July 2. WebEx

I have cold running water for taking a shower. 

I repeated fell asleep and awake during the whole night. The sound of rain outside of the window rung in the rim of my ear. This sound finally woke me up in the morning. It was 7am. Okay, it is time to get up. I got out from my room and went outside to get some fresh air. I could not move just one more step from the guesthouse last night because I could not see anything. Now, Mr. Sun should be somewhere covered with dark clouds, and I was glad to see the surroundings. Still, it was dusky and cheerless. It has been raining since last night, and it went on and on.

I went to the office, and I greeted staffs. I have not remembered all staffs’ name at National Office, but now I met another big group of people. I wish I had an ability to recognize all faces and memorize all their names once they introduced themselves to me. Devotion started in the morning, and we discussed the verse, “Peter disowns Jesus three times.” I am even worse. I live many moments without even thinking Jesus exists. However, I believe that Jesus is always with me and wants to talk to me even when I totally forget praying for him.

I was so happy that my lunch was delivered from somewhere.

Time went by so fast in the new environment, and I prepared for attending 1pm group meeting. Fellows from four African countries – Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Tanzania –, AIM-Health coordinators, and consultant would meet a virtual meeting platform, WebEx, to share experiences and discuss AIM-Health mid-term evaluation. My main role as a fellow is to lead in-depth interviews (IDIs) with various public health workers to assess the first two years of implementation and improve the next one and a half years of program, which runs up to December 2015. I thought I was ready to attend at 1pm, but there was a final step to download Add-on file, and it took a long time to join the meeting. I finally joined with program manager, Joseph’s laptop, but the voice went on and off, and people said my voice was muffled. However, it was a good to hear everyone has been adjusting well and doing great job, and I am glad that we can share the information and keep up everything in the right way throughout the fellowship program.

After coming back to the guesthouse, I had dinner and read documents, and… fell asleep. I opened my eyes at 10:30pm and continued reading. But the electricity was gone at midnight. It would not probably come back until next evening. 12:09am: I have completely nothing to do. My laptop battery remains 53%, and the laptop screen is the only light in the complete darkness. Whew, all bugs in the room come to the screen. The light is toxic to them. “Why do you love the light? You will die of this!” Well, bugs do not listen to me, so I need to close the laptop lid and lie down. I am scared to hear that some creepy bug is flying somewhere in the room, but to make the matters worse, I cannot do anything. I am not sleepy anymore. What should I do? I may stay up whole night tumbling about in my bed, longing for Mr. Sun.