Urime Vitin e Ri

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas has come and gone...and I have to admit that I enjoy the holiday for the true reason for the holiday more in the Balkans than in America. Don't get me wrong...I love being home and being in America and with my family...but its too commercialized and materialistic here. It seems that Jesus is left out completely....or at least put on the back burner to Santa.

I hope that this Christmas each one of you was able to reflect on the gift of the birth of Christ. I am thankful most of all for the new life that God has given me, through Christ's birth and his sacrifice so that I may have new life filled with joy and love.

Overall I have been having a great time here in the states. Here are a few pictures from my time so far.

I am staying at my brother's new house and loving it. He is a great host. My first night here we had fondue.



Then I went back to my college and met up with my freshman year roommates.



As I was flying back to the states this time, I was thinking about what type of food I wanted to eat. Strangely enough I decided I wanted sushi. So my brother took me to his favorite place.



We also helped my mom's work fill 250 food baskets for the holidays.



And met up with more college friends.



And Christmastime!

I am in America...and very tired.

Good night!

5:30am and my alarm goes off…

Where am I? Do I have to wake up right now? How much longer can I stay in bed? These thoughts quickly roll through my head, and then I realize where I am and that I need to wake up and get ready. A taxi is coming is 30 minutes to pick me up and take me to the airport.

5:50am….I am ready, I go to the kitchen to grab something for breakfast. I glance out the window. Wow, the taxi is already here. I quickly grab a biscuit, wrap it in a napkin and thrown it in my bag, then rush out the door, in case the taxi is impatient and doesn’t wait for me – I am still in the Balkans.

6:00am…in the taxi, hoping the driver will actually take me to the airport. Why did he ask me which way to go? Like I know! Ok, Ok, I recognize the road now, my fears calm down. The driver passes the time by asking me a million questions…I can hardly hear him because the car is so loud….muffler, what’s that?

6:45am…I arrive at the airport, check in, drink coffee. No lines, hardly any people. Wow, this is easy. Many people stare at me as I sit alone in the café drinking coffee, eating my biscuit, and reading my Bible. I enjoy the relaxation and the start to my day.

7:30am…free wireless internet here? Wow, I am amazed. What development in one of the poorest countries in Europe. Meanwhile my computer is plugged into an extension cord which the airport check-in computer is plugged into. Interesting dichotomy of development and lack there of. Enjoy chatting with a friend in the states while I write this blog.

8:15am…take off (we’ll see if this happens on time. I only have a 2 hour layover in Prague, so I hope all goes on schedule.)

Tomorrow

I can't believe that this week is already over. This afternoon I will drive down to the city I will fly out of tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night I will land in Boston. I am excited - but I still have lots to do in the next couple hours. Thankfully, I am not flying out of the airport in my city. This decision was purely because I got a cheaper flight from a different city. But for the past two days, no planes have left the airport in my city. The area around the airport is completely white - no, not with snow - the fog is back. So today, while thinking of my flight tomorrow morning (and thinking about my flight last year that did not take off as planed, delaying and messing up all my travel plans) I am happy to fly out of a city a little more south of here, and hopefully without fog.

I believe I had more to write on here...but the minutes are passing away and I am still not packed. I should get to that now.

Fire

P.S. I really love my stove!

Christmas is coming

Well thankfully for the moment, the stress has passed. I successfully wrote my exams, and prepared and taught the review classes. Today I felt confident enough in my work that when a friend unexpectantly showed up at my door, I didn't flip out. Instead we put up some Christmas decorations, but actually I think she just laughed at me - and I put up the decorations. I wasn't going to decorate my apartment this year, as I kept not having time. But today as I pulled out my tree to bring it downstairs to our office, I found a few other decorations. I am very happy now that they are up. I am constantly playing Christmas music and now I have some red garland hanging from the wall...and a tree to look at in our office...its Christmas time. Also, this is the first year that the city has decorated some for Christmas - its just beautiful. Actually, its not the city that is decorating (as its a Muslim country) but one Austrian Bank has decorated the main streets with lights. Its nice because there is not the extreme commercialism of Christmas, but a few cute lights here and there.

Last night I went to two concerts. The first was a classical concert performed by a student graduating from the Music faculty (department). He had to put on this concert to graduate. It was good. During the concert we (me and two of my students) were sitting with a music professor. He told us about another concert that night, and gave us his invitation. So we proceeded to the local Philharmonic Orchestra concert. I didn't know this country had anything like that. I was impressed, and excited to go. It made me miss playing the French horn - which I haven't touched in about 10 years. I miss being part of a band. So I am happy that I have two new musical friends that will inform me of future musical events.

With all this said...I am going to bed. Its my goal to go to bed before midnight....maybe even be asleep by midnight as its now 11:20 and I am almost ready for bed. Now that would just be amazing! I have been averaging a bedtime of 3am lately. And I have been very tired.

Naten e mire

Stress

This week is reminding me of what I was like back in college. When I get stressed out I get sick and moody. Thats how I feel now. I have too many things that have to get done before I leave in exactly one week . And because I will be gone for a couple weeks I want to spend more time with my friends, but that is getting cut out of my schedule this week, which I hate.

This week I have to give two exams (which I stayed up late last night writing, but they are done) review for the exams in both classes (which I am not prepared for yet), proofread a movie script that has been translated into English, create a powerpoint presentation on this country (as I am speaking at a school my first day back in Amera - which I am not regretting saying yes to), visit my old city and some friends there, get my legs waxed and a pedicure (this might have to be cut out, but I need it), buy some christmas presents here...

I am sure the list goes on, but thats all I could think of for today. I really should create a real list or I am sure to forget some things. For example I was planning to go back to my old city tonight to visit my friends there. But as I was writing an exam last night I looked through my class notes. There I saw the note I made myself saying I will meet a friend and go to a concert tonight. So back to square one on when I will have time to go back to my old city. Can I have just a few more hours in each day?

Well I should get back to work. I was hoping this would be a little stress relief, but not sure if it helped.

life

What esle does a girl want? I now have fast internet, a wood stove, and great cable channels. Yesterday I changed internet services and I am amazed at how fast a 256 connection is. Now I can listen to online radio, watch live webstreaming from my church, and download things so much faster. I am a happy girl right now.

And what makes everything even better - in one week I am flying to America for Christmas. I am very happy to go and see my family and friends. It will be a nice break for me. I have been very busy these past few months, with many changes, so I am ready to sit back and relax - well maybe not relax, but at least a break from work.

Its foggy again and I am staying home today. Now I should go clean as some girls are coming over tonight to watch a movie.

my lovely stove

My stove

The sun has been shining for two days now and I am happy. Sunday night there was a lot of fog again, and I started to get slightly depressed. Its amazing how much the weather changes my mood. Today I have been very happy, and eager to get out of my flat and go for a walk (which actually won't ever happen - except for the short walk to class.)

The big news for today is that I have a wood stove. Electricity here is very expensive, and last winter, although I was only here for part of it, I was cold. Using electric heaters, it takes more money than I am willing to spend to get a room warm. Last winter I kept thinking back to the joy of the wonderful heat the wood stove in my last house provided. Its a different type of warmth...okay a little smokey....but really toasty warm. I love it. So I looked around and decided to buy myself a woodstove. I think I will end up saving money in the long run - and for sure I will be warmer. I actually bought the stove on Saturday night, but then when we got it upstairs we realized we didn't have all the right pieces. Then sunday was my landlord's daughter's birthday, so we left it another day. Yesterday I was busy getting ready for class....and finally today we put the stove together. Although its fairly warm today and there is not a need for a fire, I started one up right away . I was too excited. Thankfully the fire started quickly (we'll see if they are always that easy. Sometimes it takes forever to get the fire started) and warmed up the room nicely. I am very happy to have a stove again. The best part of this stove is that it is small, unlike the typical cooking stoves here that are really big, but it still has a part to cook in (I love cooking in a wood stove - gives me a nice sense of accomplishment) and the fire part has a pretty glass window so you can see the fire. Its just wonderful. I will try to borrow someone else's camera and take a picture soon.

Ok, I am off to teach now.

Weather

There was this big yellow thing in the sky today....I am not sure what it was.

Finally the clouds started to break today and the sun peaked through a little.

Yesterday (wow, yes, just yesterday, although it seems like a week ago) I met a friend for coffee in the morning. I walked 15 minutes to meet up with her. We greeted each other and started walking. "Its such a nice day today," my friend commented. I stopped walking and looked around. At that moment I realized there was not fog anymore. (Although still very cloudy - funny that after 5 straight days of thick fog a clear, but cloudy day is great weather.)

Every other day this week, as soon as I woke up, I looked out the window - questioning if the white blanket outside was fog or finally snow. Each day I was disappointed as I saw it was more fog. Yesterday I woke up fairly early (for me) as I had much work to do, and skipped the look out the window. It was still very cloudy, so I just assumed the fog was still there. Thankfully, I was wrong.

(Comment on the picture in the previous post: A friend from here could not even recognize where the picture was taken. Once I explained where I was standing while taking the picture she understood the great amount of fog there really was.)

Fog

"Has anyone seen the sun lately?"

This was a comment a friend made today. I laughed, and think its extremely appropriate. I borrowed my boss's camera today and took a picture of this horrible fog we have had for the past 5 days. This picture was taken at 3pm...it shouldn't be this dark....but it looks like this all day...and worse at night. And driving in this...horrible!

I am ready for the sun again.

Randomness

I sometimes try to come up with a title to my post before I start, for I often think I know what I will talk about. The problem is, it usually goes in a completely different direction once I start typing away, and then I have to go and change the title.

(I love the Northern Irish accent. Random comment, yes, I know. I am watching CNN international right now. I didn't know anyone from Ireland before I moved here, so I didn't realize how fun of an accent it is.)

Okay I was about to say that I have realized I am a very random person lately, and therefore the change in direction while typing away...and I have proven myself by the comment above. For some reason, most of my thoughts while typing end up on the screen. I seem to sometimes have too strong of a filter of what comes out of my mouth, as I do not make many comments in spoken conversations (now I did say sometimes, for at times they do slip out). It is completely the opposite in my written words. I can ramble on for ages...and end up no where. For those of you reading this...I hope you don't mind. If you do, you probably just won't read my updates again, so no worries.

Its cold in my flat. I just got home about 30 minutes ago, and I thought I wouldn't be up long enough to need to turn the heater on. I was warm from unloading the car and felt fine. Now that my body has cooled off...I am cold. I guess this post won't last much longer - I don't type well when shivering. I need to buy a wood stove. I have been meaning to do this for awhile, and now I am getting desperate. The problem is that I am never free my when landlord is, and I don't want to go buy a stove on my own. Hopefully in the next couple days my flat will be nice and toasty with a pretty fire blazing.

I had a great Thanksgiving day in my old city hanging out with old friends. I miss the international family that we have there. My day started out busy, as I woke up early (for me), threw some boxed brownies together and baked them before heading out for a quick coffee visit. Then I picked up some friends and we headed west driving across the country (a 1 1/2 hour drive.) I brought my friends to their parents house and drank some more coffee. When I got to the house where we were having Thanksgiving I jumped into set-up mode....and kept going until the festivities ended at about 10:30pm Somewhere in the midst of the afternoon I realized I never e-mailed my family or talked to them in order to set up a time to call or anything. I was not in my flat, so I did not have access to my American phone...and the Internet wasn't working where I was. The holiday came and went, and I did not talk to my family. At the end of the day, that made me sad. But I am happy to know that I will spend Christmas with them....then I will be missing all my friends here. And because of this, I am thankful today for technology. I love my work here overseas. I know without a doubt its where God wants me to be. But some days are harder than other to be away from family and friends. I can not imagine what this would have been like 20 or more years ago. I am thankful that wherever God leads me I will be able to stay in contact with those I care about.

And on a final random note: I went to a large store tonight and while sitting at the cafe drinking coffee with a friend (yes I spend most of my time here drinking coffee) I noticed Christmas decorations were already up. I was amazed. This is a Muslim country, so this usually isn't the case. It brought a smile to my face - I love the Christmas season. The wonderful thing is that it was not overly commercialized, just a bit of garland, some red and green boughs, and a decorated tree. Nothing big and gaudy. No Santa Clause. Now I am going to go listen to my Christmas music.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What to write on here....This week has flown by, I guess because its only half of a week. The power was horrible this week, so its been a bit frustrating to get anything done. (It was at least better when I realized the schedule was 3 hours on/ 3 hours off.) Then my company e-mail is not currently working, which is a nice excuse not to get company related things done. Now its Wednesday night and I am headed to my old city for a small Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow.

I don't know how it happened, but all the sudden I have too many friends. No, its not good to say too many. But it is a problem when they all want to go out at the same time. You see, most people here don't plan their schedule, and so I end up having three coffee visits in one day, and none the next day. Why does it always happen that way? And then sometimes I make a mistake and mess up my schedule and forget what I had planned and have to cancel on someone. No fun!

Truly I am blessed that I have a couple good friends here in my new city. I have been here for 9 months, and just now feel that I have real friends in this city. Today, as it is the beginning of Thanksgiving, that is what I am thankful for. God is good - all the time!

And now that its 12:30am and I have a cold and should try to get some good sleep tonight... Naten e mire!

American Education

“This is a personal investigation of why school is a dangerous place. It’s not so much that anyone there sets out to hurt children; more that all of us associated with the institution are stuck like flies in the same great web your kids are. We buzz frantically to cover our own panic but have little power to help smaller flies.”

“We live together, you and I, in a dark time when all official history is propaganda. If you want truth, you have to struggle for it. This is my struggle. Let me bear witness to what I have seen.”

These are two quotes from the prologue of a book I just came across, The Underground History of American Education, by John Taylor Gatto. My cousin, who homeschools her children, sent an article to me about this guy and his view on the American education system. I found the article interesting, and continued to read about what this guy had to say. Now the education system here where I am is appalling, and often the topic of my thoughts, anger and frustration. I do not believe that the American education system is great, but it certainly is compared to what they have here. At the same time, I have recently realized that American schools have been forced to change a lot recently and are more and more forced to focus on standardized tests. I am completely against that. I wanted to write something interesting or thoughtful about this, but its late and my words are gone. Still I will post this and let you all read about this book for yourself and form your own thoughts. Any comments are appreciative. Maybe I will have more to say on this topic later….but usually I say that and never add anything else, so no promises.

You can access this whole book online. Or read the first article my cousin sent me.

Naten e mire.

Here is a picture from my recent conference. Our hotel was right on this lake. It was beuatiful!

(I love being able to steal pictures off other people's websites - Thanks Randy. Especially now that my camera is non-functional. Its strange that I have not been able to document my life since this summer. At least I have a few pictures here and there when other people are around with cameras. I never realized how dependent on my camera I was.)

God is good

Last Sunday I was stressed with all I had to get done before I left Monday morning. I stayed up until about 2:30am, woke up at 6am, then drove for 4 1/2 hours to a conference. Truthfully I was not looking forward to this conference. I do not know many of the other internationals working in this country, and I do not always enjoy meeting new people. Typically I put on a good act, but its hard. I guess thats really it, I am not a very talkative person, so getting to know new people takes a lot of work.

Thankfully, God took care of me and surprisingly I had a good time at this conference. It was a nice time of fellowship, encouragement, and learning. One interesting part of the conference was that there were people from all over the world there (all who work in this country). It was a blessing to fellowship together with all these people. Two random things I learned during this conference: 1) even though I enjoy traveling, I am horrible at geography - especially when it comes to Africa and South America. (Learned this during the quiz night, but we still did come in second!) 2) I have forgotten the strategy of Spades and currently am a horrible player (but I did have a good comeback even though the second game was cut short!)

(Random venting: ahh, I hate my internet...or maybe just the cable. I was supposed to change my internet connection this week. But the company is not ready to set it up yet. I think I found out tonight that there might be a different problem. I believe there is something wrong with the Ethernet cable that runs from the first floor up to my apartment on the second floor. This cable was recently "built" into the house as it was insulated, painted and tiled, so I can not see it, and can not look to see exactly what the problem is. I know that when I plug in my wireless router to the cable downstairs it works (but I only get a signal once in awhile). When I try to plug in the router upstairs, it doesn't work. I have tried everything. Maybe tomorrow it will be better.)

My dear laptop

The bad thing about having a laptop is that it is easy to throw. I tend to want to throw things when I get upset or frustrated. I don't think I often actually throw things (besides paper balls and Reeses), but the desire is often there. Since my laptop is about 4 years old, it doesn't always work very well. This week it has been really bad, for some reason. I don't know how many times I had the desire to just pick it up and throw it. That would solve all its problem, right?

Well, for awhile now my laptop screen has been broken, or actually as I found out today, the hinges are what is broken. I always have to have it leaning on something, which gets slightly annoying. Today I did not have a lot of work to do, so I finally brought my laptop to a computer store nearby. They took the laptop apart...and bad news...they could not fix it. They do not have access to Toshiba parts. They took out one of the hinges that was broken in two pieces, and said the other was stuck (like it was glued). They swore to me that someone else had opened up my laptop and tried to fix the problem before and that a few things were in the wrong place. As much as I can remember, I have never had my laptop fixed before, so no one should have ever taken it apart. Strange. The good news, they put the misplaced pieces back where they are supposed to be, and now my CD/DVD player works better. (It was making a horrible clanking noise every time I attempted to play a DVD. I say attempt, for it got so bad that it would not even play the DVD.)

So for now I still have to lean my computer screen against something, but at least I can play DVDs again - which means I can start having movie nights with the projector again. Very good! And I will try to refrain from throwing the laptop anytime soon....hopefully.

Election day and chicken poppyseed casserole

It is election day and I am in Europe. This morning I watched CNN and felt like I was being a good American and staying on top of current events. Tonight I will watch it again and see how things are going. But I am a bad American because I did not vote. I used to not pay much attention to politics, so I never registered to get an absentee ballot here. Lately I have started paying more attention, but I will just wait until the next presidential election. Strange to think that I will actually be in America for that.

Tonight I made dinner for some friends. I love cooking and I love chicken poppyseed casserole. I learned to make this dish in Jefferson City, TN, New Year's Eve, 1997 (going into 1998). I was visiting a friend I had met the previous summer while I worked at the Grand Canyon. I enjoyed the dish, and have been making it ever since. Its so good, and so easy. Little did I know at that point that I would eventually move to TN and go to restaurants that serve chicken poppyseed casserole. That's when I found out how much of a southern tradition this dish is. I could go on about food and cooking...but I have lots of work to do tonight. Maybe I will share more another time... for example about my first introduction to Skyline chili...here in the Balkans... Random I tell you!

Let its snow

..Let it snow, let it snow!

Yes, just one week ago I was walking outside in a t-shirt commenting on how warm it was for this time of the year. Well now I am commenting how we already have snow, and its just the first week in November! The wind is bitterly cold and I have decided that I am going to stay inside for the rest of the winter. Good plan, right? I guess its time for me to get my sweaters and long underwear out of storage and start putting them on. I am hoping I will get used to this cold weather again soon. Right now I have no desire to go outside unless I have to...especially at night.

This week I plan to buy a wood stove. Then at least I will be warm, actually hot, inside and more willing to go out. Its hard to want to go outside when you know its not even that warm inside.

Help please

Right now I am in the middle of planning the lesson for my English class tomorrow. While searching online for a good icebreaker to start the class off I came up with an idea. I am going to make a "Bag of Questions" or something of the sort. This is where I need your help. I have a list of questions, but I would like some more. Please leave a comment and tell me a random question that would be good for an icebreaker in a class of university students in cross cultural setting (don't make it American).

Thanks! I will let you know how this turns out. Since I am also about to start a few conversation courses, and I have been reminded recently that I am not very good at keeping a conversation going, this should help those 7 minute silences.

My first classes went well. So far I have started one advanced level course and one intermediate level course. Today I walked into the classroom and asked myself, Why don't girls want to learn English? There were about twenty five boys sitting in the classroom eager to listen to what I had to say. (Or at least patiently wait to ask me for coffee at the end of class.) Thankfully a few girls straggled in late.

I walked part of the way home tonight with one of my new students. She made a comment that I was smiling during the whole class (and actually sometimes laughing.) I think even the students can see how happy I am to be teaching again. Now if I didn't have to write a lesson plan for tomorrow I would be even happier. But I must get to that now...

I think the calendar is a little confused. In September it was freezing here and winter-like. Now its the end of October and its beautiful. Yesterday and today I was outside in a t-shirt, I am still in disbelief.

I start teaching tomorrow. I am happy to finally be busy again and seeing my students more often. But at the same time I am a bit overwhelmed by the amount of students I have.

Hungry?

I am glad Bajram is only once (actually twice) a year! This is the holiday that ends the Muslim month of fasting. This holiday lasts for three days. During these three days you visit your friends and family. At each visit you eat lots of sweets - always Baklava and some other assortment of cakes. Now since I am an international, I get special treatment - more Baklava on my plate and extra encouragement to eat EVERYTHING that is on my plate. I just don't understand. My Albanian friends do not have to eat ALL the baklava. When they leave some on their plate no comment is made, but when I do I am encouraged to eat more. I am told, "you didn't eat anything," when I have just come from three visits where I ate at least two pieces of cake or Baklava and drank many glasses of soda and coffee.

I made the mistake of starting off this morning with a piece of baklava, actually maybe the mistake was eating the second piece. (It was really good and I knew no one else would make it this way - with coconut inside instead of nuts.) After this my next visit was cancelled and I stayed longer than expected at my friend's house. This led to eating a mandarin and a small piece of pite (cabbage pie.)

I then went to the village school where I used to teach. First stop – the director’s office. Here I found the director in the middle of a meeting with some Ministry of Education officials. All was put on hold to greet me, the token American, and make comments about how Albanian I am, how I should marry an Albanian guy, and how I should stay in this country forever. (These are common topics at every visit!) I exchanged numbers with a guy whose daughter lives in Boston and whom I am now supposed to call when I go home for Christmas. (Everyone has a relative somewhere in America.)

I then proceeded on to the teacher’s lounge. I didn’t quite make it that far, but saw some teachers outside enjoying the beautiful weather, so I stopped there to talk with them. We chatted for a bit (I got to tell my story about my recent marriage proposal - after I was asked if anything is new in the guy department – again a common question.) Then we finally moved inside. Some teachers went to their classroom while I stayed with others and drank coffee. Before I knew it, three teachers and I were walking out of the school. Wait? Wasn’t there still another hour of school? No, its still a holiday, the third day, half of the students had already left so the teachers decided they were done too.

I spent the rest of the afternoon making three visits to these teachers and the director. At each house I had to eat a plate full of cakes and baklava. Interestingly enough I also left each house with something. I left the first house with a hand-knit table topper, the second house with a large bag of apples, and the third house with a plate full of pite (cheese pie). I love that village!

At the second house I went to I was surprised. I do not know why things like this still surprise me, but they do. I am slowly understanding how small a country of 2.5 million people really is. About two months ago I went with one of my students here in the city I live in now, the capitol city, to visit her family in the village she is from. This village is near my old city and near the village I was in today. Well it turns out that she, my student, is related to one of the teachers at the school, whose house I was at this afternoon. This teacher and her mom were visiting this other family on Monday and my student was there. For some reason they started talking about me, and they realized they both knew me. I guess I had told my student I used to teach at this village school and really liked the village. I am glad I said such positive things.

So, I drove home with a full stomach and made it just in time for bible study. But for some reason, after everything was over I was still hungry. I decided upon some brown bread and ajvar (pepper paste) for dinner. Now I am full and satisfied…and I don’t need to eat baklava again for awhile.

Students

Finally I have started getting ready to teach again. Last week I had two info sessions for my English classes and so far I have 135 applications. Only 35 new students have actually taken my placement exam, so hopefully I will not actually have over 100 students. Its nice to have such a positive interest. I am excited to be interacting with students again and getting ready to teach. I have another week of info sessions and giving the placement exam, then I start teaching next week.

I just put together these pictures of some of my past students. Enjoy the show!

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Rest - and my past week

Finally after a few days of craziness and lack of sleep I got a good night's sleep. It was very hard for me, but I actually went to bed at 10pm last night. In my mind that is just too early and I knew there were other things I should be doing. But on about 4 hours of sleep a night for the past few days, I was not capable of doing any work last night. So I crawled into bed, watched a little TV and probably feel asleep by 11pm. Amazingly I didn't get out of bed until 9:30 this morning. I did wake up many times this morning, but I kept turning back over and telling myself I didn't really need to wake up. Finally I feel rested and ready to face the day. Its a good feeling...too bad I don't expect to get much sleep tonight.

So you may ask, why haven't you been sleeping Lynn? Here is the story. On Saturday my friend and former roommate who is studying in the US came back here for a conference. Saturday night we drove to her hometown to visit her family. I probably got a reasonable amount of sleep that night...oh no, now I remember. Although we were both falling asleep while watching a movie, once everyone else went to bed, and we were ready for bed, for some reason we started talking.... I think I got 5 hours of sleep.

(Random note: I just answered my home phone...not many people usually call that number as cell phones are more commonly used here. The person on the other end was speaking some random language. She was definitely not speaking the most commonly used language here, and I don't even think she was using the other language. She didn't know English, but kept rambling in whatever language she was speaking. I don't understand with country codes and everything how you can call the wrong number. Maybe she was trying to reach someone in this country, but just a different number.)

Then on Sunday at 10am my friend, her sister and I got on a bus and headed to the next country over to visit their mom and two brothers. After a long bus ride we arrived at 5:30pm and spent about 24 hours there. At 8pm Monday night we got back on the bus and headed back to this country. When we got on the bus the driver said we would arrive at 2:30 or 3am. Ahh, I thought, that would be nice. That would allow us to be able to sleep for a few hours before driving back to the capitol city. Unfortunately the bus stopped twice for long coffee/dinner breaks and there was some road construction so we didn't arrive until 5:30am. I maybe got a total of 2 hours of horrible sleep while on the bus. We went to my friend's house and slept for about 3 hours, then headed back in the car to my city.

For some reason once I got home on Tuesday I thought I would be exhausted and take a nap, but I had too much to do. (If I did I probably wouldn't have woken up.) That night my friend, her niece and another friend came over my apartment. Although at about midnight I was tired and ready for bed, I had company so I couldn't just ignore them. At about 2:00am we all headed to bed. But for some reason I wasn't tired anymore. Then, again my friend and I started talking...and it was 3:30am the last time I looked at the clock.

I woke up the next morning at 9:10am...and I was supposed to meet someone at 9am...oops! Quickly I rushed to get ready and left by 9:40. My day continued in a rush like this. I actually didn't even have a moment to stop and eat anything until after 8pm. So after such a full day once I got home I crashed, and enjoyed the 10 1/2 hours of sleep I finally got!

Tonight is the last night my friend is here. I will bring her to the airport at 5:30am tomorrow morning...so therefore, I predict a lack of sleep again tonight.

Liberties

While listening to Larry King Live today I heard Bono talk about the new RED campaign. Bono is always doing something to help fight against inequality, against AIDS, against poverty in Africa. The list could go on and on. Today he talked about America and how he thought America means equality (in a summary of his words). Those words made me think. Being here in a foreign country, although I still love my mother country and am very thankful for all the freedoms it gives me, I hate it when people fantasize about how wonderful America is. Seriously, its not all its cracked up to be. But at the same time, it does give you more freedom than most other countries. It gives you more possibilities. It gives you equality. The question then becomes, what are all the Americans doing with that freedom, those possibilities, that equality? I ask you today, what are you doing with what God has given you by being born in America? If you have an American passport you have freedom like no other citizen has. Are you doing something to help those less fortunate than you? Are you giving of your time, money, resources? Are you aware of what's going on in the rest of the world. Pick your country, pick your passion, there are many choices. But don't just sit at home in America enjoying all the luxuries of life, not realizing there is a whole different world out there.

Here are some things you could start with
...until you find where your passion is.

Shop at Gap and buy RED products
Help bring clean water to Africa
Provide a bed for an orphan in Moldova
Stand up for liberty in SE Asia
Help end human rights violations
Support the orphans in Rwanda
Feed the hungry

Slideshow

Wow, I just wasted about...hmmm lets see...maybe only one hour, no probably more like two. In the end it is worth it. I found a great slideshow website that makes great fun picture slide shows, and then it even gives you the web lingo you need to post it on your webpage. Once I found the website and put my pictures in it was simple. Now I have a fun slide show on the top of this page. There are many other fun options. So now instead of being boring and pasting a list of pictures I will post a slideshow that displays them much more interestingly.

Now I will go and vacuum like I planned on two hours ago.

Recently someone asked me which I thought was more important to put on a blog, words or pictures? Right now I feel that pictures are enough. I am out of energy to write many words, so I will leave you with more pictures from the mural.

Lesson of the day: Always check on your flight a few days before you are supposed to leave.

I have never done this regularly, and typically trust the system too much. Yesterday I brought the last team member to the airport and found out her flight no longer existed. The travel agent forgot to notify her of this change, and we forgot to check.

So I had company last night. We watched the movie my mom sent me with this team (Along Came Polly) and I enjoyed having company for dinner. I love to cook, but I do not like cooking for myself. Besides that I faded in and out of sleep all afternoon and evening, truly worn out and in need of rest.

Now its back to teaching and trying to work out that schedule.

Mural pictures

I finally have some more pictures of the mural work for you. After the sketch was on the wall the students started applying color. These are a few pictures of the work throughout the week.









And the final product:


Ta Da...doesn't it look great. I was pretty impressed.


This is what I spent most of my days doing, since I am not a painter:

Drinking coffee

Talking with soldiers

Driving (usually my hands were on the wheel. I think I had just killed a fly and was trying to wipe it off my hands.)

Mural update

Yea, I am happy, I got 9 hours of sleep last night. It was so nice to be able to go to bed knowing I could sleep a long time. Although I thought I would get so much accomplished being home this morning it looks like I will have time to update this blog, run to the post office to pick up a package, make and eat lunch, and head out to the mural site. At least I got caught up on some much needed sleep. I believe my tiredness was causing me to be a bit emotional yesterday, and that wasn't a good combination with the guys harassing me. Thankfully after I hid in a corner for awhile and read my bible I had a better attitude and just started joking about my new boyfriend. I will try to find some pictures later, you all will be impressed.

As for an update on the mural, its coming along great. My co-worker took the team out to the site this morning to do some final touch-ups. I will be heading there a bit later with the translators. This afternoon we will have a small dedication ceremony for the mural and then a fun (hopefully) party. The US military band is even coming to play for our party. It should be a good time for all.

The last couple days went very well. The students who helped paint the mural have bonded well with the team and it looks like they are working hard, but also having fun. We also offered some art classes this week to give the rest of the kids hanging around something to do. The first few days of those there was not much interest, then it became chaotic so many people were there, and finally yesterday, the last day of classes, it was down to a nice orderly fashion.

The highlight of my day - knowing that I get to sleep in tomorrow.

The worst part of my day - being cornered by two annoying guys, one telling me "I love you." (the only English words he knows. He asked me to marry him the other day. I don't think he understands "no" even in his own language.) Why can't I be this popular with American guys?

I am exhausted, but finally have a few more pictures (thanks Mary) so I will post a couple from this past Saturday when we went up into the mountains for my birthday.

After a busy weekend of kids club and sightseeing its nice to be back to the mural. Now I just need to see if I can find a place to take a nap during the day, since I do not seem to find enough time to sleep at night. Where do the hours go? But I think I remember the not so distant days when I complained I had too much free time. I sure won't do that again.

Really, overall the mural is coming along great. This week we have had warm sun every day. The mural is coming together and starting to look good. Its especially fun to realize that its the local high school students who have done almost all the painting. The team from America has just directed and supervised the mural.

Another fun part about this mural is that I have gotten to know some of the American military here in this country. For the past three years I have been trying to get on to the American base, with no success. Now I have some friends and I think I will be able to get on with no problem - at least until they leave in December...and by then maybe I will make some more military friends. Today I even got some chow hall Mexican food. It was a bit cold and mushy, but still Mexican. And one guy said he would bring me diet Dr. Pepper tomorrow if I would give him some water today - we'll see if he follows through on that one. (Yes I know, I am working hard over here.)

As you can see, it rained yesterday. Things did not work out as we had planned. Since we left early yesterday due to the rain we decided to take the "Country road" home. Someone on the team took this picture from inside the car.

Its fun having art people here taking fun artsy pictures. Here is another good one:

Thankfully the sun came out today, contrary to the weather forecast, and things got back on track. Some local high school art students came and helped with the mural today. We left today with the wall grided and the sketch drawn on the wall.

The coloring process begins next week.

Art and Rain

Its raining outside and I am enjoying the sound. I really enjoy the rain, especially when its timed right. Tonight its okay that its raining, its actually a nice soothing sound. Tomorrow, I will not be happy if it is still raining. I had a little chat with God and I told him he can let it rain all he wants tonight, but its needs to stop by noon tomorrow. Too bad God doesn't always do exactly what we want, but what is in His best interest.

You may be asking yourself right now, "why is it such a big deal to Lynn that it doesn't rain tomorrow?" I will briefly explain. There is a team of volunteers from Colorado that have come here to paint a mural on the cultural center of a small town. (see link on the right "CO team mural") Today they prepared the wall by scraping off the loose paint and putting spakle (that's what I call it, I don't think that's the appropriate name, type of cement) over the holes. Tomorrow we will go and paint the wall with primer and make the grid. Since this team is only here for another week and a half, its best to make the most of their time and not be stuck inside.

I am confident that if it does rain tomorrow God has a plan for this team inside... I will find out tomorrow.

For tonight I need to go to bed. I have a horrible head cold/sinus problems, hopefully a good night's sleep will do some miracles ...along with prayer of course.

Ramazan

The Muslim month of fasting began today. For the next 3o days many of the people here in my country will not eat, drink, or smoke during daylight hours. In the evenings there will be feasts and celebrations, and some will even wake up at 4am before the sun rises to eat a small meal.

Tonight I walked through the city around 6pm. The streets were busy with people rushing to get home in time for Iftar, a light meal or sweet to break fast. The bakeries were crowded with people waiting in line for fresh samun, a special English muffin type bread eaten specifically during this month. As it got closer to 6:38 (sunset) the streets were more deserted. A few stragglers rushed back from the stores to get the special sweets eaten only during this month. As I walked past the mosque in my neighborhood a bunch of young children jubilantly ran out of the courtyard yelling something I couldn't understand (I will have to ask someone tomorrow). Then the call to prayer started - the people could now eat.

During this time I am thankful for the freedom I have in Christ. When I fast, I do it because God leads me to, and He gives me strength to endure. Today I will rest in His glory, His love, and His grace poured out on me.

Frustrations

The water is out, the internet is not working and I have a stomach ache. Any one of these things would be fine, but all of them together make me upset.

Why does it seem that every time I need to use my American phone at a specific time the internet is out? On my mom’s birthday, nope, couldn’t call her. Today the staff from the leadership camp we had this summer are all together for a small reunion. I was planning on calling them. But no, the internet is out.

Since I couldn’t talk on the phone I decided I would go and wash my face and get ready for bed. No, the water is out. Thankfully I have a back-up for that. I don’t mind washing my face with bottled water when I have been out and by the time I get back the water is already out. But its so frustrating when I have been home all night and just forgot to wash my face earlier when the water was on. You think after 6 months of this I would remember, but still I forget most nights. I do get excited when I remember to wash my face early in the evening and the water is still on, or when its midnight and the water is still on. Tonight I was not so lucky.

With all this I am going to turn my computer off, go read my Bible, and go to bed.

Naten e mire
(and this will be posted on the web tomorrow.)

Small World

Again and again I am surprised by how connected we all are in this world, especially in this small country of 2 million people. Yesterday I had a meeting with USAID (US government money for projects around the world). They called me a few days before and said they had heard about a project I had done at a school here and they wanted to know more information and see if I was interested in working together with them for a new project. (Not really working together, but just providing funds for this project, while we do all the work.) During the meeting I explained some past activities we have done here. One of the workers kept saying "Oh I think I have a niece that was in that." "Oh yes, she has helped my nephew a lot." "My daughter was in that program." Now I was describing some different activities we have done over the past couple years, in this city and my previous city. She was the one who connected me to this project, since her daughter had such a good time at the English course we provided at a middle school this summer. It wasn't until I started explaining other things our organization has done that she realized her relatives have also been involved in our activities. It is such a small world.

So now I get to decide if I have time to start, plan, and organize some extra-curricular activities in a few different schools. Have any ideas of some simple after school activities for children grades 1-8 (not necessarily all together)? Anyone want to come an help with this?

welcome!

I am just trying out this new website. Not sure how it works yet.