ok friends,
i can't even imagine what you must think of me (us) for leaving you all hanging like this. i apologize PROFUSELY! i have no excuse except for the obvious: i'm lazy! sorry!
but hopefully you'll all forgive me with a kindly "better late than never!"
no, but i suppose if i had to come up with an excuse i'd say that it's because i felt the pressure of having to end this with a bang! something special, the best blog ever written, type of thing. or at least come up with a good answer for the questions "what have i learned? how has this trip changed you?" daunting questions to answer. it's big! this whole trip was big, so that means i had to learn big things, right? maybe... i think the changes came rather subtly with things i learned through the experiences i had. maybe people who haven't seen me in 7 months noticed. maybe they don't. but the changes are there, i promise. there's no way you can travel so far, see and experience so much without learning something, having your eyes opened to new things. i'm sorry i can't pinpoint anything specific, but...this is the best i can explain it with my inadequate words.
another question i get alot is "what was your favorite country that you visited?" also, a hard one to answer, and the only way i can answer it is by saying that i loved each place for different reasons. let me explain:
austria was our very first taste of independence. that made it special right from the get go. meeting the oasis team was really great, and being able to be a part of and see another refugee minitry team. REALLY great people, of whom i have alot of respect for. might even get a visit from one of them (RIGHT??! you know who you are..)
and austria is such a BEAUTIFUL country and the atmosphere is just gorgeous. on our days off from ministry the two of us would set off on an adventure and just explore. really amazing times. and then we'd come back all cold and find a cafe and order a cafe melange and a topfenstrudel and warm up...ahh :) good times!
costa rica was good mainly because of the people we were with everyday. the rolands, the couple we stayed with, taught me so much probably without even realizing it. every conversation was a good one, it seemed. my favorite times were daily breakfasts with them. not just because of the food (but that was good too - papaya smoothies!!!!) just having conversations, having devotions. waking up to the sunshine. it was an excellent and relaxing time. and the people we taught english too - GREAT FUN! not so much the teaching english, but getting to know them. :) (a quick reminder: we were teaching six costa ricans english because they were headed onto the mission field and needed to learn english before doing so) i can gladly report that three of our six students have reached their destination of the middle east!!
colorado...haha, i have never laughed so much in my whole life than i did in those 2 weeks. meeting, spending time with, and getting spoiled rotten by kendra's godparents and godbrother (? - that really isn't a real term, is it?). TOO MUCH FUN! it was excellent.
and it was JUST what we needed before arriving in the philippines.... i loved (and hated) the philippines for the sheer difficulty of it. it taught me many valuable lessons. opened my eyes to things. how well off i am. how, though i prided myself on being a pretty multicultural kid, i still have SO much to learn about people and EVERYTHING else. for the first month i was there i wanted out. by the end of our two months i really, REALLY loved it. the people there became like family, and the difficulties from the beginning did not feel as overbearing as we thought they were. the philippines is where the real change in me began. and i learned how to eat fish :) and i'm a godmother now. :)
australia was TOO short, but it was WAY cool! experienced some crazy reentry shock after the philippines, but two weeks is way too short of a time. i really want to go back there someday. for much more than just two weeks. and now i know a bunch of aussies that i need to visit :)
zambia was an amazing first impression of africa. i was just in awe of how beautiful and different it was than anything i've ever seen before. and the kids we were with were just precious :) we also got to jump off a cliff and raft down the great zambezi rapids!
kenya was good to see because it was a totally different experience from zambia. more awesome refmin (refugee ministry) people - we really are an amazing bunch, aren't we? in my completely un-biased opinion, we refmins are the best missionaries out there ;) SO much fun to be there and it really felt like we just chilled. that was our "debrief" time, of sorts.
and that's that! my favorite aspects of each country. the best part is, the whole thing made me better appreciate my home.
you might have noticed that in every country, my consistent favorite was the people. i feel like i can relate to the apostle paul when he writes to the churches at the end of many of his letters "i long to see you" or "i long to come visit" (not his exact wording, but you get what i'm saying, right?). it seems that most of my memories from these places have to do with the people we met along the way. memories that make me and kendra smile. all we have to do is say a person's name and a flood of memories of the good times we had getting to know them come back and we'll be laughing. it's made me incredibly grateful for having the opportunity to share this with kendra: it wouldn't have been as much fun on my own, and i wouldn't have anyone to talk about all the great times with. (thanks, dear :)
anyways, so now that i have gotten close with so many people, scattered so far around the world...i long to see them again. someday...
and now we have been back home for almost 2 months. it was a WONDERFUL reunion with our family, friends, and just being back home in our lovely city, in august. the beach, the gorgeous summer weather... ahh.. perfection :) i could not have planned a better return. i was not tired at all of traveling, and i could have gladly continued on, but i can't think of any other time in my life when i have been more thankful for my home, my familiar city, my room, my family. it's good to be back :)
and now what's to come? you are probably wondering. good question. (any suggestions?? just kidding... but if you've got any...) kendra and i have both been volunteering with helping hands at the refugee center (the ARC), which we enjoyed even from before we left for our trip. we are both also looking for work/working to save up some $$$ for our schooling, which (for both of us) comes next year (Lord willing). can't give you too much of an update on that at the moment, sorry. come ask me next year.
i was corrected in my last blog about this having been the the greatest adventure of our lives (tho it was a half joke.. but you wouldn't get it if you're not kendra or me). it really has been the greatest adventure of our lives, THUS FAR. but of course, we all know that the greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
(bonus points for all of those who caught the hobbit references ;)
i have not yet, but i'm gonna set up a flickr to share some of the photos. if you're interested, ask me.
thanks to all who have kept up thru our travels. the support we got from you was really an encouragement throughout the trip. God bless and GOODBYE!!!!
-becky
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
the greatest adventure
hey all
wow, to think this might be one of my last blogs!! 8 months has just gone far too quickly. wow. we're lookin at less than two weeks left of the greatest adventure of our life ( isn't that right, kendra? ;)
so i'm gonna have to go back a few weeks:
zambia. i don't know what you picture when you think of africa, but i think of sunshine, dry rural plains, dark smiling faces on half dressed children.. having traveled for a while i've learned not to trust my expectations of a place, because they are usually not what i expect. until i got to zambia. zambia was EXACTLY what i expected, and i wasn't expecting that (are you confused?). the constant sunshine, the beautiful (but dry) plains, the thin children with puffy bellies running after the bus yelling "howareyou? howareyou? howareyou?!"
we started out with our team full of aussies (plus one new zealander and one american) in ndola where we stayed at the Eagles Wings campus, a school and compound for taking in street kids. it was a nice time to chill out and hang out with kids, who were ever present, never missing the opportunity to be around the mzungus ("white people"). my favorite was a little boy named albert. i think he was 3 or 4. this kid was just too cute, i don't think he ever walked anywhere because he was always being held or cuddled by someone. i will add pictures as soon as i can.)
then midway thru our trip we took the long and winding road down to livingstone. two busses full of 70 people, all the luggage, and sleeping mats tied to the top of the bus for a 17 hr bus ride. well, what was supposed to be a 12 - 14 hr ride turned into 17. the last 80 km took about 3 hrs. these roads didn't have potholes...they had craters. anyhow, it felt like a miracle that we got there.. i heard on the way back up it took them 3 DAYS!! bus problems... yikes
anyways, the 10 days we were in livingstone was also a great time. this was the actual kids retreat that we have come for, and like you can expect from any kids camp, not much sleep, lots of eating, playing, singing. CONSTANT singing. this kids are so good, you tell them to sit down and wait, they do it. and to entertain themselves they'll just start singing. beautiful :)
we all stayed inside a church building, camping out on the floor. for me, this was the part of our trip where we were "roughin it". the only reason i say this is because there was only running water between 5 and 7 AM, and that was coming from one tap that the whole compound would line up to get buckets of water for the day. it would sometimes be on in the evening for an hour or two, but very inconsistently. some days we wouldn't have any water at all. so we would fill up water bottles and pour that on us when we had the opportunity to bathe, which was certainly not everyday, not even every other day... the toilets were not too pretty either.. but there wasn't any running water to flush them...i'll just leave that one for you to figure out.
so basically we got used to not being clean. at least we were all in it together tho.
got to see some amazing stuff in livingstone too, including one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, victoria falls. going there with the kids was probably my favorite thing in all of zambia. the falls are just so BIG and so LOUD and there is mist everywhere, and the spray from the falls just rains on you and soaks you - too much fun! and you knew when these kids were overjoyed, because they would start singing. so here's a group of us standing in the pathway, soaking wet, singing and dancing and just praising God - what a testimony! i will never forget this.
we also got to do lots of other great stuff, including jump off a cliff, and white water raft down the zambezi. good times! did i already say this was the greatest adventure of our lives?
(i will add pictures asap)
one thing i will never forget is at the end of camp all the kids were asked what their favorite part of camp was, and many of them said the food. the food was delicious, don't get me wrong, but of all things we got to do it was an odd answer. til it was pointed out to me: they had 3 meals a day - it's something that these kids weren't used to. i mean, i always hear about the starving kids in africa, but..now i've seen them. wow. it's puts some perspective on things, huh?
i've always been a wee bit skeptical about short term missions teams (ironic, considering what i've spent my year doing), but joining this team was overall a good experience. there are of course some things i could do without, but i'm really glad to have met these people and served with these kids alongside them.
i am so grateful for the opportunity to have spent those three weeks in zambia, because now coming to kenya has been a completely different side of africa that i am getting to see. it was once again nothing like what i was expecting. it is cold here, and hilly, and wet, and SO VERY GREEN! the place we are staying is surrounded by hills full of tea leaves. and we pass a hillside full of acacia trees. it's absolutely beautiful. and the team here is great. i am more and more convinced that refmin's where it's at. refugee ministry has the most fun teams..we're just the coolest :)
we have had the privilege of staying our first few days at dotun and ami modupe's house. they are wonderful hosts. now we are staying at a compound very close to where they are. tomorrow we leave for a retreat for somali refugees and we will be gone til sunday night. don't know much about it now, so i will have to save explanations for when we get back.
a few things that have been on my mind alot lately: my future, and my camera.
my camera...sigh... makes me sad every time i think of it. on my way from livingstone to nairobi it was dropped off of the conveyor belt at security..the guy put the belt in reverse and it fell on the ground....crash..the lens broke. completely the guys fault and they even admitted to being at fault, but... i don't know where that's gonna get me. if i had travel insurance that would be no problem at all, but... sigh...makes me so sad. this isn't just a point and shoot camera either. this is a serious camera. and i was at the peak of my photography..(africa is every landscape photographers DREAM!) this is why i keep saying i will get the pictures to you asap. i will have to post a complete photo blog. this might be a bit silly, but i'm praying that it can be fixed cheaply, or that i miraculously have travel insurance that i didn't know i had to pay for a new lens. sigh...
anyhow, it is 12 days and counting til i am heading back home to athens. our trip is almost over!! still figuring what i'm gonna be doing. work at the ARC for sure, but i'm hoping to also get some work, because i need to earn some money. the end of our trip came at the right time, because i am completely broke. i have lots of big ideas for my future, but now i just have to narrow it down to what's realistic, and in the end, which the wisest choice would be and where God is leading me. should be a good time figuring that one out.. some days i'm a bit stressed about it, other days i'm really excited about it! the past 8 months have definitely broadened my perspective and widened my options! i guess that's part of why i came. mission accomplished!
even tho i am loving kenya, i am getting really excited about getting back home! going home to my parents, good food, my house, my room, sitting on the balcony with delicious greek summer fruits or a frappe, going to the beach with my mom everyday, going to the arc and rebuilding the old friendships... even silly things like being able to wear my summer clothes again.. can't wait! :)
hope you enjoyed ONE of the last few blogs on this, the greatest adventure of our lives :)
wow, to think this might be one of my last blogs!! 8 months has just gone far too quickly. wow. we're lookin at less than two weeks left of the greatest adventure of our life ( isn't that right, kendra? ;)
so i'm gonna have to go back a few weeks:
zambia. i don't know what you picture when you think of africa, but i think of sunshine, dry rural plains, dark smiling faces on half dressed children.. having traveled for a while i've learned not to trust my expectations of a place, because they are usually not what i expect. until i got to zambia. zambia was EXACTLY what i expected, and i wasn't expecting that (are you confused?). the constant sunshine, the beautiful (but dry) plains, the thin children with puffy bellies running after the bus yelling "howareyou? howareyou? howareyou?!"
we started out with our team full of aussies (plus one new zealander and one american) in ndola where we stayed at the Eagles Wings campus, a school and compound for taking in street kids. it was a nice time to chill out and hang out with kids, who were ever present, never missing the opportunity to be around the mzungus ("white people"). my favorite was a little boy named albert. i think he was 3 or 4. this kid was just too cute, i don't think he ever walked anywhere because he was always being held or cuddled by someone. i will add pictures as soon as i can.)
then midway thru our trip we took the long and winding road down to livingstone. two busses full of 70 people, all the luggage, and sleeping mats tied to the top of the bus for a 17 hr bus ride. well, what was supposed to be a 12 - 14 hr ride turned into 17. the last 80 km took about 3 hrs. these roads didn't have potholes...they had craters. anyhow, it felt like a miracle that we got there.. i heard on the way back up it took them 3 DAYS!! bus problems... yikes
anyways, the 10 days we were in livingstone was also a great time. this was the actual kids retreat that we have come for, and like you can expect from any kids camp, not much sleep, lots of eating, playing, singing. CONSTANT singing. this kids are so good, you tell them to sit down and wait, they do it. and to entertain themselves they'll just start singing. beautiful :)
we all stayed inside a church building, camping out on the floor. for me, this was the part of our trip where we were "roughin it". the only reason i say this is because there was only running water between 5 and 7 AM, and that was coming from one tap that the whole compound would line up to get buckets of water for the day. it would sometimes be on in the evening for an hour or two, but very inconsistently. some days we wouldn't have any water at all. so we would fill up water bottles and pour that on us when we had the opportunity to bathe, which was certainly not everyday, not even every other day... the toilets were not too pretty either.. but there wasn't any running water to flush them...i'll just leave that one for you to figure out.
so basically we got used to not being clean. at least we were all in it together tho.
got to see some amazing stuff in livingstone too, including one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, victoria falls. going there with the kids was probably my favorite thing in all of zambia. the falls are just so BIG and so LOUD and there is mist everywhere, and the spray from the falls just rains on you and soaks you - too much fun! and you knew when these kids were overjoyed, because they would start singing. so here's a group of us standing in the pathway, soaking wet, singing and dancing and just praising God - what a testimony! i will never forget this.
we also got to do lots of other great stuff, including jump off a cliff, and white water raft down the zambezi. good times! did i already say this was the greatest adventure of our lives?
(i will add pictures asap)
one thing i will never forget is at the end of camp all the kids were asked what their favorite part of camp was, and many of them said the food. the food was delicious, don't get me wrong, but of all things we got to do it was an odd answer. til it was pointed out to me: they had 3 meals a day - it's something that these kids weren't used to. i mean, i always hear about the starving kids in africa, but..now i've seen them. wow. it's puts some perspective on things, huh?
i've always been a wee bit skeptical about short term missions teams (ironic, considering what i've spent my year doing), but joining this team was overall a good experience. there are of course some things i could do without, but i'm really glad to have met these people and served with these kids alongside them.
i am so grateful for the opportunity to have spent those three weeks in zambia, because now coming to kenya has been a completely different side of africa that i am getting to see. it was once again nothing like what i was expecting. it is cold here, and hilly, and wet, and SO VERY GREEN! the place we are staying is surrounded by hills full of tea leaves. and we pass a hillside full of acacia trees. it's absolutely beautiful. and the team here is great. i am more and more convinced that refmin's where it's at. refugee ministry has the most fun teams..we're just the coolest :)
we have had the privilege of staying our first few days at dotun and ami modupe's house. they are wonderful hosts. now we are staying at a compound very close to where they are. tomorrow we leave for a retreat for somali refugees and we will be gone til sunday night. don't know much about it now, so i will have to save explanations for when we get back.
a few things that have been on my mind alot lately: my future, and my camera.
my camera...sigh... makes me sad every time i think of it. on my way from livingstone to nairobi it was dropped off of the conveyor belt at security..the guy put the belt in reverse and it fell on the ground....crash..the lens broke. completely the guys fault and they even admitted to being at fault, but... i don't know where that's gonna get me. if i had travel insurance that would be no problem at all, but... sigh...makes me so sad. this isn't just a point and shoot camera either. this is a serious camera. and i was at the peak of my photography..(africa is every landscape photographers DREAM!) this is why i keep saying i will get the pictures to you asap. i will have to post a complete photo blog. this might be a bit silly, but i'm praying that it can be fixed cheaply, or that i miraculously have travel insurance that i didn't know i had to pay for a new lens. sigh...
anyhow, it is 12 days and counting til i am heading back home to athens. our trip is almost over!! still figuring what i'm gonna be doing. work at the ARC for sure, but i'm hoping to also get some work, because i need to earn some money. the end of our trip came at the right time, because i am completely broke. i have lots of big ideas for my future, but now i just have to narrow it down to what's realistic, and in the end, which the wisest choice would be and where God is leading me. should be a good time figuring that one out.. some days i'm a bit stressed about it, other days i'm really excited about it! the past 8 months have definitely broadened my perspective and widened my options! i guess that's part of why i came. mission accomplished!
even tho i am loving kenya, i am getting really excited about getting back home! going home to my parents, good food, my house, my room, sitting on the balcony with delicious greek summer fruits or a frappe, going to the beach with my mom everyday, going to the arc and rebuilding the old friendships... even silly things like being able to wear my summer clothes again.. can't wait! :)
hope you enjoyed ONE of the last few blogs on this, the greatest adventure of our lives :)
Friday, July 4, 2008
Shilende chi Bemba
...or, "I don't speak Bemba." Bemba is one of seven major languages spoken in Zambia, the one spoken in the area of Ndola where we are right now.
Thankfully, there's not too much of a need to speak it, since, like the Philippines, most of the people we've met here speak some degree of English. But onto more interesting topics. Let's see, what can I say about Africa...
Well, I guess I could start off by saying that if you're thinking of vast plains, lots of beautiful singing, little kids who run behind buses and never stop waving at you, beautiful sunsets, huge star-filled skies, and lots of dust, that is exactly what we have. I'm actually a bit surprised that many of the pictures I had in my head turned out to be true. That's usually not the case when you go to such a different culture.
I'm just gonna keep writing what comes to my head, since I'm on a bit of a time limit. The team we're with is great - but then, I've never met an Aussie I didn't like. We all get along really well, and it's interesting to see each other "roughing it out". Though, if i were to be honest, aside from the really cold mornings and nights, I don't feel like it's a great discomfort to be here. I mean, when someone thinks of staying in Africa, I think sometimes they automatically steel themselves for the worst inconveniences they'll have to live with day in and day out. And yes, the showers are freezing, and the nights are really cold as well, but besides those, I think it's been fairly easy to just ease into the African way of life, which can be summed up with the words "Go with the flow."
Some interesting things we've done and experienced:
-We attended a church service last Sunday at this small one-room Baptist church about a 15 min. walk from where we're staying. It was really neat - about 80% of it was singing, and let me tell you, Africans can sing! It's unfair, really, how every single one of them sounds amazing. They actually had our team get up and sing something. We had practiced, and we sounded alright, but still, I'll just let you imagine the difference.
-On Tuesday, we rode out to a village about two hours away, where we worked with Lifeline in Zambia and some local volunteers to make mud bricks that would be used to build a child care center. Yep, we made bricks from scratch. Well, they did, we just helped out here and there. All the ladies took us to the nearby creek where we filled several jugs of water, and then we walked back carrying them on our heads! It was awesome :) Not that I could balance it, obviously, I had to use my arm. Still, felt pretty cool.
Well, it looks like my time's up (we're at an internet shop). Sorry I couldn't give a full account, but hopefully next time I'll have more time! See you all very soon!
-Kendra
Thankfully, there's not too much of a need to speak it, since, like the Philippines, most of the people we've met here speak some degree of English. But onto more interesting topics. Let's see, what can I say about Africa...
Well, I guess I could start off by saying that if you're thinking of vast plains, lots of beautiful singing, little kids who run behind buses and never stop waving at you, beautiful sunsets, huge star-filled skies, and lots of dust, that is exactly what we have. I'm actually a bit surprised that many of the pictures I had in my head turned out to be true. That's usually not the case when you go to such a different culture.
I'm just gonna keep writing what comes to my head, since I'm on a bit of a time limit. The team we're with is great - but then, I've never met an Aussie I didn't like. We all get along really well, and it's interesting to see each other "roughing it out". Though, if i were to be honest, aside from the really cold mornings and nights, I don't feel like it's a great discomfort to be here. I mean, when someone thinks of staying in Africa, I think sometimes they automatically steel themselves for the worst inconveniences they'll have to live with day in and day out. And yes, the showers are freezing, and the nights are really cold as well, but besides those, I think it's been fairly easy to just ease into the African way of life, which can be summed up with the words "Go with the flow."
Some interesting things we've done and experienced:
-We attended a church service last Sunday at this small one-room Baptist church about a 15 min. walk from where we're staying. It was really neat - about 80% of it was singing, and let me tell you, Africans can sing! It's unfair, really, how every single one of them sounds amazing. They actually had our team get up and sing something. We had practiced, and we sounded alright, but still, I'll just let you imagine the difference.
-On Tuesday, we rode out to a village about two hours away, where we worked with Lifeline in Zambia and some local volunteers to make mud bricks that would be used to build a child care center. Yep, we made bricks from scratch. Well, they did, we just helped out here and there. All the ladies took us to the nearby creek where we filled several jugs of water, and then we walked back carrying them on our heads! It was awesome :) Not that I could balance it, obviously, I had to use my arm. Still, felt pretty cool.
Well, it looks like my time's up (we're at an internet shop). Sorry I couldn't give a full account, but hopefully next time I'll have more time! See you all very soon!
-Kendra
Monday, June 30, 2008
this is africa
WE ARE IN ZAMBIA!!
i can't write too much, only that i love it here. africa is so cool. that is probably a completely insensitive thing to say because it is a continent filled with sickness, poverty, and warfare, however.... my week here has been really cool.
to me it feels like camping in the bush. beautiful sunrises, sunsets, and STARS!!! wow.. absolutely stunning.
the kids here are so cool, too. absolutely adorable. we are in ndola right now and we are heading to livingstone for kids camp on sunday.
church was also beautiful. i could listen to them sing forever! the harmony is beautiful.
SORRY, gotta go! time's up!
i can't write too much, only that i love it here. africa is so cool. that is probably a completely insensitive thing to say because it is a continent filled with sickness, poverty, and warfare, however.... my week here has been really cool.
to me it feels like camping in the bush. beautiful sunrises, sunsets, and STARS!!! wow.. absolutely stunning.
the kids here are so cool, too. absolutely adorable. we are in ndola right now and we are heading to livingstone for kids camp on sunday.
church was also beautiful. i could listen to them sing forever! the harmony is beautiful.
SORRY, gotta go! time's up!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
and we're off!
so i'm at the airport - sydney has free internet access, bless them! this gave me one last chance to email a happy birthday wish to my father, and post a goodbye blog! (two things i meant to do before we left, but of course, i'm not organized enough to get things done)
we are flying from syd to singapore, which is a 9hr flight, i believe; then after 3 hrs in singapore a 10 hr flight to joburg (johannasburg, but everyone is calling it joburg - i love it, it makes me sound so familiar
with it or something - a real world traveller!) and then another flight up to ndola. we're all praying that our luggage gets thru joburg, because apparently
that is the no.1 most likely airport to have your luggage stolen.
no surprises there..
anyhow, please pray with us
gotta go, or i'll be left behind
bye for a few weeks!!
much love!
we are flying from syd to singapore, which is a 9hr flight, i believe; then after 3 hrs in singapore a 10 hr flight to joburg (johannasburg, but everyone is calling it joburg - i love it, it makes me sound so familiar
with it or something - a real world traveller!) and then another flight up to ndola. we're all praying that our luggage gets thru joburg, because apparently
that is the no.1 most likely airport to have your luggage stolen.
no surprises there..
anyhow, please pray with us
gotta go, or i'll be left behind
bye for a few weeks!!
much love!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Back in the West...though Australia's not really west, is it?
Well...we are in Australia. I've been feeling a lot of things in the past couple of weeks. A lot of good things, some bittersweet. I'm guessing a lot of what I write will be similar to what Becky has already said, but I really do want to share what I've been thinking and feeling lately. So bear with me.
To put it in one sentence, we really grew to love being in the Philippines. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who'd have seen us our first few weeks there would have never thought it possible - even we didn't think that we'd be sorry to go, quite honestly. I've never been more happy to be proven very wrong. I'm happy that I'm sad, if that makes any sense.
So having said all that, landing in Australia on June 9th ended up in an interesting mix of thoughts and feelings. For the first couple of days, I just couldn't get used to seeing tall white people everywhere - blond hair, red hair, blue eyes, green eyes, pale pale skin. Coming from 2 months in a country where I was a white giant with pretty eyes, it was rather refreshing to walk down the street and not have every eye on me. And everybody speaks English, obviously. I kind of got that same "i'm-the-same-as-everyone-else-here" vibe that I get every time my family goes back to the States on furlough, only this time it was even more so, having come from an Asian country.
But I do miss being surrounded with Filipinos, at the same time. Isn't that weird? I really do. I miss so much about the Philippines, even things that drove me crazy when I was there. I guess the times when I've most noticed the differences is the past two Sundays, when I've gone to church. Man...just to refresh your memory, our church in the Philippines was unlike any other church we've been to - choreographed dancing, lots and lots of worship, very expressive, very charismatic. It totally threw me and Becky for a loop our first Sunday in Manila, but since then, during our two months, we managed to find a comfortable groove in worshiping with our GK family. No, we never actually danced, but we still came to enjoy the worship services very much.
So coming back to a typical Western church service, what I would normally be used to, has just been odd, because for the first time in my life, i'm not used to it! Everything seems so...short...and toned down, and quiet. Especially quiet. I just feel like saying "Come on, people, belt it out!" Haha, I guess you never realize how much impact a place has had on you until you leave it. I know that sounds so corny, but sue me, life is corny and there's nothing that will change that.
Sydney has been great so far. We had a great day walking around the city yesterday (check out Becky's new blog below mine). Today we went to church with the Starks and then in the afternoon we met the other members of the Zambia team, and we began training. Lots of orientation, very thorough and helpful. The kind of orientation that Becky and I both agreed would have been really helpful to have before coming to the Philippines. Oh, well, what's done is done. Our "assignment" for this first day was to not take a shower tonight or tomorrow morning before starting training again. Interesting, and I have a bad feeling about what point they're trying to drive home.
We have two more days in Sydney, and then on Wednesday we head to Zambia! We'll probably blog before then. We seem to be getting back into the groove a little bit. Anywho, thanks for listening to my scattered thoughts. Enjoy the lovely pictures Becky posted below!
-Kendra
To put it in one sentence, we really grew to love being in the Philippines. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who'd have seen us our first few weeks there would have never thought it possible - even we didn't think that we'd be sorry to go, quite honestly. I've never been more happy to be proven very wrong. I'm happy that I'm sad, if that makes any sense.
So having said all that, landing in Australia on June 9th ended up in an interesting mix of thoughts and feelings. For the first couple of days, I just couldn't get used to seeing tall white people everywhere - blond hair, red hair, blue eyes, green eyes, pale pale skin. Coming from 2 months in a country where I was a white giant with pretty eyes, it was rather refreshing to walk down the street and not have every eye on me. And everybody speaks English, obviously. I kind of got that same "i'm-the-same-as-everyone-else-here" vibe that I get every time my family goes back to the States on furlough, only this time it was even more so, having come from an Asian country.
But I do miss being surrounded with Filipinos, at the same time. Isn't that weird? I really do. I miss so much about the Philippines, even things that drove me crazy when I was there. I guess the times when I've most noticed the differences is the past two Sundays, when I've gone to church. Man...just to refresh your memory, our church in the Philippines was unlike any other church we've been to - choreographed dancing, lots and lots of worship, very expressive, very charismatic. It totally threw me and Becky for a loop our first Sunday in Manila, but since then, during our two months, we managed to find a comfortable groove in worshiping with our GK family. No, we never actually danced, but we still came to enjoy the worship services very much.
So coming back to a typical Western church service, what I would normally be used to, has just been odd, because for the first time in my life, i'm not used to it! Everything seems so...short...and toned down, and quiet. Especially quiet. I just feel like saying "Come on, people, belt it out!" Haha, I guess you never realize how much impact a place has had on you until you leave it. I know that sounds so corny, but sue me, life is corny and there's nothing that will change that.
Sydney has been great so far. We had a great day walking around the city yesterday (check out Becky's new blog below mine). Today we went to church with the Starks and then in the afternoon we met the other members of the Zambia team, and we began training. Lots of orientation, very thorough and helpful. The kind of orientation that Becky and I both agreed would have been really helpful to have before coming to the Philippines. Oh, well, what's done is done. Our "assignment" for this first day was to not take a shower tonight or tomorrow morning before starting training again. Interesting, and I have a bad feeling about what point they're trying to drive home.
We have two more days in Sydney, and then on Wednesday we head to Zambia! We'll probably blog before then. We seem to be getting back into the groove a little bit. Anywho, thanks for listening to my scattered thoughts. Enjoy the lovely pictures Becky posted below!
-Kendra
Saturday, June 21, 2008
everything i know about sydney i learned from finding nemo
i think our negligence in blogging in the philippines has caused us to lose some readers
COME BACK!!! I'M SORRY!! i'll try harder, i promise!!
PLUS, you will soon be experiencing a bit of africa with us! we leave for africa on wednesday and we'll be there for 6 weeks. when i'm not scared about getting some horrible disease, i am VERY excited about getting to experience africa!!
anyhow, we arrived in sydney on friday. we are staying with the starks, a missionary family from washington state. brian and melanie are actually the ones organizing the zambia trip, and who are going to be training the team starting tomorrow. they are a fun family, and we feel welcomed :)
i must say, i like sydney VERY much. my one day that i got to explore was an absolutely gorgeous sunshiny day. i also got to meet up with old friends of mine from greece!! one of my best friends growing up, christina, and her sister, joana, moved here 5 years ago and were able to show us around sydney on saturday. i love reuniting with old friends! it's funny how time changes people, and yet how some things never change :)
one last thing i'll say before i get some rest is that i never cared much about sydney's opera house. thought it was just an odd looking building. but let me tell you, when i saw it in person it is just spectacular! i think it is SO cool. took a whole bunch of photos of it from a whole bunch of angles, both in the sunshiny day, as well as lit up at night! i know, i'm such a tourist. i usually don't like to be all touristy, but since my time in sydney is so limited i hadn't the time to play it cool.
here are some of my shots:
don't you wish you were in that sailboat underneath the bridge? i know i do
shot of downtown. both of these were taken while standing at the opera house
joana and christina, my old friends :)
kendra lookin all funky
the bridge at dusk; not bad, eh?
and finally, the opera house
a few things you can pray with me about:
AFRICA - the main thing in my mind is staying healthy, tho i'm sure that once i'm there i will love being there. pray that the malaria pills don't make us too sick, because we will have to be taking those every day and we've heard they can have some unpleasant side effects..
FUTURE PLANS - kendra and i are both thinking alot about this lately. school, no school, work, something else? at the moment, your guess is as good as mine. for me, i'm trying to figure out when/how i could possibly make it back to the philippines. maybe uni in australia.. who knows!! the options are endless..
COME BACK!!! I'M SORRY!! i'll try harder, i promise!!
PLUS, you will soon be experiencing a bit of africa with us! we leave for africa on wednesday and we'll be there for 6 weeks. when i'm not scared about getting some horrible disease, i am VERY excited about getting to experience africa!!
anyhow, we arrived in sydney on friday. we are staying with the starks, a missionary family from washington state. brian and melanie are actually the ones organizing the zambia trip, and who are going to be training the team starting tomorrow. they are a fun family, and we feel welcomed :)
i must say, i like sydney VERY much. my one day that i got to explore was an absolutely gorgeous sunshiny day. i also got to meet up with old friends of mine from greece!! one of my best friends growing up, christina, and her sister, joana, moved here 5 years ago and were able to show us around sydney on saturday. i love reuniting with old friends! it's funny how time changes people, and yet how some things never change :)
one last thing i'll say before i get some rest is that i never cared much about sydney's opera house. thought it was just an odd looking building. but let me tell you, when i saw it in person it is just spectacular! i think it is SO cool. took a whole bunch of photos of it from a whole bunch of angles, both in the sunshiny day, as well as lit up at night! i know, i'm such a tourist. i usually don't like to be all touristy, but since my time in sydney is so limited i hadn't the time to play it cool.
here are some of my shots:
don't you wish you were in that sailboat underneath the bridge? i know i do
shot of downtown. both of these were taken while standing at the opera house
joana and christina, my old friends :)
kendra lookin all funky
the bridge at dusk; not bad, eh?
and finally, the opera house
a few things you can pray with me about:
AFRICA - the main thing in my mind is staying healthy, tho i'm sure that once i'm there i will love being there. pray that the malaria pills don't make us too sick, because we will have to be taking those every day and we've heard they can have some unpleasant side effects..
FUTURE PLANS - kendra and i are both thinking alot about this lately. school, no school, work, something else? at the moment, your guess is as good as mine. for me, i'm trying to figure out when/how i could possibly make it back to the philippines. maybe uni in australia.. who knows!! the options are endless..
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