packing

ugh packing...a necessary evil. getting ready to leave tomorrow! cross another continent off my list (:

gearing up

wow it seems like a million years since i have posted anything! God is so good and has already begun to fill 2010 with new adventures.
i am currently preparing to leave feb. 27th to volunteer at the South America Mission Conference in peru. my pastor, skip macmillan, was asked to teach at the 5 day conference and he asked me and a team of people to come help with worship and childcare, obviously i am helping with childcare (: we are putting together a vbs-ish program for the kids.
i used skip's notes and made lessons that correlate with what he is teaching
day 1 the 4 kinds of love (greek words)
day 2 receiving God's love
day 3 loving God
day 4 loving others
we also need to come up with crafts if anyone has any ideas.

this is for michelle (:

so i am not in another county, although it sometimes feels like it, i am in the big apple (: it has been a great visit so far. catherine came and picked me me from the airport (a little gulu speak for you) and we rode the bus to her beautiful and spacious place in the city where we were soon greeted by amy collins and trisha (both from uganda) and another of catherines friends and we all had delicious chicken tacos together and caught up. then easter sunday we got up and had a glorious breakfast and went to her church to celebrate the resurrection. it was great. the service was much more traditional with readings and such than eternal but it was beautiful and the people were so lovely and welcoming. then we just walked around all day and toured the city, went through the park, and chatted. one of our favorite things to do is to speak gulu speak to eachother. every now and again i will throw a "thank you please" or she will say "even for me" and it is great cause we both bust out laughing. we also have a million inside jokes that keep us laughing all day.
last night after dinner we went to a hip hop club where they have an open mic night every sunday night called E O Dub (End of the Week) it was pretty cool to be seeing the underground hip hop scene first hand. we went to hear dujeous which was sort of a featured guest for the night. it was a lot of fun. i was surprised at how many different kinds of people were there. that is one thing i love about this city, there are all kinds of different people.
today we plan to go to Fire Island and see the beach and have a yummy lunch somewhere and then head back to the city for sushi and a movie.
tomorrow i get to see margot!! (:
one thing that has been really neat for me is just remembering that God is everywhere and no matter if i am on a plane to another country or just another state He is with me and He is the same. Catherine and I have been talking a lot about trust and the freedom in trust and what it means to really trust. And as usual whenever we share about our lives i am constantly reminded of the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING community of people i am surrounded by daily at home and cant help but sing out in praise to my Father for blessing me that way.

recent thought

i was emailing trisha my pabo sister and would love to hear feedback from this idea (especially you teacher exchange kids)
i do get sad when i think about the lack of community in some parts of my life but i just take it as a challenge to foster it where i can. the more i am away the more i realize what amazing people God has surrounded me with and it makes me want to take advantage of all the time i can to be around them and to learn from them and to serve and love them.

traveling home

so my journey home started with a 4 am wake up at the hotel. we finished up packing and left by 5. we got to the ferry a little early, around 630 and it left at 730. as you sat down in the ferry they handed out cavaras (little plastic bags) to ralph in because the 2 hour ride was pretty heinous. i just kept thanking God that i didnt have to do this often. luckily i met a nice canadian girl and she shared her fresh ginger with me. that and a piece of gum helped me not have to use my baggie. she shared my taxi and we found a bank for her to get money at and then sat at the airport for hours. my flight left at 530. i flew to dubai and had just a two hour layover and headed to the states. the flight was ok, i got to see a couple movies which was nice and i slept a good bit. i had a pretty long layover in jfk but i met some girls who had been in sudan. it was fun to talk to them and share stories. it was also great to talk about the work we had been doing and sort of problematize things together. the flight to charlotte was super short and i was greeted by some of my favorite people in the whole world.
it was much different coming home this time. i was ready to be with people. i think i felt a little too ready and didnt rest enough because i got pretty sick tues - fri but i luckily felt better by sat and had a great welcome home / house warming party where i got to see more of my favorite people.
something i am still chewing on and would love feedback about:
so i must say that i miss africa but i am ridiculously blessed by my family here in the states. you ladies are amazing and my eternal family rocks my face off. i am just swimming in love and blessings these days. the thing that hit me this year in africa was not only accepting but embracing the fact that God gives us just enough for today. that manifests itself in so many ways. we can be free to love and serve and give our whole selves because we know that He will replenish us, we dont have to worry about tomorrow or hold on to yesterday and can live in the present, it necessitates a dependence on Him that i know i would not otherwise do naturally, it makes it impossible for us to take the glory and honor for the blessings in our lives and protects us from taking too much of the burden of the trials and hardships in our lives, and so many other things...

zanzi-beautiful!

holy shmoly zanzibar is paradise. i have never been so relaxed and amazed by beauty. the beaches were white the water was clear blue and the food was out of this world yummy. catherine and i filled our days with snorkeling, beach volleyball, fresh coconut and yummy drinks, amazing dinners, and soaking up as much sun as possible. caramel and white mocha they called us (:
if you are ever in east africa you have to go to kendwa rocks! i had my first taste of lobster dinner. the last night we got a massage with papaya and honey mixed with cloves and cardamon and my skin smelled soo yummy.
it was a great time and i couldnt have had a better travel mate!

o the end of journeys are so much like beginnings

so so sorry that i havent posted in a while. all the goodbyes and such of the end of the journey can be overwhelming and then the constant moving makes it tough to wrap your head around your thoughts..and then when i was in the paradise known as kendwa beach in zanzibar i was not about to spend my time in front of a computer.
so the last week in pabo was really great. geoffry and i really started to dialogue about the things we had worked on and what was sustainable and what things he could adapt and the changes that he was going to make when i was gone. i was really encouraged that he discussed new classroom management techniques with his collegues. that was one thing we had focused on and he really made some great changes. i hope that i can make those same steps in my classroom.
the best injury happened the last week. i say best as in has the best story attached to it. it was the most painful as well. to save you from the all the details here is the shortened version (do you really believe it will be shortened?)
boy bike, skirt with liner that hinders leg movement, lifted seat, seat tilted back, climbed on a hill beside the road to avoid crazy out of control bus from smashing me, middle of the day hot, bookbag full of stuff, stopped because path ran out, teetered for a second as my life flashed before my eyes, praise God no vehicles were coming, fell into road and jammed knee pretty bad, covered in red claymud and hobbled back to school to rinse off in the borehole...thats life (:
so we said our goodbyes and did the safari (i did the boat safari and saw crocs and hippos and a family of elephants), rafting (i laid out by a pool), and kampala shopping. we went to a turkish place the last night and it was super delicious. i tried a shisha (sp) interesting.
then we said goodbye to the group and headed to zanzibar