Hey Everyone,

Another week has come and gone already and here is what I've been up to...

Monday the four of us L'Abri people left for the bush. We spent quite a while running errands around town but eventually made it up to camp late in the afternoon. After a quick lunch we grabbed some trail blazing tools and hopped in the back of a pick-up with one of our supervisors, Sya. Our destination, Skaba; the back to basics bush camp in a remote part of the L'Abri wilderness. Our task, to prepare a trail for cutting. We got out of the truck in knee high grass on top of a mountain with a truely amazing view. After marking out a new trail along a ridge, Sya took us around Skaba a bit to show us some highlights of that particular area. The most interesting thing was this massive strangler fig tree that you could crawl up inside of. (The center of a Strangler is hollow because it grows around another tree and when that tree eventually dies, there is nothing left inside.) After climbing around inside it we headed back to base camp do to a rapidly appoaching storm.

Tuesday we made the long hike back to Skaba to clean in order for a group that was staying there on thursday. This was an all day affair and ended with us hiking back in the pooring rain. Little did we know this rain was part of a huge tropical storm taking place somewhere in central Africa and would prove to be the bane of the week. The rest of the day we spent hanging out around the main site.

Wednesday morning we awoke to more rain. Indeed, this storm would last for about 48 hours straight with no stopping. We were also informed that morning that Sya's wife had just passed away do to a post op infection in her brain. This meant that our boss would not be around for the rest of the week and with the rain, our work plans at Skaba were shot. So Wednesday became about killing time. We played risk, indoor soccer, and whatever else we could find. That night we watched Brazil destroy Italy in an international friendly soccer match.

Thursday we cleaned the main site in preparation for another camp taking place this weekend. The remainder of that day was spent like Wednesday.

Though I was originally supposed to work the camp this weekend, I was picked up Friday to head back to Maritzburg because another one of my bosses decided to give me some time off. It was kinda of strange to be back home but also kinda of nice to be dry and warm and relaxing for a change. Saturday was Valentine's day, and we were doom fogging our house again to finish off the remainder of the roach population so Aerin and I went out for the day bowling and to a movie. That night we hung out with the non-L'Abri portion of our house. It was actually a very nice day.

Yesterday was the funeral for Sya's wife. It was my first Zulu funeral and only the second funeral I have been to in my entire life. The service lasted about two hours and was a mighty big celebration. Very different from the often times somber mood of a Western style funeral. Though they were all christian, we really got a glimpse of how traditional beliefs and practices are incorporated into their modern day religion. The most striking example of this was when the five preachers there commanded the evil demons out of anyone sick at the funeral in mighty and stoic voices. Of course, I guess there are Christians in America who do this too but it was still very interesting to me and still very African. Then EVERYONE went to the cemetary for the burial. After a prayer and such was said, all the men helped to bury the coffin with shovels and this took about an hour. Meanwhile the women sung songs. Now I forgot to mention the part when the opened the casket. First let me say that seeing dead people always creaps me out quite a bit. But also let me say that the funeral services here don't give the same attention to detail that they do in America. The eyes were partially open which was actually disturbing beyond belief and you could see that the face was deffinately starting to decay. Also before the casket was able to be buried, they had to use a bucket to drain water out of the hole. Trust me, you don't want to know what that water looked like. So that was my African funeral experience, and boy was it an experience.

So today is my last day off because I'm back to work early tomorrow morning. Update you soon.

peace