To blog, or not to blog, that is the question.

Day 170, Jan 28, Fri, 99.1°F @ 2:54pm,

Woke up somewhat refreshed this morning, and headed to the office for my weekly internet update. I didn’t expect the internet to actually be working, and my expectations were verified once I arrived. I didn’t really mind, because I hadn’t quite fully caught up on all my writing, so I busied myself with trying to get all caught up by evening so I wouldn’t have to worry about it, however, to my delight, the internet started working at around 3:30pm, it was slow, but it was working, and I was finally able to check my emails. I really enjoy reading about what is happening with everyone stateside, it gives me something to look forward to during the week, which makes it that much more depressing when I am unable to access the internet. Of particular interest are the emails that I get from my family members describing the various events that are happening, it really helps me to feel not totally left out of the loop.



Day 171, Jan 29, Sat, 91.8°F @ 7:14pm,

Didn’t really sleep much last night, to bloody hot, and so when I dragged myself out of bed for mass this morning, I had to try extra hard not to fall asleep in church, lol. Luckily today was the ordination of Abba Deselagn, and I’ve never been to an ordination before, so not falling asleep wasn’t that challenging (Although there were a few points where I started nodding, the service was more than 3 ½ hours long after all, and all in Amharic, lol). After the mass there were two celebration events, the first was for the general parishioners, which involved much dancing and singing. The second was a luncheon for the newly ordained Abba Deselagn, his family members, friends, and fellow Salesians, I was fortunate enought to be able to attend both. The revelry lasted until around 3:30pm, after which I tried to take a nap, but was unsuccessful, to warm.



The rest of the afternoon and evening was uneventful, except for one startling episode which gave me a real scare. At around 11:00pm, Abba Thomas knocked on my door and bid me to come with him to Abba Larchers room right next door, saying that there was something wrong with him. Abba Larcher was lying quite still, murmuring to himself in a hushed tone, and when Abba Thomas told me to see how cold Abba’s feet were, they were like ice. Abba Thomas had already sent Br. Endalkachew to fetch a doctor as well as calling Bishop Angelo, but until they got here I had no idea what to do, my mind had gone blank, so I just started reciting rosary after rosary. Thankfully Bishop Angelo arrived in a few minutes, and after conversing with Abba Lacher in Italian, he set about making him as comfortable as possible, he massaged Abbas feat until some warmth returned to them, and then we covered them with a couple towels I had grabbed from the laundry room.



After about 20 minutes, Br. returned, bringing with him a local doctor, and as we waited anxiously he set about checking Abba’s vitals. After what seemed like an eternity (but what was probably no more than 5-10 minutes) the Doctor declared that Abba was okay, but that he would like to take him to the hospital to make sure. Bishop Angelo and Br. helped Abba to his feet and they set of in the cruiser for the hospital while I stayed behind and continued saying my rosaries (I was joined by Makona, an animator from the oratory. Somehow he had heard about Abba’s hospitalization, and he was not taking the news well, he was in a pretty bad state, so I invited him to join me in praying for Abba, which helped calm him down).



Abba and his escorts returned at around 12:30am, and it turns out that Abba is fit as a fiddle. They had thought that it could have been his diabetes, but his blood came back fine, so there thinking it was a stress induced panic attacked, which actually makes a great deal of sense with all the holiday activities that have been going on, (not to mention the increased heat). After making sure Abba was settled, I finally retired, completely exhausted, it’s been one of those long days.



Day 172, Jan 30, Sun, 93.7°F @ 3:12pm,

I ended up waking up late this morning and missing mass, I think this is the first time I have ever missed a Sunday service due to something that wasn’t sickness, and I was a bit disappointed about that, but I was consoled by the fact that it wasn’t on purpose that I missed it, and that the lack of sleep I experienced was because I stayed up waiting for Abba last night instead of going to sleep. Speaking of Abba, he decided to go to Addis and get checked in with the hospital up there, just to make sure that last night’s episode was only a panic attack (the trip also has a second purpose, it’ll allow him to relax and take it easy for a week and recover), and he caught the 12:15pm plane this afternoon, if everything goes over well, he should be back by this coming Wednesday.



At oratory today I taught some of the kids to play Liars Dice, quite a fun little game, to play each person has five dice (thankfully I had brought a whole bag of dice with me) and game proceeds with all the players rolling their dice (making sure to keep what they have a secret) and then the starting player states how many dice of a particular number are on the “table” (meaning the total added from each player), the next player, in clockwise order, then has the chance to either increase the previous call, state that the previous call was a lie, or state that the previous call was exactly the number stated. When someone is called a liar or if the call was stated as “spot on”, everyone reveals their dice and they are added up, if the total is equal to or higher than the stated number, then the person who called liar must give up a dice, if the total is less than, the person who lied must give up a dice, the same goes for calling spot on, if a player calls a “spot on” on a previous call, and the total ends up being exactly the number, the previous player must give up a die, whereas if the total is higher or lower, the person calling “spot on” must give up a dice.



I will give an example so that those of you who are interest can play. Say there is three players, for convenience sake we shall call them player 1, 2, and 3. All of them role their dice and player 1 starts the call, he has two dice that show 4, one dice that shows a 6, one dice that shows a 2, and one dice that shows 3. Since he has two 4’s, he decided that at least one of the other players has another 4, so he starts by saying that there are three 4’s ON THE ENTIRE TABLE. Now it’s player 2’s turn. He has three 1’s, one 5, and one 4. He has three options at this point, he can call player on a liar, but since he himself has one 4, the odds of there being equal to or higher than that number or high, so he decides not to that. The second thing he could do is call a “Spot On”, in other words he would be saying that he thinks there are exactly three 4’s ON THE ENTIRE TABLE, however, all three players still have all five of their dice, so calling a spot on this early in the game would be a bad idea. The third and final thing he could is Increase on the previous call, by either increasing the number of dice called, or a higher number. For instance, the previous call was three 4’s, player 2 can increase it by adding another dice and calling four 4’s, or he can increase the number, three 5’s, for example. One thing that the player should keep in mind is that they can never call a lesser number, for instance, player 2 couldn’t call two 6’s, because the number of dice is less than the previous call. So, let’s say player 2 decides to increase, and since he has three 1’s, and he guesses that there is probably at least one more 1 somewhere on the table, he calls four 1’s. It’s now player 3’s turn, and she has three 2’s and two 5’s. Since she docent have any ones she decides to call player two a liar. After she has stated that she thinks player 2 is a liar, every player reveals what dice they have, and since there are only three 4’s on the table, player 3 was correct in calling player 2 a liar, and player 2 must give up a die. The game then continues with everyone rolling their dice again, and then the calling/bidding starts again, starting with the player who lost a die in the previous round, so in this case it is player 2. This round player 2 got a lucky hand and rolled four 5’s, so he decided to state that there are five 5’s on the table. Now it’s player 3’s turn, she has one 1, one 3, one 6, one 2 and one 4. She decides to call player 2 a liar, so everyone reveals their dice, apart from player 2’s four 5’s, player 1 also has two 5’s, for a total of six 5’s, so player 2 is correct and player 3 must give up a dice for falsely accusing player 2. The game continues in this manner until all but one persons dice is gone, at which point they are declared the winner. One other thing I should mention, the “spot on” call isn’t really used much in the first round (unless there is only two players, at which point it becomes a viable option) due to the unlikelihood of the call being exactly right, however, as the rounds progress and the amount of dice that players have left dwindles, it becomes a very powerful strategy.



The best thing about this game is how you have to change your playing style as the rounds progress, because the calls you would make if you have five players with a total of twenty five dice, is very different from how you will need to play when there is just two of you left with only four dice on the table. How well you know how a person plays can also heavily affect the outcome, for instance, if you know that when player 2 only has two dice left, he tends to tell the truth when he calls, whereas when player 3 gets down to two dice, she tends to lie more, that can be game changing information.



Well, I hope I have explained it efficiently and simply enough that some o’ you readers will become players, and I’ll leave you with today’s prayer (which is a very handy one for youths n’ young adults who don’t quite know where their place in the world is, like me, lol):



Prayer for Direction

Lord God,

It is not clear to me how I should spend my life.

It is not clear to me the way I should go.

I am often confused.

So many attractive things hold out empty promises for happiness.

Help me, through the prayers of Saint John Bosco, who was a friend to any young person in need.

Help me to know Your will for me, and give me the courage to follow.

May I know the true joys that are only found in giving my life for others.


A young child looks through a great stained glass window, watching the people go by. Everyone seems to be wearing a red coat; his mother sees jackets in white. Now he can’t understand, why does she see it this way? Freedom is sometimes just simply another perspective away. ~Kutless




Day 173, Jan 31, Mon, 101.8°F @ 12:03pm, Feast of St. John Bosco,

Finally got a good night’s sleep last night, and I woke up right on time for mass. Since today was the feast of St. John Bosco, as well as the last day of “School” before “winter” break, there were a couple events. The primary school had games and prizes as well as a breakfast biscuit; while at the technical institute we watched a video about the formation of the Salesians which resulted from St. John Bosco’s work (I think many of them were somewhat surprised to see oratory’s that were in other countries) as well as a documentary about Martin King his contribution to the equality of race in America (Watching the documentary with the students was really interesting, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more proud (because we did overcome it), but at the same time so ashamed (because it never should have happened in the first place), to be an American. To all those people out there who think America is the greatest thing since sliced bread and can’t do no wrong, go to a third world country {*cough* Africa *Cough*} and watch a film that touches on how your country treated the people from said country, I’ll tell ya what, it’s humbling, to say the least). After the film, we (the technical facility) did some games (one was a word/action game, were Br. Endalkachew repeated two words, one word meant to point your fingers up, the other meant to point the our fingers down, but while he said the words he would also point his own fingers up or down, sometimes the opposite way according to the word he said, which fooled many people in pointing the wrong way. I taught them the other game, it’s called Ninja, and you play by getting a group of people in a circle, have them assume martial arts poses, and then they take turns trying to hit each other’s hands, the catch is that they can only make one strike at a time, and once the make the strike, they have to leave their hand wherever it stopped, it’s great fun), and then had a snack of biscuits and soft drinks. After everyone had finished their food items, everyone was given a Salesian T-shirt and then they were all herded in front of the office building for a photograph.



After lunch we started setting up the residential compound for dinner tonight, which was going to involve about thirty people, from Bishop Angelo and his seminarians, to the Sisters and office workers. After all the tables were set up, Abba Thomas gave me a computer assignment, I was to copy out the evening prayer and print out pamphlets for each guest. I wasted no time in completing the task, and managed to finish it in about an hour and a half, after which I took a quick hour nap before the guests arrived.



At 6:45pm all the guests started to show up, and by 7:10 we were able to start the evening prayer (during the prayer I noticed I had accidently left some spelling mistakes in the prayer pamphlets, oops.). We finished prayers at 7:25pm, and it was on to the feast! Most of the food was the usual Ethiopian fare, however, lucky lucky me, there was pizza (in reality flatbread made with a bisquick dough and topped with tomato Sauce? And Chess?) as well as the spicy wot that I like (which is really quit excellent when combined with the pizza, lol. I actually think the wot would make for an amazing barbecue sauce, I have to remember to get the recipe before I go).



There was much laughing and jesting, and an overall cheerful and happy atmosphere, although the lack of Abba Larchers presence was definitely felt. After dinner was over, I took a photo of everyone (which I don’t think turned out very well, my camera docent take very good night photo’s) and then helped with clean up. After everything was sufficiently tidied up, decided to hit the hay, I had to rest up for tomorrow because even though I didn’t have any technical classes, I am still teaching the kindergarten on Tuesdays.



Day 174, Feb 1, Tue, 97°F @ 3:12pm,

Good Lord I think I flipped my lid today! The sisters are very understaffed at the moment, two of the sister had gone back to Addis, which meant that only three sisters were left to run everything, and on top of that, two of the teachers have stopped showing up for classes, so they are stretched to the limit. As a result of this I ended up teaching the same class for all three periods, WHICH WAS BAD JUJU! The first class was okay, even superb, they behaved themselves, they were doing the exercises, etc, but during the second class order started to break loose, only about half of the second class ended up being productive. The third class was literally HELL! They weren’t listening to a thing I said, they had developed a mob mentality, and they even started fighting over pens! I decided that I would solve the fighting over school supplies problem by gathering up all their supplies and keeping it until the end of class, in theory it sounded like a brilliant idea, and maybe it would have worked if I had but the supplies in a different room (Doh, on my part) but as it was I only gathered everything on a classroom table, big mistake! As soon as I had turned my back, they all literally rushed to grab everything, it was every child for itself, it was chaos, havoc, MADNESS! In particular was one group of about 5 kids, who were literally all grabbing at the same two pens and yelling like beasts. At that point I genuinely became angry and grabbed the pen from them, broke it, and tossed it out the window. I then went around threatening to break the pen of the next person who causes trouble. It didn’t really accomplish much, and in the end the only one who was feeling bad was me, because a couple of the kids had started crying after I broke the pens (most likely the actual owners of said utensil) and it really made me feel cruddy. I am going to bring some pens to class next week and replace the ones I destroyed.



After the class I made sure to talk to sister and discuss what had happened, and in particular I discussed furnishing each kid with their own pen/pencil and notebook (which I would be more than happy to provide) which they were only allowed to use during class, and as soon as class is over, it gets returned to the teacher, thus eliminating these stupid fights. I also suggested that there be some kind of reward/ramification system put in place, because they way that the teachers are teaching them (through fear of corporal punishment) is counterproductive. Not only did sister agree with me, but she had actually been planning to carry out the same adjustments, which made me feel a little better.



I returned from my battle much worse for wear, and would have immediately taken a nap if it weren’t for the fact that the salesians were holding a luncheon for all the staff of the Don Bosco compound, in thanks for all that they had done, so I ended up sticking around and taking some pictures of the event, as well as taking a bite to eat. As soon as it was ended though, I went and took my much needed nap, and woke up feeling quite a bit better.



The afternoon was free, so was able to do some reading, as well as finish a game that I had been slowly playing through. Dinner was a bit special tonight, as we had some of the leftovers from the previous feasts (I’m always somewhat leery of leftovers here though, I don’t know how long that they have been sitting out, lol).



Day 175, Feb 2, Wed, 99.8°F @ 3:32pm,

So, today we had some visitors arrive, there was Abba Sandro, the Economer from Addis, as well as Abba Klement Vaclav (who is from Slovakia), the General councilor of missions (in other words, he’s the head honcho where any Salesian missions are concerned). We had the usual welcome with the primary school students (which I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of), but we also had an unusual even. The Salesian have been building a hostel that will provide student who come from far away a place to stay, so while he was here, the Salesians managed to convince Abba Klement to bless the foundation, which was pretty neat.



This evening our guests went to watch some TV after dinner and discovered that the satellite wasn’t working, and I realized with a start that I had no idea when the satellite could have gone out, as I have not watched TV for several weeks now! Lol, I guess I’ve been too busy reading and writing as well as using my computer to watch the ol’ “couch potato-fyer”, which is a good thing in my book.



And speaking of books, I’ve almost finished “The man who knew too much”, I should be able to finish it sometime early next week. So far it’s been a very fascinating book, the main “Hero” (if you could call him that, I think I’ll call him the main protagonist instead) is a man very much like Sherlock Holmes, in relation to their accumulated knowledge and knowhow, however, that’s where their similarities end, for this protagonist carries with him a profound sense that he really does know too much as well as an almost fatalistic attitude of indifference, lol, an interesting combination to be sure. The book itself seems to me an excuse for its author to experiment with various character themes, viewpoints, and in particular plot twists, for instance, with what seemed to be ending up usually what wasn’t, until you find out that it was, just not in the way you thought it was…lol.



Day 176, Feb 3, Thu, 100.3°F @ 3:28pm,

Abba’s Klement and Sandro visited Pignudo today with Br. Giancarlo, which left the majority of the daily basically free, which was spent in the usual way, typing up teh blog, reading, computering (or is it computing…Hmm), Etc.



When the sojourners returned from their trip to the countryside this evening, we all gathered at the church for evening prayers and adoration (which I was late to because I had left my camera in my room, which meant I had to walk all the way back to retrieve it, argh, lol), and afterwards we had a meal together at the vicariates (bishops) residence. The meal was rather interesting, it was the Ethiopian fare, but there was also spaghetti, complete with marinara, however, the sauce had a strange taste to it, and I spent the first half of the evening trying to figure out what I was tasting, I then realized in a flash of inspiration that the cooks had used ketchup as a base, and that’s what I was tasting. Mmmm, ketchup marinara, lol, actually it wasn’t that bad, which I find somewhat sad as it rather exemplifies the plainness of the majority of the food I usually eat here, lol. After our meal of condiment pasta and after we bid goodnight to our fellow salesians dinner guests, we headed back to our compound, where I spent a little bit catching up on journaling before hitting the sack.



An while I’m on the topic, It’s been kinda hard to keep up with all my writings, especially my journaling, I am very inconsistent when it comes to adding entries, and sometimes I end up having to catch up with several days worth of entries. It docent exactly help that I am basically writing the same thing in both the journal and the blog, so maybe I should differentiate the two by making my journal entries shorter but more spiritual/personal? Something to consider at least.



Anyhow, enough of my chronicling woes, it’s time for a haiku! I have been debating with myself about whether or not to include a short explanation of my Haiku/poems, but I have come to the conclusion that it is much more fun to think about the meaning for yourself (plus the titles tend to be plenty of a description of the contents, I think), just keep in mind that some of the poems could have multiple meanings, last week’s Haiku: “25th”, for instance, it’s one of my favorites.



Empty Promises

Loneliness is here,
“Friends” fall away from my life,
Like leaves in autumn.



Day 178, Feb 4, Fri, 99.8°F @ 3:17pm,

So, today was the last official day of “winter” school for the technical school students (the primry had theirs on Monday), and in celebration of this they held a football which consisted of both teachers and students intermixed into the two teams. It was a very interesting match, if anything else, these Ethiopians take their footballin’ quit seriously, and I managed to take some pretty good pictures and video clips of the best parts.



Frs. Klement and Sandro returned to Addis today at to continue their work, leaving us to continue ours, although that work is somewhat cut due to the lack of school, I guess you could say it’s vacation time, lol, although there is still Oratory to attend, and actually, Oratory is being held every day during this school break, so there’s always that to look forward to.



Day 179, Feb 5, Sat, 100.1°F @ 2:59pm,

Its strange how days filled with nothing can go by so quickly sometimes, particularly when those things are enjoyable, while at other times it can pass so slow, an amazing thing space and time is, theory of relativity and all that.



As you might have guessed by the rambling prologue, nothing of particular curiosity happened this day, although we did hear from Abba Larcher, apparently he received a clean bill of health from the hospital in Addis, and will hopefully be back sometime tomorrow (It turns out he had been prescribed slightly to much medicine for his ailments while he was here in Gambella, which wasn’t causing any harm, but was making him more susceptible to stress, which led to the incident last Saturday, so the doctors in Addis prescribed a slightly lesser dose which should be much more beneficial for him).



Other than Abba’s return tomorrow, there is one other visit that I am really looking forward to, Adam Rudin will be arriving this coming Wednesday, I’m quite excited to have another forengy (what they call foreigners here) to talk to, and I should be able to finally set in concrete my return date to the states, among other things.



Day 180, Feb 6, Sun, 98.9°F @ 4:01pm, ½ a year has passed,

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s already been a hundred and eighty days since I arrived in Ethiopia! Up to this moment it seemed that it would take forever for half a year to pass, but now that it has arrived, it hardly feels like any time has passed at all!



As I look back on the past hundred and eighty day that I’ve spent here, I can’t help but think that they were somewhat insignificant when change is concerned, but I guess that’s expected. We were told during our training that we shouldn’t expect to change much during our volunteer periods, and it’s true, I’m just one dude, from a country literally on the other side of the globe, who is here for a measly year, and have little to contribute, whereas there are people who were born here, have spent all their lives working to change the condition here, and have accomplished much. This raises the question, what is my main purpose here? And I am reminded again about our training (which I am incredibly thankful for, it prepared me for so much), the main purpose of us Lay Mission volunteers is just to be a presence here, to show that there are people in the world who care about people and are willing to live/play/learn with them. And in that regard, I think I have made an impact, although not as big a one as I would have like, so I will have to work harder this next half year to make my presence more felt, in particular with the children, difficult though it may be at times.



Abba Larcher did arrive today, and the youths of the Oratory showed up en’ mass to greet him, I belive there was over a thousand of them present, and the dust that they stirred up with their shuffling feet as the tarried here and there created a veritable cloud that darkened the sun, lol.



The prayer I picked for today is really very proper, considering my resolutions for this coming six months, and I think it can apply to anyone in any situation.



A final prayer after Communion:

What strength have you not imparted to my soul, good Lord, by means of this Holy Communion!

Oh how much I need it!

The road that I have to traverse is so difficult that without you I would fear to venture upon it.

In a short time I shall return to my daily occupations; I shall continue my life of yesterday; I shall be exposed to the same temptations, I shall find myself with my usual faults. But Jesus, You who helped the saints, you have come to me.

Stay, oh stay with me, and do, by Your grace, help me to preserve in all my words actions, modesty, meekness, and humility.

Help me to make Your presence within me visible to all; let other see in me the sweetness of Your charity, generosity, and kindness.

Amen.



Day 181, Feb 7, Mon, 99.6°F @ 12:16pm,

Br. Legesse left for a meeting in Addis today. I’m not quite sure when he will be back; it’s gonna be quieter and a bit lonely around here without him to talk to. It feels kinda weird, not having any English classes in the morning, and with the extra abundance of free time I’m sometimes at a loss as to what to do. There’s always the usual, reading books, whistle (which I confess I havn’t been practicing enough of) writing, etc. Recently I rediscovered a video game on my computer that I used to play a lot when I was younger, that’s been helping to fill up the empty time, and I get quite a nostalgic feeling when I play it, lol. However, the power has been on the fritz again, and so anything electronic of course get affected by this, resulting in only periodic moments of these electronic respites.



Day 182, Feb 8, Tue, 101.4°F @ 3:32pm, Feast of St. Bakhita,

The temperature seems to be getting hotter and hotter as the weeks progress, and the humidity seems to be heightening as well, with a lot of that sticky heat feeling some days. I had started to get used to the heat at night and was beginning to get more sleep than usual, but last night was definitely not the case, I tossed and turned till around 2:30am (I think), and so I ended up sleeping through my alarm and missing the majority of the morning activities, which included the kinder classes, blargh! There is some good news though, I finally received a cell phone, so I spent a good part of the afternoon just going around and collecting numbers to add to it, so now not only will be able to coordinate things a little easier here locally, but also my folks back home will have a more reliable number to reach me by.



This afternoon I was also able to finish my book, “the man who knew too much”, and have started on “The missionary call” a book that my soon to be sister-in-law sent me along with the last “goodies” package. I’m really going to enjoy reading this one; I bet it will have a lot of relevant information regarding my stay here.



Of special note, today is the feast day of St. Bakhita, a Sudanese saint, who happens to also be the patroness of Gambella. I don’t know much about her, but what I have heard seems pretty interesting, so I am going to try and find an English source of knowledge about her (it seems like most is in Italian, lol).



Day 183, Feb 9, Wed, 105.7°F @ 3:21pm,

Last night I got some decent sleep, wasn’t able to fall asleep until around 12:30pm, but I din’t toss or turn any, so I woke up fairly refreshed and ready for the day, and I was very excited in anticipating Adam’s arrival today.



At 11:30am we left for the airport (Teshome and I), and arrived there around 11:52am (no complications at the gate this time, as I remembered my passport, lol), sat down under some shade and read my newly started book as I waited for the airplane. At 12:55pm the plane landed, and a little while later the passengers started to disembark the aircraft. I kept my eyes peeled and searched for Adams familiar features, but to my confusion he was nowhere to be found! I waited until everyone accumulated at the checkpoint and started gathering their luggage and scanned the small crowd, hoping to spot my director, but again, no such luck. It then became quite apparent to me that he had not been on the flight, which left me to think of two reasons why he was not on it, the first was that there had been some kind of complication in Addis and he hadn’t been able to fly today. This reason was possible, but I dismissed it, because I am quite sure that Adam would have called to inform us of this. The second reason was that I had been confused and thought he was coming today when in fact he was coming next week. I thought this last cause was the most likely culprit, and so we headed back to our compound, where I was able to check the schedule, and sure enough, he was coming next week on the 16th, lol. Oh well, I guess one more week it is then.



I learned today that us Salesians will be entertaining a rather uncommon guest in a few days, apparently the Patriarch of the Orthodox church will be paying a visit to Gambella, and has asked specifically if it would be possible to stay with us! This is quite the honor, especially when you consider that our accommodations are, quite frankly, less than ideal, and despite being told this, he was still set on residing here for the few days that he will be spending in town.



Day 184, Feb 10, Thu, 99°F @ 3:02pm,

Wow, it’s Thursday already? I guess time flies when you’re roasting alive, hehe. Anyhow, been reading more of the book “The missionary call”, the beginning primarily deals with the discerning process, and at first I didn’t think it would have much relevancy for me, since I am already on a mission. I was mistaken though, as it ended up being very helpful when I applied it to whether or not I should continue doing missions. I am sure that as I continue reading, many of my questions, and reservations for that matter, shall be put to rest.



One thing I forgot to mention yesterday, was just how hot it got, it was by far the hottest it’s been so far during my stay here, but thankfully the humidity was fairly low, so I could stay in the shade with relatively little discomfort whereas venturing into direct sunlight felt like what I imagine an insect underneath the lens of an antagonistic child’s magnifying glass must feel like. I have been trying to get a strait and consistent answer from the locals concerning whether or not the current temperature is normal, higher, or lower then it usually is this time of year, but so far it seems everyone is divided o the subject, some state adamantly that it is hotter, others that it is much cooler, while other just shrug their shoulders and mumble that its normal. While no one can agree as to the temperature in regards to its past inflection, all have no problem in stating that, yes, it is hot right now, which puts me at a little ease, since I am not the only one thinking it, lol.



I spent the afternoon talking to Bayu and Surafle about whatever crossed our minds. One of the topics was the Ark of the covenant, another was the difference between addictions and obsessions, while another was about the pyramids (and whether or not it was the Hebrews or aliens that built them, lolz). One of the topics, which I initiated, was the stranded island quiz (for those of you unfamiliar with it, you ask someone: if they were stranded on an island, and they could bring so many of something, what would they bring), I asked for three movies and surafle said Sherlock Holmes, Van Helsing, and Wrong Turn (lol, I have to say that I never expected those). For books he would bring an encyclopedia, a dictionary, and an Ethiopian novel whose name escapes me. Then there were songs and survival things, for songs all of his choices were Amharic songs, and for the implement of survival he picked matches, a machete, and a pan. The last choices were what three foods to bring, and he said, A hamburger (specifically McDonalds, lol), injara, and butter, whereas Bayu (who had just stumbled in to our conversation) said cabbage, beef, and potatoes (basically the things that I have to eat every day, lol, so at least I know he is happy with the food here). I think it is always fascinating to find out how peoples priorities differ, so I think maybe I’ll try asking the same quiz to various people and see just how much they may or may not be the same.



Anyhowz, here is the haiku of the week, enjoy.



Midday

The sun has reached noon,
Yet shadows still fill the path,
Where to go from here?