sunday. april 29 2oo7

i don't know how i managed to wake up at 6am and go to bed at midnight without any naps in between, but yesterday somehow i did. i first went to the wns bazaar with joe, ricky, and hadija (their househelp's daughter). i helped joe and ricky set up tables to sell their old stuff. surprisingly, they sold nearly everything! we had a pretty good turnout. i hope all the people leaving us next year were able to sell their stuff. in order to raise money for the 8th grade trip near the end of the year, they set up carnival-like booths. throwing a sponge at someone's face apparently can rake in alot of money with the right face. some of us teachers signed up for 30-min time slots. of course, our principal was a great attraction. but i got stuck running joe and ricky's table, so i never had a chance to take a shot at him. kayla got hit alot. it was probably because there were alot of elementary kids buying tickets to hit her. the younger you are, the closer you get to stand. i, on the other hand, talked alot of smack...hahahaa! so many of them wanted to hit me, but i'd drive them crazy with my mouth. i served my purpose because they kept going back and buying more tickets. i think i was hit about 4-5 times. it was fun. at noon, me and the kids had to leave to go to a tennis tournament. being in kenya, no one really shows up on time. so we ended up sitting and waiting for other kids to show up. overall, it was nice to sit outside in the sun. it wasn't too hot. watching joe own other kids is always fun too. he won all three games for that day. he continued the rest of the tournament today, but i still dunno how he did. after a long afternoon, i went home and showered. i ate some leftover pizza and then headed out to the girls' place to watch Life Aquatic and eat chocolate chip cookies. if you've ever seen The Royal Tenenbaums, then you'll have an idea of what this movie is like. afterwards, i went home and couldn't sleep. you would think i'd crash by then, but instead i watched bleach. it was a nice, stressless weekend. come to think of it, i'm beginning to realize how soon i'll be leaving. i haven't thought about it much because i enjoy living in the present day. but when i write down all the plans i have for the next four weekends, it brings that date closer. it almost feels surreal going back because the school year seemed to fly by so quickly. on this day a year from now, i will have decided whether or not i will stay longer. right now, it's still hard to confidently predict that. what do you imagine me doing for the next five years? ::: :::

friday. april 27 2oo7

what do you normally do at the end of the week of your full-time job? around here, things are rarely typical for me. today i chose to sleepover and take care of joe and ricky while the parents were away for the weekend. i always have a great time when i hang out with these boys. joe's in 7th grade, and ricky's in kindergarten. we started the afternoon off with a kid's movie called Everyone's Hero. there was abit of suspense at the end. by then, ricky had made his way up to my shoulders. fyi, the boy loves to climb me like i'm a tree or something. when the suspenseful part came, he had cupped his hands under my chin and began pulling my head up every time there was an exciting part. whenever there was a calm part, he would start rubbing my head. let's just say he acts out every emotion. it was fun. afterwards, they watched some televison and played outside while i checked email. around 7pm, i ordered pizza. when it arrived at 745, the three of us sat down together, and ricky prayed for the food. we had a deluxe meat pizza, and a mediterranean pizza (tomatoes and olives). we always have a ton of laughs during dinner time. ricky is so animated while he eats. he can't sit still for one second. joe and i laught most of the time because it's so funny to watch ricky. after cleaning up our plates, i had the boys sort out all the stuff they wanted to sell at tomorrow's bazaar. they have a booth set up, and i'm their adult supervision. joe's selling alot of his old toys and random junk. ricky has a few old toys, but i think he's most excited about selling the extra candy he has leftover from a birthday party he attended earlier this week. he cracks me up! he even came up with the idea of a grab bag. at his age, it's pretty awesome to be thinking of stuff like that. after a good hour and half taking care of all that business, i noticed ricky's energy level lowering. at first, he sat in my arms as i rocked the chair. when i carried him upstairs to bed, he asked me if i could read him a book to sleep. to tell you the truth, i'm a sucker for stuff like this. if it makes me a pansy, then so be it. he picked out a book from his shelf and hopped into bed. it turned out to be a book full of bible stories. after three stories, he passed out. i nearly passed out next to him, but there was another boy i needed to get to bed. it's moments like these that remind me why i want to be a father. not only did i get to read stories to ricky, but they were bible stories that spoke truths about God. it must be such an awesome feeling to minister to your own kid. here's ricky sound asleep. tomorrow morning, the ball of energy returns after quietly sliding out of bed, joe and i began preparing things for tomorrow's bazaar. in case you don't know what a bazaar is, it's a event where people get to set up booths and sell all their old stuff. basically it's like a giant school-wide garage sale. in addition to food, this time around i think we have games set up. the only reason i know this is because i volunteered to take a sponge in the face from 10:30-11:00am. as much as i don't want getting hit, i hope i can help bring in some dough for the 8th grade trip. anyway, this kid's got a long day ahead of him tomorrow. from 7:30 till noon, we'll be at the bazaar. right afterwards, we have to head over to a tennis tournament. if you faithful readers can remember, joe won a tennis tournament back in march. and i'm confident he can do it again tomorrow. because he's showing up late, he'll be playing alot of back-to-back matches when he shows up. please pray for his safety and that his muscles don't go fatigue on him. go to bed joe! well that's what i know of my weekend so far. until next time, live out loud. ::: :::

wednesday. april 25 2oo7

i'm gonna add this just for my memory. once again, there aren't any pics to go along with this post. however if you have facebook, i posted alot of addis pics. alright this past weekend was pretty kool just because my spontaneity hasn't stopped and it was endless fun. friday: - school - after school vball - dropped off at adam's for internet - simon showed up - ate pizza at hong's - jen and allison show up - made friends w/ the ethiopian place next door - went back to girls' place to hang out - power went out - jen and alison made fried okra and brownies - power came back on - 4 of us played dominoes - checked out casa blanca, but it was pouring - headed to mercury - jen and alison left - ran into my landlord - landlord gives simon and i ride - i realize that i left my keys at the girls' - slept on floor at the girls' saturday: - jen takes me back to my place - hanbeen's mom picks me up to go to rosslyn bazaar - walked around and checked out rosslyn - hanbeen's mom treats us to lunch at village market - get dropped off at adam's - meet up with kayla and megan to walk around toy market - got a $7 corduroy jacket and $8 corduroy pants - drove to yaya in attempts to use internet - simon and daylan join us to drive back to adam's for internet - back to girls' place to have homemade pancakes for dinner - a whole lot of people met up with us at gypsy's sunday: - vineyard church - lunch at prestige - tutored ben for math section of SAT - back to adam's for internet - coincidentally saw chris and mark there and got a ride home for the record, the only thing i planned for that weekend was to go to adam's and get online, which is why you may notice me continually going back there in attempts to check email and catch friends and family at home. everything else that happened following my first visit to adam's arcade after vball on friday was random. nevertheless it was an awesome weekend. ::: :::

sunday. april 15 2oo7

i'm back in nairobi. leaving was bittersweet, as all meaningful departures are. it was necessary for me to visit addis this past week. in fact, i believe God allowed me to experience the people of that city. my perspective of africa, its schools, and its communities continue to broaden. God taught me to love beyond my bubble. i'm used to caring for and praying for the the things right in front of me. this past week i learned to pray for the boy who lost both his legs and one arm. his determination to press on and just be a normal kid brings joy to many. he teaches us to appreciate what we have, as opposed to focusing our attention on what we don't have. his hopeful smile reminds us that God provides. i will not be able to entirely explain all the things i've learned this past week, but do know that i have gained wisdom. here's a quick rundown of saturday's events: 12:00 - homemade pancakes at anna's with heather and peter 2:30 - frapoocino and caramel macchiatos at kaldi's coffee (fake starbucks) 4:00 - sat in to hear praises and message at beza choir 5:00 - haircut & head massage (them magic fingers put me to sleep) 6:30-8:00 - got to hear the awesome voices and instruments of beza choir 8:30 - dinner at yeshi buna with anna, heather, mesa (banana man), and elias (electric guitar player) now i must prepare my heart for this upcoming week at school. i must focus on His will for me at wns. please pray that i continue to seek after Him and not the desires of my heart. ::: :::

saturday. april 14 2oo7

if i haven't already said so, anna, alli, and heather are great hosts. they've been taking really good care of me. they've got busy lives with school, and they still manage to make time for me. in addition to that, they've been paying for all my food expenses. i know things are cheap here, but i still appreciate it. so right now, i'm sitting in the teacher's lounge writing this on saturday morning. it's very still. people are probably sleeping in, or maybe it feels this way because there aren't any students around. to make these posts shorter for you lazy readers, i'll list out the events of my days. 04.12.07 (thurs): 10:30 - tea break w/ cookies; learned how to say "how are you?" in amharic from the teacher 11:00-12:25 - 8th grade english; they discussed allusions found in tale of two cities 12:25-1:05 - lunch: tortillas & cheese and of course coke =] 1:10-2:35 - 9th grade english; they psychoanalyzed ralph, jack, and piggy in lord of the flies 2:40-3:20 - 10th grade french; they were tested individually on oral proficiency 5:00 - alli took me to mercato to shop. we met up with anna and heather at the post restaurant. we first had macchiatos. then we went upstairs to eat shiro & injera and of course coke i have alot of pics to show for mercato and the city. but as i mentioned before, the connection here is too slow to post them all. oh yea i can mention all the stuff i bought and how much they all cost. the conversion rate is $1 = 8 birr millenium tshirt: 50 scarf/wrap: 43 cup: 35 learn amharic tshirt: 25 coffee bean necklace: 20 cross necklace: 17 bottle opener: 9 04.13.07 (fri): 9:00-12:25 - i was in the computer lab checking email and talking to amanda all morning. 12:25-1:05 - lunch: anna bought me a hamburger. i learned how to say "what is your name?" in amharic. 1:10-3:20 - i took over for someone's soccer elective. there were only 9 boys (7-9). we met in the gym and played soccer at first. after they tired out abit, we started playing basketball. like some of our kids, they enjoy playing streetball. after that got boring, we switched to knockout. the people who got knocked out early on kept going back to soccer, so i figured...hey why not teach them a new game? so i taught them "butts up". it's a game the wns boys play. if you really wanna know how it's played, just ask. after school, the 7th-12th graders played in their soccer house tournament. they were divided into 3 teams (taylor, carey, and scott). i enjoyed every second of it mainly because i got to know these kids when i sat in on classes this week. i think it would've been boring for me if i didn't recognize anyone. anyway, i could sit here and explain how the whole thing went down, but you wouldn't understand unless you knew the kids at this school. to sum it up, taylor won the championship. after the game, i went with anna and heather to walk around the markets just outside bingham because they needed to buy fruits and vegetables. when we got back, they made soft tacos (not fajitas) for dinner. the tacos were awesome because they reminded me of home. we also had a teacher from scotland join us. i suck for not remembering her name. this is the second person i've met from scotland, and it's always fun because i can mention all my bagpipes and highland dancing days. after dinner, we watched season two of "how i met your mother" again, but this time it was on a projector. i also recall eating m&m's. yes, little things like that are considered highlights. today is my last full day here. tomorrow (sunday), my flight is at 9:45am. i'm sad that i'll miss their church service. it sounds like a really good one from the way they describe it. i'm really gonna miss this place, the students, and most importantly the three teachers who have graciously taken care of me. i don't like thinking about it, but the reality is i don't know the next time i will see them. it could be a couple months from now. it could be half a year from now. hopefully it won't be a year later. as for this school and its students, who knows if i'll ever see them again? getting to know students and their stories always brings on this sense of attachment for me. i want to stay and know more and build relationships. story of my life i suppose. thinking about all this conjures up previous thoughts i had regarding wns and my past at fbcc. i never know how long to stay because i enjoy investing my life into young people. how do you know when to leave and move on to the next thing? how do you know when your work is done? i think about this stuff because i'm on a 2-yr contract, and i must decide what to do after those 2 years. most people assume i will come home, but truthfully i don't know the answer to that. and therein lies the answer. i'm not supposed to necessarily know right now. if i did know, then that means i'm planning out my own life. but that's not my job. my job is to do His work. God is the one who plans it all out. so be excited about not knowing your future. i don't know about you, but i usually don't like it when people tell me the ending of a movie. i'd like to watch the whole thing through and find out for myself. in the same way, i want to live my life out and find out what God has in store for me. learning to put selfish needs aside is an important part of that. i have tons to say about that, but i won't. go read the Bible and find out. ::: :::

wednesday. april 11 2oo7

today had a very basic schedule. but it was fun because the kids at school were funny, and the beza home care group is an awesome, loving group of people. my day started off with the tea break served with chocolate cake. then i got to meet the 9th graders for the first time in anna's english class. i don't know if it's because of the way she presents it or what, but i enjoyed english alot more than i did in 9th grade. she was giving an intro to lord of the flies and explaining the effects of modernism and freud on william golding's book. alot of bits and pieces about the book started coming back to me, but i don't remember in such great detail. it was like reading the book for the first time with the occasional sense of deja vu. the 9th graders were hilarious and also showed an enormous amount of intelligence. one kid kept asking if they could order the book on tape. he was pretty adamant about it throughout the entire class time. the korean boy was interesting in the way he analyzes literature. because english wasn't his first language, he picked sentences apart differently from others. he's a bright kid. the 9th grade english class was split by lunch. anna bought me a pizza for about 50 cents. oh how i wish life could continue to be this simple. once again, they had another intramural soccer game during lunch. there was a really close header at the end, but the teams ended up tying the game 0-0. after alittle more LOTF, it was on to the 7th grade english class where they were beginning poetic devices. she started out with metaphors and similes. she gave them worksheets where they came up with their own metaphors. some of them came up with some really funny stuff. one example is "love is ________." they had to fill in the blank and then tell why. one girl put...love is a train...because you can hop on board...hahahaha! another kid put...love is a train...because it can kill you. oh you gotta love the creative minds of young people. there's never a dull moment. after school ended, anna and alli took lessons on learning amharic, which is the local ethiopian language. i got a sheet of the alphabet. i have yet to figure it all out. hopefully i can get an idea before i leave. around 5:00, we got ready to head out to their weekly small group or bible study or whatever you wanna call it. they call it beza home care groups. beza is the name of their church. they meet at a person's house, which i thought was pretty nice. on the way there, we stopped at zola cafe. they served a bowl of lasagna for $2-3!!! it was soooo good and filling too. i only had half too. y'know how food tastes better when it costs less? well this was definitely one of those moments. i really need to exchange my money. they keep paying for my meals. come to think of it, both my meals were italian today. ok that was a random passing thought. we headed out to the home care group, which was held near the airport. there were about 13 people that showed up. i enjoyed the amount of time they spent praying before and after the whole thing. there's a sense of compassion and love for one another in their group. they basically discuss the previous sunday's message from service. i think it's great taking it from the large community and sharing thoughts on a more personal level amongst friends. it's their openness and nonjudgemental atmosphere that allows them to pour out their hearts. God is doing big things with them. i'll definitely be keeping them in my daily prayers. if i had to summarize today, it would defintely be "people". every moment i spend around the kids, i notice something that completely differentiates them from wns kids. not only as an individual, but as a group they were significantly different. as far as the home care group, i have met people in the past who are that loving. at the same time, it seems rare to me because i haven't experienced it alot. God continues to mold my perception of africa, and the various types of people who live here. i hope my thoughts can somehow educate you on the matter also. ::: :::

chooseday. april 10 2oo7

i don't know when i'll get to upload all this info about my easter break, so i'll just keep a record of it on my comp. lemme start from the beginning of break and move up to today. 04.06.07 -- 04.07.07 (fri & sat): we had an ICEC teachers conference held by ACSI up at RVA. how you like them acronyms? it was cool seeing christian teachers from all over gather and share about their experiences. it's awesome knowing that there are other educators out there pursuing the same goal of sharing jesus with kids all over the world. since i am unable to retrieve data from the storage device in my brain, i took really good notes. the one personal message that God continually spoke to me that weekend involved "identity". as i was learning ways to deliver these teachings across to students, i found myself analyzing myself. hopefully i'll post more about that in the future after i organize my thoughts. one random highlight of the weekend was meeting three teachers from bingham academy in addis ababa, ethiopia. this will make more sense as you read on. 04.08.07 (sun): i went to easter service at vineyard. i don't have any awe-inspiring realization from celebrating jesus' resurrection that day mainly because i try to remember his resurrection every day. it's sorta the same way i feel about the days we take communion, not to diminish its significance. afterwards, i was dropped off at adam's to grab a bite and get online. a couple hours later, kayla and daylan show up to borrow my ipod for their mt kenya trip. we ended up dropping by simon's to give him some stuff and dropping by my place to pick up the ipod. after all the driving around, we ended up at the girls' place. i transferred all of daylan's songs onto my ipod, so they'd have more than my random music to listen to in the car. oddly enough, the three teachers i met from bingham showed up at the girls' place to join us for dinner. we all headed out to havana, a cuban restaurant. i don't remember if i've mentioned it before, but they have great fajitas. i enjoy eating anything close to mexican food because it reminds me of home. after dinner, we went back to the girls' place to watch season two of "how i met your mother". thanks again jeremy for sending it! i finally found other people who have the same sense of humor as me. 04.09.07 (mon): this is where things become abit legen...wait for it....dary =] first, i brought anna, alli, and heather out to adam's to eat lunch around noon. as we were eating, anna, heather, and i discussed future trips to addis and kilimanjaro for the following school year. since they had showed me pictures of addis, i was really interested in seeing another school in africa, especially outside of nairobi. as we walked to the parking lot, it suddenly occurred to me that i could actually spend this upcoming week in addis. talk about spontaneity, huh? yea sometimes thoughts like this just fall over me, and i have a difficult time shutting them out. usually it requires outsiders to say no to me to bring me back to earth. but in this case, i received a great amount of support. strangely enough, my mom calls to say hi and of course make sure her son is alive. i took the opportunity to throw in the question of whether or not she'd be ok with me randomly visiting ethiopia. she never said no, which meant that she trusts me and my judgement. thanks mom! =] and thus the "excellent adventure" began in my head (know the reference?) alli's friend dropped them off at prestige and graciously brought me home to grab all my stuff. at the moment, i'm still not sure what i threw in my bags, but i'm sure it'll be fine. it's still a surprise...hahaa. since the teachers needed to be at mayfield around 2-2:30 to catch a bus to the airport, i quickly hopped into a cab and headed out there from my place. since i saw the girls walking from prestige, i had the cab pick them up as well. we arrived at mayfield guesthouse around 2:30. we got to the airport at 3:00. the flight was at 6:30. when i tried to purchase the ticket, they said it was impossible because the printer didn't work. welcome to africa =] you can't get a plane ticket because the printer wasn't configured to the computer because they decided to use a new booking system which started on thursday. the printer was so old that the paper still had the perforated edges with holes to keep the paper in line with the printer. i sat there trying to give them as many possible solutions as i could. they attempted to sell me two 1-way tickets which would've costed me $220 more than one round-trip ticket. i decided to wait it out and hope for a miracle. next thing you know, the manager walks into the office and authorizes hand-written tickets. this is the way things were done before e-ticketing. so why couldn't it work now, right? it's sad how they try to advance in technology and can't seem to do it. ah well, things worked out for me. just to add to the excellence of my adventure, the guy at the counter who has to approve my passport and ticket tests my patience. i needed to fill out an entry form for going into addis, or maybe it was an exit form for leaving nairobi. regardless, i needed a pen to fill it out. i asked the guy if i could borrow his pen because i saw it lying next to his keyboard. he looks up at me and says, "i only have one." i was like uhhh...are you serious? he wasn't using the pen. instead, he pointed off into the distance at another area with pens. it's not that i didn't have one. it's just that i had to put down my bags and dig through pockets to find one. but i had no problem getting through. i just wanted to mention an "african" moment. anyway, i board the plane at 6:30 with everyone else and arrived in addis around 8:30. the food on the plane was nice. i never know exactly what i'm eating on the plane. as long as it tastes good, i don't question it. upon arrival, we step out of the plane, down some steps, onto the landing field, and into a bus. notice i didn't mention an actual gate or hallway that was connected to the airport. that's because they don't exist at this airport. awesome huh? regardless, the addis airport kicks kenya's airport. one of the greatest realizations on the ride to bingham academy was the absence of the british system. the steering wheel was back on the left. cars were on the right side. there were actual dividers between opposing traffic. and it was refreshing to see streetlights. there were a ton of small shops lined up along the streets which reminded me of hong kong at night. safety is not as great a concern here as it is in nairobi, at least not the areas i've visited so far. ok so i think it's worth mentioning that the teachers have boarding at bingham. lucky punks! actually it's more like lucky me! alli is awesome enough to give up her house and stay at anna's during the week, so i could have a place to stay. talk about meeting people who rock in such a short amount of time! i must say that i'm blessed to have met these teachers. i truly believe that God brought me here for a reason. leaving the houston bubble to experience nairobi was definitely life-changing. i would've never thought that leaving nairobi to experience addis would be just as eye-opening. different cultures continue to excite me. ok this is long. time to switch to the next day. 04.10.07 (tues): this is quickly becoming the longest pictureless post ever. yes kids, reading does wonders. today's goal was absolutely nothing. i wanted to have that flexibility to just get an idea of what i would be facing the rest of this week. i decided to get to know the ethiopian counterparts to the students i teach at wns. so my target was 7th-9th graders. i started out by sitting in on anna's 8th grade bible class. i liked how it was mixed genders, unlike mine. since they just got back from break, she had them go around and tell their highs and lows of the break. the class lasted from about 8:20-9:15. another major difference i noticed is the lockers are kept in the rooms. each grade has their own room. much like the private school i went to, teachers move, and students stay. some time btwn 10-11, there was a tea break. cinnamon rolls covered with caramel was served in the teachers' lounge. their lounge is nice. they have couches, a fireplace, and dsTV =O i'm appreciating all this stuff because i'm sure this is what families and staff want for wns in the future. bingham's been around for more than 50yrs. around noon, i sat in anna's 7th grade english class. much like our 7th grade boys, they were a crazy bunch. it was abit reassuring to meet them. anna started a lesson on poetry and had groups go around and read poems they selected and explain why. i'm a sucker for poetry, so of course i paid close attention in class. since this class doubled up today, they stop halfway to eat lunch. now lunch is quite similar to wns lunch. they eat outside, and soccer is the favorite pastime. the fun part about their soccer match was the fact that it was an intramural game. they formed three teams which played each other. speaking of soccer, most people here support arsenal. apparently, chelsea and manU have a yuppy reputation, and i can see why. good thing i don't support a particular team, or else i'd be receiving alot of beef. however, i do like t.henry. when i watched the world cup, i picked him out quick as a fun player to watch. dangit i went off-topic again. no surprise there, right? ok i'll speed through this. after lunch, back to 7th english. after that, went to comp lab to email mom, so she can sleep well tonight. school ended at 3:30. i took a short nap. bball in their gigantic gym at 5:00 with an adult bball team that plays in a league here in ethiopia...oh how jealous i am. 6:30 we went out to fasika. up until this point, i was not a big fan of ethiopian food. my first experience wasn't so good. all the food tasted weird because i couldn't identify anything. this time around, the girls did a good job with taking care of my taste buds. they ordered tibis (sheep), shiro (sp?), and something green...hahaha. i like meat, so i stuck with what i know. this time around, i enjoyed it. thanks bingham! along with food, there was music and dancers. as if that entertainment wasn't enough, i started talking to these 4 guys sitting next to us. one dude was an engineer. another owned a business here in addis. these two guys were doing business with a sudanese guy, so they brought him out to entertain him. and the last guy was a football commissioner. i enjoy meeting new people if you hadn't already noticed. after the meal, they served us small cups of coffee with popcorn. yes, you read that correctly. try it next time. their worlds aren't as far apart as i thought they'd be. around 9:30, we left to go to shoa supermarket, which is one of their bigger markets. the girls needed to stock up on food. i had fun walking around taking random pics. after grocery shopping, we headed back to bingham, and i had some ethiopian tea. time to call it a night. word of the day: struggle ::: :::

monday. april o2 2oo7

since i don't have anything interesting to post, i figured i'd try something different. how about you post comments about what's been going on?...any updates regarding the u.s, texas, houston, sugarland, fbcc, the rockets, nba, music, movies, etc. it doesn't have to be limited to that. if no one comments, then i can assume that nothing different is going on over there. ::: :::