Day 9,
Just another day of office orientation, trying to figure out what the computers need in order to run, also reconfigured my office in order to maximize efficiency.
Day 10,
One of these day’s I need to climb Mt. Jejebe, I bet the view from the top is amazing, Finally received a mop today (Yay!) so I figure tomorrow I’ll have a go at the territories of the fungoldew republic, (yeah, apparently there was a military coup, led by a general Moldius, who disposed of the ruling family, the fungi’s, who had been ruling the monarchy for close to two micro-organism centuries {almost two weeks our time} well see if anything actually changes)
Day 11, Aug 22, Sun,
Today we celebrated the assumption of Mary, (In the Ethiopian calendar, they celebrate it later than in the Gregorian calendar that most of the other nations use, actually, in case anybody was curious, they are actually in the year of 2002, with the new year coming at the end of the first week of September.) The mass was very beautiful, although it was very long.
Normally I wouldn’t mind long a long Sunday service, but on Sunday’s it is translated into three different languages, none of which I understand, which can make it somewhat hard to stay focused for the 2+ hours it take to get through it.
Thankfully, God gave me the foresight to bring my “young man’s guide” which contains a whole transcription of the Tridentine rite, (In Latin and English) but it also contains a cornucopia of prayers meant to be said during mass.
Combine that with my bible that I brought and it makes for a very enlightening morning.
The length of the mass was abnormally long today not only because of the feats of the assumption, but also because it was the ordination of a new deacon, so there was much joy in the air today.
Afterwards I was invited to lunch with the deacon and his family, friends, and fellow religious for a meal, which was a very tasty Ethiopian spread, which included injaara, stewed potatoes & carrots, several different kinds of simmered legumes, and a few different kinds of meat toppings.
After that there was some song and dances put on by the local youth, it was very entertaining to watch, and it became hilarious when some of the elders and religious joined in.
Once lunch had ended I had the whole afternoon to myself, so I decided to see how the civil uprising that had taken place in the fungoldew republic was faring .
After close study, I discovered that in place of the monarchy, the general had established a dictatorship, forcing his people to build great towers in his “honor”, the tallest reaching several thousand nanometers into the sky, so after locating a cylindrical Hydrogen2Oxigen containment device (In civilian speak, a bucket) I started the suds flowing and released chemical warfare upon them, hurray!
Let’s see, other than that I spent some time practicing at sketchup7, which I am starting to get quite handy with.
Abba larcher has not been feeling well of late, and I was informed that he has and does suffer from several ailments, but regardless of his condition he strives forward, always with a cheery and prayerful disposition, and I have to say my admiration of his character grows more and more every day.
Day 12, Aug 23, Mon,
Br. Endalkachew has asked me to act as salesian chronicler while I am here, keep and update a scrapbook of sorts that list major campus happenings such as graduations and such.
I was able to enter one for a graduation class today in fact.
My schedule changed a bit today, instead of heading to the church for morning prayers and mass at 6:00am, we met at the chapel for Morning Prayer at 6:45.
Although I enjoyed getting some extra shuteye, I must confess I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t get to go to mass.
I was put at ease though, for I was informed by Br. Ephrem that mass would be held at 6:45pm, and much to my delight it was celebrated in English.
The only thing that kind of threw me off was at communion, instead of receiving the Eucharist from the priest, we all went up and took it ourselves.
I have experienced this before at a couple other masses, and although I somewhat understand the rationale behind it, (an attempt to imitate the last supper) But for me I have always found it uncomfortable, and I much prefer the Host being administered straight to my mouth, for me it has always kinda seemed like “manhandling,” if you will, the Precious Body, I am always afraid that a piece might fall to the ground, ETC, and I had never known what to do with my fingers afterwords, because if you watch what the priest does after communion, he washes his hands.
And I was in a bit of a dilemma after mass tonight, until I offered my discomfort to Jesus and asked Him what I should do, and almost immediately an image of washing my fingers over a cup, and then drinking the water, (like the priest does) came to my mind, and the discomfort was replaced with peace of mind.
Still, I don’t really want to repeat the experience, so I think I shall ask Abba if it’s alright if I received like I normally do.
Day 13, Aug 24, Tue,
I am very tired today, I woke up several times throughout the night due to the Waterfall, errr, I mean rain that was coming down on the roof, holy smokes was it loud.
I received a bit of a sunburn today, and that mixed with the lack of sleep, and the protest of my bowls at lunch this noontime (twas very oily) has left me a bit under the weather, no pun intended, so I shall be retiring tonight to hopefully catch up on some sawing of the logs.
Day 14, Aug 25, Wed,
Not much happened today, fixed a monitor for Bayu, that’s about it, although I have noticed a great deal of quartz crystals laying strewn about the grounds, This bears more investigation.
Day 15, Aug 26, Thu,
Had my first official day at the office, lol, if you can call it that, all I really did was study the and try and come up with a good course layout for class, and draft a letter addressed to the local populace informing them of the upcoming educational calendar.
Turns out I shall be teaching a two week long course, containing basics in Microsoft word, Excel, Access, as well as typing practices, rudimentary networking, a basic understanding of common Multimedia’s, and a rudimentary course in 3d modeling, But I am only going to be able to teach 5 students at a time until we can fix more of the computers.
It was nice to do something productive for a change.
Day 16, Aug 27, Fri,
The power was out for almost the entire day today, which made work at the office next to impossible, supposedly sometime in the future a generator is going to be set up just for the office and classrooms so that this docent happen, but we’ll see about that.
So today I mostly read up on material I will be using to teach class, kind of scary actually, I have never used Microsoft Access, and in about two weeks I am going to be teaching a class on it, lol.
Day 17, Aug 28, Sat,
After mass Br. Endalkachew informed me that on these next few Saturdays, the salesians help out with ground labor that the kids do to make keep up the condition of the compound, so after breakfast, (and a good 20 min bout with indigestion, yay) I went work on the Southside of the compound, where they were cutting the grass.
And by cutting grass I don’t mean like we do back state side, this was Frankenstein grass, they had to use machete’s and sickles to cut it, so all of it had to be done by hand.
All of the cutting implements were being used, so I located a rake that was not in use and went at it with gusto.
It was nice to do something physical for a change, few of the kids were of the same inclination I think, becouse as soon as the supervision left, they started to form groups of talkers, who eventually just ended up on the ground resting for the majority of the two hours spent.
There were a few hard workers though, One kid was helping me by picking up the piles of monster grass I was raking and throwing them in an ever increasing mound, and he was keeping up just fine.
I think I overdid it just a bit though, because I received several blisters from the rake I was using, but hopefully I gained some brownie points with the kids I was working with, although it turns out that they were all getting paid, so I basically gave the lazy kids free money, lol.
During a quick break, I taught (Sort of) the kid who was helping me how to make one of those grass “reed” instruments that creates animal calls, and he was thrilled with, and whenever he had a free second he would find a blade of grass and practice, by the time we were done working, I think he was better than I was.
Day 18, Aug 29, Sun,
Yesterday night, after my shower, I noticed that I was completely deaf in my left ear, this had happened a couple time before, so I went to sleep, expecting to wake up with it gone, not so, wasn’t much I could do about it as I had tried cleaning it to no avail, so I just went about my day as normally as I could.
Because of my hearing difficulty, I have found that my patience is a bit stretched today, I and I became very frustrated with during mass, by the end though, I had been restored to peace by the Lords graces.
Today was the feast day for the founding of the sisters of charity, (The group of Religious sisters that Mother Therese founded.) So Abba Thomas had asked me to set up a projector this evening to share a short montage about Mother Therese with the sisters this evening, (which reminds me, I forgot to mention in any of my other post that there was a compound belonging to the sisters in gambela, and I think there are four or five of them there.)
After evening prayers the sisters and the salesians were invited to dinner at the bishops, and great scot they had CHICKEN!!!!!! Oh how I did savor the delicious flavor of that toothsome fowl.
(It was a rather big deal because I have been unable to eat the meat due to how they prepare it {it’s very fatty and oily}, as it leaves my guts thrashing about like a wild mustang, so needless to say I dove into the chicken with gusto.)
After that most fulfilling of dinners, I felt like stargazing, for the sky had cleared up, and there was a most impressive display of galactic finery on display, thankfully I had brought a par of binoculars with me, so even though I didn’t have my telescope with me, I was still able to see some breathtaking sights.
Day 19, Aug 30, Mon,
At the office today I tried to boot one of the computers in the lab that wasn’t working with some Xp system disc’s I had found, but they were too scratched up to be of use.
Something of interest for you guys, today the government of gambela met, (and will continue to meet during the next few days) to determine the next ruling party, and Abba larcher offered the grounds and buildings of our compound for them to use, as a gesture of good faith, so as a result there are a lot of guards strolling around, makes for an exiting day.
Day 20, Aug 31, Tue,
Recently my stomach pains have been afflicting me more than normal, and due to my absence from prayers due to said affliction, Br. Enalkatchew decided that it would be best if we made an appointment to see a doctor in the nearby town of abobo,, so yeah, only two and a half weeks in and I’m seeing a doctor, I hope this isn’t a sign as to what is to come for the rest of the year, lol.
Also no power today, lol.
Day 21, Sep 1, Wed,
Went for my checkup, and while we were waiting to see the doctor we had a chance to tour the nearby salesian compound, and meet the very friendly peoples there.
Turns out we weren’t able to test today, so get to go tomorrow, Blargh.
Day 22, Sep 2, Thu,
Went again for my checkup, but due to equipment failures I wasn’t able to get tested again, lol, but that is okay, because yesterday I took some travel medicine that I had brought with me, and today I am feeling spiffy, so I think it was just my body trying to get used to the country, and after talking to the doctor and explaining my symptoms, she agreed.
I did get my ears cleaned though, holy clogged ear canals batman, the amount of wax that was removed from my ear was approx the size of a marble (which at first docent sound like much, but think about how big your average ear canal is.) Now I can hear EVERYTHING!!!!! It’s like being superman.
Since it was too late to head back to make it in time for lunch, I was invited to lunch with the abobo Salesians, and after a very fulfilling meal, I really do feel quite better.
Day 23, Sep 3, Fri,
Tried to learn Access today (whenever there was power), Holy mackerel it’s complicated, and I have to admit I have some reservations about my ability to teach this, Let’s hope I can learn enough to be of use.
On a lighter note, as I’ve been walking to and fro my office, I have been paying close attention to the crystals that I had mentioned were strewn about the ground, and at first I thought they were brought in with construction material, but now I am not so sure, because as I was digging around some of them, I find a clay-like deposit when I dug deeper, just like what we used to see when I went rock-hounding with my Dad and my Brother.
This calls for an excavation!
Day 24, Sep 4, Sat,
Today was Br. Ephrem’s last full day here, so I made sure I had gotten all his contact information so I can keep in touch with him, also exchanged some songs and computer programs and such.
Today I started my Crystal project, I started digging up some of the quartz, Great leapin’ lizards (which I have actually seen a great deal) some of the gems I’ve found are huge, most of them aren’t very pure, as in there is a lot of regular stone mixed in with them, but still, very neat.
Day 25, Sep 5, Sun,
After mass today Ephrem set off for the airport, I will sorely miss him, as he was the closest to my age out of the rest of the salesians.
Yesterday I had introduced Br. Legesse to a Mario game that I had brought with me, lol, and I hope I haven’t created a monster, becouse he has been playing it non-stop.
Power keeps flickering on and off, driving me crazy; Br. Endalkachew mentioned that it gets worse in the summer, so I guess I better start learning some card games
