July 3

The Minister of Health may end up at our Fourth of July Extravaganza.
Lets be honest, chances are she wont. But it would be SO COOL if she showed up. Our 4th of July party would actually be a party. George, Neesha and I went over the ipods we brought to find all the American music we could find.
Our playlist is pathetic in terms of actual classics, but relatively good considering that most of my ipod is Ace of Bace and Harry Potter audiobooks, and most of George's is Spoon (which we have discovered that most Sudanese people dont really get).
It consists of the traditional (Jimi Hendrix playing The Star Spangled Banner, Bruce Springstien-Born in the USA, Don Maclean-American Pie), the inappropriate (America, Fuck Yeah), the bizarre (Superbad Soundtrack), and the slightly reaching (The entire Forrest Gump soundtrack). But then we have a bunch of artists who we can just play (Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Tom Cochren, Tom Petty, The Traveling Willburies, U2, etc). It really makes you consider what you percieve to be "American music" as I was sitting here being like "SPICE GIRLS!" and then Neesha had to point out that they were British.

In terms of a shopping list, here is the plan. George and I wake up to exercise (fingers crossed) and then with Lucy and Neesha we go to the market at 8am. We buy:

• 4 Chickens
• 3 kilos of beef, and then get it grinded in the Bishop's house
• A crate and a half of beer
• A half crate of soda
• Mango Juice
• Firewood
• Ketchup
• Bread
• Wine (?)-Lucy wants it, but the price we were given was 30USD for a box of wine which is ridiculous and I refuse to pay that, having become a bit of a box wine connissouer.
• Potatoes
• Cabbage

Amazingly enough, if all goes according to plan, all that will only amount to like 130 USD which if we split among the three of us is no problem really, considering we are feeding like 20 people.

Also, by being incredibly ingenius, we managed to get the Ipod hooked up to the speakers in our piece of crap Pajero, so we can play music in the car. We havent figured out a way to do this in any kind of loud fashion but we are working on it. And we figured out how to put music on our computers from the ipods. (Clearly, when i say "we" i mean "George"- who takes all of my "you know what would be SO COOL suggestions" and turns them into reality.)

And now, a short story.

Why Emmanual Should Never Be Allowed Behind The Wheel Of A Car

Emmanual does not have a good track record with cars. Last time he was given a brand new Land Cruiser, and the first night he had it, got it stolen from the parking lot of his hotel (not understanding that a. a guy with a bow and arrow is no match for bandits with guns, and b. that cars can be stolen without the bandits having the keys)

So he is driving this pregnant woman to the hospital so she can give birth. In the car are a couple of other people. A tree pops up in front of them. He pushes the brake. The car doesnt stop. So rather doing the normal thing, and steering the car away from the tree, he shouts to the car at large:
"Ok everyone. We are going to hit the tree..............NOW"

and they hit the tree. And that is why he was late to the staff meeting at Isoke Hospital.

We joked that at the same time he was preparing them for the accident, someone in the back was saying to the pregnant lady "Ok. Push.........NOW"

also, total side note, but George just killed a beetle for me except that when he stepped on it it EXPLODED with a sound like an egg cracking and seriously disgusted all of us. So it is now lying in pieces on the floor. Ew.