In Africa, no one can hear you scream………..lol.

Day 82, Nov 1, Mon, All Saints Day,

Turns out I did the I.D. Cards wrong, I had written the second and last names in the wrong placese, (although it wasn’t really my fault, that’s how they were written on the files that I was getting information from, plain weird If ya ask me.) So I spent the entirety of the morning fixing the darned things. In the afternoon I was finally able to get around to checking my email. I think something has happened to the internet, It is really hard to get a good connection from my office, it takes forever to do things now, Blargh!!!



Day 83, Nov 2, Tue, All Souls Day,

Finally!!! I finished up the I.D’s, And this time they are correct (I discovered that I had also screwed up some of the ages, darned 7 yr difference between E.C. and G.C.) So I printed them out and started putting them together, however, only about 2/3 of the employees had their pictures taken, so now I have to wait for them to show up to finish everything 100%. In the afternoon half of the office day I worked on my composition class, tomorrow we will be covering verbs. Before I left the office for the day, I had been playing around with the scraps of leftover paper from the I.D.’s, making them into Helicopters and Airplanes. Surafle and Astere (the Accountant and the cleaning lady) noticed what I was doing and became fascinated, I ended up staying late and making some extra Helicopters for Astere and Her kids, as well as playing around with different paper airplane designs with Surafle.

(I should mention, Astere, Surafle, Bayu, William, and Legesse have become my four closest friends. I spend most of my free time with legesse, and when I’m in the office, Astere teaches me a bit of Amharic, and I am always having conversations with Bayu, Surafle & William.)

This evening, as I was walking to the chapel for evening prayers, I gazed up at the night sky, as is my habit, and to my surprise the night air was chock-a-bloc full of African fireflies, spectacular!



Day 84, Nov 3, Wed,

English went well, (Although I ended up waking up late, My Alarm clocks acting up again) And the homework count was up as well, it seems as time goes on, most of the people who were not really interested in learning strained away. After reviewing the homework though, I have observed that there are a couple people who are copying each other’s work, so I will have to have a word with them next time. After Lunch I found another praying mantis, and this time I was able to take some good pictures of him, (I’ve named him Ferris, Because the Amharic word for Praying Mantis sounds similar) and I even managed to construct a sort of terrarium of sorts, so I’m going to try and keep him as a pet of sorts, it depends on if I can successfully feed him, if I can’t I’m just going to release him. I hope I can though, I think Praying Mantis’s are the coolest insects ever! In the evening I taught the seminarian comp class, today’s subject was the hardware, the segment went over well, the students asked plenty of question, and we used up all the time allotted.



Day 85, Nov 4, Thu,

Gah! I’ve accidently slept in for the past two days; I think my body is telling me to get more sleep. It’s very difficult to get to sleep early though, I just end up lying awake, tossing and turning until forever it seems. What I usually end up doing is stay up reading a book or watching TV until I get sleepy, which is usually somewhere between 11:00-12:00pm. Blargh, stuck between a rock and a hard place. But I digress, the morning was same old’ same old, but in the afternoon we stopped by the sisters to pick up something they had prepared for Br. GianCarlo’s feast day (Which I’m still somewhat confused about, it’s not his birthday, and it’s not the celebration of his becoming a Brother, it has something to do with the Milan province of Italy, as well as the feast day of St. Charles Borromeo. I think it is just an excuse to have a feast day, which is perfectly fine by me, lol) the dish that the sisters gave us turned out to be pizza! (Well, more like a bisquick flatbread of sorts with topping, but I’m not complaining.) Not only that, but it was three different kinds, one was onion, one was tomato, and one was cheese. We also had a kind of curried rice of sorts, a dish of chicken, and salad, holly bloated bellies batman! A feast fit for a king. I also found out that Ferris (My praying mantis) likes to eat shield bugs, which can be found in abundance at night, so I think I will be able to keep him, sweet.



Day 86, Nov 5, Fri,

Tonight I lugged out my telescope and set it up in the middle of our residential compound. Jupiter was out again and this time I was able to see three of its moons, as well as the major and minor stripes. The night was so clear that I could see the Orion nebula with my naked eye, it was even more amazing through the telescope though.



Day 87, Nov 6, Sat,

Today I woke up early and rode with Abba Filipo, Abba Thomas, and several church members to the town of Lare. (There was a trio of elderly ladies in the car with us, who for the majority of the trip were either singing songs, or cracking jokes, it was pretty funny to see these old birds so full of life.) We were going there to celebrate the institution of a priest as pastor of the parish. The town is about an hour and a half to the north east of Gambella, a mere seventeen km from the border of Sudan. We arrived at around 7:20am, the town is an interesting place, very different from Gambella, a great deal of the town is under water during the rainy season, very swampy, so there are elevated walkways going to the houses and stores. Thankfully most of the water had dried, so all that was left was cracked dried mud. The people at the church were very welcoming, even the children, (from my experience so far, most of them are usually quite shy in this area of Ethiopia) and everyone crowded around to shake everyone’s hands, it was a bit over whelming.

There were a few people who were here for the celebration from other towns I recognized as well, there was Carlos and Maria, from Abobo, Abba Tulio from Itang, And several of the sisters of charity, from Gambella. Bishop Angelo proceeded over the service, which lasted close to two hours. (The mass itself included the confirmation of several candidates, as well as much musical presentations by the villagers. After mass there was much picture taking with the bishop, then everyone gathered for lunch, consisting of rice, Wot, Cabbage and carrots, and some kinda fish, not too bad. We left right after the meal and started back for Gambella. On the way, one could not help but notice all the people swimming in the plethora of streams and ponds which dotted the sides of the road, most of which were wearing nothing but their birthday suits, lol. Needless to say, I spent the majority of the time focusing on the landscape instead, which was stunning, some of the jungle was still flooded, and the light streamed through the branches and leaves and reflected of the water, magnificent. I wish I could have taken a picture, but my camera had run out of batteries half way through mass. We arrived home around 2:30pm-ish, and the rest of the afternoon was spent seeking relief from the heat. (The roads are so dusty now that I had to take a shower when we got back; the amount of dust is obcene.)



Day 88, Nov 7, Sun,

Today I finally made some progress in the oratory. I had crafted a checker set (consisting of a cardboard playing board and bottle caps for pieces) I convinced Br. Legesse to play a round with me, and sure enough a crowd of children gathered round to watch. After we had finished that round, several of the kids played me. I lost every game, so I guess it was also a lesson in humility for me as well, lol. (Anyone who knows me, knows that I really, REALLY, hate losing…at anything) I am going to make a habit of attending every Saturday and Sunday, no matter how busy I am.



Now for this week’s prayer:


Teach me, teach me dearest Jesus,
In thine own sweet, loving way,
All the lessons of perfection
I must practice day by day.


Teach me Meekness, dearest Jesus,
Of thy own the counterpart;
Not in words and actions only,
But the meekness of the heart.


Teach Humility, sweet Jesus,
To this poor, proud heart of mine,
Which yet wishes, O my Jesus,
To be modeled after Thine.


Teach me Fervor, dearest Jesus,
To comply with every grace,
So as never to look backwards,
Never slacken in the race.


Teach me Poverty, sweet Jesus,
That my heart may never cling,
To whate’er its love might sever,
From my savior, spouse, and king.


Teach me Chastity, sweet Jesus,
That my every day may see,
Something added to the likeness
That my soul should bear to Thee.


Teach Obedience, dearest Jesus,
Such as was Thy daily food
In Thy tiresome earthily journey
From the cradle to the grave.



Teach Thy Heart to me, dear Jesus,
Is my fervent, final prayer;
For all the beauties and perfections
Are in full perfection there.


Day 89, Nov 8, Mon,

Busy, busy. In the morning I went about doing my usual Monday routine, (preparing for Wednesday class, updating the chronicle, updating the I.D. whenever someone showed up to get their photo taken, etc.) and after lunch (which is usually semi-free) I walked to the Church to help Abba Thomas with the parish computers. First order of business was getting the internet to work again. Abba had recently obtained a broadband adapter from addis, but they had forgotten to include a simm card, so we headed out to the telecommunications in Gambella to see if it was possible to obtain one. As we were walking into the building I got a bit of a shock, I noticed a man out of the corner of my eye walking down the street, holding a pistol, not in a threatening way or anything like that, but it was like he was playing around with it. He was handling it with the proper amount of respect it deserved, which sooner or later will result in accident. I prayed that no-one would get hurt due to his carelessness. He disappeared around a corner and I continued inside with Abba, (who I think had missed the spectacle, or maybe he was just better than me at hiding his surprise) the incident was soon forgotten as we waited to be attended to. As we were waiting, I noticed that there was another individual who had a similar adapter, apparently these things are more popular then I first thought (or maybe they just had more problems and that is way he was there?) Eventually our turn came up, and we found out it would be possible to get a simm card there, but it would take a day, and Abba would have to come back with some I.D. and a photo. So we headed back to the church and I started to defrag and clean up Abba’s compy, but unfortunately the power went kaput, so I waited around a little to see if the power would come back on, but it didn’t, so I headed back to the residential compound and read. In the evening Abba Filipo came by, so dinner had a bit more variety. During dinner the power switched (the compound has a generator that they switch on in the evening for prayers and dinner, if power returns to the town, they have to turn off the generator first, and then they switch to town power and turn it back on, resulting in a about minute of darkness in between) and during the darkness Br. Legesse made rat scurrying sounds, which freaked us all out, twas quit funny. After dinner I decided to try and go to sleep early, so I could wake up semi refreshed for once, but I ended up reading until around 9:30, which is still earlier than usual though.



Day 90, Nov 9, Tue, Happy quarter anniversary!

For the next ten days, I will be taking over on of Abba Larchers class periods while he is away at a meeting in South Africa. I will be teaching spoken English as well as how to apply it to giving speeches, proper greetings and how to treat customers, and also how to record conversations effectively. So in today’s class I decided only to go over a general outline of the coming classes so that would totally be freaked out. After class, Peter (our driver) handed me a receipt for a package that was being held for me at the post office, lol, about freakin’ time, it has been nearly a month since I was told by my family that they had sent it. I had a few tasks to complete first, so I had to wait until after lunch to go and get it. At 3:00, I was finally free to go, so I asked William, (our other driver) to give me a ride, and soon I was standing outside of the post office, a rather diminutive building, and waited for them to locate my parcel. Once they found, I had to show them my passport, sign a waiver, and pay a 7birr handling fee, (which is the equivalent of about 50 cents) and finally it was mine, Mwahahaha! It was A LOT bigger then I had imagined it would be. Once I got back to our compound I unpacked everything, SO MANY THINGS!!! Japanese candies from Uwajimaya, (White rabbit creams, Pocky, and mango rice jubes (Uwajimaya is an Asian specialty store that I used to frequent frequently) Beef Jerky, (Huzzah!) Gummy bears, (I kid you not, I had actually dreamed about those little bugger more than once since I’ve been here.) A bag of chocolate chips (which had unfortunately had almost melted into a single slab of Gooey goodness) Halloween peeps, (lol, only 9 days late I guess, well, there is always thanksgiving, aye?) “Oat n’ Honey” “Natures valley” granola bars, (Good Lord, THE CRUNCHY GOODNESS!!!) A couple packs of instant potatoes, (Lol, nothing lets you know that your loved like a bowl full of mashed ‘taters.) Packets of green tea & hot coco, (Thank goodness, I was getting somewhat tired of drinking the same thing every morning) A jiffy popcorn stove popcorn unit, (what more could I possible need to watch MacGyver in style?) a few packages of water balloons, (which should come in handy during the coming dry season, Aye?) a snowglobe of seattle, Wa. (Oh crazy seattle, how I miss thee so!) And best of all, an armload of letters, as well as a birthday card with pictures of the whole family. (Which I wasted no time in showing to the peoples in the office, ^_^) I actually teared up as I was reading the letters, It was so nice to hear from them, (and I do mean hear, as I was reading, in my mind it was their voices that I heard.) it seems like forever since I have been part of their lives. I am incredibly grateful to God for giving me such a wonderful family, receiving this care package has made my stay here both easier and harder, easier because I know I have the support of my family, and harder because I can’t wait to see them again. Today is also my quarter anniversary; I’ve been here for ninety days! It seem like it has been so short, and yet the time remaining can seem so immense. Needless to say, tonights MacGyver episode is gonna be sweet!



Day 91, Nov 10, Wed,

English comp was a bit complicated this morning, we were learning about adjectives and the students had some difficulty understanding the concept. In the second half of the class they made some good progress though, I guess I’ll find out when they turn in their homework assignments next week. Speaking of homework, this week almost all of them have turned in theirs, not only that, but the majority of it was correct, in that regard at least I know were making some ground. Today we also had some visitors, a delegation from a from a group of NGO’s that are supporting the technical institute, In alphabetical order they are: Barrack, Gloria & Maria-sarah. I didn’t really get to talk to them much; I had the seminarian class this evening, (Which went well, we covered the various kinds of software programs, and their uses, as well as how to install/Uninstall them.) and when I had gotten back they had already retired for the night, so I stayed up a bit with legesse and played a quize game on the computer. (It was one of those Encarta dictionary programs; it had some pretty fun knowledge tests)

I am very excited about tomorrow, I have been granted an opportunity to talk in front of the morning gathering of primary students, and I have been practicing a magic trick that I will be using to enhance the message that I am trying to get across, gonna be great….hopefully.

"Such as I have, I will give thee, we will go to Africa, and I will give myself for your son." ~St. Paulinus of Nola

Day 71, Oct 21, Thu,

Today we had a meeting with the teaching staff of the technical institute, which was held by a government sponsored group who was promoting a new teaching standard. Apparently, the government, with the help of some European countries, is trying to standardize the schooling curriculum throughout the country, which is both positive and negative for us here. Positive, because it will allow students to start College in, say, Abobo, and be able to finish it in Addis ababa. Negative because it has been somewhat poorly planned and implemented, and is very inconvenient for institutions that are already doing well, such as ours. It also feels as though they are treating the couple batches students who will be using this new system as guinea pigs, so at the moment we are working together with the group to come to a beneficial compromise.



Day 72, Oct 22, Fri,

Today, at 11:30am, Br. Endalkachew drove me to the nearby town of Itang, about an hour’s journey northeast from Gambella and we made it there in good time. I was met by Abba Tulio, (he is the one who invited me out here, he’s been the pastor here for 8 yrs.) and I was taken on a tour as he explained the mission projects, which are a lot different from those in Gambella. For one, it’s much smaller, the entire mission is run solely by Abba Tulio, occasionally he’s had help, but for the vast majority it been just him. The amount of people he administers to is quite small as well, only around a few dozen. The kinds of things he had to deal with are a lot different as well, at the start of his ministry here, I guess the town was basically the Gaza strip of Ethiopia, with the Annuak and the Nuer peoples constantly clashing (the town itself used to be the capital of the region, which helps explain why all the violence.) So his main program was promoting peace between the two tribes. After awhile, things finally settled down to a point where he could really start integrating outreach projects, mass service was held more regularly, Bible studies were formed, programs that aimed to help those who had difficulty getting by started. I will be staying here for two moons, learning and experiencing what the mission projects are all about. After the tour I was shown to my room, and after a late lunch, had a short siesta. In the evening I attended service at the church, after which I helped Abba with cooking dinner, apparently, since he is the only one here, he has preferred to cook his own meals, it’s become somewhat of a hobby for him, and it was with much joy that I helped him; it seems like forever since I’ve cooked. There’s no electricity in the evenings, so after a quick shower I retired for the night.



Day 73, Oct 23, Sat,

Started the morning with an omelet (Hallelujah!) and some American style peanut butter (Halleluiah!), chased by a rosary with Abba Tulio and his catechists. After the rosary, they had a short Catechism class, which was followed by assignments to the kids to complete various cleaning tasks, some to clean the inside of the church, some to clean the outside of the church and some to tidy up the grounds, Etc. As the kids went about with their assigned duties, I followed Abba Tulio has he continued his Saturday routine, taking pictures and experiencing what he normally does. His next task was elderly outreach. On the property is a storage shed full of various grains, legumes, and flours, and waiting outside of it were a group of elderly ladies, most of them either blind or toothless with age. Every Saturday Abba hands out a little bit of food to help them get by, I am guessing they don’t have many family members who can care for them. They were really sweet as well, when they saw (heard) me they all shuffled their way to me and shook my hand, saying Melle, Melle, Melle, the whole time, lol, later I found out Melle means peace. After the food stuffs, Abba handed out some medicines as well, to help them stay healthy. After the elderly outreach, and after the kids had finished their chores, they were allowed to use the church grounds to play some futball, and as the kids played, I talked with Abba about the difficulties that currently face the mission. There’s been some difficulty with the local administrators, one day Abba came back from a nearby town to discover that the fence that surrounded the church had been ripped out. Since then there have been many infringements on the property, with people dumping trash and junk on it, discarding broken vehicles, even digging in the kid’s soccer field to erect a flag pole, lol. After the kids had finished playing, it was time for tea with the kids. It was really neat to get a chance to connect with them. Afterwards I convinced Abba to let me teach the kids how to sing the “Immaculate Mary”, and for the next thirty minutes I went about teaching them the song. (To the best of my Abilities) They really enjoyed it, especially the Ave part, so much that after I had finished and as we were going out from the classroom, they were singing: Ave, Ave, AVE! lol. I managed to coral them all together once more to sing for Abba, lol, it’s quite a site to see a bunch of little Ethiopian kids belt out the Immaculate Mary at various out of tune tones. After our performance, it was time for lunch, so Abba and I made up some food, potatoes and a warm salad, tasty. After lunch I conversed with Abba Tulio about vocations, especially how he came about to understand that his was the priesthood.

Then it was siesta time for a bit, it’s nice to find out that another person needs nap to function here in the gambella region, I believe a saint once said: Thirty minutes asleep is better than half a day wasted from fatigue. After the nap, I joined Abba for the last task that he does on Saturdays, He basically runs a first aid clinic for the kids of the town, they come to him in the couple hours of daylight remaining he’ll patch up the scrapes and bruises that kids seem to accumulate, as well as taking care of the various sniffles. Once all the kids were fixed up, we sat around, conversing with the youths, watching the sun go down. Then it was time to start the evening meal, we sauted up some polenta & potatoes with garlic, onion, lentil sauce of sorts, with a cold cabbage, tomato and carrot salad. After dinner, I watched a movie with Abba called: Judas. It was an interesting movie which showed the life of Jesus from a “possible” viewpoint of judas.

I wasn’t really used to seeing Jesus portrayed in such a human light, it was a very fascinating view. The people talked in the movie very modernly as well, lol, it’s bizarre to see Jesus talk like someone from the suburbs of Tacoma or something. There were both ups and downs to the movie, did I like it? Well, If I was in charge of directing the movie I definitely would have changed some things, but I also would have definitely kept some things as well. Afterwards, I grabbed a quick shower before the generator turned off, and retired to my room for the night. (I learned today that there is a major bat problem, and apparently there is so much guano in the attic that it is starting to fall through various cracks in the ceiling, and so Abba has had to go around and caulk up the ceiling until he can clear out the buggers when the dry season comes. And to make matters worse, there worms that fall down with the poop, Blargh!! Definitely makes getting to sleep difficult because I keep thinking about it. Lol)



Day 74, Oct 24, Sun,

More omelets for breakfast, as well as that creameh creameh peanut buttuh!

Mass today was said in equal parts Annuak, Nuer, Amharic, and English, so that made for an interesting combination. Thankfully there was a pamphlet that I could use to follow along with, so it was actually a very spiritual service. After mass I started a lunch for Br. Endalkachew and William, who had come to take me back home. I prepared a red Thai curry (lol, found the curry spice pack in one of the cupboards, sweetness!) with toasted garlic, softened scallions, stir fried beef strips, as well as some carrots & cabbage that I tossed in at the last minute. I served the curry over some boiled potatoes, topped with some toasted peanuts and raisins. Twas delish, and I have to say that I REALLY miss cooking, I think when I get back state side I’m gonna go into a cooking frenzy. My compatriots enjoyed the meal, and after bidding my goodbyes to Abba, we were on the road at quarter past one. I will be back. (Hopefully after the bat problem is fixed. Lol.)



Prayer of the day: (Also to be said after communion)

Soul of Christ, Sanctify me,

Body of Christ, save me,

Blood of Christ, Inebriate me,

Water from the side of Christ, wash me,

Passion of Christ, strengthen me,

Within your wounds hide me,

Never permit me to be separated from you,

From the malignant enemy defend me,

In the hour of my death call me, and bid me to come to you,

That with the saint I may praise you,

Forever and aver, amen.



Day 75, Oct 25, Mon,

Woke up in a bit of a funk today, I had had an incredibly vivid dream where I was back in college, but I was failing everything because I couldn’t cook squat. (This is probably due to the amount of cooking I had done in Itang) So when I woke up I was profoundly home sick, (which is only slightly more home sick then I usually am, lol.) and the rest of the day kinda just dragged by, not really accomplishing much. The mood persisted until evening mass, nothing like the Bread of Life for a pick me up, eh?



Day 76, Oct 26, Tue,

I finished updating the chronicle today, finished preparing for English composition, and continued some letters I had been writing. I had become so engrossed in my writing that at 5:00pm, I didn’t notice everyone leaving. Eventually I noticed that it was starting to get dark, so I started packing up my things, all the time wondering why it was so quiet, I had a sneaking suspicion that they had already left, and I hoped that they hadn’t locked me….However my suspicions were confirmed when I tried to open the door to get out of the complex, locked up tight. Lol, at this point I was mentally preparing myself to spend the night in my office, when I thought of trying to get in touch with one of the guards, so I opened the window that was in my office, and thanks be to God there was a guard sitting right outside, so I motioned for him to come near so I could tell him I was locked inside, unfortunately I discovered that this particular guard didn’t speak or understand English very well, so after much motioning with my arms at an attempted sign language as well as badly butchered Amharic on my part, I managed to get him to go searching for Br. Legesse, so now it was only a matter of time. Eventually Legessee came around with like a dozen keys, none of which worked, so he went of looking for some that would. Then Abba Thomas came and tried his keys, which also didn’t work, lol. Eventually someone managed to get in touch with Br. Endalkachew, who stopped by (He was at a meeting in town.) and let me out of my makeshift prison, lol.



Day 77, Oct 27, Wed,

English class went well again. We focused on pronouns, and although it took a bit of time for them to start using all the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person forms, they eventually got it. Only a handful of them turned in their homework from last week though, so we will see how next week class goes. In the evening, Abba Marcus came around looking for me, apparently there was some miscommunication concerning the basic computer class, I guess I meant to say that he wanted my to do a year-long comprehensive computer course, lol. When I asked him what kinds of things I should be teaching them, he kept saying “Basic computer things” which is very frustrating when you are trying to plan a yearlong course. So I held a conference with the seminarians I would be teaching, and by cross examining them with Abba Marcus, as well as picking their brains until they were sore, I managed to accumulate enough information, so now I can begin planning.



Day 78, Oct 28, Thu,

I have been crazy busy today…Or at least I would have been if this confounded electricity could stay on for more than 15 minutes, grrr. I am trying to finish the I.D. cards, which is proving to be very difficult without power, and to make matters worse, another huge storefront moved in, and by lunch time it had started to rain, which basically guaranteed that would be no more power for the rest of the day. When it started raining after lunch, I flipped out. After slipping into my swimming trunks and a tank top, I marched around in the increasingly torrentuos rainfall, saying a rosary, lol. It was actually incredibly soothing, and I highly recommend it to everyone. After I had sufficiently regained my senses, and since there really wasn’t anything else I could do, I took a short siesta. I woke up feeling much refreshed, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had stopped raining. So I headed back to the office to do as much as I could without power. 5:00 rolled around, and seeing as how I had no intention of being locked in the office (by the way, everyone had a good laugh at what had happened, lol, I even thought a few people would start rolling on the ground in laughter.) I made sure I was out on time. We had adoration at 6:30, and after words I was invited to dinner with the religious peoples (who had spent the last few days in meeting concerning the condition of the mission in the gambella region.) So I enjoyed lovely meal with pleasant company. (Also, the priests here have a healthy sense of humor; Hey Father, were out of wine, so here’s some water, I’ll let you do the honors today, lol)



Day 79, Oct 29, Fri,

More power outages all day today, so I was only able to work on the I.D.’s periodically. Look like I’m going to be working during the weekends to finish them. I was able to finish the schedule for the computer class that I am teaching the seminarians, and this evening I was able to start a database for the employees that needed I.D. cards, which should speed up things hopefully.



Day 80, Oct 30, Sat,

Slept in this morning and read a couple books while I was waiting for the power to come on so I could start working on the I.D.’s. I didn’t end up working on them until after lunch, and before I had made much progress, Abba Larcher asked me to print out the new curriculum, which was more than 500 pages worth of stuff. So the first thing I had to do was locate some paper, and since it was Saturday, there was no one at the office so I couldn’t get in. So after a bit of searching, I managed to find Abba Larcher again, (with the help of one of his students) and had him unlock Br. Endalkachews office, where I was able to gather what I hoped was enough paper to print everything. Once I started printing, it went rather smoothly, until I got about quarter way through, then the printer started frixing out. I figured it was over heating, because it was a lot more printing then should be done on such a small device, so after waiting for it to cool down; I tried again, only to have it mess up again. At this point I was starting to become very frustrated, as it was taking way too long to do this. After locating Abba again, and getting him to let me into Br.s office, I found another toner cartridge (I figured if it wasn’t overheating, it was probably the cartridge, even though it wasn’t telling me it was out) and after swapping the cartridges, I tried again, but it was a no go. So I had to walk to my office, praying the whole time that someone had left on of the doors open, to find a brand new cartridge. This time luck was with me, and I found a brand new one that was even still in its packaging. So after marching back, I exchanged cartridges yet again, and this time it started printing correctly. By this time the evening advanced into night, and by the time I had printed all the documents, it was time for dinner, so it looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow again to finish the I.D.’s.



Day 81, Oct 31, Sun, Happy All Hallows Eve.

My alarm had been acting up recently, and this morning it didn’t go off, so I woke up late. Thank fully I was able to make it to mass in time. (I had to rush like a bat out o’ hades though.) Today they celebrated all souls day, so after mass, everyone walked in a procession to the Cemetery, where we prayed for all those who had departed from this life. The Cemetery itself was not in a very good condition, with tall grass growing everywhere, so I don’t think it is visited often. (There were also animal bones scattered about everywhere, so either an animal got trapped in the gated grave yard somehow, or perhaps it was some kind of offering?) After words we headed back to the compound. I again had to wait for the power to come on, and I didn’t end up working on the I.D. project until around two-ish. Once I did start working on it, I worked like a mad man, and was able to finish just before dinner, so in the evening I was able to relax for once. I read some more book and watched a movie that was on T.V. (It was about a killer croc in the African country of Burundi, I think it was called “Primeval”)

On the way back to my room, I happened to spot a giant praying mantis in one of the corners of the compound; it was almost as big length wise as my hand. I took a bunch of pictures, but none of them really turned out (I have discovered that although my camera takes good daylight pictures, nighttime pictures don’t really turn out so well.) so I caught the thing and put it in a bucket, hoping to take a picture of it during the daylight, but it escaped during the night, darn!

Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened up to you.

Day 61, Oct 11, Mon,

I spent the majority of the morning today typing up my blog (thus the reason the last blog entry was so large) I managed to finish it before lunch. At lunch, Br Endalkachew asked me if it would be possible to somehow get two computers running for use as a teacher’s resource and a student resource. I replied that I would do my best, but I reminded him that there were no computers working 100% percent, so the chances were somewhat slim. So after lunch break I headed to the computer lab to start working on it, before I did however, I decided to say a rosary as well as the divine mercy chaplet and put all in the Lords hands, because quite frankly it was well beyond my abilities at this point. Having spiritually prepared myself for technological warfare, I powered up the previous three computers that had the most likelihood to work, and what do ya know, two of them started right up, one of them was a bit slow, but they both worked! Imagine that!



Day 62, Oct 12, Tue,

Not much exciting happened this morning, uploaded some emails and worked on tomorrow’s English lesson, that’s about it. But after lunch I found my Amharic cd that I had purchased in Dubai, so I spent the afternoon learning, some of the things I learned:





Muz = Banana,



Awo = Yes,



Eydelin = No,



Indemin Aderu = Good morning,



Indemin Walu = Good Afternoon,



Indemin Ameshe = Good Evening,



Danich = Potatoes,



Danich tibbs = French fries,



Dabo = Bread,



Ayeb = Cheese,



Fandisha = Corn,



Shuka = Fork,



Monkia = Spoon,



Watet = Milk,



Lomi = Lemon,



Sukar = Sugar,



Asa = fish,



Sahen = Plate,



Tematim = Tomato,



To name a couple, I’ll list more as I learn them.



Day 63, Oct 13, Wed,

Today I had my first day of English Composition, I had finished designing the exercise I had started yesterday, and with it I will be able to gauge the level of comprehension of the students, which will help me to determine what it is I should be teaching. So I met with the students this morning and passed out my assignment, and after some explanation as to how they were supposed to fill it out, started working on it. (I should mention that it took a great deal of explanation before they properly understood what it was they were supposed to be doing.

After the time was up, I gather all of their papers and headed to my office to study the results. Before I go into how the students fared, I think I should explain a bit about what the test was, I was simply a list of words, and they were to take the words, form a proper sentence around it, and indicate whether the word they used was Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and to show the specific classification of those order, for example, the word Joseph is a proper Noun, the word Daughter-in-law is a compound noun, the word Jump is an action verb is a action verb, the word to be is a linking verb, Etc. Out of the 32 students who attended, only a handful demonstrated a competent knowledge of the structuring of sentences, so I think I have my work cut out for me.



Day 64, Oct 14, Thu, Happy Birthday to me,

Let’s see, this morning breakfast seemed extra nice, we had some spreading’s that we usually don’t get, an interesting chocolate type spread that also has some sort of hazelnut crème added, and some quince preserves, quite tasty.

There was no electricity today, so at the office I ended up reading a book to pass the time, it was called “the Mass explained, By Dr. Tom Curren” and it explained the four ways we encounter Christ in the service of the Mass, a great book that I HIGHLY suggest everyone should read.

After I finished the book, I said a rosary, and by the end of it the electricity had come back on, so I continued writing a series of short stories I have been creating for my little brother. For once writers block wasn’t a problem and I managed to type up two pages before it was lunch time.

Lunch was also quite gastronomical, there was a rice dish, it was a nice change from the bread and noodles I’ve been consuming for the past sixty days, lol.

The day had become rather hot, so after lunch I decided to take a siesta, and an hour and a half later I headed back to the office to continue work on mah stories. I really lost myself in what I was writing, and before I knew it, it was closing time, time flies when you’re having fun.

After packing up all my equipment and dropping it of in my room, I headed to the church for adoration for an hour of prayer, was a good way to end the day. (Although I wish these Ethiopian understood the concept of silent prayer, everything they do involves drums, shouting and clapping. Don’t get me wrong, it is an excellent way to energize yourself for the day, but at the end of the day I like to slow down and contemplate what has transpire through the day, as well as engage in some quality one-on-one time with the Lord.)

After dinner (which was unfortunately the usual fare) I was going to watch some MacGyver with legesse, but the power shut off again, so I retired early to mah bedroom and watched some videos on my laptop, then caught some shuteye, All-in-all, not a bad day.



Day 65, Oct 15, Fri,

Started another book today to keep myself busy, (nor electricity again today) this one was about the Popes world youth day addresses’ and how they can be lived out in today’s society, very fascinating so far.

At 10:00 the entire faculty staff and students of the technical school as well as the 5th and 6th grade students from the primary school gathered together with the delegates from H.E.K.S. (A group that helps finance the construction of buildings that promote peace) to celebrate the inauguration of the new cafeteria. At the event I met an English chap, Sam was his name, who has been in Gambella for the past year and will be staying for another four months.

He is working for the local Anglican Church as a project administrator for their human development goals. We got to talking for a bit, and I have to say it was nice to talk to someone who understands everything you are saying.



Day 66, Oct 16, Sat,

For the majority of the day, I have been working on a research paper about the city of Gambella, which I intend to send to the Administrators of the Salesian Lay missioners for use as a reference material for people who intend to visit the city, because quite frankly almost all of the information I received from them concerning my role in the town as well as the happenings has been misleading. Who knows, maybe if it turns out good enough I’ll publish it, lol.



Day 67, Oct 17, Sun,

After mass, Br. Endalkachew informed me that a friend of his, who was an expert on the construction of compies, was in town, so we met up with him and started working on the computers to see if we could get some more working.

It was also a lesson in humility for me, because to my chagrin several of the computers that I thought I had tested correctly to by not working started up with no problem, lol.

By the end of the day we were able to get four – five computers working, with the possibility of getting eight if we are able to formate the others.

The rainy season had been lasting an unusually long time this year, another storm front moved in this evening and dumped torrents of rain, I swear think I have seen and heard more Lightning and Thunder in Ethiopia than I have for the past ten years in Washington.



Also I have decided to included prayers that I enjoy saying on my Sunday blogs, don’t want to hoard all the graces for myself, lol, so here is the first one.



(To be said before a crucifix, preferably after receiving the Eucharist.)

Behold oh kind and most sweet Jesus, I cast myself knees in Thy sight before Thee and with a most fervent desire of my soul I pray and beseech Thee that though should impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, a true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment, while in the depth of my soul I contemplate Thy Five Wounds, and the words that David put in Thy Mouth concerning Thee: They have pierced My Hands and My Feet, they have numbered all My Bones. Amen.





Day 68, Oct 18, Mon,

A friend of Br. Endalkachew, who went through the seminary with him, will be staying with us for the next couple days. He is currently working in Shire, with Becky and Stephen, so I was able to hear how they were doing, apparently they are performing well, I also received a letter from Marie in Addis. I really enjoy hearing from my fellow “Survivors” (To quote Marie in her letter) I need to make sure I take time to write them all letters of my own.



Day 69, Oct 19, Tue,

I traded some books with Br. Endalkachew today, I traded him “Lives of the saints for every day of the year” for an armful of books he had lying around all over the place. Currently I am reading “Plays of Anton Chekhov” a very interesting book so far. In the evening I watched MacGyver with Legesse, and at the end of the episode he commented that I should show a few episodes to the youth at the oratory because they contained some very good morals. Ha-hah! How many current T.V. series do you know of that could be considered a possibility for a tool to teach morality?

After the exhibition of Mac, before I switched off the T.V, I noticed that Home Alone was showing, lol, so I convinced Legesse to stay and watch it with me; twas quite enjoyable to see a classic, Legesse enjoyed it as well.



Day 70, Oct 20, Wed,

English Comp was today, It went extremely well and they enjoyed the process I implemented. I am trying to use as much of a hands on approach as possible to encourage them to feel comfortable in the classroom, thus making the learning process more effective I hope. I am positive it is not me who is doing this, but the Holy Spirit Who is working through me. Today I received a call from Therese, who is stationed in Dilla, she was calling about obtaining some vases that are made in the town but we also had some time to talk. Things have been a little rough in Dilla, but she is doing well. This evening I held a basic computer instruction course for the seminarians at the bequest of Abba Marcus, it went well.

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. ~Tennyson's Ulysses

Day 34, Sep 14, Tue,

Today I helped Brother Endalkachew to proof a bidders form for the hostel that they will be building next to the school to provide housing for students who have to travel from far away. School starts very soon; I hope it will all go well.



Day 35, Sep 15, Wed,

Headed to the office bright and early this morning, right after breakfast, and went to work on the powerpoint presentation for class, I did this for an hour and a half, after which I went to the computer lab to work on the remaining five computers that would still work, updating and installing office 2003 and such. Unfortunately in the process one of the computers hard drive went kaput on me, leaving it in a vegetable like state, while one of the other computers refused to accept the office 2003 disc and kept freezing. I might be able to remedy this second situation by copying Office to my jump drive, and installing it via this method. But I digress, after working on the computers till noon; I headed back for lunch, very frustrated by the whole computer situation, so I decided to calm down by saying a rosary before lunch. Afterwards I felt a bit better, so after lunch I decided to take a wee nap, which ended up lasting until 5:00, I guess I was more tired than I thought I was. After retrieving my equipment from the office I played some hearts with Br. Legesse and Br. Dagm, later we greeted Abba Larcher, who had just returned from his vacation visiting family in italy, it’s nice to have him back. We played some more hearts after dinner, and after we were done, I introduced Legesse and Dagm to the MacGyver, series by watching the first one. They enjoyed it very much, Haha, I have gained several more minions for my cult, and soon I will rule the world……just kidding….but seriously though, you sometimes just have to ask yourself, “What would MacGyver do?”



Day 36, Sep 16, Thu,

Spent the majority working on the powerpoint presentation, which in the end I somehow ended up deleting, arghhhh!!!! Also tried to load Office 2003 into the fritzing computer that wasn’t working yesterday via the Jump drive method, it was a no go. Maybe I can download a fresh version of Office via the internet tomorrow, possibly it will work then. I today I got to chat with Katie, Krissy, Kellie, Joey, and my Ma, it was nice get in touch with them, it had been a while since ihad heard from them.



Day 37, sep 17, Fri,

Tried finding a site I could download a version of office from, but all of them were huge, and at the rate that the internet flows over here, it would literally take days, so I started looking for stand alone versions of Word, Excel, and Access, I managed to locate some places where I could get word and excel, but I couldn’t for the life of me find a place to get access.

Maybe I can download word and excel, and then get access from the disc?

I spent the entire day working on the computer in the rec room, finally managed to get avg installed, and after I had run a few scans, I located and fixed 58 problems, wowzers.



Day 38, Sep 18, Sat,

Instead of doing manual work today, I ended up working on the rec room computer all day today, because for some reason something was interfering with the internet card. I tried every thing in the book, even reinstalling avg several time to see if that was the problem, and although it found some more corrupted programs, it didn’t solve the problem, I finally gave up at 4pm.



Day 39, Sep 19, Sun,

Fellow Lay missioner Carlos stopped by today, just to check in with me to see if it would be alright if he stopped by in a couple day to give let me have a look at his computer and see what the problem was with it and install avg, while he was here I tried hooking up his computer to the internet to see if it would work on his computer, the application worked, so that was an improvement, but when it came to signing in, it wouldn’t work. No surprise there, but by some stroke of miracle when I went to try the rec compy again later that day, the application started working, it wouldn’t sign it, but alt least it was working now, God is great.



Day 40, Sep 20, Mon, - Flag Day.

Today we gathered the children (elementary), gave them new shirts, formed them into some resemblance of order (it took forever because they kept breaking rank and roaming everywhere lol) gave them flags of various sizes (the Ethiopian country flag, and the Gambella region flag.) and marched of to the town square singing the Ethiopian national anthem. (we had to stop ever couple hundred meters to reestablish formation because they kept glomping together) and after several stops to fix the formation (and once to break up a fight that broke out with one of our kids and a street kid) we made it to the town proper. There were many decorations everywhere, and there were five militairy/police groups on parading around the square. We joined up with the parade, which led to the flag poles in the very center of the town, where we waited for almost an hour in the blazing sun, there was a lot of speech giving, and then they hoisted the flags, and we were able to abscond to a local hotel for some drinks. Since today is a holiday, there was no work or school, so the rest of the day was spent hangin’ with legesse and dagm.



Day 41, Sep 21, Tue,



I am sick and tired of these Stupid computers!!!!! Arghh!!! Today I tried loading avg in the four remaining computers in the lab but I only succeeded in one of them, (and after scanning that one, I found 520 viruses!!! The heck?) There were some serious viruses on the rest of the comps that I think are preventing me from installing avg, so for the rest of the day I tried to solve this issue. To make matters worse, in the afternoon the accountants computer started wiggin out as well and stopped working, (due to a virus he received via a jump drive) and the secretaries computer’s power supply blew up, AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH, why?



Day 42, Sep 22, Wed,

Didn’t sleep much last night, was to stressed out, so this morning I decided to take a nap after mass until 12:00, so I could face the computers at least somewhat refreshed, However I was disturbed from my restful slumber by a entity knocking on my door, I opened to reveal to Bayu and a Gentleman whom I did not recognize. The gent was Luchin, from the town of zoa, and he was representing a group of people who would apparently be coming next week to learn Ofiice Basics, not only that, but the two week course I had been planning would have to be condensed into one week, so now I only have four days to plan, consolidate, and write up some assignments, I definitely don’t feel qualified for this.



Day 43, Sep 23, Thu,

I made a little progress, and by the grace of God, one of the Computers started working, (after running a scan that found over 1200 Viruses!! What on earth are they doing with these things?)

Continued working on tests for class, but I am not making much progress.



Day 44, Sep 24, Fri,

Much like yesterday today was, working on test, working on computer. But for some unknown reason, all but ONE computer has stopped working, getting every student situated with a computer is going to be interesting.



Day 45, Sep 25, Sat,

I was still dead tired this morning after mass, the heat can really take it out of yah, (the weather has been quite bizarre lately, with days starting out either super hot and dry, or wet and torrential, and then all it once switching to it’s polar opposite) so I decided to take a wee nap, lol, you think I would have learned by now that wee naps are scarcely ever that. I ended up sleeping until 1:00. I woke up feelin’ great though, and since there wasn’t anything important planned this morning it worked out just fine. So for the rest of the day I have been working on the class stuff.



Day 46, Sep 26, Sun, Feast of Mescal (the cross)

Today is the beginning of mescal, where all of Christian Ethiopia celebrates the finding of the cross; I believe it is also considered to be the biggest feast of the year in this country. The day is celebrated by building a giant cross, which is planted in the ground, then in the evening they heap wood all around it and start a bonfire, igniting the cross in the process. I must confess that at first when I heard that they celebrate it by burning crosses, It sounded kinda sketchy to me, most likely due to the fact that burning a cross in America is considered blasphemy. However once I learned that the reason that they do this so that the cross “illuminates” the night, bringing in the light of salvation to clear away the darkness, in an imitation of what the sacrifice of the cross did for the souls of man, I was put at ease. In the end I ended up not going to the celebration however, Abba Larcher had returned today, and he had decided to stay in the chapel for Adoration instead, (He apparently has many of the misgivings that I have had about the way they celebrated the feast, although his particular dislike is that it evolved from a pagan feast, (but so did Christmas though.) so I decided to stay with him, as well as legesse.



Day 47, Sep 27, Mon,

Today was supposed to be the first day of class, but apparently this is the second day of Mescal and is considered a holiday, so no class today. So after mass (which was another very long feast day service) I finished the I.D. cards that I have been working on for Br. Endalkachew, after that I relaxed, Read a bit, watched some ETV. At 3:00 the youths Gathered together for the mezcal games, where they competed in various activities (Kicking a Futball through a tire, carry a ping pong ball in a spoon with their mouth, Sack races, Basket ball Free-throws, Etc.) and the winner of the particular activity would receive a ticket, which they could redeem for a few different prizes. One ticket would get them a pen, two would grant them a Writing pad, and if the accumulated three tickets they could redeem it for a bar of soap. I guess the Salesian compound here holds similar games throughout the year on holidays in order to keep the youths busy while giving them an opportunity to have fun, thus keeping them out of trouble. The day’s events ended around 5:00-5:30, After all the youths had left, Abba Larcher gathered together some of the collaborators together for a meeting (which included two of my associates, Mark-John and Solomon), once they had finished I learned that they had decided to sign on to become full time Salesians and join the order to care for there fellow Ethiopians. It was a very joyous occasion, and Abba decided we would celebrate by taking them out to dinner. When wed had returned, I noticed that the sky was crystal clear, granting a marvelous view of the cosmos, so I decided I would finally break out my telescope see how it performed. I also invited Legesse to join me stargazing, as he had never really seen the sky with any sort of vision enhancing apparatus. So after gazing round and about with the Binoculars I had brought, I noticed that there was planet to the NE so after setting up my Tele, I focused on the planet, which revealed it to be Jupiter, The tele performed admirably, I could see the one remaining cloud stripe (several months ago {in May or June I think} for some reason it lost one of it’s distinctive cloud strips that ran along the top half of the planet, Scientist have not yet discovered what has caused this phenomena, but most of them agree it has to have something to do with the perpetual storm that has raged on the planet for eons) as well as two of it’s moons. This is the first time I have ever seen a planet this clearly through a telescope, It was incredible.



Day 48, Sep 28, Tue,

The first day of class, it actually went rather well, I covered the basics of Word, and although some of them were already familiar with the program, I was able to teach something new to everyone. I must confess that at first I was very nervous; the class did not start as I had planned, but was able to roll with the changes so to speak and it turned out alright. Br. Endalkachew had assigned a translator to me incase they couldn’t understand what I was trying to tell them, Duop was his name, but he ended up not needing to translate anything today, their grasp of the English language is fairly good. He was able to make himself very useful though, and I am glad he is helping me; it makes things a little easier. We had finished the Word overview by lunch, so after lunch I taught them the beginning basics of PowerPoint (something they were very keen on learning) as well as some typing exercises to increase typing speed. They were very receptive to everything I taught, and I think we made some decent progress today. After class I located the key to the storeroom, grabbed a basketball, and started playing some hoops. I was joined by a kid from the elementary, as well as legesse who joined us later. We played until around 6:30, when we had to stop for evening prayer and dinner. Br. Endalkachew, who had just gotten back from his trip to Addis, joined us for dinner, and entertained us with the details of his trip. After dinner I watched a couple MacGyvers with Legesse, after two episodes I was going to shut it down and head to bed, but as I was looking through a file to show Legesse an example of a excel assignment, I stumbled across my old College assignments, which included my powerpoint presentation of my pilgrimage to Europe, so I stayed for a bit with Legesse and basically took him on a trip through my memory lane, It was great to remember everything, it seems like it was only yesterday, we both enjoyed it.



Day 49, Sep 29, Wed,

Today in class we focused on Excel. (Once they showed up that is, they were more than an hour late; Punctuality isn’t big here in Ethiopia) At first we kinda metaphorically stumbled around a bit, what I had learned Excel for, Namely the tracking of items, cost’s and incomes in a restaurant setting, was not what they were looking to learn, once I was shown what it was they were interested in using excel for, namely school related spreadsheets, we started making progress, After lunch I taught them some more of PowerPoint, and by the end of the day I think they had soaked up a good deal of useful information.



Day 50, Sep 30, Thu,

I taught Access today, it wasn’t quite as difficult as I thought it would be, most of them were unfamiliar with the program, so I think I kept their attention for the whole class. After lunch was some more PowerPoint basics, I think we ended well today. Now all I have to do is finish the final assignments I have been working on, I think I’m gonna be up late tonight.



Day 51, Oct 1, Fri,

The tests went well, everyone had remembered what they had been showed (for the most part) and were able to apply it. Unfortunately only five of the fourteen who had started showed up today, so only five students ended up passing. As a gift for taking part in the workshop, their leader bought them lunch at the cafeteria, he was supposed to join us, but he was detained at the gate by an overzealous guard who wouldn’t tell Br. Endalkachew he was hear, lol. After lunch we finished up the testing with a final PowerPoint Assignment. Once they were done, I gave them a copy of Sketchup7, as well as Super Mario Crossover for all their hard work that they had done. I went to sleep somewhat early today, as I was dead freaking tired.



Day 52, Oct 2, sat,

Woke up late and accidently missed most of mass, so I decided to say some extra prayers in the chapel after breakfast to make up for the time lost.

I didn’t do a whole lot today, typed up a letter for Abba Larcher, (which required much retyping due to communication error, lol.) Played a lot of solitaire, taught a cleaning girl how to pray the beginning of the rosary.

In the evening I taught Legesse how to play liars dice and played a few rounds with him, retreated to my room around 9:30, watched a few videos on mah laptop, the retired for the night.



Day 53, Oct 3, Sun,

Slept fitfully all night, woke up at 6:00 with a terrible stomach ache, took some calcium tablets (Tums), and tried to go back to sleep, I was finally able to around 6:30, only to wake up at 7:00 with a feeling of strange unease from my bowels. I spent the next forty-five minutes going back and forth from the bathroom, so far I am matching all the symptoms of Giardiasis, (I am glad that I have brought a travelers first aid book with me) General malaise of the stomach and intestines, many loose foul smelling stools (diarrhea), as well burps that smelled strongly of sulfur, a constant rumbling in my guts, and a low fever. Grabbed an early (and lite) breakfast, I decided to skip mass today so I could stay close to a toilette, so I went back to bed, managing every now and then to fall asleep only to be rudely awakened with the need to use the restroom, I finally managed to catch some good sleep around 10:30, until 12:30 when Legesse knocked on my door and asked if I was going to join them for lunch, I decided it was a good idea to keep the nutrition going, so I joined them, while I was at lunch I made sure Br. Endalkachew knew about my symptoms, he offered find me a driver who would take me to Abobo to get check out at the clinic there, but I declined, because in order to check for symptoms like mine to see what is causing it, they need a stool sample, and I was pretty sure that I had emptied the majority of my bowls, the incredibly rough and bouncy road to the town wasn’t exactly the most desirous of options with the way my guts were rumbling. I informed him that if I felt the same way tomorrow I would make the journey. I spent the vast majority of the day either sleeping or reading, after dinner I retired early, sleep did not come easily though, as I felt just as crummy as when the day had started.



Day 54, Oct 4, Mon,

I woke up feeling right as rain this morning, so I think one of two things happened, either what I had experienced yesterday wasn’t giardia, and was instead food poising, which could be possible, or a miracle happened, I’m leaning more towards the second explanation.

So, feeling invigorated, I hurried to the class to set up for the second group, only to end up waiting for eight hours! Oh well, It was actually somewhat of a blessing, because there was no electricity all morning. So, I spent the time playing card games with duop. When they finally showed up around 4:00, I gave them a spiel about the outline I had planned for the course this week (which had to be modified a bit because of their tardiness) and had a quick Q&A session, then sent them on their way, reminding them to be here early in the morning.



Day 55, Oct 5, Tue,

Started Word this morning, 5 out of 7 came, were only missing 15%, so percentage wise were doing better than the last group. I think I was able to teach more efficiently this time around was able to get more useful information across. Unfortunately only two people came back after lunch, I hope it wasn’t miscommunication on my part, I guess I will find out tomorrow. For the two students that did show up, I taught them the basics of PowerPoint. So, now that I have covered the day’s events, it’s time for some philosophical thoughts. As I was gazing up at the glorious night sky, I couldn’t help but think of how insignificant human beings are compared with the rest of the cosmos, not only that. I was also thinking, that even though the grandeur of the heavens surpasses that of us lowly creatures, it is the universe that obeys all the laws put in place by God, bending and forming to his every desire, and we, the chosen people of God, we who are nothing but clay which, constantly defy his just will. Kinda makes ya think, huh?

Day 56, Oct 6, Wed,

Today was somewhat frustrating, only one or two of the students had ever even heard of excel, let alone used, so I was trying to teach in one day not only the basics of excel, but also how to create spreadsheets to be used to keep a payroll and to track student grades, a very difficult task for both myself and the students. In the end though, I think we managed to cover everything that they needed to know, whether or not they remember it is up to them, we’ll find out Friday.



Day 57, Oct 7, Thu,

This day was similar to yesterday, just replace excel with access and the days would mirror each other perfectly. For experienced people, it might be possibly to completely learn by doing a week long workshop, but these people need more time to practice, I don’t think they are completely learning or understanding what it is they are doing, most of what they are doing is just copying what it is that I am doing, I have to constantly remind them to adjust the formulas to work with the particular data they are trying to input. Towards the end of the classes it seems like they are just starting to understand the concepts I am trying to teach them, I only hope that they can manage to fully grasp and remember everything.



Day 58, Oct 8, Fri,

The day of truth is upon us, I gave out the assignments to them, and by the time the end of class came around, I am pleasantly pleased, it seems they did manage to assimilate the knowledge passed to them in the class. A couple still had a little bit of trouble, but after explaining the concepts behind the actions they were trying to do, they finally got it.

Midway through Bayu came in and informed me that starting next week, I would be teaching a level three English composition class every Wednesday from 8 till 10, and if that goes well, to help out with level on composition Mon, Tue, and Fri, lol, this just keeps getting better and better.

So now I have only a couple of days to come up with a course plan, yay! There was some bad news today as well, Br. Endalkachew has not been feeling well of late, so yesterday he decided to go to the clinic and get a check-up to see what was wrong, the test came back positive for malaria, it is a good thing they caught it so soon though, so he is on medicine now, which is a good thing, but he will continue to feel ill until the medicine takes effect. So as a special request, It would be wonderful if all of you people who read this blog keep all of the Salesians here in your prayers, especially those who are sick.



Day 59, Oct 9, Sat,

Today I wrote up an agreement form for the payment of the education of the group from Zoa, I was able to finish most of it before lunch, all that is left to insert is the expenses, which I will have to wait until Monday to do because I need information from the accountant. Before lunch, I was also able to clean my room, in particular the bathroom, which had been starting to look rather dismal. We had guests for lunch day, so there was different food than usual, including my fave, rice with a spice seasoning that taste a little bit like curry, (I’m guessing its cumin, turmeric, and something else that I can’t quite figure.) I think the group we were eating with was various teachers and collaborators, as I recognized several of them, but I forgot to ask so I am not sure. After lunch I hung out with legesse for a bit, until Br. Endalkachew (who was feeling a little bit better today) came by to drive me and drop me off at Bayu’s graduation celebration.

The celebration started at Bayu’s residence, there were about 10-12 people there, a few of the faces I recognize; there was Solomon and Surafle from the office, as well as mulugeta, an instructer from electrical engineering. They were serving biscuits and drinks, which I refused (on the excuse that I was still bursting from a late lunch, which was true, but mostly I am very hesitant of anything made anywhere other than my compound, for good reason I might add) the drinks were interesting, there was a type of Ethiopian beer, that quite frankly looked like really muddy water, with bits of things that I weren’t quite sure of floating around on the top, as well as what they called gin, which was actually a anise (black licorice for all you non-cooks out there) flavored liquor. Mostly I talked with Surafle who was asking many questions about life in America, which seemed mostly to be based stereotypes and information from our pop-culture and media, for instance, all jews in america are either rich and controlled everything, or scientists, there are no poor people, and how Obama is God’s gift to mankind (which I hear allot), to name but a few, so I tried my best to inform him about some of the realities, for instance how although the condition of living might be better for the majority of people in America, 13% percent of Americans are below the poverty line, how there were many jewish immigrants to our country during the last century which is why there is allot of them around, but how most of the ones I had met ran family businesses, and how Obama had just as many faults as he did strengths, because in the end he is a politician just like the rest of them. Thankfully most of his questions were about how my life was like, which I was glad to tell him. After about two hours, the celebration moved to a different location, were Bayu met up with some of his classmates and instructors. We stayed there for about an hour (during this time Mulugata had become somewhat inebriated, and had started to tell me his life’s story, which I couldn’t understand half the time because his English had become increasingly unintelligible, lol.) and then headed back to the compound via the three wheeled trolley things that proliferate this town. All and all it was a very enjoyable experience.



Day 60, Oct 10, Sun,

Nothing of particular interest has happened today, so I figured I would delve into the relm of my thoughts on how things have been proceeding. So far this has been a highly beneficial adventure for me, That most kingly of virtues which I have sought after for so long has finally by the grace of God started to come to fruition, leading to the development of other virtues that I have never been able to focus on. I have also come to the realization as to why it is God has called me here; it is to help the Salesian staff, particularly Br. Endalkachew get through this year, which has seen an above average amount of students, and a decrees of faculty staff, as well keeping Legesse company on his two year long stay here, while at the same time to offer spiritual support via prayers on their behalf. And since I am the first Lay missioner at this sight, I will be leaving behind a formation of sorts, a path that the others who come after me will be able to follow instead of going blindly as it seems I have been doing. I thank God for this monumental task, and I only pray that the Lord will give me the strength to fulfill his will.

May I always will and will not what God wills me to will, and may I never will and will not what God willest me to not to will.

Day 26, Sep 6, Mon,

Made some decent progress learning Microsoft access today, I think I should be able to learn most of it before I teach it. Tomorrow Br. Endalkachew will be heading to Addis on a part finding excursion, and I will be finally able to get the rest of my things, Including my telescope, Hurrahh!!!



Day 27, Sep 7, Tue,

Set off for Addis today at around nine this morning, and after a 10 hour drive and one flat tire later, we made it to Jimma, which is approx. the halfway point at 300km.

Geographically the area we have been driving through is somewhat similar to Washington state, lots of rolling hills and mountains, just replace the various African fauna with evergreens, and the crocodiles and baboons with trout and deer.

We made a couple of stops on the way, to stretch, as well as to pick up some honey, tea, and butter, (also to change a flat, & later to repair it at a gas station) Other than that the trip went smoothly…Metaphorically speaking that is, as the roads are very bumpy.

For lunch we stopped at a local restaurant in a town we were passing through, we ordered lamb tips and Wot, and for dinner we ate at the hotel we were staying at, roasted chicken, it was pretty decent.



Day 28, Sep 8, Wed, 6:00am 73 F, 5:00pm 68.6 F.

Started out bright and early this morning (6:00), From Jimma onwards, the roads were better, so we made good time. At 8:00 we stopped for breakfast……More lamb, and some coffee. (which I’m beginning to develop a taste for.) We didn’t have any roadside emergencies this time, so it was smooth riding for the rest of the trip. We past by some amazing landmarks, Including a large mountain jutting out of fog covered hills, flooded grasslands, rolling hills, coffee plantations, maize fields and swollen rivers. We made it to Addis at around 2:30, The first thing we did was go to fetch my things at mekanesa, but once we got there I found out that my things had been shipped off that morning, oh well, at least they will be in gambella when I get back, also I got to say hello to Marie. We had enough time to talk for a little bit about our respective sites, (she is doing well) before we had to head off to the Salesian provincial building. On the way we stopped to give the butter and chickens we had gathered to Endalkachew niece. At the Provincials I met Abba Sandro, who showed us to our rooms, which were very cozy, (They had SHOWER CURTAINS!!) I’ve got free time until 7:00, (when we will have evening prayer and dinner) so until then I’m just chillin’ (and I mean that literally, it’s only 68 degree’s, brrrrrr.)



Day 29, Sep 9, Thu, 6:10am 68.2 F,

Another Chilly morning, Attended Mass at the chapel, ate breakfast with the Salesians (among them, Abba Sandro, Abba Samala, Br. Tegrit, and Br. Dagm.) (Also, yesterday evening I bumped into Br. Ephrem, Who was here on vacation, Twas nice to get to see him again) And then I went out with Br. Endalkachew and an Associate of his to gather various things for gambella, including computer parts. Unfortunately we were not able to find the correct ones, so we went auto-part shopping, or should I say, Haggling, Br. Haggled for almost an hour to get a decent price on some new tires. Afterwards we grabbed lunch, (guess what…more lamb, I think it has to do with the new year coming up) and then headed to a local garage to get the truck serviced, while we were waiting, I was sent back to Mekanesa to have a meeting with Abba Emmanuel about how things have been going. The meeting went well, and I was left with some free time until I was scheduled to go back to the Provincials, and Marie was out and about, so I decided to take a little nap. I awoke in time for what I thought was group rosary, but no one was there, so I started it by my self, but halfway through a priest came into the chapel and started celebrating mass, so along with a rosary I was able to attend an extra mass today. Afterwards I was driven back to the Provincials, where I ate dinner with my fellow salesians,, and retired for the evening.



Day 30, Sep 10, Fri,

After Mass I found out we would be driving a novice who had come up from gambella to his novitiate at a town called ziway, so after two tasks, (dropping a Br. Off at the airport and to drop of some books to a convent, which took forever to find {due to some humorous directions from Abba Salama who was riding with us} but we found it eventually, we were greeted warmly and invited for tea and biscuits by Sister Martha, and after chatting for a bit we excused ourselves and went back to pick up the novice.) and lunch (followed by a rousing adrenaline pumping game of chess, which I unfortunately lost) we headed of to Ziway, and guess what? Halfway through our trip…we got a flat tire, a conspiracy I say!! But after a speedy repair, we were on our way again in no time.

We stopped in the city of mehi to see the novitiate of the region, where we met Abba Loretto (who was 84 and still lively), who invited us for…you guessed it, tea and biscuits, (Hurray for Tea and Biscuits!!) and after we chatted a bit about the history of the place, we were back on the road. We made it to Ziway at around 7:15, just in time for the evening meal. It has been a tiresome day, so I shall retire early today, but before I do, Happy Ethiopian New Year’s eve.



Day 31, Sep 11, Sat, Happy New Year!!

After Mass, Br. Endalkachew took me on a tour of Ziway, Turns out this is where He grew up and went to school, we met a few of his old teachers as we were walking around the school compound. After picking up Abba Samala we invited to Br. Endalkachew’s parents house, and we got to meet his family (his mother is an incredibly sweet lady, and even though we had already eaten breakfast, she insisted on feed us more.) we tarried there for a bit before setting out for addis. The trip was nonevent full, and we made it back at around 3pm. Br. Went out to do some errands, so I had some free time until evening prayer, so I spent it updating my facebook, and downloading AVG antivirus so I could load it into the computers back in Gambella. After that, had evening prayer and a rosary, ate dinner, and retired, not a bad day for the first day in the New Year.



Day 32, Sep 12, Sun,

I attended a Geeze rite mass this morning, It was somewhat similar to the tridintine rite as far as solemnness goes, it was fascinating and wonderful to attend. After mass I grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading out on our trip for gambella, and after a few detours to pick up some books and gas we hit the main road. We made decent time, only having to stop a couple times, to buy something from street venders, (and once to pay for a sheep we accidentally ran over, it was the owner’s fault though, he was walking all over the freaking road with his sheep, it was only a matter of time…..which might have been his plan all along….hmm) It seem whenever we stopped for the street vendors the children would crowd around my window and beg for money, apparently to them all westerners are rich, it can be very tiresome at times, because no how many times you say you don’t have money, they keep asking. I have started making it a habit to empty out my pocket whenever I am going to travel somewhere because I literally have to turn my pockets inside out to show them I don’t have any money, then they will leave me alone, lol. I was a strait shoot to jimma, where we again spent the night.



Day 33, Sep 13, Mon,

We started out bright and early again today, and other than stopping twice to buy some roasted maize, once to visit a friend of Br.s, and once to visit a technical school to see how they did things, our trip was relatively uneventful, and we made it back to Gambella by 4, and I have to say, it feels good to be back, this place has begun to truly feel like a home to me. The weather that greeted us was equally nice, with the temperature hovering in the lower nineties, a fair change from the mid sixties of addis. And I finally obtained my things! Br. Legesse was keeping them safe for me, so after putting together my telescope (which appears to have suffered a little damage from the rough journey, but should still be able to function properly) and putting away the rest of my things, I decided to freshen up, but to my disappointment there was no water, so that plan was moot. Any further plan was halted by the quickly developing storm front, and before long rain was coming down in sheets, which quickly turned into streams. Pretty soon the water had risen in the courtyard so much that it started flooding the walkway, threatening to enter my room soon if nothing was done. So as the lightning started to flash, and the thunder started to grumble and roll from one side of the sky to the next, I was doing my best to halt the approaching onslaught of Mother Nature’s wrath. I stuffed one of my towels in front of my door, and rushed around searching, until I found a floor squeegee, and so as the water came forward, pushed it back, and so we went back and forth like this for a couple minutes, neither of us gaining any ground, until the gush of water finally abated enough that I could force the rest of the water from the walkway. After my victory, I proceeded to the chapel, which had also started flooding, and after a bit of squeegee-ing, I managed to get the place cleaned up. All this time the thunder and lightning keeps elevating, startling me several times by its sheer ferocity. Eventually it spent itself out, and just as quickly as it had come it went. I ran into Abba Thomas on the way out of the chapel, and after our greeting and my condolences, (I have recently learned that he has contracted malaria, He is doing okay though, and is taking medication for it.) He informed me that he was going to St. Josephs, because it had flooded, so I went along with Abba, as well as Br. Legesse and Br. Dagm to clean up the mess. After we were done we got back to the compound just in time for evening prayer and supper, which was extra special because it was the first meal together in the New Year. Br. Endalkachew brought out a bottle of amoretto and we toasted to the New Year. After dinner I helped Br. Dagm operate his Mp3 player and retired for the night.

It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark.

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