...how can I refuse?...

*ring* *ring*

"Hello Frances!"
"Hi, Emily, how are you?"
"Great, and you?"
"Just fine. [pause] I apologize for the short notice, but I'm calling to invite you to a dinner for Kim Campbell, the Right Honourable Kim Campbell, that I'm holding tonight. It's for young women, doing interesting things, and I thought you might like to come?"
"Kim Campbell? Wow! That's cool. Yes, I think so."
"You think so? I need to count plates."
"No, I mean, yes. Of course, I was just trying to rearrange my schedule in my head. I'd love to!"
"Great. That would be wonderful. It's at 7pm."
"Uh. Ok. Great. Sounds good. See you then!"
"Thanks."
"Well, thanks for inviting me."
"My pleasure."

*click*

Rumour is Prince Harry is coming to Freetown. He's my next dinner engagement (save my dinner with Meghan on Friday. You may not have heard of her, but she's kind of a big deal).

...no, not dead...

Just very, very busy. SO sorry for the lack of updates, but I haven't had time to be witting, take pictures, or put together a stream of coherent thoughts about my life at the moment.



Briefly, here's what's been going on:



* went to the beach, hung out with some mercenaries. (ok, they didn't say they were mercenaries, but one was Zimbabwean, one was British, and they were both beefy and tattooed. They now work in "private security." *cough* Mercenaries.)



* mourned the death of trivia on Wednesday nights, but have been enjoying playing keyboard in Bible Study instead. Gwen just moved in and plays guitar and we had a 'big band' play off on Sunday with 4 people!



* Have been developing a new health/sex ed. curriculum for the school and run the first of 4 afternoon workshops today. We're starting with Body Image and Self-Esteem, move on to Communication and Refusal Skills, followed by Puberty and Sexual Development and finished off with STIs and HIV/AIDS. My friend Aroun is helping out during the workshops and I'm looking forward to working with him.



* Ran the 30-Hour Famine last Friday and Saturday. Was utterly exhausted and barely able to speak by the end of it, but my kids sure had a good time! We played Sardines in the Dark, FlameBattlers (a 'wide game'), and the kids chose to watch "What A Girl Wants" before bed. I swear..their choice...there were 7 boys and 2 girls...yep. I thought it was hilarious.



* Turned 26. What a feat. Shockingly, I'm still alive. I imagine the headlines will be out later this week.



* Had typhoid, although that was highly anti-climactic. I puked a couple of times and then was hooked up to an IV drip for an afternoon. Apparently, I'm also anemic. Not a really big surprise though, considering my lack of consumption of red meats and the unavailability of spinach. I finished all the meds I was on last week sometime and have felt fine, just tired, since. Although I feel the tiredness is probably more closely related to my busy-ness than to my illness.



* Planning my trip to the UK when I leave Sierra Leone on August 3rd. Realising that the time is flying by now (well, some days) and that I only have 11 more weeks in Salone, 4 more weeks of school, and 3 weeks until Hanneke comes to visit! I can't wait!



That's all for now...will try to put up some interesting photos soon, although, at this rate, don't hold your breath. You're liable to pass out. I don't want to be responsible for that.



Miss you all and so looking forward to catching up when I get home.

...Frog and Toad Together...

I don't know if you read the "Frog and Toad" books when you were a kid, but I did. We had some hanging around the computer waiting to be catalogued this week and I picked one up to browse through. The first story made me laugh and so I thought I'd write it out for you. If you know me, you'll see why it's funny. :)

A LIST

One morning Toad sat in bed.

“I have many things to do,” he said. “I will write them all down on a list so that I can remember them.”

Toad wrote on a piece of paper:

A list of things to do today.

Then he wrote:

Wake up

“I have done that,” said Toad, and he crossed it out:

Wake up.

Then Toad wrote other things on the paper.

- Eat Breakfast

- Get Dressed

- Go to Frog’s House

- Take Walk With Frog

- Eat Lunch

- Take Nap

- Play Games With Frog

- Eat Supper

- Go To Sleep

“There,” said Toad. “Now my day is all written down.” He got out of bed and had something to eat. Then Toad crossed out:

Eat Breakfast

Toad took his clothes out of the closet and put them on. Then he crossed out:

Get Dressed

Toad put the list in his pocket. He opened the door and walked out into the morning. Soon Toad was at Frog’s front door. He took the list from his pocket and crossed out:

Go To Frog’s House

Toad knocked at the door.

“Hello,” said Frog.

“Look at my list of things to do,” said Toad.

“Oh,” said Frog, “that’s very nice.”

Toad said, “My list tells me that we will go for a walk.”

“All right,” said Frog. “I am ready.”

Frog and Toad went on a long walk. Then Toad took the list from his pocket again. He crossed out:

Take Walk With Frog

Just then there was a strong wind. It blew the list out of Toad’s hand. The list blew high up into the air.

“Help!” cried Toad. “My list is blowing away. What will I do without my list?”

“Hurry!” said Frog. “We will run and catch it.”

“No!” shouted Toad. “I cannot do that.”

“Why not?” asked Frog.

“Because,” wailed Toad, “running after my list is not one of the things that I wrote on my list of things to do!”

Frog ran after the list. He ran over hills and swamps, but the list blew on and on.

At last Frog came back to Toad.

“I am sorry,” gasped Frog, “but I could not catch your list.”

“Blah,” said Toad. “I cannot remember any of the things that were on my list of things to do. I will just have to sit here and do nothing,” said Toad.

Toad sat and did nothing. Frog sat with him. After a long time Frog said, “Toad, it is getting dark. We should be going to sleep now.”

“Go to sleep!” shouted Toad. “That was the last thing on my list!”

Toad wrote on the ground with a stick: Go To Sleep

Then he crossed it out:

Go To Sleep

“There,” said Toad. “Now my day is all crossed out!”

“I am glad,” said Frog.

Then Frog and Toad went right to sleep.