Surviving the Weekend

Well friends, I darn near killed myself this weekend. -big grins-It started off at 7:00 on Sabbath morning. The night before I had decided that I wanted breakfast from the cafeteria in the morning. (Breakfast on the weekends is usually pretty good. Fried rice or some sort of rice porridge with bits of tofu and vegetables in it. mmmmm)
Anyway, I got up and went out to our motor bike and tried to start it. It’s a rather finicky thing and doesn’t like to start from time to time. This was no exception. After a couple minutes of trying to get the thing going it finally coughed itself into wakefulness and I took off down the hill with my two cafeteria bowls rattling in the basket in front of me. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill the noise of the metal bowls clanking around was rather deafening, so out of respect for the neighbors, I put on the break and reached forward to stop the bowls from making so much noise. Bad call. As I reached forward the best I can figure is that it threw me off balance. One minute I was upright and the next I was lying on the ground with the bike on top of me. Smart Summer. Very smart.
Of course to add insult to injury, the bike wouldn’t start again, I was covered in brownish red dirt that showed up clearly on my black sweatshirt and pants and I was right outside of the vice principals house. –Smacking forehead- Great. As I sat there pleading with my bike to start up again and trying to pull my pride back together, who would come out but the vice principal. He walked up to the bike asked what was wrong and started it in one try. I smiled, said thank you and wished him a happy Sabbath.
But it’s not over yet. Oh no. Later that afternoon David took Michael, myself, and three other men who are visiting for the week to the most amazing waterfall ever. It is amazing! I don’t know if its something that is in the water or if it is in the mineral makeup of the land around there but where ever the water flows it forms this very firm and grippy white rock that enables you to literally run up the waterfall. It’s the coolest thing. Your mind tells you that you shouldn’t be able to walk up it but it’s just as easy as walking up a sidewalk, albeit a little wetter.
Anyway, Michael and I spent about an hour running up and down the three waterfalls getting quite wet in the process but loving it! On our last trip up to the top I was climbing up a particularly steep section when all of a sudden I hit my head on a tree that was covered in the same mineral deposit as the waterfall. Boy did that hurt. I thought for sure I had flattened my skull into a tabletop, but I am a Mathis/Lee! So I kept on going…only to twist/sprain my thumb when my footing slipped up towards the top of the falls.
“This is ridiculous.” I thought to myself. “No one is this accident prone.” Oh but sadly that was not all. After the falls we walked out to a spring that was a couple hundred meters away. On the way there I saw this overhanging branch/vine that crossed low over the walkway. It was large and VERY visible so just to be funny I warned Michael not to hit his head on it. Well wouldn’t you know it, on the way back I was chattering on and not watching what I was doing and I ran smack into it! The best part was that David was about to warn me not to hit my head again, but had though it impossible that I wouldn’t see it! Nevertheless it was a great outing and we had a fantastic time!
Sunday made all the hurting on Sabbath worth it because we got to go to elephant camp! It was amazing! They have over 77 elephants and they just roam all over the place with their trainers. You can feed them, take pictures with them hugging you with their trunks, visit the nursery where the babies stay, watch them bathe in the river, you name it! It’s awesome! The elephant show was really something to see. All of the elephants are so smart. They can paint, play the harmonica, build things and even play football (soccer)! It makes your jaw drop. Michael and I both got double trunk hugs from elephants after the show but sadly the memory card with those pictures on got lost somewhere and so we don’t have them. But we do have others!
Anyway that’s what we did this weekend! Two days after the fact, my bruises are brilliant and my pride is on the mend. I hope everything is going well at home, blessings and love. Summer