OK, I’m back.

OK, I’m back. I know, I know I’ve been negligent by not writing much lately. It’s been a strange and sometimes difficult summer for me. There have been some health issues; a mysterious illness cropped up around July. Nobody has been able to diagnose it to this day. It’s just luc, really, that it’s mostly gone away on its own. But there were some strange symptoms. And when you live in Africa and you have strange symptoms that have doctors scratching their heads it tends to make me a bit nervous. Maybe someday I will write all the details in this journal for posterity but I won’t bore you with them for now. But there is another health issue that I will document now.

In August we went back to the US for our home visit. We transversed the entire country visiting family and friends. Three cities in three weeks.To be honest I was not really looking forward to it, oh I was really looking forward to seeing everyone, it’s just the living out of a suitcase and flying all over the many time zones for three weeks with little kids, that’s what I was thinking would be difficult. But ya know, it wasn’t so bad after all. What a difference a year made, the kids are real seasoned travelers now. And having two portable DVD players with extended batteries didn’t hurt either!

You may recall about a year ago doctors discovered a Lipoma in my right arm ( see ) so while we were in the US I scheduled to have it removed in Atlanta. It was huge, they put me under general anestisia. Apparently it was pressed against a nerve, the radial nerve, and it was pretty beat up during the operation. So when this sort of thing happens the nerve sometimes shuts down. The good news is the tumor is begnin, the bad news is for the last three weeks the top of my forearm is numb from wrist to elbow and my hand is partially paralyzed. I am typing with one finger, can’t write anything, can only move my wrist in one direction. I am told the nerve will ‘wake up’ again but don’t know how long it will take or even how much motion will return. Needless to say it’s incredibly frustrating and scary. But the numbness is beginning to subside and as of yesterday I have been able to actually move my wrist a millimeter or so.