Haiti Christmas 2011

Day 1

Feels like home. After a 3 am wake-up call, a few hours of rearranging gifts in our checked luggage at the ticket counter to dodge weight limit fines at the Nashville airport, a 5 hour layover at the Miami airport where Theresa and I rode the sky train for fun, and a fairly uneventful flight over the Atlantic, all 24 people on the Christmas 2011 team finally touched down in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It has been almost a year and a half since I had been there and while life has done a complete 180 degrees since that time for me, nothing had changed there. There was still the same smell of earth and diesel permeating the air. The same digicel reggae band was playing outside the door to the as they welcomed visitors into the terminal. The customs agents still couldn’t care less who you are or what you are bringing into their country, the baggage claim area is still a dingy make-shift warehouse where they pretty much dump your bags and you are forced to make your way through the jungle of luggage to find your bags...it is still chaotic and the claim men will still use every line in the book and do just about anything to help you and get your money.

I was the first to make my way through customs with Tiffany (a coworker of Theresa’s) following close behind. She has been to Haiti before and knew the routine. After dodging a few inappropriate comments by baggage handlers I singled out a nice-looking mild-mannered, older Haitian gentleman with the official red airport shirt on, handed him a $20, showed him the restore Haiti tags, and he immediately got to work finding our bags. This guy was good. He had almost all of them piled up for us before everyone had gotten through customs. Philip had gotten some carts once he got through customs and once we had our bags all piled up, our new Haitian baggage friend even got us through the bag claim check line to the outside without much hassle to where Jean Marie was waiting for us. I immediately ran up to him and gave him a huge hug. At that moment, some of my creole came back too as I found myself telling him I was very happy to see him in his language. Another quarter mile walk out of the airport where men were fighting to help us wither our bags...one even grabbed me and asked if I was the leader of the group at which I proceeded to tell him in Creole that I was not, but we didn’t have any money to give him, we didn’t need any help, and our friend (pointing to Jean Marie) was taking us to our ride. He let go and gave me a look as if to say, who is this little white girl speaking my language. We finally made it to the vans where Julie, Garret, and Keisha (they flew in from New York an hour earlier) were waiting for us.

The drive through Port-au-Prince is much the same...still dirty, still many many tent cities almost 2 years after the earthquake, lots of rubble, still chaotic (we even saw a body that had been hit by a car), but for the first time I’ve seen some progress. There are a few new buildings that look like they were plucked from the streets of the USA and transplanted to PaP...5+ stories, covered in glass windows. Glass is not something found in Haiti. Additionally, it looks as if commerce is picking up. People are working as builders, plumbers, mechanics and market venders. There was a noticeable difference is the hustle and bustle of the marketplaces. But perhaps the most noticeable and heartwarming difference was the lack of tents and make-shift shacks in the medians of the streets. They had all been replaced by planters with trees and flowers in them. Little victories...

An hour and a half through PaP and another hour and a half over the mountain, we finally arrived at the new hotel, Leviya. It it much nicer than the hotel we used to stay at and the owner, Bernard, is quite the character. We unloaded our stuff, and hopped in a tap-tap and went over the Pastor’s house for a quick meal and welcome. Pastor LaFleur, Fedony, Pastor Rodrigue and a few others were there waiting for us. Hugs were given all around. Many people told me that I had stayed away too long. Philip called me into the back room to where Jackson and Vio sleep. I got very attached to Jackson my last summer in Jacmel. His mother died in the earthquake, his father left for PaP and never came back, and the grandmother who was supposed to be taking care of him abandoned him. Now 4 years old, the little guy just couldn’t stay away until we arrived. We found him still soaking wet, wrapped in a towel after his bath, and fast asleep on top of a suitcase in his room. Philip left him and Vio (Philip’s sponsor kid) little beanie babies on their beds as a surprise for when they woke up in the morning. All I could do was just smile. After our dinner of stew and rice, we headed back to the hotel to settle in and get ready for the next day...

Day 2

Day 2 was perhaps the most fun day I’ve ever had in Haiti. We got up early and headed to Pastor’s house for a quick breakfast. As soon as I arrived and jumped out of the back of the tap-tap, Estalancia came running full speed screaming and laughing out of her house and jumped into my arms. What a wake-up call! I was so overjoyed to see her. She has grown so much (now 4 years old) and she is so much more verbal that the last time I saw her. After breakfast, she and her older sister Daline (both my sponsor kids) walked with me down to the church to start sorting gifts. It was a long process, but Theresa being the super organized and efficient lady she is had a solid plan worked out. Sponsor gifts were labeled and place in one area, a few of us sorted the generic gifts by gender and age, and before long we were ready to go. When the children arrived, we called them up one by one and sent them to stations where we gave them a gift, took their photo, and took there shoe size. I got to hand out the non-sponsored gifts. To see the kids get a present sent warm fuzzies through my heart and soul. It took a few hours but at the end of the day, we had given out over 400 gifts and with more than 100 left over to give out the next day.

Were were able to go back to the hotel for some R&R before the evening’s events. It was then that we found out that even though our bathroom was the size of a small house, the shower did not follow suit. My roommate April and I had noticed a large bucket and water scoop in the shower the night before but thought nothing of it. Now we knew why. The water spout was only at bathtub height. To take a shower, we had to fill up the bucket and use the scoop to pour water over our head and bodies. It actually felt good...the cold water was refreshing after a long days work in the heat. We just found it interesting and amusing at the same time.

That night the community put on a concert for us at the church. A few of the teens prepared solo acts and the choir prepared some songs for us. It was a great time of community and fun. I sat in the back most of the night with Jackson on my lap and Estalancia and Daline next to me. I gave Vio my camera and lets just say he is a great little photographer. Jackson, of course, fell sound asleep in my lap. I was tossing and turning him in a million different ways to give my arms a break from his dead weight and he never once woke up. In fact, when I walked him back to Pastor’s house after the concert, I tried to maneuver him in to the bottom bunk of his bunk bed and when I first laid him down, his arms and legs were straight up in the air and over the railing like a dead beetle. It was too cute. I was finally able to get him undressed and nestled into a comfortable position before heading out for dinner. Dinner was my favorite. They call it porridge but it is more like a cinnamon, rice pudding stew.

Finally, it was back to the hotel for a good nights’ sleep. Joanne, Theresa’s mom, and I met briefly to plan for the teachers’ conference the next day. She focused on the Biblical aspects of teaching while I focused on practical ways to put those teaching into practice in the classroom with a focus on behavior management.

Day 3

Day 3 started out much the same as the day before. We all hopped in to the back of a few tap-taps and made our way to Pastor’s house for breakfast. Estalancia and Daline greeted me on my arrival and we made our way in to have breakfast. It was spaghetti for breakfast day! My favorite!!! After breakfast, some went to the clinic to set up for seeing patients, some went to sand a house we were building, some went to the church to finish handing out gifts, and Joanne, G and I made our way to the preschool to prepare for the teachers’ conference.

We had almost 20 teachers show up ranging from preschool-aged teachers to teaching middle grades. We even had a principal show up. Pastor translated for us and it went off great! Joanne and I worked incredible well together. Our teaching styles and material completely flowed. G was a great helper in recording our ideas on the blackboard! The teachers asked a lot of good questions and I think they took away a lot of information they will be able to put into practice in their classrooms. I actually challenged them to do so and told them I would check in with them when I go back in July. I gave a few of them my email and they said they plan on keeping in contact with me for future help and information. During the conference, I had a major brain child for a future research project dealing with behaviors in post-conflict situations. I shared it with one of the teachers at the conference and he promised to help me gather information and whatnot. I’m really excited to get started investigating and building up this new idea (seeing as how the mean LUC grinch who stole Christmas stole my other project...but he won’t get his hands on this one!!!) :)

After the conference, it was a special Christmas chicken leg day for the feeding program. Usually, the kids only get rice and vegetables, but for $100 people can sponsor a day where the kids can all get a chicken leg with their meal. We ate with the kids which was fun. I got to eat with another one of my sponsor kids, Rosenievette. I think she has ADD. She was the last one sitting at the table with food still in front of her because something would catch her attention and she’d be looking off here and there. She is still one of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met there though and I’m glad I got to share a meal with her.

That afternoon it was back to the hotel again for some R&R. Some people played on the internet. Some just hung out. Julie and Garret hung out with Bernard the owner of the hotel and got some great information on shipping large items from the states without much hassle. I took a nap. We made a quick trip back to Pastor’s house for dinner before returning to the hotel. Pastor shared with mission of Restore Haiti in the common area with those who had never been on a trip before, and some of us stayed up to write Christmas cards for the kitchen staff, drivers and other adults who are a big part of our organization on the ground there. Finally, there was also a wedding that night. I felt a bit like a wedding crasher, but Bernard insisted that we stay up and watch the wedding. It was hard to tell who the bride was because 4 girls had wedding-like dresses on an another 5 had on red bridesmaid dresses. It was a very ceremonious entrance before the party actually began. Haitians have a love affair with Celine Dion because all they did was play one of her French CD’s on repeat the entire night. In the morning, we were all shocked to see that the very ornate wedding cake was still on the table untouched. Apparently, they like to get a wedding cake, but Haitians aren’t a fan of sweets so nobody eats it.

Day 4

Day 4 started out with breakfast again at Pastor’s house before some of us heading back to the clinic while the rest of us heading to finish painting the house. I was part of the house crew, and once I got there, I was surprised to find out that the house we were working on belonged to Mary and Cathiona. Cathiona was the Haitian girl who helped me out significantly with the English classes I taught when I was in Jacmel the summer before, so I was very excited to be a part of this gift to her. Basically, my job was to prime the outside walls. Garret, Maddie and a few of the Haitian kids helped with the outside as well. We had a lot of fun. Jackson, Dudley, Elyekea, and Vio were my little helpers. At one point, Vio was helping me paint the porch and he was just sining away as he was swiping his paint brush back and forth. I didn’t know what he was singing, but I started singing too. We had a ball. Another time, one of the little guys came up and stuck his finger in the paint and ate it. I freaked and yelled “No MANJE” (no eat) and he just squealed with laughter and ran away. I guess kids everywhere are the same.

After several hours of painting, the house was primed inside and out, so we all decided to take a walk down to the clinic to see what that group was up to. We walked in as Mike was taking care of a little friend who had a pretty deep cut in her finger. She was a trooper. I had a bunch of ribbons in my bag so I gave some of the girls the ribbons as we hung out before heading back to Pastor’s house for a late lunch. After lunch, those who had never been to the beach before went while Philip, Theresa, the Wendt’s and I stayed and hung out at Pastor’s house with some of the kids and teens. We found at picture dictionary that were were playing with where we learned new words like “touni” which means naked. It became an inside joke there rest of the trip. I had some alone time with Pastor where I shared with him my issue with the mean LUC grinch and then told him what I had hoped to do when I returned in July. He’s backing me 100%. Philip, Theresa and I strolled down to the preschool to kill some time before heading back to the hotel to clean up for the send-off part that night.

At the party I got to spend some quality hang-out time with my favorite kids. I saved Estalancia and Daline some oranges I had gotten and gave them to them. Jackson, Vio and Elyekea were there, and Dashkya and Ludzia who I had not gotten to see very much so far were around too. The usually speeches of thanks and love were handed out, gifts given to the newcomers, and blessing for our send-off were given. Goodbyes are always hard, but knowing that I would be back in July was enough to fend off the tears for me. I can’t say the same for Estalancia. As the night drew to a close, she went from being a bundle of laughs and chatter, to not even wanting to come near me because she knew I would be leaving soon. Daline cried too. I hate seeing them cry. We heading back to the hotel in the tap-tap knowing that the next morning would be sad goodbye.

Day 5.

Packed and ready to go, we hopped into the tap-taps one last time to get breakfast at Pastor’s house before the long journey home. Estalancia and Daline were once again waiting for me. They brought me to meet their mother before I left. She told me she loved me and I gave her some money before heading into Pastor’s house. I also saw Marjorie, the mother of two of my other sponsor kids, and was able to chat with her and say goodbye before leaving. Breakfast was spaghetti and fresh mango...the perfect meal so as not to get sick and nauseated on the long and winding drive through he mountain back to PaP. The drive through the mountain was fairly uneventful although once we got into the city, we got a little annoyed because we were on a tight schedule and our driver decided to stop for some chicken, then he got pulled over by the cops and the van’s papers were expired. Luckily, the cops let us go after about a half hour of talks. Thank goodness! Once we arrived at the airport, check-in was a breeze. Thankfully there was no line, and we were able to make it to the gate with a little time to spare. The flight to Miami, the 5 hour layover, and the flight to Nashville were fairly uneventful except for the rounds of inside jokes and constant “cross-checks” and “cross-check fail” of the airlines :) that may or may not have annoyed the people around us.

Once at the airport we said our goodbyes and Philip, Theresa and I freshened up, hopped in the car, and headed downtown for the big guitar drop and Lynard Skynard concert for New Years in Nashville. We made it with about an hour to spare as were able to park pretty easily at Titan’s stadium and take a shuttle over the to festivities. Skynard fans are interesting. As for NYE, it was comical. Lots of touni people climbed up on top of the McDonalds trailer before getting kicked off, and in one case, taken down, by the cops. The speakers in Broadway went out in the middle of “Sweet Home Alabama” and we couldn’t hear a think. The countdown started at midnight but the music note stalled in the middle of the drop, and finally, about 3 minutes later, the countdown started again. Music City NEW fail! But we still had a great time. I couldn’t think of a better way to end 2011 and begin 2012...my favorite people, my favorite things...my this year be the continuation of the good things the end of 2011 brought...

Haiti Days 2-5. Soooo Much To Do...Soooo Little Time To Process...

I feel like the past few days I've seen so much and I've tried to process so much that I just don't have it in me to write down anything...but I know if I don't I will forget it all, so I'll do my best to hit the high points...

First and most most importantly, we've had spaghetti for breakfast 2 out of the past 3 days. Rock on! Let me just recall a conversation overheard at breakfast on Monday.

Allison: This is so amazing (in a Southern Alabama accent). What is in this...butter? Parmesan cheese? Bacon?
Katie: ...and Magic and Love!

Monday was a day to assess a lot of things. We've been able to drive all around Jacmel and get a good assessment of the damage. It seems like the more places we go, the more damage there is. There is so much to be done in this city, but I'm learning to trust God...that he will make this city whole again in HIS time..."I learn to get by, on little victories." On a complete sidenote, I think it is AWESOME that they are rebuilding this city with the rubble left from the destruction. Many people have saved bricks to rebuild their homes. They've take the debris from crumbled homes and repaired the streets with it. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. It's just a neat thought to think about...Anyway, on MOnday, we visited a school where I was able to speak to a few of the classes and read a childrens' book about how to cope after witnessing a terrible thing (Thanks Beth!). Their classrooms are so simple. Just a chalkboard, a few tables with kids crammed into them. A few had books but not all, and the kids seemed so excited to be there I couldn't help but think how much I could teach these kids with just a few more tools (well, that and how much the rest of the day is going to stink for the teacher because I know how disfunctional the kids get in my clasroom after a surprise in the morning). And how easy it would be for me to bring these things down when I return in June...

On Monday we also went to visit the new land where we are going to build a new church building, school, feeding center and hopefully one day an orphanage. It was a really beautiful pieceo f land...partially open, partially covered with these pretty trees that had brings pink flowers on them. In one direction the earth jutted upward into a small rocky mountain, and there was a clearing just beyond that. There was lots of room to expand. I spent most of the visit just walking the perimeter, exploring, praying, and picturing where my classroom would one day be :)

Not far beyond the new land was the site where some of the church members had started building a house for an older woman who was taking care of a 14 year old girl. Three walls of the house were almost complete when the earthquake hit, but the bricks and cement used were of poor quality and the entire structure needed to come down and be rebuilt. It was a pretty awesome experience working on that project most of the Tuesday morning. We made a video tape like Ty Pennington does on Extreme Home Makeover just before demo. Ayo got all crazy and announced the demolition before Ben and Shane just pretty much pushed a wall down. We did a lot of clearing away of the rubble. The work was hard and it was extremely hot but we made it fun. Jean Marie kept singing praise songs at the top of his lungs the whole time. Katie almost got attacked by a tarantula that was hiding out in a brick we cleared away. Basil and I both ran screaming. In the middle of the work day, we all decided to take a break. Katie climbed a tree to pick custard apples. I made a broom out of some twigs to make the dust removal a little easier.

A few of our team members have taken turns spending a morning woking with the Salvation Army clearing away rubble. Our new friend Caleb, who works with Mentor Leaders and has been hanging out with us most of the week has gotten us involved with them. Caleb is totally awesome! He's been here pretty much since right after the earthquake. He lives in a tent with a Haitian family...he call his his Haitian brother (also named Caleb) his twin. Haitian Caleb is apparently on the national Haitian soccer team. They are both pretty awesome to work with, and we have learned A LOT about the lay of the land down here...the dangers, the right way to go about things, etc from both of them. Anyway, on Tuesday, Josh who was working the Salvation Army project had taken a hammer to a pipe, which just happened to be full of sewage. As you can image, the pipe exploded all over him. Apparently, Haitian Caleb had just told him seconds before NOT to hit that pipe, but Josh misunderstood. I've seen pictures. Disgusting! That sewage has been festering in that pipe for over 2 months! He took it with great stride. The team rushed him to the beach so he could clean off. We've been making jokes about it since Tuesday. Instead of Superman, we are calling him Sewage man. Just think, that could have been somone Haitian persons' last poop before they passed in the earthquake. Sad but true. ON a side note, the team who worked the Salvation Army project on Tuesday found a body in the rubble. Not RH members, but the people they were working with. Just bones and clothing on a bed. Soooo sad. Back to the work days...The rest of us also got an opportunity to go to the beach after workiong on the house. It was absolutely beautiful. Katie, Alison and I jumpted in the water fully clothed. Walter our translator-cop (who is flippin awesome!) was our photographer. The beach was very rocky...totally OK for Haitians to run about on, but I spent the whole evening and next morning trying to dig a claw-looking sharp rock out of the heel of my foot which has made working hard labor ever since a little painful.

Nicholas is another guy we've met and spent quite a bit of time working with down here. He is with a group called Foreign Edge and has been working construction type work on several houses in the area. He's a young kid and he's been paired with an older couple, Polly and Nick who are really cool, but I think he is thankful for the younger company. Last night we were at a church event that lasted several hour. It was extremely dark by the time we were to head home. Nick's mode of transportation has been a motor bike, but as we were leaving, Pastor, Fedony and others were trying to convince him to ditch the bike and just ride home with us. We didn't understand until Caleb explained to us that since the earchquake there had been a lot of cocaine smuggling in the area. Not only were there a lot of "high" people around at night, but many white people had been attacked with machetti's because the Haitians automatically think that they had money. It was beginning to become more clear why we had Walter the translator-cop with us all the time. At one point earlier in the day, we had seen a mob of people at a gas station starting to break out in a riot. Apparently, Jacmel and Port-au-Prince had run out of gasoline. A small shipment had come in a riots were beginning to break out. We heard stories from PaP that there was a machetti fight for gas at one point. Crazy. We have been very thankful for Walter. He is like a renaissance man! He many not be a very good translator (his reponse to everything is "OK, No Problem"), but is our body guard, photographer, and a constant source of laughter with the wierd things he says. Walter is trainded in like 20 different types of self defense. He's always watching out for us...assessing the situation, giving instructions and making sure the job is done. He is very stoic ALL THE TIME. We've been trying for a few days not to get him to smile. Allison, Josh, C-Tine and I have been comparing EVERYTHING we do to the LOST island (look for a future blog post on this) and Walter is definitely our MR. ECHO! Anyway, Walter has been a personal body guard to me over the past few days. Apparently I've picked up not 1 but 2 Haitian stalkers. They live across the street from the hotel and come to the church sometimes. I've seen them each day, and the conversations they try to have with me are suspicious in nature. Rodrigue kicked them out of the hotel when they showed up on the roof one night. He said that he had had some problems with them. They waited for us to get back the second night and tried to make me stay downstairs to "talk" but Walter pulled out his Chuck Norris intimidation moves and saved me from that situation. Today, they wrote me a love letter and dropped it off at the church. Silly boy!

We've been able to spend a lot of time around the chuch and the Restore Haiti staff and kids. I got to help out wiht the feeding program both Monday and Wednesday, and every day since I"ve been here I've gotten to spend quite a bit of time with 2 of my sponsor kids and their mother. Mom has 3 kids...all from different fathers. The third sister is sponsored by Theresa. It has been absolutely amazing just being around them, watching their family dynamic. Theresa's girl (Lucia) is the helper. Saincia is the wild child...she's such a boy, always doing sports, always off doing her own thing...the adventurer...reminds me of me. Guvienson is the oldest and he is kind of the sentry. He's followed me and protected me. When he is with the other boys he just sits back and listens and jumps in when its important. I can tell he is very wise. He speaks a little English and knows French very well. He made me promise to learn French by the time I come back in June so we can communicate better. I guess I'm going to learn French well...I can't let the kid down. He told me I was his American mother. I almost cried! It feels almost natural the way this family has welcomed me into it. They hug me every time we pass. Mom has given me Mangos to take home with me to the hotel each night. It feels like family. It feels like home.

There is so much that I've seen here...so much to process through and I'm having a hard time doing so...not hard in a bad way, but just trying to reconcile these feelings of complete and utter heartbreak (from what I'm seeing geographically and structurally) and the feeling of home, comfort, peace, and love I am getting from my friends here, the people I am meeting, and the attitudes of all of those around me. I think it will probably be quite some time before I come to terms with what I've seen...quite some time before I can put any words that make sense to it. I am already starting to feel like "How on Earth will I be able to go home after this...to go home to all of the stupid junk going on with the State of Illinois, the education system, national politics, etc when I can stay here and actually make a difference. Haitian Caleb told us last night that there are so many people willing to throw money around and say here, do it yourself, but the fact that we are here willing to work, willing to give our time and ourselvese means so much more to them than anything else right now. And there are so few of us actually her in Jacmel doing it. It makes me just want to drop everything and stay here forever.

I know I'm going to think of a million more things I wanted to say the second I post this...but this is what you all get for now. I'll try to blog again tomorrow (but there just seems like so much to do...why sit in front of my computer when I can do something else...).

Joyful

Prayer Requests...

David is sick. I'm a little worried about him. He has been working like a horse the past 3 days and today he woke up fatigued and didn't even make it throught he morning before we brought him back to the hotel...he's been sleeping most of the day...and didn't eat lunch. Please pray for healing and Strength.

I'm in no way worried at all about our safety, but we have been hearing some stories about dangerous things going on around us. Pray for continued protections. Thank you God for putting people like the Calebs, Walter, and Nicholas in our lives during this trip who have given us some good advice and protection.

Pray for continued community among our group. We have such a GREAT group of people down here...so many different personalities and talents, but this trip just wouldn't be the same without each and every one of them. On the days when a few of us have been working at the Salvation Army, I've missed those team members so much! Pray for continued community.

Pray for my leadership/administrative abilities. I am such a reluctant leader (hence why I am the Jack Shepherd of the LOST island), expecially when it comes to leading people over the age of 14. Pray that God would give me confidence amidst the mixture of feelings I am experienceing while down here.

AND PRAY FOR HAITI!!!! Greater thing are yet to come to this country/city!!!!

The Earth Shook in Haiti Last Night...

The Earth shook in Haiti last night. After more than 24 hours of travel by car, plane, and motorbus, I arrived in Jacmel, settled into my home for the next week, only to be jolted out of a a sound sleep by an earthquake. I think I will probably have a lot of those under my belt by the time I leave here. We are seriously thinking of dragging our blankets to the roof tonight and sleeping up there for the rest of the week...One because the weather, while humid, it very nice here; but two because of these damn earthquakes!

Our journey wasn't completely disaster-free. Most of the team(C-Tine, David, Ben, Allison, Josh, Katie, Shane, Renee, Basil, Ayo and I) met in the Nashville airport at 4:30 am Saturday morning. Theresa got me squared away with all of my leadership duties and we were off. We had a 4 and half hour layover in Miami where we were to meet up with Pastor and 2 other team members (Deb from MN and Danelle from Buffalo). While there, we got the opportunity to talk with some really cool people who were also heading to Haiti. Most of them were relief workers of some sort. I talked to a couple of paramedics from the Dallas/Fort Worth TX area. Katie and Deb started to chat up a woman who turned out to be a former Prime Minister of Haiti! Crazy! Anyway, It became clear the Danelle might not make our flight because of the connection time so Pastor and I went to work on a contingency plan. After much work and pretty much sending Ben all over the Miami airport, it turned out that Danelle's bags made it on our flight, but Danelle did not. She would have to come on a flight in the morning. Again, thank God for Ben who volunteered to take that 6 hour round trip bus ride to and from Port-au-Prince to go collect her Sunday morning. I was too go since I am the "leader," but we ultimately decided that is wasn't safe.

On a side note, C-Tine, the Tinnius's and I are all big LOST fans and we had some really in-depth discussions about our theories of the show during our lay-over. On the flight from Miami to PaP, we decided Haiti was going to be our LOST island (and in reality, everything here is exactly like the show...scenery, eerieness, wierd things happening), and our team would be the cast of the show. They voted me as Jack since I am the reluctant leader of this trip. C-Tine is Kate. Josh and Alison are Sun and Jin...and the list goes on. More on that in future blog posts I'd imagine...

Port-au-Prince's airport was much different than last time. We not longer got to get out of the plane "presidential-style" and walk to the terminal. In fact, the terminal was damaged so they took us off the plane and loaded us immediately onto a bus that took us to a make-shift warehouse-type building. Customs was a breeze to get thrpugh, but then we were herded into a large area where the airline workes just came and dropped the baggage and it was a free-for-all to find your bags. Thank goodness our bags all had the same tags on to make them easily identifiable. We didn't encounter anyone trying to help us for money until were were ready to leave the airport. Then men at the gate didn't want to let us out until we paid them. Pastor, Jean Marie (a Jacmel native), and some other dude (more on him later) who had come to collect us broke bad on them and the finally let us through. We loaded up one bus completely with our luggage..we even had to rope some bags to the top which was concerning considering all of the twists and turns through the mountain we would be taking. All of our team members and the guys who had picked us up (15 in all) piled into another motorbus and began the 3 hour drive through PaP and over the mountain on the way to Jacmel.

The images in PaP are just as you have seen on TV. There are American military ships and a Mercy Hostpital Ship anchored in the bay. We drove past the Presidential Palace which is almost completely collapsed. Many of the streets are only wide enough to pass one car because debris is piled up in the road. In three seperate areas, I even got my first smell of death. Once by the palace, once near an area of completely collapsed buildings, and again near a cemetery. Definitely not a smell I want to encounter again. I will post pictures on facebook of some of the images from PaP...or at least steal some from C-Tine and Katie who are taking way more than I am The images are heart-wrenching, yet the people are resilient--just going about their daily lives more or less because they have to. The rest of the ride over the mountain was uneventful. It was almost familiar to me even though it is just 2 hours of winding road literally on the side of a mountain oin the last hours of daylight, but I could still pick out the familiar places...the place where the road had washed out during the hurricane in '08. The place where the mud slide stranded us for 4 hours on our last journey home. At one point, we must have come arcross the fault line of the earthquake (which did happen directly inbtween Jacmel and PaP). There was a place where it literally looked like the mountain was cut in TWO. It was eerie, but I never saw a more beautiful sight than when we rounded that last turn and could see the lights of Jacmel nestled next to the bay.

When we arrived at the Loving Light hotel, Rodrige greeted me with a big hug and his usual sweet-talk! We unloaded baggage, settled ourselves into our rooms and headed to the roof for dinner. Fedonay had a chicken and beef boullion prepared for us. There were a bunch of familiar faces waiting for us on the roof and it felt almost like coming home as they all welcomed us. As we ate dinner on the roof, Pastor introduced us to the "other" man who had come to pick us up from the airport. His name was Walter and he was a "security" man. Apparently, people had been stopping busses in Gonnaviase (A neighborhood on the souther bay in PaP) and demanding money from the occupants. Pastor thought it best that we have an "escort" for our time here in Haiti. Since this announcement, we have been referring to Walter as a "translator" (picture me doing air quotes).

After dinner and prayer, I headed downstairs to take a much needed cold shower (because that's all we have) and go to bed, only to be jolted away by an earthquake sometime in the early hours of the morning. I had taken my anti-malaria pill at dinner which in the past has caused me to have "vivid" dreams. I thought maybe this was one of them because Christine didn't wake up for it, but I pinched myself, and the dogs outside started going crazy so I knew it was real. I didn't sleep much the rest of the night. When I woke up for breakfast, everyone was talking about the quake in the morning. What a way to start our trip.

Sunday morning began for me on the roof bymyself, reading through some CS Lewis and praying. The streets here in Jacmel aren't as populated as they used to be. Somthing like 70% of the city was leveled and most of the buildings around the hotel are marked with the very familiar circle with a dot inside which means the building is unsafe to go in to. In between the car horns and motor bikes passing by, I could hear people singing praises to God in the background towards the river. It was an awesome sound to hear.

Breakfast was french toast. I was hoping for spagetti for breakfast, but not today. I put in a good word with Rodrigue so maybe tomorrow. After, we all piled into the tap-tap (And YES, Gerard, is our driver again! So excited to see him and sing my tap-tap song about him every time we go somewhere now) and headed for church. Again, driving though Jacmel in the daylight reveald a lot of destruction that we were not able to see in the darkness the night before. Many many building here are inhabitable and there are many people living in make-shift tents and outside.

Church was much the same as usual except for the fact that the soccer field in front of the church building (the one where I got my awesome injuries last summer) are not covered with tents that are serving as several families homes. Childrens' church was so much fun. Sooo many familiar faces of kids, and so many of them have grown so much since the last I saw them. James in practically a little man. Jemica is talking now and has just as much personality as ever! And I even found Saincia...one of my sponsor kids. She was unsure if I remembered her at first, but when I waved at her from across the tent, she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and kiss. Myt heart lept! I can't wait to spend more time with her as the week goes on. Her English has gotten so much better since she started going to school again! Alison and Josh came up with a great Palm Sunday skit. We gave all of the kids palms made out of construction paper and we reinacted the story of Jesus entering Jarusalem and later sang praises to Jesus waiving them in the air. It was kind of strange because all of the kids seemed to know who I was. I wonder if Pastor had shown them a picture or something because I can't imagine they remember my face from almost a year and a half ago. Many of them kept pointing to me and when we finally sat down for songs and prayer, about a million of the little ones all came and piled themselves on top of me, fighting to sit on my lap and/or just snuggle up next to me. I had forgotten how much they just want to be touched. After, the adult church service lasted about 4 hours (which is short), the team introduced themselves, and we worshipped with the people. After we visited with people from the community and had lunch. Lunch was (of all things) hot dogs, fried plantains and coke.

Now we are back at the hotel for an afternoon off. Some of us took naps. Most of us are on the roof now, playing cards, Josh is flying a kite, a few of the Haitian teenage boys are hanging out with us practicing their English, and I am blogging. Ben and Danelle just arrived which is a huge worry off of our shoulders. There is another church event tonight...and tomorrow we have a long day of work which will include rebuilding a wall to the church, and visitng some land we will be purchasing for the furture sight of our new school! Yay! Hopefully, I can get a good night sleep...no more earthquakes! But yes, the earth is shaking in Haiti...in more ways than one. Greater things are yet to come for this country, for sure!

I'll write more soon...

<3 Joyful

ps. Andrea and Barb...I delivered your gifts to Ezekial and Michael today. The rest will go soon...

pss. I'm learning Creole fast...theblogspot website is all in Creole and I can't figure out how to change it back to English! AHHHHH!

Euro Trip Summer '09

So I never blogged about the end of my Euro Trip after getting Swine Flu in Rome. Let's chalk it up to "what happens in Europe, stays in Europe." :)

Un dia loco in Espana!

Saturday was a travel day. We left Vienna early in the morning, flew back through Dusseldorf where Laura met us at the airport and brought us to the other Dusseldorf airport before we said one last last goodbye to her before flying to Ale's home in Bilbao. We arrived in Bilbao (via Santander) late in the afternoon and I got to see Ale's apartment for the first time. Super Cute! She rents a room in the little house on the side of a hill. Bilbao is a cute city nestled in betwen mountains and the northern seas of Spain.

That night, Ale brought me to the old part of town where I fell in love with Pintxos! Pintxos are sort of like tapas, but they are unique to the Basq region of northern Spain and southern France. Apparently the Basq people want to be their own country...they even have their own language, but that's a whole other story. So they make these things called Pintxos which consist of a small piece of french bread that is topped with anything and everything from different meats like spanish ham, chicken, fish, to these exotic sauces to anchovies. Totally gormet...friends, get ready for me to host a Top Chef night. I'm creating Pintxois!!! They were super yummy and every bar has them sitting out! I definitely filled up on pinxtos and wine which was a good thing because later that night we met up with Ale's boyfriend Mikel and his friends and took a train to a town outside of Bilboa for their yearly carnival-like party. It was totally crazy. People were all over the streets drinking, dancing and partying. You just walk into a bar, order your drink, and then you can walk outside of the bar with your glass and everything and bring your drink to the next bar. Sooooooo much fun. I was introduced to Kalimotxos that night. It is a mix of coke and wine...and is actually not as disgusting as it sounds. I probably won't drink that back in the States, but it was fun to drink the "drink" of the region for the night.

The next morning, Ale and I woke up and headed for the beach. It was my first experience at a NUDE BEACH! YIKES! Don't worry, I didn't go topless! And before I post my pictures on fb, I think I need to censor them because in the background there are pics of topless people. Ale has a really great photo of herself but in the background there is a topless 10 year-oldish kid. We wouldn't want to get arrested for child porn! After a nice relaxing morning at the beach, we met Mikel for a late lunch before they drove me to the airport.

I'm sitting in Madrid now (Sunday night) as I write this. My plane was delayed which means I won't get to Rome til about 1am. ugh!

Roma, here I come!

Austria...The Hills are Alive With The Sound of Music...NOT!

This Hills are alive with the sound of music...

Just kidding! I didn't get to sing the song. Nor did I even get to go on that hill. The Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg, Austria was incredibly disappointing. We boarded a bus, drove past the house, and a couple of other minor film locations before heading about an hour outside of town to the church where the 2-minute wedding scene was filmed. They left us there for an hour before picking us up and dropping us back in Salzburg. Highly disappointing. I had more fun walking around Salzburg after the tour was over finding film locations for myself...and we found several. I have a picture of me by the gazeebo, jumping up and down the steps when the kids are singing the do-re-mi song! Check all of my fun Sound of Music pictures out on facebook... And on a side note, the hill is actually a fortress (which you didn't see in the movie). Now it is used for private residences so I doubt I could have gotten up there anyway. Sorry to disappoint all who were looking for the video of me singing on fb. I 'll figure out a way to make it up to you all...

Vienne on the other hand, I LOVED! It was like a cultural treasure trove! Ale and I arrived early Thursday morning completely exhausted from the stupid train ride I mentioned in my last blog post. After walking around and seeing most of what the city has to offer that morning, we returned to our hotel room and took a looooong nap. We stayed at Le Meridien which was a flipping awesome hotel. We walked around some more later in the afternoon after we caught up on sleep. The city is full of castles, old museums, gardens, and statues...tons of historical monuments left over from the Habsburge dynasty...things I learned in my Senior AP European History class and never thought I'd actually appreciate! Almost everywhere you look there is some sort of tribute to the classical music history that is so ingrained in the history of that city. I really liked Vienna because of its beauty...both the city and the people...and yes, there are very good-looking men in Vienna : ) The people were very nice as well. We heard that if you tell people you are from California (because Arnold Schwartzenager is from Austria), you can get people to buy you a beer. We didn't get a chance to test that suggestion, but Ale and I had dinner the first night at a little Viennese cafe where a man played us a bunch of American show tunes on his piano.

On day 2, we got up early to catch a train to Salzburg for the day to go on the Original "Sound of Music" Tour. As I said before, it was completely disappointing, but we did meet some cool gay guys, one of which just happened to be from Kankakee. His name was Nick. He and his partner worked for Norwegian Cruise Lines and had an impressive reseme of places they've visitied. They made my life seem boring! The city of Salzburg itself was beautiful even though it was cold and raining most of the day. It is everything I imagined from my impressions from "The Sound of Music." I think I'd like to have a summer villa there or something one day.

We headed back to Vienna later that afternoon. Ale and I had planned to take a short nap before getting ready to go out for a night on the town. At 11pm, we both woke up, looked at each other and asked if we should go out. I believe my reply in my exhausted delierium was "God NO!" and I rolled back over and fell back asleep. I kind of feel bad that I didn't get to experience Vienna nightlife...I mean, when will be the next time I ever go back??? But I needed to the rest. I was exhausted!

Saturday morning we headed to Spain...Ale's home in Bilboa...where the plan was to party at the city carnivals all night and lay on the beach all day til I caught a plane to Rome!

I got POOPED on in PRAGUE!

I got pooped on in Prague...literally. More on that later...

After flying to Frankfurt, Germany for the day (Frankfurt was not that cool. The city was destroyed during WWII, only rebuilt in the past 2 decades or so, and is now known as a business center, so it was pretty much a mini modern city with not much to see), Ale and I arrived in Prague around midnight on Monday. I have to say that Prague was the city I was most looking forward to seeing in Europe; but I was disappoionted. There are a lot of really beautiful and really old sights to see here, but the city seemed lifeless to me. I couldn't really pinpoint it. One possible explanation could be that it is not that long ago since the Czech Republic was under Communist rule...I don't know...something about the city just seemed so dark. The scenery is beautiful, but I could never live here.

Our 2 days in Prague were spent walking around and exploring. Our hotel was in the Old Town part of the city which was settled in the 1200's. The New Town (only new compared to the Old Town...it was settled in the 1300's) is just on the other side of the Vltava River. Since the city is so old (like 5 times as old as America) the architecture is a mix of Gothic, Renaissance, boroque and neoclassical. The city's layout is somewhat of a maze an streets and pedestrian-only lanes weave their way among the old buildings. We took a tour up to Prague Castle, which is actually many castles and a cathedral put together which was pretty cool. The castle was high up on a hill so a bus drove us up, we toured the castle and cathedral, and walked our way back down through the castle gardens and city streets. The view of the city was beautiful up there. We also got to see Charles Bridge...which was beautiful and full of street vendors and musicians, a bunch of old churches (which is wierd because the country was communist and everyone is athiest), the Jewish quarter, and the Astronomical clock which has a bell-ringing skeleton on the hour. We also ate some pretty awesome Czeck food. They eat really heavily...meats, graveys, breads. Lunch is enough to last you the rest of the day. No need for dinner.

**Funny note...as we were walking around the street vendors, one had a stand for those russian dolls...you know, the ones where you open the first one to reveal another doll. Then you open that doll and there's another inside that. I found one set of CUBS players! Seriously! They had Lee, Ramirez, Theriot, Soto, and Fukodome! Crazy. I totally would have bought it but the guy wanted like 8000 Czech Crown for it which was the equavelent to 20 Euro or $30. Total rip off! But I did take a picture...its posted on facebook!

Despite all of this, Prague is kind of a shady city as well. Ale and I had an uncomfortable situation at one of those Asian stores when the lady tried to charage Ale the equivelent of $50 for 2 AA batteries which were not even in a package...they could have been dead for all we knew. Ha! We have heard that the Czeck people try to intimidate and swindle foreigners, but we didn't think the ghetto markets where THEY don't even speak Czech would... Also, one night after going out, we were headed back to our hotel when this black-American guy approached us and was like "hey ladies, where's the party?" We had seen several groups of black guys hanging out together with pamphlets and who knows what else. We were like, "uh...at home" and kept walking, but he kept asking us to let him show us where the parties are at. Finally, I was like, "yah, and what else are you selling?" and he just smiled, laughed and said "What do you think?" I'm not sure what he meant, but I'm pretty sure I didn't want to know. We also had a funny encounter with an American guy. He approached us and asked us if we knew English. Yes, of course we do, and when we said so he was like "Oh man, like as in you are not from here know English?" We think he was high. We told him we were from the US and he was like "Shiiiiiiit Man. I need to get home to the TV Tower." Yes, at that point we knew he was definitely high. I don't know where the TV tower was, but I was pretty sure it was no where near Old Town Square where we met him.

On Tuesday night, Ale and I had a late start going out. It happened to be the night of the Michael Jackson tribute. It was on every TV channel and we totally got sucked in! We are talking, glued to the TV, tears streaming down both of our faces, sucked in! I mean, come on...the "Heal the World" song with all of those kids singing and then the daughters speech. We lost it...When it was over, I felt like such a loser! There seriously has been Michael Jackson make-shift memorials and programs on TV and his music playing in EVERY city we've been to so far...UGH! We came to our senses very quickly, got ready and headed out for a night on the town...which turned out to be pretty lame. Perhaps the place our consierge told us to go were not great, but it turned out to be an early night for us.

So about getting pooped on...Ale and I were walking down a pedestrain street taking in the sights and sounds of the Old Town in Prague, and all of a sudden I felt something wet on the back of my leg. When I finally looked to see what it was, it was POOP! I'm still wondering how it got on the back of my leg; but the crazy thing is, is that this isn't the first time this has happened to me! When I lived in San Diego, a bird pooped and hit the front of my leg. Wierd!

On Wednesday evening, we took an overnight train to Vienna, Austria. It kind of sucked. We got to the station extremely early because Ale had heard that these trains sometimes oversell so we didn't want to get stuck sleeping in the hallway...which is exactly what happened. When the conductor came to take our tickets, she told us we had to move a few carraiges back because the train was going to split and the car we were in was heading to Budapest. When we got to the Vienna car, there were absolutely NO seats. Actually, there were, but people were sleeping and taking up 2 seats. They would wake up and see us, but go back to sleep. I have been experiencing this over and over again...Europeans are so rude. Several of us where in the hallway for several hours. Luckily, about 4 hours into the 6 hour trip, some people got off and we were able to take their seats and get some sleep. I will definitely be skeptical of taking an overnight train again...

Ich liebe Berlin!

I <3 Berlin

If Berlin had a baseball team and a beach, I would totally live her forever. This is such a great city....rich in history, rich in culture, scenic in view, and the people are so incredibly nice!

Day 1 in Berlin was America's Independence Day for me. Ale and I began our exploration shortly after lunchtime and hit most of the major touristy spots on the first day...The Brandenburg Gate, the Parliament Building, Check Point Charlie, the remnants of the Berlin Wall. I feel like there is so much to learn here...so much history to take in. There was no way were going to hit everything in our short time here...guess its just all the more reason to go back : ) At one point, we walked near the Brandenburg Gate which opens up into a big square. The police had gathered all around the square and people were inside with megaphones and chanting and cheering for something...it turned out to be a major protest going on. Ale said they were Socialists because of the flags they were carrying. I heard later that they were protesting the conflict in Iran. Kind of neat to see. Aside from all of the scenic monuments and buildings, my favorite part of Berlin was the museum at Check Point Charlie. Check Point Charlie was the American military checkpoint in Berlin between Eastern and Western Germany. The checkpoint is actually still there in the middle of the street, and while the Berlin wall has since long been removed, they still have a cobblestone walkway that marks the wall running throughout the entire city. The museum itself has tons of photos, artifacts and stories of everything ranging from the Russian-American tensions at Check Point Charlie during the Cold War, to Kennedy's visit to Berlin, to the Eastern German's escape attempts and the deaths that occurred along the wall. It was really moving. A few blocks down the road, there is also a section of the Berlin wall that still stands. Its so strange to just stand in front of it and try to comprehend everything it represented and all that happened in the shadows of that wall...

After a long day of exploring the city, Ale and I came back to the hotel, took a short nap, and then got ready to go out. The nice Sweedish boy at the front desk gave us some nice "nightlife" areas to explore, and we made our way out under the lights of Berlin. After walking up and down the main strip, we made our way to an Indonesian outdoor bar and had a few cocktails and just talked for an hour or 2. After, we wanted to find a more happening place to celebrate my Independence Day, so we made our way to an indoor/outdoor club nearby. There, we met 2 English boys and 3 Aussies who we ended up hanging out with for the rest of the evening. The English guys (Andy and Sean Michael Murry) told me they would celebrate the 4th with me because it was the day they "got rid of us" ...a good reason to celebrate! They were joking of course. Ale mostly hung out with the Aussies who asked really stupid questions like "Can you get Aids from sharing a cigarette?" Ahhh...Yah! The rest of the night included dancing, talking...I exchanged contact information with the boys from London in hopes of meeting up with them when I visit there later this month. Overall, it was a great evening that ended much too late...but hey, I'm in Europe! Its OK to act like a college kid again right?!?

Day 2 in Berlin began as a continuation of the Disaster in Dusseldorf. Ale got up early and made her way to the Berlin airport only to find that Ryan Air did NOT put her bag on the plane to Berlin that morning. She wanted to cry. The Ryan Air employee simply told her that she got "confused" and would put it on a flight tonight (Sunday night as I write this...) so we can just pick it up as we pass throught the aiport on our way to Frankfurt and Prague tomorrow. At this point, this situation as become so ridiculous that we aren't even expecting to see her baggage ever again. So, we are sharing my 4 outfits that are still wearable between the 2 of us and making the best of things...

Ale and I went back to the Indonesian resturant we were at last night for lunch because the menu looked interesting. I had Chicken Mandasi which was super yummy but super spicy! After lunch,. we made our way to one of those double-decker city tour busses and spent the next 2 hours crusing around the city, getting pictures, and learning about the major sites. It is sooooo interesting here because they are so willing to talk about the cold war and the conflict between East and West Berlin, but we have seen absolutely NOTHING when it comes to WWII. Sure, there are some postcards you can buy with pictures of the buildings bombed out, but none of the tours talked about anything that had to do with the war, nor do any of the tourist attractions have any literature or information about WWII events. Its like Hitler never even existed here. I sort of get it. I bet most Germans are ashamed of what happened, but still, it is a part of history that I'd like to experience here.

On a side note, the people here are so friendly. I was a bit nervous coming here without Laura because neither Ale or I speak any German, but everyone I've met has been incredibly awesome about it unlike in other European coutries that I've heard about. There was the guy at the train when we arrived who spoke no English at all, but was so willing to help us. That has happened several times here. Even when we didn't need help (i.e. if we were looking at the map on the street or something) people would approach us to ask us if we needed help. Here in the city, I figured I can get by with ordering and paying for a coke without any translation of languages, but as soon as most people hear the American accent, they not only start speaking English to me, but they engage us in coversation about other things. Even the bus tour guy started speaking to Ale in Spanish. It is incredible how friendly people are here...especially considering the "German stereotype" and the few German people I know from home. Its like two completely different worlds of people. After the bus tour, we went to Madame Toussant's wax museum and spent a few hours taking goofy pictures with some of the more prominent historical and pop culture figures of Germany! That evening, we walked around the city some more before returning to our hotel before we got the call that Ale's bag had arrived at the Berlin airport! She is so untrusting of these people at this point, that we both hopped the train/bus back to the airport at 11pm tonight just to go pick it up. It was there! Ale is a much happier camper (I think). It is now almost 1am here. I need to get up at 4:30am to head back to the airport where we will fly to and spend the day in Frankfurt before flying to Prague tomorrow evening. So long, Berlin. I <3 You!

DISASTER IN DUSSELDORF!

Disaster in Dusseldorf! X3!!!

So after braving the rain storm inside the airport in Dublin, tolerating the lovely 10-hour layover in Santander, Ale and I reunited, caught up over dinner in the airport, and caught our flight to Dusseldorf where her friend Laura would meet us at the airport and take us to her home to stay the night. Laura had lived with Ale in Spain last year when she was studying Spanish for a few months on holiday during school. Unfortunatly, when we arrived at the airport in Dusseldorf, Ale's bag was nowhere to be found. Disaster #1! Thank goodness Laura was there because the 2 young girls at the lost baggage desk did not seem at all interested in helping us until she started speaking German to them. They still were really of no use. We just got a number to call in the morning which was only supposed to tell us "if" they knew where the bag was...totally crappy! Remember in the last post when I said I LOVED European airlines...not so much anymore!

The Dusseldorf-Wein airport is probably an hour away from the actual city of Dusseldorf. After the long drive back to Laura's, we met her parents (who she still lives with...apparently it is customary to live with your parents while you are still studying in most places in Europe) and older sister, toured her home (a 3-floor flat...totally cool) and got situated for bed because we are sooooo tired. That is when I discoverd, that the entire contents of my suitcase were soaking wet! Disaster #2! When I had left Dublin that day, there was a HUGE rain storm. The only that that I can deduce is that my bag was left out in that storm for a LONG time, so for the past 18 hours or so, my clothes had been sitting wet and smashed together in my bag. As I began to unpack and air out my things, I discovered that my new purple scarf had bled all over most of my clothes too...including my brand new white dress, white shorts, and a few of my other favorite outfits. I tried to was them out, but the dye wouldn't budge. Of the 10 full outfit options I had planned with the clothes I brought, about 4 are still in tact. SUCKY! Our new Euro Trip mantra is "Ryan Air F**** SUCKS! (btw...people really have poor mouths here! I don't normally swear, but Ryan Air has made me mad enough that, Yes, the f-bomb and a few other choice words describing that company have come out of my mouth these past few days)! We were beginning to think this vacation was turning into something like the movie "Eurotrip." YIKES!

The next morning (Saturday), Laura's father called the airline and they told him that Ale's bag had ended up in London and that they could send it back to Dusseldoff that evening so we could pick it up the following morning when we checked in for our flight to Berlin. GREAT! So Laura, Ale and I decided to get ready and take the train (like the el in Chicago) to go explore Dusseldorf for a while and return early afternoon because Laura's parents were hosting a "traditional" German BBQ. Yeah! My first taste of German food! Dusseldorf is a great little city. There is the old part of town on the Rhine River which is really beautiful. All of the buildings have a lot of character and it was exactly what I pictured "old" Germany to be. We later went to the newer part of town where they had the typical high-end shopping district. Again, it was pretty nice, but pretty typical for the "main street" of most modern cities these days. At least Ale was able to buy some necessities until she would be reunited with her bag. We ate lunch at an outdoor cafe along the river. I had some sort of traditional German meat with gravy, cabbage, and these wierd mashed potatos that had the consistency of Jello. It wasn't as disgusting as it sounds. As we were eating, a storm began to roll in. We moved inside and had a few drinks until the heavy rain moved out, then made our way back to the train station to get back to Laura's house for the BBQ.

Ale and I were super tired from all of the traveling the day before and the walking around that morning, so we decided to take a nap before the party in the evening. Our naps were great...until we were awaken by a HUGE crack of thunder/lightening and the smell of something burning. Disaster #3! The storm that had rolled in earlier had turned into an all out thunder storm and it appeared that lightening had hit Laura's house as a circuit was blown and the phones didn't work. The street out in front of her street was completely flooded and we got about an hour's worth of entertainment watching the many cars drive by trying to make the decision of if/how they would cross. One guy made his girlfriend get out of the car and go test how deep the water was in the middle of the flood. Then, he decided to drive up on the lawns of the homes to get by...the girlfriend had to stay out of the car and guide the bf around the posts, bushes, etc...I would be sooo ticked at my boyfriend if I was that girl : ) Needless to say, the BBQ was cancelled, but Laura's mom still cooked up some really excellent sausages, salads, and breads and we spent the evening just chatting about anything and everything.

Some time later, we heard on the radio that the Dusseldorf airport had been closed. This worried us because Ale's bag was supposed to fly in from London that night. After several phone calls, we discoverd that the plan had indeed not landed in Dusseldorf but was delayed and would be rerouted to The Netherlands until it was allowed to land at Dusseldorf. The Dusseldorf airport does not allow landings after 11pm which did not look likely. They assured us that if the bag did not make it to Dusseldorf, that it would meet us in Berlin the following day. Fine. Ryan Air f**** sucks. The rain has stopped after dinner, the street had cleared, so Laura, Ale and I decided to make our way to a small suburb called Duisburg to get some ice cream and walk around for a while. Not much was going on so we returned home to get a good night's sleep because we had to leave at 4am to catch our flight to Berlin in the morning.

So that is where we are now. We arrived in Berlin early this morning. Ale's bag was not in Dusseldorf and it has been promised to arrive tomorrow (Sunday) morning at the Berlin airport where we will have to go pick it up because Ryan Air will NOT deliver it to our hotel. This is definitely putting a damper on our trip for her. Our spirits were brightened briefly when we met a little old German man while transferring trains to the city, who while he spoke no English at all, insisted on helping us get to our destination. He was very grandfatherly-like, and so incredibly nice. He kept saying this word, "Spandou" which we still have not figured out what it means, but it was super cute as he just keping saying this to us. Hopefully it isn't something scandalous!

Fortunatly, we were able to check into our room right away when we arrived downtown Berlin even though we were super early. Ale is taking a nap. I just got done washing out the entire contents of my bag with laundry detergent because even though I had dried them out, my entire bag still smelled like "Rain water". Ryan Air f**** sucks. Hopefully Berlin is a cool city...I'm off to explore...

What the Craic, Ireland?

So my European Adventure has begun...First stop, Dublin, Ireland!

The night before I left, I had tried to stay up all night so as to sleep on the plane and be fresh and ready to go once I got there; however, of course I sat next to the most chattiest Cathy EVER during the flight! He was a young Polish guy named Bart, and he turned out ot be quite an interesting character. He was moving permantly back to London after a stint working for Nordstroms in the States. He had actually worked all over the world and he was a great resourse for things to see and do while I'm over here. We pretty much spent the entire 8 hour flight talking, playing video games, trivia and watching movies...and can I just say how much I love European airlines. I had my own flat screen-touch screen TV in my seat. They had an assortment of free, recent movies and TV episodes to choose from. There were also about 20 video games, several generes of radio stations, an online shopping channel, and a really cool feature where you could not only track your flight across the globe, but it also showed you things like daylight moving across the globe, etc. It was pretty cool. Oh yah, and the food was fantastic as well.

What the Craic? (procounced "crack"...probably Gailic) is a local saying that is similar to our "What the heck?" I had several "What the Craic" moments while in Ireland.

One of the first things I noticed when landing was that nothing is squared off here. The plots of land, the streets...nothing is on a grid pattern. It seems as that people just arbitrarily plotted out their farms and built roads without any thought to the planning process. The roads proved to be somewhat difficult for me until Dave sort of explained it. More on that later. I bought a bus ticket and took the bus into the city. The guy told me to get off at O'Connell street, which would have been easy enough except for 1. None of the streets are easily marked, as in there were no street signs on the corners telling you which cross section you were at. 2. There are no route maps on the bus and/or paper ones at the stops to take with you. and 3. The busses wind up and down all different roads every which way. Its not like there is a #22 Clark St. bus that just goes up and down Clark. Thank goodness I asked the driver because I had missed my stop by 2 stations. Not really a big deal, but it was just really conflusing.

Second. Again, this is another "wrong side" nation. As you leave the airport, there is a sign in 3 or so languages reminding you to dirve on the left side of the road. Then, some intersections have traffic lights and most have round-a-bouts. And since a lot of the streets are one-way streets, it didn't really make sense to me why the even need round-a-bouts in some places, but whatever.

When I first arrived at my hotel the room wasn't ready, so the nice man (American, used to live in Chicago, and knew my sister...small world), took my luggage, gave me a map, and I set out to explore Grafton Street, the main shoppig district in town, and coincidentally enouch, right outside my hotel. It wasn't anything to write home about (as I am writing home about it...hahahaha). More of the stores than not can be found in the states. There were a few Irish touristy storefronts, but the street itself was cool because it was made of bricks, no cars were allowed on it, and there were artists and street musicians all up and down performing creating a festival-like atmosphere. There was even a Michael Jackson tribute area with flowers, pictures, notes, candles, etc. Crazy. Before heading back to get my room, I stopped at a place called Brewleys for lunch. There I had my first Irish coffee, which was just like Killian makes them. I also had a Pear Cider and BLT (the Irish kind) for lunch. Super Yummy. As I was sitting there, I met an American college student from West Virginia who was doing a marketing internship in Dublin. She was on her lunch break, noticed my accent, and we struck up a pleasant conversation.

After lunch I was able to get into my hotel room. It was GREAT! Spacious, overlooked the main part of the street, and of course as is signature with all Westins, it had a heavenly bed. I took a long nap when I arrived as I was dead tired, but that proved to be incredibly detrimental to my body adjusting to the time zone change. I'm still not feeling quite adjuested yet, but I guess that comes with the territory.

I woke up from my nap around 10pm and decided to get ready and go walk around Temple Bar for a while. Temple Bar is the main strip where all the young people go to party. The street was a brick-loned pedestrian-only street and every bar had live music and plenty of drunken Irishmen. It almost resembled Marti Gras in some establishments...mind you this was a Monday night. I stepped into one bar...the Oliver St. something or other, drank a cider, swore off a couple of drunken Irish advances at me, and finally made my way back home to "really" get a good nights' sleep.

The next morning I went exploring some of the more touristy sights Dublin has to offer. In the morning, I made my way to Dublin Castle and Christ Church. Both were really beautiful places to see, full of history. I didn't stay too long at each, just enought time to walk around and take some photos. For lunch, I made my way back towards Trinity College and found a cute little pub called "The Blarney Inn." There I had the traditional Irish mean of fish and chips, and ordered another Irish Coffee. Even better than the first one! The waitor in there was entertaining as well. He kept calling me beautiful and talked to me about my trip and what I should do next in Dublin. I also met a nice American father-daughter duo from Texas and we exchanged ideas and suggestions about what we had seen and wanted to see during the duration of our trips. It is so easy to just strick up a conversation with people here. The Irish are very nice.

After lunch I made my way inside Trinity College, walked around the campus for a while which was incredibly old (the first university established in Ireland by Queen Victoria) and incredibly beautiful. There, they house the Book of Kells which is an ornantly decorated trancript of the four Gospels dating back to the 1600's. It was a neat sight to see. After Trinity, I walked around some more and found myself in the National Gallery of Ireland which houses all of their important Art collections. I was especially fond of Jack Yeate's collection. He is the brother of Irish poet, WIlliam Butler Yeates. Interesting stuff...

Since everything closes at 5pm, I went back to my hotel to get ready because my friend Mike (who I had spent a summer in San Diego with) had hooked me up with his friend Dave who is from Dublin. We had planned to meet for dinner. Dave was a great guy. We first went to this little cafe for dinner where we just kind of talked and got to know each other. Later, he we walked around Grafton Street and a huge park and continued to talk. I learned a lot of neat things from Dave. For example...he showed took me to the pub that is best known for puring the best pint of Guinness. I did order my first Guinness here. See the pictures on facebook for my reaction : ). He also took me past a bar that supposedly stored a rocking chair owned by JFK. Now those are things you don't get in your guide books. I also learned that the Irish pronounce the letter r as "or." It took me quite a while to figure out that he was talking about the show ER one evening.

The next day (Wedensday) I had planned a trip to County Kerry by train to explore where my family came from. The day turned out to be absolutely AMAZING even though it started with me walking about a half hour in the pouring rain to the train station! My jeans were soaked, but luckily I was able to dry out on the train and the weather held the rest of the day. On the train on the way to Kerry, I sat across from a couple from California, who after about a half hour of conversation I discovered had been campus directors on U. of Iowa's campus with Campus Crusade for Christ. Not only that, they were very good friends with the Foxworths...Debra Foxworth was my Bible Study leader and mentor during college. Such a small world! They got off the train about an hour before I did, we said our goodbyes, and promised to keep in touch. An hour later, I reached Kilarney in County Kerry where a cute little old Irishman in a yellow coat collected me and a few others from the train with a BIG smooch on the cheek. Sooooo adorable! He put me on a tourb bus which would take me around the Ring of Kerry...and let me just say that I have NO idea why my grandparents left this part of the country for Chicago because it is absolutely georgous! The mountains, the Dingle Peninsula, Dingle Bay, The Atlantic and the many islands just off the coast. Words cannot convey the perfection of God's creation here. You will just have to see my pictures...and believe me, I have TONS of pictures as the driver stopped almost every half hour or so at scenic points for us to get off the bus and take some snapshots. I learned a lot about this part of the coutnry on this trip. I got to See David O'Connel's birthplace. He was the man who fought to make Catholics treated fairly and not as second class citizens. I also saw the place where Queen Victoria had a royal picnic when she visited the island for the only time back in the 1600's. I was not happy to hear about the reputation that Kerry men apparently have. I won't repeat it, at least not in the words my tour guide used...but apparently Kerry men are "ladies men." The Kennedy's were Kerry men (which makes sense with their reputations), but I really hope the former generations of men in my family steered clear of that because I don't want to be associated with men like that! On a side note, the drive around Kerry prooved quite scary at some points. Mind you, I'm on a coach bus which is zooming around these narrow curvey roads on the side of cliffs where the posted speed limit is 100KM/hour (that is waaaay faster than any USA speed limit if you didn't know). I had a nice time chatting with an Aussie couple and another couple for Georgia as we fear for our lives at some points, and made fun of the driver's driving and bad jokes at others.

It was a long and exhausting train ride back to Dublin that evening. I sat with the Georgian couple and we talked about the state of education and the economy in the states. I had a nice walk from the train station back to my hotel and got to take pictures of the Guinness factory. Very cool. That night, Mike's friend, and now my new friend, Dave to me out for drinks again at a few of Dublin's finest establishments. I didn't get home until almost 1:30am, and I figured that I needed to leave for the aiport at 3:30am to make my flight to Santander so I didb't sleep at all! I am learning that I need to get regular sleep. I'm not in college anymore and this all-nighter thing is kicking my butt. I'm about 5 hours in to my layover in Santander as I write this, I feel like crap, and I'm totally not in a good mood. Sleep=good.

It was kind of funny, as I was leaving Dublin this morning, I was worried that my flight would be delayed or even cancelled because there was a crazy thunder storm hitting the city. It was so bad, that as I walked throught he airport, waterfalls of water were pouring outof the light fixtures and running down the windows inside the airport. It was totally crazy! I thought the airport might get washed away with as much water as was coming inside. I guess it is a good thing that they are building/almost done with a new terminal. This old one definitely needs to go! Now, I am sitting in Santander airport in the midst of 10 hours in hell! I thought about renting a car and exploring the city, but I am just waaay too tired to drive. There is no internet so I can't even mess around on the computer (and I'll have to post this blog later). Perhaps this is a good time to stretch myself across the seats and take a nap...yes, that's what I'll do...

I'll write from Germany in a few days...

So long Ph.D...HELLO EUROPEAN ADVENTURE!

Joy's got the dreamer's disease...Holy Cow I'm going to EUROPE...for a MONTH...all by MYSELF! Sort of... Here I go, watch me run…a hundred miles under the sun…

Gil Baile has a great quote that goes like this..."Dont ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive because what the world needs in people who have come alive." The outcome of my many hours of contemplation of that quote...So long Ph.D. Hello, Europe! As my principal Dave Katzin has reminded me over and over again, I will be getting a waaaaaaay more valuable education gallivanting around Europe for a month...more so that I could ever get sitting in some classroom here in the States. As I like to remind him...My European education, unlike the classroom, will NOT move me up on the pay scale. Lucky for him.

But anyway, it is finally my time to get the heck out of here! (Thanks J.R. for reminding me of that). I have been thinking about some sort of a World adventure for very long time. I love learning about new cultures. I love history. I love just exploring things that are different than the here and now! I’ve always felt the need to march to the beat of my own drummer and but out of here, but something has always kept me close to home. Case in point...Immediately after college when I was living in San Diego, I was contemplating living and teaching there and continuing my mission work in Tijuana, Mexico; but my best friend from high school, Becky needed a kidney, I matched, and due to amazing circumstances, got a job near home and ended up coming back to Chicago (I still have both kidney's btw...long story). The following summer, I had a very rough first year of teaching high school, and as a result had applied to the Peace Core and also to study English Literature and/or Creative Writing at Trinity University in Ireland, but my sister-in-law's cancer had come back and the prognosis didn't look good at that point and I ended up pretty much living back in the burbs for almost 6 months while still maintaining my apt in the city just to help out with the kids and whatnot. I began my Master's Degree at DePaul University which took up 2 years of my life. Had a couple of long-term relationships which held me back. Don't get me wrong...I have not for once ever regretted anything I have done in the past 6 years, and I would not have changed any of the experiences I've had (well...most of them...haha) for the world; and Chicago is a pretty great city. I’ve had a great life here the past 6 years. There are so many things I’m going to miss while done during July…summer concerts and street festivals, going to the beach, hanging out in Michigan at my parents boat, walks up and down Clark Street, sitting outside at cafes and just writing or reading, friends’ BBQ’s…soooooo many things. I totally willing to give all of this up for my European Summer Adventure, but once again, there is something much bigger that is making me want to stay home. My grandma went into the hospital with some sort of stomach infection 2 days ago. I went to visit her yesterday and she was completely nauseated and depressed, and she just looked plan aweful. It made me so depressed that I started to cry in the elevator when I left the visit and began thinking that maybe I should cancel my trip. My mother told me ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! She also told me that if something happens to my grandma when I’m gone, she’s not telling me until I get back because of course I would want to come home immediately, but mom said that my grandma would be totally “pissed off” (which if you knew my grandma…is sooooo true) if I cut my adventure short… Mom…that’s crap! I promised not to come home…I’d be soooo angry if grandma passed and I didn’t know so you better tell me! Today she was much better, so keep her in your prayers please : )

So I’m sitting here in my living room waiting for my sister to come and pick me up, thinking about how my sense of adventure has been slowly fading away over the past few years...and I didn't even realize it. I am totally NOT the uninhibited girl I was back in college. Sure, I can blame it on starting life in the real world, needing to be more responsible, growing up, whatever; but there has been a stirring in my soul for a while now, and I just need to get out of the push and pull of everyday life here and explore because there is such a LOT of world to see out there…
What followed was...this trip started as an idea one day, and 1 week later the trip was completely booked. I'm extremely excited, but at the same time I haven't quite gotten to the point where it has set in that I am actually going...well, not until I look at my credit card statement and the "oh s**t" factor hits me HAHA!

My friend Josh is the one who really opened this can of worms almost a year ago... I first met Josh and his brother almost exactly a year ago at Andersonville's Midsommer Fest. We were listening to Mike and Joe (great festival band btw) and we just started talking...that night ended up being the first of many adventures Josh would take me on...this one climbing to the rooftop of the Drake Hotel via the fire escape. What followed were several more hotel roof tops, sneaking into major concerts at Northerly Island, late nights of billboard climbing and dance parties etc etc...Haiti was another eye opener to this. That trip was the first for me in over 5 years...and I had never been so clear on something that God was calling me to do more so that this trip. And well, you all know what kind of adventures I got "STUCK" in there. If not...read my blog archives from August 2008. There was one specific moment where I can remember feeling completely me and completely uninhibited. We were all huddled in the back of the taptap heading to the orphanage. The rain was coming down hard...so hard it was stinging. Everyone was trying to get out of the wind and stinging rain drops and I just put on my sun glasses to keep the rain out of my eyes, stood up and took it all in! That picture is my current profile pic on facebook. The comments attached to it are about how I'm living it up and everyone else is huddled together like sissys! I mean...seriously! When is the next time I will ever be in the back of a pick-up during a hurricane!?!?! I've never felt more alive, more in harmony with God and with the world than at that moment.

So here is my European plan…

I leave Sunday, June 28th (TODAY) for Dublin. I'll be in Dublin for a few days, sightseeing, meeting up with some friends of friends, heading down to Country Kerry where my family is from, and possibly visiting with the church plant Parkview planted there last year. On July 2, I fly to Santander, Spain to meet up with Ale. I have a 10 hour layover there where I plan to practice my Spanish at a local cafe and/or head to the beach and journal for a while before Ale and I fly to Dusseldorf, Germany. Ale has a friend in Dusseldorf so we plan to explore that city before taking a bus to Berlin for a few days. I'm super excited to drive up the Rhine and see that part of the country. I hear it is beautiful. On July 6, we head to Frankfurt where we will catch a plane to Prague. I'm most looking forward to seeing this city. Everyone I know in Europe says this is the best city in Europe. We will be in Prague until July 8 when we will take an overnight train to Vienna. We will spend a couple of days in Vienna, including a day trip to Salzburg where we will go on the Sound of Music tour...sooooooo very excited about that. On July 11, we fly back to Dusseldorf, and then back to Bilbao, Spain as Ale has to work that week. I'll spend the night of July 11 at her place before flying off to Rome all by myself for a few days on the 12. I'm very excited to see Rome too. While there, I hope to meet up with a few friends who are staffing summer project there. These guys were in San Diego with me while I staffed SDSP in 2003. I fly back to Bilbao on July 16 and Ale and I catch a train to Paris the next day for a long weekend in France. My friend Mike will be traveling through France on the 10th on his way to Africa, so I hope to catch dinner or at least meet him at one of those cute little French cafe's you see in the movies before we leave. I'm also excited to visit this part of the continent because my grandfather, who was a medic in General Patton's army in WW2 helped liberate Paris from the Nazis. He later went on up into Holland and I think over into Germany and Austria, but it will just be neat to be in the places where he was. After France, Ale and I head back to Bilbao that Sunday, where I leave her for good. On Monday, July 20, I fly off to London which is where I'll end my trip. I have already booked 2 Broadway shows in the West End Theater District and a tour that will take me to see Stonehenge, Shakespeare's and Jane Austen's birthplace, as well as some castle. I head back to the States, via a layover in Dublin (my gateway to Europe) on July 28, just in time for Kulovitz's wedding the following day. Wow!

Be sure to check back as I plan to blog about each city I visit. And also check on facebook for pictures as I go…

“Welcome to the planet, Joy. Welcome to existence! …I dare you to move!” ~Switchfoot

What happens in the Bahamas...

So I have failed to blog about the rest of my 5 days in the Bahamas...and for good reason. Let's just file most of it under "What happens in the Bahamas, stays in the Bahamas..." Seems to be a running theme with my family and these islands. Need I refresh your memories on when the 5 O'Keefe kids, the 3 Padgett kids, and our significant others took a cruise to Nassau 2 1/2 years ago for my brother's 40th birthday. We like to file that experience under "What happened on the Fascination, stays on the Fascination..." (innocent smile)

But here is what I can tell you...

Thursday, Tina literally worked ALL DAY! and I literally sat on the beach ALL DAY! I think I finally started to wind down that day. The need to "constantly be doing something" finally started to subside...maybe because I was so thoroughly entertained by my sister's crazy bride and her crazy tattooed entourage (and their cute little puppy) with all of the drunk antics at the beach...swimming, volleyball...yes, quite an entertaining bunch. They asked me to play at one point, but I wasn't drinking and they were totally jungle-ballers...I knew I would just get annoyed. I'm kind of high-maintenance when it comes to athletic competition. : ) The wedding party definitely provided me with hours of entertainment over the next couple of days. I even found out from hotel staff-turned friends later on that the bride wet her bed one night. Yikes!

Friday was much of the same...laying out on the beach, reading, and watching the wedding party...I got through a good portion of C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain" and finished "A Grief Observed." His works have really been speaking to me. He dissects matter of faith so succinctly, so intentionally, and yet so honestly in his reservations that it is almost impossible to question his logic because he describes it so thoroughly. I guess that is the product and matter of execution for an atheist-turned-Christian. You've got to dig into and sort out all aspects of a topic before you can really put your heart and soul into it. Anyway, I'm not ready to comment on what I've been processing through yet, but let me just say that what I thought was my so-called "grief and pain" is really not mine at all. It is really someone else's' inner issues whose faith is built on a house of cards, and trying to make me believe that mine is too...but my so-called house of cards while initially shaken, will not be moved. Perhaps it is more sold that I've been led to believe. God kind of rocks like that.

But back to my vacation...Friday night was definitely an interesting experience. Tina dragged me to this show where twin brothers impersonated famous singers like Barbara Streisand, Elton John, Cher and some others. The show was one of several events planned for a group of journalists who were visiting the hotel. I was invited to several of these functions as my sister was entertaining a journalist from "Modern Bride" this trip. The show was interesting to say the least. Barbara was great. Elton was OK. Cher was scandalously dressed and let's just say that I have no idea how he/she managed to hide her junk in that outfit. I felt a little dirty even trying to look and see how it was done. Kasper (event planner at the resort) and Justin (an executive chef at the resort) who showed up in true Bahamian fashion-LATE to the show spent a lot of her performance trying to explain it to me, but I am still just really confused as to how that was even possible and let's just leave it at that.

After the performance, Tina, Kasper, Justin and I went to a club called 22 Above (I think). Boy was I thankful for Kasper and Justin. FINALLY people who were young, fun, and not on their honeymoon! I was soooooo thankful they took me out that night. Kasper is from Amsterdam and has worked for Starwood for a few years now in Miami and in the Bahamas. He wants to go to New York when his visa is up, but I think he should come to Chicago : ) Justin is from Miami and his wife still lives there. He also did his culinary training in Paris and lived in other parts of Europe for a while! Yeah for new friends who can help me get around while I'm over there in July!!! We had a very good time at the club! There was an excellent Bahamian band playing and we pretty much just hung out, drank and talked most of the night. Tina and Justin decided to be lame and retire early! Kas and I....well, let's just say he's a fun and fantastic guy ; )

The next morning I was invited to go snorkeling with the journalists. Kasper, Jennifer (total sweetheart and in charge of the journalists) and Kirk (who they call the "Director of Fun") were on the excursion too. Unfortunately, I had to be there at 8am and was more than just slightly hung over; so as you can imagine, boating and swimming...uh yah! Actually, it was a lot of fun. I snorkeled at the first reef we stopped at. It was incredibly beautiful. The different design patterns of the reef and the beautiful colors of the fish were AMAZING! At one point, Kasper threw fish food at me and literally hundreds of fish came splashing all around me fighting for it. It felt really weird! Then Kasper got bit by one! HAHA! Serves him right for throwing fish food at me! For the last 2 bot stops, I decided to stay on the boat for and just take pictures. The 2nd stop was another reef which was just as beautiful. It was also on the most Western side of the island where all of the "rich" people live. There was one house that was incredible. It is owned by the 9 West designer. Yes, I took one look at that house and thought to myself "I definitely helped him pay for that!" haha! The last stop of the excursion was where we got to swim with sharks! The captain drove the boat all they way out to the shelf where the ocean drops off from 40 feet to 60,000 feet! Definitely a neat sight to see. The captains dropped shark bait down to the bottom around 40 feet where all the sharks started swarming. I was told they were Reef sharks and some of them were as big as 10 feet long! The divers had to stay at the surface and hold on to a rope so as not to splash around and attract attention from the sharks below. Actually, I should say everyone else swam with the sharks. I decided to keep all of my fingers and toes and stay in the boat; but I did get some pretty awesome pictures and video! Kasper stayed with me. He said he was going on a dive next week, but I think he really just chickened out! When everyone was out of the water, the captain pulled the bait back up and started feeding the sharks, so I have some pretty great pictures of the sharks at the surface fighting each other for food! After the dive, we went to this organic farm for lunch. It was incredible to walk around. This place completely sustains itself with all of the organic produce it produces...I mean literally everything made at the restaurant was grown on the farm...all except for the Gatorade...haha! It was another great place to experience while on the island...I'll post pictures on facebook of all of this soon...

Despite my not feeling so well, hanging out with the journalists that day was fun. I was a journalism major in college, so it was neat to chat with some of the writers and hear about their exciting adventures (aka...what my life "could have been") while diving and later at lunch. Don't worry, I'm not in any hurry to leave teaching! I say "some" of the journalists were cool because a few of them were just plain lame. There was this one guy David who was a freelance travel writer from Canada. He was all talk and no substance. I sat there listening to his stories thinking to myself...he goes to all of these really neat places, but has he ever really discovered the true beauty, the true culture, the true desperation, of these place??? Maybe it was just his MO or my misjudgment of him, but as he talked and talked about places like Cuba or the Dominican Rep, he seemed to have these blinders on that only promoted the stereotypes of what these countries are all about and not the true culture. I wanted to ask him so many questions but I thought I would only get a BS answer. I guess that's why Americans are so shut off from the reality of the rest of the world sometimes...I mean, if he is the type of people disseminating the information about these places, no wonder we all look like morons when it comes to foreign affairs. We are never given the whole story. OK...off my soap box now...There was another guy, Hunter, from Alabama (I think) I don't remember what he wrote for or really even about what, but he was kind of quirky...the kind of guy who seemed up for anything. Anita was awesome. Probably late 30's. Not married. Wrote for "Modern Bride" and a total party girl! I talked to her for maybe 10 minutes (in my nauseated state) before she was inviting me to Miami to take me out...haha! Jennifer was just a total sweetheart. She didn't snorkel so we sat on the boat and just chatted about life most of the morning...she lives near Fort Lauderdale with her husband. We got a long splendidly! And finally, there was Kirk. He works for the resort, is a local Bahamian, and it was interesting to sit with him at lunch and talk about his family, his work, and just his general impressions of growing up on the island and his dreams for the future. All in all, everyone was great and I was thankful for their company.

When I got back to the resort, I took a desperately needed nap and later decided to get off the beach resort and went for a run on the street. For part of the path, there were beautifully landscaped gardens in the middle of the road, and the rest of the road was boarded by cute and brightly-colored English-colonial style homes or hotels. I know this island and many others in the Bahamas are poor, and part of me really wished I could see those parts of the islands; but at the same time I kept trying to tell myself that I'm on VACATION and NOT a mission trip. There is plenty of time for that later...besides, my heart is in Haiti. Philip and Pastor LeFluer would be peeved if I mission hopped to the Bahamas : ) Later that night, I just went and sat by the beach for a while, had some good reflection/prayer time and watched the crazy bride's ceremony and reception. It was really beautiful. Kasper was overseeing a prom at the hotel that night. He had invited me to tag along, but I didn't want to bother him while he was working...plus he was probably super tired too. He didn't get a nap from the weekend's fun; but I did get to see some of the teens all dressed up. Soooo adorable...ahhh the days of prom and sorority formals. I need some place to go to get all dressed up for...

My last day in the Bahamas was spent in Nassau shopping. I did the touristy thing...Senior Frogs, straw market, etc. I discovered that I am slightly addicted to expensive Italian leather. Tina is addicted to jewelry : ) Ha! Later that night, we spent some time in the casino...I gambled my first $5 EVER which sufficiently kept me entertained for about an hour's worth of fun. We headed back to the hotel bar later to watch the NBA finals game. LA won. Booooo! As I am writing this, I am on the plane headed home, and AGAIN I have not had a good experience flying with American Airlines through Miami. Go figure. I won't bore you with the details. It isn't as exciting as say the whole getting stuck in a hurricane in a third world country experience of last August; but I did get to meet a group in Miami's airport who were on their way to Haiti. I talked to a few teenage girls who were super excited. I told them a little bit about my experience and told them to be careful because they might just leave their hearts there as I did after my first trip. It was a nice/fitting way to end this first leg of my summer world adventure....now, back to Chicago for a few days before part 2 begins!!!

T-13 days until Europe...I'm so excited that I can hardly contain myself!!!