technical issues

Hey, just want to say sorry for lack of communicatons! Our internet connection was totally broken on the island, and then I left for a retreat, and the internet connection has been pitiful here, maybe because so many are trying to use it. I hope to be able to post some more stuff soon, but it may be a while. Next week is going to be insanely busy, so it may be the second week of December before I am able to post more. It is not lack of desire that is keeping me away! :)

Mother Teresa

Wow. Hello, words to me. Saw this on a letter my dad wrote:

When a young man asked Mother Teresa to pray for clarity for his future, she responded, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. I will not pray for clarity, but I will pray for trust.”

Hmmm... although on second thought, I don't want to ditch asking for clarity, either. God has blessed me abundantly recently in the prayer for clarity department. However, the rev. Mother makes a good point I think. :)

Music to My Ears

It’s the sound of big tonka trucks going back and forth in front of our house. The road has been under construction for the past few months now, and this week, smooth road passed our house! Wowee!!!

The 5-mile drive between the office (at “camp”) and our house, which used to take nearly an hour earlier this year, has dropped to a mere 11 minutes! That’s in a truck. On the motorcycle, the transformation is not so much in time (shaves off about 5-10 min) but in obstacles. Now, instead of the pothole obstacle course, we have nearly smooth roads, but pre-asphalt stage in rainy season means that parts of the road become a muddy mess of slip-n-slide. If it happens not to rain, it becomes dust city. Ah, well, keeps one on the toes and makes me a stronger dirt-biker-mama.

New Music

I borrowed a CD from a friend this week. The first time I listened to it, I thought it was fine, wasn’t sure if I would be crazy about it, but after the 2nd and 3rd time through, I am totally hooked. I can’t stop listening. I am always looking for scripture put to song, and that’s what Glory Revealed is. LOVE it.

Lately I have noticed that when it comes to new music/songs, I inevitably have to listen at least twice before I’m able to begin enjoying it. The first time through I can’t focus; I just get the gist of the music style and bits and pieces of the lyrics. The second time through I can focus more on lyrics and decide if I like the whole package. I enjoy music most when I can participate with it, so if it passes the 3rd time through, then it just gets better and better with each repetition.

Stingray Anyone?

Saw this on the way to town.

She's Aliiiive!

Well, it turns out Scudder is still alive. When we returned to camp a couple days after leaving without her, I was posting the "kitty #2" blog and some kids saw her picture and said, "Hey! I have a cat like that at my house!" Turns out it was Scudder. I think she has Chronic Follow-Feet Syndrome . She probably just followed someone right out of the camp and then wandered from house to house. I went with the kids to look for her and eventually after searching several homes, some people yelled, "she's here!" Although a bit altered in personality, it was her. Dirty, not as sweet, and without her pigeon coo. She had a fat belly, though, so guess she was finding food. Today she is a pretty pitiful looking skeleton. I will be surprised if she is still alive in a month. How's that for an optimistic outlook?

Kitty #2...

...Comes and goes. On Monday, while doing a little shopping in town, we stepped over a scrawny, calico kitten laying in the doorway to our favorite (and only) “café.” C and I commented on how it looked like it was on death’s door, and a moment later C said, “we could take it home with us!” My jaw hit the floor as I stared at her in disbelief.

“We could what???!!!”
“It has a long, straight tail!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I bet she would turn into a pretty cat if we took her in.”

The café owner tossed her a fried fish head and we asked him about it. “I don’t know who’s it is or where it came from. Feel free to take it.” I still had not recovered from shock that C had suggested such a thing—she, who talks so much of her dislike of cats (one week later I am still in disbelief). I would never turn down such an offer, although uncharacteristically I was thinking, ugh, I’m not entirely sure I want to go through the whole kitty-training-and-reviving routine again. But if C is having a mercy moment with this pitiful creature, who am I to squelch that? And besides she probably isn’t serious, so I’ll just wait and see how far she goes. We actually went home with that cat.

We settled on the name Scudder, in honor of a former teammate who was notorious for picking up cats on death’s door (his grandpa calls him Scudder), but Pigeon was kind of her “pet” name because she sounded exactly like a pigeon cooing when she purred. After deworming her and cleaning up after her 11 bouts of diarrhea (most in the living room), we had to go back to camp for meetings, so we brought her along. She did fine overnight and with Butch, the camp cat (despite Butch’s unwelcoming viciousness), and fine throughout the following day, but when we were ready to head home, she was nowhere to be found. Not sure if she is alive or dead, but probably dead. She was last seen following a camp worker around, and he was handling poison for termites. Maybe she got into some. A friendly little kitty she was.

Bye-bye Scudder.

(top picture taken on day 2 after bathing and deworming; a bit fluffed up in the picture because she is looking at a dog under our house)

New President

So I found out about the outcome of our presidential election from a local person here on the island. A little ironic, eh? Here I am, all the way on the opposite side of the world from the U.S. and that's how I get my news. :) May Obama serve the country and our world well!