Westminster Confessions

Today I traveled to Washington, D.C., to acquire the Ugandan visas for our trip. I left at 6 am, just as we started to hear the news about the attacks in London. Fortunately, I did not have trouble getting in and out of DC or finding the embassy for Uganda. In fact, all was going quite well until just about 10 minutes from home.

Just as I was exiting from Route 1 to take Broad St. home, my passenger side window was struck by something and the window completely shattered throwing glass all through the car (even into my clothing!). After an initial once-over to see if there was blood anywhere (or whether it was a bullet or stone that caused the damage), I drove up the rest of the ramp (which travels alongside a housing complex) and pulled over to call the police. Another person was in the parking lot with me who was ALSO a victim just minutes before me. We waited until the police came to make the report. Apparently the guy saw the 2 or 3 boys who threw the (we think) rocks. We will have to deal with trying to get a new window before we leave town on Sunday, and we have a massive cleanup inside the car…. glass everywhere! Glass somehow got thrown all the way across the compartment, and even into the back seat. My tote bags and purse have glass in them. There was glass on my lap and all around me.But it is amazing that I was not really hurt… I could have easily had some huge shards of glass hit my face or eyes. As it is, I only had to suffer the (somewhat embarrassing) pain of glass embedded in my “butt” (at this point my daughters are drop-jawed that I not only used the word “butt” but also recorded it for posterity on the web). I truly am thankful that it wasn’t a bullet because it looks like it would have surely hit me in the head or chest.

Now we are trying to figure out a way to get the window replaced before we leave town this weekend. Actually, we are supposed to drive to NJ tomorrow night for a concert, so we hope we can find a place tomorrow that can do the replacement. Never a dull moment when you are getting ready for a trip out of state (to Chincoteague to be with Sarah, John, Ethan and Maggie for a few days) and out of the country (on to Sudan!).

Actually, the past few days have been very encouraging as we prepare for our trip. I am so thankful that I was able to track down some people who have recently been to Yei and who have shared their counsel, advice, and stories with me (hurray for Google). Their suggestions will be very helpful. I was also able to acquire some basic supplies for the teachers in Yei. My favorite is the inflatable globe which I found for the incredible price of $1 each at the Dollar Store! Stay tuned for more updates about our final preparations.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 7th, 2005 at 8:11 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.