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Boatin' home on Sunday. August 3rd, 2008 |
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August 3rd, 2008
Last night was interesting. I was tired and sleep would have been easy except for not being able to get that comfortable with the pain in my knee. I did finally get to sleep though only to be abruptly awakened by one of the local dogs who was running the trails and suddenly discovered a flying Mazungu!! He let out a very loud howl that woke everyone in the house and about knocked me out of the hammock. I quickly turned on my light to frighten him away as did James who came out of Benter’s house. The dog ran away howling in the distance. It was like someone sneaking up on you fast asleep and letting off one of those compressed horns people use at football games and such. The dog must have been very bewildered at what this new creature on the island could be that ate humans while holding onto trees!! He came back about two hours later and did the same thing. I guess he wanted everyone to know the creature wasn’t through eating humans yet.
I awoke to the sounds of singing even before daybreak. It was very nice as there was a choir somewhere practicing for Sunday morning worship service later that morning. It seemed as if they were singing since about 4AM. I got up and packed my hammock away thinking it must be very early since Ben had not come to get me but it was already 7:00AM by the time I got packed and ready to leave. It was a good thing I got up early.
I sat around the house and got things together with James and Ben and we all went down to Seraphim’s restaurant to get breakfast and wait for the boat.
Seraphim had the geeko’s (charcoal cookers) outside the place with pots on to boil. Some were the stew for later today and some were mandazi’s on the fry. We sat at the table and the chai and mandazi’s came out for breakfast. We ate at a leisurely pace and soon the boat was ready and it was time for me to get aboard. The family all gave me final greetings and I waded out to get on board. Devaline (Benter’s daughter and Allie’s new friend) is coming with me and will meet me in Sena on the other end of the island. She is finally getting out for this school term and will have about three weeks off. The boat made it to Sena and we got loaded with one turn around to pick up more passengers. After about an hour and 15 minutes we pulled into Mbita and disembarked. I tried to call Don and Nancy but the phone I had had no minutes. I was hoping someone would be able to pick us up with the van but to no avail. They had my phone turned off and I could not get an answer. Devaline and I walked back to ICIPE which was about 2 miles or better.
We made it to the masonette around 11:30AM.By now my knee was really feelin’ good, if you know what I mean. I gave Devaline some crackers and peanut butter for a little something to eat and went up to get a much needed shower. When I came down from taking a shower Devaline was fast asleep on the couch. She was exhausted. I started reading a book titled Hope for Africa and read it about halfway through and started to doze off myself. Shortly Allie and Leah showed up with a visitor named Moses as they got out of church a bit early. Don was speaking this Sunday so he had to stay afterward a bit. We basically lazed around for a while Don and Nancy talked to Moses about the Base and their plans for it. Moses wants to be involved but right now there are no paying positions but he still seems interested. We really didn’t do much as it was Sunday so I went up to go to bed. On my nightstand was a brown envelope that I hadn’t noticed before and I opened it. It was a summons from the District Officer concerning the Henry Okatch situation. I showed it to Don and Nancy and said my plans to go see the doctor just got put on hold. It will be good to finally get an audience with the D.O. to get this whole thing sorted out.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 04 August 2008 )
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