Well, we went on the big trip to town on Monday to do all our shopping for supplies for Lushomo. I was able to get my other bag from the airport! Woot! We got a bunch of groceries, I bought a phone for $25, and got a couple of chitanges (Yeah, I probably slaughtered the spelling of that word, basically its a peice of cloth that women here wrap around and use as a skirt). And Alan had a lot of stops he needed to make in town. Driving here is quite amuzing. It's backwards, of course, driver's side is on the right, and people drive crazy here! Much like my dad... On the way back we got to see an Impala as we drove by an area that's a sort of game reserve.

Tuesday, Liz and I sat in on some Bible worker's meetings (all the work here is covered, so there isn't really anything for us to do). Basically, they have Bible workers spread out all over the country, and they are here for two weeks to recieve some training. Don Miller from Uchee Pines is the teacher. They are really good meetings.

Wednesday we held a bush clinic at Shimilanga (or something like that). My job was to weigh babies (I know, I know, poor me). We saw about 78 babies I think. Anywho, I weighed babies, Liz recorded the weight on the baby's card (each baby has a card where you keep track of their weight so you can see if they are growing well, or losing weight...), Alex looked the cards over to see if anyone needed any immunizations or if there were any kids to be worried about then recorded them all on a chart, Darby gave immunizations and pills, Evelyn did prenatal, and Alan was crowd control and photographer. It was a good day.

Thursday was much like Tuesday and we didn't have a whole lot happening here on Friday either except tidying up, vespers, and hanging out at Alan and Paulene's house that evening. They make wildwood popcorn. Yummy.

Today was church. They had a nice service. It's in English and Tonga. Don Miller spoke. After church was a potluck at Alan and Paulene's

It turns out we won't be going out to Lushomo until Wednesday now because there will be a bush clinic there that day, so there is no point in Alan making two trips out there. He gave us a laptop and some health powerpoints and scripts to begin studying so we'll be ready to give health talks when we get out there. So, until Wed there will just be a lot of studying and attending meetings.

Someone here needed an injection yesterday and Darby let me give it. Apparently I did pretty well because she asked me if I liked giving shots, and of course I said yes, so she said I could give shots at the clinic Wednesday! So yeah, they're letting me stab people now! :)

The people here are great, all smiles and very freindly. I've been enjoying trying to follow along in the hymnal when we sing at the meetings. Fortunately, unlike the English language, things are spelled the way they sound. They all have great singing voices too, they don't have much in the way of instruments, but they sing acapella and everyone knows their part. The language is very interesting. Saying hello is not as simple as I'd like for it to be. There is a morning hello, an afternoon hello, and an evening hello. The morning hello is "mwabukabuti." That's like saying "Good morning, how are you?" Then you respond "kobotu," "fine." You have no idea how long it took this one guy to teach me that much... they talk fast... and it almost sounds mumbled.

In the villages, when people say hello, if they are not shaking your hand they will sometimes clap three times or tap their chest a couple of times as a greeting. When we held the dental clinics and handed toothbrushes out they accepted it with both hands, bowed their head and gave a slight curtsey while thanking you. They are so sweet!

Ryan and Ean, a couple of little boys who came over and played uno with me the other day, tried to teach me the hello for the afternoon... didn't work so well. But they've decided they are going to teach me Tonga so I can understand them. They're cute. They got a hold of Liz and I's cameras and were posing for and taking pictures like crazy, they really got into it! It's really easy to get to know the guys here, but the girls and women are more quiet and withdrawn.

The country is beautiful! It's very green right now, being the rainy season and all (and thunderstorms come up fast! Out of nowhere!). But, it looks similar to something you would see on the discovery channel or national geographic when they are doing a study on gorrillas or something I don't know, can't really explain it well. There's a nice mix of flat land and hills, rocky hills. When we go to nearby villages it becomes obvious why Alan drives a Land rover. On the way back from the clinic at shimilanga we all had to get out and push to get the vehicle up through some thick thick mud.

Anywho, poor Alex probably wants her computer back so I better go.

God Bless!