Mail Server Down on Boxing Day

Curiously, we now have adequate internet connections but our mail server is down. So, both options for emailing are not working at the moment. This is the second day I've tried to email -- from either of my email addresses. Seeing that they are both linked to the company, they happen to both be down at the moment. So, bear with me as I'll try to continue emailing. Jim's continuing to try as well.

You could always call us :-)
Jim's mobile is working with roaming -- 234 803 979 9132.
Joey's mobile is -- 614 0187 5972

It's Boxing Day, here in the land of Oz. For those of you who think Boxing Day is a day to honor a professional sport, check out this website, below. Warning: afterward, you'll still be pretty clueless but at least you won't feel alone!

www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp

Celebrating our Savior's Birth!

A very Merry Christmas to each of you!

We are enjoying an Australian Christmas, though it's evidently atypical -- it's quite cool, even for us! So, we didn't go to the beach today as we'd planned. Maybe tomorrow -- Boxing Day.

'have had a difficult time getting internet access. 'trying a bit more tonight.

Let's see, more about the contrasts -- ah, the culture of Singapore -- incredibly friendly and polite. From initial impressions, we were very!!! (impressed, that is!) The people are hard working, kind, respectful. Until the moment we left we couldn't stop talking about the cleanliness! We'd love to go back sometime!

And now, Australia, where the contrasts to Nigeria abound yet again! We were immediately struck by the cleanliness. That was something we noticed on our first trip to Oz which was pre-Nigeria. But it's even more impressive after being in Nigeria! In Joey's neighborhood the streets are perfectly clean. The yards are beautiful. The brick sidewalks are spotless. Flowers abound. Fragrances flourish. Peaceful. Calming. Quite the contrast from the headache creating streets of Nigerian cities.

What fun it was to celebrate Christmas at Hillsong Church. Let's see -- 4 different Christmas services in one week! Awesome! At one point I couldn't stop the tears from peaking out. It was so refreshing to sing so many amazing praises and Christmas carols with such a huge and diverse crowd of folks!

God is good. Very good. And we are blessed. Very blessed!

I'll write more soon and try to post photos, too, very soon!

Contrasts!!

We are still stunned by the contrasts, having left Nigeria and traveled to a variety of locations in the past week:

Paris, cold/NGA, hot!

Singapore -- clean, clean, so very clean!! Nigeria -- not!
Jim and I had a contest going on who would find the first piece of trash. I won ... on our second day! And it was a microscopic piece of a candy wrapper.
In NGA we could have contests on who spots the first piece of clean dirt ... and no one would have won, yet!
Green and beautiful -- gardens everywhere. The sides of the road -- all gardens! We were speechless (and we haven't stopped talking about it!)
Clean water -- amazing! Blue ocean water. Clean rivers, even!

And now we're in the land of Oz.

OK, the internet cafe is closing so I'll continue with the contrasts another day!

Life updates as we are heading out for one month!

See Jim.

See Sharon.

See Jim and Sharon pack.

See Jim and Sharon smile!

We leave tomorrow, God-willing, to Drs in Paris for Jim, three days in Singapore for our honeymoon (married 26 years ago Dec. 6!) , and then on to Australia -- spending great time with Joey and then we'll be joined by -- in this order: Jeri; my sis, Kath, and her hubby, Dave; Brad and Karissa. We'll have a late Christmas as those-guys will all arrive on the 28th and beyond. I can hardly stand the wait!!!

We've got our laptops loaded with everything we need for working from anywhere -- that's the problem with our high-tech world -- you never really get away, anymore!

Jim's got huge projects coming in -- things he's been working on for the whole year.
I've got new arrivals coming in -- there's never really a break in the steady stream of new hires and transfers!

But, even with the work load it will be great to be away from the intensity.

Lucy cried when we said goodbye -- hugged me and had a tough time letting go. We gave her a little Christmas gift, a Christmas bonus, and a raise -- you'd think we'd found her a job in the U.S. or something. She's so grateful for every little thing we do for her.

I hired a guy named "Jumbo!" who cooks for the camp doctor to train Lucy and she's been doing a great job. So, I think she's most disappointed to not have any oyibos to cook for in the next month! She's precious!

Prince's wife, Glory, is pregnant. He's rather ticked ("disturbed" is his word) that she's not cooking food he likes anymore. He seems to think it's fine if she vomits while she's cooking as long as he gets his food. A bit of an ego, there! So, she's sick day and night and still operating two sewing shops in a town 2 hours north of us and she's opened a new shop here in our city. She does a great job as a seamstress. Her business is growing here, already. We made them a loan so that they could rent the shop space. Prince is diligently paying it back each month -- little-by-little.

Camp life continues to be a bit tense as we still have very limited options for getting out, still need escorts, etc. So the nasty people stay nasty but ... the good news is --- the nice people just get nicer!! So, some of us had a progressive dinner last night. Jim and I quit after the dessert house. Many stayed until 4 a.m. That's 5 hours past our bedtime! The "entree" house or "hors d'oevres" house as we would say -- was our's. I didn't have Christmas decorations so I lit gobs and gobs of candles and had paper snowflakes that I'd cut out in the windows. What fun! I brought no Christmas music and most of our music is Christian, so, it was weird but we played Sting on the CD player. He seems to have universal appeal. 'just not quite like Christmas parties we're accustomed to!

I'll have more time for reflecting during our travels so I'm sure I'll blog more soon.

Air France -- here we come! Business class, even!