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.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
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 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.
Friday, February 6, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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!
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!
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