A whole week already?

Sorry, it's been a week since I posted! Man, time flies. Highlights of this week include:

• Agreeing to speak at the retreat/race weekend. Yikes! It's going to be scary.
• Being a tourist in my own backyard - so fun! And I'll get around to posting pictures soon, I hope. Playing tourist is extra-specially fun with fun people!
• Eating good food, like mashed potato spring rolls. And enjoying that food with good friends and family!
  
• Finding the most beautiful notebook on sale at a shop where I have a gift card! Thank you anonymous church-goer who gave me the gift card!
• Beautiful sunny days, with frosty snowy trees.
• Spending time with my sister and nephews and brother-in-law.

There were a few more moments of loveliness this past week, but I can't think of any of them off-hand at the moment... But it's been a good week for me here.

I did get some sad news today, though. One of my colleagues back in Africa lost his baby daughter yesterday. The little girl, not yet a year old, passed away after a very short sickness. Could you pray for that family?

Refreshment!

I've had some good fun this past week. I enjoyed a couple of things that were just so refreshing! They really hit the spot and watered a little piece of my soul that I didn't even know was thirsty :) The first evening was spent in a big crowd downtown, waiting and watching for the Olympic Torch to be run into the city! It wasn't so cold, so it was almost enjoyable to be outside in the crisp evening air. And there was a big happy crowd gathered downtown. Everyone was happy, even though there were crowds of people everywhere. It was a happy crowd! And there were folks running around in cute little outfits running around giving out free stuff, including free Coke in in special Olympic bottles.
I even got to hold one of the Olympic torches that was used in a leg of the relay!
The whole evening really hit the spot because it's been so long since I've been a part of a happy crowd experience! I was feeling quite happy to be a Canadian, and to be part of a "tribe" where I could blend into a happy crowd of people, with no worries of standing out or getting caught up in some sort of riot or something! I felt like I was among my own people again. And it was just a lot of good plain fun. And one of my favourite country singers was singing, too, which was also really great!

Then, yesterday, I went to a concert which was raising money for the earthquake in Haiti. It was held at one of the big churches in this city, and had musicians from all over. Quite honestly, I'd never heard of most of the folks who were performing, but I couldn't believe how good they all were! Most of them were just up on stage singing with a guitar or a piano, maybe a little bit of drumming in the back ground. It was simple, but they were all so amazing. I had sort of forgotten how much I love music! One of my favourite Christian singers was "headlining", and while he did a few songs just with his guitar, he also did a few songs with a full choir and orchestra backing him up.

It was just... ah... so soothing! I really felt like my shriveled little soul was being watered and coming back to life again. I guess I hadn't realized how much I've been missing good live music. But last night, wow, I just soaked it all up. I need to do some more of that before I go back to Africa. Ever so refreshing, and I feel like a bit of a well-watered garden again.

I'm realizing how much I miss artistic beauty while I'm living in my place. I think I need to be more pro-active in finding some beautiful things to look at and listen to while I'm there. I don't want that little part of me to wither again, now that it's springing back to life!

I'm still here!

I know, I've committed one of the number one "sins" of good blogging. I've been absent. Sorry. But I'm still here. And I've even composed a few blogs in my head as I wander through my days. But they just haven't been committed to keyboard for some reason!

Things are going well. I've spent the week with my sister and her family in the forest. It's been great! I've had a few hours a day to get some things done - preparing for some presentations on my work in Africa and organizing my schedule, as well as checking some reports from back in Africa and answering some of the emails that never seem to stop.

I'm really excited about tomorrow, though, because I finally get to meet someone who is coming to Africa to make my life so much easier and less stressful! We're getting a REAL IT person to live on our little compound back in Jb! And he happens to be from this part of the world! So tomorrow I get to have lunch with him to tell him all the gory details of life in Jb (didn't want to tell him too much before he had his plane ticket bought... but now that he's committed, well, he can hear the whole truth :) ). And then on Sunday I've been asked to share for a few minutes in his church.

I've also been asked to speak at a rather big retreat thing (won't go into the details here) but it's rather a big deal. And I really don't feel up to the task. So I've been trying to figure out is that just me being a scaredy cat and this is just one of those instances when God uses my weakness to show his power... or am I really just not suited to the task, and my refusing to speak, it opens the way for someone who really has something to say to share?! You can pray I can make a good decision about it. In the shower this morning, I was sorta feeling like I just need to commit to doing it and trust that the Lord will use the time for good.

But, um, well, honestly, I'm not a motivational speaker! I don't normally have too much inspiring to say! I don't think the folks who have come for a great uplifting weekend really want to hear all my stories about Zane's rat hunting, you know? Might be inspirational for all those rat hunters out there... but, well, somehow, since we all reside in a rat free region, I don't think it will really hit where anyone's at, if you know what I mean. So anyway, if any of you faithful readers happen to have any prophetic words about what I should do... um, let me know :)

So. That's really all I have to say. I've been trying out this small town living for the past week, and I can see how it might start to grow on you. I even wore a flannel shirt and big snow boots to town yesterday to get my car washed! I was, however, sitting in a little cafe a few days ago (went to get a change of scene to get some inspiration for the presentation I'm making on Sunday), and as I sat in the little cafe with my laptop, I was getting a few odd looks from people who were wandering in and out in their own flannel shirts and cover-alls. Funny, because back in the city, if you're sitting in Starbucks WITHOUT your laptop, you start to get odd looks! It's really interesting to me how different the culture is out here in the country!

Right. I hope it's not another whole week before I get back to blogging again. Maybe by then something interesting will have happened.

By the way, also keep those folks in Haiti in your prayers. It's amazing how many personal connections I seem to have to that little island these days, but it seems everyone that I know who has family there seems to have everyone accounted for. But it can't be a pleasant time for any of them.

Getting Rich!

Today I found a great way to get rich ... and save the environment at the same time!

My parents have a couple of boxes in their garage where they throw all their milk cartons, juice boxes, bottles and pop cans. I kindly offered to bring the contents of those boxes away to the bottle depot today... in return for a share of the profits, of course :)

I was amazed. I think it was a bit of culture shock, actually! Since I've been away, they've built a new bottle depot, and it's quite posh - I mean, as posh as a bottle depot can be. They have a nice ramp where you can wheel your bottles up to the door in an old shopping cart. Then you go to one of 4 or 5 "stations" where a friendly man will do the "bottle dance" while sorting out your bottles. It was quite something to see - these guys were really dancing as they separated the 2L bottles from the milk cartons from the pop cans from the juice bottles. And all the while, somehow keeping track of how many of each you dumped on their respective counters.

Once they've cleared their counter of the pile of refuse you've dumped there, they give you a little slip of paper which you take to yet another counter. That little slip of paper is just like a little lottery ticket! I found myself holding my breath a bit as I handed my slip over to the cashier... waiting to see just how much money I would reap from my little jaunt to the bottle depot. Imagine my surprise when she handed over $19.65! And just this evening, over dinner, I found out there's a few more stashes of empty beverage containers in the garage which I didn't even see!

So here I'm thinking if only someone could set up some recycling projects back home in Jb.
I mean, honestly, if children like these could make some money from all the plastic bottles lying around instead of just using them for a giant "ball room"... both the environment and the people would be so much the better for it! (By the way, the photo was taken last year in front of our driveway in Jb. And yes, the kids are rolling around in a pile of empty plastic water bottles).

Nothing too exciting

Which means there's nothing to blog about!

Really, I've just been hanging out at home, watching some TV, reading some books... and answering emails from work back in Africa! It was quite amazing - the day the office opened over there, I got 18 work related emails in the space of a couple of hours! I could tell everyone is back at work over there... so I'm back at work, too. It's amazing how much more I can get done without all the interruptions of a normal Jb day :) But I must admit I'm not THAT much more effective, since there's also a lot more distractions here - like swifty internet, tv, an endless supply of library books... ah... wonderful library books!

It's been so nice to see friends, too. I've had dinner with a few friends, and went to my old homegroup tonight. So good. So it seems I still have a bit of a home here, too!

And, get this, the temperature is thawing out. It's supposed to be in the double digits next week because of this wonderful special phenomenon that we get in this part of the world. I love it!

But see, nothing exciting to report :( Back here in Canada, all we have to talk aboout is the weather. Oh, but while people are talking about the weather, I've really been noticing everyone's Canadian accents! I love it! I had sorta forgotten what a Canadian accent sounds like, and I've really been noticing it lately. And I'm sure my accent is coming right back, too. Gotta love it.

Just like home!

So I rushed back to the city from my little Christmas Card Christmas for the literacy training yesterday. I rushed to the church where the training was supposed to take place and walked in to find a whole lot of Africans milling about. I thought, good, they're having a tea break! I was soon found by the main guy who I've had some email contact with about the literacy training... and he told me that the literacy training had been postponed because they were all there for a funeral instead! Someone was supposed to pass the message along to me, but somehow, the message never reached me. Oh well, I felt right at home! Even here in North America, plans change at the last minute with this language community.

I think it's probably a good thing that the training didn't happen yesterday, though. Now I have more time to sit with the guy who is starting up the course and do some more thorough planning with him! It's exciting to see that I can actually do some literacy work with the same language group that I work with in Jb right here in North America!

On a completely different note, I went to an Anglican church this morning to meet up with some friends. I really, really enjoyed the service. I've been there a couple of times before, and have always really appreciated the service. I love the words of the liturgy, and the priests and congregation actually speak them with meaning - unlike the Anglican church in Jb where I get the feeling people are just reciting the words without thinking about what they actually mean! The sermon was on Isaiah 60, and focused on the light that has overcome the darkness. Really a good message on a beautiful piece of Scripture, which I shall link here for your reading pleasure.

Any passage of Scripture that mentions herds of camels as one of the future blessings is high up there in my books :) Somehow, I just love camels. And it's just especially wonderful here... along with all the other wonderful-ness of the glory of the Lord that's coming!

Happy MMX!

I'm beat, man. Many, many hours were spent today tromping around in the snow, huddling around the campfire and generally enjoying friends and family at what has become the annual New Year's Day Freeze-a-thon! Of course, staying up late for the anti-climactic ringing in of the new decade doesn't help one's energy level much! But it was good fun. Now I'm going to tuck myself into bed. Tomorrow I'll be back in the city where I have real high speed internet, which is a little less frustrating for uploading some of my beautiful Christmas card-esque pictures!

Phew, what a holiday season! I can't believe they're over already! Normally, I would kick into high gear again in getting ready to go back to Africa... but this time, I feel like I have all the time in the world stretching out before me. I just have to make sure I use all this time wisely. So on that note, I'm going to tuck myself into my bed. Tomorrow I go back to the city and right back to work - I get to visit a group of volunteers who are being trained to be mother tongue literacy teachers from a language community that I work with in Africa! How cool is that? I'm not really sure what will come of my visit tomorrow, but I'm hoping to somehow be of help with this community and their literacy classes for the next few months while I'm here at home!

It's a great start to MMX!