Could it be? Is it really the dry season??

There have been a couple days without rain now and it is very, very windy. The wind is nice... although the sun is bright and hot, the breeze makes it very comfortable. For now, at least. I've been told that when the dry season is in full swing, there are a lot of wildfires and the driving wind blows the sand everywhere. Just another feature of the Karamoja Resort and Spa: mud treatments, exfoliating sandstorms, wading pools, the malaria weight-loss program... :) The wind right now is ridiculous. I have never felt such strong wind in my life... and this is just the beginning!

We've had two false alarms already when we thought the dry season was starting, so I'm not counting on it... but it would be nice for the rain to be done so the roads will dry out. I'm sick of muddy feet and my flip flops being destroyed in the muck... and it would be good for the roads to dry out since different members of the mission have to drive down country many times in the next few weeks.

On Thursday the Wright family will be leaving for a ten day vacation down country. It will be quiet and boring without them (they bring a lot of life to this compound! I love those kids...) but it will also be nice to have ten days to organize life, work ahead on lesson plans, clean the banda and kitchen, and just relax for a while. I'll only be teaching from 9:45-12 every day. It's also wonderfully providential that they're going away now, because it will give me lots of time to complete my TESOL course, which I have to finish by December 23rd (and I still have 8 lessons to do, each of which takes several hours!).

My mind knows that Christmas is coming, but it doesn't feel like Christmas at all without snow... Erika and I do have a nice little fake tree in our banda (which she lovingly refers to as The Toilet Brush) with tinsel, colored lights and decorations. Last year's teacher, Amy Folkert, sent Erika and I a package of Christmas presents! It had candy, decorations, a card for Erika (who shared this banda with Amy for 3 months earlier this year) and a few presents. She doesn't even know me so it was so so sweet of her to include me in the gift.

I'm also having mixed feelings about turning 24 in a few days. 24 just sounds so grown up. In some ways it's great, and I'm so glad I'm an adult now, and done with school! But in other ways it's a little daunting because at this point I really need to start taking things seriously and planning for whatever's next... time to start making some serious decisions which could really influence my next few years, important decisions like where to live and work next year. But I'm excited that for the rest of my life I'll be able to say I celebrated a birthday on the African savannah :)