Observations | Disappointing Phone Call, VM, and the amazing Chiefs (and their equally amazing Fan)

MY APARTMENT – As of yesterday, www.TheDailyCowbell.com was claimed to yours truly as the new home of this incredible blog.

And as of this morning, it was gone.

In what has come to pass as a most regrettable experience with Dime a Dozen.com (get the link yourself), my new web address seems to have been cancelled. The domain, which worked very well on Friday night, now features one of those great pages that says “This page doesn’t exist, sucka!” When I tried to contact the idiots at the domain company, I got nowhere, and I’m still awaiting their reply. Even better, my login name (which worked just fine previously) isn’t even recognized by the stupid web page.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, even though I apparently “cancelled” my order, I’m still being charged the $8 domain registration fee.

SLT might have just found a new victim. More to come later.

Three Observations:

1. A long-distance disappointment. Finally, the time came; Valerie and I were to hear from Union College, and they were to hear from us! As I mentioned earlier, we received emails from Campus Ministries, informing us that we’d be getting a phone call at 4am, Friday morning (8pm in Lincoln). The phone conversation would be broadcast over the church’s PA at Thusday night’s Power Pac, meaning everyone would hear us. Eagerly, we invited our friends to head over to the church to chat with us at 8pm.

Thing to go wrong #1) Val and I agreed to meet in the office (the nearest

speakerphone) at 3:45am to have a chance to wake up a bit before addressing UC again. So, at about 20 till, I left the apartment for the administration building.

Much to my surprise, the phone was ringing… long rings. It was an outside line call! Who else would be calling us this early than Union. I sprinted over to the dorms, fumbled with my keys, and dashed for the phone, on its 32,523rd ring. Why the crap are they calling now? Val’s not even over here yet!

Thing to go wrong #2) Come to find out, UC’s is singing their last song of song service. Next up, us. What the heck, they said 4am! Hurry up, Val, you’re gonna miss it!

Thing to go wrong #3) Val runs in, breathless, literally 10 seconds before we’re broadcast over the PA. We flip on the speakerphone and find out that we’re going to have to put our faces 3 cm from the receiver for them to even hear us. Ewwww, morning breath!

Thing to go wrong #4) We’re greeted by Pastor Rich Carlson, a very welcoming voice to hear. He asks us a few question about how we’re liking it here and all that, and we give great, Jesus-slanted answers for him.

Now, you must understand, usually on these kinds of phone calls, the person on my end of the call is usually surprised by Pastor Rich handing the microphone to one of our friends in the audience, who gets to talk to us over the PA. I was looking forward to that a bit, but I was more excited for Val.

See, since I’ve been here, I’ve got to talk to my parents quite a few times. I’ve also been blessed to talk to a few of my friends (twice because I bought them an international phone card and told them “CALL ME NOW!”). Valerie, on the other hand, hasn’t talked to her parents but twice, I think, and not to her brother, a sophomore at Union, at all. So I was really looking forward tothe “talk to your friends” part of the call, for Valerie’s sake.

But, for some reason I’m still not sure of, no such luck. Pastor Rich asked a few more questions, prayed with us, and then wished us luck before hanging up. No talking to anyone at all.

Thing to go wrong #4.5) It’s ok, because Sean wasn’t even there anyways.

Thing to go wrong #5) We headed back to the apartments a little disheveld, wondering what went wrong. Ah well, I’m sure lots of our friends heard us anyways.

Not as many as there could be, though. Come to find out, Marleigh Rannow, one of my favorite people in the world, was the SM Call of the Night for Friday night, when attendance in the church is doubled from Thursday. What did Marleigh do to become the headliner!

Thing to go wrong #6) …and not one email from anyone at UC, telling me they heard us on Thursday night. Sigh…

2. Village Market: Better the second time around. The first (and only) time the SMs checked out VM, we didn’t really care for it too much. Everything was high-priced, the whole place was set up like a mall (a la “very cookie-cutter”), and it seemed like there were many more interesting places to check out in Nairobi.

However, after the pure excitement that was Thursday-in-the-room, I was very willing to do whatever it took to get off campus. So when I heard that the 8^th graders needed an extra sponsor for their trip into VM, I volunteered for the job. Sure, it would require me being with kids over my weekend off, but it was totally worth it. I love the elementary kids, and hanging out with them and the Merginios, the 8^th grade’s “hostel parents”, for the day sounded like a great time.

We left MAA and arrived at Village Market at 11, giving us time to walk a bit, pick up some lunch, and meet at the mini water-park by noon. While the Merginios swung their gorgeous 15 month old daughter Lana by the doctor, I supervised the kiddies at the slides. It was nice just to kick back and hang out with the little buddies.

When the “parents” came back, David and Mwila walked up to the Masai Market with me for some heavy-bargaining. I’m planning on sending a little package home to the family this next week, so I wanted to grab some little trinkets from Africa. After 30 minutes and approximately $23, I’d purchased all the gifts I could and felt satisfied with my great bartering skills.

After swinging by the overrated Pizza Inn on the way back, we made it back to Maxwell’s campus, safe and sound. It was an awesome chance to just kick back and hang out with some kids I don’t get to see too often. I’ve already volunteered with Merginios, too, for the trip at the end of the semester!

3. Love for KC, proven yet again. What’s the best way to deal with getting 6 hours of sleep in 2 days? Probably by going to bed early the next chance you can, yes? *Buzzer* No, my friends, not when there’s a Chiefs game on!

KC’s game with Miami was moved to a 6pm (central time) Friday game because of Hurricane Wilma, expected to smash into the Florida coast late Sunday afternoon. A pain for the Chiefs, who became the first NFL team to travel and play on the same day; a bigger pain for Chris Webb, who became the first Maxwell Staff to do something so incredibly stupid (like stay up until 5am listening to a football game) that left him borderline stunted for the next day.

This morning, to recuperate from the thrilling victory over the Dolphins, I slept through Sabbath services, feeling justified in taking part of the Lord’s day “for rest.” And now, I just woke up.

Ah, now, to be fed…

Ok, I think this is all for now. This afternoon I’ll be traveling back to Magadi, where I spent my first Sabbath. Hopefully I can get in the hot springs this time. Note to self: wear shorts and flip-flops this time.

-cw