Power

Is out.  Which means we're running on generator.  And tomorrow is Sunday, which means someone will probably not be at work to fix the power anytime soon :(  So I do a quick blog now before I am plunged into the internet-less void for the next, oh, say, 24 hours or so.

Today was such a fantastic day!  Lots of fun, interspersed with some work (but work with my laptop on my lap, sitting on my verandah and sipping coffee - the best kind of work :) ).

At one point, I got a phone call from someone out in the middle of nowhere who is going to come stay with us on Monday night (a friend of a friend who needs a bed for the night).  So while I was trying to give her directions to our compound (not an easy task in a place with no street names and constantly changing landmarks!), the little kitty Winka decided she wanted to come along for a ride on my back!  So she jumped right up on my back, purring away, as happy as could be!  Of course, Sean had to take a photo:

There's been a lot of cat drama around here lately, as Zane, the self-proclaimed king of the compound is starting to get better at sharing his space with this little Winka cat, as well as our neighbors' two cats, who are being looked after by Jackie while they're away.  Seriously, there are four cats who know that their food comes from our front door.  Not a pretty site around dinner time!  I have to admit, I'm partial to my own Zane, though he's certainly not as friendly or cuddly as Winka!  But he's got his own style, and he's just such a beautiful cat.  Reminds me more and more of the Sphinx every day:

Oh, crap, someone just turned off the generator 35 minutes too early!

Gotta post!

Cola-ccino, Anyone?

So there's a new drink in town.  It's Cappaccino flavoured cola.  Yes, that's right.  Coffee and Coke.  Together in one fizzy drink can.  It's available down at the little cornerstore, so since I had to pick up a few other items (more basic things like bread, phone credit, eggs and bananas), I decided to take the leap and try out the new drink.  I bought three cans - one each for Sean, me and a visiting consultant.  After work yesterday, I popped some popcorn, and we popped open the tins.

And in fact, it wasn't too bad.  Sean took some photos, but I haven't gotten them onto my computer yet.  It tasted sort of like chewing on espresso beans and washing them down with Coke.  Not bad.  I don't know if there's more caffeine in it or not, but it sure gave you the feeling that you were getting a double dose of caffeine!  But it was worthy to try again.

I also said that after "work" we popped the tins open.  In fact, I didn't do too much work yesterday!  My computer got a bit of a virus.  So Sean wanted me offline so he could contain it and clean it.  Don't know quite how or why, but something got into my yahoo email and started spamming everyone in my contacts.  Sorry for those of you who know me and got an email about a "Japanese friend..."!  Anyway, my computer is rather, um, er, well, full (much to Sean's chagrin!), so it took a while to scan everything.  So I sorta wandered around the compound like a little lost puppy.  Not quite knowing what to do with myself without a computer for the day!

Thankfully, there's no workshops coming up.  I'm not presenting at any conferences anytime soon, and there's really no deadlines pressing on me.  So it was sort of nice to have the "freedom" to have a day without a computer to do other things.  I tidied up some files on my desk.  I shopped for a new whiteboard for the workshop room, and even unpacked a few things from my trip to Nairobi.  And by late afternoon, my computer was clean and back in my hands.  And I still marvel at the fact that Sean is here to do it all for me - I wasn't the one trying to figure out how to contain my virus and sitting and watching it scan.  Amazing to have someone else here who actually knows what he's doing!

I think he definitely earned his Cola-ccino yesterday.

I know I'm a terrible blogger...

... because I haven't updated in several days!  Sorry.  My excuse is that it's been too cold to blog.  Really, it's been cold.  Like, I would be surprised if it got to 30C today!  And it's been raining most of the day.  So it's all muddy and damp everywhere.  At the moment (at 8pm), it's 24C in my verandah. I'm sitting here wrapped in a kikoy to keep a bit warm!  I love the rainy season!

But it was even colder in Nairobi.  I mean, seriously cold.  I was sleeping under 3 blankets, and it was beautiful!  There's something that comes with sleeping under the heavy blankets which sorta just makes you wake up all refreshed, like you didn't move an inch during the night (which I probably didn't because of the weight of the blankets!).  I really feel like I slept well while I was there, even though I had to get up at some seriously un-godly hours so that I could have my breakfast at 7:30am every day.  Ridiculous.

After the conference, Jackie and I went into Nairobi to stay at the Mennonite Guesthouse.  I highly recommend that guesthouse to anyone - very comfortable, and nice people.  Good food, too.  And now they have free wireless internet throughout the guesthouse (though it's pretty slow!).  And the best part is, it's just a short taxi ride away from two nice malls :)  I have to admit, I spent a lot of time in the malls on Saturday and Sunday.  It was just so nice to be able to shop and enjoy the cleanliness of everything!  I also got to go to a movie (Knight and Day looked like the best thing playing, and it wasn't a bad choice!).  I enjoyed a beautiful dish of tiramisu and some nice coffee. I wandered around the book shops and found some good used books that will keep me entertained for the next few little while.  Jackie and I also went to the museum of modern art, which had some really interesting bits of art inside.  Some of it was a bit, well, modern, for my liking, but a lot of it was really interesting and very enjoyable.  Anyway, it was just really nice to do something a little different from the ordinary, you know?

And at the end of each day, I was able to go back to a nice hot shower!  Aaahhh... so nice.

And then I also have to admit, it was nice to come back home to Jb, too!  Nice to have my own space, my own bed, and my own cat again :)  Even nicer because I'm really not swamped with work right now.  There seems to be a bit of a "lull" in things this week - no workshops to prepare for or write reports about.  No papers to write.  Not even any printing deadlines to meet!  So there's a few things that have been sitting on the back-burner, waiting for an opportune moment to arrive.  And that moment has arrived.  But it also means that I can leave the office at 5pm and maybe even have the day off on Saturday!  Life is good.

And the conference continues

This morning, while I was on my way out of the guesthouse to hit the mall, I recognized two guys who were at the conference that I was just at!  Funny small world.  Anyway, turns out these guys are from Harvard and Yale, respectively, and are really interesting fellows.  We were both on the way out this morning, so didn't talk for too long.  But at the guesthouse this evening, we were "assigned" seats together.  It's a bit funny in that the guesthouse here puts a little sign at the place where you're supposed to sit.  And they put me and Jackie together at a table with these two chaps.  But man, did we have some fascinating conversation.  I mean, really interesting.  These guys are, of course, quite academic, but really very 'down to earth' at the same time.  Not the sort of academics who make me feel stupid when I'm talking to them, but the sort of academics who seem to stimulate my thinking and make me go, "Hmmmm..." while still contributing to the conversation.  Anyway, we talked over dinner.  Then when they kicked us out of the dining room, we were all happy to continue our conversation on the verandah.  Unfortunately, after a few hours, I got rather cold, so had to break up the party and come inside.  Anyway, they're also here until Monday, so I'm sure there will be more stimulating conversation to come!

Today was really a lovely day, though.  I went to two different malls.  I drank a latte.  I drank strawberry juice.  I ate a sandwich with bacon and turkey.  I got a little modem that will allow me to use the internet anywhere there is a phone network, I got a pedicure.  And I got a hair cut.  It's a bit shorter than I wanted it to be.  But at least that means I can go another 7 or 8 months without a hair cut again!

I also got a ton of stuff for the computer department back "home".  We have a seriously special relationship with the company that provides our internet for us.  They have offices in Nairobi and we're good friends with the manage, so we emailed them and asked them where they suggested we go to buy some computer stuff.  And the manager told us to send a list to their procurement guy, and he would get everything for us!  Not only that, but the guy sat in traffic for almost 2 hours today to deliver it to the mall that I happened to be hanging out in this afternoon.  And they didn't charge us a cent for all that work.  Seriously nice people.  Our own organization doesn't even offer services like that.

Anyway, tomorrow is my last day in the big city before it's time to head back to the "bush".  I think we're going to head to the Modern Art Gallery (just for something completely different than the normal!) and then finish up some more shopping in the afternoon.  I wasn't able to find a new mossy net yet, and I saw something else that I need to buy, but I didn't have time to actually go to the bank machine to get enough cash to buy it!  So, have to go back tomorrow!  Jackie also wants to buy a few souvenir gifts to take back when she goes to the UK, so it's off to the souvenir shops, too, which I absolutely LOVE!  Just hope we have enough space for all our stuff...

No Night Owls Here

So, apparently, Mennonites aren't night owls.  We came into Nairobi from the University Campus where the conference was being held, and it's 10:30pm here, and this house is absolutely silent.  The only sounds are the mosquitoes buzzing around and my typing.  And even my typing sounds really loud when everything else is silent!  I got back from having supper at about 9:30, and it was already completely silent around here.  It's a little disconcerting, actually!

Anyway, the conference was actually really good.  I met up with a few interesting people, and heard some really interesting papers and symposiums.  One thing that always strikes me when I go to these sorts of conferences is the fact that it's supposed to be a conference full of educators.  So, people who make it their business to research educational theory, education, best practices in teaching etc.  And then they get up and give a talk that really, really sucks.  It blows my mind how someone could be invited to be a plenary speaker at a "multilingualism and education" conference and not know how to give a decent presentation.  Very odd.  But thankfully, at this conference, that was not the norm - there were only a few really poor presentations that I attended. 

And I have to admit, if I do say so myself, that I totally rocked my presentation!  After a lot of hard work, I finally got a finished product that I'm quite pleased with.  And my confidence was given a bit of a boost by listening to some of the other papers and presentations made, because it did encourage me that I'm on the right track.  My thinking about multlilingualism and language choice and multilingual education is pretty much on track with what all the high-falutin' PhD holders are saying and advocating for.  So that did give me a bit of a confidence boost to be able to stand up and tell people what we're doing in my little corner of Africa.  Once my paper was over, I got some really good feedback and encouragement from those who were listening, too. 

In some ways, I get a bit discouraged when I go to conferences like this, though.  I mean, we have some of the same challenges in my place that they face all over Africa in terms of the education system and the issues of language in education.  But in other respects, we're SO far behind actually dealing with those challenges, just because we're starting from basically nothing.  We just don't have the support of universities and huge government departments and loads of materials to use. We have me, Jackie, and two chaps from the government to tackle this situation.  It's really so very daunting!

But then, I need to encourage myself with the fact that we have come a long way in the past few years.  Considering that we have started from scratch, and I mean completely from scratch, we've made a ton of progress!  However, I still feel like we're the voices crying out in the wilderness on behalf of those folks in our country who don't speak English... which is pretty much most of the population!  Anyway, I am encouraged because I do think we're on the right track.  And we're starting slowly.  The important thing is that we've started!

I also got the gumption up to speak during one of the parallel sessions this afternoon.  A professor from a local university was making a presentation about my country and the language policy there.  He was so off-base on so many things that he said.  In fact, he was downright wrong on the entire premise of his presentation.  Turns out he's never actually been to the country and he wrote his paper two years ago while he was hanging out in the US!  I was able to set the record straight for the folks who had come to listen and learn about the situation where I live.  But I felt a bit bad about contradicting what this professor was saying!  A white girl contradicting an old male professor - a little risque!  But it had to be done, I just couldn't hold my tongue!

Anyway, it's pretty quiet in this guesthouse and my toes are getting cold.  So methinks it's time to go curl up under my blankets.  And yes, I did say blanketS.  It's so deliciously cold here!

Conferencing

I finally got online here at the conference venue.  But they just turned on a tv playing a Mexican soap opera, dubbed into English.  And it's really loud. And this soap has always annoyed me, every time I've seen it.

So, I'm not going to prolong the agony.  But just wanted to let you know that I'm alive.  And having a great time at the conference.  I've been so pleasantly surprised by the organization and the way the conference has gone so far.  Tomorrow, I present.  Yikes!  I sure hope it all goes ok.

Hope all is well in your parts of the world!

I gotta go - the bride is waiting at the alter for her groom, who is, unfortunately, unconscious in his room.  But she didn't want to marry him anyways.  Seems her maid of honour has actually poisoned the groom.  This is getting a bit ridiculous.  Now the news is being broken to the bride... and she's genuinely worried, "We have to call him, please, where is he?!".  "Something must have happened!  We have to go to his house to see what happened...".  Mexican soaps. Not for the faint of heart.

A bit of culture shock?

• There was hot water coming out of the tap from the bathroom on the plane!
• From my taxi window, I noticed that people were briskly walking, and even running, down the streets on the sidewalks.  They were going by foot as if they had a purpose, as if they were in a hurry to go somewhere or be somewhere.  Odd.  Where I just came from, people who go by footing down the street definitely saunter.  And I do mean saunter.
• I'm staying in a guesthouse (where I've stayed before and really enjoy it), but at dinner, I realized that the only African, other than the ones serving the meal, in a room of about 40 people, was my colleague who traveled with us here.  Lots and lots of Americans who think they've come to the boonies here in Nairobi.  Funny because I was marveling over the pizza with real ham and cheese and lettuce and ice cream that they served for dinner.
• A hot bath was enjoyed

Farewell to the Chicken

So this was the process that I witnessed on Sunday (by the way, unless you grew up on a farm, this post might not be for you.  If you are a vegetarian, this post also might not be for you.  But this is my life.  So I want to share it with you :) ):

Now, I unfortunately stepped out for a few minutes to bring my laundry in off the clothes line because it was looking like it was going to rain.  And I was told that we had to wait quite some time for a big pot of water to boil.  So I didn't rush back to the scene.  Apparently, I missed a few stages in the whole process, because this is what I came back to:

And by this time, the rain HAD come, in full force and washing everything, including our electricity, away with it.  So the cooking had to happen by headlamp.  We were all a little tribe of cyclops - me, Jackie, Sean and R all running around and staring each other down with our headlamps!

But finally, here was the finished product:

Unfortunately, even though the poor old rooster had been cooked for over 4 hours (boiled, boiled, boiled, then fried), it was one chewy old rooster.

The following day, though, our nieghbour had a hankering for roasted chicken.  So he bought a frozen chicken from the import shop in town and brought over a chicken imported all the way from Brazil!  After an hour in the oven... mmmm... deliciously juicy and tender and fat!  Yum Yum.

All about the chickens

I was going to blog tonight about chickens.  Complete with a series of photos.  But instead, I chatted with my dad on Skype!  And now it's late, and I still have to finish packing for my trip to Kenya tomorrow.  So.  The chickens will have to wait. And I also scanned my post from the weekend, and realized that I was writing nonsense - apparently I forgot to proofread and edit.  Sorry 'bout that.  To come: the Chickens.

For now: the Sleep.

But if you want something to read to make you chuckle, one of my favourite bloggers has written about "Becoming an expert on Africa after a 6 day mission trip"  Good stuff, I tell you.  Good stuff.

A bit of adventure...

... but not too much.  Mostly it's just been work around here.  I'm going to present a paper at a conference in Nairobi next week.  So I've been busy getting things finished up here so I can go, but also getting my paper and presentation ready.  Plus, I feel like I've been engaged in a lot of domestic chores lately.  I cooked a lot of meals last week.  And even baked some cake.  I think I'm starting to get a bit bored of the usual "garlic bread and tomato salad" fare that we generally eat around here.  So I've had to work a bit to get other things cooked so I could eat something different.  And not that I'm complaining, but I tend to get hungry faster and care more about what I eat than my housemate.  So when 6:30pm comes around, my housemate is still poking around doing whatever, and I'm so hungry I feel like I could eat a horse.  So guess who starts cooking...  And then since I'm cooking already, what's a little more food to feed Sean and Richard, too. 

Last night we invited our new neighbor over for some food, and it was really quite a nice meal.  It's just good to share food with good friends.  I'm feeling like it's about the only thing I do for fun around here anymore!

Other than play my Wii Fit since I've been doing all this eating...

It's also been raining quite a bit, so it's rather humid and muddy around.  Not too conducive to wanting to get out to walk or anything :( 

Right. On that note, it's 6:15, my belly is growling, and there's nothing being done about supper.  So.  I'm off to the kitchen.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

A bit of reading.

I got to actually go and see a literacy class in action today!  Whoo hoo!  It's pretty pathetic, actually, how many actual literacy classes I've seen with my own two eyes.  But one of the language groups that I work with here has started up their daily literacy classes right here in town at their church, so I went along today to see how things were going.

It was actually really encouraging to see.  For starters, one of the teachers in the class was in my workshop last week, where we were training teachers in a specific literacy method.  And I was SO pleased to see him actually putting some of what we talked about and practiced last week in the workshop into actual use in the class today!  Seriously, he was doing what he learned!  Amazing.  I mean, not that I'm surprised that he learned something, but it's just quite something to actually see people learning to read because of something that I had a part in. 

I visited two classes at this church based program.  One of them was a more beginning literacy class.  There were 4 women in the class, alongside about 20 children.  I believe some of the children belonged to the women, but they were all learning together, and it really didn't seem to bother them at all.  These women were so incredibly proud of what they had accomplished.  They were showing me their notebooks and reading to me the sentence that they had written today.  And they were just absolutely beaming! 

They were doing some "shared reading" together, and they were all eager to get up and take part in the reading and the activities that went along with it.  Since it was the first time I had visited their classes, I was trying to be a bit unobtrusive - didn't want to come across as "the white girl with the big camera coming to disturb our class".  So I only took a few photos from where I was perched unobtrusively in the back of the classroom.  Next time I plan to get some better photos, once they're a bit more used to having a stranger in the class with them!

These girls were in the more "advanced" class, which was made up of a group of 17 young adults - probably they were about 16 - 25 years old.  Some of them spoke some English, but of course, the class was all conducted in their own language.  They were also doing really well, but were a bit more shy in the class.  Their teacher is one of the project staff who I work with every day, and I was also really impressed by his teaching ability.  Again, he was putting into practice some of the things that we talked about last week in the training workshop! 

It was just so encouraging to see all of these people together - over 40 total - who come each day after their own work is finished to learn how to read their own language.  The teachers don't get paid anything extra to teach, and they all provide their own notebooks and pencils.  The community came together themselves to build their classroom and provide things like desks and chalkboards.  So really, I'm very impressed with what they've been able to do.  They're using the books from the project that we edited and had reprinted last year.  And they're already getting ready to use the new primers that we've been developing over the past few months!  So exciting!

So now that I've seen them going on with their classes, I can start to think of some ways to continue to encourage them.  One thing I think I will do is to start handing over all my scrap paper to them.  I noticed that some of the smaller children in the level one class didn't have any paper or pencils.  I have a feeling they don't get exercize books because they lose them, or they don't show up regularly enough to class for them to have their own (we're talking little kids, like, maybe 5 and 6 years old). Around these parts, they'd be considered too young to be given paper and pencil to "scribble" with - it's often seen as a "waste" of good resources!  But of course, at that age, they should definitely be encouraged to write what they can and draw pictures etc. (even though that's a very foreign concept for these parts).  So if I can bring them just some old scrap paper and a few pencils to be given to the smaller ones to play with, it can go a long way in getting them started in literacy!  And it won't cost anything :) 

 Anyway, I had a great time visiting the classes.  And now that they've repaired the road to the church, it's SO easy to get there.  I plan to spend a lot more time over there, just seeing what I can do to support their efforts and learning how the teachers are using the books and other things that we're working on developing.  So pray for that little literacy school and for their teachers!

Sleepiness

I went to bed too late last night and woke up again too early this morning.  And have been trying to do a bunch of work since then.

I had to stay up to watch the Netherlands get beat last night :(  Too bad.  Anyway, I'll probably not watch another football game for the next four years - until the next World Cup, that is!  Seems everyone was a bit tired today after staying up too late the watch the match last night!  We were one sleepy crew at tea time today in the office!

Then I got up early early this morning to help Richard get some things organized for his road trip today.  So I went to bed at 1am, and woke up at 6:30am.  I did try to go back to sleep once the crew got on the road, but it wasn't happening.  I also tried to take a nap after lunch.  But it wasn't happening, either.  And now I'm trying to go to bed early.  But that's not happening, either.  Soon.  Very soon.

I just thought I'd post a photo from our workshop last week, just to give you a hint of the sort of folks I spend my days with!

Notice my lovely "suit" - just a little something that was locally made by a tailor and gifted to me. It's very much the "in" thing in young professional women around here :)    Of course, you can't see the bright blue gum boots I was wearing the outfit with that day!  Such a happy crew, aren't we?

On that note, time for a shower and then sleep!

Hugeness?

So the topic of the day probably deserves a lot more thought and insight than I'm going to give it tonight... but something keeps popping up over these past few days.  I've mentioned this topic before on this blog, so really, there's probably nothing new to say about it...  but I'll say it anyway.

Started when I was flipping through an Oprah magazine the other night.  Yes, I like the Oprah magazine.  Call me a ... well, whatever you want to call me, but I do enjoy flipping through the occasional O magazine.  And I do mean the "occasional" one, because the only ones I ever see are the ones that I bring from home when I go once a year!  Anyway, I was flipping through the April issue (which is probably the only one I will see for the next several months!) to make sure I hadn't missed anything the first few times I went through it (yes, I know, but this is true confessions night on "African Adventures"!).  Anyway, I realized just how much of the magazine is devoted to women's weight.  Whether it's about how to lose weight or how to be more content with whatever shape you happen to be, or how to dress to make yourself look to be a better (that is, smaller shape).

And I was thinking to myself that I'm actually really glad I don't spend most of my time in that sort of North American mind-set anymore.  Admittedly, I'm not the skinniest girl that walked the face of the earth.  In fact, I know that in some ways, I'm downright chubby.  At least the Wii Fit tells me that I'm "Overwieght" and gently tells me that my BMI could be a bit lower, but at least I've not yet entered the "Obese" zone! 

Anyway, despite these slight "flaws" in my body shape, I certainly don't spend my days obsessing over it.  And while I've been trying to cut back on the Coke lately because I know it's not good for me, I really don't think too much about whether I'm eating too much or whether I could eat more healthily (is that a word?!).  I eat lots of veggies.  I mean, LOTS of veggies.  Most meals consist of vegetables, eggs or beans or lentils, some bread or noodles, and fruit.  There's really not much I could do here to eat more "low-fat" or be more calorie conscious.  I'm just happy to have the basic foods to eat that I do! And it's fine.  It just doesn't really occur to me that my chubbiness could be an issue... until I stick my nose in an O magazine!
 

So the other night when I was reading the O magazine, I was really thankful that I don't live in a society that obsesses about weight.  In fact, people here, if they're going to obsess about weight, will tend to obsess in the other direction!  For example, just yesterday, over tea during our workshop, one of our colleagues here (a local man) was telling us all about marriage in his community.  The climax of his story was the fact that people from his community like to marry "huge women like this one..." as he points at ME! 

I think I'm really getting used to the fact that chubbiness around here is considered a desirable trait!  At the very least, it's not something to be ashamed of.  People very openly discuss how fat they are or how thin they are.  They don't really make any judgements about it, they just quite openly and frankly discuss their weight and their bellies (or lack thereof).  And coming from a culture that's so obsessed in the Oprah kind of way about weight, it's really refreshing to be surrounded by a culture that just doesn't really mind... and in fact even celebrates the fact that a person is healthy and can afford to have some meat on her bone!

On that note, I think I need a snack ... :)

Workshopping andn Scheduling

Time flies.  I mean really flies.  This workshop is almost over (and going very well, by the way).  But that means the next things are already quickly coming up!  I've been trying to schedule in yet another workshop before the conference that I'm going to, but I just really don't think it's going to work for me to go to this workshop.  It's too much!  So I'm trying to figure out a way to make sure I don't disappoint too many people by saying "no" and yet still making sure I don't try to do too much!  This particular workshop that I'm considering scheduling in would require quite a bit of travel, and during this rainy season... I just don't think it's going to work.  I don't want to get stuck up in the hills somewhere and miss my chance to go to the conference in Nairobi!  So.  I think I'm just going to have to cancel.  Hopefully no one will get too upset with me :(

Now, I have quite a headache - probably a combination of not drinking enough water this afternoon and being rather sweaty.  So.  I'm off to the shower.  Then a big glass of water.  Then to bed.  Sorry I don't have anything interesting to say.  Maybe tomorrow...

World Cupping

You really can't get away from it.  The whole city is watching the football tonight.  So you can't really get away from it.  Not that I want to get away from it - in fact, I'm listening to the Netherlands beat Uruguay as I type.  There are people sleeping in the guesthouse (where the TV is!), so I can't watch it.  It's still being shown on our one broadcast channel here, which is completely amazing!  I can't wait until the final. That is the game I shall be watching - no matter who's trying to sleep in the guesthouse.  I mean, really, how can I not - except that I'm really not a football fan.  Or any sort of sports fan, for that matter.  But, since everyone is talking about it and everyone is watching it, including most of my expatriate friends... it's more of a social thing than anything else!

But it is rather exciting that a team I wanted to support from the very beginning (even before I knew they were actually good!) is doing so well!  Hup Holland Hup!

My Day

Three pictures pretty much sums up my day today:

We had a huge storm last night (again!).  I've not been sleeping too well over the past week, because we keep having these amazing storms in the middle of the night.  And remember, I live in a brick tent.  So when it storms outside, it storms a little inside, as well!  My room doesn't actually get wet, but our living room/verandah gets soaked, and things in the house start to blow around quite a bit!  So it wakes me up, generally speaking.  And I always feel the need to get up and take a wander and make sure I haven't left my books or important electronic gadgets anywhere near any place where the rain comes in!

Last night, the storm brought down a huge bit of tree - right on top of Richard's tukel!  Lucky for him, he's not here at the moment.  The guard, though, was really concerned that someone was sleeping in the tukel and was subsequently trapped inside!  I guess the guys who work on the maintenance of the compound have their work cut out for them tomorrow, to see what they can do about dragging the tree away from the tukel so Richard can get his door once he arrives from the other City.

Because of the rain last night, it was COLD all day.  I don't think it got over 25C in the house today!  Brrr.  So I pretty much snuggled under my sheet with my cat and a book for most of the day.  I also got to listen to a sermon from my home church online. Our electricity was off today, but me, in my great fore-sight, downloaded a few sermons to my iPod to listen to when the online streaming option isn't a possibility... like today.

So this is how Zane and I spent a few hours today:

But mid-way through the afternoon, it was time to finally have a shower (it was WAY too cold to actually have a shower when I woke up in the morning, and even at 2:30pm, the water was still so cold I almost got a brain freeze headache when I washed my hair!), and get dressed in my finery for a wedding!

These little girls were taking their bridesmaids' duties very seriously.  Two of my friends (both from the UK) had a wedding celebration today!  They actually met here, but are both from the UK, so they had their actual wedding in the UK a few weeks ago.  But today, they had a "Thanksgiving Celebration" and a sort of renewal of their vows for their friends and church family here.  It was SO much fun!  Sarah wore her wedding dress, and Charlie and his buddy were in their tails for the occasion.  And it was a blessedly cool day to celebrate!  It was really a beautiful litergical communion service, and just a real celebration of their marriage!  Of course, my camera batteries died, so I don't have any photos of the happy couple, just of their choir/bridesmaids before we all went into the church.  It was such a nice mix of people from so many different countries.  I also sat with some old friends that I haven't seen in years at the reception - they were good friends when I lived in a different part of this country many, many years ago.  I really do think that once you drink the waters of the River here, you will always come back...

Happy Canada Day, eh?

It seems like an awful lot of Canada Days have come and gone since I've been in Africa, and especially in Jb!  I usually have at least one good Canadian friend around who I'm able to get connected to a BBQ with!  This year's BBQ was, admittedly, not as good as last year's BBQ.  This one was held a a great camp next to the River - really and truly does have one of the best views of the River in the city.  I'd not been to that particular place before, so it was nice to find a new little haunt by the River.  But they had tables set up separately, so you really had to work to set up tables if you wanted to sit with more than 4 people. Last year, everyone was seated along a big old picnic table, which just felt really friendly.  Anyway, I went together with three other Canadians - two of whom were with me to celebrate the day last year as well. Also, this year, we actually had to PAY for our food.  And it wasn't that great.  In fact, the burger that I paid $12 for was pretty much raw in the middle :(  Not too impressive.

But, that being said, the view of the River was beautiful.  And I did end up meeting some new friends and talking to some old ones, which was good fun.  So all in all, not a bad celebration.

I am looking forward to going back to that camp for a cold Coke in the near future, though.  The woman who runs the place is American, and she was doing a fantastic job of PR and talking up the place.  In fact, you can stay there, Bed & Breakfast, in a tent, on the banks of the River, for only $30/night!  That's a serious steal of a deal in this town.  And it's well kept up and quite nice.  They have a little lawn area near the water, and she says that they really do try to keep the place quiet and encourage people to sit and relax, watch the birds and enjoy their little section of the natural River bank!  Sounds nice, eh?