joy

driving into my parking lot at work from a meeting yesterday afternoon, i was on the phone with my sister in florida, discussing elizabeth's birthday when another call came in that i ignored. when it recalled, i looked and gasped, "gotta go, it's ELIZABETH" and had my first conversation with someone on the continent of africa.

i love her so much and was terribly happy she called me on her 25th birthday. as we spoke, i transcribed much of our conversation in an email to david, diana, ruth, hal, etc.

they hadn't had email access since she last blogged on the 24th, so she let me know how her first visit day on mission went, the patients they saw. and other stuff, her impressions, her birthday, can't think of what else right now...tried to call her from a land line which took some doing, but now i know the process.

she had asked me to cancel her t mobile account which i am in the process of doing right now. "it's the end of the world as we know it" is on the musak...interesting since i'm going to athens once this is completed.

t mobile account specialist is on the phone right now. he's cancelling it till the end of this billing cycle, 28th of january. he's changing the address for the final bill to walton way. well outside contract so no problems...they did try to do a seasonal suspension, but that's $10 a month and the max is 3 months, so the phone is not active in a few days.

i told the efm group about her call later. lydia said people crowded around her to touch her because she had blue eyes, and it was somewhat alarming. when i described their living quarters, lydia was perplexed till i remembered the school's name as bingham. lydia and tom taught at the other international school in addis. bingham she referred to as "the british school."

ciao!