Tuesday, July 21, 2009

lesson 2


I read somewhere that Sierra Leone is considered the poorest country in the world.

Stop and think about that.

The poorest country in the world.


Then think about the US.

We have so much.

And what do we do with it? Does it make us happier, better, closer to God?

So then, what do we do with that?

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Starting to Process



There's no easy way to summarize my time in Sierra Leone. The easy thing to say would be that I had a great time and the food was great. That doesn't even begin to describe my time their.

Especially in the last several years I have been a quiet, shy person that never knew quite what to do in social situations. The whole culture in Sierra Leone is very interpersonal. I think the one of the lessons I learned is that I need to work on being more relational. I don't quite know how to interact with friends much less people I have just met, but I shouldn't let that stop me.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

car trouble

First of all, I'm home safe and sound. I'll write more about Sierra Leone. I need more time to arrange my thoughts on that particular topic before I write about it.

Having said that... my car...

I wanted to drive down to Cortez to visit Jules, which is a 7 hour drive from Denver. About 2 hours into the drive I stop at a gas station in Pueblo. When I'm walking back to my car I notice a ton of coolant on the ground around my car. My car has a history of overheating and I have to add coolant occasionally just because the car is a beast. I decide that it must have been from another car because my car hadn't been that hot when I pulled in and there were no other signs that I had overheated.

About 2 miles down the road, my temperature gauge is ALL the way up.

A tow and 6 hours later, it turns out I blew a hose and now I'm all patched up. Ok, I'm back on my way.

I stop at the Wallmart in Alamosa because I forgot to return a Redbox movie I have in my purse. I notice coolant dripping out of the bottom of my car. I look under the hood and a cap in the system hadn't been tightened properly, so I tighten it and add some duct tape for good measure.

Sweet reunion with the husband in Cortez.

On Saturday we decide to go visit Mesa Verde.



On the way back at an intersection at the entrance to town I hear profanities from the driver seat. We are overheating. We made it off the road. Jules starts taking my car apart with his leatherman. We're not quite sure what happened. We're tightening everything up when we hear an aweful gurgulling sound in the system. I blew another hose!

We pulled it out and walked to the parts store, got a new hose and installed it.

I hope that's the end of my car troubles for a long time.