other places.

Physically, I have been in Africa for the past twenty-four hours. In my head, however, I have been many other places and have repeatedly forgotten where I am.

We went to a Mediterranean restaurant called Enya's last night. Enya (sadly, not the vocal artist) was a very kind older woman who hugged everyone like family. The ambiance in the place came from lights made out of cheese graters and strainers, even the bathroom was candlelit, and I had some of the best Greek food I've ever eaten. (Who knew I would find it in Ethiopia?) Priscilla and I split roasted lamb and potatoes - surprisingly, the most expensive meat around here is not beef or lamb, but chicken. Afterwards we went out on the balcony and watched the blinking motel sign across the way, and the only thing in sight that looked like Africa was the scaffolding made out of sticks next door.

When our bus finally arrived, we went to the Sheraton Hotel for dessert. I'm still not exactly sure why, because by then it was ten thirty at least and the bakery was closed. But we wandered around for awhile, just looking around - it was like a palace, and very out of place in the middle of Addis. The rumor is that Will Smith stayed there recently. There were chandeliers and marble staircases everywhere, high ceilings and an enormous swimming pool - oh yes, and we found out that there was a man in the men's bathroom whose job it was to squirt perfume on the guests as they walked out. I think more than a few of us were feeling uncomfortable by the grandiosity of it all, in light of the things we've seen during our stay here. It might have been the lateness of the hour, but our visit felt more like a dream than anything else.

There was a live band outside, but they told us that we had to be twenty-one to go into the bar area, or else we'd have to watch from some area far away that they vaguely directed us to. Back inside, Amy and I went up a staircase that resembled the one in Titanic and were approached by a man who asked too many questions about why we were there and what we were doing before saying, "So, you want to go out and have some fun?" We pointed hastily to a couple of guys on our team in the distance and ran off. Most people here are just curious, but every once in awhile you run into a creep.

We found everyone else in the restaurant area and ordered coffee ice cream. It arrived in a fancy glass topped with a little pink umbrella, a candied cherry, a prune, and a pecan cookie. Strange choices, to my thinking. It was quite good though, aside from the prune, which I did not eat.

And today I spent the entire day in the fourth floor lobby editing our film. The entire day. Except for when I was in our room editing our film. So much editing. I'm awake at one in the morning for the second time in a row, and I'm getting up in about six hours to edit some more. I feel like it will never end, but it has to be finished by noon tomorrow. The staff at this hotel are just the nicest people; we kept ordering up food because we didn't have time to go out, and then Sam knocked a chair over and broke a plate and they wouldn't let me pay for it.  They don't even like it when I carry my own cappuccino up the stairs; they always want to carry it up for me.

So my world today was the fourth floor of this hotel. I stuck my head outside once and saw a few kids in the street, and suddenly remembered I was in Africa. Not a good time to forget this, considering I only have a week left to enjoy my time here.

God continues to bless our teams; one of the editors lost his entire project twice but somehow managed to find it again, so we're all backing up our files repeatedly. No one's project is perfect, but there have been no major mishaps or missing pieces, and the three films are coming together. Our film festival is tomorrow evening, and we are praying for a good turnout. More people showing up means more people talking about the gospel!