Bye-Bye HG5

HG5 Graduation on Wednesday had to have been the longest graduation in the history of the known universe... over 5 hours long! And that was just the part in the tent where I had to do sound... But it wasnt all bad, just long. And I was hungry cos I was silly and had only eaten a few cookies for breakfast! But it ended eventually - I delegated the packing up of the system to some of the students and then I left at round 6pm.

Thursday saw me frantically working to tie up all the loose ends for the extended outreaches... I had been prepping the whole week, but now I realized how much still had to be done and there wasnt much time left... So I was up till 3am finishing up stuff (the fact that I had gone out to dinner for Josham's birthday didnt help matters much, but it was his birthday, so I figured I could sacrifice some sleep). One of the things that really stressed me out was the fact that one of the screens we use to show the JESUS film was missing. Just GONE! But I knew it HAD to be somewhere, so I went in search of it - I looked in each and every mission school house, I questioned people, I begged them to let me know if it turns up. Nothing! But I had to send a screen out and so I went to Margaret our sewing lady and asked her to make a white sheet to fit some bamboo poles - a makeshift screen. Not the best, but at least something. Finally at 8pm I get a text - the missing screen had turned up. I was SO relieved! One less thing to stress about.

Heidi had instisted that she wanted to go on an over-night outreach that night (so that was another thing that I had had to organize that day - and I had to find a sound person who could go), which meant that half the equipment needed for one of the extended outreachs wouldnt be in Pemba. But as always a plan was made and the equipment was arranged to come back late Thursday night... and locked away in a room to which I do not have a key. (I didnt arrange for that to happen, it just did)

Then Friday - the BIG day, all 3 teams left for the extended outreaches. I was there at 7am to finalize some things - namely trying to get into the room to which I didnt have a key. I call Neto, my 'assistant', and ask him to please bring the key, and to hurry - they wanted to load the trucks... So Neto eventually arrived. WITHOUT the key. GRRRR, so frustrating!!! But his house wasnt too far away, in the village behind the center - so we hop in the car and I head into the village. The road cannot be called 'good' at all, but it is oh so much fun to drive! We get the key, we get into the room, and we get the equipment needed for the outreach. YAY!

Finally we can load it all onto the back of the 3 open trucks that will soon be heading out across Mozambique - There is so many people, so much stuff!!!

I was amazed that there was even room for the people on the back of the trucks - they were sitting on all the bags, pots and sleeping bags... I'm sure it'll be fun - one place is over 18 hours away! ...hope they brought sun screen :-§

Finally at 10am everything is loaded and they are ready to go - I slip away quietly and head home. I'll take a little nap... 6 hours later I wake up!!! Where did the day go??? :-) But its all good - things will be nice and quiet for the next 2 weeks (i hope) then the teams get back and I'll see if the sound systems survived!