Swimming in Smoothie and Wild Winds

This weekend, Amy and I visited her friend's sister, who was staying at one of the nice hotels on the other side of the island. We love the chance to play tourists so we jumped at the chance to lounge by their pool. The husband bought me and Amy smoothies. They were fancy and good. When the waitress delivered them, she gave a semi-stern warning about not bringing the drinks in the pool. We complied and left our drinks on the side of the pool as we sipped them. I had only taken a few sips when extreme clumsiness struck. I was animatedly talking about something and as gestured with my hand, I knocked my smoothie over, spilling most of it into the pool. So, in a matter of seconds, we were surrounded by a milky smoothie cloud. We went to work trying to move the cloud around and get rid of the evidence. Luckily the waitress/smoothie nazi was not there when it all went down. The smoothie cloud dissapated fairly quickly causing one to wonder what else had been dumped in the pool that we could no longer see. After the crisis was over, I tried to make the two tablespoons of smoothie I had left last as long as possible. Good times!

The weather has been super weird the last few days. The wind is crazy and there are tree limbs and coconuts all over the roads. It feels like being in the middle of a hurricane. The wind catches doors and slams them. It blows away anything not weighted down. It is so weird. The waves are huge too. I don't understand what's up but I guess it's exciting. There is also a big fire burning on the volcano. The wind has made it hard to get a handle on. Supposedly, it is still burning now but contained. It seems crazy to me that they can't put it out right away. That's Maui for you, I guess.

An Abundance of Blessings

There's some fun stuff happening in my life these days. In January, I got an email advertising $20 each way inter-island flights. I have never been to Oahu for more than an overnight lay-over. I simply couldn't pass this chance to go to Oahu for such a small price. To fly there after I return to the mainland would be hundreds of dollars. I convinced my YWAM best friend, Amy to come along on my adventure. We managed to find a super-cheap rental car as well. We tried a few connections to find a free place to stay. We didn't have any luck and it looked like we'd be sleeping in our economy-sized rental car. It wouldn' t have been too bad despite the potential for back spasms from contorted sleeping and the possiblity of being hassled by random hobos.

We sent an email to Amy's mom about our lack of accomodations and she generously offered to pay for most of the cost of a really fancy hotel in Waikiki. So cool! This is going to be such a fun trip and very low-budget. Amy leaves at the end of February so it will be really awesome to get to spend a fun-filled weekend together.

We are trying to plan what we'll do there. I wanted to go to the Polynesian cultural center but even the ticket prices for locals are a bit steep. My dad told me that it's really interesting. The part that intrigues me the most is that it is apparently run by the Mormon church. At the end, they try to get you to go on a tour of BYU's Hawaii campus. I think that sounds fantastic! I have an abnormal fascination/love for the Mormons. We'll just have to see if anyone else makes a donation to our trip. We'll be gone the first weekend of February.

Also I get to go to the Big Island in the month of February as well. There is a big YWAM Hawaii conference called "The Gathering." A bunch of people from the various Hawaii YWAM bases will get together at our really big base in Kona. I was having trouble deciding if I wanted to go because it means being away from Maui for a week and I wasn't sure if I could afford the airfare now that the $20 special is over. I prayed and felt like I was supposed to go. After I already decided, I found out that the base would pay for my airfare since I was working directly with the DTS and all the DTS students and leaders would be going. So cool! Now I am really excited! It will be awesome to gather with so many other YWAMers, especially since I will be leaving YWAM at the end of March. So, in case you can't tell, I am pretty stoked about February!

I love prayer!

I have been worrying more than usual about a few things in my life. I posted two of the big ones as prayer requests so other people could pray about them. I have some other stuff in my life that I feel anxious about but the big two are my brother in Iraq and my student who is not doing well. I am usually not a big worrier but this stuff is tough. After letting people know of my prayer requests, I have felt so much peace about these situations. Of course, if I let myself really dwell on them for a long time, then I can make myself worry. But I no longer feel like throwing up when I think about it. So, the moral of the story is that prayer really works. I need to be better about letting people know of all my needs because having others lift you up in prayer really takes the burden off your shoulders.

So, thanks to everyone who has been praying for me. Keep up the good work!

I am so old!

Yesterday was my birthday. I am now the big 2-6, which sounds super old to me. 25 is cool because you are a quarter of a century old. 26 just means that you have officially begun the slippery slide to 30. Eek! Luckily there were people at my birthday party from ages 21-36 so I was in the middle of the age bracket. I have now joined Matt Laskey and Rachel Cordy in the 26 club. Last year on base, four people turned 25 in little over a week. This year only Rachel and I were on base but it is still a good club.

I had to work during the day but the hospitality people made me wear a birthday poncho/cape thing. It was pretty frightening but everyone knew it was my birthday. This saves us all from the awkwardness of people forgetting and then remembering later and feeling bad. I got a cake with the phrase- "Hot Stuff" on it. Not too shabby. I also got some desk supplies. My friend, Amy gave me a mousepad with our picture in it and a name plate type-thing with interchangeable phrases. It currently says: "Looking for Love." It can also say, "I love drama", "Obsessive Compulsive" and for some unknown reason- "It's just baby fat." I think I will stick with "Looking for Love."

I got phone calls from most of my favorite people, although there were a couple noteable people who were prevented from calling on account of being in Nepal or Iraq or for other reasons. I thought my parents had forgot me but they came through in the end. It was sad not to talk to Andrew but the war doesn't stop because it is your sister's birthday. Last year, Marti Harnly won the contest to see who could send me a card or gift so it came on my actual birthday. This year I guess Newsweek magazine technically won. Oh well, this means that my birthday will just keep going as I get belated cards and packages. Feel free to send them now. You know I love packages.

At night I went to eat Mexican food with friends and then came back to my house for a little party. Amy and Holly got some Strawberry Shortcake-themed party supplies. We had some blower-things, strawberry sunglasses and even little strawberry-shaped gift bags with candy and little girl make-up. Josh Cordy looked especially nice in the blue eyeshadow. We had lots of chocolate chip cookies and played my favorite game, Loaded Questions. It was really fun and we laughed so much. Our answers verged on inappropriate, which is my favorite way to play the game.

Eric, one of my students from this summer was in town for the day on his way to Oahu. I pretended it was because it was my birthday. It was cool that he could come to my birthday festivities. The guest list was: Ashley, Josh, Eric, Matt, Holly, Amy, Bethany, Rachel, Kieva, Maria and Esther. It was a really good birthday and way better than the one when my Grandma died and I had to go to the viewing on my birthday. Way better!

Hippies, Tsunamis, Naked People and Celebrities... Must be Maui!

I have a lot of things on my mind but rather than write about those things, I will give you some insight into life on Maui. Here are a few things I experienced this weekend.

On Friday night there was a tsunami warning. Apparently there was an earthquake in Japan and there was a chance it would cause a tsunami to hit Hawaii. There was a lot of gossip and suspense about our possible impending doom. At about 8pm, the news station said that if a tsunami was coming, we'd hear the tsunami sirens at 9pm and that would give us 3 hours to head up the volcano before the big wave hit. I was watching updates on my tv but the people on our base don't have tv access so they were really out the loop. I got a call to "inform" me that an earthquake happened in Alaska and there would be a tsunami warning at midnight, if it was coming. It was like playing a game of telephone. Thankfully it was a false alarm. The transmission on my borrowed car isn't very reliable so I was glad to not have to test it as I fleed from a giant wave.

I am still trying to train for a triathlon. I am doing pretty good with biking and running but I haven't done enough swimming. I tried to rectify this situation by swimming in the ocean on Saturday morning. In case you were wondering, it is not a good idea to swim in the ocean after a tsunami warning. The sea was angry for sure. I put on my goggles and swam out a few yards. Then I just got repeatedly pummeled by the rocky seas for about 10 minutes til I feared drowning and swam to shore. I am sure I looked really funny. I was exhausted. I had gone for a run earlier that morning. I now understand why the swimming is the first part of the triathlon. They don't want people to get exhausted and drown.

On my way to and from Baldwin Beach, I passed by an unofficial nude beach. It is a common hippie hang-out. Often there are no nudes there but this time, unfortunately, there were. There was a family with two small kids and one very naked dad. Talk about awkward family time! I am so glad my dad is not so "open." Then I saw this guy we call "Paia Dave." Paia Dave is a an old homeless guy with a scruffy wit beard, who inexplicably wears a top hat all the time. Well, he was certainly not wearing the top hat when I saw him at the beach. Thankfully, he was in waist-deep water when I made the mistake of glancing towards the ocean.

I heard through the grapevine that Owen, Luke Wilson and their unfamous brother, Andrew will be coming to Paia at the end of the month. I love a good celebrity sighting! I can't wait to try my "keeping it cool celebrity sighting" tactic. My goal would be to see one of them on the streets and just say, "Hey Luke." Then they know I know but I am not making a big scene. We'll see. I lost my nerve when I saw Kelly Osborne. I won't make that mistake again.

Deep Thinking with a side of Puking

I have been doing a lot of deep thinking lately. This is a good thing, though sometimes not so fun. For those of you who read this for the humor, I will begin with a short story before I get to the deep thinking, less humorous stuff.

I have moved into my new place. It is pretty sweet and I like it though I haven't spent a whole lot of time there yet. My roommate, Holly, has a cat named Sushi. Sushi's tail got run over by a car and Holly's sympathetic co-workers gave her some raw ahi (which I believe qualifies as sushi) to boost her spirits. So, Holly has been serving Sushi the cat, sushi the food. This seems borderline cannabilistic. Anyway, last night after Holly fed Sushi his sushi, he got a peculiar look on his face. Yes, cats do make facial expressions. And it was too late to stop anything when I realized that the facial expression meant, "Hey new roomie, I am about to barf on your sandals. So, Sushi puked sushi onto my sandals. Sick! Sushi definitely did not make a good first impression.

Yesterday was our last day of staff development. Tom, our amazing base director, was talking about sometimes sins we constantly struggle with are rooted in deeper issues. We try to keep treating the symptoms but they never fully go away because the root of the sinful behavior is still there. His example was how in college he used to tell lots of white lies when someone asked him something he did not know. He kept trying to stop but could not. He finally realized it was a pride issue that most people would never have guessed. He is probably the most humble man I know. Once he started praying about and dealing with the pride issue, he was able to overcome the temptations to make up stuff instead of admitting when he didn't know something.

After Tom shared, he gave us time to pray and contemplate how this applies to our own lives. It was really good for me. I realized that a deep root of bitterness is causing me to respond negatively to some important people in my life. I have to let go of old grievances whether they are valid or not. I will continue to work through this but this principle is so important when trying to figure out why we struggle so much with certain sins. I encourage all of you to try to find the root of those pesky perpetual sins in your life. In general, I have been having really good times with the Lord since I have been back. Such a blessing!

Today I found out more worrisome news. I got an email about a soldier dying and it looks like he was in my brother's company. That's hard to think about. And I got another update about the girl I mentored who is doing poorly. I wish I could write what I found out but that's not fair to her. Needless to say, the latest news is pretty bad and life changing. I wish I could just steal her and lock her into a room until she is strong enough to resist these temptations that are so harmful to her. I love her so much and it is hard to hear of her stumbling. I know that God is in control but it is still hard to hear about what she's doing since some of her actions have very serious consequences. Please pray for her.

On a lighter note, the students for the Winter school have begun arriving today. The chaos is begining and it is a lot of fun. I am looking forward to getting to know these new students, especially since this is the last school I will be here for.

Back in Maui

I have been back in Maui for two days now. It was so good to see all of my friends again. Most people had left to go home for Christmas before I left. This meant the base was pretty empty. Most people got back before me so I came home to all my friends. It was really nice to see them. It feels like I haven't even left. I think this is because I was only gone for two and a half weeks and before that I was gone for three months.

I want to make the most of my time here and I know it will fly by. Today I started as the DTS administrator and I think it will be a good fit for me. I will get to work closely with Matt, who was my co-leader to Bangladesh. He feels like a big brother to me. My friend, Rachel turned 26 today and joined Matt in the 26 club. I am way younger since I don't join the club until the 17th. My time as a 25 year old is definitely dwindling. I am getting old. Oh well, at least Matt and Rachel joined the club first. We tried to go to a Mexican restaurant with cheap tacos but we had to wait for two hours. I actually just hung out with them outside for an hour and then went to the gym. We all had our share of socially awkward moments.

Ashley smashed her forehead into a sign as we all looked on. I flicked a bug off of Ashley and into some woman who screamed and jumped up. But the worst was when Kristy smacked the butt of a woman she thought was our friend but certainly was not. The girl was not mad but Kristy's face was bright red. I try to believe that we are not your average dorky missionaries but these type of moments don't help my plight much.

We are having staff meetings this week to get ready for the students who arrive on Thursday. It has been really good and the staff seems to be doing much better after the break. I think we all needed some time away. I know I did. We discussed 1 Peter today which may be my favorite book of the Bible. There is just so much in it that applies to my life. It got me excited to spend more time with the Lord, which is always good.

Hard Stuff

It's hard to love and care about people sometimes. My heart hurts right now because I have found out that a girl I mentored, discipled and poured my heart into, is making some harmful decisions. It hurts me because I love her. It makes me not want to love anyone so I can't get hurt but I know that is neither healthy nor realistic. I feel like this post is already leaning towards philisophical but I suppose that's the mood I should go with and not fight it.

I just hurt so much when my friends are suffering. I read in a book called Red Moon Rising about a guy who was part of a big 24 hour a day prayer movement. His sister had anorexia and he didn't want to pray for her. He couldn't figure it out since he was part of this prayer ministry. But he realized that he didn't want to have to really feel her pain. When we really care about people and pray for them, we do feel their pain and it is difficult. I have prayed for the girl I mentioned above so much and I am sure that is part of why this is so painful. I know that she makes her own choices and even these bad decisions now don't negate all the progress she made but it still hurts. I am not going to give up on loving and caring about people but this is definitely the part of it I hate. Please pray for my friend.

Asbestos 'Arama

Yesterday I got to go to lovely Orange, Texas (yes it is part of Orange County.) This Orange County is a very different OC. I had been back on Maui about one month when Hurricane Katrina hit. I felt torn, wanting to go back and help this area of the country I loved and knowing how far away I was from it. Yesterday, I got the chance to help with some hurricane relief in Orange. I had no idea that so many people's houses were still in shambles after over a year. I think Orange was really impacted by the second hurricane, Rita.

I helped with students from the Wesley Foundation, which I was involved in when I was in college. Rusty, my college pastor, asked me to come speak to the students. So, Katie H and I drove out to Orange. Actually we accidentally ended up in Lousiana. We weren't paying attention to the signs and passed Orange. Luckily we only went about ten miles or so before we figured it out. It was the "Welcome to Louisiana" sign that clued us in that we'd gone too far.

We got to help clean up the pieces of a battered roof. Some of the house had been made with asbestos. We had to collect all the asbestos and set it aside for disposal. No one knew much about asbestos other than that it can cause some crazy health problems. Some people were so paranoid that it seemed they thought they would get cancer after even looking at the asbestos. There were masks for people to wear but not enough to go around. I am not too scared. After Bangladesh, very little scares me. I have had dengue fever, after all.

Hot and Cold in Houston

I know I am back in Houston because it is December and in the last week I have worn everything from shorts and a t-shirt to a sweater and wool coat. Almost everyday I use both the heater and the air conditioner in the Saturn. I like the cold weather sometimes but it will be nice to get back to Maui. I saw today that MTV has a new show that comes out on my birthday. It is some sort of Maui reality show. What a perfect birthday gift to me! A reality show about a place I love. Hopefully it will be a Temptation Island 3, but I doubt it.

College football is so much fun! The good bowl games are about to begin and I am excited. My dad has a big tv with cable and HD tv so the set-up is pretty sweet. I have also recently become a Tennessee Titans fan. I have always loved Vince Young and I figure he is a good enough reason to love a whole team. A lot of Houstonians like the Texans but I am not into them. I think their name is stupid and so are they for passing on my man, Vince.

I have decided to train for a triathlon. It is a shortened version- 3 miles running, 15 miles biking, and 1/3 mile swimming. It seems hard but not too hard and I will have 3 months to train. I like to have an athletic goal to work towards. I can practice swimming in the ocean in Maui. Pretty sweet.

I have been able to see a lot of quality people although most visits have been painfully short. I got to see: Sarah Musselman and baby Madeline, Erin and Zach Morrow and baby Joe, Sarah Morgan and Devin O'Bryan, Katie H, Emily and Van HArdin, David and Suzie Ray, Mike and Susie Ray, Jane Kim and James Chastant, Sarah McGregor and more. I still have a lot more people to see. Tomorrow I am going to Orange, TX to help my college pastor, Rusty and his students do hurricane relief. Rusty wants me to speak to his students and get them pumped about missions. It should be cool.

Missing Andrew

I miss my brother. It is very weird not to have him here at X-Mas. I have been visiting some very quality friends but I usually have my brother to hang out with whenever I am not hanging out with other people. I am happy that next year he will be back. It is just not the same without him at all.

He called his wife so we heard a bit of how he's doing. He apparently got 24 packages when he came back. Way more than anyone else. I don't think I have gotten 24 packages in the last year. I guess Iraq seems a bit more package-worthy than Maui. I can't complain. Afterall, they don't have Wal-Mart in Iraq.

Please continue to pray for my brother.

Back in the Lone Star State

I have been on the mainland for almost two days now. Today was cold and there was even hail. I definitely know I am not in Maui anymore. It is nice to rediscover my winter clothes and watch cable television. I am trying to figure out how to schedule my time in such a way that I get to see all my favorite people and get some restful alone time. I thought three weeks would be a long time at home but my schedule is filling up rather quickly. I am excited about all the people who are around at Christmas time. I am going on a bit of a baby-seeing tour. I have already seen Madeline Musselman and I get to see Joe Morrow this weekend. In Maui, I have been spending a lot of time with my friend, Maria and her baby, Kieva so I am more comfortable around the little guys than I used to be. It is really fun to see how God combines my friends' features to make a new person that looks like both of them.

I am officially going to have a different job when I go back to Maui. I am glad. I am sure the other YWAMers will be happy as well since I am really not very gifted in culinary exploits. I have always planned to really get into cooking after I get married. That will be a lot different than working in the kitchen and trying to feed 100 people for $.60. I went to the grocery store and it was amazing! There were so many fun things to choose from and it is all so much less expensive than Maui.

Overall it is really nice to be home, though I do miss some of my Maui friends. If only I were rich and famous and could afford to pay my favorite people to travel around with me as my entourage....Wouldn't that be nice?

Reindeer games

Tomorrow I leave for home. The flight is not too bad since I only have to fly to Honolulu and then straight to Houston. It is an overnight flight so I am praying that I can sleep on the plane. I am also praying for empty seats next to me. We'll see. I am a bit nervous about going home and how I am going to juggle my time. I have been wary of making firm plans but I think that might cause problems. As of now, I have written down all the various windows of hangout opportunities with various friends but I haven't gotten firm dates. I think I want the hanging out to happen naturally, which seems virtually impossible given the time constraints. We'll see. I am sure it will all work out.

Christmas will be strange without my brother around. I have been away from my family at Christmas twice but I have never been with my family minus my brother. I will definitely miss him. My favorite game at Christmas is something we call reindeer games. This game involves repositioning those white, metal, lighted reindeer lawn ornaments into sexual positions. It is not gross just hilarious! There is also the element of suspense as you try not to get caught. My brother, Andrew, has some sort of God-given gift for it. He can look at a lawn and know exactly how to position the deer for maximum laughs. He once made a train with four. It was incredible. So, I don't know if I will play this year. It's just not the same without Andrew. I wonder if they have these fake reindeer in Iraq. I sure hope so.

I get to come back to Texas soon! I am excited but I feel like I have so much to get done before I leave. I only work in the kitchen about four hours a day but I have been trying to make the most of my time in Maui by spending time at the beaches. My YWAM best friend, Amy is in town with the guys she has been traveling the world with. They are from Canada so it is even more important for them to look tan when they go home. I too want to look bronzed to dazzle my friends. Bangladesh made me pretty white so I have some work to do.

Tanning aside, things are going pretty well. Amy is back and I have a car to use. There are not very many people on base so working in the kitchen is not as much work. There are a lot less dishes to do. I finally feel pretty at home being back in Maui. It is comforting to know that I will being living in a fun house in Paia when I get back and not a crowded sunroom in Haiku. I am going to try to be at the base a lot, though so I don't lose that community feel.

Escaping from Haiku

I am sitting on my bed, which is covered in a random assortment of my belongings. I have yet to feel like I am settled in my current living space. The fact is that I have too much stuff for the amount of space I have been allotted. This means I am frequently cleaning and organizing my life and that very often I end up sleeping in a bed with mail, clean laundry, pictures, my computer and anything else I might not have a place for. I know this is all teaching me some sort of valuable life lesson but I am not quite sure what it is.

I relayed my unfortunate scooter misfortune in an earlier post. I felt that the Lord was asking me to wait on getting a vehicle. I tend to be impatient/impulsive but I decided to wait. A girl on base is going home for a few months. She didn't want to sell her car but wanted someone to rent it for a few months. This is perfect for me since I didn't want to have to actually buy something after the Explorer fiasco. So, waiting on the Lord paid off. The girl leaves on Thursday so I will have wheels then. This freedom will be so nice. I am lucky to have several friends with cars as well as several friends that live off base. This means I have not felt too trapped up here in Haiku. But now I can escape this place without having to rely on an accomplice.

I spent this past weekend in Paia. It was lots of fun. My friend, Abbey's boyfriend, Wil, shares a house with my friend, Maria and her husband and baby. Wil was gone for the weekend so Abbey and I slept in his room. Abbey leaves for Nepal in two days so it was good to spend so much time with her. All the students leave at 5am on Wednesday and I am driving them to the airport. Those of you who really know me, know that I am no good early in the morning. I hope they aren't expecting me to talk. Things should become much less crazy when they leave.

Still discombobulated-is that how you spell it?

I have yet to fully feel at home on base here. It is still weird. I can't seem to figure out the weekly schedule and never know what is going on. The DTS leaves in a week, so things should be less crazy then when I will only live with 30 girls instead of 50.

I started working in the kitchen and I am no Emeril yet. I thought I would get to learn how to cool properly but so far it seems everyone just does what they think is best. I asked how to chop something and was told to just go for it. I know how to chop, but I wanted to learn some cool chef way. Maybe I will have to check the internet. I know how to follow instructions in the kitchen but I am hoping to come away from this experience knowing how to freestyle a bit. No matter what, it seems like I will come away with dishpan hands. The kitchen schedule is pretty laid back and there is lots of opportunity to talk with the other people who work in the kitchen. It's also nice to not have so much responsibility all the time. And it doesn't take much brain power to do the dishes.

I have not been a good communicator lately and I hate that. I have had a hard time returning people's phone calls, which is something I normally pride myself at being good at. The main problem is that my cell phone only works on my bed so I can't bring it anywhere else to talk or even just answer the phone. This won't be the case when I am back in Paia, so I just need to be patient for the next month.

Right now I need to go make the millionth effort to clean my room. It seems I am fighting a never-ending battle.

A Sad day for Longhorn fans

So, today I got to watch my first Longhorn football game of the year and it was a sad, sad event. We lost our second game in a row and this was to A&M. How humiliating! Before I came back to the country, we had only lost to Ohio State, who have one of the best teams in the country. Apparently I am bad luck. Oh well, I think I am going to buy the DVD of the Longhorns' championship win last year. I can watch it when I need to relive the glory days.

I am currently on the big island of Hawaii, where I am spending my Thanksgiving break. My cousin and his family moved here a few months ago and generously paid for me to come out here. Unfortunately I am still trying to process the last crazy six months of my life so I haven't been the most enjoyable house guest. Yesterday I pretty much watched tv all day. It was pretty nice. I get my own room here, which is an awesome change from my room on base with eight roommates. That place doesn't feel like home yet, which is hard.

It seems pretty likely that I will move in with a friend in Paia after I come back from my Christmas break. In order to do that, I will need transportation to and from the base. I am considering a scooter for a couple reasons: the comical factor, high gas mileage and no obligation to take others along. I want to be nice but now that our base is isolated, people with cars get exploited. Riding behind me on the scooter is by nature, only for the closest companions. I am talking with a guy about buying one on Sunday when I get back. I will keep you posted. I know you will all be desperate to see pics of me on a scooter. I am sure it will be sweet!

Chaos like you couldn't believe

My life is hectic to say the least right now. I am torn between hanging out with my students, my staff friends, and being by myself. And on top of that, two of my favorite people- Sarah and John McGregor are in town. I have not had much time to see them but they seem to be enjoying all Maui has to offer. This week has been filled with meetings, trying to spend as much time as possible with my students and lots of different events. The time is flying by quickly but I have not had enough time to talk to all the people from home that I want to. It will get easier once the students leave. Most of them will be gone by tonight and a few leave tomorrow night. Tomorrow we have a debriefing meeting all day.

Being so busy is annoying but my big problem right now is that my living situation stinks. Our new base is good for students who live here for 3 months but for staff who live here year-round, it is very difficult. Living in a single-family sized home with 40 people means very little privacy. We are also very isolated instead of located in a town. I am sure I will be less frustrated when I find somewhere to put all my stuff.

I am fairly sure that I will move off base to the town we used to live in. An ex-Ywamer needs a roommate and will only charge me a little bit more than I have to pay now. It is an awesome set-up but I will need to get some transportation. I am considering a scooter after my Ford fiasco. We'll see.

Onto better topics, last night was graduation. It was so good! I totally bawled. After all the crazy incidents and hard work, they actually made it. So amazing! I cried the most for Kelli. She is my girl from Louisiana with the crazy testimony. This graduation was the first time she had ever graduated anything in her life. It was so special. After grad, me and Matt and the Nepal leaders-Ashley and Josh hung out on the beach together basking in our lack of responsibility. I am going to miss my students a lot but I won't miss being responsible for them.

Back in the States!

I made it! I am back in the United States. My time in Bangladesh was good, but hard. I learned so much but I am feeling pretty tired and burned out. Our base moved to another town while we were away and Ashley (the leader of the Nepal team) and I are having a pretty hard time adjusting. This change along with the stress of being responsible for others for so long and jet lag has made us pretty weepy today. I have yet to cry but I have come close and the tears probably will fall soon.

The new base is pretty cool but far away from everything. I am contemplating getting a scooter. We'll see. I am a bit wary after my Ford fiasco.

I want to leave you with a funny/scary story-
My Ywam best friend, Amy was with my team for the last two weeks of outreach. It was nice to have her around and she and her team flew to Thailand with us. Amy and I got to hang out the night before we left in Thailand and it was good times with a binging session at Pizza Hut. She gave me a bag of stuff to take back to Maui for her. It was mainly clothes and gifts for her family. I didn't even see what she packed.

So, I was going through the security checkpoint at the Japan airport and I got stopped. This was nothing new especially since I was more than frisked by a female security guard in Dhaka. The security guard in Japan, opened my bag and took out some spoons that he thought were setting off the detector. He sent it back through and it still went off. He dug further into the bag and pulled out something wrapped in newspaper. It looked like a knife and when he pulled off the paper, I saw that it was some dagger-type device from Nepal. My face turned bright red and I started freaking out internally. Then five security guards appeared and all spoke in Japanese. They measured the knife as I feared the worst. I had no idea if you can be punished for such things as this in Japan. In Tapei, there is a big sign that says Drug Traffickers will be punished by death. So, these Japanese security guards continue to gather info on me. They got my passport, boarding pass and pertinent info. The whole process was an excruciating 30 minutes of uncertainty. It ended with them checking the knife so I could pick it up in Honolulu. So crazy. I was willing to leave the knife. It is funny now but it would not have been if I had missed my plane.

It's not over yet

Tomorrow we are going back to Gazipur but this time it is to meet with the students of the Windows DTS. This is a DTS being held here in Bangladesh. About half the students are Bangladeshi and half from places like Fiji and Papua New Guinea. We spent some time with them before they left for outreach. My friend, Lindsay led the team that went to Sri Lanka but unfortunately she has had to stay in Sri Lanka to help her student who lost his passport. I am bummed that I will not get to see her.

Anyway, we will be staying at some sort of compound and have prayer and fellowship with these Windows DTS students. It should be good. Some of my students are whining about having to go. I think they would be happiest if they were allowed to sit and watch movies at our house until it was time to leave. I pray that they will realize how little time we have left and how they can watch movies at home.

Unfortunately Kera is still in the hospital. We are hoping she will get out tomorrow but we have no guarantees. Luckily the nice New Zealand couple we are staying with is going to stay with her and nurse her back to health so that the whole team can go to Gazipur. Please pray for her to get better. She was looking forward to Maui so much and I would hate for her to still be sick when she is back there for a week.

I still can't believe how soon I will be on the mainland. I have much to look forward to. Sarah and John McG come and visit soon after I get back. Then, I get to go spend Thanksgiving with my cousin and his family on the Big Island. Then I will be in Texas for three weeks at Christmas. I am so excited about all of this but I am trying hard to be "all here" as I spend my last few days in Bangladesh.