My god, I have internet!

It's unbelievable. I forgot it could be this fast. And, it took me three days to realize I could update the blog!!!

So, here i am. I have just watched a football/soccer game at a pub in Canterbury. Fred says I shouldn't blog while drunk, but if I don't do it now, I might forget again. And I know how much you all want to hear from us!!

So, here we are in Canterbury. Watching Arsenal (whom I think are from London, with a couple of really good African players) get trounced by Liverpool, the emotional favorites locally. It looks like the game will end 4-1. Which if you know anything about football/soccer, means it's a rout.

We've been eating and drinking tonight, so if I sound a bit off, that's why. I think Arsenal is the better team, but Liverpool truly had the home team advantage.

So, we're on R&R. Rest and Recuperation. and I'm resting. I've been sleeping in a lot, and just going out into town, and doing a little shopping, a lot of eating, and a small portion of drinking. I like Canterbury a lot. There's a darling little local pub, not one of the bought-out chain franchises, called the Rose & Crown, just down the street from the apartment Jaime & Rob found for the four of us for a week.

Fred's only bought one book this week; but he hasn't taken his list with him, so that may change soon.

We've been in Conakry from 8 1/2 months. I can easily advise all my FSO colleagues that when you are in a hardship post, don't wait that long to go on R&R. Fred and I were both getting too close to the end of our ropes the last few weeks before we left.

For our R&R we're doing a week in Canterbury with Rob & Jaime, a week in Paris with Emilie and Marcus, and a week in Dubrovnik with Eric & Ute. Belgrade has just come off ordered departure (what the lay folk will think of as evacuation) and Yemen has just gone on.

My friends Pam and Chris are in far more "exciting" posts than Guinea. They've actually had the strikes and riots that the Guineans have only threatened. I'm really appreciating how peaceable the Guineans are. Plus, most of them are realists and feel that last years strikes which resulted in the deaths of over 100 people, accomplished nothing of substance.

The cat is staying with our friend Scott, who will play with her while we are gone. We still haven't finished unpacking all of our boxes...we definitely brought too much stuff. But, hopefully, we can go through things and decide which should go into storage and which should go on to our next post. Which will be next year.

I've stopped being so paranoid about Malaria; although I faithfully take my drugs. I have gained back much of the weight I lost the first few months, but I think we're walking so much on vacation that this may be temporary.

We've made a really good friend in Scott, and althouhg our jobs are very very hard, we like them. We like almost everybody we work with, and the bad ones are leaving this summer, so all should be great by Sepetember!

So, Fred is now talking to me about chocolate and I am too tipsy to carry on this letter to all of you, and talk about chocolate, so I'm going to sign off now.

Man, having real internet is amazing. I forgot how fast and easy it could be.

Love to you all. Thanks for your notes of greeting and support; they really do mean a lot.

Robin (*and Fred)