Camping!

I know I haven't blogged much lately, but I think you will forgive me when you hear that today my friend's thermometer read 50C in the shade.  Yes, you read that right.  50C in the shade.  No wonder I run out of steam by morning tea time, no?

But I am embarking on a camping trip this weekend!  There is a purpose to the camping, though - some teacher training!  We'll be training the teachers from the primary school in the area on how to use their own language more effectively in the classroom.  Should be fun, I hope :)  I had fun last time I went to the area... albeit a very hot, sweaty sort of fun.  And it's even hotter these days than it was then, so really, I just think I might suffer a bit of heatstroke.  So please pray that somehow, the weather miraculously cools a bit for us next week while we try to train these teachers.

Hopefully I'll see you in 11 days' time... hopefully I will still have all my brain cells intact and they won't have sizzled in the heat out there...

The garden

The garden has been a good distraction this week.  Lots going on in the office, but it's been so nice to go stand and survey my baby plants starting to sprout.  The birds enjoy the cool wet dirt, the papayas are growing riper since they are getting more water, and it's just lovely to see something fresh and green growing.  It almost makes me feel  like it's spring. Even though it's still high dry season and the temperatures were back in the 40s yesterday.  That's 43C, to be exact.

But the garden is a lovely retreat.  And at least when you're working in the garden, you don't feel so bad sweating, because hopefully there will be some fruits from my labour... if the guinea fowls don't get to them first...

It's just two small little plots, so far, but hopefully one more will join the ranks this afternoon.

Tangled in the Internets

Not exactly what I had planned for today.  But after dropping someone at the airport, dropping something at the Ministry of Education, I came home to find that the entire network on our compound had dropped into a deep dark black hole.

So I spent the rest of my day on the phone with our provider (though it wasn't a problem on their side), and on skype with a jet-lagged computer guy in the US, and a busy computer guy in Nairobi, using an external internet connection to try to get things up and running again.

It's pretty amazing how tied we are to the network here.  No one could even print a page all day, until I got the internet untangled. 

Thankfully, I was able to untangle it.  A colleague came in and lent a hand, as well as bringing me sandwiches and soda, as I couldn't leave my post at skype.  But I started untangling at 9:30 am.  It is now 9:30pm and we finally fixed the last bit.  Mind you, when the generator went off, I did take a little break to dig in my garden and make some pancakes. 

And I'm just glad that things are back to normal.  I have rocket seeds happily germinating in the dirt.  I have pancakes happily germinating in my belly.  While I started the day rather grumpy, it all turned out ok.

Now tomorrow, back to our regularily scheduled programming...

Not melted yet... but close...

Yup, it's the time of year when my margarine melts when left on the counter.  My shea-butter (which is normally like a nice creamy lotion) is the consistency of vegetable oil.  I have a pink face all the day (and night).  And I dehydrate whilest sleeping in my bed.  Welcome to the hot season in Jb!

I would be melted completely now if it weren't for my spectacular battery powered fans.  I have one fan which is connected to an inverter and a big battery, which charges when the generator runs.  I also have a new fan which is solar powered!  So it charges when the sun is shining.  Which is pretty much all day, every day.  So at least there is hot air moving around when the generator is not on!  Much better than it was before, that's for sure!

But I haven't melted yet, and I'm still truckin' on.  Our workshop with the teachers and supervisors is over, and I'm finally feeling a bit caught up with other bits and pieces.  I have unpacked most of my stuff since coming  back, and have found some of my new gadgets to be very handy.

I have also discovered how wonderful mayonnaise is, once again.  I hadn't bought mayonnaise for a really long time, because, well, it's usually really expensive and I didn't think it was all that necessary.  But then, last week, I stopped in at the import grocery store, and they had Dutch mayonnaise on sale for half price.  And wow, mayonnaise has revolutionized my life.  The big cabbage I bought last week - coleslaw!  The eggs that I normally just hardboil for Zane - egg salad!  The salad dressing packet that someone left me a while ago - ranch dressing!  So, as long as the mayonnaise doesn't melt in the fridge, I'm feeling pretty happy...