All better

Last night I had a wonderful sleep in the seventh (yes, that's 7th) different bed I've slept in since leaving home less than a month ago.  Am I ready to go and sleep in my own bed?  Um, yes.

But that being said, it's been SO nice to see so many old friends and see some new places and even get a little work done and learn a few things in between all the moving hither and yon.

It seems the election fun is over back in Jb, so I just bought a ticket today to fly out on Friday.  So today, I'll get caught up on reading some emails that I've been ignoring for the past few weeks, and sort out some things from the office here.  Tomorrow, I'll, um, well, I guess I'll do more of the same :)

And then Friday, I fly!  I can't wait to get home!

Since I actually have an internet connection here in the office, I thought I might post a few photo highlights from the past few weeks of travel.

First, it was to our "board" meetings in Nairobi.  For some odd reason, I didn't take any photos until we were leaving.  Here's our luggage, getting all ready to be loaded up on the bus:

 And here's the bus, when it broke down on the side of the road as we were travelling to the next stop - a beautiful conference center in the middle of a bunch of tea fields in the hills above Nairobi.

 Of course, the rat had to come. He liked the Dinning room the best.  I did, too. Good food, let me tell ya.  Good, good food.

 When we weren't sitting in meetings or hanging out with long lost colleagues, we got to go for walks through the fields.  We didn't have nearly enough time to walk, since we had a lot, and I do mean a lot, of meetings.

 However, after the meetings were done, it was time to hit the beach!  Since we couldn't go back "home" to Jb anyways, might as well enjoy some seriously good group rates down at the beach!

 We took a boat ride, which was great!  I got to go snorkling and we found a nice little bay to explore the sea creatures and mangrove groves.  Lovely.  All around lovely.

 This is where I also spent a lot of my time, along with a good book.  I read "Cutting for Stone", by um, hmmm... can't remember how to spell the author's name.  Interesting read, though. 

 And of course, I spent a lot of time just wandering along the beach and enjoying peering into the depths for creatures :)  I think because it's the start of the rainy season, though, there was quite a lot of seaweed on the beach, especially during low tide.

 After a few days of resort living - buffets, fresh fruit juice, air conditioned bedrooms with hot showers... it was time to take a little matatu to a city up the coast to visit one of my dear friends from home!  It was a bit of an adventure taking the little mini-bus on my own.  I got a taxi from the resort and he was great in installing me in the front seat of the mini-bus and making sure I was on the right bus.

The guy was, um, well, a very quick driver, so I got to the town a lot quicker than my friend anticipated.  And then it turns out that I missed the place I was supposed to get off the bus, and ended up getting a nice tour around the city!  The matatu driver had to go back to the same place anyway, though, so he dropped me off exactly where I was supposed to be.  And then I still had some time to wait for my friend.  Interesting place to wait, those bus stations.  Interesting people.  Thankfully, I didn't get married off to the khat chewing guy waiting on the bench next to me.  He did start crooning love songs to me, though.  I think it was the only English he knew!

Anyway, my friend came along soon enough, and it was so wonderful to see her again!  She took me to her place where she works with a small Christian organization.  Such a great little place she lives - but definitely different than the resort that I was staying at!  Her room is the one with the white door on the left, and I stayed next door in the guest room on the right.  We hauled our water for our little bucket baths and ate chapatis, rice, lentils and stew.  I finally felt like I was back in Africa :)  And I LOVED it!  I could have stood it to be a bit cooler, though, since I was just sweating away the WHOLE time I was there.  Sweat.  Sweat.  Sweat.  Not so fun.  But when everyone else is sweaty, too, you just kinda blend into the glistening crowd!

I stayed a few days, and we had a great time, going here and there and everywhere in the town.  My friend knows the town well, and knows all the public transportation systems.  So we walked, ferried, rickshawed, and matatued all over and had a fabulous time poking our heads into various shops and restaurants.  Really just had a wonderful time together.  And I love cities.  I really, really love cities.  The bustle, the noise, the craziness of all the people everywhere.  Really great!  I can't wait for a chance to go back and visit again soon!  What a blessing it was to just be together with someone from home, too, and to be with someone who knows me from my other life, too.

And then from my friend's place, I went back to Nairobi, where I stayed with another dear friend from here.  She is a bit of a mentor for me in my work and just in life in general.  She's a bit younger than my own mom, and has two grown daughters of her own.  But she just does some fantastic work in linguistics and literacy and multilingual education.  And I so much enjoy just sitting over a cup of coffee and hearing about her latest projects and how God is doing things in her life, and just soaking it all in!  That is, after I got over my little illness, which passed me by quickly, thankfully!

Last night, I got back to Grace's house in EBB.  Our plane arrived just behind a KLM flight, so I was stuck in the slowest possible line to get through immigration, surrounded by Dutch people.  I've never taken so long to get through the Entebbe airport, but anyway, Grace and Ella and Frankie were waiting for me when I got there.  And once again, it's great to see them again!

One more day, and I'm finally going to get home for good!

Ah, the joys of living in Africa!

Right, so last time I posted, I didn't want to make any of you envious.  But tonight I'm curled up in bed realizing one of the not-so-envy-producing aspects of living in Africa.  I will spare you the details, but I must have eaten something I shouldn't have eaten this afternoon.  And I'm only mentioning this tonight because it happens so rarely that I get sick... and tonight, I even puked, for the first time since I can remember!  I honestly think it's been about 20 years since I've tossed my cookies, so it's quite a momentous occasion for me.  I hardly even feel like I'm suffering because I'm just in such awe of the fact that I'm sick!  I must say, I've been so completely blessed over the past several years and have really not been very sick at all, while some people step off the plane and get sick just by breathing in the air or something.  So I can't really complain, but it's making me a bit grumpy because it's ruining my amazing track record!

Anyway, I'm in Nairobi at the moment, and staying with a dear friend - in fact, I'd almost go so far as to say she's really been a mentor in my literacy and education work.  And she keeps opening up her home when I'm in town.  So I'm really thankful for her and her husband, who let me invade once in a while and are such wonderful hosts!

I just left Mombasa this afternoon, where I had an amazing time with a dear friend from back home.  She's really involved in a lot of great things over there, and it was so great to be a part of her world for a few days.  Plus, she knows the town so well, so we were going everywhere, by matatu (small mini-vans that function as busses), rickshaws, ferries, and foot.  We just wandered the streets, going into some great little shops, trying on clothes (both African and "western" style), and generally just enjoying the busyness and craziness of a bustling city.  I loved every minute of it!  Except for the sweating.  It's so humid there, so just the little act of breathing made me work up a sweat.  I was wet, literally dripping, for most of the days (and nights!) that I was there.  It was pretty gross, but somehow, my friend put up with it, and we did have a wonderful time! 

And even though I just came from home last month, it was just so wonderful and refreshing to be together with a good friend from home, and to get a little glimpse of what her life is over here in Africa, and to meet her friends.  So good.

Tomorrow, if I've got whatever it is that's in me out, I plan to get back to work with a vengeance!  I can go into our organization's office here and buckle down to catch up on all that I've been ignoring for the past week!

And I'll try to post some photos, too, as I will have free internet access :)

Don't want to make any of you envious...

... Since I'm a good "missionary", I don't want to cause any of you to stumble in your faith by posting photos of where I've spent the last few days.  That's why I've been quiet.  Or maybe it's just because I've been too busy snorkling, sailing, kayaking and walking on the beach to actually post anything... oh, um, did I just type that outloud?!

Yes, because we're still awaiting the results of the elections over in Jb, we're not really meant to be going back there yet.  So, what else to do but spend a few days on the beach?!  We got a super-duper good deal at one of my favourite resorts on the coast (ok, so I've only been to this one and one other!), but it really is a nice one!  And I've been here before, so somewhat familiar, which is nice, too.  Since I've been here, they've added a second "adult only" pool, which is nice, so you can sit around the pool in silence, not having any screaming children splashing around, disturbing one's solitude.  (not that I have anything against children - but I have to admit, it's really nice to just sit and relax without any splashing and screaming now and again :)  ).

There's a group of 10 of us here, so it's been fun to have a sort of "variety" of people to do things with and hang out with.  At the moment, I'm babysitting the lone child in our group while her parents enjoy a nice dinner and the African dance show that's going on later. 

Yesterday, we took a glass bottom boat up the inlet, had a picnic while enjoying the sea-creatures in the mangrove grove (is that what it's called?!), and then ended up at the coral reef marine reserve for snorkling.  I love snorkling.  Really, really love it.  It was so beautiful down there - I'm amazed by the beauty of the fish - God really got creative when he got to the fish!  So many amazing colours and shapes and sizes!  Truly amazing, and the water was so clear, it was really like swimming in an aquarium!  The only problem was that, well, I don't really LIKE fish.  I mean, I really don't like touching them.  I don't like eating them.  I don't like catching them.  Yet I have this strange fascination with them.  I just don't like them at all being anywhere close to me.  Of course, when the snorkling boat puts down its anchor, the guys on the boat get out the bread to feed the fish, to attract them all to the boat.  And the fish all know it's coming, so they really start to swarm the boat... making it difficult to get OUT of the boat, if you have an irrational fear of fish touching you!

But I managed to get out of the boat.  Problem was, then, some of my "friends" figured out that I don't like these fishes swarming around me... so they started throwing the bread crumbs my way!  Yowzers!  It um, made for some pretty fast swimming on my part :)

But a good time was had by all!

Tomorrow, I head down the coast a little way to visit a good friend of mine from home.  My travel arrangements are coming together, but I'm not exactly sure which bus I have to take yet or how I'm getting to the bus station... so you can pray that all goes smoothly tomorrow!  It's only a few hours down the coast by bus, so shouldn't be too much of a problem...

And yes, I might get around to posting some photos ... but the internet is pretty slow here at the moment!

Conferencing

Sorry I haven't written much. I do have some photos to upload even, because I happen to be in a rather beautiful part of the world at the moment.  But I sit and look at my computer during the meetings all day (I'm the secretary, so I'm trying to keep everything straight!), so when we're not in meetings, I'd rather be hanging out with folks that I never get to see because they live in other parts of the country.

So, maybe tomorrow or the next day, I'll post some things.  But it's been an interesting few days, anyways.  I do feel like I've been in this organization for long enough now that I can see how it actually works, and since I'm now on the "Executive Committee", I've been able to somehow follow what's happening and feel like I'm a bit more involved in things.  And I like it.

But that also means that I have a lot of work to get the minutes done for "approval" tomorrow!  So I'd best get going...

I love this place, Part 2!

I really do like this town.  Today, I got up early to have breakfast - yowzers, it was early for a Saturday morning!  But if you don't eat when they tell you to eat, you don't eat!  After eating, I puttered around the guesthouse for a bit, sorting and organizing some of the bits that I've left in Nairobi. 

Later in the morning, I went to visit with a friend from Jb and her baby, who I haven't seen in quite some time, obviously!  It was SO good to see her again and catch up a bit, especially since they're on their way to the UK for the next 6 weeks.

I also hung around the mall with some of my colleagues and went to the bookshop in the afternoon.  It's a nice mall, and it's quite amazing that if you hang out there long enough, you'll definitely see people you know.  And sure enough, I did :)  Of course, being the secretary of the board, I had to get the minutes of our meetings sent out, so I spent the afternoon working on that. 

This evening, however, I had a great time!  I joined together with a bunch of other friends that I know from Jb (who also all happen to be Canadians (well, one is technically not Canadian, but she's married to a Canadian and is pretty much as Canadian as an American can get!) for dinner and Dutch Blitz!  What fun we had - especially since I won!  It was just really nice to be together with friends, but felt a bit odd to be with a bunch of Canadians who I met in Jb, in Nairobi.  Weird.  But good.  It really makes me feel very much at home again to be able to meet together with friends, and to just have a good time with them, even though I haven't seen them in months.  And goodness knows when I'll see them again... as I've mentioned before, Jb is a very transient place, so everyone is moving on soon :(  But I'm just not going to think about that tonight, because it will make me too sad!  Already, I'll be a stranger to most of the expat community in Jb when I get back.  Being away from there for 4 months is like being away for a lifetime, so I will definitely be the new-comer in the group again!


Sorry, I know this is a bit of a boring post.  I promise, I'll be back in "real" Africa soon, so there will be some good stories to tell once again... I hope...

I love this place!

I'm still in Nairobi, and we finished our "board" meetings today.  I'm the Secretary of that board, so I sorta have to be paying attention the whole time, and can't play solitaire or hearts on my computer whilst listening, because my computer screen is always projected onto the screen in the front!  We usually have 2 meetings per year, and this is the second year I've been doing the whole Secretary thing, so I feel a bit like I actually know what I'm doing now!  At the conference next week, the members of our branch will elect a new 'board'.  I'm hoping not to be on it, but I'm not sure if I will continue in my role as secretary or not... I guess it depends on who becomes the chairperson and if they actually want me to do it or not!  Anyways, a little change never does any harm, does it?  But at the same time, it's been really interesting to get into a bit more of the "nitty-gritty" of how the branch works and what's going on to keep us all running along the right track.

But I also just really like being in this city!  Lots of stuff going on, nice weather, things are clean and the electricity and water have been on with no interruptions!  And this guesthouse is really nice, too.  Clean, comfortable, good food.  Only complaints I have are slow internet (but at least there's wireless!) and they want you to be on-time for breakfast at 7:30am every morning. If you sleep in, no breakfast for you!  So if you were to come here, say, on holiday, you'd have to get up for breakfast at 7:30am or else wait until 1pm to eat your lunch (or go out to Java House for brunch... which is what I'm planning on doing tomorrow!).

I also like this town because I have friends who live here.  I've seen some of them already, but tomorrow I will see some more of them :)  And by staying in this guesthouse, I've met quite a few folks that I know from elsewhere, as well.  In fact, I met one of my "relatives" (by African standards!) who works in the same country that I do, but I've never met her before.  We were eating our breakfast at the same table this morning, and quite easily put two and two together to figure out who we both were!  It was really nice to finally meet her.

Tomorrow, it's play time, with friends.  Then Sunday we all head out to the next conference center where we'll have our Branch conference for 6 days.  I'm looking forward to that - it's a great time of getting together with all the folks from our organization who work in our country.  Because of the situation in our country, I don't get to travel to see the majority of the members of our branch, so our conference, which is held every two years, is the only time I get to meet with some of my colleagues from different parts of the country!  Otherwise, we just depend on email to get everything done, and that's certainly not as nice as getting together face to face once in a while - at the very least so we all have a face to put with the name of the person we're emailing!

So all in all, it's been a pretty good ease back into work.  I'd like to be going back to my home, and back to my Zane.  But that will come, all in due time...

It has begun!

But I'm too sleepy to say much about it!

I arrived in Africa after waving farewell to my family at the airport.  It was so nice of them all to come - my parents, my sister, brother-in-law and 6 boys all stood and waved at me for quite a long time in the airport!  After 30-something hours of travel, all of which went quite smoothly, I arrived in Africa once again!  Our plane was actually early, and it was pouring rain, so I just waited inside with the rest of the folks from my plane, and eventually, Grace showed up at the airport to fetch me.

The first thing I did was have a nice warm shower to wash all the travel grime away.  I don't understand it, but I just feel so yucky after getting off a plane!  While struggling to stay awake the whole day, to combat the jet-leg, I still managed to have some fun with my friend's kids.  We played with some of the toys and playdough that I brought along for them from their granny in Montana.  And we tried to watch a little movie - but that's where my struggle against the sleepiness was lost.  I ended up snoring on the couch, with quite a lot of action going on around me, for about 2 hours!  I ended up falling asleep again later in the day for yet another nap, 'cause I just couldn't keep my eyes open!
The following day, my friend brought me back to the airport so I could fly to Nairobi, where I'm hanging out and taking part in our "board" meetings this week and our conference next week.  Yesterday was brutal, as I was definitely feeling the fact that I had hardly slept much in the past few days, and crossed 9 time zones.  But today was much better... at least, until just a few minutes ago.  Even though it's only 10:05pm, my eyelids are drooping, so it's probably best I go to sleep!

Sorry there are no cool African stories yet... unless you count the fact that my friends' neighbors found a big monitor lizard in their garden.  The guard actually killed the lizard and the neighbors decided to keep the skin for a display or something!  Eew.  Not my idea of fun.  I hope I will be more awake tomorrow to write a little more...

And so it begins again...

Let the African Adventures begin again!

I'm just about to eat a piece of leftover pizza with my family, and then it's off to the airport.  A flight to London, then about 8 hours to hang out in Terminal 5 at Heathrow, then another 9 hours to Uganda.  Then hopefully, my buddy Grace and her people will be there to fetch me.  I'll repack, maybe have some sleep, and then it's back on a plane to Nairobi on Tuesday.

So, hopefully I'll catch you on the flip side of the sea!