While the Cats Were Away

Now, for "the rest of the story." While the men were in Burundi, the ladies spent some time at the office daily, but there wasn't much work to do, so we played. It's amazing that people who were total strangers a month ago could be such good friends. We enjoyed each other's company.

All of us stayed at our house for security. Robert stayed 24 hours a day while the men were gone. Since Sister Frogley and I could stay in our own houses on our property, Sister Packer was a good sport and moved over here.

We went to the mission home every day to check things and we must admit that we spent several hours watching Jane Austen movies. It was a favor to the men who we knew would appreciate us watching them while they were gone.

I was the designated driver. We had planned only to go to the office and back home, but one day we decided to go shopping. We asked one of our office workers, Serge, to drive us to the store. By the time we got to the first grocery store, I was a nervous wreck. Serge knew how to drive, but really hadn't ever driven. I was not interested in teaching him to drive in Lubumbashi traffic, so I took over the wheel from them on. Serge is now signed up for driving school.

It's not easy to see the terrified look on the guards face, but every time I backed out of this long driveway he was very nervous. Women don't drive a lot here and a musumgu (white) woman driving. Yikes!

Beads are very interesting and important to crafts in Africa . The sisters who serve in JoBurg are very involved in making jewelry. So, while we were home alone Sister Packer shared her beads with us. Each type of bead comes from a different place, has a different history and brings African culture into jewelry, as well as just being beautiful. We made some nice necklaces.

We really had a good time "while the cats were away," but it shows how much we still like these old guys that we were even happier for the vacation to be over and to have them back again. Two is much better than one!