Merry Christmas

My sister and I baked a ton of sugar cookies and invited people to help us eat them. Fun stuff.













We just found out that we will not be able to meet up with my parents for New Years' as planned. Their passports were enroute in the mail and got lost. No passports, no way to leave the U.S.. So, they are going to try hard to get here anyway, although maybe a week later. We had planned on 2 weeks together as a family, but as long as they are able to get things worked out this week, we should still get a week. It has been 2 years since we have been together for a family for longer than a few hours (a year-and-a-half ago we had a few hours together before my sister left for the U.S. and then my parents followed the next month).

Good Words

David Osborne said:

We try to use God to change our circumstances,
but God uses our circumstances to change us.

Quoted by Joel Hunter a couple months ago.

A Little Christmas Perspective

Check out this youtube video. Well done.

Anger Management

Wow, what gets your blood boiling? This week I have been alarmed at how angry I have gotten. Two things get to me: kittens and traffic. And as I thought about it, I realized these are recurring for me.

When I lived in Haiti, I had a sickly, whiny kitten that got me so angry I wanted to leave the country (oddly it didn't occur to me to get rid of him instead of me! ha ha). I can't think of any other time I ever wanted to leave. I also wanted to hurl the poor thing across the house. I thought, I could never have children! No wonder people abuse their children (I am probably blacklisting myself from babysitting ever again)!

So we have a new kitten. I think we finally decided to call him Frik. Well, Frik is a crybaby. Not just persistent crying, but a desperate, persistent meow. Several days ago my nerves got so shot I took him by the neck and was ready to strangle him to death. Literally. My mind went there, my hands were probably 75% behind it. I was shocked at how high my emotions were running, and I let go and started to cry. Poor Frik was scared of me for a while. If I could have screamed bloody murder I would have.

The next day I was driving to town in the truck. Mind you, the width of these roads were designed for motorcycles, not more. Everyone was on the road, kids walking home from school, using the road like it was a sidewalk. Motorcyclists were driving side by side, chatting. There was too much traffic on the road to pass anything. I nearly went through the roof! I thought back to Orlando, and remembered how I hated traffic. It was one of the most--if not the most--stressful thing for me living there.

So, yeah, been having anger issues this week. Earlier we were going to get rid of the cat, but I think I'll try him a little longer. I had a 2 day break from him while we were at camp, and he was more tolerable last night (or I was more patient--or maybe remorseful). Don't know if I should be posting these raw emotions for the world to see, but there it is, part of my journey.

Birthdy Madness

So on November 21 I turned 31.









My teammate made me breakfast and then later on that morning my neighbors called me outside "for something." I was suspiscious, so just peeked out, and there they were, hiding what I knew was eggs in their hands and pockets. I stayed inside, knowing they would not dare pelt me indoors, but then my teammate pulled me out and they did not throw. They smashed. Fortunately no flour or soy sauce was involved. Even the grandmas were in on it. I knew exactly who perpetrated the event, though, and went straight after her. She hid inside my neighbor's house (who happens to be her sister), but eventually I got her (click here for video). All fun and games, even though it took 2 washes (by hand, mind you!) to get the smell out of my clothes.

I was whisked away to camp after that where a Chuckish day awaited me. Unfortunately, the satellite internet was not working at camp, which threw the whole day out of order. Apparently my parents were supposed to be in costume on video skype as "the generals" to give me my orders for the day. Our team has recently gotten into the NBC series, Chuck, so the role play for the day was that I was like Chuck and supposed to be having periodic "flashes" which would guide the activities of the day along until I solved the mystery of the day.

Unfortunately the broken internet put a real kink in everything. But we had a lovely dinner together that night at a place I had never been and it was divine--complete with new passports and new identities for the evening. :)





After stuffing myself to death, one of my favorite cakes was waiting for me back at camp.





Throughout the week my roommate baked all kinds of goodies, including these yummy cinnamon rolls. Did a little exploring as well. That was my birthday!

technical issues

Hey, just want to say sorry for lack of communicatons! Our internet connection was totally broken on the island, and then I left for a retreat, and the internet connection has been pitiful here, maybe because so many are trying to use it. I hope to be able to post some more stuff soon, but it may be a while. Next week is going to be insanely busy, so it may be the second week of December before I am able to post more. It is not lack of desire that is keeping me away! :)

Mother Teresa

Wow. Hello, words to me. Saw this on a letter my dad wrote:

When a young man asked Mother Teresa to pray for clarity for his future, she responded, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. I will not pray for clarity, but I will pray for trust.”

Hmmm... although on second thought, I don't want to ditch asking for clarity, either. God has blessed me abundantly recently in the prayer for clarity department. However, the rev. Mother makes a good point I think. :)

Music to My Ears

It’s the sound of big tonka trucks going back and forth in front of our house. The road has been under construction for the past few months now, and this week, smooth road passed our house! Wowee!!!

The 5-mile drive between the office (at “camp”) and our house, which used to take nearly an hour earlier this year, has dropped to a mere 11 minutes! That’s in a truck. On the motorcycle, the transformation is not so much in time (shaves off about 5-10 min) but in obstacles. Now, instead of the pothole obstacle course, we have nearly smooth roads, but pre-asphalt stage in rainy season means that parts of the road become a muddy mess of slip-n-slide. If it happens not to rain, it becomes dust city. Ah, well, keeps one on the toes and makes me a stronger dirt-biker-mama.

New Music

I borrowed a CD from a friend this week. The first time I listened to it, I thought it was fine, wasn’t sure if I would be crazy about it, but after the 2nd and 3rd time through, I am totally hooked. I can’t stop listening. I am always looking for scripture put to song, and that’s what Glory Revealed is. LOVE it.

Lately I have noticed that when it comes to new music/songs, I inevitably have to listen at least twice before I’m able to begin enjoying it. The first time through I can’t focus; I just get the gist of the music style and bits and pieces of the lyrics. The second time through I can focus more on lyrics and decide if I like the whole package. I enjoy music most when I can participate with it, so if it passes the 3rd time through, then it just gets better and better with each repetition.

Stingray Anyone?

Saw this on the way to town.

She's Aliiiive!

Well, it turns out Scudder is still alive. When we returned to camp a couple days after leaving without her, I was posting the "kitty #2" blog and some kids saw her picture and said, "Hey! I have a cat like that at my house!" Turns out it was Scudder. I think she has Chronic Follow-Feet Syndrome . She probably just followed someone right out of the camp and then wandered from house to house. I went with the kids to look for her and eventually after searching several homes, some people yelled, "she's here!" Although a bit altered in personality, it was her. Dirty, not as sweet, and without her pigeon coo. She had a fat belly, though, so guess she was finding food. Today she is a pretty pitiful looking skeleton. I will be surprised if she is still alive in a month. How's that for an optimistic outlook?

Kitty #2...

...Comes and goes. On Monday, while doing a little shopping in town, we stepped over a scrawny, calico kitten laying in the doorway to our favorite (and only) “café.” C and I commented on how it looked like it was on death’s door, and a moment later C said, “we could take it home with us!” My jaw hit the floor as I stared at her in disbelief.

“We could what???!!!”
“It has a long, straight tail!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I bet she would turn into a pretty cat if we took her in.”

The café owner tossed her a fried fish head and we asked him about it. “I don’t know who’s it is or where it came from. Feel free to take it.” I still had not recovered from shock that C had suggested such a thing—she, who talks so much of her dislike of cats (one week later I am still in disbelief). I would never turn down such an offer, although uncharacteristically I was thinking, ugh, I’m not entirely sure I want to go through the whole kitty-training-and-reviving routine again. But if C is having a mercy moment with this pitiful creature, who am I to squelch that? And besides she probably isn’t serious, so I’ll just wait and see how far she goes. We actually went home with that cat.

We settled on the name Scudder, in honor of a former teammate who was notorious for picking up cats on death’s door (his grandpa calls him Scudder), but Pigeon was kind of her “pet” name because she sounded exactly like a pigeon cooing when she purred. After deworming her and cleaning up after her 11 bouts of diarrhea (most in the living room), we had to go back to camp for meetings, so we brought her along. She did fine overnight and with Butch, the camp cat (despite Butch’s unwelcoming viciousness), and fine throughout the following day, but when we were ready to head home, she was nowhere to be found. Not sure if she is alive or dead, but probably dead. She was last seen following a camp worker around, and he was handling poison for termites. Maybe she got into some. A friendly little kitty she was.

Bye-bye Scudder.

(top picture taken on day 2 after bathing and deworming; a bit fluffed up in the picture because she is looking at a dog under our house)

New President

So I found out about the outcome of our presidential election from a local person here on the island. A little ironic, eh? Here I am, all the way on the opposite side of the world from the U.S. and that's how I get my news. :) May Obama serve the country and our world well!

Back to the Basics?

How We Make Working Work For Us

I love it!!! Saw that link on my friend's blog. I can't tell you how it made me smile! I was immediately transported back to the days of my youth in West Papua, seeing mothers working in the gardens with their babies on their backs in their string bags (tried to find examples online; see below--no babies in these pics). Irony from so many angles, as we in the west are generally considered to be the "advanced" ones in technology and thought, and here is an example of the west finally catching up to the "primitive" ways of those who live in what is often considered stone age living. I mean no disrespect to any party, I just found myself totally humored by the article, trying to figure out how these cycles of discovery and new invention work. I don't know if I'm making any sense whatsoever....

To Market, To Market...

Tonight I went to a big open-air market with tons of locally-made crafts and food galore. SO FUN! Got my picture taken with the lady who hand-made the purse I bought.











Mmmm... sticky rice cooked in a bamboo shoot. Peel it back like a banana and yum, yum, yum!

Below: a woman spooning out and cooking pork "meat balls" for noodle soup; "omelettes" cooked in banana leaves over the grill!














My chicken shish kabob with fresh pineapple, bell pepper, and onion (not pictured: the pineapple... first to go).

YUM! :)

A Little Cramped

We love trains! We wanted to ride the train in Thailand, but seats were sold out, so we got snagged into riding a tour bus. We climbed up to the top, excited about the space and comfy seats, got all settled with snacks, blankets and pillows, only to be informed that we were supposed to be "downstairs." Gathering all our stuff, we headed down into a dark, hot dungeon of squashed seating. Was this the priveleged seating or for the unpriveleged? I wanted to know. Searching for the lady who had moved us, I found the upstairs practically empty and the lady nowhere to be found. The bus began to move, so I decided I was going to go sit where I wanted! Back up we moved. After resettling, about 15 minutes into the promised 10-hr trekk, the bus stopped, a bunch of people climbed on, and our seats were demanded. Walk of shame #2.

Back to the dungeon. We had been promised a free meal, though.... Never got it. Couldn't get comfortable. Finally I decided to try to sleep on the floor and let C have both seats. A little better, but what a long ride! Around 4:30 am we stopped, and a bunch of people got off. Free seats upstairs! We jumped at the opportunity. Lugged everything back upstairs, resettled, smiling to ourselves and exclaiming, "Third time's the charm!" :) The bus took off a little before 5 am, and in less than 10 minutes stopped again. "Last stop!" What??????? We thought we were still at least an hour away from our city. Seriously??? Yup. Walk of shame #3 back down those stairs, and this time off the bus. Turned out to be a 9-hour ride instead of 10. We piled into a tuk-tuk who dropped us off at our guest house, 5:15 am, dark, rainy, all doors locked, no one around. Our beginnings in Thailand.... :)

The other night after spending some time in a mall, there was no transportation to be found. It had rained earlier that day, and apparently no one felt like working. So, 4 of us piled on the one piece of transportation to be had by our friends who live in the area, laughing hysterically. Only wish we had a video of it or a better picture--especially of the gasps of shock as we passed people on the street. :) 4-5 people on a motorcycle is a common sight in Asia, but 4-5 Asians... NOT big-bodied westerners!!! Note: length of motorcycle is considerably shorter than it appears in this picture. Front and back persons are only very partially on the seat!

I Love My Workshop (1)

Art can warm even a chilled and sunless soul to an exalted spiritual experience. Through art we occasionally receive--indistinctly, briefly--revelations the likes of which cannot be achieved by rational thought. It is like the small mirror of legend; you look into it but instead of seeing yourself you glimpse for a moment the inaccessible, a realm forever beyond reach, And your soul begins to ache...

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Back to B-town

I went back for a visit today to see friends where I did my language study. It was great to reconnect with dorm friends, teachers, and neighbors.

Happy, Sad, Angry, Glad

Last night I went to Chili's!!! Oh, what a happy night. And they even let me take home my leftover blottomless chips 'n' salsa! Sadly, I spent a good 20-30 minutes deliberating which dessert I wanted--the Molten Chocolate Cake or the Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie, and when I finally consulted a waitress, was informed that they were out of both. :(
In the end, I was glad the decision was made for me, because I couldn't have possibly fit it in my stomach anyway.

By the way, did anyone ever read that book as a kid?
Happy, Sad, Angry, Glad: How People Feel Inside
by Gail Peterson, 1978.... To teach kids about emotions.

Ecclesiastes 5:19-20

"...when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart."

I want to be occupied with gladness of heart! By the standards of my home country, my wealth and possessions are insignificant. Compared to the rich people of the world, I am a pauper! But weighed by the majority of the world, my wealth and possessions are abundant. My work encompasses my skills, abilities, and passions.

So why is my gladness of heart so often missing? I get so bogged down with trying to scrimp, save, and protect my wealth and possessions. I stress myself out trying to be responsible and achieve "perfection" with my work. But here Solomon exalts enjoying our wealth and possessions, and being happy with our work. May I do so with gladness of heart!

Birthday Pride

For my teammate's birthday I made my first pizza crust, which was a lot of fun. Everyone topped their own pizzas, and my other teammates had bell peppers, which was super exciting. Thin crust whole wheat veggie pizza. Yum! The electricity died on us, so we ended up partying by candlelight, picnic-style in the house. B made cake and they decorated C's tent at camp. I love birthdays! They are so fun to celebrate.

Candle light

My porch became grand central station for candle lighting a few days before the biggest annual religious celebration here. For 2 nights all the little kids were carrying around candles in coconut shells and putting candles in front of their homes. The little girls next door claimed my porch a week in advance. :) Looked a bit like Christmas.

Ugh... Stay Healthy.

Last week I came down with a cold which turned into a fever/flu. The first day I improved, I didn't take care to rest up, and in fact went so far as to get LESS rest than I would ever dream of when in a healthy body! Talk about a breakdown. Have you ever gotten yourself worked into such a frenzy that you couldn't see out of it and worked yourself into total paralysis? Not fun. Words cannot describe the state of mind (unless maybe you read my 11 pages of journaling from 5-7 am on September 27). What a mess. New levels of doom and condemnation for me. I can't imagine what it is like for people who struggle with this on a regular basis. Trying to take it easy. Doing much better now, thanks to the support of my teammates. But I think it is time for a break....

Artsy Fartsy

Trying to learn how to use the stitch assistant on my camera. Not so successful.




Rice patty through the slats of a shelter on the field. Need to know more about focusing with my camera. Don't know what it can and can't do.

"Blue skies,
nothing but blue skies..."








Trying to catch raindrops on camera on a rainy day last year in KL.

I've taken to collecting coral that is shaped like letters. I'm a bit limited in the words I can do, but hey, still pretty cool, I think

A close-up on the rice

Drip, drip, drip . . .

That's my nose right now. Don't you hate it when you have a cold and literally your nose drips like a faucet? Seriously, I should just stick a bowl under my nose . . . .

Exploring

I spent a day out at the cliffs, just me and a few of my favorite things (Bible, journal, guitar, iPod, computer, camera). Discovered some new territory and caves and a new fish I've never seen before. He was in a big tide pool just outside the cave.

Living Light, Sept 18, morning

Open my eyes to see wonderful things in your Word.

He opened their minds to understand at last these many scriptures. Then he explained to them that only they were permitted to understand about the Kingdom of Heaven, and others were not. And Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise, and for revealing it to little children. Yes, Father, for it pleased you to do it this way.” And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) to tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and blessing that God has given us. How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly. I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn towards me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me! Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his wisdom and knowledge and riches! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who among us can know the mind of the Lord? Who knows enough to be his counselor and guide? For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory. To him be glory evermore.


Ps. 119:18. Lk. 24:45. Mt. 13:11. Mt. 11:25, 26. 1 Cor. 2:12. Ps. 139:17, 18. Rom. 11:33, 34, 36.