Taking the road less traveled by

The Last Post

2009-08-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Shaun and I have had a lot of time already to reflect on our trip, but I think its nearing the end has made us reflect a whole lot more about what we have seen, if we did a few of the things we set out to accomplish, how our mindsets have changed, etc. Besides having slightly more interesting looking passports (Sidenote - We both have pretty mugshot looking passports to begin with, and our most recent flight from Romania, the borderguard did a double take at my passport picture, then gave himself a little chuckle and said "Bad picture...I think also bad haircut." That made us both laugh pretty hard. When I traveled Europe with Sharelle I had a borderguard show all of his friends my maiden name signature because he thought it was hilarious too...something must be wrong with me). As I was saying...besides having slightly more interesting looking passports, we have learned some things.

In terms of world knowledge, I think we have learned a lot. 'Perspectives' is a theme I have been interested in. I think that the longer I am immersed in one culture the easier it is for me to forget what a different culture's perspective may be. Apart from our ministry and just from our traveling I was able to see this. I was thinking about what it was like last time I was in Italy and how much more chaotic it seemed (I had come from Germany and Switzerland), but this time coming from Africa, Romania and Ukraine, the country of Italy now seems like a highly organized and efficient country.

We certainly feel less "green" in the traveling department than we were when we embarked on the Costa Rica portion of our trip. Shaun did some calculations and figured out that we will have been to 19 countries by the time we get home (which sounds like a whole lot less when you realize that it is a measly 10% of the countries of the world) and will have spent approximately two whole weeks on planes, trains, ships or buses (and by whole I mean 2weeks of 24 hour days).

We had a few goals in terms of doing ministry while we were gone. One of those things was to try to be a blessing to the organizations or missionaries we were visiting and we hope that we did that, but our hosts would be the only people who could really answer that question. We also hoped to discover what some good ways would be to support ministries from home...I do not know where I would even start trying to describe what we have learned in this area...I think we have a whole lot more questions than when we began. What I do know for sure is that quotation that states "The older I get the less I realize that I know," has already proved true for me in my short life. If I could reword it (even though I do realize the first was a paraphrase) I would say, "The extent of my knowledge is indirectly proportional to my perception of the extent of knowledge I have already obtained." (After looking back at that, I realize I maybe only just changed it into a math equation). There are too many things in the area of ministry that we have learned to be able to post on here, but we will be home soon, so if you have questions, feel free to ask.

I should probably also let you all know that we will not be officially settled again in the Lower Mainland until October 5th. We will only be home for just over one day and we head to my parents' cabin for a couple of weeks with my family, then we will be home for three weeks and will head to the Maritimes for a couple of weeks with Shaun's family to celebrate his great grandmother's 100th birthday.

So thank you to all of you who have faithfully read this blog up until now. Sorry for the disjointed thoughts again today (we are back in countries with reliable but expensive internet). We are really looking forward to seeing everyone when we get home.

Brenda

On the home stretch

2009-08-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

There are a few things that have indicated to me that it's about time to go home. Firstly, at one time or other both Shaun and I have have expressed our desire to be able to find a an outlet converter from someone at home so that we will finally be able to charge some of our electronics that have been dead for some time. We seem to have forgotten that North American products containing North American plugs intended for use with 110V do not need converters. The second reason is our diminishing health. I have mentioned before that illness and health issues have been a theme of this trip so far.

As mentioned in my last blog, the "ministry" portion of our trip is finished, so when Shaun headed to the airport in Odessa I did not know where we would end up. It is a good thing for him that we did not catch a flight right away because he ended up getting fairly ill losing the entire contents of his stomach multiple times. Although still not feeling wonderful, he felt recovered enough to feel up to catch a ship to Turkey. It was a day and a half journey on the sea traveling on a glorified ferry without beds. It ended up being bad timing for me because it was just as I was falling asleep my body decided to catch whatever it was that Shaun had. The contents of my stomach then proceeded to be emptied several times all through the night and into the following day. However, had I not been sick, the ride into Istanbul by ship is really quite beautiful, and I would highly recommend it.

We spent some time in a quiet town by the Black Sea trying to recuperate and then some time in Istanbul. According to Wikipedia (in other words believe it or not), the city has a population more than a third of all of Canada's population. We found that quite hilarious.

We are now back in Bucharest for the purpose of catching a flight to Venice. (Yay Venice!) This whole country (Romania) is full of crazy drivers (and not crazy drivers like in Germany where they are fast but know what they are doing - here they are fast and don't know what they are doing). In Bucharest one of the more amusing sights is the location people decide to park their cars. The only rule here is that anything goes. It really doesn't matter how many other cars you block in or whether you are on the sidewalk or a bike lane or in the middle of the street, you park wherever it is convenient for you at the moment.

Camp

2009-07-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

Since last time I wrote we have been cut off from any form of communication with the outside world, so it's hard to know where to start. We were staying an hour and a half outside of Odessa and were leading two eight day English camps. The camps were very similar to Christian summer camps in Canada with the added aspect of English lessons: games, worship, bible study, swimming, skit nights, special activities, etc. Each camp had about 60 people total, 16 of those being Americans coming solely for the purpose of the camps, 5 of those being long-term Odessa staff and 6 of those being translators.

Shaun was volunteered (by me) as the "Games Master" and was much appreciated by everyone in the camp for creating a wide variety of games for the campers to play. The hit of the camp was a game he created similar to Around-the-table ping pong (aka 'Terrorist Ping Pong' in our group of friends) using a giant skipping rope where a new person has to enter and exit the rope each time it revolves. People really enjoyed themselves.

I became a bit of a "Grammar Lady" while I was there. I do not profess to have perfect grammar, in fact, this past week I discovered how little I really know about sentence construction. I learned more about perfect tenses, progressive forms, active voices, when to use present versus past participles, etc. than I learned in most of my high school English classes. It was humbling when we first got here to see that many of the advanced Ukrainian students knew more about grammar than any of us. They learn all the grammar rules in school (when they were about twelve years old), but need practice in conversation and with understanding idioms. When I realized the need for the leadership team to understand more about grammar, I started putting together English lessons to teach them during our morning meetings. These were exceptionally keen lessons (especially considering "Morning Brenda" was teaching them). Then, some of the advanced students requested extra English lessons in free time, so I was volunteered (by Shaun) to teach those.

It's difficult for me to sum up camp in a few paragraphs. So many things happen at camp in such a concentrated time, that it's hard to give more than a vague, general overview. We have lots of hilarious stories, but few that would make sense out of the context of camp. We've forged many new friendships. We've been involved in many life-changing conversations, but once again, these events are all so concentrated that reporting about one single event is difficult to do. What I can definitively say is that we are exhausted and very much looking forward to catching up on sleep.

We have now been in Odessa for five weeks - we were initially supposed to be here for six weeks, but this last week was supposed to be a hiking camp and was canceled. They don't need us here for help with anything else (they are going to spend the week recovering from camp) so we once again have an unexpected free week. What that means is that the "overseas ministry" portion of the trip is now completed, and so it kind of feels like we are going to be home a lot sooner than we actually will be. Had we known it would turn out this way, we would have scheduled flights home much earlier - oh well. We are certainly looking forward to being home again (both Shaun and me). We're not sure what we're going to do with the extra time yet, but Shaun got the idea to go to the airport to see if he could find last minute cheap flights to any reasonable location. We'll see what happens....

Going to prison

2009-07-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

We have been in Ukraine for a couple of weeks now. Shortly after we got here, Shaun and I parted ways - he headed for a sports camp that the men who work here had put on and I headed up to Northern Ukraine to go to "prison camp." The place that I went was a detention center for young female offenders. This is the only place of that kind in the whole of the country. There were only 25 girls in that prison which has a capacity of about 300 - they either don't have the funding or don't care anymore about the girls so they don't put them there when they should be - the staff actually rejoice when they get a new person because they see that another person will get help. We know that they rejoice because on the initial visit to try to get them to let us in three of our team went there to speak to them in person, and there was a misunderstanding that the prison thought two of them were new girls who were coming to stay at the prison, and they were all excited that they had come...it was pretty hilarious.Their crimes range from murdering people to pickpocketing. We went in there to teach them "Christian Ethics" which is a part of the schooling that they get. So, we were involved in sharing stories of our lives, encouraging them in making good choices, talking about how our motives shape our lives and doing our best to love them in the short time we were there.

The one word I would use to describe my time there would be "unexpected" - If I had to compare them to Canadian high school students, I would without hesitation say that these Ukrainian criminals were a much more attentive and responsive audience. We gave them all exercise books when we were there on one of the first days and told them that if they wanted to write their stories for us, we would read them, and it shocked me how many wrote pages upon pages in those books. What was also surprising were how many of them wrote individual messages to each of us (there were nine of us on our team) telling us really encouraging things. It was shocking how ready they were to encourage us when I'm sure they have not received very much encouragement themselves. So, our time there certainly felt a whole lot more like "camp" and a whole lot less like "prison."

I asked Shaun to give a short report about how his time at camp went....

"Oh rest and relaxation! My own bed for nine days, I haven't slept so well in 11 1/2 months :) I am completely joking. I did in fact miss Brenda very much and I was thrilled to have her home on Saturday. She has asked me to update you on my recent trip into the interior of Ukraine for a football camp put on by the church here in Odessa. We spent four days at an orphanage/boarding school outside of a village in the middle of nowhere. The camp was intended for youth who had been invited to come with us from the city. Our time there primarily consisted of soccer matches, volleyball matches, group games, bible studies, seminar, and worship times. The team I was on was the only team of 4 playing all teams of 5. We were absolutely dead tired and sore by the end but I am proud to report a first place volleyball victory and a second place football finish. Seeing as though I had never played soccer against anyone older than 10 years old I was quite pleased."

We're leaving Odessa on Wednesday until the end of the month to teach English at camps. The people attending know that it's a combo English/Christian camp where we teach English using biblical stories and have Christian teachings throughout the week. We don't know what our communication will be like when we're there.

Last but not least Ukraine

2009-06-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Every time Shaun and I are in a new place, we try not to express too many value judgments about the way people do things because what we learned in Africa was that our definition of what makes sense is completely different from 'sense' as it is applied by other people. Although North American sense may be more efficient and have some other benefits, it may not always be better. I realized after my scurry to get my last blog posted that I may have made some strong value judgments, and in doing so I hope that I didn't misrepresent Romanian people as a whole. While I will hold to my statement that abuse is very common in Romania, there are many wonderful things about people we met there. The hospitality people showed to us (including people we met randomly, those whose hostels we stayed at, etc.) was beyond what we had seen in any other European country. It actually surprised both of us becasue we were used to the stereotype that those who had lived through communism had more of a duck-your-head-and-don't-look-anyone-in-the-eye countenance, but we were rarely anywhere that someone didn't try (and persist once they discovered we only speak English) in striking up a conversation. Although abuse occurs in toward children and in the home, they were a very friendly and hospitable people.

I asked you all to pray about our crossing the borders and we are now safely in Ukraine with very little that went awry in our travels. We found it surprisingly difficult to make our way from Bucharest to Odessa because we'd have to go through Moldova (in fact if you train to Moldova, you have to wait for a couple of hours while they change some part of the train because the tracks are a different size). We heard many pieces of advice from many different people on how we should get to Ukraine. Those in Romania told us that we'd have to enter Ukriane through Hungary (which would take five full days of travel), those at the train stations told us it was impossible, those online told us our best bet would be to get close to the border by train, take a taxi to the border, say 'student, student, student' a number of times to the crossing guards and hope not to be struck with astronomical bribes, and then cross our fingers that there would be a bus on the other side.

In the end, we decided to try the route that our very hospitable hostel owner in Brasov found for us - what we titled the 'mystery bus.' He claimed it could get us there if we got on in Galati (a Romanian city close to the border). No one else seemed to know about this bus (including those in the city we stopped in), but we decided to try to wait for it anyway - it was supposed to arrive between 9 and 10 at night and only come twice a week. The bus finally arrived at ten to one in the morning (as you can imagine waiting for a mystery bus from nine until one is a long wait and our hope that it would come was dismally bleak at moments). We didn't have reservations, but we thankfully claimed the last two seats.

We've been in Ukraine for a few days now and, as usual, I enjoy making note of things that surprise me. So, some things we've learned thus far about Ukraine...

-We have been warned by people here not to speak if we see a police officer because if they hear us speaking English, they will probably ask us for our passports (of which it wouldn't be wise to carry around) and if we don't present them to the officer on the spot, we will be forced to pay them a bribe.

-They don't exactly make buses here easy to deal with if you don't speak Russian (we're in the part of Ukraine that speaks Russian rather than Ukranian) because you have to pay the driver as you get off the bus (which means you can get on to the bus on any door, but can only get out the front door, which usually means pushing your way past many people - not super easy), and then you have to tell him the name of the street you are getting off at - sometimes they require that you tell them where you got on. It is also proper etiquette to remian quiet on buses.

-In the city we were staying in for the first two days that we were here (don't know how it's spelled - not quite used to the Cyrillic alphabet yet, but it's pronounced YOU-zhnee), we learned that their heat in the winter is controlled by the city which means that one day in the fall, the city turns on the heat for everyone in the city and on a certain day in the spring, it turns it off. If it's too cold outside of their dictated times, that too bad. You aren't able to turn up/on the heat and what seems even more strange is that you also aren't able to turn it down, so if you don't like it that hot, you must open the windows.

I will let you know a little bit more about what our this last destination will hold for us on my next post. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Romanian tragedies

2009-06-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Shaun and I left Cornesti (pronounced Core-NESHT) where we had been serving at the care home for mothers and children. It surprised me, but it was probably the hardest place for me to leave. There were fewer people at the care home to get to know than there had been at other places we had visited, so we became close with the mothers and children (especially the children).

We don't really have many crazy stories about being in Romania because when you're in an American-run care home, you're a bit secluded from what normal life is like. Most of the stories I could tell you are the stories of the people who came to River of Life to be helped...stories of extreme tragedy, but also some stories of healing. Telling you that Romania views physical punishment/abuse differently that we do in Canada is an enormous understatement. According to our American friends, until a couple of years ago, the police weren't able to do anything against domestic violence cases, and they claim that now the improvement has been that they are able to issue the man a fine for public disturbance in such cases. It seems like abuse is more than a generational family pattern for many people here, it is their culture. When we were in Africa, Shaun and I saw a general understanding that "beating" children both at school and at home if they had misbehaved was good - and, if you measure its success based on children's respect for authority and their discipline, it worked. However, in Africa, we never even so much as saw anyone strike a child since beatings were only intended as punishment and I don't think they are done in anger. In Romania, whether we were at the school, church, or in the community, we saw adults striking children to the point that any responsible adult in Canada would have called Child Protection.

I said before that over one hundred women had come to the care home to be helped in their time of distress - their stories are all different. Some had fathers who had been prostituting them since the age of six, some have permanent facial damage and no teeth because of the beatings they've received, some had daughters under the age of five who, because of childhood abuse trauma, were engaging in self-injury, some experienced awful lives in substandard orphanages because of parental abandonment. I can't give very many specifics due to confidentiality agreements, but please be in prayer for the broken women, children and families in Romania and for wisdom for those working with them.

Please also pray for us as we attempt to enter the Ukraine, since we've heard from those who have tried that certain borders will not easily allow us into the country. We are scheduled to arrive at our next placement on the 22nd of June.

Romania update

2009-05-31T04:02:00.000-07:00

Now that our time in Romania is half up, I guess it's time we let you know what we are doing. As is pretty normal, internet here is difficult for us to access, so sorry about the lack of communication.

We are working this month at a care home called River of Life associated with International Messengers. Their primary goal is to provide for mothers and their babies(/children) who need help. Each of the mothers has a slightly different story. Some of them were violently abused by their husbands, and only sought help when they were pregnant or realized their babies were in danger. Some of them were being forced by their husbands to get abortions when they came here to get help. Most of the moms have either serious emotional damage or mental handicaps which can make working here challenging. In the roughly ten years this ministry has been running, they've had over 100 mothers come to stay here. Right now, there are 6 mothers and 9 kids living in the home. Something that has been encouraging to see are the two staff members (the social worker and the cook)who are moms who used to live here, but have had their lives turn around because of what River of Life did for them.

The director of this place is a 'see a need, meet a need' kind of guy, so the ministries of this home go far beyond just caring for the needs of the mothers. They run English and Aviation camps, they have church plants, they have a clothing ministry for poor people, they teach about Christ in the local school, they have a weekly Elderly program, etc. So, it's hard to describe exactly what we are doing here, because we just kind of filling in wherever there is need. Here are some examples to give you an idea: I spoke to a group that had a retreat here, we've been organizing their room for donated clothing (folding hundreds upon hundreds of articles of clothing), Shaun has been painting buildings and fixing up their yard, we've been looking after kids, serving the elderly, etc.

We don't feel like we are experiencing too much of Romanian culture because this care home is somewhat segregated from normal Romanian life. However, we can see enough to have noticed that it is right in the middle of North American an African culture in many aspects: workmanship, punctuality, education, community values, variety of food, etc. I showed the women who came to their elderly program a slide show of our pictures from Africa, and afterward, they spoke with each other about how they should stop complaining because they really don't have such a hard life comparatively. I was agreeing and thinking about how true that is for us in Canada as well.

Africa in Review

2009-05-09T04:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry these have taken so long to post...most of this was written long ago, but there have been many reasons why I couldn't get them up until now...I guess that's travel...we have pictures though! (Anyone interested can scroll way way down - and yes Margaret, just for you I posted a couple of our safari pictures)

There is much about Africa (or at least the two countries that we went to) that simply does not make sense to a Western thinker. We learned many interesting things about Tanzania while we were there. Some of our favorite things that we enjoyed explaining to them include the following...

-They could not get over the fact that we build houses out of wood. They will usually ask if they manage to stand for more than 10 years...it's completely unfathomable to them.

-I also really enjoyed explaining certain holidays to them like Halowe'en or Groundhog Day. For example, take April Fool's day - I'd tell them that on one day, the whole country accepts the fact that it's OK to lie to each other and play tricks on each other but only before noon...I tell them that the newspapers write fake stories, etc. They don't really understand.

-We were asked a few times about burials in our country, and many could not get over the fact that we cremate people. When we tried to explain that some people keep ashes in special containers, we were only met with very strange looks.

-The funniest thing that we explained to one person was free range chickens. We told them that chickens at home are kept in very small containers, but many people think that's bad, so if you buy a free range chicken you can pay a little bit extra for the dead chicken that you are purchasing because it had a happier life (and some people think it tastes better). That completely baffled them.

We have just spent two weeks recuperating from our three months in Uganda and Tanzania and now are in Romania - I'll give you an update on that as soon as I can.

Travel in Africa

2009-05-09T04:10:00.000-07:00

On one of my blogs, there was a comment asking about what travel in Tanzania was like, so I thought I would just give everyone a glimpse of what we experienced. We did a lot of traveling from place to place while we were in Tanzania, and on one particularly painful bus experience, Shaun leaned over to me and said "I think I'm starting to lose my sense of adventure...it's too uncomfortable." I think that probably coins African travel well...both adventure and discomfort.

Travel by bicycle - it is possible to rent bicycles in Africa, but you can also hire someone to pedal as you sit on their rat-trap. It is certainly one of the less comfortable methods of traveling, and I felt awful watching someone work so hard pedaling me around for what seemed to be a small amount that they would charge.

Travel by bajaj - this was something we had to do for novelty's sake. It's a vehicle with two rear wheels (I'll try to get a picture up soon) and one front wheel driven with handlebars rather than a steering wheel. The sides are open - the driver sits up front and there is a small bench seat in the back.

Travel by taxi - I don't care how cheap mechanics are in Tanzania, it is not worth the damage to any vehicle to drive us to some of the locations that we paid taxis to go to. We would pay $2.50 for a ride that was about 10-15 minutes in length through puddles that couldn't have been any deeper or else the car would have seized up (the water rose above the bottom of the door). The number of times we would hear different parts of their car scrape along the ground as we drove was painful to listen to - they must have thought it was worth it because they drove us many times. At some point roads have to be deemed undrivable, but I don't know what that point is for Tanzanians

Travel by bus - I think I felt like we were most in Africa when I was traveling on the bus. Depending on where you are traveling from and to, buying tickets is pretty chaotic because you don't really know who is charging way more because you are white, nor are the buses present that you are paying for so you don't get to see them. We learned quite quickly from our African hosts how to calmly deal with the madness and people yelling in our faces at the bus stops...every time we practiced facing the bus stop mobs with the serenity that our hosts did as they calmly walked through the people. Bus stops are where many people are trying to sell things...it is quite convenient if you happen to want to buy something. Shaun is really going to miss being able to buys whatever he needs from out the bus window.

You are able to fit more people on these buses, because the seats are smaller and they have three seats, and aisle and then two seats in stead of 2-aisle-2 (but it also makes for once again a more uncomfortable journey). On long distance buses, it is illegal for people to stand (and police checks are EVERYWHERE, so it is actually enforced), so if too many people were waiting at a small, side-of-the-road bus stop, the bus would slow down and would monitor the people getting on in a very survival-of-the-fittest method because the people who could get on were those who were able to leap on while the bus was still in motion. I would always cheer for the mothers with their babies to make it on the bus, but only men would ever made it in those instances...I'm glad we never had to try that with our huge muzungu backpacks. On other buses where people were allowed to stand, they would actually sell specific standing spots. It was never really enough room for the person to stand, so they'd have to lean way over until they were practically laying on top of the person in the aisle seat. They do like their music loud on those buses...often they play Christian music, but it's so loud you usually can't talk. And I never did quite get used to the livestock on the buses. Sometimes they'd put their chickens in boxes, but other times, the chickens' legs would be tied and they'd be flapping around on the ground. One time, people kept kicking the chicken to be a seat further back along the ground...they don't exactly have animal rights activists here.

Travel by train - we learned a few things on trains. #1 Do not ride the trains if you get seasick. The train would lurch as it started and stopped and rocked back and forth so vigorously at times that you would be thrown to the side of the train as you walked. #2 Choose your bed carefully. If you are in 1st or 2nd class, since the train takes about 24 hours, you get a bed. If you sleep on the upper bunk, there is a guard rail, but if you sleep on the lower bunk, there is a very good chance that you will go flying off the bed as the train starts and stops in the middle of the night. There were no such incidents in our room, but I expect these incidents are quite normal. #3 Don't expect to arrive on time. The train was 5 hours late at our departure station and was 10 hours late at our arrival station. So, don't make your connection to your flight too tight if you're taking the train...or have someone waiting for you...or plan anything of significance for that matter.

This is Africa

2009-05-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

One of my greatest sources of enjoyment in Africa was seeing things that just wouldn't happen in Canada. It was hard to capture everything that I wanted to on the camera, but here is just a glimpse of what we saw daily.

Anything goes on public transportation...these people spent considerable time trying to shove a fridge onto a bus. They'd often strap larger objects like bicycles to the top of buses if they were too full. I'd take the fridge over live chickens scratching at my legs any day.

A typical sight in Africa. These women carried much larger and heavier loads than this one. I was most impressed that usually they don't have to steady the loads with their hands...this is the best picture that I got.

What you see here is VERY typical Africa...babies being carried by mothers in slings(children are everywhere...sometimes a woman will give the baby to a young child to carry around like this for the day and they never seem to be upset), things being carried on people's head (in fact, when we'd carry our massive traveling backpacks around, people questioned us as to why they weren't on our heads - clearly we haven't built up enough neck strength) and yes, this woman is talking on cell phones (they LOVE their cell phones here - even in areas where there is no power for miles, everyone has a cell phone. I would always ask how they managed to charge them, and there was always some way they could get the phone to town. It seemed really anti-Africa sitting in a mudhut for a bible study crowded on the floor with many women when we'd be jarred out of prayer by some loud awful English rap-song ring-tone.)

This is a picture of baby weighing. As part of a health promotion initiative in the small towns in Tanzania, once a month people bring their babies (up until they are 5 years old) to be weighed to see if they are healthy and being fed well. Those who are old enough aren't put in the slings as you see here, they just grab on to the scale with their hands and hang...it was absolutely hilarious.

Can anyone see what is wrong with this calendar? Accuracy isn't exactly their first priority in Tanzania, so even though this was published by the National Bank of Commerce, apparently it didn't quite matter that the 2nd day of the month was excluded. Sorry Bryant - no birthday for you this year!

Dad, in one of your comments, you asked for a picture of three on a motorcycle...it was really hard to capture, I never had a chance to get six kids on the boda boda but here are two women riding side-saddle...again, a super common sight here.

It's probably not entirely obvious what is going on in this picture. They don't exactly have too many bikes in kid-size, but kids still definitely ride bikes. They aren't tall enough to sit on the seat or swing their legs over the pole that travels from the seat to the handlebars, so they stick their one leg through the triangle made by the poles of the bike and lean out to the side and peddle...it's amazing. No tricycles or training-wheels required.

Umalila and Safari

2009-04-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last week we went up to a region called Umalila to this very little town in the mountains that has no power whatsoever. All of their water they have to carry up from the river (it is mostly women who do it and, like everything else they carry, they prop it on their heads – Shaun and I offered to help by each carrying a bucket and apparently don’t have the balance that they do since we dumped some out before hiking up the hill and still managed to be quite wet once we arrived at the pastor’s house. The people thought it was hilarious that not only a male, but a male muzungu was carrying water – they could not contain their laughter). Alfred, the pastor that we were visiting doesn’t speak English, so we weren’t really sure what to expect from our two days with him, but he had his nephew spend the entire time with us so that we would be able to communicate. He has become a favorite of ours as he is one of the most joyful people we have ever met and manages to do so much for his community. When asked what his wishes for his life were, he told us that he desired to be able to help more orphans and widows. We visited a school that he helped build many years ago. The school is a government primary school with 727 students. For all of those students, they have provided only five teachers, most of whom have not even completed high school. The trend that we have seen is that students here are very well behaved, but upon seeing Muzungus, the students at this school could do nothing other than run out of their classroom upon our arrival and cheer for us because of their extreme excitement. They were waving and cheering, so when Shaun started running toward them jumping up and down, they all erupted into louder shouts of glee and hundreds of students were running and jumping in kind – it was certainly a sight to see. Because they live in such a remote area without TVs, power, or books with pictures in their classes, some of them have never seen anyone with skin that wasn’t black. It is strange to think that we are the only representation of white people they have ever seen, so when they think of white people, they will picture our faces.

Being in the villages has been a huge blessing to us. Tanzania is adopting more and more of Western culture, but when you go to the villages, you experience the simplicity and community-focus of Eastern culture and it is lovely. While we were there, we did have to shower by scrubbing ourselves using a basin on the ground filled with water that was carried at least 10 minutes uphill from the river and then boiled. We showered in a wooden shed-like structure (not tall enough to fully stand up in) with large gaps in the walls to the outside. We also had to go (in surprisingly frigid weather and in the absence of light) to the outhouse in the middle of the night. The outhouse is a 10 cm hole in another shed-like structure with a door that doesn’t close and a roof made of material in which they regularly find snakes where you can hear the buzzing of wasps. We did have to walk miles in the heat of the day where you can’t buy safe drinking water to get to the places we needed to visit. To get to the village, we had to endure buses that carry twice their legal capacity in people that leave once a day at five thirty in the morning. It is no easy life for the people who live there permanently, but to be included in their community for a couple of days far far outweighed any slight disturbances felt on our part by not having the comforts of home. If we ever come back to Africa, both Shaun and I have a desire to head straight to the villages.

We were initially supposed to spend a week in the village, but because of the pastor’s inability to speak English, our plans were shortened so as not to be a burden to him. Being that our work in Mbeya was also completed, we had the opportunity to stop in Mikume for one day and go on a safari. I still have yet to figure out how Shaun manages to get safaris (and many things for that matter) for a quarter of the price quoted to anyone else, but he managed to get the best safari vehicle of life complete with our own personal guide and driver. It was a Toyota Land Cruiser - the seats are up on top of the car so you can stand or sit as you please. We were the only people in the entire park who were not in a bus, van or car. It is not the season to see lions, but did see many animals. We were challenged by an elephant trying to protect her baby and spent lunch eating amidst 40 baboons that we had to keep a close eye on as they threw heavy fruit down from the tree above our heads – some landing forcefully on the car (we remained unscathed). I think the guides thought we were crazy because Shaun and I both brought safari clothes (the best we could do using what we were traveling with) to change into at lunch so we could take authentic safari pictures (I'll keep working on posting some). We leave tomorrow for Switzerland - the land of punctual trains and wonderful chocolate-filled croissants.

Remember us in prayer

2009-04-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I’ve updated you all on things we could use your prayer requests for. Firstly, if you could pray four our health, we would appreciate that. It seems like we’re too young to be asking for health prayers, but neither of our bodies treated us well in Africa. Mine (Brenda’s) has been particularly mean to me. It seems strange to list medical issues on a blog, but we’d like you to know what we’ve been experiencing so you can have better knowledge of what we could use prayer for. I’ve had malaria, a sty, esophageal ulcers due to anti-malarial reactions, general stomach issues, allergies, and the list continues. Shaun had one strange day where he was violently vomiting, but his quickly passed. We feel like medical nightmares right now. Please pray that our health would not continue to be an issue when we leave Africa. We are also going to be going on a grueling trek to get from Africa to Switzerland. We go from Tanzania to Uganda (we might have to sleep in the airport), then head to Dubai (stopping shortly on the way in Ethopia), switch planes, immediately fly overnight to London, arrive in the morning, switch airports (Heathrow to Stansted), fly to Germany where we will be making our way by train to Switzerland. My back has been having issues because of all of the travel we have done in the past couple of days (due to my Scoliosis my muscles often are in pain), so pray that we will manage to do all of that traveling in the absence of back spasms. We start our traveling on the 29th of April and will arrive in Switzerland on May 2nd.

If you could also keep us in prayer with regards to what the rest of our trip is going to look like. Originally, we wanted to leave one month open in case a ministry opportunity came up or we felt like God wanted us in particular place for that time. With the way that things have turned out with the camps in the Ukraine, it looks like that project going to be shuffled back a couple of weeks and extended by a few weeks, which means we won’t have the opportunity to go anywhere other than Romania and Ukraine for the last three months of our trip, and it also means that we may have some extra time we didn’t think we’d have. We are thinking that with those extra two weeks, it would be really nice to see a little bit of Eastern Europe, since we are all the way out there anyway, but before we jump on board with the extra time to travel, we do want to be intentional about being in God’s will so please pray that we are not making a mistake by spending our time that way.

After this past month where we have been pushing ourselves physically and not really having any days of rest, we are looking forward to the mid-trip break that we planned for recuperation. We are going to be visiting Jon and Katie van Laake for a week and then traveling (destinations to be determined) for one week before going to Romania for one month. Thank you again for your prayers. Please let us know via email or comments if there is anything you are wondering about with regards to our prayer needs. We will always be happy to communicate with you in that way.

Easter in Tanzania

2009-04-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Easter this year was very different for us; we were celebrating in Morogoro. It doesn’t seem like they have too many Easter traditions here, but they do hold extra services on the Friday and Saturday. After the service on Sunday, the church had a big meal where all 70 members of the congregation ate together. They do not often have large meals like this because of the expense, but I think part of the reason they did so was to celebrate both Easter and visitors. Visitors here receive a very different status than they do at home. When you visit someone’s home, you are thanked because Tanzanians (and Ugandans) have this view that the visitors bring blessing. They shower you with hospitality, and usually serve you their very best. They will bring you sodas when they can’t afford sodas for themselves. They will almost always serve you meat, a treat that many of them are only able to serve to their families twice a month (if that). As I expected, I struggle eating some of the different food here. For Easter, they killed a goat in the morning before the service for the congregation to eat. You can even just be walking down the street and look over to see someone chopping the head off of a chicken – it’s very different. Some people here find it so hard to believe that we don’t have live chickens and goats running around everywhere. They wonder how we eat if we don’t grow crops and kill our own meat. It has been hard getting used to meat such as chicken necks, goat with some hair still attached, etc., but we know they are giving us their very best so we attempt to eat everything they place before us. We are grateful for how much of what they have they are willing to give us.

The week before Easter Sunday, in Dar es Salaam, we had another church celebration involving a meal after the service and a cake. This cake was much smaller than the first that had been celebrated in Uganda, but was met with just as much enthusiasm. This time, each small piece of the cake wasn’t just handed to people; it was literally fed to them. All of the firstborns in every family first went up in front of the church to receive their piece, and then they made Shaun and I go up as ‘first time attenders of their church’ and then they made every married couple get up there and feed each other cake. The reason they were celebrating was because the church determined that they were going to celebrate a ‘Father’s Day.’ The idea is slightly different than our Father’s Days because it is a day that the fathers serve everyone else. They cooked the meal and served it to everyone - it is next to unheard of here for the men to cook or serve. They gave Shaun the status as honorary father for the day because as I’ve said before, it is an expectation that family very quickly follows marriage, so he got to join them in being prayed for and serving, etc.

In the attempt to be culturally sensitive and not offend, we have both done many things that we would not do at home. Although Tanzania is quickly (and more rapidly than Uganda) moving away from being conservative, it is still the norm here for women to wear skirts. All day every day I have worn a skirt since sometime in March (and I wasn’t even going to wear a skirt to my grad because I disliked them so much). I have come to realize that skirts are far more functional here than at home. Most of the places here don’t have the toilets we are used to in Canada. They are ‘squatty toilets.’ Nicer places have ones that flush, but most often, there will just be a hole in the ground in a very confined space - with or without a door. The strangest experience with washrooms is definitely on bus trips. Because I had been forewarned about what happens, I had to severely dehydrate myself when we were taking our nine hour bus trip from Morogoro to Mbeya because I knew that going to the washroom likely wouldn’t be an option. The bus driver will stop for less than three minutes (and I’m being generous with my time estimation) – everyone runs off the bus, finds their spot on the ground on the side of the road where they are going to urinate – someone will usually try to direct the men and women to different spots, and then everyone runs back on the bus and it leaves. Our bus driver was quite impatient with the passengers, and the last few had to run alongside the bus and jump in the door to get in. Somehow, the women manage to do this decently, but I haven’t quite figured out the technique, not that I’ve tried. But, like I said, skirts – a necessity.

Malaria and other mouth diseases

2009-04-10T01:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s true if you’ve heard the rumors. I officially will have to be taken off the donor list for Canadian Blood Services (if my memory serves me correctly – I don’t think I’ll be allowed to donate ever again). I got malaria last week. We didn’t believe the first clinic that told us I had it – the pastor we were with thought that maybe they saw ‘Muzungus’ and figured they could get some money for prescription drugs from us if they told us that I had malaria. But, the second clinic confirmed with the same count that I had one parasite per 200 white blood cells. So much for taking and being good about remembering our anti-malaria medication. I think I’ve heard that it is only 93-95% effective – so I guess I’m the unlucky minority. The experience itself wasn’t all that bad, so I must not have received a very bad strain. It was a much easier sickness that what I had when I went to Costa Rica (apparently my immune system doesn’t appreciate traveling so much). We’ve heard that the earlier you start to treat it, the better you will fare, so when I first got my fever (which, by the way is not terribly enjoyable in thirty-some degree weather with what we’ve judged to be about 100% humidity when there is no power – when Shaun got too concerned about my temperature, he manually fanned me using a calendar for at least an hour).

It is certainly something different to experience the medical system here. You don’t need to see a doctor to get prescription drugs – you just have to go to the pharmacy and ask for them, but the pastor here thought it would be best to go to make sure that there wasn’t something different I had to do because it was my first time getting malaria or if it would conflict with the doxycyclin that I was already taking to prevent malaria. We went to the doctor even though we realized we might have to call our medical insurance to let them know that we had incurred medical expenses. They charged us all of $1.50. We figured we wouldn’t bother trying to get any reimbursement. And when this dollar fifty doctor told me that he was going to take my temperature, he handed me the thermometer and I dutifully put it in my mouth to which he gave me a startled expression and quickly told me that they put their thermometers (which come in packages labeled ‘oral thermometer’) under their armpits. Shaun was there and is still laughing about it. I haven’t quite overcome my repulsion - who knows what bacteria my mouth was offended with? Regardless of everything, I am well now. I appreciate everyone who was praying for me (now you can hope that I don’t contract some strange fungal disease in my mouth).

We are already in our second location in Tanzania. We are here working for my uncle, Gordon, who was a missionary here for four years. While he was here (and since) he has created relationships with pastors and has worked, through his organization, Community Builders, to set up microloans for them. The design that he uses is instead of paying the loan back to Community Builders, they pay it forward to people who need it here, so that it can continue. We are here to send a report back to let them know how things are going. Our first week was spent in Dar es Salaam (this is the city of unbelievable humidity) visiting a pastor who had set up an internet café. This week we are in Morogoro visiting another pastor who has set up a piggery. Next week we will be in Mbeya doing the same thing and the last week of April we will be in a village called Umalila where we will be visiting people who do not speak English, so we are not sure what exactly to expect when we go there. The hospitality we have experienced is unbelievable. They are some of the most giving and gracious people we have ever encountered.

Picture 1

2009-04-02T01:28:00.000-07:00

For a description of the pictures, see the post below 'Picture 7' - the internet connection is so bad here that it took me just under six hours to post these seven pictures, so needless to say, these may be the last that you will see (at least while we're on this continent).

Picture 2

2009-04-02T01:10:00.000-07:00

Picture 3

2009-04-01T23:58:00.000-07:00

Picture 4

2009-04-01T02:23:00.001-07:00

Picture 5

2009-04-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

Picture 6

2009-03-31T01:46:00.000-07:00

Picture 7

2009-03-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

Mpigi in pictures

2009-03-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

1 - This is my first attempt at making toast. We only had power for three hours a day, so we didn't really have a fridge to speak of. Toast was my breakfast of choice, but slightly difficult to make - here I am holding it directly over the flame between two knives. Since then I developed much better methods for making toast.

2 - This is Shaun with some of the children who live on the property

3 - Wherever we are in Uganda where they are not used to Muzungus, children (who we don't know) will follow us in great numbers. They will walk for half an hour with us or so - usually directly behind us. It feels a little odd. Sometimes they will come beside us and hold our hands or try to say "How are you?" We usually try to count them. Twenty-six is the record for number of children following us so far. This picture was when children were walking home from school in Mpigi town.

4 - Shaun made a few swings for the kids - they absolutely loved them. None of them had ever been on a hammock, so this was a swing/hammock made out of the fabric of the camping chair (the frame of the chair broke beyond repair) that Shaun Fraser purchased when he was here.

5 - A picture of the kids from Sumi house after giving them the bibles that they earned.

6 - This is Pastor Geoffrey's daughter, Praise. I was way too pleased with this picture not to post it.

7 - I have entitled this picture "Be grateful." These are my knuckles after I did laundry with the Mamas for three hours one day. For some reason it is easy for me to acknowledge and be appreciative of the 'bigger' things like my health and freedom, etc., but I can't honestly remember being thankful when I've been washing my clothes at home - I tend to dislike any type of cleaning/chores and forget the ease with which I am able to perform those chores. So, I think I'm going to take this picture and post it right beside my washing machine at home to remember to be grateful - that is, if we have a washing machine when we get home. And if we don't find a home with a washing machine, I will try to be grateful for laundromats or gracious parents who let us use theirs.

Sports Day - with keener participants than even kindergarten

2009-03-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

This past week has been quite full for both Shaun and me. Because it is spring break, a team of students came from Pacific Academy to Kibaale Community Centre. They send missions teams to roughly eight locations and each grade eleven and twelve student has the opportunity to apply to join the trips. The particular group of students who came to Kibaale were really mature, and we were quite pleased with their attitudes (and also pleased with their willingness to share spoonfuls of Nutella with me!)

The team broke up into groups and Shaun was leading one of their daily activities – he spent most of his week with them. He decided that they should experience slashing (the way they cut grass…it makes you really appreciate lawnmowers), laundry (it makes you really appreciate washing machines), sweeping (it makes you really appreciate long handles on brooms) and washing floors (it makes you really appreciate mops). All the students seemed to really like the approach Shaun took, and I think it was a highlight for some of them. Being the Muzungu ‘expert’ on laundry, I taught them all how to do it Uganda-style.

This past weekend they had a staff Sports Day. The way the African staff get excited and cheer for things puts any keenness you’ve ever seen from me to shame. It is so fun to be a part of activities they are enjoying so much. We were all supposed to sign up for some sport. They had volleyball, running races, three-legged races, netball, football (soccer), potato sack races, etc. Feeling like it would be foolish to sign myself up for a sprint against people from a race known for their ability in running, I just as foolishly signed up for netball seeing that one other Muzungu (white person) had signed up thinking it would be a riot. Netball is like basketball, but you aren’t allowed to move at all with the ball in your hand (and as far as I can tell you have to shoot on one foot). At least that’s as much as my understanding about the game goes after playing it. Oh yes, and it’s a girl’s sport – and they play in their skirts…worse than field hockey because these are legitimate skirts – being that it was just the staff I was relieved of my necessity to wear a skirt and got to more comfortably play in shorts.

The first game was played against the team with the other Muzungu, and of course, we were checks. I was pretty proud of myself when I managed to handle the ball once in the first game and pass it along without the whistle being blown on me (considering I didn’t really know what I was doing and no one was all that willing to explain the rules to me). Since our team won, we made it to the playoffs where I didn’t have the safety of a Muzungu check. It was somewhat difficult to play because absolutely no one would pass to me (understandably), but I tried my hardest and every time I intercepted a pass or was the first to the ball after it had been dropped, I was greeted with extreme cheering from the crowd – they seemed to really enjoy the fact that a white person was managing to play. So regardless of the fact that I didn’t know what I was doing and wasn’t ever passed to, I appeased myself with the knowledge that I managed to handle the ball a considerable amount and had been called the ‘crowd favorite’ – and we won…that was nice too – I couldn’t have hindered my team too much. At the end of the game was offered some “Pure Glucose” (tastes like icing sugar) that all the players lick out of their hands at the end of the game – it was much needed after all of the running on what we judged to be the warmest day since coming here. Shaun played badminton – I think that was probably wiser since I was playing against people who had played Netball since childhood and he was playing against people who had never held a badminton racket.

On Monday we leave Kibaale and head for Tanzania which I’m expecting to be the most adventure-filled month being that we won’t be staying in one location, but constantly on the move. Please pray for safety for this month. I promise I will try to refrain from jumping off any trains.

You know you’re in Uganda when…

2009-03-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

Here in Kibaale, my main role has been to help the S4 students (roughly equivalent to the graduating secondary school students) who are facing their government exams in December. These exams will determine whether they can go on to post-secondary or not. I attend all of their science and math classes and I tutor them in the evenings, at lunch, during class and sometimes on the weekends. As a teacher, it has been very interesting to see the difference between classrooms and home, in Costa Rica and here. Class management here is a Canadian teacher’s dream (but then there are many schools including Christian ones – not here in Kibaale - who cane their students when they misbehave – a practice that even some Muzungus condone because of how it contributes to their obedience). Due to a lack of resources, many things are more difficult. Some of the biology understanding is only as good as the teacher’s drawing. While the students work exceptionally hard and can memorize quite well, their problem solving ability is not at par with students at home.

Shaun is working on many different projects for the centre – digging holes for potential fish projects, leading work projects with the Pacific Academy team (grade 11 and 12 students) who arrived today, general maintenance around the school, fixing bicycles etc. In everything he does he is shadowed by a Ugandan in order to promote their ability to do the work themselves, he has been learning some interesting things as he works and converses with the people here.

Here are some interesting things so far that we have learned about Uganda:

•It is illegal to get married after 7:00 at night – it all has to occur in natural light so that men can’t claim they don’t know who they married.
•All the girls in secondary school (apparently this is country-wide) get tetanus shots. When I asked when it was the boys’ turn, they all told me that they were strong and didn’t need to get them. When I asked the headmistress, she confirmed what they told me but didn’t know why it was that way…strange.
•AIDS prevention posters here mention that requiring a blood transfusion should be avoided (which seems awfully sketchy that blood being transfused hasn’t been tested for the presence of AIDS – but don’t worry those at home…most of the Muzungus here know their blood type so they would be our donors if anything happened to us). The prevention posters also specify that a man with multiple wives should limit his intimacy to his wives and each wife of the family should remain faithful. You certainly don’t see such things written on the AIDS posters in Canada
•It is normal if someone is singing at an assembly at a school or elsewhere if someone is moved by the song to come up and put money in their pocket. When I first saw it, it looked like the older secondary students were mocking the boy (going up as a joke, paying him to get off the stage), so I asked around to discover if it was in fact rude, and one girl innocently chastised me with “Do you not value money in Canada?” She didn’t realize how insightful her question was.
•And this is Shaun’s contribution to the blog “Stay away from your mother in law! Except you Myra, you’re the best! It is severely frowned upon by many Ugandans to be in close proximity to your mother in law. Hug? Out of the question. Hand shake? Certainly not! Be in the same room? Okay, but you may not sit on the same bench, chair, or couch. Why? I have no clue. Some think that if you brush against your mother in law that you will get the shivers. I will have to do some more research into this one.”

How many people can you fit into a five-seater, standard Toyota Corolla?

2009-03-09T03:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Kibaale! We have safely made it to our second major destination. During the last few days that we were in Mpigi, we had a chance to participate in the free medical clinic that they offer at the ten acres once a month. There was a boy from the community we had met earlier in the month who had quite a bad infection on his leg – it had odd colours, puss and covered almost half the length of his shin. The family was not intending to do anything about it, so we helped him get to the clinic. We are not sure what his fate would have been had he not received proper cleaning and antibiotics. The clinics are not stocked as well as would be ideal – they didn’t have any alcohol with which to disinfect it, so they ended up using some of our hand sanitizer – and if any of you have ever put that stuff on a cut, you know how much it stings…either the boy had lost all feeling in his leg, or like all the children here seem to be, he was just inhumanly tough because he didn’t flinch in the slightest while it was being administered.

Our last Sunday at Peace Portal Community Church was notable for two reasons. Shaun and I both had the opportunity to go up in front of the church with the kids we had been spending time with each night (singing, playing games, leading devotions, working on earning their bibles, etc.) to sing songs. Shaun led his boys as a choir leader, but I felt awkward doing that, so I joined them as they sang and danced in front of the church…certainly not something I would have been doing at home. I’m sure the church enjoyed the spectacle of a ‘Muzungu’ adult performing with a group of African children. We have a video of it, and I can’t help but laugh at myself too. The second strange part of the service was when the pastor announced that another church had gifted them a cake. It was at most twelve to fourteen inches in diameter. It was such a phenomenal treat for this church to partake together in a cake that the entire service rang with a spirit of celebration. At the end of the service the cake was cut – split among over 130 people – Shaun and I were honored to be of those serving the carrot stick sized cake pieces as they sang high energy songs out of their gratefulness of receiving such an unusual treat. I couldn’t imagine people in Canada coming remotely close to feeling the excitement and gratitude over something a hundred times the magnitude in value that these people felt. Different cultures…different circumstances…different expectations.

The next exciting part of our travels was the trip to Kibaale from Mpigi. We were told that we could hire out a private car, but that it would cost us about $100 for the three hour trip. So, we decided to take the longer route by which we would take what they consider their public transportation…taxis. It would involve a much longer day and taking a series of four taxis. Since we didn’t know exactly what the locations were like that we were headed to, we had to rely somewhat on signs and somewhat on the advice of each taxi driver, who would speak varying levels of English. The first taxi was of the type that we were used to…vans slightly larger than mini-vans that seat 15 people, but as per African standards can fit a few more than that (the most we ever had in one was 22). This driver didn’t take us to the place where later we discovered we were supposed to go, but took us to taxis that were cars rather than vans. There were already three people in the five-seater car whose driver we negotiated with (excluding the driver himself), so we knew it was also going to be a squeeze-four-people-in-the-back-of-a-car adventure. What we didn’t know was that the game of ‘How many people can you fit into a five-seater, standard Toyota Corolla’ had just begun. In a country where it is not acceptable for a husband and wife to hold hands or touch each other in anyway, it is amazing to me how natural it is for them to throw men and women on top of each other to fit into a car. Before we departed in this second taxi and after we had agreed to pay, they shoved two more people in the car, so there were three grown adults in the front and five in the back. The trunk was already overflowing with people’s large sacks of food and our large backpacks, so I ended up fully sitting on Shaun’s lap (I specify fully because the person in the middle was also partially on his lap) with two of our smaller bags on top of me in a situation where it was not possible to fully extend my neck. It was crazy – and yet it felt oddly like we were involved in some sort of youth event. Here is what I’ve discovered: Youth event = fun (you go in to a car and shortly after, you emerge). Travelling in a crowded African taxi = uncomfortable (you actually have to stay that way and drive for 45 minutes). Relief comes every once in a while if someone needs to get off in between the two towns. The arrangement was that this second taxi was supposed to take us all the way to Kibaale, but he paid off another guy to take us the rest of the way, so we switched vehicles. This second vehicle was the same people-squishing scenario…the driver of this car had to fully sit on another man’s lap in order for him to fit – I’m not sure how he managed to drive, but he got to the next destination safely, which once again was supposed to be the end, but he told us that he was stopping. We had paid to get us all the way to Kibaale, so there was a bit of a squabble trying to get the balance from him for the next taxi – fortunately the crowd in the town that gathered to watch was on our side. This last taxi was the champion in our little game. We had nine full grown adults and two babies in a standard, five-seater Toyota Corolla…and yet in all of that limited space, one of the mothers managed to feed her baby – a practice here that takes some getting used to – there is absolutely nothing indecent about completely exposing yourself (whether in church, in a taxi…literally wherever) in order to feed your child. It just added to the comedy. So all in all, a very uncomfortable adventure – worth taking just for the experience of laughing and enjoying after the fact, but I think we could forgo a second dose of such travelling.

(Also thought I’d mention that I’m sorry about the lack of pictures – they have an uploading and downloading limit in Kibaale which doesn’t allow us to post any)

Remember us in your prayers

2009-03-09T03:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of things that you could keep in your prayers. We’ve been hearing (through a number of different sources or I wouldn’t have been inclined to believe them) that there is a trend of child sacrifice in Uganda – some of the witch doctors tell people it will bring them wealth if they sacrifice children, and so there have been many child kidnappings. While we were in Mpigi a child was kidnapped shortly after school finished who attended the same school as some of the children at the children’s home – it is the school that Juliet and Michael Msembe are in charge of. Since coming to Kibaale, we have heard that the five or six year old boy had been found, but we don’t know any details. If you could pray for the safety of the children’s home, that would be appreciated – especially as they are now discussing further security measures they could take.

Another request involves a trend we’ve seen in the churches here. So far, we have visited four churches in Uganda and all but Peace Portal Community on the ten acres strongly preach prosperity gospel. The church we visited of 20,000 members told the congregation that because we were children of Abraham, we were entitled to be blessed in every way that he was – in health and wealth, etc. If you are a follower of Christ, he claimed, you will not be poor or sick. The fifth church we have been asked to visit we have been warned by some of the Muzungus here, preach exactly the same thing. One church was also preaching about how we hate the government and the people in it because of how it oppresses us. We were sitting there thinking, “What about where we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us?” So please, pray for proper teaching in churches and proper training of pastors and the ridding of false doctrine. This is a hard one for me to ask for prayer for because I am trying to be very careful as I go into churches and schools not to go in with the assumption that all of my theology and pedagogy are correct and theirs is all wrong. When I see such blatant false teachings, I have no trouble praying against it. My heart goes out to people who hear these messages who are not able to read either Luganda or English because their teaching of Christ comes only from the pulpit and the Spirit - they have no ability to check Scriptures for themselves. Pray that the Spirit would conquer.

Greetings from Mpigi

2009-02-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry about the incredible lack of blogging...it can mostly be blamed on the nearly-impossible internet situation in Mpigi. But, we are here and we are safe and enjoying our time here. In order to get here, we were in four continents over the course of four days and spent a little bit of time on each one...Seattle, London, Dubai and Mpigi..we very much felt like we were on the amazing race)

There are certainly things about living in Mpigi that has taken getting used to, but we are slowly adjusting to live here. My knuckles are no longer completely raw from doing laundry by hand...I am getting callouses just in time for leaving for Kibaale where we won't need to do our own laundry. They don't have wash boards here, so you just rub the material between your knuckles...I quickly realized why denim isn't quite as prevalent here. We have also become quite accustomed to riding boda bodas (our major source of transportation) which are essentially motorcycles, but on a terrain that more closely resembles the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland than a road. To save money (of course...it is Shaun and Brenda) we will usually take the same boda with a driver (that is normal here - we have seen up to six children on a boda boda with the driver), and because nearly all women wear skirts, I had to get accustomed to riding side-saddle - they tell me that I look very comfortable doing it, which is apparently unusual for a "Muzungu". We are also getting used to children jumping up and down and pointing and waving and yelling "Muzungu" (white person) just at the sight of us. As Shaun pointed out to me, It not only feels like we are on a Disneyland ride, but feels like we are some iconic Disneyland character who has to wave at all the children (and some keen parents). The other day we were walking in Mpigi town and school had just been dismissed, so there was a pack of children that were so enraptured with our white skin, they crossed the feet to walk in a pack a few paces behind us. We felt pretty ridiculous. I also wanted to take some pictures the first time I was in town, but quickly realized they would look funny with everyone in the town staring right at the camera. We are getting used to people asking very strange questions because they don't understand any world other than their own. The three questions that are very common are whether both of our parents are alive (that one gets me every time because of how blessed I realize that we are in Canada to not have young deaths be normal). They will also usually ask Shaun if he has a wife, and he will point to me at which they act very surprised - so far we haven't figure out why. And many of them have no idea how people in Canada can not have children for so many years after getting married. Many have informed me that because I am not currently expecting, I would be considered barren.

Scott Dickie told us before we left that much of our time here would be spent just surviving...and he was right, things do take much longer here. Depending how full our water tank is, the water just barely trickles from the tap (but we are very grateful it comes straight to the house)... we need to pump all of our water to filter it... we don't have a shower, so we pour the water into a solar shower that we purchased from Canadian Tire... when you mop, you do it on your hands and knees, the generator is only on between 7 and 10 at night, so during the day it is not cold... the number of strange and scary and large insects here continue to surprise us, and Doom has quickly become a good friend of ours...it is very different here. In the time that we have where we are not just "surviving", we have been involved in many different activities. Because I am a teacher, they really wanted me to come down to the school called Kid Care. We were told that we would just be 'helping' and not teaching, but when we got there, they expected us to lead the entire school (kids from Primary 1 to Primary 6) in 'games' for forty minutes, beginning immediately They are all very grateful that we as guests have come, but they certainly put pressure on you (they announced to us in front of students that they are "expecting much of us.") I was very thankful to have Shaun with me for the games as I tend to like to be a little more prepared for things like that. After the games, we had to lead each group of students either in songs and rhymes or bible study, or drawing, etc in their classrooms. Here I was very thankful for TOC experience as I rapidly had to produce a forty minute bible lecture. We have been leading the bible studies here and every time we are in church at least one of us is expected to give a 'Word'. We have visited both Peace Portal Community Church locations here (they have one near the Children's Home and one in Mpigi town). Shaun has done some work around the Children's Home at which we are staying...building stairs, fixing railings, etc. We have done a"Care and Compassion" visit to the community to try to determine if there are any needs we can help with, and we have gone into the crazy city of Kampala thrice.

Mostly, our extra time here is spent with the children. Only four of them had bibles when we came, so we made it our mission before we left to provide them all with bibles, either in English or Luganda. We initially thought it would be best to provide them in Luganda, because that is what they are most comfortable speaking, but we found out that because all of their schooling is in English, many do not know how to read Luganda. It is unfortunate because the English of the bible is at a level that is too hard for most of them to currently comprehend. However, because of the lack of reading material here, these will be one of the few (if not only - we have yet to see a book in school or being read by anyone) books they will be exposed to. The bibles will likely increase their reading ability, and hopefully they will grow in their ability to be able to understand God's Word. We decided that generally people value things more when they are earned, so we are making them earn their bibles by memorizing and copying certain portions of scripture. It gives also us an opportunity to explain certain biblical principles to them. We spend much time with them before they go to bed...Shaun and I have had very different experiences in this. I'm not totally sure what the boys do, but the girls really enjoyed singing and dancing and performing for me for hours. They take water jugs and use them as drums...apparently my sense of rhythm has proved to be sufficient, so they have let me drum for them.

We only have one more week here, we leave on Sunday the 1st for Kibaale where they tell us we will be kept very busy...I am to be in the school every day and Shaun will be working with Jeff Dyck, preparing for the Pacific Academy team that is coming here and doing other projects.

Home mixed-feelings home

2008-11-08T16:11:00.000-08:00

We're home! (and it's taken me a ridiculously long time to write this last post, but we're all moved in to our new home for three months)

The last week or so of being in Costa Rica was really great. We were there for the first half of the Spiritual Emphasis Week at the Spanish Institue where most missionaries go to learn their Spanish before going to their permanent places in Central and South America. Beltane Harrigton was speaking and he was certainly a powerful preacher who really urged people to truly live for God - Shaun and I both took some good stuff away from that.

It was very strange to leave the Hilstads after spending so much time with them. It almost felt like we were leaving family. It is certainly surprising how well you can get to know people in a short time.

Some 'little things' we will miss about Costa Rica:

-the (sometimes) strangely freeing lack of order. I got particular pleasure out of the trees that people place right in the middle of the major potholes in the road because they don't really get fixed all that quickly and it would be very bad if people/cars fell in them
-the daily pineapple, pan-fried cheese and Pan Por Kilo, our favorite bread place
-Hearing the RickRolls song as one of the nation's favorite english (Don't know what I'm talking about - go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0)

Some 'little reasons' we are glad to be home:

-we are able to throw our toilet paper in the toilet...this is probably one of those things that very oddly was one of the greatest sources of culture shock upon returning home
-we no longer have to use widow-makers...this is the method of warming your shower water in order that you don't have to shower in cold water...everyone has them there, but some are more deserving of their name than others. They run bare electrical cords from the wall out to the widow-makers where there is an element heating the water above your head...sketchy at best with the whole electricity/water thing.

Our next post will likely be sometime in late January when we are planning, Lord willing, on leaving for Africa. Thanks for joining us in our journey by reading this and praying.

T minus 1 hour 10 minutes

2008-10-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

It is currently 29 degrees here and the weather is very obviously drying up as the dry season approaches. That could mean nothing other than it's time to leave and return to balmy November weather in Vancouver. Though we are ready and excited to return home it has been surprisingly sad to depart. It seems that deeper connections were made than initially anticipated.

It is 11:38 now and our plane is scheduled for take off at 12:48. We had no line ups for immigration or baggage checking, but were unpleasently surprised by a $52 "exit tax" for the two of us.

Brenda would like to conclude the Costa Rican portion of our blog so I won't say much more. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for the time you have spent reading. We appreciate that you care.

See you in the morning! (we arrive in Canada at mid-night)

Shaun

32 Chiggers and an Arm Pit Infection :)

2008-10-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

October 22, 08

*** warning. Very long. Brenda/Shaun Duplications are in italics if you want to skip some reading. There are extra fun details though ***

Wow, it’s been a while! It’s time for Shaun’s overly in depth recap of the past three weeks. We spent the weekend following Sharelle’s birthday as ‘stand in parents’ at the Hilstad’s house. It was a welcomed opportunity by Brian and Hope as they got away for a few days to a relaxing bed and breakfast at Jaco Beach. We thoroughly enjoy Josh and Hanna. They are really great kids that love to play games, read a lot, and listen to what they’re told! Unbelievable eh! Brenda taught them more while I acted as the honorary house husband which involved doing chores and making meals. After school we would have fun playing monopoly, flashlight tag at night in their yard, and Nintendo Wii. Brenda officially has at least a silver medal in every Wii game! I am one behind her but it is just a matter of time :) (update: I am now kicking her butt)

On the day of their return we joined Hope and Brian for the first of a 6 week study called ‘One Month to Live’. It is based on a book written by a couple from Texas that encourages readers to think how they would live differently if they had one month to live. I am not positive but I think at first people say things like quit my job, go sky diving, etc, and then the book tries to change people’s thinking to be more in line with Christ’s priorities. (ie. Love people, don’t be so busy, etc) The first night proved to include an array of different perspectives. I found it so refreshing to be in a group that had no reservations about asking for prayer, being vulnerable, and expressing where they’re at. I find that people at home, myself included, seem to be held back by something yet to be determined, that discourages us from realizing our need for prayer and our willingness to ask for it often.

On Wednesday October 8th we had a day with nothing planned. We ended up spending the day dowtown San Jose again. We started by purchasing our bus tickets to Manuel Antonio and figuring out where to catch the bus to Panama. From there we headed to the old army barracks that have been converted into the children’s museum where we found the sole geocache of our trip. (Interesting fact: In 1948 Costa Rica abolished it’s entire Army. I guess they figure they have good relations with Panama and Nicaragua and no one has a reason to attack them. It has proven to be a good move as quality of life has improved for residents and tourists feel safer. That being said, there are still security guards with guns everywhere. We really haven’t seen much reason to be fearful of crime. There are gates surrounding every house in the county (not an exaggeration) however that may be out of fear more than necessity. We took a cab from there to Teatro Nacional (National Theater) The cab driver dropped us off a few blocks from where I thought the theater was and pointed at a building to the left. We got out and went in to the most plain and boring theater you can imagine. We had heard that this theater was a point of pride for the locals as opera shows refused to play in San Jose prior to this theater being build. We left thinking “we are so glad we didn’t have to pay to see that. That wasn’t even nice at all”. We decided to be on our way to the crime museum on the other side of town. On our way we passed an old expenisive looking building that said Teatro Nacional on it! It turns out that I know the city better than a cab driver :) hehehe. We went inside to discover that indeed this was the place and the other was just Teatro Publico. The cost for entrance was 5 dollars. Under the guidance of Lonely Planet we asked an employee for a list of shows. There were several dances and symphonies playing on every day but that day. But get this, the show the following evening cost $5! It was a full on symphony with music selections from popular north american movies. Music we know and a symphony show for the cost of a walking tour. Woo hoo!

The next morning we joined Hope and went to a small multipurpose church building in a very poor area. We helped by playing games with kids, taking pictures, feeding them snacks. Really it was more just an opportunity to see a very typical ministry that missionaries choose to give to the community.

From there we took a bus downtown to wait for the symphony to start. I needed a few things so I shopped while Brenda read in a coffee shop (sound familiar?). I found billabong kahki shorts for $5, a watch for $5, an umbrella for $2.75, two t-shirts for $2.50 each, jeans with a belt for $10, and a pair of fake crocs for $5. We enjoyed a quick bakery dinner (of which we have had many) before going to the show. The theater was in fact an impressive display of architecture and design and the symphony was an enjoyable show. It would have been prefect for a family as they showed clips from the movie as they played the songs.

Even though it seems like we have been doing fairly easy work up to this point, a whole lot less work is directly ahead. The next three days we spent in the country two hours north of San Jose at a place called Casa Shalom. It is a house built for missionaries and students to go to for spiritual retreat. The Hilstads are San Jose liaisons for the house so for a minimal cleaning fee the six of us could stay there as long as we like. We spent three days there which included hiking in the forest on the property, playing more family games, walking to the top of Poaz Volcano and visiting a rainforest park called La Paz Waterfalls. The walk to the volcano was given to us by God, I'm sure. We arrived and saw the crater as clear as day. Less than 5 minutes later there was so much fog you could not see 10 feet ahead of you. It was literally a wall of white. We decided to walk over to the lagoon that is above the crater. This too was a complete wall of white. In this type of climate, pretty much when it gets foggy or cloudy, it will stay that way until the next morning, especially at Poaz. For whatever reason God wanted us to see that lagoon because within 5 minutes we could see the entire lagoon. A pocket of fog cleared just for us around the lagoon. We were the luckiest tourists ever. Brian says “Poaz is the most visited National Park in Costa Rica. It also disappoints the most tourists in Costa Rica :)” Not us, we got to see everything we could see. Our excursion to La Paz was just as, if not more successful. We took 170 picture in five hours. You walk trough different areas of the park designated to different animals in the rainforest and then conclude by walking down a series of large waterfalls. For the price I was skeptical but we had a great experience. (side note – resident price for La Paz $12, for tourist $32. For Poaz – tourists $10, residents $2 (gross)) The first area we visited was the birds. They have a giant domed area that you walk right into and interact with the birds. Large parrots landed on Brian’s arm and Hope’s head. Then a toucan tried to eat Josh and my arms. It was so cool to be so close to tropical birds and see them be so active. Then we headed to the butterfly exhibit. I guess being that I am a male, I lacked interest in butterflies. Brenda was very excited (probably for scientific reasons) and I must admit that I was quickly won over. You walk in and you can’t help but feel like you are in a fairy tail. Hundreds and hundreds of butterflies fluttering all around you with colors and patterns that only a school of children could imagine. Some even had see through windows on their wings. You could hold them, watch them come out of cocoons, get great pictures and video of them. It was all round a very surreal and fascinating place to be. From there we continued to the monkeys (all in cages), a swimming lagoon, a rainforest hiking trail, a snake room, a native farm house, a frog area (also very fun to see different frogs not in cages), and finally down to the bottom of the waterfalls. About half way down Brenda turned to me with a big smile and exclaimed “They have a shuttle at the bottom to take us back up!” From that time on you could see that she was enjoying the waterfalls to a much greater degree :)

After such a “hard working” weekend Brenda and I were in great need of a relaxing getaway so we headed to the beach! Manuel Antonio is one of many popular destinations in Costa Rica for residents and tourists. It is a beautiful stretch of beach and a national park on the pacific coast about half way down the country’s coastline. It is a 3 1/2 hour, scarier than one can imagine, bus ride from San Jose. Ok, it was mostly scarey because our driver was extremely unsafe by Costa Rican standards, but the trip also included a bridge that one would think could not handle the weight of a flock of seagulls. It spanned a river comparable to the pit river, however at this point in time it was raging over its banks. On the way home we crossed the river at 5:30pm while I prayed fervently for safety. We later found out that at 3:30 they had declared a state of emergency because all communities surrounding the bridge were being flooded. The photos were similar to Texas or New Orleans only in a less populated area. I’m actually surprised that the bridge had remained open but it did and we were fine.

The three days we spent there were phenomenal. We arrived at 9:30am on a hot and sunny Tuesday to a stunning and empty beach. Within 30 seconds of stepping off the bus we were offered a room overlooking the beach for $20 a night! The room was very simple (no phone, tv, etc) but very clean and pleasant. Don’t worry Dad, I didn’t just take the first offer we had. I looked around and there was nothing else under 35$ that wasn’t really gross. We settled quickly in order to make the most of our day. Would you believe that Brenda enjoyed a day at the beach!?! While searching for something to do that required little advanced planning we were enlightened to the fact that you could rent surf boards for $5 per hour! There are so many major advantages to being here during the rainy season. We decided to go one step further and pay the guy to give us lessons for an hour. They ended up not being lessons as much as yelling at us for an hour, but it did make us more comfortable in the water and gave us a general idea of how to surf and be safe. Eventually we discovered that we had way more fun together on boogie boards than surf boards so we would return two days later for more hours of the former. Another nice thing about the lesson was that it included board rental for the remainder of the day as well as chairs and an umbrella to sit under while we rested. All in all we enjoyed a beautiful first day in the sun and waves. And then came the rain…. There are also some down sides to going in the rainy season. Our second and third days there were complete wash outs. I predict that 38 feet of rain fell in 2 days :) It proved to be a blessing in disguise as we read a lot together (which Bren loved) and made a little trip to Quepos (the neighbouring city) where we had dinner on the second night. The next morning we figured we were heading to the national park, rain or shine. RAIN. We thought for 30 minutes or so that it may be dry but our hike through the park trails became a hike through the parks flowing creeks. We had a great time though. We said “to heck with umbrellas and jackets, were gonna get wet” which ended up being fairly comfortable and fun. I’m also not a huge fan of monkeys so the down pour made for a memorable experience and forced all the monkeys into hiding. Woo hoo! Upon finishing the park we used our final few hours at the beach boogie boarding as mentioned before, prior to heading back to San Jose in the evening.

Straight from one to the next. We arrived home from Manuel on Thursday night and needed to be on the bus to San Carlos at 2pm on Friday. Unfortunately at noon on Friday Brenda came down with a nasty fever. I was reluctant to leave her but she pushed, Josh refused to go if I didn’t, and Hope and Brian offered to care for her while I was gone. It is certainly a good thing she didn’t go. The road to San Carlos is long and is mostly comprised of switch backs. Even several healthy people were hanging out the windows trying to calm their stomachs. This 3 day missions trip with a school and a youth group was almost as hard work as our earlier construction project. There were different opportunities including trail building, concrete work, bamboo cutting, vbs, bible school, and painting. Josh and I did bamboo cutting and trail building (mostly grueling wheel barrow work) for both days where I learned about 1 cor 13 that talks about anything we do without love being present isn’t worth anything. This is because I got very frustrated with four grade 8 boys who would fit in perfectly at Elgin Park. Their motives for being on this missions trip were clearly not to work and they ended up being a significant burden on the ministry rather than a blessing. I eventually had to ask them not to join our work crew anymore. How I should have handled it was to love them and spend time with them and trust God that he would provide others to complete the work around the camp. That was my biggest lesson of the weekend. They continued to be very difficult and encouraged 5 of their female friends to join them in their escapades. We pushed on and had the privilege of soaking in hot springs and enjoying a steak dinner at a nearby hotel to finish off our time their. The hot springs were very impressive. After a short hike into the jungle a series of 8 pools lined the side of a churning, muddy river. Each pool was made of rock and surrounded by palm trees (naturally there) and a cabana hut had been set up with toilets, change rooms, a shower, and drinks. It was the type of place you’d expect to see movie stars vacationing. Other highlights included seeing an armadillo, doing devotionals with guys before bed, and stopping in a small town for lunch on the way home.

Upon returning home, I discovered that I had several new freckles that felt like splinters. I pulled a few off thinking they were off wood from the bamboo that I had been moving. After removing three or four, I looked more closely and realized that my new freckles were alive! I had 32 very very tiny crab-like insects (Chiggers) attached to me that had decided they liked my blood. We don't think they go inside you but I took some medication just to make sure. Other than hurting me when I pulled them off and feeling like bad splinters for a few days, they haven't been terribly annoying. Brenda also picked up a bug of her own. Sheer terror flowed through her body when a family member at the house/doctor told her that she had an infection similar to the one on her face. She is now on anti-biotics and we are waiting to see how she responds. It is not nearly as aggressive as the last one as it has remained the same size since the first day. Because of this and a few other deciding factors, we figured it was a better bet to say here rather than bus to a remote town in Panama called Bocas del Toro. It would have been cool to snorkle and stay on the Atlantic but both of us feel that we made the decision concidering God's priorities and therefore are happy we stayed.

And finally we find ourselves here on Saturday the 25th almost about to come home. The past four days have been quite uneventful. We have been finishing up projects at the hilstads house, shopping, reading, sleeping, and watching movies. Life is tough. Brenda and I agree that this time has been good for our marriage. Many people we love were concerned that we were leaving too soon into our marriage and that we should take time in a comfortable environment to get used to each other. I imagine for some that makes a tonne of sense and also that if you were to go to a really stressful place that may very well happen. In Costa Rica, however, Brenda and I have found that we've had far far more time to get to know each other here than we have ever experienced at home. When at home it is just way too easy to build your 'to do list' which decreases time together and increases stress levels. Here we have no stress and nothing to do but enjoy each other's company. Sure, life isn't rosey here all the time but our time together here has been a blessing to us. That being said, we are excited to see you all again, sleep in a quiet house, and shop at walmart. I'm sorry Rick but one of the things I miss most is being able to walk into one amazing store and purchase everything I need at a price that makes me happy. I have spent far too many hours here going to ma and pa shops all over town. Thanks to the trade agreement that was just passed, soon Costa Rica will know the joys of big box stores aswell :)

Stay tuned for one last post!

Shaun

Que sera, sera

2008-10-18T16:19:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my (Brenda’s) immune system, our plans have changed again. Right now I am supposed to be in San Carlos as a leader for a missions trip through the AMCA youth group, but an hour and a half before leaving on the trip, I ended up suddenly having a 39.0 degree fever. It is not in my nature to change my plans or to bail on my commitments, but I elected not to go, and it took me about 12 hours of chills, vomiting, etc. before I was at peace that I made the right decision. Shaun had no intention of leaving me until it became obvious that his going was a necessity, so we arranged that I would stay with the Hilstads while Shaun and their children went on the trip. He managed to call me today and it seems like not all of the youth have the intention to work, so if you could pray for anything, it could be against the laziness and apathy that has plagued the youth group (and much of our generation for that matter). It is frustrating for those leading, so you could pray that the leaders would be wise in their approach and for appropriate moments for teaching godly characteristics. I’m sure Shaun will give you an update when he gets back.

Shaun and I do not understand the economic feasibility of many of the businesses here. The price of goods here seems comparable to Canadian prices, but services are unbelievably cheap. (A mechanic will work on your car for four hours and charge you $20…and those are normal rates) The internet cafe near our house charges about $0.50/hour, so at full capacity (which they are never at) they are making only $5.00. They don’t sell anything else, yet they have to pay the people who work there, pay for the building, pay for all the anti-virus software etc., it just doesn’t seem to make sense. We went on (what should have been) a three-four hour bus trip with a charter company to Manuel Antonio and our tickets were only $6.00. There were only 10-15 people on the bus, and all but three of the people could have taken a different bus because they were dropped off earlier than the final destination. None of their trips in the rainy season would be much busier than ours, yet they do the trip three times a day. Gas is certainly not any cheaper here, and those buses use excessive amounts gas…it just doesn’t make sense. They only made $60-90, and that certainly couldn’t have come close to covering their costs. I also don’t understand how these people can afford the cost of living when their wages are so low compared to the price of goods.

Our time in Manuel Antonio was wonderful despite only one day of sun and two days of pouring rain (and by pouring, I mean that the roads and bridges in the area were on Red Alert due to flooding). Because services are so cheap, we rented surf boards and lessons on the one sunny day. Shaun mostly surfed and I tried to surf. My lack of skill and very bruised legs determined that we switch to boogie boards, which ended up being the better option. The beaches were beautiful. Our five hour hike through the national park ended up at some points being more of a walk through a river rather than a walk on a trail. We couldn’t have been more wet after the hike had we jumped into the ocean (pictures to come). Brian told me that San Hose gets twice the rainfall as Vancouver, and most of it comes in September and October (now we know why our flights were so cheap), but the really nice thing is that when it’s raining, you are almost always warm…too warm, usually, for a rain jacket. It is so much more pleasant hiking and boogie boarding in the rain when you are warm – we were very grateful for that. The Costa Rican family that we are staying with finds it hilarious that we hit the two rainiest days in Manuel Antonio (apparently it’s beautiful there now), and the forecast for the trip to San Carlos states that they are supposed to now have some of their rainiest days. Que sera, sera.

Chalupas for Thanksgiving

2008-10-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

My (Brenda) family noticed a trend when Gina was in Thailand...it seemed that her happiest days were when she got to spend some time with animals. She would have been quite enthusiastic to report about our recent weekend. The Hilstads took us up to a friend's cabin called Casa Shalom where we had the chance to go to La Paz Waterfalls and to see the volcano at Poaz National Park. At La Paz, the waterfalls are almost the secondary attraction because they have built some really neat animal viewing spots where we got to see some interesting wildlife (attached pictures should tell more of the story).

My favorite moment in Costa Rica was with our friends Trish and Curtis. In a very typical Costa Rican fashion, nothing that evening was quite going as planned. We were trying to order pizza, but couldn't get through on the phone, so Curtis and Shaun went walking (in the pouring rain) to order it and asked for it to be delivered. Forty-five minutes after ordering, the pizza still hadn't arrived and we all began to question the whole paying-for-the-pizza-before-receiving-it thing. We were really happy to hear the motorcycle approaching (remember, no addresses here also makes it fairly difficult to tell someone where to go). Curtis tried to run out of the house as he was driving up and down the road to flag him down, but their front door requires a key to get out and their one year old son had taken the keys and placed them in an unknown location. There was no way to get out of their uber-gated windows and so we had to yell at the pizza delivery man through the window as the four of us scrambled and were at the point of ripping apart their entire house to find the missing keys. It was just the catastrophe situation that I love. We found the keys before the delivery guy took off on us.

I don't have much more time, so the rest of this will be quick. Last week we went up to Los Guidos to help with the children in an area where they were teaching English to help people. Next week we go on our Missions trip to San Carlos with the English-speaking youth group where we will be doing construction and teaching VBS, but before that we will be taking some time to explore a bit. When we left, we had assumed that we'd have about two weeks to do the tourist thing and so we are going Manuel Antonio (the beach) tomorrow. Apparently Shaun has never been to a tropical beach, so he is rather excited. I am not quite sure if I even brought my bathing suit here...the thought likely didn't cross my mind...probably not so normal for people travelling to Costa Rica...knowing me if I have it, I probably won't wear it anyway.

We've added some pictures to older posts because this is our first opportunity to do so.

Hope you are all well at home.

Floods, games, and so much more

2008-10-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Time goes by so quickly when you go to bed before nine everyday :)

Would you believe that no more than 2 hours after I bragged of the amazing drainage here, it rained so hard that there was major flooding and mudslides. Brenda and I were very close to not being able to get home. There are three roads out from the Hilstad's; one was under 2 ft of water, one was under 3 feet of mud, and the way we got out was under 8 inches. Any higher and we would have been spending the night. Thankfully a friend offered us a ride just in time.

Since then we have been up to all kinds of stuff. We spent an evening at Trish and Curtis' house eating pizza and playing settlers. We now know that Brenda and I are equally cut throat during games as we are during baking :) Side note - Brenda won Settlers and the game of Monopoly the day before. I need to work on my game.

We've also been playing plenty of games with Josh and Hannah Hilstad. We have been taking care of them while their parents got away for a couple days. Last night we played flashlight tag outside which is no easy task on a very hilly and very slippery landscape. Josh ended up very muddy but we all enjoyed ourselves. In continuing my assistance with house projects I began digging a ditch to redirect water to the side of their property. Upon starting Josh offered me bug spray. "No thanks" I replied, as I hadn't noticed any bugs. I worked for a couple hours and felt a few bites but nothing too bad. I stopped working and came inside, only to see that I had 104 bites just on my legs! They are similar to small black flies in Northern BC but they don't itch at first. They make you bleed a bit and last for 1 - 2 weeks. They only itch if you scratch them or rub up against stuff. (ie. pants) Thanks to Gold Bond they aren't feeling too bad. Today I hope to finish the ditch and the last door to be painted.

This week we are hoping to go on a train to the coast, spend a day in Los Quito at some ministry that we know nothing about, join a bible study, and spend the weekend at a cabin in volcano territory.

Thanks for reading. More soon. With pictures!

Read this if you REALLY care. (long version) scroll down for short version

2008-10-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Guess what! It’s Sharelle’s birthday today (Oct.3). Happy birthday Sharelle! I hear lots about you these days as Brenda remembers what it was like to travel with her previous travel partner. My personal favorite was as we walked through a shopping district I was informed that “Sharelle would have loved to stop in there, and she would like that in the window, and I would go read by the river now because Sharelle would want lots of time here :)” I almost feel like I went to Europe with you :)

So the time here is really strange. We are directly below Florida and yet we are only one hour earlier than Pacific Standard Time. That’s because we are the farthest eastern point in central time and also don’t have day light saving time. I’m not sure what time the sun comes up but it goes down at 5:30. It apparently goes down in and around six all year long. We plan to be home each night before 6 unless we're at the Hilstads or a friends house. Don’t worry Mom. We have decided to always take a cab after dark. It's fairly safe here but two gringos do draw a lot of attention so we’d rather play it safe.

The rain here is extremely fun. I knew about convectional precipitation but I had no clue that it comes with thunder and lightning EVERYDAY! The thunder is so long sometimes that I mistake it for a plane because it just keeps going and going. And then there’s the rain. You know when it rains really hard in Vancouver and all the roads flood and they declare a state of emergency. Well that much water falls here everyday. The drainage is so impressive. The rivers rise several feet every afternoon and are right back to normal the next morning.

I know Brenda has been keeping you posted on what we’ve been up to so I won’t go into too much detail. When we arrived we basically spent 3 days meeting people. Hope had arranged for us to meet and have meals with several people she thought we might benefit from knowing. It proved to be a blessing as we made friends with a couple named Trish and Curtis. They are here at language school learning Spanish before going to Cuba for 4 years. They have the world’s happiest son Lucas who just started walking 5 weeks ago. Seriously this kid has a smile that is half the size of his face and absolutely nothing can wipe it off. I saw him smack his head into solid wood quite hard and smile and laugh as he picked himself up off the ground. He is extremely cute. I hope they ask us to babysit.

For the two days following that, Brenda was the teacher on call for the Hilstads home schooling while Brian Hilstad and I went to work on some very poor families houses. The thing that struck me the most was at how at home I felt. We went to houses that are identical to those that you’d see on a world vision infomercial and yet I felt so comfortable in that environment. Perhaps culture shock will happen on the way home but it certainly didn’t even show itself here. I am very convinced that Costa Rica is an excellent place for first time missions experience. It is a very different culture with extreme poverty, a new language, and so many things to get used to, but at the same time you don’t have to worry about drinking water, extreme religious views, and the like. There is enough American influence here that isn’t visible but allows you to function somewhat normally. (ie. You can go to a grocery store and find most of the same items you would at home)

The next three days we spent working on a construction project building a classroom onto a school. It was three days of painful and senseless back breaking labour. We were working with a team of general contractors and building contractors who claimed even they had never experienced such labour intensive days. Not to mention that they were doing the “thinking work” while a select few of us were hauling sand and gravel half way across the planet :) Please take my complaints extremely lightly. It was very difficult but we really enjoyed working with the guys and it was very gratifying to see the progress that was made on the structure.

Since then we have been primarily going over to the Hilstads place and enjoying their company while doing odd jobs for them. They are a really great family. Josh and Hannah are very mature in their faith, grateful, obedient, and fun to be around. Hope and Brian are extremely hospitible, gentle, and Godly. The biggest thing we feel we are contributing to them is freeing them to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise get around to. Brenda’s teaching allows Brian time to help family friends and my painting of doors and panels allows them to check things off their to do list that have been needing completion for years. On Tuesday Brian took us to an amazing place called the Abraham Project. If you are interested you can google it to check out their website. They began a ministry 8 years ago starting with 20 dollars. The pastor who started it is extremely resourceful and through God’s blessing they have managed to build a sanctuary/cafeteria, a ministry center similar to PPAC’s new building, three homes for abandoned children, a house for the security guard, and three workshops for further building. The primary fuel for the project is free lumber donated by a glass company that uses wood to ship their glass securely. They used to burn it when they were done but now they have it sent to this project where it is used beautifully to build these buildings. It is a great short term missions trip for a team if anyone is interested. They have teams come down and take nails and staples out of the wood so that they can use it to build. We had a personal 2 hour tour and I left so impressed by every detail of how they run the facility. They approach everything from child care to finances with much Godly integrity and include God’s teachings in everything they do.

So that brings us to today. We were supposed to travel south a short distance to see another ministry in Los Guitos but a funeral was being held in the church so that was canceled. Instead Brenda and I slept until 12, went for a traditional lunch down the road, and then rode a city bus in a big 2 hour circle. Nothing quite like sightseeing for 60 cents each :) It was actually very enjoyable until they made us switch to an older bus that gave us at most 8 inches of leg space.

It has been surprisingly refreshing to live here. Though we’ve been working in the day, the long evenings have encouraged us to go to bed earlier and spend more time talking and reading together before bed. It makes me happy to see Brenda well rested as I don’t have to worry quite as much about her health :) woo hoo!

Anyways, That is all for now. It’s 9:50 and that means I am an hour and a half passed my bedtime. I know that sounds nuts but that’s far more normal here. Everyone wakes up really early because they know the rain is coming in the afternoon. It is the rainy season so if you want to get anything done it has to be in the morning.

I hope you are all very well. We look forward to seeing you all in November. We have a place lined up for November to Jan.25 very near to Sharelle’s last house in Rosemary Heights so you will all have to stop by and visit.

Prayer requests: That we'd be useful and doing the best plan that God has line up. That the Hilstads would continue to feel blessed and not burdened by our being here. For safety and communication as we travel to the west coast (14th) and the Panama border on the east coast (24th).

Thanks for your support. More soon!

Shaun

Read this if you kind of care :) (short version)

2008-10-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well with each of you. Life here is treating us well. Other than three painful days of construction, we haven't been working nearly as hard as we anticipated. However we do feel we are being helpful in freeing up some time for the Hilstads to accomplish things on their to do list. They are a great family that we really enjoy spending time with.

We are living with a Costa Rican family that make us feel right at home. We are eating like kings as food and water are very abundant here. Our bodies are probably happier than they've ever been as they get a balanced diet and plenty of sleep.

Please email us if you wish. We like to hear from you.

Prayer requests: That we'd be useful and doing the best plan that God has line up. That the Hilstads would continue to feel blessed and not burdened by our being here. For safety and communication as we travel to the west coast (14th) and the Panama border on the east coast (24th).

Thank you so much for your support. More soon.

Shaun

Just when I thought my days at Lehigh were over...

2008-09-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

For the past three days Shaun and I joined a team of men from Florida who came to Costa Rica for four days to build a concrete addition onto an elementary school in a poorer district of town (Alajuelita). The first day, I didn´t join in the building because apparently women don´t do that stuff, and I had been a very little bit sick, so I helped teach some English in the classroom and visited and helped some of the families in the area. The second day, I thought I´d be more helpful joining in the shovelling (we were mixing concrete and had to shovel it all in to the mixer). At the end of the third day, when the principal of the school came to thank the crew for their work, a woman came with them to present me with a gift. They told me that the mothers of the school were watching and talking about me because of how hard I was working for a female (like I said...apparently women don´t do that kind of stuff here). I recieved a candle with the colours of the Costa Rican flag that one of the women in the community made (as soon as I can get to a computer where I can upload pictures, I´ll try to show you). That was kind of special. I certainly never recieved anything like that for working hard at Lehigh.

They certainly don´t have the same working conditions in Costa Rica...not only were we lacking much equipment that would have made the whole process significantly easier, but there were an excessive amount of safety hazards that were just not a concern to anyone there. Men would stand on scaffolding on uneven ground...the scaffolding would be sinking into the ground as they were on it... the boards they were on looked they they were on the point of breaking and they´d be lifting ridiculously heavy concrete slabs over their heads with no safety equipement at all...neither Shaun nor I volunteered for that job. I also found it pretty hilarious that we would dump the concrete while it was pouring rain, and they would put ladders on it and climb up them after only about five hours of it setting. There were builders on the crew (almost all of them had some sort of background in construction or the military, etc.) who said that these were the most labour intensive days they had ever worked in their lives. There is a part of me that is glad we´re finished.

4 hours of driving, 10 hours on planes and 16 hours in airports... we made it!

2008-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

The last time I (Brenda) left for a trip and reported back about my adventures, it was in Europe. My luggage didn't end up arriving with me and I came to our hotel room to find Sharelle stuck in a mini shower/bathroom. The start of this trip has been no less eventful.

Shaun and I had very good intentions of leaving on Wednesday evening before our trip to drive down to Seattle, spend the night there and then catch our very early flight. However, Wednesday morning, I woke up to find Shaun lying on the floor, unable to stand due to dizzyness, after which he engaged in violent vomiting...not a great way to start a trip. Our assumption is that he had a reaction to one of the vaccines he received. Shaun managed to feel adequate enough to finish packing and moving by Wednesday evening. This meant that we left for Seattle at 1 in the morning and didn't really sleep at all.

Our first flight to Houston was pretty uneventful (except for my breakfast milk that I spilled all over Shaun's pants and the plane seat, which, thanks to good preparation wasn't the hugest deal in the world because he had a change of clothes. After losing luggage last year, I have learned the advantage of packing a significant carry-on) Our second flight was where our good preparation really paid off. The pilot tried to land at our destination in Costa Rica, but was unable to due to a storm. After descending and ascending and turning around and flying far longer than we should have, we landed in Nicaragua where we were required to spend the night to wait out the storm. I think we were among the few who were happy to get off the plane because we knew that it meant we could find a floor to lay down since neither of us do very well sleeping on planes.. We were told that we would leave the next morning, and so our flight turned into a very large slumber party at one end of the very small Nicaraguan airport - for the most part with very disgruntled slumberers. The floor, after so little sleep, became surprisingly comfortable to us, and since we were armed for disaster, we were just fine. We had extra snacks, comfortable clothing to change into, sleeping bags that we zipped together, all of our toiletries, ear plugs, sleeping masks, etc. It was pretty wonderful. Never underestimate the beauty of a well-packed carry-on.

We arrlived safely (after over 50 hours of not seeing a bed to sleep in) and have so far really enjoyed the company of Brian and Hope Hilstad, the missionaries who are helping organize what we will be involved in here. We will tell you more about them later. We are staying with a Tico family here (tico just means native to Costa Rica) which is really interesting because Aida, the lady whose house it is, doesn't speak a word of english. We are enjoying laughing and learning with them as we try to communicate. There are three other people who live there, but about 15 people who eat there...they are a wonderful family (who serves us pinapple for breakfast) and we are enjoying their company.

Some interesting things so far about Costa Rica:

-there are no street names. Being a generally directionless person, maps have saved my life...no such luck here.

-there is no form of postal service. I thought it would be a possiblity to vote in the election for afar, but you need an address abroad to do that...those don't exist here

-directions and addresses are hilarious. You find your place by people telling you to turn right at the large yellow sign, go 300m, turn right and find the blue and white house with the big pole. If you do happen to look at a map, this is what you will see. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=costa+rica&ie=UTF8&ll=9.899186,-84.054766&spn=0.026296,0.055275&z=14 (This map has labelled every street name that exists - most of the streets don't actually have the names on them anyway...we live in the loop in the middle of the map.)

-based on your lisence plate number, there is one day of the week where the government has specified that you are not able to drive your car in any of the main areas due to traffic. The Hilstads can't drive on Thursdays

-They have PriceSmart here...weird. We also spent our first night playing Wii and Guesstures with Brian and Hope and another missionary couple. I guess some things are still like home.

Taking the road less traveled by (and hopefully making a difference?)

2008-09-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Our flights are booked!

Plans have changed one or two times in the past with regards to our trip, but we finally have some definite plans! We are going to Costa Rica - leaving on Sept. 18th and returning October 29th. We will be working with the Hilstads (missionaries from our church). Shaun will be doing some construction projects and I will be doing some teaching and other work. We're really excited about leaving and would love your prayers for this first 'portion' of our trip. The second 'portion' of the trip will commence in late January and we'll be gone for at least seven months. We're hoping this initial trip will help us to figure out how we can better prepare for the second one.