Alone

It's Saturday night, the house is so quiet that hitting at the keys on the keyboard sounds really loud. Sam is on his way to Madrid right now,I miss him already, I'm hoping that this week flies by real fast. It's already hard being away from home especially this time of year, so it's definitely much accentuated when the small family here has to be split. All over a sudden I'm hearing sounds around the house that I never heard before,I'm certainly praying for good nights and pleasant days.

Mich and I escorted Sam to the bus stop, we had already explained to him that daddy was going away for a while and he seemed to understand, but when the bus came I had to grab the young man because he was about to get on the bus too. He cried saying he wanted to go with daddy but I told him that wouldn't be possible, I would have loved to go too anyway. By the time we got back home he was over it, I on the other hand was just beginning to feel Sam's absence, I guess Mich could see it in my eyes, he said "mummy itsoke"!. He did a good job of cheering me up, although I noticed that he started to test his boundaries, something like "now that Dad is away do the rules get to be bent?". He wanted to play with the electrical stuff, see if he could stay up a little longer.... that got me a little upset but I think he got the point, nothing has changed.
We plan to spend tomorrow afternoon with our navigator friends, Brent and Dianne, then we will see what the New Year has to offer.

Crossing over

It's almost Christmas day and I tell you this part of the city is dead quiet, seems like everyone (apart from us that is) has gone to be with family. I guess that's expected considering that three quarters of the people in our neighbourhood are students. The noise at night is less, the parking spaces are in plenty (doesn't make much of a difference, we don't have a car), but interestingly the laundromat is as busy as ever.
I'm enjoying these days of bliss when Sam is at home, the stress from school has subsided, exams are over (for now). Results are already coming back and so far things are looking okay, well at least he is not at the bottom. We are believing God for good performance overall and we have been praying. I found out that at Wharton one can't be too excited about getting 90% in an exam because you will discover that there are a whole lot of people who actually got 100%. Seeing as they are graded on the curve (grades depend on the performance of the class) that 90% might not be very good news. However I like Sam's attitude, he says he is here to learn, which he certainly is, and not to be on the Deans list. The Dean's list is not a bad idea but you might die trying, this school is not short of geniuses.

New years day is round the corner and this one time I'm not looking forward simply because it's going to be just Mich and I. Sam will be traveling to Spain to do some consultancy work, it's all part of his class studies, so nothing to be excited about. I mean it's going to be work and more work but visiting Spain should be fun, well he has got to make it fun.
That aside I'm asking myself, now that '06 is over what am I looking forward to in '07?, chill NYR's (New Year Resolutions), but what do I want to see happen in the New Year? What do I want God to do for me and through me? what do I want to achieve? what do I want to give my life and energy to this coming year?
Are you asking yourself the same thing?...
Hey!, don't stress it's just a question, I want to know if I've got company. If I'm not alone that's cool, if I'm alone it's still cool because I haven't got the answers anyway.

So this is Christmas ...

"But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end".




It's Christmas time, to some it's the snow and the cold outside that makes it time to cuddle in with loved ones. To others it's that time of year when family members come together and celebrate life, yet again to others ...

it's all about the christmas presents and Santa Claus.

m>Where do you stand in all this? what is Christmas all about in your minds eye?
Well Christmas is the time when I remember the birth of my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ although I must admit I'm finding it hard to focus with all the fancy things around. The Christmas sales, songs about Rudolf the reindeer (where again does he feature in the birth of Jesus?), the rush to buy presents, get the Christmas tree and have it decorated, heck not just the Christmas tree but the house and I'm talking about the roof and the front yard here. I must admit it makes the mood merry and people are more pleasant with eachother, but why can't we be like this all year round? I'm not talking about the decorations but the cheerful spirits and kindness, that way we would have less wars and more hungry people fed. I wouldn't mind if we had sales all year long too.

Just check this out;

"But the angel said to them, ' Do not be afraid. ' I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10

And the powerful words of Simeon;

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel" Luke 2:29 - 30

The tinsle,lights, and presents are nice but the real gift is ... JESUS!!

Enough said!!!

Merry Christmas

Woozy

I have reached a point in my stay here where I choose not to follow/trust my Christian buddies when it comes to drinks. I think for now I will stick with what is familiar, you know, juice, soda, water and stuff like that, these other drinks with fancy names, ah ah.

On Friday I attended a get together for the WWW'07 committee, that is Wharton Welcome Weekend. Every year the school organises a weekend where students who have just been admitted can come and tour the school and the areas surrounding it, inquire about accommodations and things of that nature. The committee comprises of mainly current students and partners, I'm in for the partners and kids bit of things. We are basically there to encourage students with partners and kids to come along with them, we share a few experiences and tell them about schools for children and other activities they can get involved in.

Anyway so I go for this get together and have absolutely no one to talk to, my buddies hadn't shown up and I hardly knew any of the other people. It was in a bar so I figured I would ask for a drink at the counter while I looked around. Then I saw Carol, the girl who helps babysit Mich and other kids while we are in cell group. We talked for a bit and I found out that she works there part time, I thought great, "can you recommend a drink" because quite frankly I had no clue what was being sold, but I thought "she is a christian she will know what "soft drink" is out there" (mistake no.1).
She was very excited to help and immediately said I try the something something apple, I thought that sounded cool if the name was anything to go by. I made the order and attendant handed me the drink, then I asked how much it was (mistake no.2), I should have asked before making the order, she said it was $11 dollars, I was shocked!, speechless!, the bar attendant was too busy to wait for me to go through all the emotions so she moved on. I got the impression she was saying please don't waste my time, you ordered for the drink, now give me the money because I don't have all day, and for sure it was a busy evening. I painfully pulled out the money, handed it to her and walked off with my drink. It was sweet with an apple taste to it, I emptied the glass but somehow I failed to hit it off with the crowd so I decided to go and browse in the book store next door. Woow!!! not long after that I felt like the back of my head had been hit with a ton of bricks, yaayi!!! that was bad!. I started feeling woozy and thought I was about to pass out, I thought if I stood still for a few minutes the feeling would go, aah... not working.

I drunk some water and that made me feel a little better, after a while I decided it was time to head home. I got there safely and narrated the ordeal to Sam, who felt for his adventurous wife but advised me to stick with the straight and narrow.

The keys,... again

You won't believe it but my keys went missing again and this time it seems to be for kips because I can't find them. I have chosen to leave Mich out of this because I honestly don't recall him tampering with them. How they have vanished all over a sudden is still a mystery to me, we have searched the house and this is day 3 we are talking about.
Mr.O was very unhappy with me and by the way he doesn't get this way very often, this time I think I really pushed it. Ok, so it isn't the first time I'm loosing them, nor is it the second, clearly he's had enough of that.

This afternoon I was given very serious instructions, go to the bank withdraw some money, get a new pair of keys cut and get a key-holder with a whistle, so that when the keys get misplaced we can just ... you guessed right, we can just whistle. I felt really terrible about the whole ordeal and sheepishly walked out the door with my tail between my legs, literally. On the other hand I was happy to walk out for a bit, kind of reminded me of the time we all brought bad reports home from school, my dad was upset and said we would have to go by train to the village as our punishment. I had mixed feelings, part of me was sorry I didn't do well but the other part was real excited about taking the train.
Anyway my first stop was the key cutter to find out how much it would cost, well it was about 2 dollars for both keys pssshhh!, I paid and had them done in a minute. The next thing was looking for a shop that had the key holders, wasn't very successful on that one. I went to the bank because I kind of figured Sam needed the money anyway, so withdrew some money. Around the corner from the bank is the Penn bookstore so I thought I would check in to see if they had the key holders. I found that they were serving hot chocolate and cookies at the entrance, that put a smile on my face but first I had to make sure it was free. I studied the people who were in the cue and noticed no one was paying for anything, yipeeee!!! I quickly got in line and served myself a hot cup of chocolate and a cookie. I didn't want to look too excited lest someone tapped me on the shoulder or called me back to put in my dimes. As I walked away it was pure joy in my heart God knew I needed that cup considering how cold it was outside.
I'm still looking for that specific key holder.

Favourite TV shows

I'm not that much of a TV fan but there are a few programmes that I wouldn't want to miss. Obviously the channels here are endless over 900 compared to WBS, UTV (I forget the new name)and LTV, the others didn't make it to my list or should I say they were not clear our side of Bukoto.

I watched "Dancing with the Stars" dancing/religiously, the show features celebrities getting on the dance floor with professional dance partners. The audience and judges decide who moves on to the next round. When I had just discovered the channel Jerry Springer was the clown of the day, seeing him dance the Rumba and Salsa was absolutely hilarious, he did it with a passion and I guess that's what kept him in for the next two rounds. Viva Fox was there too but unfortunately she didn't seem to please the judges much.
The final show was down to Emmit Smith a football player and Mario Lopez who I only remembered from Sunset beach. I was certainly a fan of Emmit's' because I thought his dancing was cool, he had smooth moves and was full of surprises. Mario was good too but I had a soft spot for Emmit, and it was not just because he is black.
In the final they were asked to master 3 dances, that was pretty intense and they all performed remarkably well, they got the same score. The ball was thrown to the audience and Emmit got the better of it, I was really happy about that. Can't wait to see who will be in the next batch.

Another programme I have been glued to is 'The Bachelor Rome"
bachelor/I guess it was more out of curiosity and romance than anything else. Prince Lorenzo is a handsome bachelor looking for his dream lady. Girls from all across America and Europe apply to go and live in Rome for a while, he gets to spend time with them together and individually then through elimination finds his princess. If he spent time with a girl and liked her she would get a rose, if she didn't she would pack her bags. Leaving twenty five girls (who all have their eyes on one guy) together for a few days is bad enough, months together?! you've got another thing coming. It gets really nasty no matter how beautiful they are. There is a lot of back stabbing, hypocrisy, crying, ganging up the whole nine yards. Slowly the girls drop off two by two until he is left with four. Now obviously at this point things are getting intimate, all the girls have fallen for Lorenzo and he is at the stage of finding out who is best suited for him. Dare I say it includes sleeping with him, and no one butts an eyelid, it's like expected except for one girl who has strong christian morals and says she is saving her self for marriage.
The Bachelor gets to meet the girls' families to get acquainted with them and every one is obviously at their best. There was one girl "Agnese" from France who hardly spoke English, unfortunately she was like the English pro in her family so they had a communication breakdown when Lorenzo went to visit, that was it for her. Another of the girls pulled a stunt of dressing in her wedding gown and that made the Prince freak out, he said good bye to her too. It was down to two girls and Lorenzo still couldn't make up his mind, he had Sadie (saving her self for marriage) on one hand and Jen on the other.
His Parents came to help him out, they met both girls and their parents, at some point it was all of them (parents, prospective in-laws, the girls, Lorenzo) in one room together, that was really weird. At the end Lorenzo's parents tell him the choice is his, he sheds some tears and finally decides it's Jen. I have been thinking, there are some eligible bachelors I know back home who probably need this to shake them up. On second thoughts it might not work because they would want to keep all twenty five ...that was intended to be a joke.

I have told you about my two favourites but as you may have noticed they have both ended, I will have to wait for the next season. In the mean time I have been watching "America's Next Top Model" americas-next-top-model it's got Tyra Banks as the lady behind it all. I watch this show to keep up with the trends and to dream about my size pre baby, now with a child in the picture and age catching up with me, things are tight. That aside I'm still amazed at how the competition is open to every one, married, single, with children, without, makes me wonder when UG will move on to "Mrs. Uganda" or " The Pearl of Africa".
Then again, it's common that the girls here get pregnant when they are 15, 16 and their bodies are able to snap back pretty fast. But as a single mom or whatever you've got to keep in mind that you won't see your babies and the father or fathers of your children for months on end because the process is pretty intense. Being America's top model has got to be all you live and breath for. Again putting all these pretty faces in a house for months is very revealing, they are only short of plucking each others eyes out.

The most exciting thing about these TV shows is you can count on them actually being there, no power cuts, no TV announcers coming in to tell us how "due to unavoidable circumstances" the programme will not show.