It's December!

I can't believe it's December already! It sort of sneaked up on me. It doesn't seem like a year ago that I was anticipating my internship with EMI. I guess a lot has happened since then, but at the same time, it seems like it was just recently that I was planning my move to Colorado. Somebody told me once that time goes twice as fast after you turn 25, which means this coming year will seem even shorter than this one did. Crazy. Anyway, lots has happened this year. I hope you've all enjoyed reading about it!

So, since it's December now, I've been getting psyched for Christmas to come soon. Many of neighbors have put up ridiculous amounts of Christmas lights, and I've done my part by busting out every Christmas CD I own. (Or at least every one I could find that's not packed away in a box in the Teagues' garage!) Two weeks from today I'll be on my way to Michigan to spend the Holidays with my family! I can't wait! Plus I get to see lots of old friends and go to Pete and Amy's wedding, so I'm certain it will be a fun trip.

Speaking of weddings, over the Thanksgiving weekend, my sister Kristin and my former roomie Elizabeth both got engaged! Those two plus my friend Krista who got engaged a couple months ago make three weddings this summer that I will be in. My wedding preparation skills should be honed to perfection by next September!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, (I'm doing a good job with transitions in this post, huh?) I had an excellent long weekend hanging out with friends -- Elizabeth came to visit for a couple days, her engagement actually occured when her boyfriend picked her up at the airport on her return trip to Idaho. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my place for some of my amazing friends. We made so much food it was ridiculous! Apparently it takes more than 6 people to eat a 17lb turkey with stuffing, 10lbs of potatoes, cornbread, rolls, asparagus, corn, peas, fruit salad, olives, 2 pies, icecream, and a cake. Not that I'm complaining, I love Thanksgiving leftovers! I spent the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving helping my friend Krista with wedding planning stuff. We went wedding dress shopping and reception decoration shopping (at Ikea -- I love that store!). This past Sunday, I shared my pictures of my EMI trip to Africa with some families from my Community Group. The kids were especially interested, asking lots of great questions about the culture and the people, and it was really fun to sort of relive that experience. Did I mention that I can't believe it's been a year since I first found out I was going to get to be a part of that?


ps- I used 10 exclamation points in this post. Miss Herrema would be horrified.



pss- Miss Herrema was my junior high English teacher for those who don't know. She believed that everyone should only be allowed to use 3 exclamation points in their whole life. She claimed she still had one left.

Here Comes the Rain

Another quick update for those of you that I haven't talked to in awhile. First of all, as the title of this post implies, it's begun raining here. This being Seattle, it could quite possibly be 8 months before we see the sun again. :( It has been a pretty nice fall so far though, so I can't complain too much. The leaves are changing color and it looks quite pretty. And I've been getting up early to go running lately so I get to see the sun rise behind the mountains which is absolutely beautiful.

I'm also doing much better emotionally now than I was when I last posted. I still sometimes think about something Jared and I did together or something funny he told me and I start to get sad again, but for the most part, I'm doing okay and trusting God that he has something (or someone) even better in store for me. I have discovered one benefit (if it can be called a benefit??) of a broken heart....there's a lot of songs my ipod that I've always liked, but never been able to relate to before. Now suddenly all these songs about breaking up and lost love are really meaningful to me. It's kind of crazy to see how universal emotions are. I have also discovered however, that listening to these songs while driving is not a good idea as it is hard to see the road when one is crying....

I've been pretty busy the past couple weeks -- volunteering at Habitat for Humanity and the Monroe Public library, getting involved in various things at my church, spending a lot of time with my really awesome and supportive friends, and of course continuing to search for a job. So far I haven't made much more progress toward finding one, but the economy can't stay bad forever, right? Tonight I start my Spanish class at Cascadia CC and on Friday my parents are coming to visit, so I'm pretty excited about that!

Hope you're all doing well!

Life goes on....

Not sure how many people are still reading this thing, but for those who are, I thought it was time for another update. As many of you may have already heard, Jared broke up with me a week ago. Still not sure I understand why that had to happen, and I've been going back and forth between being angry and being depressed. I think the main issue was that I wanted to talk about getting married, and he wasn't ready. We had a really good time in MN, and his family was super nice and fun, so I was pretty surprised when 4 days later he didn't want to see me anymore. So yeah, that sucks, but I'm trying to move on.....

I haven't found a job yet either, but I'm hoping the economy will turn around soon. In the meantime I'm trying to stay busy with other things. I joined a Bible study at my church that's really great so far, and I registered for a Spanish class at the community college nearby. Oh, and the new living situation is going really well. The Teagues are awesome, and it's nice to have people around rather than living all alone, especially since I've been feeling a little lonely this past week.

That's about all the news for now. It's definitely turning into fall here in WA. It's been a lot cooler lately, and it's starting to rain more often. Today is actually pretty sunny though (although still cold) which is nice since I'm planning to spend the afternoon in Leavenworth (a Bavarian style town on the other side of the mountains) with a couple friends. They're having Oktoberfest there now so it could be a little crazy.....

Moving

Hey, thought I should write a quick update to let everyone know that I moved this past weekend. Elizabeth moved to Idaho over Labor Day weekend, and this past Saturday I hauled all of my stuff to my new room. (With some help from Jared and my friends Krista and Larry...thanks guys!) I decided to live with the Teagues (a family who goes to my church) at least until I find a job. Anyway, the move went well, and so far I really like it here.

Speaking of finding a job....it's not going too well. I'm having a hard time finding places that are actually hiring and even a harder time finding places that are hiring for a job that actually sounds like something I would enjoy. I had an interview a few weeks ago that I'm still waiting to hear about. They're waiting for a few projects to come through before they actually hire, so I don't know how long I'll have to wait to find out. At least I'm still in the running, so hopefully these projects will come through soon and maybe I'll have a chance of getting hired there.

In other news, on Thursday Jared and I are leaving to go visit his family in Minnesota! I've never met any of them before, so I'm really looking forward to it. Plus Jared is constantly talking about all the fun stuff to do on his parents' mini-farm, so it should be a good time.

Backpacking

Since my last post was somewhat depressing, I decided I should update you all on a slightly more exciting part of my life....

Last night I returned from a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip. I've been wanting to try backpacking for quite a while, and it finally happened. I absolutely loved it! It was just Jared and I, and he carried most of the heavy stuff (tent, food, etc)...I felt sort of guilty, but he didn't complain. Luckily I was able to borrow a backpack and other supplies so I didn't have to buy my own equipment. We went backpacking near Lake Wenatchee (which is a couple hours east, in the Cascades), and we hiked about 8 miles each day. The weather was perfect, and the scenery was beautiful. We hiked through a valley/meadow area and then up to Spider Gap where we had a great view of the mountains and a lake down below. We decided to hike down to the lake because it didn't look very far away....we were wrong about that! The farther we hiked the farther away the lake seemed, but we made it. There was also a huge glacier and a really cool waterfall in the valley. Jared has all the pictures on his camera, but I will post some on facebook or picasa as soon as I can get them from him. I'm feeling pretty worn out today, and my legs are covered in mosquito bites, but it was worth it! By the way, if you ever go backpacking, I recommend macaroni and cheese for supper. It was easy to make and tasted amazing after a long day of hiking. Oh, and I nearly forgot to write about this, but we got up in the middle of the night to do some stargazing, and I saw a shooting star for the first time in my life! Actually I saw three of them. I was pretty excited.

In other news, I have a couple possible leads on a housing arrangement, but no leads on jobs yet. I wish it was the other way around. Having a job would make the living situation so much easier...and more affordable!

Hello again. Sorry it's been so long since I wrote anything on here. I decided it was time for an update to let everyone know what's going on in my life lately.

First of all, I still don't have a job. I've been applying to so many different places I'm starting to lose track of all of them....I'm somewhere in the triple digits at this point, and still no luck. I'm getting a bit frustrated with the whole process. Many of the companies with job postings on their websites turn out to not actually be hiring which is very annoying. I've been praying about whether I should expand my search to include places outside of the Seattle area, but I don't really feel God leading me either way on that one, and personally I'd rather stay in Seattle.

And now, in addition to looking for a job, I'm also looking for a place to live. My roommate got laid off and is going to be moving back to Idaho to be closer to her parents and her boyfriend while she looks for a job. Since I can't afford our apartment on my own, I'll be moving out when she does....in about a month...I'm just not sure where I'm going to move to yet. I want to find a place that will allow me to rent month-to-month rather than sign a long lease since I may have to move again if I find a job.

So yeah, I'm a little overwhelmed and stressed out right now, but I'm trying to have faith that everything will work out in the end. In the meantime, please pray that I'm able to find both a job and a home in the near future! Thanks! Love and miss you all!

my thoughts on unemployment and poverty...

I got my first unemployment check yesterday. It actually surprised me (and a few other people I told) how much money you can get while you're unemployed. It made me realize how lucky (blessed) I am that I live in a place where I can get more money in a week for doing nothing than many people in the world can make for a year of hard labor. I've learned/read a lot about poverty over the last few years, and I've seen a lot of it in my travels around the world, but somehow I always let it slip to the back of my mind and never think about it....so today I'm thinking about it for once. When I was at EMI one of the staff members gave a presentation on poverty during our week of orientation. I was just looking over some of the notes I took during that presentation, and the statistics are staggering. Approximately 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. $1 a day! Another 1.5 billion live on $1-$2 a day. I get about 40 times that much each day just by being previously employed in the state of Washington. It's ridiculous. And here I am pouting that I can't get a new pair of jeans because I'm unemployed and can't afford things. I was feeling convicted about it today, and figured I'd share my thoughts with the general public. Hope you don't mind. Sorry if I made anybody else feel guilty for being privileged....I don't think we should have to feel guilty for it so long as we're using our blessings to bless others. Anyway, I'm not much of a theologian, so I'll stop preaching now....

So yeah, I got my first unemployment check yesterday. I'd rather be earning a real paycheck, but at least I'll have enough to live on until I can find a job....which looks like it might be awhile. I've been finding fewer and fewer places that are hiring lately and I'm started to get a little discouraged with the whole process. Please pray that something will work out soon. (Even just getting an interview would feel like an accomplishment!) I'm really starting to miss engineering stuff like drawing up plans, designing sewer lines, even writing drainage reports....the other day I was explaining to Jared what an NGPA area was (native growth protection area) and it really made me miss my old job....

I'm still enjoying being back in WA though. We've been having remarkably good weather lately, and I've been able to spend a lot of time with Jared which is awesome after nearly 5 months of only phone conversations. Last night he cooked for me again, and then we went to see the new Pixar movie Up. It was cute, and funny....I highly recommend it.

This coming weekend Jared and I and a few other friends are going on a rafting trip in OR with a group from his church. I'm pretty excited and hoping that the weather will be nice. Also, in a couple weeks I'll be making a quick trip to GR, so I'm looking forward to that as well. As long as I don't have a job, I may as well find other things to do with my time!

Not much to write about....

....but I thought I'd just let you all know that I'm still trying to find a job. I think I've applied for about 50 of them now. I'm hoping something works out soon because I'm starting to get bored sitting at home all day....though I must say this might be the first time in my life that I've actually looked forward to having dishes to do! At least it's something to pass the time. This past week I finally figured out the unemployment system, and I should be getting my first check tomorrow, so it will be nice to have at least a little bit of money for gas and groceries. That's about all I've got for now. Hopefully I'll have some more exciting news to write about soon!

Well, I have now been back in Washington for just over a week. It's been a good week too. This past Saturday Elizabeth organized a 'welcome back' party for me which was really fun. I got to see all of my friends again and the weather was gorgeous so we got to spend some time at the park. The weather has actually been pretty awesome ever since I got back here, so I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can. I've also been able to spend time with Jared finally which I really enjoy. He cooks me dinner and stuff which is always nice. I'm still searching for a job. There doesn't seem to be too many possibilities out there, but I'm applying for anything I can find. I'll keep ya'll updated if something works out. Other than that, not much new to report about. Hope you're all doing well!

Home Sweet Home

I don't have much to write about, but I just thought I'd let everyone know that I made it back to Washington safely. I still need to finish unpacking a few boxes, and I'm still looking for a job, but it's definitely good to be back home.

Speaking of unpacking, I should probably work on that now....

One day left at EMI

Tomorrow is my last official day of work at EMI. I might come in over the weekend too since I have some stuff to finish up, but tomorrow will be my last chance to see most of my coworkers. It's kind of sad. I really like this place. Saying goodbye to all the other interns is going to be especially hard, but I've got a lot to look forward to as well.

I still haven't found a job, so hopefully I can find one soon before my savings account is completely wiped out. It's amazing how fast money disappears when you're paying to work rather than getting paid to work, but it was definitely worth it!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks one last time to all of you who supported me both financially and in prayer over the last few months. I'm really grateful to have had this experience. Please continue to pray that this transition will go smoothly for me as I move back to Seattle and try to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. Pray that God will show me where he wants me to be, and that I'll be open to wherever he leads. Right now I feel that I'm supposed to move back to WA and look for an job where I can continue to learn and develop my engineering skills, but if he has something else in mind, then I want to be open to that as well. If there's one thing I've learned during my time at EMI, it's that life is really exciting when you're following God's will!

ps - Even though I'm done at EMI, I'm going to try to continue updating this thing on a semi-regular basis so that all you GR and SD folks can keep up with what's going on in my life. I haven't done a very good job communicating with all of you since I moved to the west coast so hopefully this blog will help with that.

Pictures from my trip!

I finally finished going through all the pictures I have from my project trip to Kenya and Nigeria. Here's a link to the website that I've posted them on if you want to check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/melhaagsma/EMiTrip. I actually started out with thousands upon thousands of them, but I didn't want to bore you, so I've narrowed it down to just some of the more interesting ones.

I only have 2 weeks left here at EMI, and then I'll be moving back to Seattle. I'm still looking for a job for when I'm done, so please continue to pray that everything will work out with that. I've got a lot of stuff to get done in the next couple weeks, so also pray that I'll be able to wrap everything up efficiently. I've got a lot of fun things planned too. Mostly weekend activities with the other interns. This past weekend my parents and grandparents came to visit, and we had a really fun time. The weather wasn't great, but we still got to see a lot of stuff. I think the highlight was our visit to Bishop's Castle: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2047

Also, I finally found out the total cost of my project trip, and it ended up being about $600 more than what I was originally told. Mostly because we traveled to two countries rather than just one, and also because we visited a lot of ministries during our time there. Anyway, I am now in debt to EMI, and I'm hoping that I can raise enough support to pay that off and possibly get enough money for my last month of rent as well. If you would be willing to donate toward the cause, you can do so on the EMI website by going to their donation page: https://emisecure.org/donate.html. Just fill out your info, and put “Melanie Haagsma-2746” in the designation box.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures! I hope they give you a good idea of what my trip was like and the kind of work we did.

Sorry it's been awhile!

I've been a bit busy lately and haven't had much time for writing on this thing, but here's a quick update of what I've been up to for the last couple weeks:

Most of the interns are back from their project trips now, so I've been hanging out with them again which is always fun. At work I've been going to meetings, writing reports, and working on drawings for our Kenya and Nigeria projects. Bob is hoping we'll be able to wrap up the Kenya one before I'm done at EMI....which is only a few weeks away now. The Nigeria job is going to take a few more months, so I probably won't get to see that completed.

I've also started applying for jobs. Things at Harmsen are still slow, so they don't really have enough work to hire me back. I've been submitting resumes like crazy for the last several days, but haven't had much luck so far. I'm really hoping I can find something in the Seattle area because I'd really like to move back there, but I'm not sure how much longer I should keep hoping for that before I give up and start applying anywhere and everywhere. Anyway, if you could all add that to your prayer list, it would be much appreciated!

On a happier note, Jared (my boyfriend for those who don't know) came to visit me this past weekend. The weather didn't cooperate too well. Friday and Saturday were cold and snowy, but we still had a really good time. And luckily things cleared up on Sunday so we actually got to see the mountains and do some outdoor activities. It was hard coming back to work after dropping him off at the airport on Monday. I wish I could have just gone back to Seattle with him! Living in CO has really made me realize how much I love WA, and I really miss all of my friends and my church and the scenery and even the rain sometimes. Not that CO isn't nice too, but I'm ready to go home.

My parents and grandparents are coming to visit this weekend, so now I have that to look forward to. I have a lot of work to get done before then too, and only a couple more days to do it, so it looks like I'll be staying pretty busy. Thanks for your continued support and prayers!

Back in the USA

It's good to be home. I'm even enjoying the snow. The trip home was actually pretty bad....for me at least. I got violently ill somewhere between Amsterdam and Minneapolis, and spent the rest of that flight and the flight from Minneapolis to Denver throwing up about every 1 or 2 hours. I did get to be pushed around the MSP and DEN airports in a wheelchair though, so that was pretty exciting. Thankfully I'm doing much better now, and I'm very grateful that I wasn't traveling alone. The rest of the team helped me out a lot with carrying my luggage, pushing my wheelchair, getting me drugs and water, etc.

On a happier note, I'm really excited about the work that we were able to do in Nigeria, and even more excited about the work that God is continuing to do through great organizations like Back2Back and Self-Sustaining Enterprises. It was a real blessing to partner with both of these ministries. They are doing great things, and have visions for even better things to come. It made our eMi team proud to be a part of it. Our last day in Nigeria we went to a village way out in the bush for the dedication of a borehole that SSE had just drilled. The villagers threw quite the celebration with tribal dancers and everything. It was amazing to see how something as simple as clean water was such a lifesaving blessing to these people. So many of the diseases that Nigerian children suffer from and often die from are caused by not having access to clean water. I could go on forever about how amazing I think these ministries are, but I'd probably start boring everybody.

4 more days in Africa

We're nearing the end of our time in Africa. I'm ready to be back home, and the sooner I can get out of this heat the better. But I'm going to miss the work we've been doing here and all the people that we've met.

This morning we went to a church service at a pretty large church here in Jos. It was in English which was nice, and they had two choirs, both of which were very good. After church we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Nigerian Chinese food is about the same as American Chinese food in case you're wondering.

In other news, we've been getting a lot of work done, and should be in good shape to make our final presentation to the 'clients' on Tuesday evening. That's about all for now. Hope you all are having an excellent weekend!

Hello folks! I'm in Jos, Nigeria now, and will be staying here for about another week.
We're having a good time here, and the work is going really well. I've been helping with the surveying for the past couple days, which involves lots of walking around and fighting my way through brambles, but it's fun, and luckily the weather hasn't been too hot.
This afternoon we went to the village of Kisayhip which is right next to the property that we're helping to develop. We handed out candy and oranges to all the little kids, and of course took lots of pictures of them. They're really cute....one little girl just wanted to hold my hand the whole time. Bob (our project leader) did a magic show that had a Christian message to it (mostly for the kids, but the adults liked it too), and at the end we had about 20 people coming up to accept Christ and have us pray for them. The pastor there said he had never even seen most of those people in church before. It's been pretty exciting to see God working, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the trip!

Kenya is awesome!

Hey folks, just wanted to quickly update you and let you know that I made it to Kenya safely.
We're having a really good time and accomplishing a lot of work too which is awesome.
This morning was pretty exciting....there were a whole bunch of monkeys playing in the trees and on our roof. They were really fun to watch, and we took quite a few pictures. The baby ones were especially cute. Diane (one of the missionaries here) said that they'll get in the house if you leave the windows open, and they really like to steal fruit if they can find it.
Tomorrow we're planning to wrap up our work here, and then we'll have a couple of days for relaxing and sightseeing before heading to Nigeria.

Visa Update:

We just got a call that our visas are on their way. They should get here tomorrow....just in time!
Thanks for your prayers!

3 days!

I leave for Africa in less than 3 days, hopefully. We're still waiting for our visas. I think we're all starting to get a little nervous about that, but there's not much we can do other than pray that they'll show up tomorrow, so that's what we're doing.

In other, happier news, this past weekend was nice and relaxing. The weather has been a little cooler lately, and on Saturday we had a little mini blizzard which made Vicky and I decide to spend the afternoon inside watching movies. We did venture out in the evening to go to The Golden Bee, a really popular English pub/piano bar. It was fun, and the food was good too.....worth the 1 hour wait. Last night Danna had all the interns over for supper as a sendoff for the 3 of us leaving this week. We had a really delicious meal of lasagna and then we all played a rather rowdy game of nertz.

Other than that, there's not much going on here. Keep praying for our trip: that our visas will come and that we'll have safe travels, etc. I know God's going to do great things, and I can't wait!

Snowboarding...

So Saturday I tried snowboarding for the first time ever. It was awesome!

There were 8 of us that drove out to Monarch Mountain together on Saturday. We had coupons for buy one get one free lift tickets, so that kept things from getting too expensive, and the weather was absolutely perfect--sunny, warm, and pretty good snow conditions. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there, so we left at 6:30 am and didn't get back until about 8 pm. It was a pretty long day, and I was definitely tired by the end of it. For 5 of us, it was our first time snowboarding, so we all fell quite a few times, but by the end of the day we were getting the hang of it and having a really good time. At first I kept falling on my butt when I was trying to stand up or when I got scared because I was going too fast. Then as I got better--and braver--I tried to do more turns and things, and I started face planting a lot. By the end of the day my muscles were pretty worn out--in my legs, arms, and abs. Yesterday I tried to move as little as possible because everything was so sore, but it was totally worth it! I'm really excited to try it again, and I hope that I can remember everything I learned this time. I think Jared was excited that I enjoyed it so much because he goes snowboarding all the time in WA, and now we'll be able to go together next winter.

Despite my bruises and soreness, I was not the most injured person from our group....that honor goes to Danny who broke his wrist on the last run of the day. He wrote more about it on his blog if you want to check it out: http://danseibert.blogspot.com/. He leaves on his project trip to Kenya in a week, so pray that everything will go well, and he'll be able to accomplish all of the work with only one arm.

As far as other news goes, I'm trying to get everything ready for my trip which is now less than 2 weeks away! I have no idea what to pack, so I'll need to start thinking about that soon, and we're still waiting on our visas so please pray that they'll show up in the next couple days. Thanks again for all your support! Love and miss you all!

Sunny Sunday in CS!

It's a beautiful day here in Colorado Springs. The weather here has a tendency to change it's mind a lot, but lately it's been rather nice.
My first week back at work went well. I feel like a got a lot done as far as preparing for our project trip to Kenya and Nigeria, which is now less than 3 weeks away! On Wednesday I went to get my immunizations....over $550 of them. Pretty expensive, but better than getting a disease. I got five shots, three in my left arm and two in my right, and my arms were pretty sore for awhile. I also have a prescription for malaria pills that I need to get filled before I leave.
Thanks again to all of you for your support. This wouldn't be happening without you, and I'm really grateful for all the financial and prayer support that I've been receiving. Please pray that the preparations for our trip will continue to go smoothly, that we'll get our visas soon, and that all the work we need to finish beforehand will get done on time. If you could also pray for the other projects, that would be great. There's a lot of teams preparing to leave in the next few weeks, and some of them don't have all of their team members lined up yet, so pray that God will lead the right people to eMi so that those ministries can be served effectively.

Back Home

I made it back home (Colorado Springs in this case, even though lots of places seem like home to me now...) last night around 11pm. I still haven't done any unpacking or laundry, but it can wait for tomorrow.
The jetlag doesn't seem too bad. I slept really well last night, and wasn't overly tired at work today.
Now I've got a few weeks to get everything ready for my trip to Africa. I'm pretty excited!

Last Day in Vietnam

Tonight I start my long journey back to the States...I think it will be about 36 hours total.
I don't have much time to write, but just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and having a good time. Erin left for China this morning, and I'll be taking a tour of the city today before heading to the airport. It's a little lonely without her, but hopefully I'll meet some nice people on the tour.
Friday and Saturday, we spent on a boat in Halong Bay. It was beautiful there, and the boat was really relaxing. We got to go through a cave and go kayaking which was fun.
It's been an awesome vacation, but I'm ready to head back home. It will be nice to be back in the States where people speak English and don't honk their horns incessantly, and I'm also looking forward to having clean clothes again...it's been awhile since I was able to do my laundry.
Well, my tour bus should be here soon.....or so I was told 30 minutes ago.

Today was a good day....

So I think today was my favorite day of the trip so far. Not that the others weren't good, but this one stood out as being quite exceptional.
We went on a day long tour to see the Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Erin and I joined two other American girls that we met at our hostel....Mara (who's actually from Grand Rapids. Crazy, huh?) and Lauren. We had a great time talking to them about their travels and other random things.
Anyway, the first stop of the day was at the Cao Dai Temple which had some crazy, but strangely beautiful architecture. The Cao Dai religion was invented in the early 1900's by some Vietnamese mystic who decided that the world would be a better place if everybody believed in the same god, so he combined all the religions of the world to form the Cao Dai religion. Today, the Cao Dai focuses on just three religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confusionism. Not sure when or why they decided to get rid of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism....
The second stop of the day was at the Cu Chi Tunnels, where the Cu Chi guerrillas hid during the war. I have to admit, I learned more about the Vietnam War this afternoon than I ever learned in all my history classes combined. The Cu Chi fought on the side of North Vietnam, which means they were fighting against the Americans, so it was pretty strange to see and hear about all the different methods they used to 'kill the American enemies.' I thought our tour guide it a pretty good job of explaining things fairly without sounding insulting to the US, but some of the videos we saw were not so impartial. It was odd to be accused of both attacking Vietnam and abandoning Vietnam. We also got to go into the tunnels which have been widened to accomodate fat tourists....though they didn't feel wide when we were crawling along them all hunched over with our shoulders and heads scraping. Not sure how people actually managed to live there. I would lose my mind.
Then tonight, we found an awesome cafe for supper. We were drawn to it because it was painted yellow and red and looked like a real American coffee shop. Our supper there was delicious, and as we were reading the menu we found out that it's a Christian cafe that was started in order to help people living on the streets learn how to cook and run a business so that they could make a living. Erin and I got really excited about it and bought cookies and coffee mugs from them in order to support the cause.
So that was today. Tomorrow we leave for DaNang, where we'll be hanging out with Erin's friend who teaches there.

We made it to Vietnam!

Last night we made it to Vietnam, and are staying at a nice little hostel in bustling Ho Chi Minh City. Our cab ride from the airport to our hostel was pretty interesting. Never before have I seen so many motorbikes....they're everywhere! And nobody seems to care about obeying traffic laws.
The rest of our time in Thailand was fun. I enjoyed the elephant riding and white water rafting, and got to meet some cool people from Slovakia and Slovenia. We took a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok so we could fly from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh. The train ride was over 15 hours long. Our seats turned into bunk beds during the night, but neither of us slept very well, and they woke us up at 4:45am so we could get ready for arrival....which didn't happen until after 6:00. I really would have appreciated the extra hour of sleep, but apparently that was not an option since they continued to come past yelling 'good morning' until everyone got up.
After the train ride, plane ride, and taxi rides, I was starting to feel pretty sick by last night. I'm doing much better this morning though, so that's good.

Greetings from Chiang Mai!

Hey everybody,
I made it to Thailand without too much trouble, and met up with Erin at our hotel. The plane rides were pretty long and uneventful. I did a lot of sleeping and sudoku-ing. The good part was that neither of my long flights were full, so I got to have an empty seat next to me and lots of room to spread out. I spent Sunday night in the Bangkok airport, which is a pretty nice airport, but the benches there don't make the most comfortable bed ever. I still managed to get some sleep and woke up with a slightly sore neck.
I got to Chiang Mai yesterday (Monday) morning. I took a nice nap in the sun out by the pool Erin and I spent the day wandering around town. I got a Thai massage which was really relaxing, and felt amazing after so many hours of sitting in airplanes. My masseuse was a guy, so I felt a little awkward when he was massaging my butt....luckily that part didn't last too long. I also got to go to Starbucks yesterday, which made me feel right at home! They have a few Starbucks here in Chiang Mai, and about a million 7-Elevens. Last night we went to the outdoor market near our hotel and I bartered for a couple cool souvineers.
Today has been nice and relaxing as well. I went with Erin to her conference thing this morning. It was basically a time of worship and the president of Cornerstone University gave a message from Phillipians which was really good. After a really good lunch at Mike's -- a burger joint down the street from our hotel -- I watched TV and wrote in my journal while Erin had some stuff to do with her teammates from China.
I'm really excited for tomorrow. I signed up for a tour where I get to go trekking in the jungle, ride an elephant, and go white water rafting. I think it will be lots of fun, and the lady that I booked it through was super nice and gave me a really good deal -- only 850 baht. (100 baht is about $3.)
Anyhow, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully I'll get a chance to write again soon. Hope you're all doing well!

On my way to Asia (almost)....

For all of you that haven't heard yet, tomorrow I leave for Southeast Asia. I've been planning this trip for a long time, and I'm super excited that it's finally happening! This trip is not related to EMI, but I figured I'd still share the adventure with all of you. I bought the plane tickets months ago before I knew that I'd be moving to Colorado, so I'll have to work some overtime to make up for the 2 weeks that I'll be gone. EMI doesn't really allow for interns to take that much vacation time....I'm pretty sure it will be worth it though!

Also because the tickets were purchased before I moved, I'll be flying out from Seattle on Saturday afternoon, so tomorrow night I'm flying to Seattle, and I'm really excited about getting to see some of the folks that I've been missing over the past month. From Seattle I'll be going to Thailand, meeting up with my friend Erin (who teaches English in China) and from there we'll be heading over to Vietnam and traveling up the coast from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi. And enjoying the 80 degree weather! Totally can't wait!

In other news, this has been a good week. Work was fun, and I got a lot of stuff done to prepare for our project trip. Tuesday night, the interns got together and had game night. We played Catch Phrase and Apples to Apples, and it was a really good time. Wednesday night, Jeni (the lady who Vicky and I are staying with) made supper for us, and the 3 of us sat and talked pretty much all night. Jeni told Vicky and me about all the cool things we have to see while we're in Colorado, and they all sound awesome. Not sure if I'll have time for everything, but I'm going to try!

That's about all I can think of for now. Please pray for safety for me and Erin during our travels. Thanks! Miss ya'll!

Hello again. I thought I'd take some time to update ya'll on the non-work stuff that has been happening lately.

Wednesday night all the interns got together for supper. We went to Chad (architectural intern) and Rachel's apartment, and they made delicious veggie pizza. Then we played a game called Quelf, which was highly amusing....think Cranium with more craziness.

Friday night the interns went out for dinner after work. We went to a sushi place.....turns out I don't really like sushi, but at least I can say I tried it. After dinner we went to The Mill, which is New Life Church's young adult service. It was a good service--good music and an insightful sermon. It also started snowing and got really cold. So much for sunny with a high of 65.

Saturday was relaxing. I spent most of the afternoon at Panera using their free wi-fi to get a bunch of stuff done....and watch a few episodes of The Office and Bones online. Vicky and I spent the night watching Napoleon Dynamite and trying to stay warm.

Today I went to church at North Springs Alliance Church with Vicky and afterward we went with Sarah (graphic design intern) to her sister's house for lunch. We hung out there for the afternoon and were entertained by her adorable nephews.

Today I finished my first official week of work. I really enjoyed it too!
A few highlights:
- Learning about the projects that I'll be working on in Kenya and Nigeria. This morning I even got to meet our Kenyan client and he shared with us about his vision for the prayer center that he wants to build in Nairobi. It was pretty inspiring to see how excited he was about it.
- Scott and Laura Powell, two of the EMI staff, set up a scavenger hunt for the interns so that we could get to know the area a bit. We split into teams and had to run around downtown taking pictures of various statues and picking up menus from various restaurants, etc. It was fun, and my team won, so that made it even better.
- Every Friday, the interns volunteer at the local soup kitchen, so today was our first day of doing that. It was nice to get out of the office for a couple hours, and we got free lunch :) There were soooo many people there for lunch. I was surprised how many kids and teenagers there were, it was sort of sad, but nice to be able to serve them.

I pretty excited for the weekend too. It'll be good to have soem time to rest, and hopefully finish my laundry finally. Hope you're all doing well wherever you are! I'd love to hear from you sometime. You can email me at melhaagsma@gmail.com or send snail mail to:
Melanie Haagsma
EMI
130 E. Kiowa St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903

Here we go....

For those who haven't heard, I made it to Colorado Springs safely. I arrived last Saturday, January 10 in the afternoon, and I spent the past week at Orientation. It was great getting to know all of the other interns as well as some EMI staff and long term volunteers at Orientation. (See the picture at the top of this post.) We took personality tests to learn how to relate to each other, played culture games, did a bunch of teambuilding activities, and even got to go hiking a couple times. It was sad to see the overseas interns leave this morning after spending so much time with them.

Tomorrow is my first official day of work at the EMI office. Not sure what's in store for me yet, but I'm pretty excited for it! I also got to meet my project team leader, Bob Smith, who will be leading the trip to Nigeria that I'm going on in March. As it turns out, I also get to go to Kenya for a few days once we're done with the project in Nigeria. For those of you who know how much I like traveling to new places, I'm sure you can picture how excited I was to find this out!

Thanks for all your prayers and support! I can't wait to see how God will work in me and through me over the next few months!