0-for-3, so that's a strike-out for this week. It was a crazy week. Zambia is crazy.

Anywhere in Africa is crazy, but I've been pretty blessed to be based in the one country in sub-saharan that's not too dissimilar from a European feel. You go elsewhere - Moz, Zim, Zambia...and at best, things are just plain crazy. A different approach to business, a different methodology on time, just different ways of living, here in Africa. Surprise.

Anyway, the week was a bunch of moved-around meetings and some that didn't end up happening, and some unexpected ones that did end up happening. The team there is a group of really wonderfully awesome people and it was sad leaving them not knowing when or if I would return. It reminded me, as other experiences on this trip have, of one of my favorite parts of the Lord of The Ring, when Aragorn and Frodo are leaving the heart of Elvendom: "...he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as living man." I like the qualification on the end.

So yeah, today was the flight back to ZA, and after I dropped Tracy off I came to the office to catch up on time reports and emails and...booking flights to Uganda.

March 24th I'm headed to Northern Uganda to spend a week volunteering with the child soldier rescue camps there that World Vision has been operating there. There has been (thank God) a shift in the work there lately following the rather recent and relative peace in the north, but I've been told to still expect to get a full picture of the issues in a place that has seen such horrible contact for such a long time.

For those of you who might not be aware, the previous paragraph is pretty much the first actualization of a life-dream that was first sparked in my soul some years ago, and I'm pretty much in complete disbelief that its actually going to happen. Its only one week, and I have no idea what kind of future doors it might open, if any, but if it is all I can ever do to help, it will be something. Somehow, though, I still kind of hope it will just be another beginning. Its only one small place in this massive continent where this horrible problem is still a very real thing.

I'm hoping to make it a bit of a journalistic endeavor, which will be a matter of a significant amount of after-hours research over the next couple of weeks, combined with really kicking my writing into gear for that week. Its something I want to draw attention to (the situation, not my involvement) and while it's all rather amorphous at the moment, I've got a few ideas in mind...so stay tuned.