops!

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and I was off to the local church to actually start my teacher training! We got off to a good start, with more participants than originally expected! However, since the level of their English was a bit lower than I expected, I only got through about half of the material I had planned to cover! We ended up doing a lot of translation of what I was saying into the local Arabic, as well as into the local language of the teachers that we're training. The participants all seemed eager to learn, and didn't fall asleep on me, so I guess that's a good sign :)

Again, I didn't take too many photos, since I didn't want to be too obtrusive on my first day - I draw enough attention to myself as the white girl in those sorts of situations - I don't need to run around snapping photos of everyone and everything at the same time!

I did take a photo of Adelino as he was doing some explanation of how the writing system of their language works. He was giving a really nice explanation of the [+/- ATR] vowel features and the vowel harmony (that's for my linguist buddies out there :) ). Adelino is a born linguist, I think. But once he was done all that, he realized he needed to back up a bit and give a bit of a broader overview of the whole alphabet used in their language, as most of the participants had never before read or written their own language (though they are all literate in English).

How exciting was that to see people, for the very first time, begin to read in their own language?! So cool. How did I get to be a part of this, I mean, really, it's just such a privilege to be here and to be a part of it all!

Also, on a completely more superficial note, some of ya'll contribute some finances to me, and some of those finances went towards buying the chalkboard in this new classroom for this church/community center. It was the first time I had seen the boards and had used them, and wow. Very nice smooth chalkboards! I don't really like using chalkboards, though I've had to get used to them here, and learn how to write properly on them (my handwriting is getting less and less slopey as the years go by!), but these new chalkboards in this classroom were a real joy to write on. No squeaks, no ridges or holes, just a smooth flat surface! Made my little teacher's heart go pitter-patter :)

We ended the day well, and I'm already looking forward to next week's training session with these guys (yes, they're all men - the church didn't manage to come up with any women who wanted to be trained :( ).

In the evening, we had a lovely little spa night. Several of my friends came over to our house, bearing basins and buckets for feet soaking. When you wear sandals all day, every day, in the heat and the dust, your feet get to be pretty disgusting! So we scrub and rub and slather in lotions and potions and paint our toenails beautiful colours to hide all the gunk hiding beneath! It's just so nice and relaxing to sit around chatting with friends and pampering our feet once in a while.

I also made plans that evening to get up a bit earlier than usual on a Sunday morning and attend the communion service at the Anglican cathedral with a friend, and then have breakfast together with her and Annamarie.

However, that was not to be. The next adventure of the weekend started at 5:30am, when I got a phone call from my neighbor, Wes. He was experiencing some pain in his belly. And he was thinking he may have appendicitis or something of the sort. He'd been up since 4am, and already had his suitcase packed, in case he had to fly to Nairobi for surgery!

I'm still not sure what he expected ME to do about it at 5:30am on a Sunday morning. But he awoke me from a very, very deep sleep, so when he started telling me he was sick, I had to do some pretty quick thinking to try to figure out if he was going to die in the next 30 minutes if I didn't immediately crawl out of bed and rally some of my nurse friends who work for a medical NGO. After a few sleepy questions (which I hope were the right ones to ask), I figured out that he could probably survive at least until the sun rose. So I told him I would check in with him at 7am, after the sun got up!

At 7, I went to his place, and he was snoozing on his couch, shoes already on his feet in case he had to get on a plane to Nairobi! I didn't want to wake him, so I went to talk to one of my other neighbors to see what he thought we might do with Wes. While I was talking to my neighbor, Wes called me again, so I went over to chat with him. He didn't seem to me like he was dying, and I had figured out that a clinic with a Ugandan doctor probably opened up at 8:30am. So I went to take a shower and get ready to go to the clinic with Wes, all the while in the back of my mind, trying to make a contingency plan for what to do if the clinic was closed, or if we had to end up medical evacuating Wes.

Keep in mind, there are few viable medical options here. There is a "hospital", but generally, if you value your life, you don't go there. I do have some friends who are trained as doctors and nurses and who work for various NGOs, but they are often out in the field and generally not in town. So when you get sick, it's a bit of a challenging situation!

Anyways, Richard was kind enough to come along as well, and act as logistical support in case we had to get Wes on a plane or something! We arrived at the clinic right at their opening time - 9am. The windows and door were open, but there was no one around! We eventually went around to the back and the guy who was washing the car eventually ran around and found a doctor for us!

I was pretty impressed with this clinic, actually. I'd never been there before, but had heard through the expat grapevine that it's a decent place. It's a branch of the Kampala Hospital in Uganda, and they rotate in their doctors from the hospital there. The place was clean and modern, and they do all the lab-work right on site. So Wes had a full exam, plus a bunch of blood tests. It ain't cheap, but they figured out what was bothering him.

After a few hours of poking and prodding, they sent him home with a mitt full of antibiotics! And I was thankful that he was going to be ok, and didn't require any further treatment!

But by the time that whole process was over, I was so hungry! I had already missed church and breakfast, so I had to go straight home and cook up a few eggs, with some fried tomatos (I learned that trick from my British and South African housemates!), along with a bit of bacon that I imported from Uganda last time... before the swine flu broke out!

Anyways, the rest of the day was spent chasing a truck around town, which brought some stuff up for the office and guesthouse from Nairobi. I saw some new parts of town, chatting with a Ugandan hotel manager for a while, and generally had fun cruising around town... even though I was dripping in sweat by the time the day was done. It was seriously sweaty yesterday - it felt like it was going to culminate in a huge storm last night, but it never materialized :( My arm even got a little sunburned as it was hanging out the open window all afternoon. Now I've got even more of a strange farmer's tan - just my left arm from my watch-band to just above my elbow is nicely sunburned while the rest of me is still a normal colour. I forget to wear my sunscreen when I go for car-trips.

Tonight is the same sort of weather - so sticky and hot. But there's no rain on the horizon. So on that note, I'm going to jump in the shower before it gets too late!

And I think none of you (well, maybe with the exception of my mom!) are still reading this epic-ly long and not so interesting post of my daily life!