just a little update-ish-ness

Thursday, March 29, 2007

just a little update-ish-ness Hi friends! I realized that my last blog was a bit of a downer, and although I still get malawied, it's not as bad as it was that week. (Although, last night I did find myself eating a hamburger at a Korean resturant and I think the people at the table next to us said "gracias". Malawi is so random sometimes!) So... the first term (my first term) here is over today. Only 5 more to go! That's right... yesterday I told my students about some changes that are going on in the middle school here, and they becam concerned with who their teacher would be... one student asked if it would be me... I told them yes...and they erupted in cheers!! It had to have been my most incredible moment as a teacher... SOme of them were still confused - "You mean, Ms. Kowalski is gonna stay... and teach us... in 6th grade?!?" "yes!" wow. Anyway, after that we had our class party - such a blast! I'll be postin pix soon - good stuff, let me tell you! But ahh... let's see, what else is going on... I am moving out of the rest home and into a house that just Ari and I will be living in for the rest of this year. Praying that I'll get to live at "the top of the hill" next year, so I can still live close to the Dehnerts!! I'm really looing forward to (hopefully!) a summer in CA (with time in AZ, OR and CO hopefully!! and perhaps a few weeks in FL...) I miss starbucks... I finally have a few friends (sort of) my age around here, and I have a few short trips lined up for spring break, woot woot. But not being at my Aunt's house for Easter will be hard, I think this is the first major holiday that I've missed. (Well, thanksgiving while I was in the Feej, but my fam wasn't even with our extended fam so it only sort of counted.) So ahh... not uch else to say, other than I'm blessed to be here and blessed to know YOU! :) peace out, yo.

malawied

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

malawied allow me to describe my not-favorite part of my life in Malawi to you. It's somethin we've dubbed "being malawied" and it's when things don't work for you just because you live here. The most common examples are the internet (which im so thankful for!) going out temporarily, or, as happened this week, permenantly. You see, all the power outtages we've been having (another example of being malawied) caused the surge protector AND the other important somethingrather to BLOW UP. so, until the parts come from Belgium (ha) it's off to the Korean Garden resturant for us if we want internet. Which is fine, but now my own e-mail account won't work!! This is a case of being malawied CUBED. :) and guess who is learning about patience these days...!?! So if you've e-mailed, I haven't got it. If you've called, ooh yeah, the cell tower BURNED a few weeks back so all of Lilongwe's cell phones are, you know, malawied... it's awesome. To add insult to misery (haha don't worry i'm just being dramatic, it's theraputic for some reason!) the ladies I live with in the old folks home, otherwise known as house#5, know me well enough to know which buttons to push when, and it seems it's Patsy's hobby to push them. cool. She eats my food without asking, and gets of my case for the stuff in the fridge that's not mine. ooh yeah! the fridge! what, malawied?!? yeah. Every time the power goes out... thats right, no bueno for the casserole that Pat's going to eat anyway. in other news, I'm lookin into round trip tickets... why, again?!!? *sigh* ooh yeah I love my students... (dont worry i'm fine, just bummed... e-mails mean so much when you're all so far away and I miss you...maybe it's time for a return to march maddness after all...)

Sapitwa! (and a shout out to my Feej friends!) and a J.O. quote. :)

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Sapitwa! (and a shout out to my Feej friends!) and a J.O. quote. :) My Mulanje is the third highest mountain in Africa, and guess who got to spend some quality time there this weekend?!!? yours truly! Ari and I headed off with the Byerlys for a little bit of March Maddness fun... These highlights will in NO way capture the amaingness of the trip, but hey I've got to try...! 1. Mrs B's directions to get out of Lilongwe "the back way" turned out to be the crazy way!! The guard said "take this road, and go, go, go!" and another guy told us to "follow any car!" yeah that's Malawi for ya! 2. Mulanje is LARGE AND IN CHARGE. 3. Whatever the say, don't drink the water. 4. Ari fell. Often. Good times! 5. Sapitwa means "don't go there" in Chichewa. So we didn't. (rain rain, go away, come again another day!) 6. Never the less, dang it was beautiful there!! (see pix for a glimpse) then think about sunsets there. then think about the full moon there. then think about the face of the mountain glowing in the moonlight all night long. (How did I know it glowed all night long? refer back to #3. awesome.) 7. We didn't need 4 kilos of rice. (translation - my pack never got any lighter. Good thing I "get buff just by lying around" as Joel says, hehe!) 8. 18 hours of hiking = a lot of time to think! (the following is a tribute to my Feej friends!) - WOW do you guys ever stop to think about our trek?!!? Yeah!! Awesome!! Sean and Becca, thanks for all the work you put into that! Friends - thanks for being patient with me when I was not in love with the trek! Sutt - thanks for being a juke box! Karla, thanks for face planting!! Josh - thanks for being a mule, and a really encouraging one at that! Anneliese - thanks for reading the Word with such joy and enthusiasm! Apa, thanks for saving Deanna's life! Deanna, thanks for having long hair! Heidi, thanks for your strength! Charlotte, thanks for your consistency! Romero, thanks for playing trump ten even on the treck! Mo, thanks for rockin it all the time! Kanski duo, thanks for sharing the journey, thanks for kung fu fighting down those slippery slopes! Gus, gus, gus... (Gus needs a myspace!!) Gus, I love you man! Thanks for wearing combat boots and carrying a sele levu everywhere! thanks for jumping off waterfalls! thanks for the paw paw! Tagimoucia, thanks for blooming on our schedule. Hey guys, when do we get to do it again?!!? 9. we kept a captian's log. heck yes! Too bad it's only funny to us... that's OK... (what time is it?!!?) You know, Africa is pretty cool...Yeah, I guess The Big Guy knows whats up...! :) ooh random - found this today: What God does with us while we wait is as important as what it is we are waiting for. It is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. -John Ortberg.

my wednesday / i love shea dehnert. :)

Friday, February 23, 2007

my wednesday / i love shea dehnert. :) I love my students, particurlarly Shea. he rocks. He had heard about my Wednesday, and did all this for me. Know what Shea told his dad that night? "I want to be a man of faith like Jared was." I nearly cried. again. wow.

my wednesday / i love shea dehnert. :)

Friday, February 23, 2007

my wednesday / i love shea dehnert. :) I love my students, particurlarly Shea. he rocks. He had heard about my Wednesday, and did all this for me. Know what Shea told his dad that night? "I want to be a man of faith like Jared was." I nearly cried. again. wow.

Mercy Me

Monday, February 19, 2007

Mercy Me they said that the skies here would remind me of God's glory, and boy do they ever! I think Ari gets sick of hearing me say "wow look at that cloud!" but what can I say - the sky here is huge, the clouds are amazing... I'm teaching my kids to write with "rich words" right now but I can't even think of the right words to describe their glory to you... photos wouldn't even do them justice (the clouds not my kids, haha!) So, that being said, it was another sunny day and there was no way I could stay inside for volleyball, so I found myself walking up and down the hill, wrapped in the glory of the open skies here... thinking about my friend who is on the other side of the clouds right now... I'm super bummed that I didn't bring the video I have, if I had it I would watch it, shed a tear or two, and probably not need to blog this. But it's not with me, and all I have are my memories, my thoughts... good memories, good thoughts... it's hard to be the only one here who knows; I could really use a Hammer or a J or an R or a Ghostrider these days, just for a hug and the comfort hey provide without even trying, just by being themselves and knowing and not needing the explanations and such. anyway, i'm here, 3 years later, and it's good, it's good, it's good... (I love the Dehnerts) I remember protein burgers at newport, the hot sand, the overwhelming beauty of the afternoon. Softball and Dr Pepper; we all sat down! Yosemite, Death Valley, the games, the moonshine. "step on up the microphone" haha. hanging out at the info desk together, or in the library, or in various dorm rooms and apartments. His joy, his smile – everyone remembered his smile! I'm teaching my kids about your "inner character" and his was definitely one of love and warmth, what an example for us all. I'll cry a little, I already have, but there will be joy too… Joy in knowing that we'd still be friends if he were around, that he'd be stoked that I'm here and that I get to go climb a mountain in a few weeks, among other things. Joy in knowing that he'd be right in the middle of doing what he loves, too… last night I was in a conversation with some of the guys here about how great it was to watch people who were really good at their craft, whatever it was. So it would be awesome to see now… alas, he's now climbing Bigger Mountains than I'll probably get to see for a while… (yes, I wonder how much of this is silly clichés that we tell ourselves to make it easier for us to comprehend… bottom line, he's in the midst of Pure Glory right now, and I get glimpses of that glory when the sun sets like it did this evening… and I'm thankful…) Pray special prayers today, my friends… pray special ones for your special ones… Remember that nothing can seperate us from the love of God...

my new friend Dietrich once said...

Sunday, February 04, 2007

my new friend Dietrich once said... Bonhoeffer's Life Together is much better than I anticipated! Here are some nuggets... I was convicted and inspired, maybe you will be too. :) It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians. The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. Christian brotherhood is not an ideal, but a divine reality. Christian brotherhood is a spiritual and not a psychic reality. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. He who loved his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so hones and earnest and sacrificial. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Because…of Jesus Christ… we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship. Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things? Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases. Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it. Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake. Contrary to all my own opinions and convictions, Jesus Christ will tell me what love toward the brethren really is. Because spiritual love soes not desire but rather serves, it lives an enemy as a brother. It originates neither in the brother nor in the enemy but in Christ and his Word. Human love can never understand spiritual love, for spiritual love is from above; it is something completely strange, new, and incomprehensible to all earthly love. I must release the other person from every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love. I must meet him only as the person he already is in Christ's eyes. ...the most direct way to others is always through prayer to Christ… Human love breeds hothouse flowers; spiritual love creates the fruits that will grow healthy in accord with God's good will in the rain and storm and sunshine of God's outdoors. Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another.