Life...

Hello, friends.  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Let's see what I can tell you about my life since we last chatted...

We're well into a little thing called "rainy season" here, which means that most days this is the view from my classroom.

The general greyness of things reminds me very much of my own Pacific Northwest, though the effect is ruined as soon as you step outside. (Washington is very rarely this warm unless the sun is shining.)  Those mysterious red smudges are big cargo ships, waiting to be loaded up.  You can see the cranes behind them.  If my student Jack were here, he'd be able to tell you what kind of ships and cranes we're talking about.  He could probably tell you the names of the ships, too.  Jack is an enthusiast when it comes to ships, tugboats, tankers, cranes and anything else having to do with sea-going vessels. I have another student who's the same way, only with planes and airports.  He once gave a 20+ slide presentation on Heathrow International Airport and current plans for the addition of a floating terminal.  I am often struck with the unique lives my students lead.  I pray that they come to see the marvelous gift they're being given as they wrestle with the challenge of growing up on the world's largest civilian hospital ship.  (I have to remember that myself.  The gift and the challenge go together--you can't have the first without the second.)  Maybe someday, I'll eventually get used to hearing things like, "This weekend at our youth camp-out, we got to roast a crocodile for dinner!"  (True story.  They purchased it from a local vendor, killed it, cleaned it, and coated it with crunched-up pringles.)  But it hasn't happened yet.  Ah well, perhaps after another year...  

Speaking of unexpected animals, I saw these beauties mounted on the wall of our mid-ships lounge area just a few days ago.  Don't worry, they're paper mache.  Some of my students have been taking a special art class.  Pretty impressive, don't you think?  I don't remember doing anything like that when I went to high school.  (I'm still waiting for the back half of each animal to show up on the other side of the wall.  Maybe next quarter?  Here's hoping!) 

Last weekend, a couple of friends and I participated in the Africa Mercy version of the Amazing Race.   Basically, we spent the day running all over Pointe Noire completing various challenges and generally making fools of ourselves.  The picture above was taken just prior to our canoe challenge.  (Esther is on the left and Andrea on the right, from England and Holland, respectively.)  Unfortunately, the wind came up and the currents got a little too strong for us to make it all the way out to our goal, but as you can see from the photo below, we did in fact propel the canoe with our oars (which, in my mind, constitutes a real victory).  We may have gone a little faster if that guy on the end hadn't been weighing us down.  Of course, we may also have tipped over, so it's just as well he was there.

Among our other challenges were:  carving a wooden coaster (pictured above--not as easy as it looks, by the way), cooking and selling an egg sandwich from a Congolese food cart on the side of the road, catching some chickens, playing soccer with a few local boys (who very graciously let us win), shining shoes at the airport (I actually earned a dollar doing this!  It's always nice to gain a new marketable skill), trying to cook two fish we bought at the market over a charcoal fire built by ourselves (It's a good thing I know how to shine shoes, because I would never make it in a Congolese kitchen), and a complicated scavenger hunt through a crazy busy market.  My last thoughts before falling asleep that night were 1) I'm so glad we didn't have to eat the fish we "cooked" 2) I am going to be sore tomorrow and 3) I love my life!