why monsters university is the most important movie of this generation

*SPOILER ALERT* 

*but not really because you've all seen Monsters Inc. by now, so you pretty much know that Mike's ultimate occupation is not "scarer" but "scare team captain"*

*...unless you live out in The Bush or the Serengeti and haven't seen Monsters Inc. in which case, I'm sorry and also, how did you get a laptop/decent internet connection?*

The title of this post may seem like hyperbole, but I assure you, it's not.  Any child born from the early 80's on needs to see this movie.  Why?  One line.

"I thought that if I wanted it enough I could do it."

Uttered by a crestfallen Mike Wazowski after coming to the realization that--despite his best efforts--his lifelong dream of being a "scarer" was not a possibility, this line epitomizes-in one fell swoop-both one of the strongest messages of the film and a very large problem in the thinking of today's culture/youth.

"You can do whatever you set your mind to!"
"If you work hard enough, you can achieve anything!"
"Everyone is special and extraordinary!"

How many times since early childhood have we had these hackneyed motivators presented and force fed to us as absolute truisms meant to cultivate and feed our growing egos?  More importantly, how many times have we bought into it? Guys, there's a reason we're referred to as "Generation Me".

Monsters University provides an alternative to these nonsensical ideas of achieving anything your heart desires through simple want-or even trying--by giving us a character who, despite his best efforts, simply could not attain his dreams. In a generation where inflated egos and the prosperity gospel are on the rise, I cannot overstate the importance of this message:
 NO MATTER HOW "GOOD" A PERSON YOU ARE OR HOW HARD YOU TRY, YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO RECEIVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT IN LIFE.

It may sound harsh, but, such as we've come to accept that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife, we need to make this the next universally acknowledged truth. Because the sooner we realize that the inherent right to achieve all happiness and wants is nonexistent, the sooner we can stop blaming God or each other when things don't go according to "plan" (aka *our* plan).

Our plan is not always best. In fact, sometimes our plan is plain crap. And that's because we don't see the whole picture. Our view of and experiences in life are so minute compared to the grand scheme of things. We see a pin-prick of what's actually going on around us and think that entitles us to know what's the absolute best for us and how everything should be run. God sees the whole picture. He knows better than we do.

--Let me repeat that.--

GOD KNOWS BETTER THAN WE DO.

We may think the path we're treading is the best for our life and that the scary looking road off to the side isn't meant for us, but--as myself and I'm sure many others can attest to--sometimes that creepy, road less traveled is the perfect one to get you where you need to go.  

It's like that old cliche, when life closes a door, look for a window. Nobody likes climbing in through windows (or dog doors -__-) when they got locked out. (I should know. It happens to me all the time.) It's generally not easy or comfortable; you don't necessarily end up in the room you were originally trying to get to; you may accidentally get caught on the screen and scratch yourself (-___-); but it will still get you into the house. Not in the manner or place you may have expected, but in the house nonetheless.

Mike ended up happy and doing a job that he loved, even though it wasn't the job he'd originally thought would bring him happiness. When God's answer is "no"--which is inevitably going to happen more times than you like--stop whining and blaming Him and find that window He wants you to crawl through. It may not suit your preferences, but it'll get you where you need to go.

So, thanks, team at Pixar, for giving us such a fantastic movie with a much needed lesson. I salute you.

mjl.

AFRICA - Day 11 (Nov. 18, 2013)

Day 11: Tanzania (Usa River, Nkaoranga, Arusha, Kilimanjaro)

Well, today's our last day in Tanzania! For our last breakfast, we has hard boiled eggs, toast, and hot dogs.....it was a little strange, but tasted good nonetheless.

We left around 9ish with the medical crew to head over to the hospital where Pastor Kleopa would later pick us up to take us to the Cultural Heritage Center. After checking the progress on our painting team, we spent the majority of the next couple hours waiting in the O.R. dining area chatting.

When 11:00 rolled around, we left with Kleopa for Arusha. On the way to the Heritage Center, we stopped at an Arushan market to pick up some more baskets. Kleopa made us wait in the car at first so he could negotiate the price without it being driven up due to our mzungu-ness :P I ended up getting two long, flat baskets for around $6 each!! It's so crazy how the lady at the Farmer's Market charges SO MUCH for her hand-woven, African baskets and they're SO CHEAP here!

It took us about another half an hour before we got to the Heritage Center where we immediately had lunch. I had garlic/ginger chicken with French fries...it was pretty darn good. Lunch was followed by a lot of shopping within the Heritage Center, which I just realized I haven't yet explained.

The Cultural Heritage Center is a huge museum/art gallery/shops/flea market/restaurant where everything is for sale. It's very neat and *very* mzungu. Pretty much only white people there surrounded by lots of white people prices. Doris and I thought it looked like Adventureland from Disneyland.

Luckily for us, Dr. Rob knows the manager of the place pretty well, so we got a "missionary discount". I ended up spending around $70 for a beautiful, long wooden bowl, a carved wooden nativity, some chopsticks, a set of wooden spoons, a frame, and a bracelet. Not too shabby! And the perfect way to end our Tanzanian trip: shopping :)

I think I've spent somewhere around $200 for all of the souvenirs I've bought since I've been here, which really isn't bad at all considering *all* of the stuff I've bought.

Now we're waiting back at the guest house until we leave for the airport at 6:00. I've loved every day of this trip, but I am *so* ready to head home!

*UPDATE*
We said our goodbyes to our team, made it to the airport safely, and then said our farewells to Pastor Kleopa and co. who dropped us off.  Things went pretty smoothly as far as filling out customs forms and checking our bags, except there was a bit of a hold up when one of the airport workers thought my passport picture looked just like Angelina Jolie (...what?).

Airport Worker: *gestures me to come over to the counter where Michael is upgrading our seats/checking our bags*
Me: "Yes?"
Airport Worker: "Do you know Angelina Jolie?"
Me: "No...oh, do I know *who* she is? Yes...sorry. I'm tired."
Airport Worker: *points at my passport* "You look exactly like her."
Michael and I: *good hearty laugh*
Airport Worker: "No. Not a joke. She is an actress. You look just like her." *proceeds to show my picture to all the other workers*

Soooo, yeah. That was interesting. I'm fairly certain that if he had to see Angelina Jolie's mug plastered all over magazines as often as we do, he would know that I look nothing like her, but whatever. I'll take it as a compliment, I guess.

After my celebrity sighting, we ate chicken burgers with avocado (yum!) in the airport terminal and then boarded our flight for Amsterdam! Well...technically Dar es Salaam and then Amsterdam, but you get the idea.

This has been such a wonderful adventure, and I'm so grateful to God that He's allowed me the opportunity to do this!

See ya in America!
mjl.

AFRICA - Day 10 (Nov. 17, 2013)

Day 10: Tanzania (Tarangire, Arusha, Usa River)

Today we returned from safari, but not before packing in a few more trips about the Tarangire plains. This morning we saw some *extremely* close up elephants, a leopard tortoise, our usual giant herds of zebra, wildebeests, and impala, the occasional dik dik, a jackal, and a pair of lions again!

Unlike last time, these lions were way closer. Very much like last time, the lions decided to have a 2 second mating spree before falling back to maximum resting positions.

We also took pictures by a huge, hollowed out boaba tree that you could actually climb in to. It was apparently used by the Masai as a makeshift sniper tower of sorts, so you could see where they'd shoved peg-like things into the interior trunk to be able to climb up to their positions. It was very cool.

We are lunch back at the lodge, where I made the mistake of ordering what I thought was just "feta pizza". It turned out to be a spinach, feta, and caramelized onions pizza >.< Not great. There was way too much spinach, and if you got too much feta in a bite, it was way too salty. But, honestly, that's probably been the worst thing I've eaten since I've been here and even *that* wasn't too awful.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Tarangire and made the long trek back to Arusha so Colette could do a little shopping before her flight out this evening.

Eventually we found ourselves back at the Guest House with the Bells and Paul, who was visiting with them. Since Colette was leaving fairly soon, we took a bunch of group pictures (with all 7 or 8 of the cameras :P) and said our goodbyes.

I can't wait to go home tomorrow night. As I said before, I'm not at all ungrateful that I went on this trip: I've absolutely loved it! But that doesn't detract from my being extremely glad to be going home to my family, pets, and first world amenities.

Usiku muema!

mjl.

AFRICA - Day 9 (Nov. 16, 2013)

Day 9: Tanzania (Usa River, Arusha, Tarangire)

SAFARI!!!

We kicked off the day with some fantastic French toast and then hightailed it out of there with Grayson, our safari driver. Doris and Michael stayed behind to hang out with Pastor Kleopa and his wife today and tomorrow; their reasoning being that this is more incentive for them to return to Africa another time when they *will* go on safari. But as for the rest of us...safari time!!

It took about two and a half hours of driving through Arusha and Masai country, but we finally made it to Tarangire National Park, where the safari would take place. Before we even left the check-in point, we were already seeing cute little monkeys running around. It was awesome.

The safari started off a little slow, with a couple of stray impalas and warthogs, a few elephants, a single giraffe, but as we drove further into the park, the crazier it got. We started seeing huge pans of zebras, wildebeests, impalas, and elephants, all within a stones throw away from our car!

The coolest were these two elephants who were right on the side of the road when we drove up: one knocking his head into a tree to shake some foliage down, and the other about 5 ft away from me, walking up to and then right behind our car. It was so incredible to see these animals, who are absolute behemoths, yet so elegant and fluid in their movements, just feet away from us in their natural habitat. That was what made safari so cool. Obviously we've all seen lions, zebras, and elephants at the zoo, but these were so close and unrestrained and simply living the way God created them.

After close encounters of the elephant kind (boo.), we stopped at the picnic area for lunch, which was just about as cool as the safari itself. The picnic area was on the edge of this huge cliff overlooking the river from which all of the animals would go and drink. While we were there, we saw enormous flocks of wildebeests and zebras (for whatever reason, they tended to usual show up together) drinking from and crossing the river. It was beautiful.

After lunch, we were on the hunt for big cats, specifically lions or leopards. Luckily, almost immediately after we set out, we found a line of 2 or 3 other safari trucks lined up on the side of the road, a sure sign that something good was nearby. Sure enough, some crazy Dutch woman was sticking her head out of the top of her truck yelling, "Louver! Louver!", so we looked to our rights and could just make out a male lion lying with his lioness stretched out beside him. They were pretty far away, but with camera zoom and binoculars, it wasn't too difficult to see them. They didn't do too much apart from lie there since it's their mating season which, apparently, means they mate for 4-7 days in a row without eating or doing much of anything else. We saw about 1.8 seconds of mating and a whole lot of "not much of anything else", but it was still cool nonetheless.

Our post-lion adventures included a lot of the same animals as before--but closer or in larger numbers--, but with several additions: a family of the cute little monkeys, giraffes, lots of birds, dik diks (the world's smallest--and cutest--antelope), mongoose, cape buffalo, etc etc. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome. I was also just really excited to keep seeing these boaba trees everywhere. They have absolutely *massive* trunks but are scarred all around--up to a certain height--from where the elephants scratch their tusks! I found each tree that we passed absolutely fascinating...almost more so than the animal ;)

We eventually made it to the Tarangire Safari Resort where we were shown to our "tents" and were instructed to meet for dinner in about an hour. The best way to describe our tents was achieved by my friend, Elizabeth Provencio (via FB) when she called them "Quidditch World Cup Tents from Harry Potter". They absolutely were!!

First of all, they had electricity and comfy beds in the *first* room, but then you unzip what appears to be the back wall of the tent, and there's more! A full sink, toilet, and shower--with hot running water--and more electricity! It was unbelievable. And on top of it all, if I left the outer layer of my tent unzipped, I had a fantastic view of the African plains right from my bed. It was truly spectacular.

I went to dinner a little early to connect with the free wifi in the lounge (!!!), so I could update my FB and contact my family. I really miss them, and look forward to finally going home to be with them on Monday night. Don't get me wrong, I've loved being here and am beyond grateful for the opportunities I've been given and the lessons God has taught me, but I also believe that one of the big lessons he's taught me this week is that I need to about a thousand times more appreciative of all that I have, especially my family. So it was really nice to get to text with them for a while.

Around 6:45, the rest of the team joined me, and we enjoyed cocktails on the lounge's terrace which overlooked the exquisite plains/river of Africa. (How often can one say that??) Dinner followed with a lovely buffet menu of shisk-a-bob'd beef (the first tender--not cooked with an inch of combustion--beef we've had since we arrived), rice, vegetables, salads, and chicken. It was quite delicious. Our team spent the dinner as we usually spend most dinners, hearing Dr. Rob and Dr. Rem compete with medical stories :P

In spite of their constant one-uping each other, however, I generally do enjoy their company and usually find the competition somewhat amusing, so the dinner was pretty nice.

As our team slowly dissipated to their respective tents, Colette, Nancy, and I resigned to the lobby to take advantage of their wifi and contact our families. FINALLY, after all that, we went to bed.

So that was my busy first day on safari. I've truly loved it and am so grateful to Dr. Jones for paying my way to be here. Right now, however, I'm fighting falling asleep as I keep hearing, what sounds like, the pitter patter of little June bug wings/feet inside my tent. I keep turning on the light and checking around with my flashlight, but no luck. Maybe it's outside hitting my tent? I really hope so.

Pray I don't wake up covered in June Bugs!
mjl.

AFRICA - Day 8 (Nov. 15, 2013)

Day 8: Tanzania (Usa River, Nkaoranga)

Thank God, we just recovered from another blackout. I've been sitting here in the dark packing my bags (by the light of my phone) for safari tomorrow/getting them ready to go ASAP for our flight out of here on Monday night. Though, the darkness, I can handle. What I could not have handled for much longer was the damn heat. It gets SO. HOT. in these rooms if there's no circulation, BUT there's no way in heck I'm opening up my window or door and letting the bugs in, so I got to pack in the warm darkness.

But about today...veggie omelettes for breakfast with shopping through Mama's store for dessert :)

Mama has *a bunch* of stuff made by her mama and her friends that she sells over in the corner of the living room of the guest house. Stuff like jewelry, carved wooden animals, bags, headbands, etc. I bought 100,000 shillings worth of gifts for the family (aka, about $60 USD) :D

After shopping, we left the house around 9:00 and headed for the hospital, but not before stopping at a shop on the side of the road ran by a woman who sells baskets and other household items. We bought all her baskets, a bunch of her wooden spoons, and brooms and all for a grand total of about $11!! It was insane!

Once at the hospital, I scrubbed up, not to paint, but to join Mia, Nancy, and Dr's Rob and Rem in an operation to remove cysts from a woman's ovaries. It took a while for the docs to finish their rounds, but once they did, we were ready to go!

Now, this is one of the things I was *really* excited about getting to do on this trip, so, naturally, it went horribly wrong.

Right before the surgeons finally came in, my stomach began to feel really odd. I thought maybe it was just gas and then began to think it was food poisoning or something worse (Crohn's!), which is when it started getting hard to breathe: I figured it was just my mask. It was also starting to feel really hot in there and, although I was sitting on a stool, even that act was staring to feel exhausting.

At that point, Dr. Rob finally came in, came straight over to the stool and said, "Once the surgery starts you need to hmm hmm hmmmm the table". Although I was trying really hard to concentrate, it was getting difficult to hear him.

He continued, "And if you ever feel light headed at any point, just-"

"What if I feel light headed right now?", I interrupted.

"Sit on the floor" he said, "It'll help."

So I did just that. The first few minutes on the ground, my head was still spinning pretty badly, and I felt seconds away from vomiting; however, once they turned on the air conditioning, I began to feel a lot better. So much better, in fact, that I thought I could sit back down on my stool...I could not. It was kind of embarrassing, and I had no idea why it was happening since I'm not bothered by blood or intestines or anything; in fact, I find them quite interesting.

So I ended up spending about 97% of an ovarian cyst removal surgery on the floor of an operating room in Tanzania. Definitely something to check off the bucket list. And, hey. The 3% I did see was pretty darn cool...before I had to sit back down due to the room closing in on me.

Apparently what happened to me is not uncommon. It's called vasovagal syncope, where something triggers a nerve to shut off, decreasing the blood flow to your brain. Nancy said it happens every so often with nurses who want to go surgical; they'll get into an OR, and their bodies freak out. Doris says it happens to her when she gets blood drawn, so I'm assuming that's what happened to Meg when she tried to give blood that one time and threw up and passed out.

So that was my great, first operating room experience! :P I'm honestly just grateful it was that vasovagal thing and not something worse, as I was half convinced I was going to be admitted and die in an old, gross hospital in Africa of some terrible disease.

After finishing up in the O.R., I went back down to the Female Ward to help Doris, Michael, and our painter buddies finish up some dressers, windows, and doors. The difference between these rooms before we started and now is absolutely remarkable, and we're not even finished! (Well, five of the rooms are finished, the painters will finish the rest of them after we've gone) It's completely night and day looking at pictures of the disgusting, filthy walls, ceilings, and furniture that were in there before and how nice it all looks now! Praise God!

Since we were beginning to get in the painters' way again :P, Doris and I spent our last hour and a half at the hospital going around and taking pictures before we all left for the guest house at 4:00 to change and get ready for dinner at Sam's at 6:30.

I took a 30 minute nap as soon as we got back and then spent the rest of the time chatting with the Bells, Dr. Rob, Colette, and Rem (with whom I had a lovely conversation about the United Kingdom! :) ). Kleopa stopped by with the coffee that the Bells and I had ordered (more gifts for people!), which smelled absolutely extraordinary. It's sitting in my closet right now, and I can still smell it. Mmmm ^.^

But back to today...

We went to Sam's house which is right next to the hospital to have dinner with his lovely wife, Vela, sons Jesse and Jensen, and adopted daughter(/niece), whose name I couldn't quite understand after multiple repeats. His house was actually very nice and had an indoor kitchen! (One of only two that I've seen since being here) Vela made us French fries, grilled chicken, and shisk-a-bob'd steak (delicious!!), and we spent the rest of the evening chatting with Sam and each other until the blackout.

Now, we're back at the guest house, I'm done packing, and it is officially time to go to bed. Safari tomorrow! Woo hoo!! :D

mjl.

AFRICA - Day 7 (Nov. 14, 2013)

Day 7: Tanzania (Usa River, Nkaoranga, Mount Meru)

Well, the electricity just went out at the guest house, which means the end of my studying time, which means time for me to journal about my day while sitting in my hot, dark room! :D Hopefully the bugs outside won't be attracted to the light of my phone and try to come in here :/

But enough about that. On to today!

This morning we had avocado juice (mixed with something else, no doubt, and surprisingly delicious) and vegetable crepes again (still tamd san...very delicious) and left the house close to 9:00 to get to the hospital, this being a very important day because it was my first full day working at the hospital!

*Present Tense Interjection*

Now I'm listening to the people in the house behind us play their horrible, synthesizer-sounding music which is pretty much one ugly measure repeated over and over (I wish I was exaggerating). Apparently not *everybody's* electricity went out 😒

*Back to the Past*

Doris and I were out on the patio behind the Female Ward and across from the Children's Ward to prime and paint about a dozen of the curtain holders and about 4 or 5 side dressers that the nurses kept finding and bringing out 😒 I should clarify...by "patio", I mean giant slab of concrete clearly intended to be the foundation of another building, but which never even reached completion on the full, laid foundation stage.

So we sat out there in the heat, priming away and taking frequent breaks so we didn't die of heat exhaustion. I eventually remembered that the Cipro I've been taking comes with the directions: no prolonged exposure to the sun. Whoops. I then spent the rest of my painting time pulling dressers over to my distinguished spot in the shade which grew bigger and bigger as the day wore on and the sun sank further behind the Children's Ward. No matter where we stood, however, we crazy mzungus always had spectators just watching us paint (and occasionally laughing :P).

We broke for about an hour and a half for lunch (where we both discovered we'd gotten pretty bad sunburns 😁) before going back to work which we continued until around 4 or so when it was time to quickly run home and change for dinner at Kleopa's.

*Present Tense Interruption Again*

Electricity's back on! Still sitting in the dark cause I'm too lazy to turn my light back on, but my fan's back on! Praise God!!!

*Back to the Past*

Dinner at Kleopa's was outstanding. First of all, he had a beautiful house (nzuri san!).

Second, Jean Pierre was there. I just realized I don't think I've written about Jean Pierre yet. He's a Dutch national who lived/worked in Rwanda until the uprising when he was forced out and moved to Tanzania with his wife. She died 5-6 years ago, but he stayed here. Apparently he mainly just stays in his house drinking and smoking all day, but comes down occasionally to get free meals. Oh, and he only speaks Dutch and French, as he refuses to learn Swahili or English.

He crashed the Preschool Graduation the other day. Just grabbed a chair in between some of the little graduating kids, plopped himself down, and relaxed. He's one of the most bizarre characters I've ever come across, and he joined us for dinner tonight. Speaking of which...

Third, the food was wonderful. Mama Ana (Kleopa's wife) made ground beef/carrot pasties, garlic potatoes, green beans and carrots, "Asian rice" (white rice with some carrots and peas thrown in), and a ton of fruit. I, of course, being the obese American that I am, put way too much food on my plate and only ended up eating maybe half of it...again, whoops. I will go down in Tanzanian history as the mzungu who never finished anything...come to think of it, I only had a couple sips of after-dinner coffee before we went on a tour of Kleopa's family's farm, so I wasted that too...oh well.

As I mentioned, Kleopa took us around to see his family's farm (lots of animals, fruit trees, and a coffee plantation) which was pretty cool. We passed someone's house where they burn cow poop to create methane gas and therefore power for their home! We also learned that pretty much everyone's kitchen is basically a shack outside their home. Very interesting!

We concluded our tour, I had Paul teach me a few more Swahili words, and then we headed for home.

Since I've been sitting in the dark for a while, I think I'll probably go to sleep pretty soon as my eyes have now gotten ridiculously tired.

Goodnight!

mjl.

Swahili I've learned so far (that I actually remember...and would like to continue remembering):

- Jambo (hello...sometimes hello, how are you?)

- Habari za asubuhi (good morning)

- Habari yako? (How are you?, Habari Zenu if more than one "you")

- Asante (thank you)

- San (very, i.e. Asante San = thank you very much)

- Karibu (welcome or you're welcome)

- this exchange (don't ask me why they say the same thing twice):

 - Habari (hello, how are you?)

 - Nzuri (I am fine...nzuri can also mean beautiful)

 - Jambo (hello, how are you?)

 - S'jambo (I am fine)

- Hapana (no)

- Kwanza (first)

- Usiku Muema (good night)

- Mzungu (white person)

- Mufrika (black person)

- Sawa (okay)

- Tamd (delicious)

- Machoka (tired)

- Kisho (tomorrow)

- Hospitali (hospital)

- Kuku (chicken)

- Simba (lion)

- Timbo (elephant)

- Baba (father)

- Chokuru (food)

- Yako (you)

AFRICA - Day 6 (Nov. 13, 2013)

Day 6: Tanzania (Usa River, Nkoaranga, Arusha)

Today was supposed to be our first day spent totally at the hospital, which, of course, did not happen.

We left the house around the same time as yesterday after a delicious breakfast of French toast, got to the hospital and then waited. Well, at least, Doris and I did. We were supposed to be riding into Arusha with the hospital's procurement officer, Mary, to get some more paint, but she was apparently very busy this morning, so we waited patiently in the OR waiting room while everyone else went to work.

After about an hour or so, she was finally ready, Doris convinced Michael to go with us, and we headed off to Arusha.

It probably took us *at least* a good half an hour to forty-five minutes to get there since

A) It's pretty far.

B) Since it's a fairly big city, there's traffic on the way in (as opposed to here in the Mount Meru area where there's only one road and only the rich have cars, so slow traffic is paradoxical).

On to Arusha...picture all the shadiest parts of L.A. blown up to the size of a city and that's Arusha. It has none of the untouched beauty of the Mount Meru region and instead has almost every bit of it filled with roads, dirty little shops, and huge, gawdy buildings.

On our way to the alleyway with the hardware stores (aka rows of open Darrel's mini storage units), we heard whistling and yelling coming from down the street. It was a fight.

Some young guy was on the ground getting kicked by a growing mob of men around him, as anxious onlookers ran over to watch/join in. It reminded me of how I imagine hockey fights would be if the fans were allowed to run on the ice to cheer on/take part in the brawl. Totally barbaric.

After that terrifying bout, we made our way to the "paint store" where we bought 6 tubs of paint, only two of which were actually in the shop. The rest were apparently back in America as we had to wait--what seemed like--45-60 minutes or so for whomever the shop owner sent to retrieve the other tubs.

After a couple more stops, one of which included listening to a full call to prayer by some imam on a loud speaker, we made our way back to the hospital.

Since it was 2:00 by the time we got back, our painter friends were out eating lunch, and lunch was just about to be served for us (yeah, you read right...2:00). We had to wait about half an hour for all the food to make it into the OR waiting room, but once it did, I scarfed down the delicious chicken and white rice. THEN we finally got to work! And--surprise, surprise--Doris and I were actually allowed to paint!

Not the walls, of course, but the bedside dressers which were about as disgusting. So we got to work doing that when our little friend, Peter joined us, AND he still had his dog :D Today's conversation with him led me to figure out his name was Peter aaaaand that was about it :P Oh! I did point at myself and say, "Mzungu" to which he responded by pointing at himself and saying, "Mfrica", which means black person (I only knew since Dr. Rob had earlier told us to yell this back at any little kids who yell, "mzungu!" at us :P ). It wasn't much, but it felt good to communicate--for a second at least--in one language.

Michael joined us after a while with some filthy wooden curtain holders which looked like they hadn't been cleaned since they were made. Seriously, they were disgusting. He informed us that the painters told him, "The mamas can paint these." Which is some what of a promotion for me since I'm fairly certain "mama" is usually only used for moms, wives, adult women, etc, and I'm sure a lot of these people think I'm a kid (i.e. one of the Tanzanian OR workers asked me how old I was and when I told him, "24", he responded with, "No. 14."). Also a promotion in the fact that we're being trusted with more painting tasks. Woohoo!

We left shortly after starting our cleaning of the curtain holders since the medical team was about to leave for the house, but Michael stayed behind to finish up with the painters at 5:00.

After showering (still no sign of lice!), I finished the first chapter of my Lang. Acq. text book (only 5 more to go!), and we ate dinner. Tonight was fantastic! Cabbage soup and fish & chips. So good. We then sat around listening to Dr. Rob and Dr. Brooks trying to one up each other with rectal removal stories...yeah, that's right.

Now, I'm hanging out in my room, debating whether or not I should keep reading my textbook, or read Sherlock Holmes....Holmes it is.

Until tomorrow!

mjl.