i'm a horrible person, i know

I'm sorry. It has been over a week since my last post.

For the record, I am alive and I'm feeling much better. I've moved again and I do not have an internet connection yet. So for the next week or two, just expect not to hear much on this. I will be back, and in full force, in due time.

What have I been doing?

Thanks for asking. Well, I've been meeting with the contractor quite a bit. It turns out that we may be working on the house by the beginning of March. That is great news. We are still accecpting donations to the building fund so if you got some extra money, I got a place to put it. Go to Sweet Sleep's website for information. (Don't tell anybody, but I'm planning on putting a hot tub in my room with some of the money I've laundered.) One good thing about this contractor is that he is willing to let our guys work on the project. I think it will be a really good experience for them.

Speaking of the guys, I've been working with them this week. We are putting together a bunch of furniture somebody donated to the orphanage. Most of it is damaged or missing essential things like screws, shelves or garden gnomes. It has been good to see how they work. Some of the guys, I won't mention names, work a little better than others. But it has been fun to see how they interact. Artur is a big knucklehead. He will ask me to help him with something. I will show him what he is doing wrong and then he will yell "I know, I know," as he feels insulted that I would try to help him when he clearly knows what he is doing. Now I know how Norm must have felt after all those years of helping Bob Vila. I always loved how Bob would do about 5 seconds work at the start of a project and then another 5 seconds work at the end. We were supposed to think he did the 5 hours worth of work in between. Come on Bob, we're not stupid.

I've also been working on language, both for the guys and myself. I've been setting up English classes for them through a program called "English for New Life." They teach English by using the Bible. It seems to work pretty well, both for teaching English and getting people to read the Bible. I think it will be good for them, and ultimately me (which is infinitely more important). If you are still wanting to donate money for their lessons, please do. You can email me about it if you like or even if you'd like to yell at me. twbedi@samford.edu
I've started my Romanian classes. Oh, how stupid I feel. Learning a new language is just plain tough, especially when you're me. My teacher is tiny. She is about 4 feet tall and 38 lbs. She is good though, at least that's what I'm told.

And finally, I've been freezing. It is snowing as we speak. I came to Matthew & Jamie's place, down some stairs and next door, to use their internet. Stupidly, I wore my flip flops, a long-sleeve t-shirt and a hoody. No wonder I was sick. Coldest winter in 60 years and I'm wearing flip flops. Sorry mom.