Of course their is an abundance of wildlife in Africa. I've not been on a safari, but there are still interesting things to see. Here is a report of "curious creatures" for the weekend:
This afternoon in the parking lot at the restaurant (more about this below) one of the group spotted a chameleon on the ground. Of course several people held it, and we all took pictures. They are cute little guys. It was about 4 inches long, plus its tail. I think this was the weekend for critters because when I went to take a bath last night, their was a huge - (probably 2 inches long) cockroach near the faucets for the bathtub. I tried to kill it, but it ws pretty fast. so Laurie hear me making noises, and she came and killed it with the bottom of her flip flop. It is not usual to see cockroaches in the house. Usually if they get in, it is because one of the cats has carried it in to play with!
The other critter of the weekend appeared yesterday morning as I was walking on the path to the library. I looked ahad, and I thought "hmm, what is that?? I realized it was some type of small lizard. It was about 6 inches long. The tail was blue, the head was light orange, and the body sort of dark. I wished I had had my camera. I went to get Laurie from the library, but by then we couldn't get as good a look at it because it was crawling up a wall to hide.
There are always other creatures such as the occasional mosquito to deal with. Also, Bob and Laurie have about 6 chickens. There are some mourning doves that like the chicken feed, along with some small birds with sort of red heads and breasts that also join the feast. Bob and Laurie's cas often try to lay in wait in the grass to nab one of the birds, but haven't been successful.
Ok, away from the animal kingdom to today's events: Well, had quite a full day today. 16 people came yesterday. They are the group for "sister connection".
We went and picked up most of them at the hotel for church this morning. This is Rohero F.M. church - downtown in Bujumbura - not the church right by campus. Church service lacked only about 10 minutes of being 3 hours. Thankfully it has lots of open space, and there are big ceiling fans. They had Walter Silver and I come up and bring greetings, then the whole sister connection group. But not each of them talked.
We went back to the hotel for the some of the people to change their clothes. Then there was a delay because they didn't want us to use a vehicle that needed a tune-up. Finally we got to the restaurant at the north end of Lake Taganyika that I had gone to 1 1/2 weeks ago. But this time, a number of us waded in the lake. I took some pictures. With so many of us, and quite a lot of waves today, we didn't think any crocodiles would be wanting lunch in that area. It was great! I enjoyed it a lot! First dip even in Lake Tangayika! Now I've been in one of the other "Great Lakes".
After lunch we just sat around for a little white, and din't leave until about. It was a bit before 6 when we finally got back to campus, after dropping them off at the hotel, and getting a couple suitecases, and chatting. Mind you, you can't zip around here and there as fast in in most of the U.S. due to a number of pot holes, some cobble stone streets, weird intersections, and a fair number of vehicles - cars, bicycles. trucks, and other unique vehicles.
I had been home just a bit when the power went out. Thankfully bob and Lauri come home shorly from an English language service and lit ther kerosene lamps. Thankfully the power came back on very soon after. time Kirkpatrick and his wife Pat came over a bit later to check their e-mail. We had a nice chat.
Tomorrow it is back to work. We began inventory on Friday morning. I'm sure we will continue. When doing it we find a number of errors - and those take time to fix. No lack of work! I tried to solve some of them Saturday a.m., but all 3 of the computers chose not to cooperate with me in one way or another! I was also some some things, but I finally gave up and went back to the house for lunch. Please pray that we can make very good progress on the inventory, and that we can have cooperation from the computers and floppy disks in correcting the mistakes that we find. We are doing inventory because it is an important step towards beginning to have an on-line catalog.
Also this week Linnet and I hope to work on planning the arrangement of the book stacks, circulation desk, periodicals, reservcs, etc. in the new library. If I'm not able to come back to help with the actual move, at least they have had my input on the layout.
Regarding the container: We have heard that it is in Dar es Salam. Please pray that it would not sit on the dock for long, and that the trip overland by truck would be safe and quick, that it would get through customs quickly, and to campus quickly. We hope that it arrives soon!
Thank you for your support and prayers. If you want to e-mail, you can write me at: libladysau@yahoo.com
Blessings!
Karen
