Camp

We've had a lot of opportunities to share about our work in Tanzania, but one of my highlights this summer was sharing at Kings Kids Camp near St Louis, MO.  Preparing for this presentation was fun and exciting, and it got me wondering why we don't make all of our presentations so interactive and... well... interesting!!  How do you make linguistics interesting?  You don't talk about it!! Just kidding. :)  It's true that linguistics can be a very dry subject.  If you don't believe me, you should try reading Tim's Master's Thesis!  But somehow, knowing that our audience was 9-13 year-olds forced us to think outside the box!  And I'm glad we did. 

We did a monolingual demonstration where Tim played "Mafuru" the Tanzanian.  I had three translation helpers try to translate what he was saying, illustrating both the need for translators and the difficulties (on an elementary level) that they face.  They loved hearing us talk back and forth in Swahili as I translated for him, and I taught them a few Swahili words along the way.  My favorite part was later hearing that some younger campers debated for quite some time whether or not Tim was actually from Tanzania!!  I guess the blonde hair didn't give him away after all!  We also did a compare/contrast between an Ikizu alphabet chart and the English one... the kids really enjoyed that and were rewarded with candy for each difference they found.  We showed the obligatory maps and even had a video of what it was like to drive on Tanzanian "roads."  And finally we closed with a bit of cultural education-- I gave them all candy and then taught them the word Shikamoo (respectful greetings to elders) and had them present their candy to their counselors as they practiced the greeting.  Tying candy into any experience is sure to help them remember it!

This presentation was especially meaningful to me because I was 10 years old the first year I went to this camp.  Camp was where I first learned that Jesus was more than a character in stories-- that He was real and wanted to be my friend.  I spent three years as a camper and four years as a Jr/Sr counselor until finally I had too many scheduling conflicts between camp and short-term missions trips.  It's only one week in the summer, but somehow those who go to camp keep coming back for more year after year.  This experience was so nostalgic that we're already trying to figure out how to make sure we can be back in time for camp on a furlough-- it would be so special to have all three of us at camp together!

And now a picture... this was my last year at camp as a counselor (1999).  I'm in the back row, second from the left. :)

I only wish I had one from my first year at camp... or maybe I'm glad I don't!

-JLR

Psalm 42

 ¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
   When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
   as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
   under the protection of the Mighty One^[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
   among the festive throng.
 ⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.
 ⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
   therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
   in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
   have swept over me.
 ⁸ By day the LORD directs his love,
   at night his song is with me—
   a prayer to the God of my life.
 ⁹ I say to God my Rock,
   “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
   oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
   as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
 ¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

Eat Your Veggies

I eat several meals a day and spent time considering, planning, preparing, and cooking meals for my family.  Early this year, Tim and I started to change our diet for health reasons related to long-term stress and related hormone imbalances (see this previous post for more info).  In the past couple weeks, we've also been watching a few other new-to-us programs on similar issues:  Food, Inc. (a documentary on where food comes from in the US) and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (a tv show on ABC about changing the way America eats). 

I can't believe how few veggies most Americans eat!  Ok, I can.  I never used to eat veggies myself, unless you counted the pea/corn mixture that would garnish my plate at dinner times throughout my childhood.  But for breakfast?  Or lunch?  No thanks-- I'll stick to my meat/carbs/dairy combinations, thank you very much!  I counted potatoes as my veggies-- mashed, boiled, roasted, or fried.  I wish I could blame this entirely on my parents, but honestly I didn't cook many veggies (other than potatoes) in my first years out of the house, either.  Maybe some frozen corn/peas, some potatoes, or a can of green beans, but not fresh real ingredients.  It's only really in the last few years (probably since moving to TZ in 2007 and not having access to the same foods!) that I've learned to cook and prepare a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.  And it's probably only in the past couple months that I've actually started to enjoy the fruits and veggies more than the processed foods.  Why is that?  My theory is that my body was literally addicted to food-related pleasures-- fats, sugars, refined flours, and a whole host of preservatives and chemicals!  It has taken removing them from my diet to actually see that there are better options.  And now, I'm just starting to really appreciate the whole, real foods for what they are-- high quality fuel for my body! 

I'm thankful for the new USDA Food Guide, which emphasizes filling half your plate at every meal with veggies (and fruit).  According to the CDC via this website, less than 1/3 of adults eat the recommended servings (2 fruit/3 veggies) every day.  Healthy eating takes intentionality.  It is an investment of time and money.  Eating equal amounts of veggies/fruits as carbs/protein really does take discipline and planning.  In addition to getting myself healthy, I also want to be a good example of healthy eating for my daughter.  I want her to grow up with healthy perceptions of food and to learn these healthy-eating principles now rather than having to re-learn them later.  How amazing would that be to grow up with an immune system that's built up by consuming nutrient- and antioxidant-rich foods??  That's an investment!  And if I can get healthier while helping my family grow stronger, then that's a real win-win!

-JLR

Miss Manners

Every generation has trust issues.  Or better yet, the new technologies that create them!

I've been collecting my thoughts for months now and every time I hear of a friend "clearing out their facebook friend list" I think about it again.  It has been the reason why I don't post pictures or stories as often on FB or even my blog... and here's what it boils down to for me at least.  Feel free to chime in if you have other thoughts to add.

• Trust.  If I post something, I'm trusting all those who read/view it to interact with it.  This means leaving a comment or "liking" it or somehow telling me (ie: by email) that you've interacted with my blog/page/wall.  You don't have to comment on or like every picture/post, but occasionally would at least let me know what interests you and who my audience is.
• Give-And-Take.  Getting comments is a bit like having a conversation.  You comment.  I respond.  That's how these internet conversations go.  If I post and you don't comment, then this is a very one-sided (and therefore unhealthy) relationship, isn't it?  Isn't the logical extent of a one-sided relationship stalking or some other dysfunction??
• Balance.  I'm being vulnerable by posting something.  If you read it without responding, there's an imbalance there for sure!  I'm not saying you have to comment on everything, but at least occasionally..
• Manners.  I think it boils down to having good manners and following good etiquette in the facebook/blog realm.  The difficulty (and I understand this!) is that these technologies are still new, so collectively we're still figuring out what's appropriate and what isn't.
• Purpose.  People use facebook and blogs for very different reasons.  Some people use them as a journal and others just to entertain their friends.  These different purposes might lead to different expectations on interactions.  For example, a cooking blog is not personal, so I don't feel the need to comment on it from time to time unless I make one of the recipes and want to communicate my praise.  But for those of us who bare our soul from time to time in the public forum, we perhaps have different expectations.  (by the way, baring one's soul is a generational thing to some extent at least.  I can't imagine someone in my parents' generation wrestling with a spiritual or emotional issue publicly!)

Almost a year ago I added a Feedjit module on the right side of my blog.  It tracks the location of everyone who reads my blog.  Thanks to having friends around the world, I generally know who has been reading and how often.  I'm starting to feel, though, that this is not enough, so I'm considering a sign-in feature.  Facebook doesn't allow Feedjit-type features, so I'm now considering cutting down my FB friends list to those who actually interact with me.  I have lots of people on there that I never talk to.  Perhaps I'm the only one who really cares about this sort of thing, but I have the feeling I'm not... how do you maintain your privacy without merely keeping all your thoughts out of the blogisphere? 

-JLR

Building a RAFT

If you've been around the world of missions for long, you've probably heard the term RAFT in connection with healthy transitions.  We first heard this term in our orientation and were really able to understand it more in reading Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken, published by Intercultural Press. The book is an amazing resource if you have TCKs and haven't already read and memorized everything in it!

We've been using the RAFT model during this transition.  RAFT stands for:

Reconciliation

Affirmation

Farewells

Think Destination

I can summarize on my own, but since my own copy of TCK is currently packed in a box in our garage awaiting our journey back to Missouri, I will instead point to this great blog from another Member Care worker in Japan who summarizes each step very well.  

As we've been working through RAFT for this transition, I was most confused by the "Think Destination" step.  I understand that we're leaving Canada and that we need to tie up loose ends here.  But it's hard to think about whether we're preparing ourselves for Missouri or for Tanzania.  Will our RAFT last through 3 (or so) months of transitions?  Or do we build two (or more!) different RAFTs?  We've done a bit of both, but I expect that may be more confusing than it needs to be.  Surely this isn't an uncommon thing, so if anyone has any ideas, we're very open to them!  

Maybe I need to develop a HOUSE-BOAT model...

-JLR