get this going

My summer is slowly starting to kick off. I've been here for 5 nights (tonight'll be the 6th) and have been very lazy at night, but what else can i do?
I wish I could see people...I am in need of some socializing.

Okay so it is a big bummer. Verizon doesn't work well at this house at all. I feel like I'm in the Congo! I have to skype, aim, or text people to be able to talk! But that's okay... i need to be grateful for where I get to stay! I should take pictures of this place. It's unbelievable. And when it warms up enough to SWIM, it'll be even more amazing!! After I work, I come upstairs and either check my email and talk to my sister in Congo, or go out on the bike... yesterday I ran to singing beach and read there for a bit then came back. It was sooo nice! On Monday I rode my bike to some shops and bought some stuff I needed/wanted. It was a LONG bike ride-- i probably did 12 miles in all because I took a few wrong turns or missed a turn or something!! Oh well, it was such a nice day! My great aunt normally eats around 7 here, so I have time to shower or read or do whatever before that, and then after dinner it's usually LOST or a movie, .... talking to people online... etc.! Last night though, I PAINTED! Yeah, a 12 year old probably could've done a better job at the picture I painted, but that's ok... I enjoyed it, and it relaxed me a LOT!!!

I started working (doing yardwork) at my great aunt's on monday, and it's been really good. I so much prefer the yardwork in the sun to the cleaning inside that I normally do here! I'm so tired today.... i got enough sleep but I worked from 9:30-4... So I guess it makes sense!

Last Friday was soooo fun. Connie (she lives on my aunt's property and has been such a blessing to me this year) took me and Becky into Boston for dinner and to see the Boston Ballet. She dropped us off at this AMAZING Indian restaurant (best in New England i think) and we went to the ballet by ourselves. The food was SOOOO good, and the ballet was so cool because we sat IN THE SECOND ROW!!!!!! Right behind the orchestra!!!! When the music stopped playing, we could hear the dancers breathing, we were that close! ;-) Crazy... becky and i ate it up!! My second cousin gave us the tickets because she has season tickets.

The next day I went to Maine with Becky, Andy, and Frank. We went to Andy's house and did a lot of hanging out-playing frisbee, eating, beaching, a little sight-seeing... Frank and Andy grilled burgers for us, and they were so good!! It was a nice weekend -- we went to Singing Beach on Sunday, too, and played more frisbee, and got Captn. Dusties ice cream!!!! :-) delish.
This weekend I am going up to Gale Cottage (in New Hampshire I think?) which is a little cabin that's been in my family for years. We'll probably be doing lots of hiking and outdoorsy stuff, and just hanging out. I'm excited! It'll be a nice little getaway with some of my second cousins and second cousins once removed, and maybe my great aunt if she's up for it.
I'm gonna run to dinner now! Can't keep anyone waiting in this Howard house!! :-)

I woke up and realized I'm a sophomore? Am i still dreaming?

I just finished my freshman year of college! What in the world?!!! This feels a little too much like a dream. I can't believe I just said my goodbyes to my "new" friends until August!
Yesterday was a day of packing and moving out, oh and one last exam that i think i did pretty well on,... and today was a day of helping my friends move out!
My summer plans are to live at my great aunt's (starting tonight--i'm there now) which is 4 miles down the road from my school, and to work as much as i can in as many different places, for as many different people as i can! Oh... and there's this trip coming up that i'm SO excited for.... I'M GOING TO CHICAGO AND CALIFORNIA!!! :-) YAY!!!
June 6 I leave here and go see my sister in Chic. for 4 days, and then we're flying together with my neice and nephew as well, to San Luis Obispo, CA to be with the Cabalkas (also known as my boyfriends' family who i love and adore)!! .... for 2 weeks!
On the 24 of June I'm back in MA, working some more at various people's places, hopefully lots of babysitting, but for sure some office work. I have a new job starting next week as this woman's "Personal office assistant." Doesn't that sound so professional?? Well, I think so, and I'm excited! I met my "employer" on Monday, and we drove up the hill to her house which is right up the road from where i'll be living all summer, so it is super convenient for me to walk or ride my bike! It just couldn't be more perfect. She lives in a HUGE house on a hill, so the office has a GREAT ocean view. It's GoRgeous, and i'm so stoked for it.

I have to be back at school on Aug. 17 for Orientation staff training (yes, i made it on staff!!) and moving in. I'm so excited about next year! For many reasons, but a big one is the new roommate, and the same amazing suitemates in the same great dorm. It's gonna be too much fun!! And getting to "orient" freshmen for next year? What could be better?! ;-) we'll see....


It's been so long since I've written, and so much has happened. I don't really know how I go so long without writing. Oh wait, yes i do... it's called college and being lazy and writing in a real journal instead, and... YEAH... so LIFE.
I still love Gordon. Even after 2 semesters. Finals were INTENSE even though i only had 2 exams...my hardest class this year was New Testament, and you'd think since I'm a missionary kid AND a pastor's kid, it would've been easy as pie or maybe they would've let me pass out of it? UM NO. Not so much. I can't really say WHY it was so durn hard, but it was. Let me put it this way. I studied for a week and a half straight and got a D on the 2nd exam. I studied for at least 5 days straight and got a B for the last final which is supposed to be "easy." I will be very thankful to get a C overall in that class. It just was really in depth and hard. I can't believe i'm just publicizing my grades. But obviously i don't care! My favorite class was Principles of Design, a communications class that was only mon. nights for 3 hours. The time passed quickly though because we usually had stuff to paint and work on, and hardly ever had to do any homework! My "final" for that class was just a portfolio of everything we had done, and he told me I did "very good work during the semester and a very strong presentation" ...so that made me smile.

My favorite part of the year? Well, my FAVORITE part would definitely be Feb. 19:-), and you who know me know why, but at school... or my favorite part about school? I guess just all my new friends. There have been ups and downs with certain people, but overall it was FANTASTIC and i am so excited for more memories and more fun and more friends next year!!!!!

I got to go to the Dominican Republic for my spring break this year with Gordon, and it was SO GREAT. It was a missions trip -- we had 21 people on the team, and everyone was so fun! We had a blast and God worked everything out financially for me to go. I got more than enough support and I made quite a few great friends there. It was hard to leave after being there for 9 days and spending time with adorable kids (we did some VBS) and getting to know the workers (we did a lot of construction on a church and school)....so i would totally want to do it again! My first short term missions trip: AMAZING!

Gordon's hard but it's so worth it and it can be really fun... and boring too.... it is a small school so you have to have some downtime, but that can be good every now and then!! I didn't get to go into Boston half as many times as I wanted or as I thought I would, but it is hard finding transportation around here and finding the time to spend a whole day or long night in the city. Well, tomorrow I am actually going into Boston for the night to see the Boston Ballet with my friend Becky, so i am SUPER excited about that, and I think we'll make a night of it and go somewhere to get dinner too!! :-) I haven't been to a ballet in AGES and ... the boston ballet?? SOO good!
That sums up my life kinda. kinda. kinda. I have been putting LOTS of pictures on my facebook this year, so check there if you haven't already.
I thought I'd try to go to bed early tonight, but it looks like that attempt just failed. It's 12:15 and I'm working at my great aunt's at 11 tomorrow, and then a big night...so Goodnight!

thinking...

I woke up this morning at 7:45 and went running with my sister Christiana! I don't know where running has been all my life, but it really clears the head. It's not AS enjoyable as night-walks, but it was good nonetheless! And running with someone is so much easier than doing it alone. Time passes more quickly and I don't think I get tired as easily with someone beside me:-)
It has been so great having my sister Christiana here and spending time with her. I feel like I never really "got to know her" that well growing up. If that's possible. I don't know, just didn't feel as close to her.... maybe it's that we were pretty different from each other. I was always the "quiet one" in the house, and she was more talkative and dramatic. Of course I have always loved her, but now I'm getting to know her better, and it is a lot of fun! We went to the pool the other day, just me and her, ... I brought along a book, but I never picked it up. She and I just talked, and it was a great time!
Lately I have felt pretty unproductive, and felt like life is on hold for me,...that time just froze as soon as I got to Congo (because you really feel like you are on another planet over here)... but ... I am seeing that this isn't all true. I am spending a LOT of time only with my family, and I am so thankful for it.
I exercise a lot out of lack of better things to do.... watch a lot of ALIAS (i'm on season 4 and have one more season to go before i can leave here! haha),... sit and read, play tennis, take walks, play pingpong, and spend a lot of time at the pool. Yes, I'm getting a tan!

My favorite new thing is to take night-walks. Like I mentioned before.... walks by myself late as night. The later, the more interesting, I think. One really good memory I have of my first authentic night-walk was with Zaq, one of the last nights I was in the States before moving to France and beginning my life of adventures! We had just finished a movie, and I think we started taking a walk at 3am. He lives in a big neighborhood, so it was pretty weird walking down streets lined with dark houses.... you feel like everyone is asleep in the world except for you- and the person walking with you of course. Zaq and I have been best friends for so long, so this walk was really awesome. We had a lot of times of silence because neither of us knew what to really say. I was leaving for France and Congo! Didn't know how long I'd be gone... there wasn't really very much we COULD say.... but it was still awesome just walking and talking or sharing the silence. We went to the little neighborhood park and sat on the picnic bench. Sprinklers were going off all around us. We sat on that picnic bench for I don't know how long, but there again was a little more of that silence. And i cant remember it being awkward. It was 3am, and we were in this park. haha! Funny to look back on, but such a memory. It's always stuck with me but I never got very serious about trying to take a walk at night by myself recently. Sometimes I do it at college, but I have my phone with me... so it's quite different! Zaq tells me it's kinda like therapy for him to go walking at night by himself. Well, last week or something I decided to go out at 10pm. Yeah, not quite 3am, but it was dark, nonetheless!
The American School's campus has 2 soccer fields (1 is like a smaller practice field down nearer to our house), a tennis court, basketball court, pool, lots of houses for teachers and some missionaries (like us).... so much/ it's quite a big campus. The disappointing part of this walk was remembering how they leave lights on everywhere... the tennis court had lights, the basketball court had lights... i'll explain that later. So the stars were out all big and bright. Couldn't see the moon, but it was a very clear night! I first went to the small elem. soccer field and lay down in the middle of it, so i could stare up at the stars. I just lay there for a few minutes and thought. I thought of places I should walk to, and things i needed to think about. I walked to the elementary playground where there are swings. I love swings..... and I have a happy memory there, so I swung for a while and just remembered and thought some more. The more places I walked, the more memories I remembered. It made me miss certain things and certain people. ...I made my way up to the bigger soccer field and went to the middle of that one and lay down. The lights from houses and the court were pretty annoying. Bright, flourescent. ANd then I started hearing lots of cars. I tried to drown out the light and noise so I could just lie there and talk to God and listen to the bugs... I don't know how long I lay there because I didn't bring a clock. I wanted to just forget time and stay out as long as I felt I needed to. After a while I walked to another place and climbed a tree. Then I kinda felt weird because I could look over the wall that is around the whole campus and I could see the chaotic street. Climbed down and decided to go back to the first soccer field where it was quieter and there are only a few lights from the tennis courts there. I sat down on the edge of the field under some bamboo trees and palms. I didn't care how dirty i was probably getting. I just sat there and remembered. And thought of the future. And even cried a little. It made me feel lonely, but at the same time, in my loneliness, I could sense God was right there, and I knew He was reaching out to me and hearing my cry. He knew what that cry was all about and He knew how everything would work out for me. He knows how everything is still going to work out. Looking up at the stars always makes me feel so small, so insignificant, but it reminds me of the kind of God I serve and long to worship. He sees each one of us. Cares for every one of us. Loves us each unconditionally. "There is nothing we can do that will make Him love us less." I love that. I heard that in a video we watched at youth group this Sunday. It's easy to forget. But that's the kind of Father we have!

Tonight I took another walk, and it wasn't AS amazing... and it wasn't an hour long like my first, but it was definitely worth it. I saw a snail as big as a cell phone making a trail through the sand, I watched the clouds cover and uncover the half-moon, I gazed at the stars again...the beautiful stars. I swung on those swings again. I'm thankful I decided to do that! Tonight I had a towel with me so I could lie on the grass without itching like mad because of the weird grass bugs or maybe it's the grass itself... anyway! i was lying on the towel, and a guard approached me. Side note -- this school has a bunch of guards -- people who stay at the gate, and also people posted all over the campus who patrol around just to make sure everything is safe. They have walkie-talkies,.... and i guess they are supposed to make me feel secure, but whenever you forget something at the pool or even at the basketball court, you can be pretty sure that it will not be there when you come back. We think lots of these guards or workers steal. Now I'm not one to judge, but someone is doing a lot of stealing. Just ask me how many things I have lost here... of course it's always my fault... but it's just sad. All that to say, I don't trust the guards COMPLETELY. Anyhow, I saw one coming towards me and he spoke to me in French. Asked me if I was doing GYMNASTICS?!!! Maybe he thought my towel was more like an exercise pad? I have no idea but i was definitely not moving in a gymnastic way. :-) It was hilarious ... so I told him no... i was merely on a walk and was looking at the stars and sky! He was good with that answer, but asked my name and when he walked off I heard him say "it's Eva Shepard." So now I will always be known as that queer one who does gymnastics in the middle of the soccer field. All by myself! Hahahahaha...and What must they think when they see me Swinging by myself?! At night! I guess I must look VERY odd. And maybe they think I just have no friends and no life.....which is pretty much true----JUST KIDDING! :-p

I got inspired the other day and pulled out the guitar so I could write a song. I don't get those inspired moods too often so it was exciting to sit down and really finish a song! Now it doesn't sound so good, but just the fact that I wrote something ... yeah I was pretty happy with that. I hope I'll get in a mood like that again and write something decent. Worth showing people. hmm... will that EVER happen? Worth showing someone?! haha! We will see. Right now life is so happy. And i think that's why I had an "inspiring moment." lol
Wow, it's now midnight, so ...seems like a fine time to head off to bed or something. I find it hilarious how much I write here and never get any comments. Well, I don't know what would comment on. If there is a who reads this. It would be cool if no one read this, maybe. Well, either way.... whether someone reads or not, I'm happy I got all this out of me. Feels good.
Not sure if I got EVERYTHING out --Nnnnope! i definitely didn't. I'll save that for another one.

More pictures from christmas break

Photobucket Album

A New Album full of Pics

Photobucket Album

Holidays and such in Congo...

This Christmas Eve and Christmas we broke a few traditions! First of all, Christmas Eve, we didn't get to have a candlelight service at Church. That was pretty disappointing to all of us, but my dad couldn't get the committee to let him have a service:-( Apparently not many people wanted to have a service. We had our traditional potato leek soup (yay!) for dinner, and rolls...:-) YUM! Then we all sat around and ate some homemade ice cream and each opened one gift (that's one of our old traditions). Sometimes we try to open the smallest looking gift on Christmas Eve so we can save the bigger ones for C. Day! ;-) This year the power went off before dinner was ready... but only for like 2 minutes, thankfully!!

In the morning we gathered in our pjs in the living room to open our stocking. Mom and Dad came out in their matching Congolese shirts and served us some juice! We watched (and videod) dad opening his stocking because he always has the funniest reactions and is always excited about no matter what is put in his stocking.... and then we all opened ours at the same time. How we usually do it. Breakfast followed, and we enjoyed homemade EGG NOG (thanks to Sarah!), and sweet rolls (another tradition broken-- normally we have baked apples, but this is Congo). Dad was eating a hard boiled egg and was getting quite frustrated trying to crack it open! He's always funny trying to do his eggs. After breakfast, we opened gifts... and this time mom said we wouldn't try to open in order of age. We would just open one at a time, whatever random order we wanted! But we still pretty much took turns. We don't like opening all of them all at once because it's fun to watch people's reactions. Especially when people are opening a gift you gave! All the stuff my family gave me was really neat, and probably my favorite gift i got was from my mom -- She bought some zebra print material and took it to a purse shop where they made it into a messenger bag for me!! And a matching one for Colleen-- they're fun! Very African :-)
I gave my mom some homemade stationery--like thank-you cards-- and she loved them, but while we were passing them around (after we had just said that they were from when me & my sisters made cards at thanksgiving), my dad saw them and goes "Oh, we're these made by some handicaps?" ahahahaha! We had a good long laugh about that....:-) We decided to have our christmas dinner later, like at 7pm because at 2:00 we were invited to a Christmas caroling slash christmas cookie get together at the #2guy's house in the US Embassy. He and his wife were really friendly, and we sang all the Christmas carols we knew around the piano! It was pretty fun -- then we had cheese and crackers, cookies, cakes.... drinks.... then at home we had to get the food altogether and ate finally a while later. Surprisingly our African turkey was some of the best turkey ever, and although the sweet potatoes i made were a lot dryer than normal, we had most of the same foods we normally have every Christmas.

Christmas flew by and soon it was New Years. On New Years Eve, Theo went to the youth group party to show some support and represent us, and Christiana went out with a few singles. The rest of us went to Elaeis for dinner. I had a tasty Hawaiian chicken salad... but why am I talking about all these details? Not really the point. Yet. We all had good dinners and then headed to this restaurant called Chateau Margot which is known for their amazing desserts. They were booked for a party, but they said "If you don't mind being all by yourselves, we have a private room inside you can eat in!" .... did we mind? NOT AT ALL! So we Took the chance and were shown to this room with a big table and big, nice leather chairs.... pretty blue walls, a few big paintings,...and AC (always a big plus) .... Our server was SUCH a sweet lady. Very polite, you didn't feel awkward while she was in the room because she didn't stare at us... and she was very formal and you knew she had been trained well. We ordered a few coffees, and they came in teeny cups on their own indiv. trays with a very small cake beside. Then we ordered our desserts-- me and mom got Creme Brulee, Dad got some creme filled pastries with ice cream and chocolate sauce, and sarah & colleen got Mousse au Chocolat. They came beautifully displayed.... presentation was gorgeous! ANd they tasted even better than they looked. if that's possible. haha! DELISH.
We got home around 9:30...then watched some Alias, paused it at midnight, broke open some sparkling cider and toasted! Sarah did a little dance... then we went back to Alias, and then bed!
New Years Day we had this Congolese guy pick us up with a mini van to take us to thie place called Gandayala, a picnic spot on a river that flows into/out of (?) the Congo River. The van we squished in smelled of fish because it had been used to transport some people who must have been carrying fish!! Ew... but anyway, about 1.5hrs later we got to the spot and realized my friend Chaima was behind us with her family! WHat a coincidence -- she was picnic-ing there too! ... We planned on staying the night there because my dad thought he had reserved the cabin for the night. When we looked at the cabin, there were only 2 bedrooms, and including the 2 couches downstairs, only 5 beds (just one was a double bed). We had been promised enough for 7 people and it was supposed to cost $50. The guy there wanted $100, and he didn't even have our reservation!! We were fed up, and decided it probably wasn't worth the money so we'd just picnic and have a boat ride! I hung out with Chaima til she had to eat lunch, and then we ordered food from the restaurant. Plantains, chicken, shish-ka-bobs, fries... expensive, but not bad! Then we went on the motor boat -- only our family. It was so neat!! Took a 30min cruise upstream, they let us get out and swim, then we went back.... it was so relaxing and fun! -- And quite beautiful!! And we could actually took pictures, which was GREAT! After the boat ride, we just hung out on the shore and grass, waiting for our ride to come back which wasn't coming til 6... so we had 3 hours. We took naps, played cards, and just talked and it was fun! Very relaxing as i said about the boat...the whole thing was relaxing. Even though there were some pesty people who wanted to sell us wicker furniture or charge us to take a picture of the baby crocodile they were carrying around.... or to play guitar & sing (even though we kept saying PLEASE GO AWAY!!) and get some money from us. That part was just kinda funny! Oh Congo.
On the way home, we sung songs from Disney movies and other musical the whole way back! it was probably pretty annoying for our driver, but great fun for us! What a good New Years Day!! Not much comes close to beating good family time. I loooove my family!!

moving along

First semester done and gone! Wow, that was extreeeeemely fast. I don't think time has ever passed faster! Except maybe when i lived in france... but that's obvious b/c FR was just too amazing. This semester was awesome. I feel like I have pretty much gotten used to college and as long as I work ahead, I'll do great! The past 2 weeks somehow I got ahead in H/w so when exam time came (and i only had 2 written ones), I was pretty free to hang around and didn't stress AT ALL! My 2 written exams were in French (surprisingly not too hard) and Old Testament (also not bad!) .. then i had like 3 papers due for my other 3 classes. --And those were short, easy papers I wrote ahead, so it really was easy when exam time came! I felt bad for those people who had like 4 exams and couldn't start studying because they had papers to write or things to read etc... i think next semester will be much harder with western civ. (history), NEW testament (and i have one of the hardest teachers apparently), Psychology, and Comm., and then the freshmen required class again called "Christianity, Character, & Culture." ...but hopefully it won't be TOO bad for me! I won't have any classes on Tuesdays and only one at 8am on thursdays!!!! pretty stoked about that-- but those will have to be my work days since MWF are gonna be pretty jam-packed.
What keeps me going is having some AWESOME friends, near and far! I just love Gordon. It snowed a lot before I came here and we went sledding on cafeteria trays! It's just fun .... even though it gets cold, you stay inside or bundle up a lot and drink lots of hot chocolate or lattes.... it's lovely!

So I am in Kin now!! Back in Congo...."Home." it was funny telling people I was "just going to Africa" for winter break. And there's a song by Kenny Chesney called "All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan" ... i think i may just get that while i'm here! Planning on doing LOTS of swimming and tennis;-) My flight here was very interesting .... probably one of the worst flights I've ever taken -- it was so long and draining. Surprisingly, I'm not at all jet-lagged, I think I got enough sleep on the plane.
Alrighty, here goes a long detailed story about my flight, whether you wanted it or not!
On Friday morning, I went to the airport at 3:30 am -- my friend Corrie drove me because she lives 20 mins away from the airport, and I had gone to stay at her house on Wed. after my last exam.

So we got to the airport at 4:00 and didn't expect anyone to be there, but ... we were wrong. In the intl. flight line, there were like 30 ppl in front of me and more and more (Mostly Asians, lol) kept coming in. i waited for 45 mins in line, and then went through SECURITY, which was even worse, 30mins waiting time... so then by the time I got to my gate I only had to wait like 5mins before boarding. I flew to Wash. DC, and slept nearly the whole time... At the DC airport, my flight was leaving at 9:30 and I got to the gate at like 8:45 ... I checked in and the people said that Christiana (my sister meeting me) hadn't checked in yet..that was weird because her flight from Nashville was coming in at 11pm on Thursday night ... so she was supposed to be there the night before.... kinda worried me. WHERE COULD SHE BE? So I went and got a little Starbucks -- muffin & cocoa because it would be the last time to do that for a month... haha i'm pathetic. When I got back to the gate, there was my sister, thank goodness!!!! So then I sat down with her, ready for story time. haha
Her flight had been cancelled to DC last night, and the only way to get up to DC was to take a flight to Baltimore (she had to buy a new ticket), and then these people our uncle knew picked her up and drove her in the morning to the airport in DC. It was a messy, long, involved story, so I won't get into all of it, but she was quite flustered!! Her luggage had also broken open on the way from Nashville to Baltimore so she had to go to walmart and buy a new trunk!! it was just crazy. But we met up and got on our flight to Ethiopia. Christiana had a really big rolling "carry-on" so we pushed as hard as we could to squeeze it into the overhead bin... buuuuut we couldn't do it, even with a guy's help. So i told her to just check it below. Right after the flight I was thinking that they would put it on the ramp that goes into the airport right outside the plane so we could get it in Ethiopia and get on our flight to Kinshasa. I didn't think about the fact that we were on Ethiopian airlines and they might check it and you would have to pick it up in baggage claim in Ethiopia!!! ... Anywho, wasn't worried about that at the time. SO we boarded and we didnt have seats together but my seat was in the very front of economy so i was like, "well whoever's sitting with you won't mind switching and going to sit where i'm supposed to sit b/c it's closer to the front!" Or so i thought. I sat down by Christiana and when the guy who had that seat came, i told him the deal and he was like, "well let me go check it out." he came back and said that someone was sitting in my seat, so he made me move. I went back up front and the flight attendant asked me if i minded sitting in the middle exit row (this was a big plane -- 3 rows across) ... i was like "of course not!! yay for leg room!!" and settled in. -- In between a lady in her upper 40's and an Ethiopian, also middle aged. The Ethiopian couldn't keep still and kept getting out of her seat and talking to flight attendants in her language... which was fine but this cute girl that was sitting behind us who was friends with the Ethiopian kept coming up and sitting by me. While i was watching the movie she kept wanting me to change the channel or find it on her tv (we had our own little screens) and kept turning up my volume til it was making my ears bleed. lol ... she was adorable, but loud behind me! and whenever i tried to lie my seat back she would go "HEY -- I'm not going to sleep! Move your chair!" but i got away with it for a little bit at least.... I slept a while, watched movies for a while, slept,... read a tiny bit, just did anything i could to pass time. Longest flight of my life. We stopped over in Rome after 8 hrs to refuel and i was so bummed they wouldn't let us off the plane. We had to sit there for like 2 hrs, saw some Italian trash guys get on the plane to collect trash, and heard them speaking some italian....:-) i had to pretty much stay in my seat the whole time. miserable. We were served 3 or 4 meals and they were just horrible. worst airplane food ever. it was like fake, and made me feel sick so i didn't want to eat anything. My stomach kept hurting on and off, and the food they kept bringing out was disgusting. Finally we got off the ground again and flew for 7 or 8 more hours to Ethiopia. I tried to sleep a lot, and watched another movie, but the only good movie was No Reservations which i loved!
Finally we got to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It looked exactly like the Kenyan airport -- looked pretty new, but very empty and big. The first thing i realized was our flight was an hour late so we had 10 mins before our flight to Kin was supposed board!!! I got out of the plane and waited for C. Then i realized we had to find her bag because it wasn't sitting on the "gangplank" outside the plane! oh noes!! It was going to baggage claim! So as soon as C got outta the plane, we ran down to baggage claim, which was on the OTHER side of customs. What were we going to do? we didn't need to go to customs b/c we weren't staying-plus there was a long line!! We talked to a guy who worked there and were like "we need to get a bag and get on a connecting flight but we shouldn't have to go through customs!" he tried to be helpful and was like "Oh, fine! Just pass through!" Just pass through? Does that mean go through the line and talk to the customs officials or... just "pass through" like in between the counters and just run through and ignore the ppl in line and behind the counter? wouldn't we get stopped?? WELL ... We ran for it because we had a flight to catch!!

... Got to the baggage claim carousel and no bags were out yet (obviously ... u know how long it normally takes... and we were in AFRICA!) .. i was like "umm... C??? what are we gonna do??? We have to find someone and tell them to just send our bag onto Kin>" and she was like "yahhh ... oh noooo i'm sooo sorrrry!!" i was like "no it's not your fault but we better hurry! our plane leaves in 5mins!!!!!!" it actually was going to leave in like 5. We were so scared. i didn't want to spend a night in E!... we found some ppl standing around and they were NO HELP at all. I prayed for an angel. I didn't know what else we could do. Right then someone paged us in french. "Madames Evangeline et Christiana...ajfkjakjdfka jfkjakfj akfj ajfkd jakdjf kajkd fjakl. Merci." they repeated it 3 or 4 times! I found her (she had run off to find an "info desk" or something ... but there was nothing ANYwhere...) and was like "that's us!! we just have to run!!" and she was like "What?? they did?" i don't know how she hadn't heard our names .. i heard them clear as day. but yeah so we ran upstairs and saw a sign that said "Connecting flights" (thank God for english!) and a man was looking at us (there were only 3 ppl in sight... it was really deserted), Pointing to these 2 other guys who were like "this way!!" and they looked like we should be in a hurry. So we rushed over and followed the people's pointing... got to a security line and we started walking through without putting our bags down. Of course they stopped us cuz our bags had to be x-rayed... then this lady showed up and was like "Are you Evangeline and Christiana? Follow me!" and she was walking really fast, we rushed and told her about our bag and gave her the claim ticket which she took and said she would tell someone and figure it out. So we got on the plane... i think we were the last ones on. We sat on rows across from each other, so that was nice. 5mins later the lady that saved our life came back and handed us the bag ticket and said it had been checked on to congo! So, sighs of relief... then the plane door closed and we just sat there. For what seemed like 3 hours.. but i think it was just 1. I'm not sure what we were waiting for! THey never explained. I sat next to 2 Congolese girls who loved talking and bumping me. while i was sleeping the girl poked me and made me get up so she could get to the bathroom, but other than that it was okay. it seemed like a really long flight but i think it was 4hrs. I watched a bit of Home Alone -- In FRENCH b/c they didn't have it in eng. (it was hilarious!)... and some Everybody loves Ray, which was really dumb. tried sleeping .. they served another awful meal. i still felt pretty miserable. i think i ate 4 bites and threw it out.

The flight attendants were the worst. Really bad service. Even on the flight from DC to ethiopia they seemed in a big hurry to serve the food and give you drinks. Even if you were asleep they would nudge you and rip out your tray so they could throw food at you. And you know when you have to put your seat back upright when you're landing? I saw a congolese man with his head covered in a blanket and he had his seatback, so a flight attendant came to him and ripped the blanket off his head, pushed the botton, and jerked his seat forward while she shouted "put your seats up!" ... it was hilarious but also pretty sad. Such a different culture I guess. They were all Africans... very different! :-) well... we finally landed in Kin.

We got through customs fine, -- didn't have to wait very long -- they didn't even bother asking for our invitation letters ... well on the other side of Customs, I didn't see our protocol man right away, and i was like "well he'll find me... dad told me his name..." so when a guy standing there saw me and asked who was picking me up i said "Mukila Paul" (pretty confidently). And the guy nodded and told this woman to call him! She had his number.... i was like "Oh good yeah this is def the one guy dad wanted to pick us up because everyone knows our protocol man!" well the lady showed me and C a place to sit down away from the chaos and called Paul. She let him talk to me and i was like "i am walt shepard's daughter ... u know him ? ... well i am at the airport..." struggling finding words in french to say to him! and he's like "oui oui, I am coming!" in english. So i was like "YAY ... he knows me he's the guy!" because i was a little nervous i had said the wrong name. My dad had emailed me on wed and told me his name, and i had wrote a note in my phone -- so i looked at my phone. The name was "Papa Maninga." Totally different, but i was thinking ... "hmm ... congolese do have lots of names. it must be the same guy!" so i asked the lady for her phone to call dad. She seemed like a very nice lady and willingly let me use her phone. Dad was like "nooooooooo!!! maninga! i told u in the email!" so i told the lady to quickly call him back and tell him not to come. Right then before i hung up with my dad, Maninga looked at me and smiled. I was like Oh noooooooo.....slash, "so good to see you!!" but i was like "WHAT HAVE I DONE????? poor paul is coming" P.Maninga told me to sit down again and we gave him our baggage claim tickets. we sat for a LONG time just waiting for the carousel to start turning and sending out our luggage. When they started, i went over and stood with M to look for our bags. After a LOOOONG wait, i finally found my 2 bags and one of christiana's ... then finally another one of C's came out, but then we waited and waited and the last bag came out, and it was NOT C's carry on that we had had trouble with in Ethiopia. So we took the bags we had out to the car, and while we walked to M's truck, the lady that let me borrow her phone came up to us and Papa said that she claimed i owed her $5 for a new phone card b/c i used her phone. I go "but i used it for one minute!!" and he goes "tell her thati n french>" so i did, and she widened her eyes in disbelief. Another woman out of no where was like "Une minute??" also in disbelief. I go "OUI!!!" and she imitated me "OUI!!" in an awful voice. Good grief woman!! i didn't give her money... and wasn't about to! but i think Maninga had to give her a few francs to get her to leave us away. She started banging on my window. I wasn't tired until we had landed in Kin. The chaos of the airport was SOOOO bad.... i was sweating so much and getting pushed around a lot. And had made such a dumb mistake. Mukila Paul did show up at the airport, found me, and shook my hand and i had to apologize to him. He talked to Maninga and was wanting an explanation why he wasn't taking me (in the past he had taken dad and my sister to the airport and stuff a while ago) ... maninga explained to him and paul was like "what's walt's number??" so he called my dad! ah i was so embarrassed. he came all the way to the airport for nothing! and then my dad was a little distressed about it..
but urgh . . .. so then we drove home, and it was the longest ride of my life. For half the time Maninga was trying to give us a tour guide in english since C had never been here. .. .but then C fell asleep so then it was me & him and he kept getting phone calls . . . and i didn't feel like talking. there was SO much traffic! i think we got home around 4 after landing at 1. So maybe i exaggerated how long everything took but i really do feel like it was the longest day of my life. So yeah that made it SOOOO GREAT to finally get home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ran inside and hugged everyone. Surprised i didn't melt down and cry. what a wonderful 2 days!
Moral of this story or lesson to be learned?? Don't fly Ethiopian AA if you can help it!!!
But mannn... is it good to be HOME!!! We haven't heard anything about C's luggage but... I've talked to lots of people who recently flew in here and they all lost their luggage but got it back in 2 days. So maybe we will too -- i think it's just because it's christmas. And being Africa might have a little to do with it as well! hehe...
I swam some laps today & ran a teeny bit... I plan on trying to do that every morning at 9. It feels so odd being back here... but it's a GOOD odd. I don't feel like I ever left because so much is the same! We live in a different house -- my parents have a place on the American School campus now, and though it's much smaller than our old house, it's in a more convenient area -- good community, better electricity (meaning it goes off less) and water, etc... and i think it might be cheaper or the same price. Plus, what could be better than having a big pool w/ 2 diving boards and a volleyball & tennis court plus a running path all around you?

SO -- merry Christmas, one and ALL ... I hope you have a GREAT Christmas and NEW YEARS! Happy Holidays, love you all!! Time to hang out with my family again!:-p

hearts

Exaaams are coming. I'm not really ready but thankfully, I only really have 2 finals and then a few final papers!
But with exams coming, that only means Christmas is coming, and lucky me gets to go to Congo for a whole MONTH! God is so awesome. He worked it out so well! I'm realllllly excited to see my fambly again!
This weekend I decided to get off campus and stay 2 nights at my great aunt's house (her place is like 4 mi from campus). I just needed to GET AWAY from it all. There's too much going on at school so it's way too easy to get distracted. Plus, I can never study in my room because my roommate is in there often and my bed is REALLY tempting ... and so is the internet! Yeah so anyway I got away yesterday and last night i was able to write 2 short essays in 2 hours! They were just rough drafts, but it's such a relieving feeling being done with papers for this whole week. Of course I'll have to write the final drafts Next week, but it's a big accomplishment for me;-) I can concentrate so much easier here. I did all my Old Test. assignments for Thursday, and my comm. assignment for tomorrow... i planned on working on french tonight, but found my aunt's giant tv MUCH more interesting.
This week was just extremely hard and stressful so it's good to get away and take a long bath in a jet tub, make chocolate chip cookies, and sit down and watch a movie or 2. This is what I've done the past 2 nights! A few things outside of school have been bugging me and making me even more stressed out. I'm very thankful for these 2 nights away from my dorm room! It really makes a difference being in a different environment. I should do this much more often! My great aunt is gone in FL until Jan., so that's why I really came... but next semester, even when she's here she said I can come over anytime, and I just might be doing that. Especially around exam times.

OK- Now it's 1am and I really should be getting to bed! woooops.
Tonight I'm very happy. I love my life and my awesome friends. Had a beyond wonderful phone convo with one friend last night and it just made me really happy--and i will stay happy for a long time!
i'm so random. this needs to end now!

college life at gordash

I am loving it here. I have 4 people that I hang out with constantly, and a bunch of other friends that have their own friends but are friends with me. It's hard to explain, but everyone is in their own little groups. I thought cliques were a highschool thing, but definitely not. Cliques are around the rest of your life I kinda think. It's fine because these 4 people are amazing and we're all really close! Becky, Kate, Andy, and Frank are the ones that I always hang with. Becky and Kate and I are like the same people in different bodies. We think alike and act alike and ... sometimes that can be skary?! :-) It's a blast being around them. And we're so close that we can sit and not say anything but it isn't awkward. I love that when you are so comfortable around people that you can be comfortable in silence. Silence can be voonderful at times.
Gordon is a little different than I expected. I'm not sure what I expected it to be like, but i have made friends very easily and at the beginning I was a little worried because I was hanging out with my friends all the time, and I wondered when I would ever have time to study. i wondered if people ever DO study in college. But now people do. It just took a while for people to start. My get-it-done quickly as soon as i can attitude is still with me. I already have most of my homework for my class on thursday done. I try to get things over with so i'll have time later to chill, but sometimes i try to do way too much and my brain/body can't handle it. College is making me drink more coffee. My body is okay on 7hrs of sleep now (When i used to have to get at least 8 to function well). College is teaching me to LOVE 20 min naps, and i try to fit as many 20min naps into my day! College is about learning how to live with someone you normally wouldn't choose to hang out with. My roommate and I are very different. Let me just say. But I love her. We get along great! So cool how God put them in my life right away! I met them at orientation and we have been inseperable since. They live in a different dorm than me, but we are always in each other's rooms. distance has nothing on us! lol;-) but yeah, they're super amazing girls.

WOW. I have never worked so hard in my life as I have these past 2 weeks. It seemed the work would NEVER end. The first quarter ended 2 weeks ago, along with my least favorit class (philosophy) which i celebrated... but I had to add another class on so now I have 18 credits for this semester. I don't know how some people can do 3hour lab classes. I'm not taking any science or math this year, that would destroy me i think!! I almost lost it on friday and i should've blogged then, because i felt really emo (lol) and i needed to rant. But this works too. I just was disappointed about something and i was REALLY not looking forward to this weekend because i thought i would have to work non-stop. I ended up finishing a major part of it yesterday, though, and finished this morning... so now i don't have much left to do except revise a paper, but i have until wednesday ...!!!

So I kinda thought I loved writing and I kinda thought I was okay at it, ... but apparently not so much? Writing in college is so different --- SO much harder. And I don't enjoy it as much. Which is sad. .. .. .So I was thinking about the whole plan to do journalism deal, and I don't know anymore. I've realized that no one here knows EXACTLY what they want to do when they leave college, though, so i'm not stressing about it. I would LIKE to know or have a plan though! I think PHOTO journalism would be amazing:-) Or like being a tv news anchor person.. .. something like that. News but not the writing part of it? eh, we'll see.

Thanksgiving in a few weeks!! I'm flying to chicago to see my sister Elisabeth. If it all works out, my 2 brothers, my sis Colleen, and maybe my sis Christiana are all gonna try to come too!! So we'll be without our parents, theo, & sarah (sad), but with each other! It'll be fantabulous. And my birthday's in like 2 weeks. happy about that!! but i don't really know what i'll be doing. And it's gonna be super weird without my rents and rest of family.
basically this blog is to say: I'm still alive, healthy and happy ... and having fun. I don't get off of campus near enough because i don't know enough people with cars, and i hate bugging the same 2 people ... so mostly i'm on campus and on weekends it gets a little boring, but it's cool. i'm planning on getting out of here for halloween! We might walk donw the road to a neighborhood and trick-or-treat. Not MIGHT... WE WILL. I'm gonna make it happen, AND me, becky & kate are gonna be PIRATES!!! So stoked. It'll be amazing. I say that a lot. But it really will. And On FRIDAY, andy's parents are brining him a car to use for the wknd so we are going into boston hopefully!!!!!!!! i haven't been there since school started. which is crazy since it's so close.
Gotta run! but i will try to blog more often. this felt good.

anticipation!

So I've been in the States for a while it seems.... Got here June 10 and have been doing nothing but traveling! Phoenix, AZ; San Luis Obispo & Bakersfield, California; NYC; Greenwich, CT; upstate NY--the Adirondacks; Boston, Rockport, Wenham, Beverly, and Magnolia, MA; Greenville, SC; Biloxi & Gulfport, MS; Baton Rouge, LA; Nashville & Murfreesboro, TN;
and now I'm in CT again at my aunt's. Am I tired of traveling yet? YES! I'd like to go back to MA tomorrow and start getting settled where I'm gonna be living the next 4 years... but I have to wait til the 15 or 16th to head up to Mass. I'm gonna need to shop for winter clothes, take some driving lessons, get my wisdom teeth taken out on the 17th, get my eyes checked, and other stuff.
I'll hopefully be getting a job (if it works out) from my great aunt who is 4 miles away from campus and i can't wait for that... I'll probably be doing stuff like yard work, which is great.
I've registered for my classes and it looks like i have to have 16 credit hours for first semester. I'm not exactly happy about that! Seems like a Lot of work and i don't know how i'm gonna do all that studying and still be able to hang out & have fun. --But I'll try to figure it out! It always works out in the end. So far it looks like i'm taking an Old Testament class, a class called Christianity, Character and Culture, a philosophy class, a writing & rhetoric class, and a French class. 5 classes. Hopefully I won't have to have class every day of the week. And I want to be able to take my classes in the morning.
I was told I would be in a triple (2 roommates) at first, but thankfully that got changed! Now I am only sharing with one girl who's from Georgia, and I'm very excited to meet her- -- she seems like she'll be pretty cool! ..... I just want to get it started! I feel like this summer has been dragging on and on... I'm not really sure why. The fun I've had didn't last long enough. Like my week in California and my 3 days in SC--WAY too short! Didn't get to spend near enough time with my friends. --But at least I got to see some of them. It's amazing how much traveling my family has done this summer. Last week we were at my uncle's lake house in TN and all of my brothers and sisters got to come there and at least spend a night. My WHOLE family was only really together for like 4 hours, but I got to spend quite a lot of time with each of them. My neice, Valerie Jane is the CUTEST kid! Loved seeing her... she calls me "Aunt Viva" (she's just learning how to talk, it's so adorable) and knows the names of all my other brothers & sisters too! I don't know how she keeps us all straight. She'll be 2 in another week.

I now know quite a few people going to Gordon since I went on La Vida at the end of June. Met a lot of incoming freshmen who got me even more excited about going to Gordon. I really feel like it's the right place for me to go. It's a gorgeous campus, has a great history, is in a nice part of MA, 10 mins from the beach (i know, it'll be FRIGID, but who cares...it's cool to say i'll be so close!), there are loads of ppl who told me they love it... i have relatives very close by... I'M EXCITED and I THINK I'M READY! Bring it!

Only 10 more days before I get to move into my dorm!!!!

pictures from la vida

us (Canoe group 1, aka "french toast" at base camp)

Me with Amanda at the top of the big mtn we hiked (above L)

the 3 guys of our group (below)

Me and the sunset at one of our campsites>

Owl's Head where we rockclimbed


Canoeing Saranac Lake

Owl's Head (below)
The college groups that went on La Vida trips (below L) and my group (R)

La Vida continued!

I sat by this girl who turned out to also be a Gordon freshman (most of us were), and we conversated a while, but it was really hard for me to keep the convo going. She was pretty closed up... so after a while i kinda gave up and realized she was gonna sleep anyway. I sat there pretty much in silence for most of the ride, and fell asleep myself. We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread Co. and continued the long but beautiful (very scenic) trip. I was thinking the whole ride "what am i getting into? is this really what i want to do?" but i told myself it would be fun and i would be fine, and we arrived at Base Camp in upstate NY, right in the Adirondacks. And if you know where that is, we were around Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. There were a few people already at base camp because they got dropped off by their parents there, and so we all got out of the buses, put our stuff in a pile, used the out houses if we needed to (that was the first sign that things were gonna be pretty rustic for 12 days. Port-a-Pottys.) and got in a group circle. We played this interesting "ride the fatty llama" game and a few other crazy games and then were separated into our different "Patrols." There were 3 mountain patrols, and 2 canoeing patrols. I had signed up for kayaking but they couldn't get permits for us so we became a canoe patrol. Which was fine even though i was bummed at first... i'd never tried to canoe really. I was placed in a group of 8 others, plus our 2 leaders, Tricia (a will-be junior @ gordon) & Lydia (a will-be sophomore). All of us were incoming freshmen in the group except Alison, who's transferring so she'll be a sophie. We had 3 guys: Daniel, Matt and Christian; and 6 girls: Alison (who i'll call Aly), Denise, Kaitlin, Jessica, Amanda, + me.
All the groups broke off and played different get to know you games. Our first game was a way to get to know each other's names, which helped me a lot since i am so awful at remembering names! Then we had dinner--spaghetti, salad, oreos... and had i known that this would be our last BIG meal, i would have eaten a lot more! I tried to get to know everyone in the group, but everyone seemed pretty closed off and reclusive. I tried to stay positive though, and we shared what we were each excited for or nervous about. We all got out our stuff, had it inspected, realized we had probably brought too much so we went through it and left a lot behind. Then we got our gear like sleeping bags, ground tarp, solo tarp (just a 1person tarp you hang from 4 trees), a sleeping mat, and rain jackets. No pillows, so we kinda balled up clothing and used that which worked fine. This was my 2nd sign that things were going to be a little rougher or just very different than from what i had imagined. Our leaders were extremely particular about the way we packed our packs (we were given "canoe packs" and "day packs") and the stuff we brought. Any watches people had were taken away and our leaders were very clear about leaving soap, shampoo and deo behind. So much for my plan of sneaking it in! Well actually i still brought my clean stuff but did leave my razor. As the days went by though, I realized if i were to put on deo or use soap everyone would notice and i didn't want to be the Only one who smelled good. That wouldn't have really been right. We slept in a tent at Base Camp that first night. The 1st day we had a breakfast of cereal and powdered milk (no one had ever used powdered milk and i am so used to powdered milk it was fine for me!) and I AM BEING TOO DETAILED. Get to the interesting stuff, vange!!!
We played team building games and trust games (i'm not sure if they were games, but whatever). We drove to this spot by the lake and had a picnic lunch. Our first la Vida lunch. Here's where the weird "what am i doing here" feelings REALLY began! Our leaders pulled out crackers from the lunch sack. And peanut butter, jelly, 1 can of tuna, 1 bottle of honey, 1 orange, 1 apple, freako butter (which was what we craved and lived on: peanut butter mixed with m&ms and powdered milk) a block of cheese, & a small roll of pepperoni. We all helped cut each thing up. I was thinking for sure each of us would get our own fruit, but no. The orange and the apple had to be shared by all 11 of us. We cut the cheese and we each were able to get 2 slices. 1 small slice of pepperoni each. And 6 crackers. That was lunch. At first we were all in shock. Crackers? We have to live on crackers? But after we started eating we surprisingly got a little full! Like 6 crackers can be enough to get by with when you pile the crackers with peanut or freako butter! Everyone began doing weird combinations. Like Amanda's favorite combo was pepperoni with honey on a cracker. And she loved tuna and jelly! She called it a jellyfish sandwich. I was kinda grossed out... but it was entertaining i guess! Then there's "the barge" which Amanda and dan tried right away. It's EVERYTHING on one cracker. We all learned the hard way what LNT means. LNT stands for Leave no trace, and our leaders really drilled that into our heads. If we dropped the smallest crumb on the ground, we had to pick it up and eat it. If we dropped a slice of orange and it got covered with dirt, yep, we had to eat that. So we were extra careful eating our crackers because we knew we had to eat anything that dropped. I had some dirt covered noodles one night because they fell out of the pot. Not too tasty! That part of the trip was one of the most annoying. "LNT!" It got old. The next odd thing about eating meals was that we only had 11 bowls to eat from, and 11 bright orange spoons. After every meal we had to lick out our bowls and get all food particles (i know it sounds gross... and it was!) out of them. Every morning and before every dinner when we boiled water for breakfast or supper we would sterilyze the bowls by dipping them in the pot of boiling water. We did the same with the spoons. If you didn't lick out the bowls well, someone else might get your bowl and though it might be sterile, it could have little pieces of food and no one wants that so we all licked our bowls as well as we could! We had to learn a lot on Day 1 and 2. We spend the second night at base camp in a tent too, but on day 3 we left camp and set off for the woods. I still didn't think our group was ever going to open up and i didn't really think i would become friends with any of them.
I think it was the leaders that just didn't let us all connect. It was awkward! They wouldn't open up so we were having trouble opening up i think. Everyone seemed pretty reclusive, but by the 3rd day we were getting much better! The second night in the tent us girls could barely stop talking... i think learning so much info at once and getting used to all the new routines was a little much to begin with so that's why it was so tough to start getting comfortable with everyone in our group. At each campsite we went to we had a special routine. 1st: Find a very tall tree with a thick branch coming out of it at least 50ft in the air or a y-shaped tree so that we could hang a rope over the tree and hang out "Bear bags." Bear bags are canvas bags that we put our food in far away from camp so we wouldn't attract any animals to where we were sleeping. No, we never saw any bears, but we had to be careful. Then we found 4 trees that formed a sort of square on flat ground. Sometimes this was difficult, but we had to keep looking because this was where we would set up our group tarp, which we kept all our packs and gear under. After the group tarp and bear bag was set up, we started cooking because normally we would get to a new campsite around dinner time. Keep in mind we never knew what time it really was because our leaders wouldn't tell us the time of day. Ever. It was part of the camp's theme: "Be here now" <---don't worry what time it is, what you smell like, what you're going to do tomorrow. if we ever asked what's gonna happen next or tomorrow or whatever we would get the answer "you'll see." Sometimes that was frustrating but I guess it made us all really live in the moment and not worry! Every day was a little bit harder. We either canoed longer or hiked more... Our very first day after the team building activities and after our lunch picnic, we took a short hike to the top of a mountain and we found ourselves at a beautiful view of the mountains and a rock climbing spot! We got harnessed up and started climbing. There were 3 climbs: the Corner, the Monkey, and the Chimney. Each was more difficult than the last. Then there was also a rappel on Owl's Head! I was the only one in our group to try (and make it up) all 3! So i felt pretty accomplished. And tired. Yes, i surprised the people in my group. Their first impression of my was that i was a spoiled rich girl with painted nails, a tank top, jeans, a fancy indian purse, and so i shocked many i think when i scrambled to the top of a rock! Pictures to come! I became known as the one to try anything and the first one to volunteer to do the dirty or annoying jobs.

One of the hardest parts of the trip was portaging. Actually, maybe it was the hardest part!! Portaging just is the term for carrying canoes over your head long distances. I tried picking a canoe up but it pushed me to the ground, so I gave up pretty fast. My shoulders didn't like it either, and since i have had a pinched nerve in my right shoulder for several years, I told our Sherpas that I didn't think I should do it. Instead I carried another pack. Our first "portage" was about a mile and a half. I carried my pack (which was way too heavy so I had to set it down several times and break) to our new campsite, and then went back for another pack. I tried to help some people who did carry canoes but i was useless. And felt useless. It was a bad feeling not being able to carry a canoe when a lot of other people are doing it, but i went along for emotional support;-) And it just reminded me: i can't do everything. I can try, but I'm not meant to be superwoman or anything!! As I was walking back with Aly and Kaitlin (they were trying to carry a canoe), 2 boys walked up and offered to help with whatever we were trying to do (i guess they couldn't tell that we were portaging?) ... They were like angels that had dropped from the sky! They picked the canoe up and put it on their shoulders like it was a blowup canoe. Made me angry... but the anger didn't last long -- we were all so thankful! they took it all the way to where we had to put it so we could take it out the next morning and move on to another campsite. The most we stayed in one spot was 2 nights. Normally every night we tried to canoe to another campsite. We had another portage 2 days later and this time i think it was 2 miles. This time I went back and forth about 3 times, and again TRIED to portage but couldn't, so helped out a little and carried 2 packs. I don't know if a canoe would've been any worse for my shoulders than a pack was, but whatever. I made it! Walked a lot of miles. :-( That was a tough day... then canoed a short distance across a lake to a new campsite which was really nice. Very secluded. All the spots we camped at were so rustic! Our leaders were like "it's a treat to get an outhouse or a lean-to because not all places have them..." The lean-to's only had 3 walls, so when we got to a campsite with one we had to use it...which wasn't good because of the mosquito problem. All night you could hear them swarming your face even though we wore bugnets over our heads! And they bit through the nets! I had sooo many bites on my face, it was pretty miserable. There were also loads of no-see-ums, but really, i have never seen so many mosquitoes in my life. And the sound in your ears of them buzzing does not make for a nice peaceful sleep. That's why we always wanted to set up tents! So normally we did have outhouses at the sites. These outhouses were primitive, though. Bring your own TP, and a flashlight of course... and get someone to hold the door shut! ...oh and don't look down or breathe through your nose. Pretty disgusting!! If there wasn't an outhouse, we learned at base camp before we left how to properly poo in the woods. Yes, I know, probably more than you wanted to hear, BUT it was what we went through for 12 days. The shovel's name was "Doug." (actually "Dug," but it became like a real person to some of us so i spell it doug!) Everyone knew when you had to go because you would have to ask "Where's Doug?" We joked around a lot with Dan because he was always somehow needing to use Doug. He went enough for all of us in the group;-) Doug was a silver shovel that folded up... and he was 6in long so you would have to dig a 6in. hole in the ground, do your business, and then cover with dirt and leaves and stick a branch or big stick by the hole so that no one else would go there!! It was all about Leaving no trace....using only 2 squares of TP,...minimizing. ...Yes, i'll stop there. Another difficult part of the trip was when we had to go on Solo. I did not know that we would have to fast on this trip. All i knew about "Solo" was that you would be alone for 1-2 days. Actually, we woke up one morning, didn't eat breakfast, got together in a group and started our silence time with The Lord's Prayer. Then we followed our leaders into the woods and they placed us 150 feet apart. We had room in front of us (facing the lake) and behind us (lots of woods), but we could see in the distance the person next to us. We couldn't talk to each other of course, though, because we were supposed to be alone and in silence for 2 days. 48 hours. We had our water, extra layers of clothes, ground tarp and solo tarp, sleeping bag, mat, Bible, journal, and bugspray. That was basically it. They didn't allow us matches, knives, food or flashlights. It was a time to reflect, pray, meditate, and read the Word in silence and not worrying about anything. I knew it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity probably, because who ever takes 2 days in the wilderness, only themself and God? It was a rare experience which helped me grow a LOT. I got to read so much of the Word and found so much that I never knew was there. I read about 4 books of the Bible and journaled a LOT, and prayed and just sat and thought. Well actually the first thing i did was looked for 4 trees in a squarish formation to hang my tarp. I found them, but after I hung my tarp I realized my ground wasn't so level, so in the night I fell rolled off my mat a few times and slid a bit downhill...but it was the best spot i could find! It started raining soon after we got to our solo spots. We were checked on twice in the day, to get another bottle of water and in case we were dying of starvation. I thought I would because I have never fasted and because I generally have low blood sugar and in the past have gotten awful headaches if i don't eat... but none of that happened! I didn't even feel very weak! I was amazed and it made me realize it's true: All we need is Him-- and we could feast on the Word! Awesome. It rained all day and all through the night. I did not do such a good job of making one side of my tarp lower so it would drain off the water. I really did try, but it just wasn't working, so all through the night I had to wake up and push the top of the tarp up to let the water drain off away from my sleeping bag. The bottom of my s.bag got QUITE wet and wasn't too comfortable to sleep with, but i wasn't freezing cold. I slept with wool socks, a fleece sweatshirt, 2 layers of pants, and i think 2 or 3 other shirts underneath my fleece. In the morning, I was woken up by one of our sherpas, Lydia, and she and Tricia switched off checking 3 times in all that day on me. I stayed fine and drank loads of water... i spent the whole day sitting by the lake on a little bank that had a perfect little seat for me on the dirt. It was actually kinda comfortable! And i just sat there listening to the lapping of the water on the land and listening to the birds and the occasional canoers who paddled by. One group of people in a canoe were passing when i heard them say "Hey, I think I see a bear over there!" they were looking in my direction but they were far off so i wasn't sure if they actually were talking about me. "Is that what that is?? I can't really see too good..." then they continued canoeing away...I burst out laughing. I had my bug net over my head and was in all black so maybe, just maybe they really did think i was a bear!!! That was definitely one of the funniest times of the trip. of course there were more! So I survived the solo... we were picked up the next morning and ended the time of silence with the Lord's Prayer again. Then we got together and shared experiences --Dan had a spider crawl out of his pants one time while he was alone and it scared him to death... no one else had the experience of being called a bear though ...! and ate BREAKFAST!! We had like a lentil & veggie soup/stew and some candy and some no-bake cheesecake! it was great even though it may sound disgusting. Then we got together and shared ACEs (Appreciations, Challenges/Exhortations) of each other. We each sat in "the hot seat" and people told what they appreciated about us and what they challenged us to be or do in the coming year. That was so cool hearing what people thought of me and what i needed to fix or change etc. I think that was one of the best things our group did. I mean besides getting so comfortable with each other that we had a blast!! By day 3 or 4 we were really getting to know each other well and really having fun and joking around. When we got a little reckless in the canoe or dropped a little too much food though, our sherpas didn't always join in the laughter. Which was kinda a shame. We still felt like they were being nazi-ish... We had many funny moments. I don't know which guy came up with it, but one of them started awarding "Bear grill" points (Bear Grill is apparently a crazy steve irwin type outdoor guy on discovery channel... ?) to people who did "wow" things like eat a noodle they dropped that was COVERED in black dirt... which happened to dan a LOT. Poor dan! At every meal he dropped SOMETHING, or had to lick out a really hard to lick out pot! Yes we even had to lick out the pots because even though we had a scrub sponge, we couldn't use it unless we REALLY had to. to clean the pots we normally scrubbed them out ourselves and then they'd get sterilyzed at the next meal when we boiled water...but if we needed to use soap and a scrubber then we had to dig a hole and use a teeny bit of soap and water, scrub and then dump it in the hole. I wasn't sure why they even bothered to pack the scrubber if we couldn't use it all the time. LNT was such a big pain! I kinda became the "Camp Mom" --or that's what matt nicknamed me-- because i enjoyed cooking and tried to do it (or at least be involved) every time! Maybe it's just that i didn't trust everyone else to make us a good meal... no i'm kidding. There was nothing really to the cooking. We just boiled water and sometimes added the dried stuff to it or sometimes just put the dried stuff in our bowls and poured water over it. It was hard getting clean water. We'd fill up the pots and this one day i got really clean water, and was so proud of it because we were having oatmeal and we all dipped into the pot to get some boiling water. Well Dan put the dipper on the ground and picked it up to put it in the pot and got a whole bunch of dirt in the water! We were all like "daaaaaaan!" it was too funny. As i said, he did stuff like that a lot! And they guys were all competing for how many bear grill points they each could get.. I ended the week with about 4 i think! Which was a lot for a girl. ;-) I ate a lot of dirt. But it had to be done. LNT, remember? I learned how to be a pretty neat eater, but sometimes it was just hard! Another LNT thing we had to learn to do was toothbrushing. sounds easy, right? Well since we were at such rustic campsites there were never any sinks (except at base camp). We took our nalgenes, our toothbrushes and paste to the woods and spread out from each other. brushed, and then when we were ready to spit we had to "Broadcast" it. Yeah, I thought it was weird too. it was really odd! Broadcasting is like spraying or spouting your spit in all directions so that it doesnt all fall into one big glob. It kinda gets broadcasted around in little spots on the leaves and bushes. Yes. Like that was safer and better for the plants because it was easier for rain to wash away little drips than big huge puddles of toothpaste spit. RIGHT!I really enjoyed canoeing even though it hurt my shoulder... I put some packs behind me so i could lean back which was much more comfortable! We had 2 person canoes, 5 of them, so one canoe had 3 people and the person in the middle got to "ride duffer" --just sit there! We had 2 small campstoves and 2 nice water pumps which filtered any water so that it became drinkable. We had to pump water nonstop to keep everyone's 2 nalgenes full! But it wasnt a hard thing to do... it just was a slow process. One day we went on a hike that was probably 4-5 miles, very steep! But the view was definitely worth the effort. I will be sure to post pictures of that view because it was breathtaking!! We were SO high up, too!! You could see rivers, lakes, green trees, other mountains, all around for miles. I'm not the biggest fan of long hikes (yes, that was long to me!) but this was worth it, and at the top we read a few scripture passages and had lunch. After solo, on the last day in the woods, we packed up everything and canoed a little ways across the river where a Gordon van was waiting to take us back to base camp. Once there we unpacked our gear, played a few games in a room because it was raining, and then had dinner. Our sherpas had been telling us it would be interesting to see what we would eat for dinner because they always take the leftover food that the groups didn't finish and make something creative with it. We were all not looking forward to that at all... and then we smelled burgers and grilling and got all excited, but Lydia dashed our hopes and said those were just for the leaders. All the groups met back together for prayer and then one of the main La Vida people told us to go line up for hamburgers & hot dogs!! We were so stoked. After about 12 days without any good meat, a hamburger becomes VERY exciting!! There was also potato salad, fruit salad, green salad, chips... i was thinking to myself that the only way it could be better was if they had ice cream for dessert. And whaddaya know but they did bring out ice cream!! It came with whoops and hollers in big buckets.. the leaders brought it in shouting and shoved a handful (they did have gloves on!) into our cups. Cookies and Cream. It was amazing. ;-) Then we all felt slightly sick because we ate WAY too much after coming off a 2 day fast. Not so good! So that was pretty much the highlights of my trip. In lots of detail! I have spent way too long on this blog so i think i'm going to end it here and try to get pictures up soon. Was it worth it? Yes! Would I do it again? Um, I don't know if I would choose to. I'd definitely be interested in running the rocks and ropes courses for a summer but I dont think I could sherpa (do what Lydia & Tricia did). 12 days is just a long time to camp! But I learned a LOT- especially about how important devos are and trusting God in every situation. It was a great trip because I made 3 really good girl friends who are going to be classmates! And meeting so many people who are going to Gordon made me much more excited to go there.

Catching up for the summer

What a summer so far!!!
I am sorry to you all for not keeping up with this, i know i haven't written in a while but ... well i've been traveling a lot!
So you probably realize I graduated a month ago... and that was awesome. What an amazing feeling! i still can't get over the fact that I'm not a highschooler any more, and now when i see some highschoolers i'm like "they're so young! was I that young?!" It's a weird feeling. This week I'm doing drivers ed classes, from 8am-3pm every day and I feel like the oldest in the class. I pretty much am except for this one girl who graduated from a school in Senegal! So i connected to her today and was invited to eat lunch with her and a bunch of other ppl in drivers ed. It was nice to not have to eat alone today. I felt welcomed;-) We took a "mid-term" exam today in class and i got an 88! It was easier than I expected so I'm not sure why i only got an 88 but it's driving school... i really don't care! And this was just a practice for the real thing which is on Friday. But let me back up. I am in Massachusetts right now, in Magnolia/Manchester/Beverly/Gloucester area, if anyone knows where ANY of those towns are! North Shore area of Mass. It's beautiful and I'm at my Grandparents house which overlooks the ocean. I am just some 100 feet away from the rocky shore! And the window i'm looking out of right now is looking at the stormy water. It's so windy today, and pretty cold!
My great aunt lives about 15 minutes down the road, about the same distance from here to my college! Yes, Gordon is where i'll be starting August 23 when I move in. I'm so stoked to start school and i've made some friends and met some other people who go there or are about to start going there now after this La Vida trip i went on last week.
I got out of Congo June 9, exactly a month ago (hard to believe!), and spent a night with my big brother Walter in NYC. Then I flew to Phoenix, AZ the next day, spent a week with a good family friend who got me a little prepared for college -- we went shopping and she taught me some really good things --that was a fun week! Next i flew to San Luis Obispo, CA and stayed a week there and in Bako with good friends from Congo!! It's funny when I tell that to people because when they hear i went to CA they all think i went to see old friends from my childhood... but um, no ... i didn't! I went to the beach a lot, went to my friend's ranch, just had an amazing week which was one of the most fun times i've had in a long time!!! From there I flew to CT, where my aunt lives. I spent the night at her house, got re-aquainted with my young cousins and my kitty Misty who lives with them, and did VBS the next morning with them. I just helped in odd ways and enjoyed myself. Made me realize I like hanging out with little kids now more than i thought! And for some reason, those kids liked me! This one little boy especially .... he didn't wanna be with his leader, he wanted me. haha! i had to laugh. That same afternoon when VBS was over i got on a train and went to Boston, found a cab and went to another train station that took me to Manchester, the area where my mom was. She picked me up and I repacked for La Vida. The next morning my mom dropped me off at the Rec center on Gordon campus which is really nice and pretty brand new... there were all these people standing around 3 vans/buses so i stood there and we finally left after taking role. It was a 6hour trip but it became 8 hours because of all the stops we made. I got on the bus and the driver, Steve, welcomed me and i said people could call me Eva, but he was like "Why? Evangeline's a great name!"
So I made my way to the middle of the bus and sat down.

To be continued!

Turning the sighs into smiles

I can get so easily caught up in myself and what's happening to me that i forget to remember how God has been working this year in me and around me. I can get easily discouraged or stressed and I sometimes don't know what to do... but I know I can just go to Him with my problems, worries, fears...
Take tonight for example. I got home from school discouraged because I found out that my dad and I had miscommunicated about the FAFSA thing (long story but I'll just tell you it has not been submitted and Gordon's deadline for it was March 15!) so I sadly got online and tried applying, and sent our finance manager dude in the states an email with about 50 questions because my dad and I have no idea what our taxes in 2006 were, or our income or whatever!! FAFSA's so annoying! So that was just my first little thing that made me kinda mad. Then around 5:30 I was like "uh oh Nathalie's not gonna come and bring my prom dress to me!" ... my mom said "Don't despair until 10:00, there's still hope!" But she called me at 9 and said that she would have to bring the seamstress tomorrow and hopefully the dress will fit perfectly this time and I can stop worrying about it. I'm sure it will work out.

there's nothing to worry about!
FAFSA, my dress, and everything else on my mind right now ... it's all in God's hands. It will work out in the end, I just have to keep trusting Him!
This place really makes you learn how to do that. Nothing is for certain here. You can't depend on very much. The electricity and car problems are a constant reminder of that! You have to do a lot of praying and trusting, and it's been great for me to learn how to do that!

So as I think about this summer, ... and college ... and not being here next year, and new friends, I'm putting it all in His hands and I'm gonna try not to worry any more about anything.
I have had some awesome weeks recently...all because of friends and people, but school is not yet over. Exams are coming soon, and math is just relentless. It's not getting any easier! Thankfully I pretty much finished my main project for history and english class (a research paper), and that is getting judged next week, so i'm almost on the downhill slide. Prom is this weekend ---I am jumping up and down with excitement, and graduation is June 6th! There's a LOT to look forward to. Especially with this summer! Sometimes I just think "Why Me, God? I don't deserve all this! I don't deserve this kind of life you've given me with these kinds of people you've given me for friends!" But we don't deserve anything and God just gives it to us anyway, blessing upon blessing. That is the kind of God I serve! Yesterday I read something really cool. Here are just a few sentences I wanna share>>and I'll end it here. Because I'm TIRED!

If Jesus has divine power...then He has the supernatural ability to guide me and transform me as I follow Him.
If Jesus personally knows the pain of loss and suffering...then He can comfort and encourage me when things go wrong.
If Jesus loves me as He says... then He has my best interests at heart. That means I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by committing myself to Him.

Fou, fou, FOU!

Last weekend (not last but the week before that) was a lot of fun! First off I went to the adult boot camp and was extremely sore for the week after that... but it was fun anyway! Then I went to the Ivory Market (aka "Thieves Market") with the Cabalkas and Stones! Now the Thieves Market is exactly what the name says. It's downtown where you can find all sorts of interesting African art and artifacts...from paintings to rolls of snakeskin on tables (the market is set up under a roof with rows and rows of long wooden tables). And they got jewelry. Lots of jewelry! A lady visiting the Cabalkas, Paige, got real into the whole shopping thing and found some ivory bracelets she couldn't turn down! Sad, i know. But this is a place that has it all, as i've said. You have to bargain like crazy with the people. You walk past the tables, glance at what they have, and if you see something you like, you pick it up or point to it and ask how much it is. Normally they'll give you an outrageous price, like $20 for a simple hemattite or bead necklace,...or a tiny little wooden animal, and so you offer your price. Paige got good at it, and would always offer only 10% of what they asked for, and normally she came away with a pretty good deal. I was not looking for anything and didn't bring any money anyway, but that didn't mean anything to the guys selling. As soon as they see your face they yell to you. And if you're a woman, they call "Mommy! Mommy!" They automatically assume you don't speak french so they try out some of their broken but communicatable English- "Come! I'll give you best price! Good price madam, come! You like this? Yes? You take madam, name a price-- i give you best price..... For you mommy! for you!...." VERY annoying after a little while, with everyone calling "Mommy! Mommy!" or just "Madam!" ...They are so pushy. You have to hold onto your purse tightly (which is why I didn't bring one) because you can't trust anyone there. If your eyes stay a little too long on one table or if you touch something, the sellers assume you want it and are going to buy it, so when you say "No I don't want it" they won't believe you! One time I picked up something and said how pretty it was and the guy immediately asked, "How much? You name a price."
I said "No, I really don't want it thank you..."
"No I give you best price! Come!"
"But I don't want it and I do not have money!"
"$10? Give good price."
"Mais, je N'AI PAS d'argent!!!" (but i HAVE NO money!!")
And they look at me in bewilderment and ask again how much I'll give them. You'd think that by speaking french to them they'd believe it, but No!
So at that point you know it's time to just walk away. They just don't believe that you don't have money. You're white! Stop LYING! You're rolling in dough! ;-)
It's sad that that's what they think. After about 2 hours (which is way too long to stay in a place like that, but it wasn't bad on saturday, i actually had fun watching Todd and Steve bargaining and talking to the sellers...) we went to lunch at one of the best restaurants (this is where the pictures of us were taken...notice we look very well-fed and happy!), and after lunch we drove to the river. On the way, I started taking pictures out the window (this is when i took the pictures of the taxi and the man with the dozens of eggs on top of his head!). Quickly of course, because I didn't want to be seen. It is still illegal to take pictures here, but I couldn't resist. But still some guys saw me and gave me these crazy "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" looks. When we got stuck in traffic i put the camera away because any one of those guys could have come to our window and tried making us give him money because we weren't supposed to be takin pictures. We passed one building near "Taxi Central" as i call it, and there were a bunch of Mamans there waiting for a taxi. They saw me take a picture and soon had very irritated mad looks on their faces, and some people in our own car were getting nervous about me angering people, so at that, i turned the camera off and sulked. No, just kidding! But i did turn it off. But the day wasn't over yet!
We went to Chez TinTin, a little outdoor "restaurant" where we've gone before to sit facing the river, sipping some drinks, and watching the Congolese swim, boat, and whatever else. Last time we came Shannon was proposed to by a crazy (or just desperate) man! Something always a little crazy happens. This time it was my turn.
followed to watch. Mrs. Cabalka asked me if I thought it would be okay to take pictures, and i thought "sure, why not? there's no one around here watching..." and i grabbed her small digital camera. I followed the guys and took a few pictures of their backs walking toward the river. All of a sudden I hear "Vaaaaaange!!!" (my nicknaTodd and Steve decided it was high time they got into the rapids of the Congo river to see how strong they really were and float down the river just a bit. They took off their shirts and started climbing down the rocks, and Ime, yelled in a desperate tone:-)) and I stop and turn around. Right there is a man dressed in a wanna-be soldier-looking uniform. I looked around for his gun, but he didn’t have one so I stayed calm. I quickly put the camera in my front pocket but I knew he had seen me taking pictures already because of the look on his face. He was trying to be intimidating but I wasn’t going to fall for that. He immediately questioned me in French“What do you think you’re doing? Why were you taking pictures?”“I don’t know, I’m sorry, I stopped.”
“Give me your camera!”“No I won’t give you this!”“Why not?”“Because it’s my camera!”“Eh!” he looks at me, shocked, thinking this girl has no clue. She doesn’t have a better excuse than that?? “Well… then give me your documents of permission.” (Some journalists can get papers from the government granting them permission to take pictures)“I don’t have documents!”“Eh?! Bien, Then give me your camera.”“No, I’m not giving it to you.”“Brazzaville is across the river and pictures are forbidden there, and pictures are forbidden here too.”“umm.. okay… Sorry, I didn’t know that.”“Do you think I’m crazy for asking you this?”“No I don’t. I am the one who is crazy. I’m sorry, but I am finished, I won’t do it again. And I am finished with you.”He gives me a HUH?? look as I walk quickly away. So that was basically our conversation, but it sounded a lot better in French. Especially the ‘do you think I’m crazy’ part! “Non, je suis fou! Et je suis finis avec vous, monsieur!!”I love French sometimes…but man, I know it was all God that kept me from having to give up the camera. I just was thinking, “what can he do to me? He could try to take me away, but Steve and Todd are right nearby and they’re not gonna let anything happen…I have nothing to fear. Plus, I’m bigger than him.” (okay I didn’t really think the last part!!)My heart was beating really really fast as I sat down again at the table with our group. I was so relieved that was over, but I was surprised that it wasn’t harder than it was to tell him off.
So, have I learned my lesson about taking pictures? Um…well…no. Not really!People have told me stories about people getting arrested for taking pics though, so that kinda worries me. I’m going to definitely be more careful, but I’m thanking God that nothing happened.

I now leave you with 2 pictures of the sunset over the Congo River!