Feeling better and making progress March 7, 2009

On Thursday, going to work was about the last thing I wanted to do, but I had no choice. The morning wasn’t incredibly productive, as I had to make some stops in town first and then at 11h00 Julie, I and the girls all went to get haircuts. My hairdresser Manuela used to live really close to me, then they moved their house to a fairly new development (on the same side of town as the SIL compound), but for several months the salon was still in the old place. Then in December they moved the salon over as well. I was wondering where I was ever going to find the time to go now, but when Julie said she and the girls also really need it, it sort of justified taking the Landrover and making a whole outing out of it! I made really slow progress on Thursday afternoon and was just feeling miserable, and when I went by Cornelia’s house after work to drop something off, I got stuck there because of the rain and didn’t get back until 18h00, when it was already dark – not clever. Yesterday was much better, though, except that it started with a baaaad chapa ride. Three ladies with big plastic basins with 5 or 6 chickens in each got on at one point, and the smell of the chickens was very unpleasant. I was so happy when they started getting off, but unfortunately only two got off and then one lady was taking some more of the chickens of the lady who was staying, and they were flapping their wings and feather particles and droppings went flying through the air. Yuck! At work,  despite my irritation with the workers who seem to have a knack to come and ask me, in Dr Woodrow’s absence, for loans just when I am sitting down with a cup of tea or am really engrossed in my work, it was a very productive day and I think I only have about 5 pastors’ books left to take care of, aside from some new people whose packets will hopefully not take very long. It seems that Dr Woodrow really just needs to leave for things to go wrong though – on Thursday night the church building fell down! I had noticed recently that some of the supports were very skew… O well, I guess a wood-and-bamboo structure can only last that long! I had hoped that the documents that I need to take to the customs agent would be emailed to me yesterday afternoon, but alas not, I will have to go do that quickly this morning. And then hopefully rest well the rest of today and tomorrow before the containers start arriving… Thankfully my cold is much better, aside from annoying mucus in my throat I feel fine today.