Monday late afternoon we decided to take a walk down a road that we haven't traversed before. The road was a bit dusty and rough (that's putting it mildly), but we managed to arrive at our target destination in spite of that. We had heard about a well-known restaurant in the area called Rolf's Place. We have been told that it is a fine dining establishment. The amazing thing is that it is located out in the middle of nowhere. Evidently it has a reputation though because when we arrived there, we saw a number of cars in the parking lot. We did not go into the restaurant, but Mary, our fellow volunteer, had walked there on another day and she told us that being in our walking clothes and shoes, we would not be properly attired to be served a meal on the premises! So - if we ever decide to go back, we will need to dress more appropriately and schedule a driver to take us. We'll see. Unfortunately, we picked a rather warm, sunny afternoon to take this hike, so it was quite tiring. It's a good thing we didn't know how far it was to begin with. It was 5 miles to complete the circuit from ANU to the restaurant and back to the campus again. I am still in awe of all the locals around here that think nothing of a walk of that length or duration in time. It took us two hours. We saw lots of people along the way. We also saw a couple herds of goats, and evidence of cattle having passed that way earlier! It makes our mall walking in the city seem like hardly any exercise at all.
My gecko experience happened just this morning. I was sitting on the couch reading something when I happened to glance up and look toward the refrigerator in the kitchen. Just at that moment a gecko appeared at the top of the refrigerator and immediately scurried up the wall toward the ceiling. Our refrigerator is only 4 feet or so tall, so there's quite a bit of wall space between the top of it and the ceiling. Now I know that a gecko is a harmless little creature, but because of my sensitivity to many things that creep or scurry across the floor or wall (babies excepted, of course!) - this pretty much freaked me out. I never did see where the gecko went. I hope it doesn't find me in bed some night! My friend, Ann, told me that having a gecko in our home here is a very normal occurrence. That was reassuring, I guess.
Speaking of Ann, I went over to her house this afternoon and took her and her family some cookies and banana nut bread that I had made. She's been a good person to share with since our arrival here. I believe that God had her here to help me in my transition to living in this new culture. She's been a good sounding board. She is not associated with ANU so she gives me a different perspective.
Today I started typing my revision of the NIVS Volunteer Orientation Manual. This is one of my projects for the time we're here.
Tomorrow is grocery shopping day for us. I have been going back to the same store every week so I am beginning to get relatively familiar with it. The shopping still takes me longer than it does back home, but I am getting a bit more efficient at it. I have tried enough products now to know about some of the things we like and some of the things we don't like.
Saturday we have another sight seeing morning planned so we will be blogging about that later. Until then - take care.
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