EAC School site & SNAKE encounter!!!

Greetings!! I have had some serious Internet issues the last two days but am happy to report my return to cyber space. My time in Africa is drawing to a close but I still have lots to report so I'll keep blogging until I get back to Big D (I'll be stopping off in the UK briefly to pay a short visit to my dear friend and fellow UA alum, Cecile M.).

Sooo, we last left off as we were dusting off from our festive time at St. Catherine's. On Tuesday morning, I accompanied Scooby and the gang (ok - Alexis and the gang) to see the land where the Empower African Children school will be built. It is a beautiful site on a hill overlooking a valley. At this meeting were Alexis, Agnes, Jeremy (Chief Operating Officer & Puff Daddy - name to be explained momentarily), Jonathan (the architect), Annette (Jonathan's assistant), Michael (engineer), Mark (the surveyor) and David, consultant on water and electricity (a mighty, mighty task in Africa). It was a powerful group.

Knowing how talented I am at spacial and engineering planning (did I mention my luggage is exploding?), I took advantage of the time to relax and to chat with Zziwa, our amazing and profoundly kind driver. I learned that he has three children and that he'd like to learn to use the computer. I explained to him what a kindle is (see Amazon.com if you don't happen to know) and he was fascinated. He would like to travel to the US one day and he couldn't believe when I told him about our smooth (almost to the point of boring) roads. I am so glad I got to spend this extra time with this lovely man.

Well, it was all so calm until.... Mark the surveyor mentioned that (by the way), there had been an incident the day before. Mark and a crew were clearing the overgrown land when a Puff Adder Snake appeared in the grass. For those (like me) who don't know, a Puff Adder snake is the most dangerous snake in Africa and is (according to my internet sources) "reluctant to flee and willing to bite." It is a chunky, scary creature. The men killed it only to discover 24 babies inside which came flying out!!! EEEEEKKK! The dead snake and the babies (killed and placed in a bottle) were still in the area and everyone went to check it out. Needless to say, I could have done without this bio lesson but it was exciting nevertheless!!