Covenant College, where I’m planning to go in 17 days, just sent me a letter saying I owe a ridiculous amount of money.

The odds of me actually getting enough any money from people clicking that button and giving me money are almost as ridiuclous as the amount of money I owe.

“Never tell me the odds.”
- Han Solo

Click here to make your site look exactly like mine!

I see this phrase fairly frequently (haha). However, last time I saw it, I decided it would be fun to Google the phrase in quotation marks…just to see how many people agree with me.
Turns out, about 3,410 websites state that they agree with me.

Then I Googled “I agree with Caleb that…” to see what these people were actually agreeing with me about. Here are some results:
I agree with Caleb that 4 days without new posts is unacceptable.
I agree with Caleb that this doesn’t pose more than a temporary inconvenience.
I agree with Caleb that this is a fine piece, perhaps the best of the 1950′s.
I agree with Caleb that learning how to build confidence is critical.
I agree with Caleb that Rupert Murdoch is an illuminating example on many levels.

How many people agree with you, and what are they agreeing about?

Brilliant HP Technician: To rule out the issue with the harware of the notebook I recommand you to check the audio with headphones.
Caleb: I’ve checked with headphones.
Caleb: The buzzing is also in the headphones, and the buzzing in the built-in speaker continues.
Caleb: Considering plugging in headphones usually stops the audio in the main speakers, I think the issue is hardware.
Tech: I appreciate your thinking.
Caleb: That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard from tech support.

The conversation also featured awesome moments in grammar, like “was your notebook came preinstalled with,” and this:
Tech: Did the installation of patch is over?

Also, gems like this:
Tech: To better assist you, may I have the Serial (eg: CNS34915MC), Product (eg:DS542U) number.
Caleb: Sure, just scroll up. I gave it to you about fifteen minutes ago.

So it seems that once again, my beloved Lappy is destined to make the journey back to from where it was came (hey, with grammar like that, I should work for tech support!).

[7:30AM -- Phone rings -- Sleep aborted]

Me: Hello?

Boss: Well hey, Caleb! We’ve got a couple of ladies from the kitchen going home sick, and I know you need more hours. How would you like to come in at 10:30?

Me: Hang on, I just woke up. Lemme call you back.

[Click]

Me: Yes, Mr. Boss, sir, I got an awesome five hours of sleep last night, and thanks for waking me up so early. A thirteen-hour shift should be no problem at all.

[Ring, ring]

Boss: Hello?

Me: This is Caleb. I’ll be in by 10:30.

[Click]

 

Can’t get back to sleep, my whole body aches, and my eyes feel like I spilled tobasco sauce on them…today is gonna be great.

Sorry everybody, the interweb has been down at my house since Friday. I’ll post a real post soon, though.

I actually almost maxed-out my 2GB memory card in my camera. Over 400 pictures and a few videos from Africa are now on my harddrive and being sorted and edited. I’ll go ahead an put some pictures with captions here.

During our 8 hours in France (in the worst airport ever), we saw the Eifel Tower. Don’t see it? Look really closely at the middle of the picture. It’s that hazy little line in the third window.

We played way too many card games during the trip, especially in the airport in France. Also notice the bright orange MTW t-shirts we were issued. Our group was obviously entirely inconspicuous walking through the airports.

I’m not sure why, but people in Kenya put stickers all over their cars.

We stayed at a Catholic retreat center/convent. The nuns didn’t seem to mind that we were there, or that we were protestants. They even invited a couple of us to mass.

There were some really nice flowers at the convent, too.

Kibera was a shock to everyone on the team. It’s a slum of about 700,000 people. One of the things that was interesting about this picture is that you can see the slum next to a nice row of houses, with just a dirt road and a wall between.

The locals didn’t like us taking pictures (for various reasons) inside Kibera, so the only ones I have are in and around the church. Oh, and Xanga turned a bunch of the pictures sideways for some reason.

The kids really liked cameras. One of them took the above picture.

This is the street right behind the church. It’s the only one I saw that didn’t have a ditch down the middle with sewage running in it. It’s also the only one that seemed to be made of cement, rather than piles of dirt, trash, and waste.

The kids were all really great, and they all wanted pictures with the white people.

This is me and the cutest little girl ever. For some reason, whenever someone pulled a camera out, she would never smile…which is disappointing, ’cause she had such a cute smile.

I’m not sure why, but all the boys wanted to look like they were fighting in the pictures.

Lauren with some of the kids from the Bible club we were leading.

Okay, so that’s enough pictures for one post. I’ll try to post more tomorrow or Saturday — of the safari! I’m not much of a safari person, but people seem to like pictures of elephants and lions and such.

 

Oh, and if you wanted to see more artistic shots or versions I’ve properly edited, go here:
XristosAnesti.deviantart.com/gallery

Oh hi, guys. I’m back.

There are computers where we’re staying in Nairobi, so we have limited access to dial-up at $2/hour.

Pastor Imbumi Makuku, pastor of Kibera Reformed Presbyterian Church, just finished briefing the team about what we’ll be doing this week.

The next 4 days, we’ll be participating in a local pastors’ conference. Pastor Makuku has invited about 100 pastors and other people who serve leadership roles in the local churches, and the adults in our team are teaching 11 sessions over the four days on things like prayer, hermeneutics, marriage, and parenting. Many of the people who do ministry here have very little education, and almost no ministry training — so this conference will hopefully be a great blessing to them and the people they serve.

The youth on the team (me, Buddy, Courtney, Lauren, and Virginia) will be helping with a childrens’ Bible club after the conference every afternoon. We’ll do skits, songs, and teach Bible stories. Yesterday we told the story of Zaccheus (no time for spell check) with the missionary interns and acted it out in a skit.

People here in Kenya are very physical. The kids will latch on to your hands and arms — sometimes leading to small fights over who got to touch the white people. They also love our hair, because even the girls here have extremely short hair. They couldn’t believe my hair was real. Haha.

Well, I guess I’ve spent enough time on the computer. I might check in a little later in the week and let y’all know what’s going on. I wanted to upload a picture I took today, but somehow “USB cable” didn’t make my Africa packing list…

Hey, I’m going to Africa now. Leave a message at the beep.

[beep]