Since I promised Valerie that I would post today you all get to here my obnoxious ramblings. I am sorry for neglecting you all for such a long time. I won't make excuses, we will just leave it at that.

So... I am going to back up and give you all an account of my passing life since Christmas time.

Back in December, which feels like an age ago and in a different world, I left Hillsdale after taking two days to dispense with everything I had accumulated in four and a half years, except of course my books and the few other things I call essential. I took everything else to the consignment shop there in town. I hope I will make a couple of bucks off it but I am not very hopeful since I had never seen or heard of the place before. But, maybe its a place the locals know about.

My jobs in Hillsdale ended the third week in December so I was free to move up to Detroit and get my stuff out of Anne's way. My lease on my apartment was signed over and Metzger took over my phone, so all the practicals got sorted.

I moved in with the Slaters for the next few weeks, ran around buying aspirin, bug spray, more books, hiking boots and other such things. I spent two solid days working on my paper for Burke so I could graduate and guess what... I finished it! I spoke with him today and he said the grade should be in sometime this week. Congrats to me! Stephen and I also spent so quality time arguing, evangelicalism and sacramentalism on our long drive to Cincinnati and back to drop off his friend Mug. I managed to make it up to the UP for Slater family Christmas as well. I covered a lot of miles over the holidays.

Lets see... How do I characterize the Slater experience. I entered a cabin surrounded my snow, overlooking a frozen lake, and discovered that they were playing a game called 'how many people and how much stuff can we cram into a small space.' I still don't know if I met everyone there. I can't tell you who goes with who and names is quite impossible. But luckily the place cleared out by the next afternoon so I had a chance to visit with just a few people, 15 instead of 35. I got to know Steve's Uncle Merry who is a doctor. He was very helpful with info on necessary medications for the field. He gave me all the ins and outs of malaria medication and hooked me up with some left overs. All the different meds have their draw backs: one makes you susceptible to sun burns and can give women candida, the other causes mental instability, nightmares, depression, and even hallucination (I know, Luke, sounds cool, but I don't need a mental break down in a third world country. I would rather have one in America where there are people to baby me.) The last option is a great drug, really effective and it costs a fortune. The pills cost $4 a piece and taking one a day would make my poop more expensive then it has ever been before. So I am going for the one that gives sun burns. Along with medical talk concerning my own needs I got to see slides of major trauma cases and major surgeries in Africa. Wow... I am still too much of a prude to describe some of the problems that men over there suffer from but guys, be glad you go to your annual physicals. The alternative is MUCH worse.

Christmas eve and day were actually spent down in Detroit with Stephens immediate fam. It was fun to watch another family spend the day leisurely opening presents, taking breaks to eat, and returning to the pile. I have most often been kind of scrooge-like about Christmas, and I think that when I have my own family I will probably keep it to a very small affair, but there were some things that I liked about it. I especially appreciated the several, very useful presents that I got. A beautiful journal (which is where I have been writing lately), a HUGE suitcase, and several excellent books. I have started reading Gresham Sholem's definitive work on Jewish Mysticism and I have browsed through the others. I got Buber's book I and Thou, an American anthology of 20th century poetry, an introduction to Barthian theology, and several others.

speaking of books. I have managed in the last month to buy books at used book stores in Toronto, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Dartmouth England. I was only supposed to take a dozen or so books with me but I have managed to fill an entire suitcase. Oh well... take out the cloths and throw in more books. One of my favorite purchases I made with Stephen. We found a copy of Caputo's book "Prayers and Tears of Derrida" (new not used) and since we had a gift certificate we bought it. But there was only one in the store. So... we cut it in half. I have to first three sections and he has the last three. We rebound it with clear duck tape (another great use for the mater of all tapes). We are each reading our sections and then we will switch halves. At some point we hope we will be able to tape the two halves of the book back together. However, I am not reading Caputo at the moment. I've been studying an introduction to the Old Testament, in preparation for Bible studies, and I am reading Graham Green's Monsignor Quijote.

Oh... I should have said this earlier. I am not in Uganda yet. I leave on Tuesday. I have been, since the 11th in England. I spent a week in North London, then met up with a friend from Oxford days (Nicki) and went to say at her aunts flat in Dartmouth. That is Devon area, near the ocean. Its a small town at the mouth of a river. It sports two castles and a navy college along with a great number a pubs, houses almost stacked on top of each other due to the steep hills, mild weather, cobblestone streets and a beautiful old church (1300's) which managed to save its rood screen from the zealous reformers of an earlier age. The church is one that I visited when I was 16 and on my first trip to England. I never expected that I would be attending mass there 7 years later. The service was at 8 am last Sunday, my first Anglican service in England, but it took a vast amount of discipline to get out of bed after visiting the pub the night before. I will have to recount the story of that experience later. Talking to the priest after the service I managed to really confuse the guy. I told him I was worshiping with continuing Anglicans in the states, which made the other priest, a female, laugh. Then I asked him a question about the liturgy and I referred to the words of Jesus in Mark and he asked me if I was a fundamentalist. Then I told him that my background was evangelical. So, we had a nice chat about my own plans and my spiritual journey and the state of the church. We left on friendly terms with the woman priest encouraging me to study in Oxford where she got her ordination.
But that doesn't end my encounters with that church. Nicki and I took a taxi, costing £25 to the train station in a near by city. (Just so you all know the $ is doing really crappy right now. Its about $1.80 to every £1.) When we got there I realized that my $10 purse was sitting under the pew at church. It wouldn't have been worth going back for except that it had my passport, my visa to get into Uganda, all my other assorted ID, all the cash I had left, and my bank cards. So the taxdriverer phoned up his wife, she when to the church and collected my purse and brought it to me. My purse is now worth almost $50. That's how much I had to pay the driver to bring it to me.

Well... I have decided that this up date will have to be in parts. I am wiped out with typing. So... this is the end of part one. I will try to make sure the nest part is a bit more interesting, not just narrative in style.

I miss all you guys in Hillsdale, especially Dan, Hugger, and Luke. Don't drink too much or smoke too much, though I have no idea what too much is. It's ruff out here in the real world with no one to talk to.

I am looking forward to finally settling down in Uganda. It will be nice to have something worthwhile to do. Something to get out of bed for, other people depending on me. Holiday's are nice but this one is getting tedious.

Catch you all latter...