Success!

Putting the modem in timeout for the weekend did the trick - it's sufficiently repentant (it's working).  Actually, I'm sure that Orange just had an issue on Friday and resolved it after I left for the retreat, but I much prefer to personify things.

More on the retreat later - about 30 minutes after I got back, I had to leave for the international students' association meeting/welcome tea for the first year students.  I'm beat.  But we had a wonderful, if incredibly hot, weekend.

Next up:  see whether Photobucket and I are going to remain friends, so that I can post slideshows rather than photos one-by-one.

Modem madness, retreat, aaaaand... the kids are back

My modem has decided that it hates me, and refuses to work.  I have no idea why.  The last time it (mis)behaved like this was when it thought that I needed to buy more airtime.  But I purchased three months worth about two weeks ago.  'tis a mystery.  I’m imagining that I’ve put the modem in time-out so that it can think about what it’s doing (or not, as it were), so that when we return on Sunday evening, it can behave the way it should.  I desperately want this to happen because I don’t have time to go to the Orange Shop in town, nor do I feel like talking to customer support and trying to troubleshoot this on the phone.  For me, African accents are harder to discern on the phone.

Thankfully, we do have access to the UCU wireless network up here on the top of the hill; in semesters past, it didn't reach this far.  And aghast as I am, it's unlocked - I've not registered this laptop with the IT guys, yet I can access the net.  Count me aghast and grateful.  It's pokey, but works.  Don't even think about how long it took to upload this image.

Something I learned this morning is that UCU has banned Facebook from the hours of 9am-5pm.  I only learned this when I tried to refresh my screen while I was on the UCU net.  I think this is 1. Brilliant, as at any point in time, go to either the dining hall, or any computer lab and all you’ll see is a sea of blue and white.  I’m sure that placed a serious drain on the network, hence the decision.  Imagine how crippling it is to the student population, however.  Which is why I also think this is 2. Hysterical.  I usually think of employers banning pages like Facebook, not schools.

We are indeed going on retreat this weekend, and I think it’ll be at the same place we were last year.  The lovely place, which in addition to being beautiful, has excellent food, and where, unfortunately, I didn’t sleep well.  We’ll try again.  The Honours College kids are also going on retreat, so it’s a bit unfortunate that all of us will be gone at the same time.

Their retreat is this weekend because the USPs have just finished their two-week homestay, and so that means that they’re back, and so is the decibel level.  Actually, they were around the dorms during the day, showering and doing wash, so it wasn’t like they were completely gone.  Now that they’re adjusting to being here, perhaps some of the completely understandable squealing epiphanies will diminish.  Please, God?  I’m actually happy they’re back, but I’m old.  I like quiet when I want to sleep. 

Sad news

I received, and slept through, a text around 11:00 last night letting me know that Rev. Moses had passed away.  Dan Button, one of the American lecturers here, let me know, and said it was difficult to comprehend.  I completely agree.  This photo is from last year's theology retreat; Rev Moses is on the right.  We're supposed to be going on retreat this coming weekend.

I would normally expect burial to be possibly Wednesday (there's no embalming here, and burial typically happens fairly quickly, unless the deceased is important), but it's a public holiday.  I don't know whether that has any bearing on plans as this.


Please pray for Rev. Moses' family, his church, and the school as we all grieve.  Please especially pray for the school, who must now pick up his teaching load, as the timetable still isn't worked out, and this adds more stress and improbability of getting logistics worked out.

Please pray for Rev. Moses Rwothmewo

Rev. Moses Rwothmewo (pronounced Roth-o-me-o) is one of the lecturers here at UCU.  I had him for Theory and Practice of Mission my first semester, and after reading my first paper, he told me he wanted to see me become a pastor in this country.


Sometime Thursday/Friday, Rev. Moses suffered a stroke.  Details have been sketchy, but yesterday, the doctors were hoping to be able to repair the errant blood vessel.  Sunday night, Rev. Moses slipped into a coma, so surgery clearly is out of the picture.


We are all hurting in this.  Rev. Moses is of the more practical lecturers, and is rather popular.  He studied at Trinity School for Ministry for a year, and I'm wondering if he came to All Saints' when a group of the Ugandan students studying at Trinity came through a couple years ago.


I've sent prayer requests to the prayer room as well, and will keep you posted as I know more.

Clinic and sleeping computers

After three weeks of this annoying earache and sore throat and occasional tight breathing (bronchitis-like), I finally went to the clinic.  It was much like going to see my primary care physician in the US... sat around for quite some time waiting for the doc, who was very nice, and saw me for 7.8 seconds and prescribed meds.  So now I have an antibiotic, vitamin C, and something that I suspect is a painkiller, but since Mr. Google isn't coughing up anything definitive about it, I'm not taking it.


I took my laptop to class so my group could (hopefully) finish our assignment on Jesus the Good Shepherd (hope deferred), and when we were done, I closed the laptop without shutting it down.  Emmanuel asked me what I did, and I told him I put it to sleep.  He said he hoped it didn't snore.  Me too, for that matter!

Honeymoon's over

First, I'm going to stop talking about the weather, because now we're back to wretched hot, and I simply can't keep track.  The only options are hot and shiny and cool and rainy anyhow, so let's just imagine that it's really January in all it's hot and shiny glory, and I'll let you know when rainy season really starts.  The only good part of hot and shiny is that my towel that I washed the other day and put on the line dripping wet (because I don't have the manual dexterity to wring it like I should) dried in about three hours flat.


The timetable honeymoon is over.  Three classes gave us a bye last week, and one never started, so we were only in class half time.  It was g l o r i o u s (cue happy bird-chirping music).  I finished two assignments and got excellent starts on two others.  But now, we'll be in class 28 hours a week, with 8 of those hours occurring on Monday.  


So let me go review those two assignments so I can pretend to find time to print them tomorrow.  This is when Jan Karon would write, "Philippians 4:13, for Pete's sake!"

Let the contesting begin

First, I'd like to retract my statement that it appears to be the rainy season.  Today was fairly shiny (hot), and it appears that the January heat has arrived.  I'd say "praise the Lord," but I'm really not that enthusiastic about it.  This is when it's good to live on a mountain.  I'm sure it's cooler here than in Kampala.


The contesting is for the Guild (school government).  The announcement went out for people to pick their nomination forms today, which then must be signed by a passel of people and verified with their registration cards to prove that they actually exist and are registered students.  Then will come the manifestos, speeches, posters, and who knows what else.  Don't even get me started on local/national politics - I'll never be so glad to have an election finished as when this one is in February.  Africans make our political rhetoric look petty.  I think there are nine candidates for president.  You can't move an inch without seeing posters plastered everywhere, and no, they won't disappear at any point in time save for environmental intervention.  Mercy.


Back to the Guild elections.  Each faculty gets two representatives, and I think ours have been chosen (as in only two are running), so that's one less election choice.  My former roommate, Joan, has decided to contest for one of the two International MP (Members of Parliament, one can never forget the British influence) seats.  I'm thrilled for her, and think she will do a fabulous job if elected - there are five candidates. 


She told me her news this afternoon, and I told her I'd introduce her to the international theologians, and she was grateful.  So she found me at supper, and I made the rounds with her.  Since she's my friend, all my theologian friends agreed to vote for her.  It's a bit humbling how my friends take my word that Joan is a woman of integrity; for her sake, I just wish my sphere of influence extended beyond the theologians.

Lulu, a Kenyan athlete, sat with us, and the plotting began on how to talk to the athletes, because they're notoriously difficult to convince on anything.  Really?  I had no idea.  I just see them running in the morning.  My friend Haron will go with her to talk with a gaggle of Kenyan students he knows who stay outside in one of the hostels, and let them spread the word.  I mean, the serious campaigning hasn't even begun, and I feel like we were plotting to overthrow the campus.


So we moved around the dining hall, looking for various internationals I knew so I could introduce Joan.  A number of my friends saw us, and have deigned me her campaign manager, which simply won't do.  


Then my friend and course mate, Isaac, asked me who all the foreign students were.  Foreign?  I'm FOREIGN?!  He quickly repented, and now I have something to tease him about for the rest of the semester.  Poor guy.  He really did feel awful.  And while I told Joan I'd help her in any way I can, I really, really, really don't want to be her campaign manager.