Sports glory

We are back in Dhaka after our week in Cox's Bazar. It was a good week for us all though we may have watched too many movies. I am a bit of a tv junkie but my students' addiction to movies on cable was astounding! I caught Katrina watching some cheesy movie called "Shark Attack" as well as "Scooby Doo2." The worst was when the boys were watching "To Kelly From Justin With Love." Fortunately, the power went out due to what I believe was divine intervention and the boys did not get to finish their cheesy American Idol film.

We started playing soccer or football as they say, with the local people in the afternoons. It was a great chance to get to know them and it was fun to see them around town and say hi. I am not particularly skilled at soccer but I like sports and I am very competitive. We played barefoot on the beach. It kills the feet but it is a lot of fun. Our team of whities played pretty well. One of the guys on the brown team had a shirt that said "Horny Devil" so that is obviously what I called him. I wonder if he knew what it meant. The best part of the experience was when I scored a goal. It felt amazing! It was so freeing! It was very much like how I felt when I was working with kids in an after-school program. I played kickball with the fourth graders and scored a homerun. It felt amazing as well!

Bangladesh feels more normal than it used to. I am definitely more comfortable here than I have been up to this point. I still miss home and people back home but I have a new sense of contentment with my circumstances. It feels good.

Best day ever for rickshaw pullers

Yesterday was a great day. I felt lighter than I have for the past month. I was able to fully concentrate on what I was doing and not on all the stuff back home or my difficulties with students.

We did a prayer walk by rickshaw. We wanted everyone to go their own ways and tour Cox's Bazar but the rickshaw pullers seemed to think we needed to stay together. Katrina and I had a young spry puller but we were stuck going one mile an hour behind Matt and Francis's old geezer. When our little guy tried to pass, he got yelled at.

The drivers took us to a Budhist temple. There are several here for refugees from Myanmar. We thought we were just getting a tour but then they tried to make us give them donations every five minutes. In one room, there were all these idols and photos of monks. The room was creepy and not well-lit. Then this super-onery looking monk came out of the shadows looking like he hated us. Spooky!

Then on our way back to the hotel, Katrina convinced our guy to break away from the pack. I was nervous since he got yelled at the last time. He took us down a nice tree-lined street and then met back up with the others. Matt and Francis's driver got really pissed at ours and came after him and pretended to punch him. It was intense. Then someone got the idea for us to pull the rickshaws. Katrina pulled mine while I road with the little driver man. Kera, Jorgen, and Drea raced back to the hotel. Jorgen won but Katrina made a valiant effort. We hope to get ten rickshaws one day so we can all race. This is a good place to do it because there is more open space and less people.

In the afternoon, we went out to the beach and played soccer with the locals. It was so much fun. We always want to do stuff with the kids on the streets but there isn't enough room in the big cities. This was ideal. Afterwards, Matt, Eric, Francis and I went into the ocean. Some people were afraid to go in but the water looks just like the water in Galveston to me so I was unafraid. The waves were fairly big but not scary like in Maui. I had to wear my complete outfit including my orna, which is like a scarf. Pretty hilarious! I had never swam in so many clothes before.

It was great to be in the ocean because that is always a place I feel close to the Big Guy. There is just something about the seemingly nerver-ending expanse of water that makes me think of eternity. It is always cathartic for me. I need to take advantage of this close proximity to the ocean as much as I can.

Luxurious Living

We are now in Cox's Bazar. This place is the pride of Bangladesh as it boasts the world's longest sea beach. It is far from beautiful by Hawaii standards but the chocolate milk colored water reminds me a lot of the Gulf of Mexico. Some people think it looks gross but for me it is like home.

Right now Matt and I are in the business center of a fancy hotel. We came here to see what it is like and check out the ammenities. It is far nicer than the hotel we are staying at. We got a full tour by the management here and I can't wait to come back and use the gym and pool!

Our trip here was originally planned as a morale booster/chill time for the team but now it will be also used to scout out possibilities for a new base here. Tonight we are starting 24 hours of prayer as we want this time to also be a time to reignite a passion for prayer as a team.

The drive here was interesting. We rode in this fancy bus called a ShoHawg. It was very nice with lots of leg room and a massage function in the chairs. I was not very impressed by the massaging as it was more like vibrating. I think I have just been spoiled by the massage chairs at Sharper Image. They had a movie on the bus but I don't speak Bengali so I didn't get too much out of it. We also got some snacks.

Our hotel here is funny. We got a really good deal. It is like $2 American per night. They gave us roses when we arrived and gave us fruit at night. The rooms have cable and the students have been glued to the movie channel. The rooms have hot water and air conditioning so there is really not much more we could ask for. This is the first time we have had either of these things.

The students were very sad to leave Chittagong but I was ready to move on. I like seeing as much of the country as possible. It was sad to leave the fun people we'd met there but I have had to say good-bye to so many cool people in the last two years that I have become somewhat calloused to it.

One random thing- Our last night in Chittagong, we were at our favorite hang-out, a fast food restaurant called Sugar Bun. As we were leaving, we saw two transvestites at one of the large windows at the front of the restaurant. One looked mad and the other looked very high on something and was wildly dancing. It was surreal to say the least since they were dressed as we were in our salwar kameez. These are the long dress like shirts, baggy pants and scarves. I have seen many trannies in my life, especially living in Montrose, but these were the strangest. I can't properly explain it but so weird!

Sucks to Hartals

Before I write this I want to say that I have edited some of my previous posts for safety purposes. We are not in any big danger but I don't want to compromise the work being done here. I will try to be more vague about certain things even though that is not at all my style.

Today we were going to go talk to the Big Guy on a local lake but the government called a hartal. This is a politically motivated city-wide strike. On these days it is not safe to travel in a motorized vehicle. People will throw rocks at your windows and slash your tires. It lasts from 6am-5pm and most of the city is closed. With elections looming in the near future, we will not be taking any chances and are forcing our students to comply with the restrictions. It definitely sounds much scarier than it is. Please don't worry.

I want to list a few of the things I have seen as I have walked down the street here: a fully naked man (thankfully only from behind), cows walking in the streets, men carrying stacks of bricks on their heads, rickshaw drivers in their long skirts, people in wheelchairs rolling down the middle of the street and so much more.

Guests of Honor at a Puberty Party

Right now I am sweating profusely at an internet cafe because the power is out and apparently the generators only supply power to the computers and not the air conditioner. Oh well, power outages and sweating have become a normal part of my life these days. Whenever I feel annoyed by how much I sweat, I just look at my student, Jorgen. The poor guy becomes a human faucet pretty much everytime he steps foot outside or inside for that matter.

Last night, the girls on my team had quite the adventure. Part of our job here is to meet students at the colleges and universities and invite them to an English program where they can converse and practice with native English speakers. Whenever we go to these colleges, we are mobbed by curious, usually well-meaning students. At one college, Kera and I were given a tour by a girl named Sumona. Her English wasn't that good but she tried her best to show us around. Truthfully we only spent about 15 minutes with her.

She started calling us and texting us to come to her house for a "family program." I decided it would be good for all the girls to go. It was pretty interesting. Just getting there was nerve-racking since it was in a part of the city we had never been. I prayed a lot and we all made it there with no problem. Sumona's oldest brother spoke the best English so he met us at the street and took us to their house. The power was out so they used cell phones to light the way.

The oldest brother was able to speak English pretty well but some things weren't that clear. From what we could gather, this was some sort of Muslim puberty party for the youngest son. Instead, we were the ones treated like guests of honor. They fed us some traditional fruits-some that were terribly bitter and yogurt, which I have come to love here. It does well at taking away some of the less desirable tastes.

The family took pics of us, asked us questions, brought all their extended family and neighbors to see us, played music for us, fanned us by hand and did henna tattoos on some of our hands. It was intense. They were so nice and hospitable. They served us an incredible amount of food for dinner and we ate until we almost exploded. As we were eating, the table was surrounded by the family and their friends who were just watching us eat. I try to control my negative facial expressions as I ate a fish that looked just like it did when it was in the ocean-head and all. I hate fish and it was only by the grace of God that I got it down with a smile. The fish had tiny bones, which I swallowed as well. It was intense.

Afterwards, they presented us with a book written in Bengali that was by the composer of the India and Bangladesh National anthems. They were very proud. It was a great night though funny and awkward.

Chillin' in Chittagong

We have been in Chittagong about a week and a half. Things were slow at first but they are starting to pick up more. We have been helping at an English-learning center that lets us get to know local people. The usual teacher was out of town so I taught the classes. It wasn't hard at all because they give you pretty detailed lesson plans.

The last day was hard because we woke up early and passed out flyers for the classes at Chittagong University. It was pretty hot and getting there involved an hour long hot as hell train ride. I was squished between Katrina and a random Bangladeshi girl on a seat clearly built for two. I was not looking forward to teaching but it actually turned out very well.

The students at the english center are all male and it is pretty funny to watch them "partner" with our girls in conversation. They are completely harmless but come up with some pretty funny pick-up lines. One guy told Kera that he liked how her smile made her outfit look better. Another said he didn't need to meet any celebrities because he had met Kera. One told Drea she looked like an American movie star. ANd we have had several offers to be "shown around" Bangladesh. And autograph requests.

Today we felt the team needed some bonding time. We went to an amusement park and the zoo. It was pretty funny/interesting. For less than one US dollar we entered the park and for less than one US dollar we got passes to ride all the rides. There were bumper cars, a ferris wheel, mini-rollercoaster and dry slides that were not very dry at all. They were just water slides with less water than usual. The park workers did not want to let Matt go down it because he is a big guy. He is definitely the only guy I have seen here over 300 pounds and the Bangladeshis don't know what to do with him. He and Eric argued with the workers for twenty minutes to be allowed to go on a thirty second slide. Then they got kind of stuck and traveled about 1 mile an hour while making a loud farting noise. It was hilarious!

The zoo was a treat as well. As white people, we were also a sightseeing attraction ourselves. My favorite exhibit was the terrior dog. Admist the tigers, lions, monkeys, emus, alligators and pythons was a small white dog that looked like your average house pet. How exciting! The zoo was quite ghetto and the animals looked sad and malnourished. It was quite the experience.

Speaking with the locals

I bought a book on how to speak Bengali and it has some very amusing phrases that I cannot forsee myself ever using. Some of them are:

-There are many proofs that the earth is round.
-Small boys like to eat raw mangoes
-The barber began to shave the donkey.
-Where did I put my spectacles?
-They say that stale bread is tasty.
-They beat him with sticks.
-Mix manure and earth and put it on the garden.
-Unless he gets a knife, he can't work.

I don't see how the author of the book thought these phrases would be useful. I want to learn a really random one to tell the beggars and confuse them a bit. Maybe I will say, "The barber began to shave the donkey." That one sounds nice.

We will be here during Ramadan and the political elections. It should be exciting times. I don't really know what to expect. The strikes we have seen so far have not been violent and I hope that continues to be the case.

Chittagongin' It

We survived our long train ride to Chittagong from Dhaka. After much prayer, I successfully avoided using the squatty potty on the train. Squatting without a seat to go to the bathroom is bad enough without having the movements of a train, throw off your aim. No thanks.

The train station was a far more intense experience than I could possibly have imagined. We get stared at everywhere we go here because we are white and very few white people come here. This bothers the girls on my team far more than me. I think I have become good at being oblivious to my surroundings. If I concentrated on all the leering looks from men, I would probably go nuts. And when we go into the poorer yet high trafficked areas, our white skin turns into dollar signs. This is very difficult for me as I haven't figured out what I should do. Giving them money reinforces the white = money concept and sometimes giving one person food starts a riot with the twenty other beggars. I am praying about how I should be responding.

With that being said, the train station was the epitome of celebrity status for us. We had to take six mini-taxis to get all the people and stuff to the train station. We left really early to ensure getting to the train on time. We got there with about an hour and a half to spare. The place was swarming with people only interested in one thing- these fascinating people with pale skin- us!
We piled our luggage on the ground and stationed ourselves around it to thwart any would-be thieves. A crowd of at least one hundred people gathered around us very tightly. A few times security guards would push them back but after about two minutes, we were all back in our involuntary Bangladeshi group hug.

Some of the students tried to entertain them with guitar playing and basic English lessons but it was clear that this was not what the people came for. And they seemed more mob-like. The best strategy seemed to be to guard the stuff and pray that the train would come soon. It was crazy and I definitely felt like the situation was out of my control. This is an especially bad feeling when you are the one responsible for eight other people. For the first time I really felt like hitting anyone in sight. Thankfully I refrained. We got on the train and all was fine.

Chittagong seems nicer than Dhaka. There are more trees and the buildings seem a bit nicer. Matt and I were nervous about our inability to firm up some things with our contacts but things are turning out fine. We got hooked up with some rooms at this AOG church and the pastor has been super helpful. Things are falling into place.

Teaching English in the slums

I never seem to have enough internet time to get everything done. Here's what I have time to write:

We are spending a few more days in Dhaka before leaving for Chittagong on Sunday. We got to work with a ministry in the slum area here. The slums we went to in Thailand were like the AMerican suburbs compared to this place. Some people worked in the clinic there, others the day care and I taught six English classes.

I was always jealous of people who could lead worship and felt my own gifts were not as beneficial. Teaching comes so easy to me and I forget that it doesn't for many people. I need to not take that gift so lightly.

The power goes out here everyday. The worst time is a few hours before I go to sleep because it is too dark and hot to do anything but just be bored. It is usually out for around an hour. THe people across the street have a generator, which causes me to covet.

Yesterday I used my first squatty potty. in Thailand, many places gave you a choice of toilets. I don't know who would want to squat when they can sit. I had managed to hold it until I got to a western toilet all times before that. It was not as bad as I thought. I think this was a nice one. It was good to get my first one out of the way since there are surely more to come.

Bangladesh is Pretty Nuts

I have arrived safely in Bangladesh. Matt told me the country was random and crazy and he was right.

It became real to me that we were actually going when they started serving the meal on the plane from Thailand to Bangladesh. It was a choice of chicken or lamb with curry and unidentifiable vegetables. We were also separated on the plane so I was only sitting with one of my students instead of the whole group as we had been.

We got to Dhaka and it was quite different than Thailand. Thailand is much more like America than Bangladesh is. I have been presently surprised by the amount of English writing on signs around town. It makes things easier. All the educated high society people seem to speak English, which is nice.

The place we are staying is very nice- a lot nicer than where I lived in Maui. We even have a tv. We had been quoting lines from Kindergarten Cop for the last two weeks and I was aching to see it. Today it came on tv. So sweet! I think it was no coincidence. The Lord knew I needed to hear the lines, "I don't want to be a policeman, I want to be a princess!" Priceless.

We have been here only a day and a half so we are just getting acclimated to our surroundings. We had to get clothes right away. We wear these things called- Sala Kameez. It is a long shirt/dress thing with matching pants. The most important part is a scarf that covers your boobs, called an ulna. Despite being fully covered, without an ulna, you are pretty much topless. It takes so getting used to for sure.

The culture here is very different and all of us are suffering from varying degrees of homesickness and culture shock. I am doing okay right now but I can forsee getting sad sometimes during the two and a half months. I did get to see Lindsay Lieser, one of my favorite students from the last team Matt took to Bangladesh. She is pretty much my hero as she has committed to being here in Bangladesh for a year.

It is so nice that Matt has already been here. It makes stuff so much easier. He makes sure the drivers of the mini-taxis and rickshaws don't rip us off. It is pretty obvious that they, along with the beggars, see dollar signs when they look at our white skin. People stare at us quite a bit. It really doesn't bother me too much but it is really getting to some of the students.

The traffic here is the craziest I have ever seen. We thought Thailand was bad but it was nothing. THe sides of all the buses are all banged up from being hit so much. There are lanes but no one seems to care. I pray a lot as we travel.

Overall, Bangladesh is weird but good. We meet with our contact tomorrow to discuss the overall outreach more. That should be good for all of us.

Thai Massage

I had never had a professional massage until just the other day. I heard how cheap they are here and was determined to give it a go. There is a place right by the YWAM base that charged 200 bhat an hour (about five dollars). How could I pass this up? Matt took the boys on our team the day before so I decided to take the girls.

The ladies could not speak much English but they spoke enough to make us understand that our guys had made quite the impression on them. Apparently they had Matt take off his shirt and were quite amazed by his girth. The Thais are a small people. And they had giant crushes on Eric.

The massage was good but a bit odd. They do a lot with pressure points and use their elbows and feet to massage in addition to their hands. They also massaged my butt, which can't help but be awkward.

A little bit longer this time

I know I just wrote yesterday but my time got cut short and Matt and I had to come to the internet place to email our contacts in Bangladesh. My post yesterday was painful short and undescriptive and I hope to rectify the situation now.

Yesterday we went to this giant market for our day off. Ashley, who is leading the nepal team, had told me about this place from her previous visits to Thailand. It was much crazier than I could ever imagine. It is a giant maze of shops and booths. It is very hot and very crowded and very AWeSOme! We spent about six hours there and probably saw about one fourth of what it had to offer. There was a pet section that had to be seen to believe. My favorite things in that section were the chipmunks they had for sale. They were wearing little leashes and sitting on top of their cages. To be perfectly honest, they kind of scared me. i felt that they might leap onto me at any moment. My experience with squirrels and the like has been that they are skittish and unpredictable- not the best pet. My friend, Todd, was much braver than I and actually picked one up. He didn't get to hold the one he wanted. That one was wearing a little beret. That's right- one of those floppy french hats was perched on a chipmunk's tiny head. But much to Todd's dismay, the fancy chipmunk was tied down and could not be cuddled. Todd had to settle for holding a much less fashionable rodent.

I bought a decent amount of stuff but nothing above $15. If you like to shop, Thailand is a great place. Besides shopping, we have gotten to do some ministry in addition to hearing lectures. We went to the prostitute area of bangkok. It was so hard to feel compassion for all the older white guys there. We walked around and prayed for the girls and the guys who were using them. I wanted to talk with the girls but the translator we came with was really nervous and uncomfortable. She is a strikingly beautiful Thai girl and the lustful men look at her as a possible purchase. In order to protect her, I just treated her to Pizza Hut. Thai people love pizza. Little do they know that their pizza pales in comparison to the United States. it tasted like a slightly fishy tomato sauce with weird cheese and meat on a saltine cracker. And they serve ketchup on the table. Strange!

Things are going well but I am getting anxious to go to Bangladesh and get things started. i will definitely miss the nepal team while we are apart, though. I love those guys.

Experiencing Thailand

I have been in Thailand for almost a week now. The purpose of this time is to be a kind of "pre-outreach." The students have lectures and ministry times. They are getting used to a new culture and we as staff still have other YWAM Maui people to help us deal with stuff. Unlike a lot of leaders, we have already had to deal with a lot of CRAZY stuff on our own while our school leader was gone.

We went on a tour of the Budhist temples here. There are many really famous ones in Bangkok.
I thought it would be fun and I could take funny pics of me pretending to hug Budha statues but it was a lot harder than I thought. I found it interesting but also really sad to see all the ways people were trying to earn God's love when He wants to give it to them freely.

I am really bad at learning the language. My student, Kelli is really into it. But instead of saying How are you, she said May I fart. Haha.

I am in Thailand (How about that for an original title?)

I have now experienced Asia. After an abnormal amount of flying and chillin in chilly airports, I am finally here. The flying actually was not too bad. It sure beat the packing beforehand. I procrastinated so much that I only got two hours of sleep before we left. In fact, I am still quite tired. I slept on most of the flights. Each time I woke up it was like taking sleeping pills and waking up after only a few hours. I was in quite the fog. Most of my companions were in the same shape. We had a long layover in Taipei and almost all the students slept on ledges and the floor by the gate. When we first got to the gate, there was no one there but when they were waking up the area was brimming with Asians. It was quite fun to watch them emerge from their sleepy caves made from "borrowed" airline blankets. Their expressions were priceless.

Thailand is cool so far. It actually reminds me more of home than Maui. This is mainly because of the extensive freeway system. There are a decent number of things in English and we are all practicing our Thai. I am not very good at it. I like saying English words and adding the word, "kah" at the end. That is what you do if you are a woman. The guys say a word that sounds like crap at the end of everything they say. PRetty sweet. This place also reminds me a bit of Mexico. THe place we are staying is right across from the biggest university in the nation. I though UT was big with 50,000 but this one has about 600,000. I guess we should start saying Everything is bigger in Thailand!

Synopsis of Craziness

I haven't written in a little bit because things have been so crazy. I wasn't sure how to explain what has gone on. I tend to include too many details so I will try to consdense this as much as possible. I am also getting tired of talking about it.

Last Thursday started out with all but one of the girls being late to lecture. Not good. Then we had a prayer time and one student ran out after getting upset at another student. Definitely out of the ordinary! Later it became apparent that one of our student's had had a very serious mental break with reality. She had been sharing some strange "visions" with the other students throughout the DTS. They didn't tell us so we were clueless. Well, she essentially went crazy. I believe there may have been some spiritual aspect to it but there was definitely something psychological going on as well.

We questioned her through lunch about some rules she had broken but she was unresponsive except for yelling at another leader at one point. We had to involve our base director. To make a long story short, then she ran away. I was so afraid she was going to hurt herself. With such eratic behavior, I did not know what to expect. She ran down Hana Hwy and I chased her. It was so much like a movie. Unfortunately I was not dressed for the occasion. I would have killed for tennis shoes and a sports bra instead of sandals, my bathing suit, skirt and tank top. But alas, when chasing a student who has gone crazy, there is not much time for wardrobe changes. As I ran, I just prayed that I could catch her and that she would not run in front of a car. It must have looked hilarious to anyone driving by. There was a little Korean girl running from a girl dressed for the beach(me), followed by a giant red-headed guy(matt) and then followed by two small people, (Ashley and Josh- her leaders)

My working out paid off and I caught up to her as she tried to hide in a sugar cane field. As I was walking her back, she passed out and because of a lady who stopped to help, we ended up calling an ambulance to pick her up. The emergency room evaluated her and recommended that she see a psychiatrist the next day. Her behavior became stranger and stranger. We had to isolate her from the other students as her behavior might upset them. Someone had to "babysit" her at all times. It was pretty intense. She gave long diatribes about how she wasn't crazy. This is pretty scary. She at one point said she was "channeling" another student and tried to convince us that she was that student. So weird! We booked her on a flight home the night after her big chase. She actually escaped once more before getting to the airport but another student caught her.

Now she is back with her family, pastor and counselor. They are working with her and I pray that they can help her. It was too much for us to handle especially so close to leaving for outreach. So, now the Nepal team is down one member and actually we lost another member in the process. One of our students made some very poor choices in the midst of all this drama and proved himself less trustworthy and forthright than we had hoped. He will not be coming to Bangladesh but the base is letting him be a mission builder and then attend the next DTS. I am glad because he is an awesome guy but he is a new Christian and needs more discipleship before he can handle Bangladesh.

Our base director, Tom, was a saint throughout all of this. He is one of the most upright and godly men I have ever met. He brought us fried chicken when we were interrogating through lunch time. He even personally walked the student to her gate at the airport and made sure she got on the plane. Without his support, I don't know how we would have done it. I would give that man my first born.

pray

please pray for us. will share more later.

Money, Money, Money

I realized today that I forgot to write about some fun and amazing things that happened on base with regards to the money students still need to go on outreach. So, here it goes:

On Thursday night Maria wrote the amounts that students still needed to go on outreach. Then she had all the students and staff pray about whether or not we were supposed to give money to one of the people and how much. It was cool to see the students step up and give about $6000 total. After each pledge was made, we changed the students' totals on the board. One student came to me because she had received a lot more than she needed and was trying to figure out who God wanted to give it to. I prayed with her and she came to a decision. The girl she had decided to give the money to was not in the room when we changed her amount owed. It went from about $1900 to $221! I was getting really anxious to see the girl come back. I watched her as she looked at her new total in disbelief. It was priceless!

There were still a lot of students who needed money even after so much was given. Maria initiated another giving time at base worship on Friday morning. Kelli needed over $2000 for her outreach and really doubted that God was going to make it happen. This time I got to be the one who read the little slips of paper with people's pledges on them. Someone gave Kelli $200 and then I read one that said- "I want to pay for Kelli's outreach." So awesome! It was with much excitement that I wrote PAID! next to Kelli's name. She totally started crying.

Another really cool thing happened. There is a hippie family in town with a five-year-old son and an infant son. They came to worship and during the giving time, the little boy (whose name is Collie Love), came up to me and put $6 in my hand. It totally reminded me of the story in the Bible about the widow who gave her last mite. $6 is a much bigger deal when it comes from a family whose only place of residence is the local beach. Powerful.

My weekend at a glance

This weekend has been very chill so far. Last night we finally had our team dinner, which was postponed when we had to take our "cook" to the emergensy room. For more details, see last posting. It was a very fun time with my team. Our team is random, loud and quite hilarious. Some of the students from the Nepal team told me that during their team meetings, they sometimes just sit and wonder what we might be doing. Our team's rambuctious, free-spirited nature is fun except when I am trying to maintain some kind of order. For the dinner, I didn't even try to make them settle down and just enjoyed the ride.

On Thursday, our team had a little photo shoot and Abbey followed us around and took pictures. I thought it was pretty fun but the students' reactions varied. Some could have posed all day and some were over it after the first 10 pictures. I wanted to take a lot because the odds of getting a picture where 12 people all look good are pretty slim. I have posted the shots on my website, if you want to check them out- www.ywamconnect.com/sites/hightower

Back to last night-after our team family dinner, I hung out with Abbey and Bethany. We created a MySpace for Abbey that is pretty stinkin' funny. Almost all of it is a big joke. And today she had all these messages from crazy weird men. The best included a picture of one of the crazy men stretching awkwardly in tight biker shorts. So funny! I don't see how a guy like tha can stay single.

I ended my evening watching the movie, Brokedown Palace. It is about two girls getting wrongly imprisoned in Thailand. It was cool to watch knowing I would be going there in only two weeks. My friends I watched it with had already been to Thailand so they told me which sights in the movie I would get to see in real life.

Then we watched this DVD that this random old guy, Jerry gave Matt. It was of him doing all these weird karate-like moves and using medieval weapons resembling pitch forks and giant butter knives. This stuff was PRICELESS!

Back to the Emergency Room

Well friends, in case the meaning behind this title eluded you, I visited the Emergency Room again today. The joys of being a leader! Actually it was not too bad. Francis, our Swiss team member, cut his foot and it got infected. It was looking pretty gruesome and was bloated like the foot of a 600=lb man, which he is not. For some reason, Maui is a breeding ground for staph infections. There are very few people on staff who have not had one or the boils that often accompany staph. Luckily my mom has told me that I am not boil people. I hope that holds true because these things get pretty gnarly.

Anyway, enough about boil people and back to Francis- so, he was supposed to cook dinner for our team tonight and we were going to have a bonding family-style dinner. His alarmingly swollen foot put a stop to that and Matt, our student-Eric, and I took him to the emergency room. It was not a dire emergency but since he is Swiss, his insurance only works at the emergency room.

The emergency room is painful and fascinating. I always wonder exactly why people are in there but you can't just ask everyone who comes in. We met a nice Christian college kid and his mom. The guy had some severely swollen tonsils. We also met a strange man who seemed high and homeless. He had clearly had a rough night and a rough life. He showed us scars from knife wounds and told us stories of being shot. He looked like he had been in a fight but said he cut his head after having a seizure.

Francis got treated, got a perscription and will need to go back in a few days. Apparently he has cellulitis, probably caused by staph. The whole process took four hours but it wasn't too bad with Eric and Matt to talk to. It was especially good for me to get more time to talk with Eric. I spend most of my time with the girls on my team so I haven't been able to get to know my guys as well.

Now I am about to go to sleep. When I came home, all the junk on my bed had been cleared away and there was an encouraging note on my pillow from my team. Not too shabby! It was a much better ending than when we brought poor Emily home with a broken ankle and she puked all over the place as Matt carried her into the living room.

Handful of Cheerios

This weekend has been really good. I have done stuff but also relaxed a bit. I went running and walking a few times. It is harder to motivate myself without Amy to take me to the gym. I am trying, though. On Friday night, I watched Dave Chappelle's Block Party with Bethany and my student, Kelli.

On Saturday I had coffee with Matt so we could talk about our team. Then Abbey and I went tanning in front of Mama's Fish House- this super-expensive restaurant I will probably never eat at. The beach there is really nice even though the weather wasn't. It would be cloudy and windy one minute and painfully scorching hot the next minute. Maui has a lot of this bipolar weather.

At night I went over to my friend, Kristy's place. She cooked me dinner and we hung out. It was nice to be in a non-YWAM house. After that we went down the street to her parents' house for ice cream. Kristy had been watching their dog, Rascal and when we brought her over, Kristy's mom asked, "Did you feed her?" Kristy told her that she had given her a handful of cheerios. Kristy's mom was appalled and asked, "And now you are giving her dessert?" It seemed weird to me that she would care so much about the dog eating dinner vs. dessert. Then we realized that Kristy's mom was talking about me and not the dog. She thought Kristy was talking about me and that Kristy had only given me a handful of cheerios for dinner. Pretty funny.