the computer won again and I started a blog...

I guess if I have a blog I can rant for a long time about things, without feeling like I'm cluttering people's emails. I still appreciate your emails though and would like to get updates on people's lives.

First blog entry... I eat poorly, I sleep weird hours, I rarely shower, I've shampooed once in the last 8 weeks... yup, pretty much the same life I've had since the beginning of college.

I've been flown to the south of Sudan to a place called Yei. I'm writing for Samaritan's Purse, specifically for their church reconstruction program. We are supposed to rebuild every church destroyed during Sudan's 20 year civil war. My job is to write reports on churches so that we know the history and present status of the churches we are working with.

I was in a place called the Nuba Mountains in the middle of Sudan. It started out rough, but I pretty much love it now. But I'm now in the south because we need some specific church reports to make some donors happy. I guess I don't really like my job at the moment, but I love what it allows me to do.

Things I love about life right now:
1) I'm in Africa
2) I drive fun vehicles like 4-wheelers and 1978 Land Rovers on ridiculous roads
3) My coworkers with SP
4) The fact that every time I get a good meal or a coke I appreciate it about 20 times more than I used to

Things I don't really love:
1) Working with a translator. At least once a day I want to choke my translator, no matter who it is.
2) The fact that my dirty laundry disappears from my room and is never heard from again.
3) Sitting at a computer and typing reports. I think it takes me about three times as long as it should, because at best I can only focus for a half an hour at a time.

I guess that's just a partial list, but it'll do.

Further notes about the '78 Rover. Jeff Mills (my buddy who I now get to hang out with because he is working in the spot I was just transferred to) informed me that in the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy" a similar vehicle is dubbed the antichrist. Seems pretty accurate. After I'd driven the car for a week and a half the ignition went out and we had to start the car by having one person touch a metal rod to a couple of screws under the hood, while a second person pumped the gas. The car wasn't capable of idling, so this had to be repeated many times every day.

I did become quite attached to the car though, and was very upset to learn that while I was in a different area someone else had ruined it. Apparently he wasn't aware that you need to check the dipstick regularly when a car has a known oil leak. So the antichrist is no more. RIP.