I'VE GONE AWAY!! I'M IN AFRICA!! COME BACK AUGUST 3RD!!

I haven't had much to say lately.... I'm excited about my trip but it seems like every day is some different sort of battle... an attack on my faith or anger at some person or fatigue or fear.... and then euphoria, and then all over again.... I just want to be on the road. I only sleep once more here in winnipeg, twice more on this continent. What an odd feeling to wake up and look at my puppy and think, one more night.

Of course it's only 3 weeks. To Abu that will seem so long. She'll be big when I get back, and I'm sure I'll have to start all over on some stuff I've been trying to teach her..... stuff that lately I've been slacking off in.

I know that when I get back it will be instant rush again. Looking for a job and trying to get ready to go by september. Get Abu fixed and get a hitch put on my car and get a photo cd put together about the trip. I know I could give myself until october, but I don't really want to. Now that I've decided I'm leaving, I'd like to do so at the decided time. I feel like if I delay, it might never get done.

Once again there was something of substance that I wanted to write about, but now I've forgotten what it was. Tonight I pick up some stuff at the last place I lived and pack most of what I'll need for the trip. I'll also call Chimwemwe so we can talk a bit. The next time we talk, she'll be in Ireland. Tomorrow I buy medical insurance and pack the last of my things, and head out to steinbach, where I'll spend the night (without Abu) before hooking up with a caravan to minneaopolis. Then it's off to baltimore by way of atlanta..... and then to Ghana.

That's gonna be a mother of a commute.

now I must go gas up my car and feed it some oil and rad fluid. Demanding little bugger.

HOLY FRICKING COW!!!

I leave on Sunday.

The reality is beginning to set in. I'm buying stuff.... and more stuff.... for the trip....

Everything's going good. I have almost everything I need. I don't know what to say or what to blog about. All I think about is what I need, when I need it by, what the people on the team will be like.....

I will be going armed with a digital camera, and Garret and Colleen's 8mm camcorder, which they have said they will lend to me..... OH MY GOSH! I cannot wait to gather footage and go nuts with powerpoint and movie maker. I'm starting to get really excited..... which is not like me..... usually it doesn't seem like reality and thus I'm quite calm..... feeling excited is a weird sensation which I'm not accustomed to.... it makes me feel vulnerable, strangely enough.

okay I'm going to bed early, because I'm so tired.

What to say..... It's been a busier weekend than I anticipated. I still need a couple things for my trip.... things are looking promising in Regina.... popcorn is good.....

Abu..... what a good dog.... sometimes she seems almost human.... she's losing her puppy fuzz, but only along her back, so that she's got a glossy stripe from her shoulders to her tail. She doesn't seem to be getting much bigger right now, but she's finally thicking out, and she's lost one tooth. She has excellent car manners.

Walt Disney sequels are always inferior in quality, both musically and visually.

I drink too much pepsi, and I need to quit before I leave for Africa. I think I'll finish off the case today and then not buy anymore.

Despite all these mundane thoughts that really don't need to be published and you're probably wishing you hadn't taken the time to read..... there is something much more... important going through my head, but it's undefined. This feeling that I'm on the threshold of some big changes, a new season.... I'm overwhelmed and unprepared and I think that's exactly where God wants me to be.

These two years in winnipeg have felt like "pause." Like I was watching a movie and it got slow so I put it on pause to go get a drink and use the can and it's been on pause for two years. I think God will be pushing "play" sometime soon, and I'm not confident I'm ready to watch. I guess we'll see. In one week I'll be on the road to Minneapolis.