It's rainy season, which means things are growing and sprouting and blossoming. Very good for the beauty of the earth, for the cooler weather and for feeding the people of this land... but not so good for my allergies. Just call me Sneezy for the next few months!
My visitor got an amazing view of the green growing things today. My friends who fly planes heard he was coming to visit, and were able to squeeze him onto one of their flights today! So he got to go in a little plane off to a little village in the middle of nowhere to pick up a bunch of Mennonites who were looking at some projects they're funding or something like that. He had a great time, and got a nice bird's eye view of at least a bit of this country. I was a bit jealous, actually - I went off to the office, and he got to go flying around the country :) But I'm so glad that it worked out for him to do something really cool while he was here.
Me, on the other hand, started the morning off with a bit of a battle with my travel mug(s). I realized why I experienced travel mug malfunction the other day. The rats have been chewing the seals. Yes, I did just say that the rats have been gnawing on my travel mugs. Good thing I'm going to Nairobi next month - I can at least replace one of the chewed mugs so I can continue to take my coffee to the office with me!
Then my visitor missed the fish head stew for lunch.
This evening we went to a lecture at the University! There's a series of free lectures this week on the history and politics of this country. Tonight there was a panel of experts (both International folks and local folks) who were talking about borders and boundaries. I thought it was really interesting, actually. However, there were some "big people" there, and even though the topic was so far out of their realm of expertise, they all had to be given a chance to speak. So the lectures themselves were only 1 hour long... but the "comments" by the big-wigs were another hour long.
The place where it was held was absolutely jam-packed. Of course, it started about 40 minutes late, but we were about 10 minutes late ourselves. We were, unfortunately, too late to get a seat. The lecture theatre where it was held was huge - I'm terrible with crowds, but it held at least 300 people in the seats - mind you, many of the seats were actually very broken, and the seats that were there, were seriously uncomfortable! Anyway, we parked ourselves down on the steps, but after some local students saw us sitting on the steps, they moved for us and gave up their seats! I really kind of hate it when people do that - but at the same time, I realize that they are respecting the visitors to their country. And, quite honestly, they were young guys, and for them to give up their seat for me was a bit chivalrous - something you don't see every day here!
Anyway, it was late in starting because the Vice President of the country was the honoured guest at the lecture! That was pretty cool. I've read books about him and heard all sorts of things about him, and tonight, I saw him in the flesh. Of course, he had to speak. But this is a topic that he knows a bit about, so I felt that he actually had a bit of a basis on which to speak :) He started out with the comment, though, "I really didn't want to say anything tonight... but since I was asked..." and proceeded to talk for the next 25 minutes or so. At least the women were busy handing out cold water bottles and a can of pop to each and every member of the audience. Just imagine how much money they spent on soda and water and how many bottles and cans were going to be dumped somewhere in the town because of tonight's lecture?!
I was quite entertained the entire time by the bats that were flying through the lecture hall. At least they were munching on the mosquitoes that were taking over the hall, as well! Thankfully, I had remembered to bring my mosquito spray, so made it out unscathed... other than the headache which has resulted from being crammed into a hot, sweaty lecture hall all evening!
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