My week ended relatively on a less exhausted note than last week. On Thursday, as I was home, I took a nap in the afternoon, went to cell group and was alert enough to enjoy it. Ida, the Brazilian dentist, had a pastor from Brazil visiting her, and he brought the message – very solid and edifying, for a change! I also got to meet Willemien, the wife of a Dutch doctor who recently moved to Nampula – I had met him, but not spoken to him, and I guess one of them needs to stay home with their kids. I discovered that they had lived in South Africa and so speak Afrikaans, so while there was some delay in starting we happily chatted away. Before and afterwards the visiting pastor talked quite a lot about African politics and international events, it was stretching to listen to him. However, I understood him better than Victor, the brother of Manuela, the lady who hosts the cell. That pure Portuguese accent is often still too much for me…
Yesterday was the day I had been dreading – pay day! I could finally use the laptop I was loaned, although I first needed to load Office onto it again so that I could have Excel, it was so odd that it didn’t have it. As far as the payroll went, I mostly felt useless – I did what I felt I could, then Dr Woodrow checked it and caught a lot of mistakes (still don’t really know what they were) and then I just prepared the payslips and otherwise went on with the mailing for the Adopt a Pastor Project. I think what upsets me about pay day is that I am not naturally good at financial accuracy and always seem to miss something, and then I start dreading talking to Dr Woodrow about the things I did wrong. Yesterday I just refused to become emotionally involved in the situation and simply expected myself to mess up – I don’t think that’s a way to live, but it helped just to get through the day and concentrate on what I’m good at. I also talked to him about the bookshop finances and stock issues, but then started getting a creeping feeling that turned out to be right – I had never actually gone through the November to February financial sheets, I got so busy with other work that I somehow thought I had… So I was busy with that until quite late – I’m not used to an 8-hour day over there anymore! At least Dr Woodrow and I also talked about some things that needed to be setttled before he leaves on Tuesday. And then it was finally home, food, relaxing and planning what needs to be done this weekend.
