no I T person... time for computer failure!

For those of you who have written me, etc. in the last week, I wanted to let you know that the people who know how to fix anything electronic left the village, and the internet went down (surprise, surprise). Luckily, it's been on (sometimes in some places) for nearly 24 hours now. I'm hoping it just gets steadier instead of weaker. It certainly is difficult to do online book orders when you have no "on line". It's amazing how helpless the village is up here when something like that goes out. With no expert of any kind, people just look at the computers, sit down, try to get online, and if it doesn't work, they'll turn to any random person walking past and ask, "do you know when these will be working again?". Of course the other person has no clue... and it's not like we can call up the Geek Squad to come fix the system.
This week has been incredibly cloudy and rainy. There was so much mist rising from the mountains in the last two days, guests thought there were fires. It obscured everything from the river up the mountain. Breathtaking.
Tonight is (shhhhhhh...) the bachelorette party for one of the young women in the village who is getting married next week. The women of the village have all made party hats out of those little green plastic baskets for strawberries and have made plans to take over Chalet 1 in an all-female celebration. I'm interested to see what a Holden party of this sort will look like. I have a funny feeling it will involve baked goods, lemonade, and cookie dough.
Last night was a get-together in Chalet 4 to celebrate the departure of a few long-term and mid-term staff members who will be leaving in the next few days. We cracked one of Terry's home brews. It was called "Langley's Elixir" in honor of my help with this particular batch. It was sort of a nut brown with a bit of a bite. Very refreshing. I was extremely proud. All of the musical people in the village brought guitars, a banjolele (a ukulele sized banjo... named Grover), fiddles, and the old washtub bass to play music and sing along. There was popcorn and lemonade and a lot of fun conversation. I finally got the chance to talk a bit with the Japanese students. I learned that two of them are studying English and the third is doing Environmental Studies all at the same college in Southern Japan. They were interested in what I had been studying while I was in Japan and, although there is a bit of a language barrier, we had a pretty fun time talking. The best part?? Even though I've met three of the four of them, I only have to remember two names. Two of the boys are named Nao (pronounced Now). Easy! We've made semi-solid plans to hang out in the next week and talk about my experience in Japan and their experiences here. I'm very excited.
I said goodbye to a few more friends this week, including my beloved volunteer Wally and my good friend Josh (among others!). My current roommate, Annie, leaves tomorrow. Then I'll have a room to myself, but be left wondering for how long.
I also learned that Andrew Zaffke will be heading into the village in the next week! I had no idea! For those of you who don't know this name, he went to Tanzania with me when I was in high school and he attended Luther, also. I'm excited to see one of my "old" friends up in the village.
Well, I know that this particular post wasn't particularly insightful or inspiring, or even interesting for that matter, but I really wanted to make a quick note and let everyone know what has been going on in the little village.