Storm Damage

I was out of PAP today until late on. Coming back into the city the roads were jammed and I had no idea why. Then I found out there had been an unexpected (i.e. not forecast!) storm earlier in the day. Trees were down, power lines were down, giant billboards had fallen. It was really bizarre because other than it being wet, and being stuck in an interminable traffic jam, there was almost no trace of the earlier storm. But I have discovered that thousands of already homeless people have now also had their tents blow away or be destroyed, and so have now lost even more if that is possible... People who had managed to put together some semblence of a life under canvass have now lost everything once again. The broken but vitally important items now even more damaged or lost for good. It is hard to imagine what life must be like for these people in their camps where they live every day in fear of their lives and worried their children may be abused, only to have more trouble brought down on them. We can only pray that a hurricane does not come this year!

Mud!

I was thinking I would have a nice easy day visiting a couple of places where we work. It was a beautiful day, sun shining and lovely countryside. We got out of the car and began to descend a long path. I was thinking "I have to walk back up here". Then it began to rain... and rain... and rain. We sheltered in the porch of a house for 90 mins and decided we couldn't wait any longer. So we began to walk back up the hill. The only problem was I only had my crocs on, and they are really slippy in the rain. So on the mud they were useless! After about 25 yards trying to go uphill I had to take them off and walk in my bare feet. But that didn;t help! It was like Bambi on the ice. Poor Matt who was with me had to practically drag me up the hill. I had mud all over my feet, squelching between my toes. As my boss pointed out, some people pay lots of money for mud treatments and mine was free! Eventually we got so far up the hill  and got the car to come down and meet us. The only problem was it couldn't get back up again. So we had to get lots of local people to push us, and at one stage we were sliding backwards down the hill and heading towards a deep ditch! After much prayer, a broken pickaxe and a lot of pushing we finally got out. I washed my feet and was grateful I don't live in that every day! And just to prove I don;t mind embarrassing myself: pictures...