Old Man John

Good news: We've had hot water three mornings in a row and our phone is working again. Not so good news: We still experience power cuts and our ceiling seems to be caving in. There's a big crack down the middle and every morning we pick up pieces of plaster. I should probably check into that.

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After four months of laziness, I've finally got into a consistent running routine. In Canada I used to run after work, but it gets dark too early here without street lights, there's crazy dogs roaming the streets and it's getting hotter now that winter's over. So, I get up at 5:15 every morning to run. It took me a long time to adjust from being a night owl to an early riser, but now I wake up quite easily. Sadly, once 9 pm hits, I start falling asleep like an old man (no offense to my father-in-law).

I'm running six days a week (when scheduling permits) with a longer run on Saturdays. It's taking a while to get back into shape, but I'm feeling better each day in spite of a sprained ankle. I've decided to run the Comrades Marathon that takes place in South Africa on June 17. It's an 89 km race, but I have nine months to train for it. I'm joining a running club next Friday so that I can train and qualify for the event. It will be nice to meet with people from outside of Salvation Army world. We're both suffocating a bit from the whole Salvation Army ghetto experience.

Every morning I run by a protected woodlands about 4 km from our home. I usually see zebra and impala and sometimes even wildebeest and giraffe. How cool is that? Much more exciting than squirrels.

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Now that it's hotter, the lizards are roaming all over the place. I enjoy lizards and there's quite a variety living all around (and in) our home. I'm hoping not to see any snakes, though, as they are very poisonous here. The over-friendly dog living next door has left with his family, so no more scratches on our skin or ripped clothing. But he also kept the nasty neighborhood dogs away, and they have started roaming near our property again.

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I was watching Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith on my laptop yesterday with one of the kids from the neighborhood. Whenever the scene shifted to a new planet, he asked if that was Canada. Close, but not quite. But I was forced to admit that I was a Jedi.  

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We held a newborn baby this week. She was small and delicate and beautiful. She was born premature, and her mom has AIDS. When Rochelle joked that she wanted to take the baby home with her, a family member said that she may just have to. Very sad. It was tough seeing how weak her mother was, especially since we spent the night before at another home where a young woman had just died from AIDS. So much death and suffering.