A volcano erupted on my friends...

True story. Everyone is OK, but they all have lots of cuts and scrapes and ripped trousers from sliding down as fast as they could possibly go. There were five people from I-to-I on the safari this weekend and on the last night they climbed up a volcano at 2am to be at the top for sunrise. They saw smoke coming out but their guides said that they were good to go. When the volcano erupted everyone was kind of spread out and at different elevations, all very near the top. The guides screamed at them to start running and since they were all spread out, the people who were lower down thought that the others were all dead because they couldn't see them. Vega and Helena, a couple on their honeymoon, were closest to the top, and their legs are really torn up from the slide down. When it erupted the guide they were with said, 'Today, we die'. Not very comforting! There were huge rocks and tons of ash flying past them, and it really is a miracle that everyone was OK in the end. Luckily the lava flowed down the other side of the peak. That mountain is now closed (it had apparently erupted the week before as well!).

Yesterday a big group including myself took a day off from our projects to go to Arusha, a city about an hour from Moshi. We went to hear part of the Rwandan trials that have been going on for a VERY long time now. We got to hear a witness being cross-examined. We couldn't figure out if it was for the prosecution or the defense, but it was interesting to hear nonetheless. He was a French guy who was a general stationed in Rwanda. He seemed to have known a lot of people in high places and also to have tried many times to ameliorate the situation there, but all his plans and ideas kept falling through. We didn't get to see the man who was on trial.

I am going to be working at the church every morning of the week except for Thursday. I will be doing stuff like filing, record keeping, typing, printing, copying, and folding the liturgies, and designing and updating bulletin boards with member interviews and Sunday school work on them. I am really excited to start tomorrow! Thursday's, I think, will be my internet/errands/laundry mornings. This morning I did my laundry for the first time, by hand, and it took quite a while, I think around 3 hours. I won't be letting it build up that much anymore! It was fun today but I can see it getting old pretty fast!

I miss everyone!!!! Much love!

Abby