Up, Up, and Away

It was with a bit of sadness that we waved goodbye to Taylor, Jen, Margaret, Rhonda, Matt, Garrett and Cherry. We've been a big happy family through many adventures and hated to see them go. They are now somewhere in the friendly skies making their way back to the U.S. An absolutely terrific team in every way...we're missing them already.

We splurged and went to Nalu's pizza parlor last night for our 'last supper'. The wood-oven pizza tasted great at the time but several of us felt a bit queasy this morning. I guess that just provides an added authentic touch for a real African experience. Earlier in the week when Matt was battling an unknown allergy, itching all over, and peeking at us through swollen eyes, he said, "I feel sorry for the rest of you because you didn't get the whole African experience." More were able to attest to the 'whole' experience this morning with the traveler's diarrhea. An added bonus during the night was an electrical outage about 10:00 that lasted the rest of the night. For some reason the group thought this would be a good time to tell ghost stories which evolved into skittishness and yelps at the regular night noises. Great memories and stories to share.

First thing this morning we received a text message from Dorice, the cousin of the little blind boy we love, Mupaso. They saw a doctor last April and were told he needed to obtain an MRI. It doesn't look optimistic that his blindness can be reversed but we gave them money to visit an eye specialist to get a recommendation. Apparently the specialist was not available so we're still at square one. They tell us he had full sight until 2 years ago when he went blind. The doctor that saw him suspected a pituitary tumor that was pressing on the optic nerves. It would be wonderful if something could be done.

Jac and I will be meeting with the Chipulukusu School board tomorrow morning for final planning of the new IGA bicycle project as well as to discuss needs for the new school year. We have some ideas for reorganization of the oversight structure that we hope will lead to more efficiency and better communication. We're eager to get them launched. Gershom Chifumbe has been our right-hand man for our whole stay. I don't know what we'd do without him. We're also planning to visit Room to Read, have dinner with Dr. Dhally Menda from Chaz, and catch up with Dana Sandstrom over lunch. Always lots to do! We're heading back to the US on Wednesday...hopefully the snow won't disrupt flights.