Hmmmm............. Let's see............. I had a very nice weekend- relaxing without much being asked of me, and that's what I needed. We had a delivery Friday night that ended up delivering Saturday morning around 6:30. Otherwise I just puttered around - hoping to be able to move into my new house, but still the plumber is trying to fix leaks, no kitchen, someone's working on some closet shelves for me, etc. Jake said he wants to put some guests in my (current/temporary) house so he wants me to go ahead and move, but Shane said, "No, don't worry about it. Don't move, those people were warned they would have to tent camp." So I need to talk to Jake and decide what the right thing is.
Today the cook came to me early (before 8) moaning about her pay. I had helped Shane translate when she signed her contract last Friday and I asked her then if she had any questions, and I said, "If you have a question, you have to bring it up before you sign!" She didn't have any questions at the time, but that evening she brought up her unhappiness to me, and this morning again. It caught me off guard and made me sad. Shane has been happy with her and thinks she is happy, and he increased her salary from what was originally agreed, so he thought she would be happy with it. I don't want to have to break it to him that she is grumbling to me! (I already did). It is hard being pulled into things to translate when I don't want to be involved, and I let my opinion get involved, and this week I am going to be more careful to stay out of most things and only help as I am asked, you know, I don't mind helping translate, but not jumping into it and trying to solve it myself. What a funny thought I keep having, "Is knowledge of the language a blessing or a curse??" Of course I know the answer to that! I am really so glad I can be equipped to help.
Shane was talking about the concept of "redundancy" in the camp. When the generator breaks, (once a week at least it seems), the dining hall goes dark and there's no backup. When the head cook gets malaria, she basically still has to work because she doesn't have an assistant. Most essential staff members don't have backup!
There has been rabies scare around. A woman died with the disease last week, and a rabid dog was running around the camp. Shane told the guards, "We can't take the chance of a camper (or short termer from the US!) getting rabies, so we need to kill all the dogs running around on the compound." (We've had problems with lots of stray dogs). The guards agreed, but later one of the nurses said, "We have to go through the Zonal head office and the woreda by submitting letters because the community could get mad at us and it could cause conflict if we just kill them." Whoa! We feel like we don't have time for that, plus Shane already said the word!
Ah, the sunset over the lake was beautiful yesterday. I went to pick up two of the nurses from the road - me who hates driving - and had a lovely time chatting with them and catching up with them after not seeing them over the weekend. Now that it has rained, the landscape on the way in here is unspeakably beautiful. I do like it. I am settling.
(The picture is of me with a young girl wearing an eye patch. A wonderful team from my home church, Venture Christian in Los Gatos, California, came to Ethiopia in early July, and I worked with them for a week in Heerara, a village near Langano. This girl had a "lazy eye", and so did I when I was younger, so we were able to connect as I explained to her and her family how to use the patch.)
