The End of Term is Coming!

And boy are we ready for it!

Please don't misunderstand my sentiment here... I am absolutely thrilled to be participating in such a music program as Maru-a-Pula has to offer. But at the same time, one can only go so many weeks without a decent night's rest! I have been working 10-12 hour days for the past two months and I am tiiiiired. Luckily for me, I also have an amazing friend amongst the Maru-a-Pula staff who has offered to take me north to Zambia with her when she goes home for the school holiday next Saturday. This really is lucky, because otherwise I would be sitting around here in Gabs (which goes completely dead over holidays...everyone goes back home to their villages, etc.) twiddling my thumbs and wondering how to accomplish anything up north. So, unfortunately, there is no rest for the weary as we are departing next Saturday morning at 4 AM! But at least there will be less stress and pressure at that point.

We had a nice music meeting today--our last of the term. It was so nice to hear how much they have appreciated my help these past months. I have greatly enjoyed this chapter of my travel year and it is wonderful to feel like I am able to give something back as well. I am just tying up the loose ends at this point... which is a bit sad. One of my classes was devastated to hear that I was leaving (they had obviously forgotten since I told them at the beginning of the term) and they all came up to give me hugs at the end of class. What sweethearts!

And the marimba tour is hurtling full-speed-ahead towards their departure on April 12th. I am sad that it didn't work out for me to go with them... I really feel close to a lot of the players at this point and in some ways it's like abandoning your family at the time they need you the most. But since HQ is adamant that I cannot come back to the US for anything, there isn't much that I can do! I will have to concentrate on having fun in other places doing other things. At least Zambia promises to be a unique and interesting experience!

One hiccup that I have encountered this week is a computer crash. Yes, my beautiful pint-sized laptop is having Windows Vista issues and won't start up properly. Now, the IT guy at MaP is trying his best to fix it, but he's been under so much pressure to get other things done before the end of term that it's been put on the back burner. :( At least it looks like I should be able to recover the files off of it--and at worst it will just need a clean wipe of the hard drive and reinstallation of all the programs I had on there. Such is life! It would have been much worse if this had happened anywhere else.

And that's all the news from this side of things! Please cross your fingers for me that the elections in Zimbabwe come to a peaceful conclusion!!

Over and out!