Another departure....

So... I will be leaving in eight days... to a place unlike any other I have been to. I am nervous and excited and overwhelmed by the preparation process. There is alot to do right now.

I may not be able to write again for a while, because I am not sure what the schedule and internet cafe options will be like once I am there (sorry faithful followers). But I will fill you in on the most recent news and just hope you don't suffer too much from eager anticipation till my next entry. I am being really sarcastic now given the fact that I think my readership has plummeted recently to just two.

Fun story: here on base they do birthday tables almost every night. They are real fancy, have lots of sweets and snacks, a table cloth, candles, napkins (I've already mentioned that we use our jeans for napkins here right?), cordial (kinda like pop?) and a cake after dinner. Hospo (hospitality crew) does all the set up and preparation and everything. This is all great and exciting except when you don't have a birthday during your stay here and haven't managed (despite all your selfish attempts) to make any friends with birthdays during these months. It's very sad. So my clever friends and I decided to make our own fake birthday table. We put out a sheet as a table cloth, bought our own sweets and cake, made little name tags and used an old board game as a center piece. Instead of setting it up in the center of the room where the birthday tables usually are, we had ours in a random corner. It was quite a hit. We got many confused reactions and quite a few laughs. I love the creativity and randomness of my friends here.

Another fun event: "commissioning night." It's a little ceremony to honor the people that will be leaving for outreach. We had ours this Wednesday. Everyone gets all dolled up (which is a treat in itself) and they say nice things about us and honor us on stage and then we get to eat yummy food after. Mmmm so good. Well, the night was nice enough in itself but the added treat was that I was asked to share something about my experiences in front of the whole base. I was so nervous but it was a real honor. After the ceremony, everyone talked, laughed, danced and took pictures till late. It was an incredibly lovely evening. This pic is from that night- these are my friends Edolbina and Leah. We work together on 'property'/'maintenance' which is non stop hilarious fun.

More exciting news: for teams that only have one staff member, one student is asked to help lead. They asked me. It is a humbling honor as I am younger than some of the people on my team, but I am excited for it as I know it will be an opportunity for lots of growth. Student support leader means I will pray with the staff leader every morning and help lead if the staff member ever gets sick. It is not a huge role- as my friend Ian described it I will be a mechanic making fine tune adjustments to our car (fixing the oil and stuff, making sure we are in unity and encouraged and staying strong). It's going to be a great challenge. I can't wait to be stretched.

I think that is it for now. Sorry to be so brief... and blunt. Until next time, whenever that is!

Nonprofit community living: how to's

I had a realization the other day that my blogs have been very egocentric in nature lately (you're thinking, "Duh, it's a blog,") but I ought to use this resource as a means of sharing and educating people on things pertaining to their lives. I realized I am not just experiencing life in a nonprofit organization but also, double whammy, a very close(literally)-knit community. I feel a great reponsibility to share with you the knowledge that I have been acquiring over the weeks. These helpful tips should come in very handy should you find yourself living in enclosed spaces with a bunch of people who have no money.

Lesson #1:
The first thing that I have learned is that when living in a "nonprofit community" life is like a game of memory. You know that game you played as a kid with the cards that you have to flip over two at a time and try to make pairs? If you can think about the things around you in those terms, all your needs will eventually -after enough flipping- be met. Last week when I was rummaging through the travel mug bin in the kitchen I saw a plunger that goes to a small french press. Interesting but not useful without the container. Then this morning as I was rummaging through my friend's shelf to find her ipod charger (we do a lot of rummaging here, but that is not a lesson- it is just a fact) I saw that she had a small french press with a rusted decrepid plunger. Aha! I remember seeing that card in the kitchen. I went to retrieve the plunger from the kitchen later in the day, brought it back to our dorm to see if it would fit and sure enough it did! Now we have a functioning, rust-free coffee maker. (The best part about this whole story is that I have been praying for and wishing for a french press for the last couple weeks. It all started when I inherited a couple pounds of normal coffee (way better than instant) but had no means by which to prepare it. Determined to consume my favorite means of caffeinating I have been using a tea filter: filling up a mug with grinds and hot water and then transferring, spoon by spoon, the coffee into the tiny tea filter atop another mug and then dumping out the grinds again and again until my grind-free cup was filled. This process took a good ten minutes, which is a lot of time when you only have twenty minutes to get ready.)

Lesson #2:
When Goodwill meets spring cleaning. In the "forprofit individual world" things accumulate until the point that we can't stand the clutter and then we stuff it all in bags and give it to Goodwill/Salvation Army. (Then we buy new stuff, which I have to say strikes me as somewhat counterproductive.) But when living in a "nonprofit community" the need to get rid of stuff generally matches the need to get stuff. It's a beautifully sustainable system of internal supply and demand- make the most of it! We have here a "Salvo" bin- a bin for clothes that we want to give to the Salvation Army. But the funny part is that I don't think any of it really gets to Goodwill- it is snatched up before it can get that far. I myself can boast of scoring two pairs of shorts, four shirts and one skirt from salvo. I haven't spent a penny on clothes (the category of clothes does not include accessories- I am guilty of purchasing a pair of monstrous, multicolored hoop earrings) and yet my wardrobe is constantly mutating. And I have to admit there is a healthy amount of competition among some girls here to see who can get the best stuff from the bin. Whereas in the "forprofit individual world" people boast about how much their things cost, here we boast about how zero it cost. It also becomes a fun game of "who did I see wearing that shirt last week?" a sort of a "connect the dots" until you get to the original owner... unless of course the original owner comes up to you and ruins the excitement by saying "nice shirt- my grandma gave me that last year for Christmas."

Lesson #3:
This may come off as very anti-community and somewhat selfish in nature, but you would do the same thing too: strategic dining. Here there are tables that fit 6 people or 8 people. The tables get roughly the same amount of food, so if you are hungry or if it is a dessert night, your best move is to dine where there are only six people... or lots of babies.

Lesson #4:
Learn to improvise. If all "nonprofit communities" are the same you will find in yours that you never have all the ingredients you need for the cookies you want to make. You probably won't even have all the ingredients for breakfast. When there is cereal you will be out of milk, when there is oatmeal you will be out of brown sugar, when you have jam you will be out of bread. Learn to be innovative. I have found enough ways to comsume cereal without milk to write a recipe book.
You will also probably never have the tools you need. You will learn how to make cement out of sand and how to use a quarter as a screwdriver. Just the other day our work assignment was to paste a poster onto cardboard so it could be hung in an office. We had no normal glue so we improvised- using cement glue- glue that adheres various types of metal and heavy plastics- instead. This had a nasty smelling, mind-altering vapor to it, but it seemed to be doing the job. We came back a half hour later to see if it was sticking, only to find that the glue had completely eaten through the outer edges of the poster. Ah! Not having money enough to replace the poster with a new one we just had to improvise. So we got out the paints to draw a pretty little border around the edges where acidic bubbles had knawed through it. But there were no paint brushes so I improvised by using a stick I found in the yard. In the end I drew a really cool design and the poster looked fabulous. Sadly, it turns out the poster/cardboard combo is too heavy to hang where they wanted it so they will improvise by using it as a floor mat. Obviously improvisation also requires great humility.

Well, I hope these lessons will come in handy for you some day. If I learn anything else I will be sure to pass it on.

Cheers!

Gidgegannup getaway

So I will fill in the details as soon as I can, but for now I am just posting pictures that I took while I have the chance to use my friend's computer. Can't wait till the day I own a laptop.

We went overnight to our friend's house and got to walk around the "bush" the next day. It was such a great little break from the city, the hustle and bustle and the busy school week. We played a bit in her huge backyard and then took a scenic drive in the country, and then up to a nature preserve where we walked, climbed boulders and sat by a beautiful red rock river. Australia is so different from anything else. I have only gotten a tiny tiny taste for it, but I can say it is one cool country!

Outreach Teams and a Bit of Openness

Apologies to the faithful readers who have been devastated by the lack of new editions to this little column I write. Shout outs in particular to Dad, Sara, Suky and Christina (and the other faithful subscribers that I just don't know about!)

The last three weeks have been incredibly busy. I'm not entirely sure why. Partly I was sick. Partly we had several really long application days (the Fridays on which we apply to our lives everything we learned through out the week), and partly because we have been filling up most of our Saturdays with car washes to fundraise money for outreach. And, to be honest, partly because of not knowing what exactly to share on this blogspot. Not because nothing is happening here, but because so much is happening here that I am not sure how to put it into words. I can't possibly capture it all here, even if I tried. So I will just offer a little sampler.

I am starting to delight in the things that used to drive me crazy. I actually made up a song with a friend to the tune of "Isn't it ironic" by Alanis Morissette. We tend to run out of things in really ironic ways. For example, we will have no milk for the longest and then all of a sudden the day we get milk is that day we run out of cereal. Same goes for the brownsugar and the oatmeal, the bread and the jam, etc. etc. This at one point torture is now a source of entertainment.

I am learning to let go of control. I have decided to trust God with my life and let Him decide what is best for me. I don't know what this means for my future, but I know it will be good. Right now, I am considering continuing on with this organization in the future. We will see... more will be revealed.

I am also learning how to love people. I apologize as SOON as I've done something stupid or not very nice. And I am seeing the people around me the way that God made them to be and little glimpses of their futures- the people that they are becoming. It is exciting and immensely fulfilling to love people who are extremely different from you- people who you probably, if you were honest, not be friends with under normal circumstances. And it has been a gift to my soul to love people in the active, selfless way love is always supposed to be. We have talked alot here about how love is usually thought of in terms of a feeling. And it is something we are always trying to get. But we ought to give love. And we ought to remember that love is an action- on behalf of the good of someone else. I realize how selfish I have been in relationships. And I am by no means cured of it, but I am working on it. And it gets easier to love people here as we shed our insecurities, hurts, and pride. People are being transformed around me and it is inspiring. In a strange environment like this one- unfamiliar, far from home, intense- you get a lot of opportunities for growth. You are constantly bombarded with opportunities to choose. Choose to love someone you don't know. Choose to ignore harsh words spoken and return it with a blessing. Choose to look for the good in every situation and give thanks in every circumstance.

My biggest challenge this week was getting our outreach group assignments. They are breaking our school up into four groups for outreach. All four teams will be in the same city in Southeast Asia for the whole three months, but we will be in different regions and will only get to come together once a month. I found out who I will be with, which seven other students and which leader, for three months. To be honest, I was really disappointed. I have made some really close friends and some pretty good friends. None of them is in my group. I was really sad, and felt a fair amount of grief. Sounds dramatic, but it is an unnatural thing to develop intense friendships in close quarters for three months (think about it- I spend almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the girls. Not even most married couples spend that much time together) and then be ripped apart. But I have had, in the last few days, the chance to reflect and pray and I can now say with confidence that I am really excited about my group. I am excited to get to know these people I know nothing about. I am anxious to see these nine different people from seven different nations become a family over the course of eleven weeks.

By the way, I am praying for God to provide $1,300 more dollars for the outreach phase of this adventure. If you pray, please pray!

In the meantime (until the next edition) I will leave you with some random achievements from the last few weeks:
- I have learned how to build a brick wall
- I have learned how to say "how much is that beautiful, wild, crazy, awesome, great monkey? I want to buy it!" in my friend's native tongue
- I have spoken in front of 400 people (shared a little story/testimony in front of the whole base)
- I have been to a photo exhibit held by an organization that seeks to spread awareness about child-trafficking
- I have been in charge of designing and creating a new announcement wall for the school offices
- I have tried what is called a lemon bitters, which is an Australian thing and quite delish
- I have still not seen a kangaroo, an unaccomplishment really
- I have met a woman who was born and raised in Berkeley, California
- I have been the source of envy for many who want my cool camping foldup chair
- I have played a game of volleyball and not left the court pouting, name-calling, or bashing myself up
- I have won a team scrabble game (in which we were behind by over thirty points) with a single letter placed on the board
- I have misspelled the word 'won' by spelling it 'one' on my blog. Don't look for it, you can't see it, I've already deleted it

Thanks for reading, until next time!!

rainy days

I apologize in advance for any incoherence to this entry. I am sick. Just a cold. I've learned through my experiences working with kids that if it's just a cold I have nothing to complain about. So here we go... feigning normalcy.

This week has been one of the best. I am finally getting used to waking up to forty different females' faces. I am finally enjoying the lunacy of frozen milk and exercising at six in the morning.

Boy, it sure rains a lot here. A lot. In fact, it has become my number one source of entertainment. Tuesday night after small group, (one of the leaders and three other girls and myself hang out on Tuesday nights- which has been great fun and very refreshing) the four of us girls started walking back from our leader's house. It had been raining most of the evening but had decided to take a break. Just as soon as we got a block away, it started sprinkling. Sprinkling turned to rain and rain turned to downpour and we were left between a rock and a wet place- we were almost exactly between our starting point and home. No one had an umbrella or rain gear or anything, so we started to run through the middle of the deserted streets. Then simultaneously we all burst out in laughter. I think we realized how ridiculous we looked- I mean, first- we were running (as if we will out run the drops of rain as they fall and escape somehow miraculously dry). Second, we were wearing ridiculous outfits. We had left Janine's house in our slippers and socks & flip flop combos and a straw hat with flowers that we had found on the ground. Truly a sight, if anyone had happened to pass. We dropped off one of the girls where she is staying, took a few pictures and then splashed through every puddle we could as we walked through the alley to our house. The laughter and joy of feeling like a kid again stayed with me for the rest of the week.

The second rain experience I am grateful for this week was a double rainbow. I saw them early Thursday morning just before starting morning chores. They were in the shape of an ark from one spot on the horizon to another. One rainbow was magnificently bright- rainbows here seem to be brighter than ones I've seen elsewhere and they also contain an almost fluorescent pink under the purple. The other rainbow was the exact same shape, above the bright rainbow and a little more faded. I've never seen a sight like this one. It was incredible.

Now, I'm just going to go ahead and be cheezy for a minute. I can't help but take these physical experiences and apply them as a spiritual lesson. There are so many things to complain about here. The living situations, our schedules, etc. are totally out of the ordinary. In fact sometimes I'm surprised to find myself still here. But I know I am here because of what God does. He takes the rain, the gray, the cold, and turns it into a source of laughter, joy, rejuvenation, and beauty. That's a promise.

first encounter with a deadly animal

..or insect rather. It was a beautiful sunny, warm afternoon (one of the best days I've seen yet) and I was peacefully staining the outdoor picnic tables (my work duty project for the day) when I heard a scream.... "hey, Claire, wanna see a cool spider I found?" It was actually more of a loud request than a scream, now that I think about it. I ran over to rescue my co-worker. He lifted up a tarp that was lying on the ground to reveal a big black spider with a red dot on its back. "A black widow!" I gasped. "No, a red back." Yeah, yeah same diff. The point is that these things, although only about the size of a quarter (maybe a bit bigger) can kill you with one bite. And they're everywhere. Okay, they're really not everywhere; I've seen one in three weeks and only because I was working within close proximity to the garden crew. And they don't really kill people anymore, since the invention of modern medicine... but still, it was exhilarating.

Equally exhilerating was the lecture topic this week: how to reconcile a belief in a good God and the existence of so much suffering in the world. Why are people hungry? Why do children get abused? Why do people get cancer? How can a good, omnipotent God allow these things to happen? This has been a particularly relevant question in my life since the passing of one of my best friends, Christelle, and my cousin's husband, Dan. I don't think I can adequately provide an answer in a short blog entry. And the unsatisfying part of it all is that sometimes there is no answer. There will probably never be an answer to the why questions. But there is an answer to the how. As to how can God allow bad stuff to happen, the simplest but most true answer in most cases is: free will. See, we believe that God loves people, all people, and that His greatest desire is that we would love Him. But He cannot make us. Real love involves choice. We cannot be forced to love someone, that is not love. So He gave us choice. We can choose what to eat, what to say, what we believe, what we do. And unfortunately we can choose to do hurtful things. The sad fact is that this world is a big mess of people's choices. Corporations can choose to use slave or child labor. Rulers of nations can choose to deny foreign aid and relief workers into their country after a national disaster. People can choose to pick up a weapon and end someone's life. We choose to lie, cheat, steal, hurt, offend. And each bad choice has a ripple effect on the people around us. Bad choices are also often carried on and repeated from generation to generation. Does this mean He doesn't care? No. He cares deeply. He grieves over the state of the world, just as a parent is sad when his or her child makes mistakes or decisions that hurt himself or others.
See, once you understand that most of the suffering in this world is not caused by Him, you really only have to decide whether you think He is sick and twisted and likes that we make these messes, or that He is really like the Father He says He is and grieves over it. I realized that I used to believe in His goodness but the death of my friend had shaken that faith. The decision to doubt His goodness closed my heart up, building walls that kept out His comfort. This week reopened my eyes to His compassion, to the fact that He feels our pain and sorrow.
Many things, like cancer and tsunamais and the like, are still beyong comprehension. They probably always will be. The fact that the universe is "infinite" and not only that but expanding (into what? is my question) is beyond my comprehension. I don't understand everything, but I choose to believe that when God described Himself as gracious, compassion, slow to anger and rich in love He wasn't lying.

A teardrop on earth
summons
the King of Heaven.
- Charles Swindoll

my mailing address

Just so you all know, if you want to send letters or treats or anything like that, my address is:

P.O. Box 8501
Perth Business Centre
Perth, WA 6849
Australia

(It is NOT expected at all, but stuff from America can be quite good leverage in trying to get favors from people here. Just kidding. Kind of.)

Feel free to send gummy worms, Trident gum (spearmint), reese's pieces and other such health food items. Or, you know, whatever you think you would miss if you lived with a herd of kangaroos. Incidently, kangaroos can be quite aggressive and nasty and they actually box each other while balancing on their tails. True story.