(no subject)
HIIII there. when i read about winter ball i almost felt like crying. aww and the murmur.... *tear* i can't believe i'm missing all these things. Then again, if i hadn't come here, I never would have met the people I have come to love. OH and i never would have gone to Meru on CFS, aka the best trip of my entire life (except for france... maybe).
so, everybody except for the Turkana group left at 9 a.m. on Friday (turkana left early because it's REALLY far away). we were the first (and probably the last) group to go to Meru, so we didn't know what to expect. me, 16 other students and 2 teachers were totally excited. hmm let's see if i can name them all..... Alicia, Ashley, Hyo Jung (HJ), Rebecca Y, Audrey K, Monica, Anne, Jessica, Gelila, Ken, Kanaiya, Henok, Eung Ho, Sung, Preston, Rishan, Mr Neufeld (aka the best teacher at rosslyn period) and Mrs McGavern. anyway, we thought the trip would last 4, maybe 4.5 hours, but we had to wait for the materials we would be using to build this tabernacle for kids who didn't have anywhere to worship, anyway, the materials took an hour to meet us and then we were off to the races! that is, until we got a flat tire and had to stop for a really long time while it was getting fixed. then we got to the "hotel" later than scheduled and when we got to the building site it started raining, so we didn't do what we were supposed to do on the first day. ok, to understand the full CFS mentality, you have to realize that even having the sucky hotel we had was better than everybody else's place. seriously, even though our hotel was infested with locusts and some people had doors that couldn't close and didn't have a Bible or had holes in the ceiling, people at other CFS sites were sleeping on the floor with spiders or something like that. anyway, i don't want to explain the day to day stuff, so i'll just make a list of my favorite things about this CFS:
- playing 21 with the guys at night
- listening to Mr Neufeld tell dirty jokes when we're supposed to be working
- Rishan and Ken's high-pitched screaming after seeing a locust
- Kanaiya's ripped pants after kicking a locust
- being soaked by the waterfall along with Henok, Preston, Ashley, Rishan and Mr Neufeld (one of the best experiences of my life)
- talking to people i don't normally talk to (Henok, Preston, Jess) and having people i regularly talk to (Ashley, Alicia, HJ, Ken)
- working hard on something that actually helps people and feeling like i'm making a difference
- seeing little kids faces after performing a puppet show for them
- the peace and quite of going to somewhere away from the city
- watching the stars with everybody else and seeing a shooting star with HJ and Henok
- seeing everybody else in the high school when we got to Brackenhurst (this conference/retreat center that is my 3rd best place in the world behind Manfuso and my room)
- seeing the generosity of this one couple who took in 11 street kids and feed, clothe and finance these kids who aren't even their own
- hearing gideon's story about his life on the street and realizing that i could never live like that now
- spreading the love of dane cook by carrying harmful if swallowed and making people listen to it on me cd player
and that's all i can think of right now. but seriosly, it was a life changing experience and nothing i know can top it.
so anyway, what's up with you guys? how's life? this week has been hell for me.