Lights out in the Quad

This week we had 12 enlightening hours worth of seminars on spiritual warfare from Dr. Jerry Rankin. Those 12 hours and the "talk" from Gordon Fort this morning, were our favorites. We've also had two "fun" seminars from the medical clinic. One was a full hour on malaria: which one (1) can kill you, and which ones (3) can't; all the symptoms; how to prevent it; what kind of medication to take and when; and how to get tested if you think you might have it, etc.

The second seminar was today on all the other diseases you can get and how they are transmitted. We learned how to wash food, which foods to never eat, which things to never drink, and how to prevent some of these problems. Our next one will be all the things you deal with overseas. It's called the "diarrhea talk." Don't you wish you could be there for that one?

I've decided to let somethings go...like emailing or blogging every day. I'm not able to get everything done each day, but my new goal is to get more sleep, and I think that is going to mean choosing somethings and letting somethings go.

I'm writing really quickly right now for a reason. One of our cultural assignments for our Sub-Sahara Africa Affinity group is to go without electricity one weekend. Three out of the four quad mates have agreed that this is a good weekend to do it. It will get it out of the way, and we will hopefully have mild weather before we have to go without heat during a really cold time. In addition to that activity, we have to cook two meals from scratch during the weekend using only our stove top (because we will have gas stoves in Africa). The interesting dilemma is I was only supplied with two small omelet pans. Two of the quads have small pots, but if we are all trying to cook this weekend, I'm going to have to make a go of it in the saute pans. I see bacon and eggs for Sunday breakfast, and I still haven't figured out lunch. Doug will have to go shopping tomorrow.

I am taking a class tomorrow from 9 to 5 to get ESL certified, so Doug will have the kids, and he is borrowing someone's car to go to the post office in town to mail our Visa information to Uganda and he will pick up something for me to cook.

I'm going to stay off the internet all weekend. I think I have enough reading assignments to keep me busy. As of today, I have 5 books in my possession I'm supposed to read, there is one more available in the library I supposed to get, 12 articles on Africa, plus two movies Doug and I are supposed to watch. He is actually at the library right now seeing if one is available to watch before our midnight electricity cut-off time.

I've unplugged all the nightlights, all the heaters are off, no clocks, we will switch to cell phone light or flashlight, we can't open our fridge and use anything, and I'm washing my last load of clothes. Between you and me, I don't see myself taking a cold shower, so I'm guessing I'll be smelling by Sunday evening. But if I can boil a couple of saute pans worth of water and add them to about 2 inches or less of water in the tub, I might could stand to rinse off my body in tepid water. Too bad I don't have any baby wipes:)

I'm sure you wanted to hear all of that, but I'll still take this over living without electricity after a hurricane in the deep south with 105% humidity. And I'm actually excited that when it gets dark, I might just have to go...to...bed...

Well, it's almost 10pm here, I'm going to read a little before Doug gets back from the library or I have to cut my lamp off, whichever comes first.