I had a really weird night’s sleep. I woke up twice laughing at something that was going on my dreams. I actually woke myself up because I was laughing so hard – apparently I find my subconscious mind hilarious. I also kept hearing the irritating neighborhood rooster, whose internal alarm clock is a bit off; he crows several hours before daybreak. As a result, I had to make a bit more coffee than usual today.
We went to the opening service for the conferences this morning. It was very WELS – there was the usual liturgy and hymns and none of the traditional African songs. Mrs. Hartmann played for it and did a very nice job, despite the fact that most of the Africans (especially the Cameroonians and Nigerians, whose services rarely use WELS hymns or liturgy) aren’t used to singing along to a piano, so everyone sang their own rhythm.
We helped Anne for a few hours in the kitchen again. We washed lots of dishes and peeled potatoes and carrots. We went to choir for a little while, but didn’t really do much. Their competition is this weekend, and we won’t be around for it, so we just enjoyed their company until we got a phone call that a volleyball game was starting. We played that for about an hour until dinner time. One of the vicars (in the LCCA, the students go to school for six years, then do their vicar year, and then are assigned to a congregation – this particular vicar lives on campus in an extra house and serves a nearby congregation) is so hilarious during volleyball. He always says things like, “Now we are coming for you! We will win you! Yes, yes, the score is 11-14. Now we will win!” His running commentary just kills me. Whenever I do something that scores a point, no matter how unimpressive it is, he says, “Oh, you! You hit like a bullet! You are a point-scorer, you are!” When I was subbed out for volleyball, I played with some of the little kids who were watching from the truck bed. The entire hour of volleyball, they were yelling, “Teacher Rachel! Teacher Erika!” Although Erika is very difficult for some of the kids to say…and actually equally difficult for many of the adults. I have heard many times, “Rachel is easy for us. We have many people named Rachel. Erika is quite difficult, though.” Usually the kids say something more like, “Merica!” or even “America!” Anyway, the kids were extra adorable tonight. All I had to do was pretend like I was going to catch them and they dissolved in giggles. So cute.
Rachel and I served snacks again at fellowship hour. Tonight was trail mix (my weakness), snack mix, and caramel corn. One of my and Rachel’s favorite pastors was so happy about the trail mix. He said, “I just love raisins!” no less than eight times during the twenty seconds he was up at the snack table. Another one of our favorite pastors came up to show us that he almost as able to spell out the word “bola” using the oddly-shaped pretzels in the snack mix. He asked me if I could try to find a pretzel that looked like an A, and when I did almost immediately, he got super excited and ran off to show the other pastors at his table. I’m not sure what “bola” means – something to do with soccer, maybe?
Tomorrow we’re trying to get to South Luangwe, the best game park in Central Africa. We’re going to see if we can get a standby flight, which is much cheaper than making a reservation and a lot easier than taking a bus. We’ll see how it goes! It’ll be a bit of a gamble, but we’re willing to take the chance right now. If all goes well, tomorrow night I will be sleeping in a tented chalet in the middle of the wilderness, close enough to hear the lions roar. In fact, you’re not even allowed to walk through the camp alone at night because lions will wander through there. Amazing!
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