Update: I’ve received Stones Into Schools! Thank you to the (anonymous) donor! =) It was such a great gift to receive!

Our first full day of about 30 in the USA. Nothing’s changed. Everything’s different.

Everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. This sucks because when you draw your sword from inside the car you have to strike out the window with your left hand.

Drivers here are SO reserved, polite and have a tendency to follow the rules. Even in DC. This is saying a lot.

PIZZA! Oh man oh man. We got Pizza at our favorite place. Frank’s Pizza. Hi, Santoro!

Grocery store. So clean. So bright. So big. So EXPENSIVE. We are so intensely broke, it’s just sad. We are still paying rent in Uganda, paying our staff, and all that. So it’s not like we can use the month’s money. But never the less we spent $200 at the grocery store.Most of it was staple stuff to help offset the costs our friends will be fronting, but other things were not. Things we missed enough to go into debt to buy:

  • Tortilla chips
  • Kettle-cooked Jalapeno Potato Chips
  • Trail mix (from the bulk aisle with three kinds of peanuts, dried bananas, oat sticks, black raisins, golden raisins, chocolate chips)
  • Cereal: Frosted Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch
  • Pop Tarts
  • Dill Pickles
  • Nilla Wafers
  • Club Crackers
  • Swedish Fish
  • After-dinner mints
  • Strawberries
  • Grapes
  • Apples

I finally (FINALLY) found Greg Mortenson’s new book, Stones into Schools. I really really wanted it but I couldn’t afford it. (Three cups of Tea was instrumental in our Journey to Africa. Giving it all up took some nudging. Greg helped).

We went to my Grandfather’s place today. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever endured. When we left for Africa, I had an idea we would never see him again. He gave me a $100 bill (which was a LOT of money for him) and told me not to spend it unless it was an emergency. He told me to bring it back to him to prove that his prayers worked. He was a man of faith. Unlike any that I’ve ever known. He got a passport at age 84 when he found out we were going to Africa. I just found this out and I’m wondering if he would have come to Africa if I had invited him. He’s in a better place. I firmly believe that. It’s not a cliche to me because it wasn’t a cliche to him. When I Skyped him on his deathbed he was happy. Happier than I’ve ever heard him. He was going to a party. He was going to see his parents and his wife and Jesus. I learned so much from my Grandfather in his last days. I miss you, Grandfather. (The intensely personal video is in my Vimeo collection should you care to look.)

I am downloading like a crazy person. Nathan’s FIOS is screaming. That’s not a euphemism for how fast it is. It’s a euphemism for how much pain I am inflicting on it. Screaming like a little school girl. Screaming like me when I see a hairy spider.