Flooded bathroom

Posted by Ali

More lizard sightings today. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Since the guy who's scheduled for worships for this week happens to be on vacation (and didn't arrange someone to fill in for him), Max used me as worship today. He interviewed me about my time in Guatemala at the Los Pinos orphanage. It was interesting. And also the first time I spoke with a translator since not everyone at the ADRA office is completely comfortable with understanding English. After worship, yep, you guessed it. Max and I worked on proposals. Later on in the morning we needed a break and so we took a walk around the ADRA part of the campus and Max gave me a tour of the places I hadn't seen yet. The coolest place was the carpentry shop where about six workers make furniture and cabinets and whatever they're asked to make for people in the community to supplement ADRA's funds. It smelled just like home in there! Well, at least just like Dad's shop. I asked the head carpenter if the wood was pine and he said it was all cyprus so that was interesting. I don't think I've ever seen anything made out of cyprus before. It was also cool that they were using very few tools to make the furniture. I'm used to Dad's shop where there are lots of machines to help with the work. We then went back to work and got the ADRA UK proposal finished and sent off (unless they decide to have us fill out two additional forms later on) and then made considerable headway on the ADRA Canada one. I think we just have to finish up the proposal narrative and then tweak the budget to match tomorrow. Wonder what will happen when that's done? Still no word on me and the grant writer getting our work visas. Max called immigration today and they said they'd come do the visit soon. Who knows when that will be, though? Not I and not Max either.

As I was just finishing up lunch today, Davona (with Staci following along behind) came and found me. She had a plunger with her and asked if my bathroom was still flooded. And now I need to give you some background info. On Sabbath morning when I had my shower, the water, instead of draining nicely and properly, decided to stay in the shower basin instead. And, for even more fun, it then decided to just flood the whole bathroom floor. I told Davona about it when we got home from church and she told Max. Since none of the workers were on the campus to work on it yesterday I just used the bathroom in the adjoining room in the other half of the cottage. Today Max told Jacob, who is in charge of things around the campus, I think. But nothing had been done about it when I came in here for lunch until Davona came by with the plunger. She came in to take a look and then went to work trying to unplug the tiny little drain-hole cut right into the tile. She uncovered a whole bunch of hair (couldn't have all been mine in just half a week) and then asked for tweezers to remove some more. I apologized for having this happen and offered to help, but she just kept working, so I talked to Staci, who told me that she was going to have a sleepover some night and sleep in my bed so that I would have to sleep in the other one and that one night I should sleep up in the mosquito net frame hanging above my bed. She is refreshingly original and creative for such a tiny girl. Finally the water started receding and I thanked Davona a multitude of times. Then she continued on her way to the baby home to help the Cradle volunteers unplug their sink which hasn't been draining properly either. I went to the laundry room to find a broom and then swept the water still covering the bathroom floor into the shower basin so the floor could finally dry. By the time I got back from work tonight, my bathroom floor was almost dry, which is a relief.

When I returned to work after lunch no one was in the office so I spent some time outside in the sunshine. First I observed one of the black and yellow striped lizards stealthily try to sneak up on an alert butterfly. When the butterfly flew near some greenery clinging to the ADRA office wall where the lizard was hiding, he pounced. But the butterfly just fluttered off to the right and up over the building, leaving the lizard to stalk away still hungry. I wished I'd had my camera with me to take a video, but who knew you'd need a camera while you're waiting to go back to work? After that I went into the office and got the ADRA PR manual that Max had showed me last week and sat in the dry grass and dirt in front of the office to take a look. Now I can't wait to get to the PR part of my job!

Tonight when I went out to make supper, an off-white lizard (that actually looked a bit like a lizard-ghost...or a glow-in-the-dark lizard) scampered away from the outside of my door frame and up the wall. I left it up there and continued on to the kitchen where I actually used the stove for the first time! The girls in the Cradle apartment had a lot of matches and since they have a non-gas stove, they didn't need them and gave me a pack. I managed to light the stove with no problem, but then, when I went to adjust the heat, the knob turned so fast that it went straight to off and the flame disappeared. I tried again two more times with the same result until finally, on my fourth attempt (and wasted match), I got the feel for the knob and kept the stove lit. I warmed up some hot dogs for supper and they were really good, although they sure take longer to fry up than on an electric stove. When I returned to my room later, the lizard was still hanging out on the wall above the outside of my door and had another lizard up there with him, for company I guess. I went inside and grabbed my camera and headlamp to try to get some pictures. Most of them turned out either too dark or too fuzzy, but there's a few that are OK. I'll try to put them on here or Facebook soon.