quick summary no. 2

it's sunday evening, and i have a few days to catch you up on. so i'm going to repeat what i've done before and bullet the highlights:

• friday - i spent the day at wellington orphanage with stefani and kerri, an australian woman who's been helping out at the centre while her husband is here on work, training the customs anti-trafficking force. we treked up a bit of hill to be greeted by heaps of smiling faces. the kids are going to summer school, so they trickled into the orphanage, and when they had all arrived, we split them into smaller groups. i got the wee ones, some of whom were reading some of whom weren't. so we read the gingerbread man together aloud and worked on reading comprehension by having each one draw his or her own illustrations for the different parts of the story. one girl, fatmata, ended up attaching herself to me. i don't know if there was a minute where i wasn't holding her hand or hugging her as everyone bustled about. i loosened my hold a few times to let her go do other things if she wanted, but she would only grasp my hands tighter. later, we stopped at ramada's beach bar and restaurant for a mango juice on the beach on the way home. i baked some banana bread that evening, and we ended up playing a make-shift version of tabboo, which was particularly humourous with our german pediatrician, guido.
• saturday - got up early and did some work on the computer while we had power. then we piled into the car and headed out to river number two beach. spent a beautiful day on the sand. there was an especially neat moment when i was standing in the freshwater of the river where it shallows and bends before joining the ocean. i stood in the water for a time, watching the rain clouds roll down the side of the mountain in front of me. then the rain itself came, and i was struck by the fact that i was completely surrounded by water - above, below, and all around me...but then the rain cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day, and we got to swim a bit in the huge waves.
• today - i headed out early with stefani to go to the church in wellington pastored by the man who also heads up the orphanage. one of the associate pastors, Pastor Bull, had just had a baby boy about three weeks ago, and his wife invited us on friday to the naming ceremony and dedication service happening today. we caught a lift with vez and emma who were also headed out in the same direction, which was the first of many unexpected blessings which characterized the day. the service itself was good - longer than the catholic service i'm used to going to, but really not that bad. the worship was really nice, and the community was incredibly welcoming. plus it was fun to see some of the kids from friday. the naming ceremony bit of the service was really fun. the whole church was up out of their seats cheering for this little bit of a baby. his name, if you are interested, is adam shadraq bull. both parents were so proud, especially the papa. it was so sweet to see. we ducked out after the service, but before the extended time of teaching and fellowship, determined to catch public transport back to the team house. three of the orphans walked with us down to the main road and helped us hail the right poda-poda (krio for hither and thither and the cheapest form of public transport). that took us all the way into downtown, stopping on ecowas street. after a bit of confusion and some kind guidance from a female police officer, we finally found the peugot stand (peugot station wagons which operate a bit like taxis but fit more people) and found one heading out to lumley via spur road. while in the car, we got an earful of political talk from one of our fellow passengers. but it was friendly enough, and to be perfectly honest i had a hard time following his many stories so i nodded gravely and he seemed fairly pleased. :) in the afternoon, my housemates went out to the chimpanzee reserve, but i opted out at the last minute. i will miss not seeing the chimps, but i realized that it had been awhile since i had taken a bit of time on the weekend to just sit at the house, read, and journal. and now i'm writing this...

this coming week looks to be a busy one - at least something every day, which is great. hopefully i will also get some progress made on my study. i'm going out one more day into town before things get too crazy and i have a few women on the ward as well that i would like to talk to. everything seems to be going so quickly all of a sudden. i can't believe that it's already 15th july...in a month i'll be home. weird. and i think the weeks will just get faster and faster as they fill up with projects, trips, things to do, and people to see. but i'm determined to not hurry it away by looking too much to the future. rather, i want to focus on the moment and day in front of me.

in doing so right now, i'm realizing how tired i am. :)