Hello Everyone,

Let me begin by wishing everyone a happy March. I know some of you are still waiting for me to post some pictures. I have given up the notion because the internet is far to slow here to put them up. In fact the last time I tried they weren't even attached after 45 minutes and I ended up running out of time. So I think that everyone will have to wait until I get home. Now not a whole lot has really happened for me in the last week.

Friday was my busiest day since my last post with Aerin and I finishing our mural. Her boss and another guy she worked with took us to this place called the Crafty Duck for lunch. They have lots of animals there amoung other things so while we waited for our food Aerin and I wandered around to look at the animals. We spent most of our time in the nearby snake house which was actually quite a creapy area. The snakes, of which there were some extremely venomous ones were kept in these glass boxes which were closed by the tiniest of locks. In many cases, the boxes weren't even completely sealed. So Aerin and I were quite careful about where we were stepping. Now our lunch was most tasty so that was excellent payment for the murals.

The rest of my time has been spent walking around town or hanging out with the people I live with. This is a pretty slow time at L'Abri now and I'm not even scheduled for any camps. I think there are two that I can join anyway though and I will find a couple times to go up there and work on some projects. There are also some more opportunities for me to paint so I think I will begin pursuing those options in the meantime.

So the major event of this week/ African experience is an outbreak of scabies in our house. For those of you who don't know what scabies is feel free to search it on wikipedia before reading further. There is a very detailed article there that I have actually just read myself. Anyway, this infection began sometime a couple weeks ago with some clothing in the back laundry room from the street kids. One of the people I live with decided to move this pile. Shortly after moving said pile, this person noticed a very itchy rash appearing on parts of her body.The next time she saw Sally, she asked if she should go to the doctor. Sally immediatly said that that looks like it came from a kind of bug which infects your skin. This person decided to wait and see what would happen. Sure enough, the rash didn't clear up on its own. In fact, it got worse. So last Monday she finally went to the doctor. The doctor took one look and said, that is Scabies, here is some lotion and soap to kill them. What the doctor didn't think to tell us was just how contageous scabies is. Within a day or to of my housemate going to the doctor, others started noticing a strange rash appearing. One even came forward that she had had a rash now for a couple weeks as well. Turns out, you can get scabies from just about any surface an infected person comes in contact with; especially if they scratch alot. It took Sally last night to point this out. Well now everyone in the house is paranoid beyond belief. This morning I woke up to the sound of Sally giving some of the early risers a list of instructions. I came out of my room to see huge piles of linens and such waiting for the wash, surfaces being scrubbed, etc etc. Before going into the shower I was given my own bar of special soap and a bottle of special lotion. But I dont have scabies I protested. Too bad they told me, you have to use it anyway. Now let me just say that its not as simple as soaping up in the shower. You have to get wet, lather up, and then turn the water off and stand for 10 or so minutes until the soap drys. Only then do you get to rinse it off. Now this soap actually really burns, most of your body is fine, but boy in places that have soft skin, ouch. The lotion must be applied to wet skin as well and you can't dress until that is dry as well. Meanwhile, we can't go home now until this evening because we had to doom fog our entire house, plus the laundry room, plus the car that we use. Today, phone calls were also made to people we have come in close contact with so that they are warned. Personally, I think this is an over reaction, but I guess we aren't taking any chances...

So long, may you all remain scabies free