Six O'clock and a Half

About an hour after I was back at the hotel after my visit with my little Compassion girl, my room phone rang. It was the front desk telling me something about dinner but I really couldn't understand them. So I went down to the desk ... and still couldn't understand them. But they said someone would call me in 5 minutes.

Sure enough, someone did call in 5 minutes. I didn't know who they were and they never said their name. They just kept saying dinner and "six o'clock and a half." Well, I'm always up for a good surprise.

So I come down to the lobby at 6:30 and guess who showed up ... all of the Compassion staff and their families. They took me to a great barbeque type place where you cook your own food at your table. We had a great time in spite of the fact that we couldn't speak each others' languages.

Fern, my Compassion child in Thailand

I just had the most amazing day with little Fern. An entire minibus filled with 9 people showed up at 9:00 this morning. At first I was shaking hands with adults and then they all opened up and there she stood ... not a little girl but a beautiful young woman of 14 years old. I didn't know what to do. I just held her two hands and looked at her and said her name and then we both just fell into a big hug. When we stopped hugging, we were both crying. And her mom was crying as well. It was a beautiful moment.

Off we went to the headquarters and school for younger children. The director of the school was a wonderful lady who showed us the wall of photos of all the children. I had Fern and her younger sister stand by their own photos and took a pic of the pics. The staff and Fern's family and I sang Jesus Loves the Little Children and The Steadfast Love of the Lord Never Changes (they in Thai and I in English) and we prayed together. Then we had a little gift ceremony where I gave the school a map and stickers and candy and then I gave the family and Fern her gifts. They all loved them.

The school had a big bunch of bananas for me. Fern and I pealed a banana each and they had us feed each other like a bride and groom would cake. IT was hilarious. Thankfully one of the staff took on the job of being my photographer with my camera so I have pictures of everything. Then I passed the bananas around and we all ate them.

Next we were off to her home. Wow. I am now SO thankful I have been supporting this poor girl. She lives in a shack on stilts. It's right next to the river and the view is beautiful though. We went into her house and I saw where she and her sister sleep. She showed me all of the letters I had written to her. Years of pictures and letters. There was no furniture in the house. We just sat on the floor. But it was very clean. Just wooden planks nailed together and the air could come right through them.

Then she and her sister took me on this tipsy boat out into the river. The views were amazing. We had a fun time rowing around. Then we came back on shore and the two of us hopped on her bike to go to her old house. This house belongs to her grandmother because their old house across the road got flooded and damaged too much to live in. We all rolled up our pants and sloshed through a very wet path until we got to dry land. Her old house was worse than the new. It really looked like it was about to fall down. But their neighbors had tons of coconut trees. So we cut down two coconuts and drank the milk and ate the meat. So delicious! Such an adventure too!

We had lunch at a riverside restaurant. Great food. then we went to a park that had hot springs and we all tried to put our feet in the water but wow ... it was so hot. My feet still feel hot :)

They had to bring me home at 2 because the school needed the van to take kids home. It was so sad to say goodbye. Fern is a true sweetheart, always looking after me, taking care of me, attentive to her sister and her mother, kindhearted and thoughtful. She wants to be a nurse and I believe she will be. Her mother is very affectionate to her and although she had no money growing up, I know she was well loved. I am so blessed to know her and to be a small part of her life. I know we will both remember this day fondly for the rest of our lives.

I'm home!

Hello Everyone! I'm so sorry that I didn't blog earlier that I'm home in the States. In light of all that is happening in India, many of you were wondering if I made it home safely. I sure did, several days before the terror there started. I know my mom is sure thankful I'm home! :)

India was wonderful. I was in a city called Luck now which is southeast of Delhi. We had an amazing time speaking to so many groups of people and teaching English each afternoon. We talked to over 1300 people throughout the 2 weeks. We were exhausted but so happy to be playing such an integral part of the work there. The Indian team will follow up with all we connected with. We felt like a catalyst to take their ministry to the next level. We sure did attract enough attention. Lucknow has almost no foreigners so my light colored hair made me a celebrity. You know I loved that :)

Here's a picture of my own little class. Yep, even the kids were a part of my class, although the little boy tended to wander around sometimes. He was super smart at English, though, and would grin from ear to ear when I told him, "Good job!" Then he would say, "Tammymam, you told me 14 times today "good job." So cute! The women really wear the sari or punjabi outfits all the time. So they are always so colorful. What I have on in the picture is a punjabi suit. It has pants underneat and is like a long tunic. The saris are 5 meters of cloth wrapped around you just right. The food was delicious. I think they toned down the spices for us. Our team worked well together and it was amazing to see how God had each of us designed for specific roles. My role was to do 3 hours of lesson plans for us each night and then teach the rest of the team the lesson plans and how to teach them each morning. I loved it! We each gave our testimony to hundreds of people. We did those speaking engagements in the mornings and in the evenings, teaching English in the afternoons. Like I said, we were kept busy but we didn't mind at all!

Overall, I had three incredible months of travel and work. I am so thankful that God had His hand upon me and took care of me each step of the way. It is good to be home, but I'm already preparing for my next trip ... to Thailand! More on that to come :)

Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia

I'm afraid I haven't had easy access to a computer for a while. In fact, today and tomorrow are my last days to be near a computer until I get back from India. Let me catch you up on all that's happened since last time I wrote:

Hong Kong was wonderful. There was a big ELIC dinner on Saturday with a record attendance. You know I love talking with strangers so I had a great time!

Then I flew to Singapore. Wow, what a great city. I was on the 19th floor of a hotel right downtown. From my window, I could even see as far as Indonesia! The Indian holiday of Deepavali was in full swing when we got here. This is a picture of some Indian girls who were performing at a high class country club where we were eating dinner (thanks to a generous donor who hosted us).

The ELIC President and his wife and 2 VPs were all in Singapore as well and we crammed in a dozen meetings into about 3 days.

On the last evening they were here, I found myself with some unexpected tears. As I was saying goodbye to my ELIC friends, I was also saying goodbye to my long career with ELIC. Here's a pic of our crew on that last evening ... before the tears :)

The next day I was fine and back to meetings. I wasn't actually officially unemployed until November 1st and I worked right up until the end meeting great people in Singapore.

On November 2nd, my first day of unemployment, I did what anyone would do ... if they could. I took a ferry for about an hour to Indonesia. There I stayed at a resort for 2 nights. Amazing! The ocean was so clear and warm. The food was delicious. And God gave me the best room in the resort with an amazing view of the ocean. It was just what I had hoped it would be. What a great way to usher in a time of unemployment (and thankfully, it was relatively cheap too!)

Now I'm in Singapore for 2 days with old friends from Wheaton. Tomorrow I hop on a plane to India. The time has flown by and I can't believe I've been away from America for well over 2 months.

End of Australia and beginning of Hong Kong

I spent a wonderful week in the Sunshine Coast with Rosemary. We had fun going to a lot of senior activities :) Then she took me to the Newton's in Brisbane. They were a family who volunteered to keep me for a few days while I was in Brisbane. I spoke at their church on Sunday morning. I also went to a "Bush Dance" at their church on Saturday night. Did you know that the Australians say "bush" when we would say "forest" or "wilderness?" I found out that a bush dance is an old fashioned square dance. We had a blast! I have a picture of the family I stayed with but I don't have access to download it on this computer. I'll try to do that later.

They dropped me off at the airport on Sunday. I had a 4:00 flight to Sydney. We were halfway to Sydney when the pilot came on and said there was a storm in Sydney and we would have to turn around and fly back to Brisbane. Once we landed, we were told that our flight had been cancelled and that they would put us up in hotels. But that wouldn't work for me as I had an early morning flight from Sydney to Hong Kong the next morning. When I got off the plane, everyone was gathered around the two agents at our gate. But nobody was talking to the agents at the gate next to us. So I went to them and explained my situation. They looked on the computer and gave me the LAST seat on the 7:00 flight. I then had to run downstairs, pick up my luggage, and run to re-check it in for the new flight. Thankfully it all went well and I made it to Sydney by 10:30 that night. My hotel was within walking distance. Early the next morning I was off to Hong Kong! Whew!

Hong Kong has been wonderful so far. I'm in a guesthouse right in the center of the city. I can go running in the morning along the harbor where I can see the tall buildings and the "Avenue of Stars." I only recognized Bruce Lee :) I can also go running in Kowloon park as long as I dodge the crowds who are doing tai chi. It's a whole new world here and I love it!

Great Barrier Reef

I couldn't come to Australia without seeing the Great Barrier Reef. I needed to fly up to Brisbane for work. From there, during a few days that I had no appointments, I was able to take a Greyhound Bus (yep, they have those here too) for 12 hours up to a city called 1770 which is at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. I sat in the front of the bus so that I could see out the front as well as the side. I asked the bus driver to keep an eye out for kangaroos and other animals and birds and he took me seriously! He would point out wild horses, kangaroos, and all sorts of birds.

The bus dropped me off at a backpacker's hostel. Wow, I felt old among all of these 20-somethings. Did you known that Australia has set up a system where a backpacker can get a year long visa if they will travel around and help at least three months of that year in harvests throughout the country. But for $24 Australian dollars (which is even cheaper when translated to US dollars) a night, I could handle a bunk in a room with several other girls.

I had booked the next day on a boat called the Spirit of 1770. Their shuttle picked me up at 7:30 and by 8:00 about 200 of us were on a great boat for a 90 minute trip to a lagoon/island in the Great Barrier Reef called Lady Musgrave. The boat docked beside a huge pontoon from which we could go snorkeling all day long. But the first thing I did was take a small boat over to the island for an island tour. Lots of birds called Notties (I kept thinking she was saying naughty birds). I also saw sharks and turtles off the shore and through the glass bottom boat.

Once back on the pontoon, I immediately suited up in a full-body wetsuit because ... for the first time in my life ... I was about to go SCUBA DIVING! This boat has a 30 minute introductory dive that I could do without all the classes and certifications. I couldn't believe it! I had always wanted to go scuba diving just once to see what it was like ... and here was a wonderful and cheap way to do just that (about $55 US dollars for the dive). Our instructor taught the 4 of us how to use the regulator and how to clear our mask if water got in while we were at the bottom of the ocean. Then they put a belt of weights around each of us (wow, heavy!) and then the big backpack full of our tank and regulator and other stuff that I didn't even know the names for. We hopped in the water and our instructor slowly brought us down to the bottom, stopping along the way to try to regulate the pressure in our ears. We were all finally at the bottom of the ocean in the Great Barrier Reef!! Somebody pinch me!! We were only about 7 meters down but hey, that's enough for me! We followed our instructor all over the place. Amazing coral and the most unique fish I've ever seen. I bought an underwater camera but don't have those back yet (old fashioned film camera). But here are a few shots of me getting ready to go down. When we returned to the boat, I continued to be amazed at the fish as I went snorkeling. Such a great trip!!

The next day I took the train to Buderim where Rosemary, an ELIC alumna, picked me up. I'll be staying with her for an entire week. She's been great! We've gone for a drive in the hinterland which are the hills behind the coastline. We've eaten fish and chips (french fries) in Maloolooba. I went to her water aerobics class ... what a hoot ... I think I was the youngest person to ever attend. :) Last night we went to the Outback Spectacular which was a dinner show with lots of horses. I learned a lot about Australia's history and enjoyed the great show. Here we are in our Australian cowboy hats called akubras.

Lest you think I'm not working at all, don't you worry, I am :) Today I spoke at 3 different services and also enjoyed being a part of an ESL ministry at the local church.

7th Continent!

Hello from Australia, my 7th continent. I love it so far! I was picked up by my hosts, Warwick and Jessica. They are the coordinators of the Perspectives here. They also are deeply involved in all things "overseas outreach" oriented in Australia and have helped me set up great interviews with folks here. God really does guide each day for me.

On the first day here, I arrived in at 7:00am. They picked me up and Warwick dropped Jessica and I off near Chinatown in Sydney and then went to work. Jessica and I walked through Chinatown to Darling Harbour. Then we walked Queen Victoria Building where I found a great little jacket/dress. But the only purple one was on the dummy, so I started to undress it. Jessica said in a very non-confronting way, "Are you sure you want to undress the dummy?" But me in a very American way didn't catch the clue and just undressed it anyway. The dress fit. The salesperson scolded me but was happier when I actually bought the dress ... for $15. Worth the undressing and scolding! :)

Then we walked to the Rocks where the old convicts used to be housed. Then it was up the Harbor Bridge to see amazing views of the Opera House. Honestly, Sydney is a phenomenally beautiful city with so much water and greenery and nice walking everywhere!

Jessica and I hopped on the train up to the Blue Mountains where they live (about an hour outside of Sydney). Along the way, guess what I saw out the window ... yep ... a kangaroo!!! I'm in Australia now!! :) Their house has a second floor verandah that looks right into the trees (not the trunks of the trees, but the upper portions with all the leaves). Their tree tops are right out of a zoo!! Sulfer Crested Cockatoos, Rainbow Lorikeets, and the King Parrot. Warwick and I actually got the King Parrot to eat out of our hands. As the King Parrot bent into my hand to grab the seed, I could feel the soft feathers of his neck with my fingertips. I was in awe as I thought, this is a wild bird eating out of my hand! I got a pic of Warwick and he tried to get a pic of me but a Cockatoo swooped in right then and off my little King Parrot flew. Here's a shot of Warwick with the same bird.

The next day Warwick and Jessica took me for a long drive through the Blue Mountains. Amazing views from every corner. Here is a picture of my hosts and just to their left are three jutting rocks that are called the Three Sisters. The background is all Blue Mountains. They are called Blue Mountains because all of the Eucalyptus trees emit a bluish oil into the air. Fascinating.

Did I happen to mention that Warwick and Jessica were complete strangers to me? I called Jessica from America to ask if I could visit any Perspectives courses and she invited me to stay with them. They really personify the family of God!