hi. Scott, thanks for the comment. I got a little teary, it was so nice to hear from you. it's great to know that you are reading! We'll its my two week anniversary in SL. So I'm celebrating at the internet cafe by posting a new entry. Feeling much better this week. We even tried out our gym last night... I ran about 20 minutes before i was drenched in sweat and couldn't breathe anymore. I think that's a good start!! Can only get better. And I made Gambian peanut stew for dinner -- one thing for sure that I can't mess up. We ate it two nights in a row, it was that good. so hah! I have sent a bunch of people my CV and asked to meet up and talk about what they do... hopefully if I do this enough, something will come of it eventually. The most interesting thing that has happened this week was that we got tickets to the "reception" being held in honor of Prince Charles, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales. Pretty cool, huh?

So, as far as I have heard, Prince Charles was passing briefly through Sa'lone on his way to some meetings in Nigeria. He was going to be in Freetown just one evening before going to see a school upcountry and then fly further west. A friend of mine has a connection with the British High Commission and had extra tickets. The tickets read something like "Please note that there's not much shade -- you will want something to sit on maybe -- and you will want to bring your own water supply" So much for the reception part. We were thinking champagne and caviar, but alas, we got sun instead. Anyway, it was a celebration of Sierra Leonian music and dancing. That part was really fun. All kinds of singing and dancing and one high school marching band impressed me the most actually. I mean, that they even have a band...and they were really good. The Prince was running late, about 45 minutes or so, and it was starting to get dark when he showed up. So there was a big welcome for him and the other dignitaries on the stand, and he waved and smiled, and walked over to where we were sitting. He shook hands with a group of school children, and we crowded up with everyone trying to get a picture on my cellphone, but it was too hard, there were too many people. But we smiled and waved back...and who knows if we'll ever have another chance to greet HRH again, so I am glad we were there. It felt very African. And, since the roads were closed to traffic, we walked the whole 2-3 Km home... uphill... good exercise.

cheers! hope your holiday shopping, holiday travelling and holidays in general go well. its december already? missing you.