A Monday

This was one of those days that start out with you being behind and just never seem able to catch up. I was up early enough, the alarm went off at the usual 4:30, I did lay there for another 10 minutes, but was still through the shower and dressed by 5:20 or so. I have a Bible study to teach every week day at 7:00 am so try to get an hour of prep time and prayer in before that, not this morning.

To back up a little bit. This past weekend was busy, I usually have time to read through the whole weeks Bible study and answer some of the questions, that gives me a pretty good leg up on the up coming week. This weekend, as I said, was pretty busy and I did not take the time to do my study time. So I am already behind the 8 ball, so to speak.

My normal routine is to start the coffee as soon as I finish getting dressed and turn on my computer. Which in hind sight was not the best choice this morning. Our internet service is over a cell phone type modem so is very slow, but in the early morning it is the best. The trouble is I get caught up with reading and answering email and forget about the time. I can usually fight that urge and get back to my study time, but this morning there were more than the normal amount of emails and I was helping Bev set up some files. So I got behind and barely finished the lesson prep before I was to teach. Thanks to the Lord I made it through the lesson OK and was on to other things by 7:30.

I had some scheduling to finish and also had an employee issue to deal with, which is out of the ordinary for around here. Most days this place runs like clockwork, since we have excellent ROS and National staff, praise the Lord. We had village guests this past week and they were leaving today so had to get to the airport, but not until mid-morning. so that gave me some time to deliver thank you notes to the District government and local people who did such a great job helping us with the village dedication. Each one of those stops take a little more time than I had allotted, so now I was getting pushed to get a couple letters written that needed to be delivered today while I was in town getting our guests back to the airport.

Tim offered to take our guests to the airport as he had to go into town for another construction matter. That should have put me back on schedule, but there are always a few little items that pop up that you can never see coming, but have to deal with when they come.

The village truck was at the garage, I use that term loosely, so we had to take another driver with us to get all the vehicles back to the village. Bev rode in and was going to bring the truck back while I stayed in town to finish my errands. We even called ahead to make sure the truck was ready, which was a good idea even if the truck was supposed to have been completed on Sunday. The mechanic said it was nearly finished, which only a half hour remaining. It is 45 minutes to an hour getting to town and over to his shop so off we went.

As we pulled into the repair yard, (no building), the truck was still up on the ramps, they were still pulling the clutch back together. Oh Well, this is Africa, so we went to lunch. At lunch we decided that Bev should take our car back, Sam and I would take the truck to finish our business in town. As it turned out that was a great decision. Now nearly two hours later we got back to the shop and the hood was still up, but it was down off the ramps. Bev left and we waited while they finished. As we drove out I noticed that the fuel gauge was below empty and after only a kilometer or so the engine became very rough and stalled a couple times. I was able to take a route to the nearest gas station that was mostly down hill and coasted in. Thinking our problems were over we headed for the next stop, only to have the engine buck and cough worst than before. As soon as we finished our appointment, back to the shop we went. Which was no easy feat as the engined stalled every half a kilometer or so.

Driving into the yard with the engine coughing and hacking, we did not have to say very much to the mechanic, which was a good thing as they only speak Kinyarwanda. We were there all the rest of the afternoon. I was so thankful that Bev had decided to take our vehicle and not the truck (Land Cruiser).

So that was my day. Bev and I were able to get a few more items taken care of this evening, but I still have quite a list left over from today to start off with tomorrow.

Good night, I'm going to bed.