On the road again

It’s good to be on the road again! I traveled back to South Africa on August 25th. Amanda is no longer with me—in fact she recently flew from Germany (where she is going to university) to Ecuador (where she is doing her PhD research).

I was met by the Bishop and by Mali, a friend from one of the United Lutheran congregations. I didn’t stay in Simunye long, however. Only three days after arriving, however, I was off to the Northwest province to stay in the village of Maskiet for two weeks. I’m writing this now near the end of my time with the people of Maskiet. Here are a few thoughts about my time here.

One of the first things you do when you visit a village in South Africa is to go and greet the chief of the village—especially if you plan to visit the other people. The chief here is pretty laid back and the visit was quite informal. I actually enjoyed the visit immensely! The chief’s wife was quite interesting and we had a good discussion about the Bible.

The other thing about living here that stands out is the lack of indoor plumbing: no water for bathing or cooking! All water for washing, cooking, or bathing comes from the communal water tap down the road. Several times a week someone must ferry empty water containers to the water tap and back. The outhouse is fine—I don’t have a problem with that, and I’m used to doing my washing by hand (the kids in the picture prefer to do it by foot). However, I haven’t had a shower since arriving in South Africa. Instead, my baths consist of a basin of water, soap and a washcloth. There isn’t a bathroom with a drain either—I generally bathe in my bedroom, and the water must therefore be contained within the basin. I must admit that I’m sure going to enjoy the next shower I have—but it probably won’t be until I return to Canada at the end of November!

In terms of my volunteer work with the church, the kids from this congregation have been the highlight! Unfortunately Sunday school here usually consists of learning to sing—if it is even held. There are various reasons for this, the biggest problem being that the Sunday school teachers are young and have no background in the Bible themselves. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the kids are eager and willing to learn! Because of a teachers strike, I have met with the kids almost every day and I am so encouraged watching how fast they learn!

The rest of the congregation members here really need your prayers! I plead with you all to add them to your prayer list. Many people that I’ve talked to have no real understanding of who Jesus is and why he came to earth. The youth seem to know very very little of the Bible, despite having gone through confirmation. Many people no longer attend church services (the church building is shown in the picture) and the leader of the congregation is discouraged and disillusioned. I know that it is only God who can make a lasting change so I ask that you would all uphold this congregation in your prayers.

I ask for you to pray for me as well. I want to be doing only God’s will and speaking only God’s words. Please pray that God will help me do so throughout my time here!

Note: I refer to pictures, but the connection here isn't good enough to add them at the moment, so the posts will be updated later with photos.

Home again...

For those of you who don't know, Amanda and I are home again! After leaving Guatemala we flew to New York, spent the day there and then flew to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In Calgary, we met Amanda's friend, Serena and spent the night at her place. Early the next morning we jumped on the greyhound (I know...the things we'll do to save money...) and spend the next 14 hours travelling from Calgary to Langley. Phew!

We've always wanted to show up at home unexpectedly and we managed to on this trip. Our parents expected us home on Sunday, May 9th, and we showed up on Wednesday night! :) There we were standing on the balcony with all our bags staring through the window...and no one noticed! Okay, it only took them haf a minute or so, but it seemed long!

I am currently at home until I return to South Africa at the end of August. Amanda is home until she goes to Germany at the beginning of June.

Back to Guatemala

It was great to go back to Guatemala--it was sort of where my trip started a few years back...and where this blog started, now that I think of it!

Amanda and I split our time between Guatemala City and Zacapa. While in the City, we helped out with two organizations. One: SonRisas, a local outreach organization that ministers to families in one of the big cemeteries in the City. Every Saturday they offer songs, a short sermon, games and lunch. The Sunday after we left they also did a big dental clinic. We helped out one Saturday--you can see some of the kids in the picture--and also helped collect donations for the dental clinic.

We also helped out for several days at the Little Lambs daycare in the city. You can see some of the kids in the picture--and they were great! :) However, most of our time was actually spent in the storeroom where we were organizing donations. I was really excited to be back at Little Lambs (I was here two years ago when the building was still being renovated--look back to the 2nd or 3rd post in this blog to see pictures and get more background info.) Little Lambs is a great organization! Little Lambs is currently working on an orphanage in Jalapa and their funding is running low--anyone who may be interested in supporting them can get more information from their website: http://www.littlelambs-intl.org/

One of out last days in the city, we went back to helping out SonRisas by driving around and picking up things people/organizations had donated for their dental clinic. It was quite funny, actually! At one stop there were just too many donations to fit in the car, so after filling the truck with boxes, we started opening other boxes and stuffing things into the car wherever they'd fit. The whole back window was full of toothbrushes and the backseat (and Amanda and I) was covered with Crocs!

At the end of the week, Auntie Clara came to Guatemala to meet us--which was really cool!! The day after she arrived, we jumped on the bus and headed off to Zacapa. The big even in Zacapa was the first annual Guatemalan ALC convention! The three of us (Amanda, Auntie Clara, and I) were helping out with the kids. The kids under 10 had their own program during the services. The theme for the kids was "Christian Family" and so we talked about obedience (to your parents) using Jonah as an example and forgiveness (of your family members) using Joseph as an example. It was fun--even though we couldn't interact as much as we'd have liked since we don't speak that much Spanish!

Vivian (wearing blue in the picture) is the leader of the Sunday School in the Zacapa church. She was leading the Sunday School program and translating for us. At the end of the week, she also arranged a Sunday School Training session where we spoke to all the teachers. That went really well too.

We spent the rest of the week visiting villages and telling kids Bible stories, playing with them, singing songs and doing home visits. Amanda, Auntie Clara, Tim Aho, Jill Aho, Alison Aho, and I acted out the stories with the kids while Ryan Ruotsala translated. It was fun! (Side note: Tim & Jill were on vacation in Guatemala with their daughter and--oddly enough--we found out that we're second cousins... small world!)

We also went and taught English one day at the local school in one of the smaller villages (Juan Ponce), helped with a bit of Sunday School curriculum development/planning, attended a woman's group, and spent time just visiting. It was nice to get to know the new pastor and his wife as well as visit old friends from before.

The week in Guatemala flew by and then we were heading back tot he city. The day we returned, we ended up doing some informal curriculum development for both Little Lambs and SonRisas. We were able to use a lot of what we had developed in South Africa, which is great. After that we were free! A little shopping--a little eating--a little visiting and then off to the airport again.

Briefly in the USA

Wow! I can't quite believe we're back on this side of the water...but we are... Scary!

We arrived Boston and were met by Paul and Jayne Somero (thanks again guys!). After arriving we headed straight for New Ipswich, NH--which is where we spent most of our brief stay in the States. We spent the next few days being lazy, catching up on some email (sorry if I haven't gotten to you yet), drinking coffee, and touring around. It was fun! (Clearly I need to remember to take more pictures, though, 'cause I don't have a single one of Paul or Jayne...)

Also, we clearly don't pay much attention to where people are from 'cause we found out that all sorts of people live in this area that we know: Colin and Carolyn Kinnunen, Al and Kathie Traffie, and Ken and Tricia Matson just to name a few... We already knew that John and Colleen Ruotsala were there...and had planned to see them, but pretty much everyone else was a surprise--and, yes, we promise to spend more time there next time we come!

The main reason for detouring through this area was to see John Ruotsala--the administrator of the ALC Foreign Mission and to give him a run down of what we'd been up to in the last 19 months. We did so quickly and even managed to fit time in to participate in a Missions Night held at the Asburnham Church. John, Bruce (John's son), and Colin talked about India and the Philippines. Amanda and I talked about various places we visited.

Next on the agenda was a quick tour of New York City with Colin and Colleen. They both love NYC, so they were great guides! The weather was beautiful! We had a great time eating hot dogs in Central Park, climbing the Empire State Building, staring across the harbour at the Statue of Liberty, and just generally enjoying the city.

The day after touring NYC, we got up early and headed to the airport--we are off to Guatemala.

Chasing three 13-year-olds around Rome

Rome...the eternal city: one of my favourite places in the world! In Rome, history is a living thing that assaults all your senses! In Rome, you can just walk down the street and the history soaks into you from the ground! In Rome, history sizzles and crackles in the air! Ahhh...Rome... These were the thoughts that ran through my head as we planned to meet Milo, Devon, Janae, and Aasta in Rome. However, in my daydreams of Rome, I had forgotten two rather important details.

One: It was Holy Week. It's well worth experiencing Rome during Holy Week, but it does give the city a whole different feel to it when you're sharing it with a million pilgrims and other tourists. (The picture shows St. Peter's Square on Sunday morning--and there were still thousands of people slowly making their way through the security gates and into the Square!)

Two: Our niece, Devon, is fourteen and our cousins, Janae and Aasta, are thirteen. Oddly enough, their idea of a great vacation isn't spending the whole vacation wandering through ancient ruins... Now that I think of it, I've met very few people who share my affinity with ancient ruins, so probably their age had nothing to do with it! ;) Actually, being in Rome with the girls was lots of fun (especially since they graciously allowed me to ramble on about all the historical sites we saw--I tried to keep it short, but, come on, it's Rome)! It's always interesting to see a place you love through someone else's eyes. Besides, after eighteen months, it was just great to see them again!

Anyways, after that really long preamble, what did we do? Well...here are a few highlights!

One of our very first stops was the Colosseum--always a good choice. We went to view it the first day, then we went to visit it the second day, on the third day we visited at night, on Friday we watched the Pope's Good Friday address there, and finally we went the day before the girls left just for one more look... You can't over-visit the Colosseum! :) The picture (as you can obviously see) shows a group of gladiators battling it out to the roars of the crowd (or perhaps the confused looks of the other tourists).

I'd never been to the ancient site of Ostia Antica (the old Roman sea port), but I'm glad we decided to go! I admit to being pretty skeptical when the literature compared it to Pompeii (one of my favourite ancient sites), but after going I accept the comparison--though not the claim that it's a better site! There was lots to see: ancient mosaic floors, a theatre, graveyards, an old cafe (complete with mosaic menu!), and, of course, the ancient toilets which we thought we'd try out...

After Ostia Antica, the girls all voted that they'd seen enough ancient sites for awhile and wanted to head to the beach. There is a beach at Ostia, but it was still March and Rome isn't THAT far south. Okay, there was no snow on the ground, but that doesn't necessarily make it warm! The girls, however, still firmly maintain it was warm and even went swimming (or wading anyways...). The rest of us think they're a bit insane, but considering the family they come from, that's probably a good thing! :)

One of the other highlights of any trip to Italy is, of course, the gelato. Just thinking about it now makes me salivate! Much to our delight, we found the best gelato store in the whole city a day or so after arriving. It was the oldest store in the city (or perhaps the country...). It had the widest vareity, the cheapest price, and, hands down, the best gelato I've ever tasted! Since it really is an essential Italian experience we were forced to go every other day or so...but we figured that all the walking we did made up for any additional pounds that came with it!

To help work off the ice cream (and also because it was fun), we decided to head up to Villa Broghese Park and rent some bikes...well actually a couple of surreys. We then proceeded to try and not hit anyone while biking through the park. Amanda, Milo, and I took one surrey and the girls took the other. As good guardians, we showed the girls where they had to get back to on the map just in case we got split up. However, we also said we would stick with them--which we did for about five minutes before getting lost. After peddling along for about twenty minutes or so I looked at the map and realized I gave them the wrong directions. Now they were lost without directions on how to get back. Oops... Luckily, they were smarter than we gave them credit for, and they found their way back without even refering to the map! Good thing too, 'cause we didn't want to pay for another hour...oh, I mean, we were very worried about them... :)

What else? Well, we taught the girls lots of good travel tips and were very good role models! For example, we explained the importance of always carrying your own toilet paper and pointed out that the primary importance of MacDonald's is that you can go there to pee for free! We also ensured that they ate correctly (see two paragraphs previous), kept a close eye on them at all times (see previous paragraph) and that they never strayed out of bounds at any of the sites we visited. (The picture was their idea, I'm sure of it!)

Obviously, there are a lot more stories and a lot more pictures--but they won't all fit here. Check out everyone's facebook for more and ask for more stories next time you see us!

England and Scotland

We arrived in the UK at the beginning of March and headed out to Benson. RAF Benson is where our cousin, Stewart, is stationed. It's quite close to London and a brilliant base for touring the country. We arrived and did absolutely nothing for several days! As Stew would say, it was ace!! :) Our three weeks in the UK were strictly for the purpose of having a holiday.

It was great to spend time with Stew and Mimi--always a highlight! We did some touring around together, had some barbeques in the yard (a bit early, but heck, we're Canadians!), hung out, cooked food, and chilled. What more could you ask for?

Another highlight was seeing some very good friends from Thailand: Ross and Sonia Wilson and their three girls. They've recently moved back to England from Thailand so we saw them in October 2009 in Thailand and then March 2010 in England. I spent my birthday there with them in Oxford--a very quiet one amazingly enough! Maybe I'm getting old... Nah!!!

Yet another amazing friend from England gave us some contacts for Scotland (thanks Jane) and we visited Edinburgh and then the wild moors near Tongue, Scotland. It was absolutely fantastic. Yet another place I think I need to go back and visit. The moors were stunning--even if it was still the end of winter and nothing was blooming. One day it was so windy that we almost couldn't climb the hills in the moors because the winds blew us over. The news that evening said they were actually gale-force winds. :) Cool!! I've wandered the moors in Scotland through gale-force winds...

Our other preoccupation during our tour of England and Scotland (Stew lent us his car so we bombed about in that) was locating ruined castles, abbeys, manor houses, towers, etc. Especially the free ones--not only for the obvious reason (they were free...) but also because they seemed to have the most character...and the fewest tourists! Our hands-down favoursit was Greenknowe Tower in Scotland! It was brilliant--you could still climb it up until the fourth floor! How cool is that?!

What else? Loads, really! Plinking away with the air rifle in Stew's garden, touring London with Mimi, birthday cards from Becky, Katie and Kezzie Wilson, staying with Fiona and John in Edinburgh, sleeping in the car next to the snowbank, sleeping on the floor and then the radiators at Stansted airport, Oz kebabs... :)

Hmmm... perhaps I really should just write a book...

Until then...onward to Rome!

Schools and orphanages

Our time in Ghana was almost exclusively spent in schools and orphanages. We taught everything from preschool to junior high and every subject from English to Science.


Our first two weeks were spent in the Liberian Refugee Camp just outside of Accra. It was an interenting experience! Just before we arrived several of the teachers at the Emmanuel Lutheran School left due to the financial difficulties the school is having. Therefore, instead of arriving and helping out with English and Bible classes, we arrived and I was handed the entire courseload for the 5/6 class and Amanda was asked to take over Math and English (and temporarily Ghanian History!) for the 8/9 class. We were given less than 12 hours notice.


Exciting times!



Things went well, though. The kids were fun--though definitely ready to push boundaries. They wanted to know why we wouldn't cane them...and I admit to wanting to cane a few of them from time to time! :) Things are defintely at different standards there, though. The administration of the school was a bit chaotic, and just the fact that Amanda and I had university degrees made us w ell qualified to be teaching there. Many of the teachers had only about a week of actual teacher training. I'd love to see a training program for both the administration and the teachers put on there over a month or so.

After we left the Liberian Camp, we went west to the towm of Tarkwa. We only stayed there for about 5 days, but while we were there we helped out in a daycare and at an orphanage. We taught songs and stories to the daycare kids and played games and did origami with the orphanage kids. It was fun. Once again, it was sad to see the lack of training and education amongst the staff at the daycare. There were two little boys there--one definitely had Downs Syndrome and the other probably had Cerebral Palsy. Unfortunately, the staff treated them both quite harshly and basically said they are retarded and can't learn. When we talked to them about the boys they were stunned to find out that there are people with Downs and CP (though they didn't know those names--they just said they were retarded) in Canada. They thought it only happened in Africa when babies were born too early.


Our final stop was Asiama. Once again we helped out in a daycare, a school, and an orphanage. We especially enjoyed working at the daycare and school. Amanda once again dazzled the science students with practical hands-on lessons. I think the students in the other classes were really confused as to why their schoolmates were trying to push over a tree!! (They were talking about the importance of soil...) Another highlight in Asiama was meeting another missionary couple--Larry and Cheri--who have just moved there from the States and plan to stay between five months and five years! :)

And that was it! One month gone in a flash! On our drive back to Accra we also had the chance to stop off and be tourists with Frank--the president of the ALC in Ghana and our contact in the country. We dipped our feet into the Atlantic, visited Cape Coast Castle--the place where thousands of slaves were sent off into Europe and the Americas, and toured Accra.


It was a great trip and Ghana is definitely a country that I will be returning to some day (hopefully) soon!