Looking forward to singing a new song

I went to the office today, for my usual shift. There was supposed to be someone coming to fix two windows but that didn't happen during the time that I said I'd be around for them to do so. I didn't wait any longer than I had promised; that's a recipe for frustration, let me tell you. And we had had enough of that for the day already. Rob spent hours today trying to get our local bank account set up for internet banking so we have a way to pay rent without standing in long lines at the bank to do so every month. Long story short is that we still don't have online banking set up; he hit a wall. I'm thinking there will have to be some phone calls made tomorrow, see what we can work out over the phone. At any rate, I'm recommending that he call the bank and make an appointment with whoever it is that know anything about the online banking set up process, rather than taking his chances with whoever he gets passed off to on a walk-in basis - in today's case, several whoevers. I say make an appointment. If that's even possible, mind you. Gotta try it; bank queues are nuts.

Tomorrow morning, will be laying down a vocal track for a couple of local budding rap artists from our church. They're doing some pretty fun stuff, good solid talent. Hopefully we'll have something to link to from here that you can preview soon.

New fun drink that I came up with last night:

1/2 cup ginger ale (I like the local brand, Stoney)
1/2 cup pineapple juice
fresh-squeezed juice of 1/2 of a tiny lime

Delish! What should I call it?

Back again

I know that it's been a long time since I blogged. And I must confess that I've had internet since Monday but I've been too excited looking up all the information that I couldn't look up for so long that I didn't even think of blogging until just now. Hopefully, this will change.

I've been out of the office - the physical one, the one we just rented - for the last couple of days. Tuesday was because I had a sinus thing going on and didn't want to trek there and hang out in the cold when I had a perfectly good home office space to work from right here, where I could recuperate a little. Today, Rob had some guys coming over to record so I stayed as support staff. Also, they want me to help out with a track on the album so they taught me the part. And I made them coffee and lunch, you know, wifey stuff.

Tomorrow, I'll be going in though. It's just me there for now, while we figure out who the staff will be, so it isn't like I have anyone waiting for me when I get there. But I'm going in to get into the habit of doing so, really. Plus, I've already moved all my linguistics books and project files over there. Tomorrow, someone is coming to fix a couple of windows that were already cracked when I moved in so I need to be there for that.

Home at last

Well, we aren't. But we do have prospects; we hope to be meeting with our new landlord some time today. Thanks be to God! It's the place we wanted to be living in all along. Right now, I'm emailing at the university library at the edge of town. Then, we get groceries and back out into the bush.

Roughing it

We arrived yesterday to our housesitting gig, at a wooden house on the river, in the bush, near an ostrich farm. Yes, housesitting; the thing we had been determined not to do this time around. But we are rapidly discovering that it is impossible to find a house to rent in Maun if you are not already living in Maun. We came up here last week to follow up on some of the houses that we'd been notified of the week before, only to find that they had been rented already, presumably by some of the many people who are literally camped out here looking for a place to live. There are a bunch staying at Audi Camp, where someone had their tent robbed while they were out. I know, people shouldn't leave valuables in their tents at a busy camping area. It's a bit of a challenge, however, when you're living there as a primary residence while looking for real housing.

So, this housesitting thing is a real blessing for us. We have to be available to hop in our car at a moment's notice and go look at whatever comes up; saying "We'll be there next week to check it out," just won't cut it. And now, we are available. It's a bit of a trek over a sand track to get back to this house that we're staying in but it's a lot closer than Kang was, a 15 minute drive instead of a 5+ hour one.

Staying here is surreal. All you can hear at night are the bell-frogs and the wind. During the day, the wind remains but the frogs are replaced by bleating goats, bird calls and the occasional cow bell. The neighbors dogs bark occasionally but there aren't enough people passing these remote houses to get them going most of the time. With the coming of fall, the breezes are refreshing and no longer resembling the usual Maun summer sensation of being in a convection oven. The doors and windows are open most of the day so that these breezes can keep the temperature down inside. It's quite tranquil, feels a bit like being in a summer cottage. We are truly surrounded by the bush. We've determined that we will make the most of this time in terms of rest, maintaining a summer-camp attitude as we go about doing what needs to be done - driving to town for email, making the rounds of the real estate offices, doing paperwork, working on Setswana, getting ready for the upcoming Wayeyi festival in a couple of weeks.

I'm also planning to take a little time to read some of the books here on the homeowner's shelf. Today, I began with "Nobody ever said AIDS: stories & poems from southern Africa", edited by Nobantu Rasebotsa, Meg Samuelson and Kylie Thomas.

As I write, I'm becoming aware that a storm is about to hit us. The wind is getting stronger and colder through the patio door as the sky darkens. Trees scrape on the tin roof and there's a growing number of dry leaves whirling across the main room floor. The smell of Maun, dry and sandy with the green citrusy overtones of bush sage, is being cut and carried by the ozone gusts of a storm on the rise. I say a prayer that there are no secret leaks in this roof.

Time in D'kar

I've been in D'kar since yesterday, visiting with the Naro Language Project. They are finalizing their Bible translation this year, Lord willing, and were sharing with the Shekgalagari Bible Translation Committee the joys and challenges of the work. Hessel even gave us a demo of Paratext 7, which is being used in the checking process.

We will be leaving D'kar sometime this afternoon and returning to Kang, hopefully getting back by nightfall. I have been able to do emailing this morning, for the first time in a long time from my own computer. Ah, the little things.

Next week, we go back to Maun for househunting and the BOMU Awards concert, where Rob will be playing guitar and I'll be singing backing vocals for William Sechele (a.k.a. Kenny Williams). We'll be performing either "On My Own" or "I Believe".

Now playing: Kenny Williams