"If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say."

- Winston Zeddmore, Ghostbusters

That quote has nothing to do with this blog, but it may just apply to the average Samaritan's Purse employee. Not that they are all about the money, people just don't like to ask the hard questions about what our programs are really doing. Once something is set in motion everyone assumes things are good without actually thinking about them. I digress...

So 2/3s of our team flew out for a conference last week and I was kind of left in charge of Kauda our main base. I was excited about that until I realized that the 1/3 of people left was the totally unhelpful group. Still not a bad week, got to do some stuff I don't normally do.

On Saturday the people who had flown out were supposed to come back, along with some extra people who needed to stay the night before flying out in the morning. Total we were planning on having about 30 people on the compound that night. So I stressed all day, counting beds and blankets and making sure we had enough food. I had our guard kill two goats (this is normal meat here) and the ladies were supposed to cook it all up. I spent about an hour myself cutting up tomatoes for a giant salad we made. And just when we went to pick them up at the airstrip, a giant cloud formed. The plane got half-way there and the wind started blowing hard enough to rock our trucks and lightning started striking everywhere. When torrential rains started a moment later it completed the scene, and the plane turned around and landed somewhere else for the night. All our preparation for nought. This is what we refer to as the "Nuba Factor".

But my adventures were just beginning as the Nuba Factor struck once more. I told one of the ladies I would drive her home because she stayed late to help cook. Normally it is a 15 minute drive. Of course thats assuming the rain hasn't just destroyed the road. So I got stuck for about an hour and dug out with a shovel and my hands. Then I dropped her off and got stuck in the exact same spot on the way back. I dug for another hour. I couldn't figure out what I was stuck on, as all my wheels seemed to be on the ground, but when someone realized that my 30 minute trip had taken about 150 minutes they sent someone to help. Apparently my wheels weren't locked (4-wheel drive related thing) and when he locked them I moved effortlessly. Fun times.

Then I got home at 10:30 and spent about 45 minutes in a cold shower, cause thats how long it took me to scrub the mud out of my arm and leg hair.

Other interesting Nuba occurences:
1) Sergey, my Uzbekistani friend, killed a cow with his truck. A week later a letter was sent to all NGO's and the UN asking who did it and saying that the owner was threatening to go to the local sorcerer to put a curse on him. The letter also stated that the sorcerer has power of thunder and other harmful things. Fortunately the matter had already been cleared up by then, so no one has been struck down by lightning to my knowledge.
2) Troy, my Missourian friend, was asked to help transport a dead woman from the hospital back to her home to be buried. He did and then they got stuck in the mud for hours. Him and the dead body. Shades of "Little Miss Sunshine".
3) We had four quads drive in a convoy from Kauda to our southern belt (a place called Morro). I was really annoyed with the trip for a while cause I thought it was unneccessary, but then I realized something: How many times in life will I be able to drive 4-wheelers cross country with 3 buddies, and call it a part of my days work.
4) I avoided the return drive because there were some VIPs visiting and one of them thought it would be fun to make the journey by quad. I reluctantly gave up my quad, and took his place on the tiny-4 seater plane. So I sacrificed my exciting 4 or 5 hour ride through mud and bad roads, for a boring 20 minutes on a plane :) I've flown more times in Africa now than in the rest of my life combined.

Thanks for the love and prayers people. Hope to see some of you before too long.

love, shaps