Everest
Hi, livejournal readers. It's been awhile.
This is my last quarter in college. The graduating application is in; the major certificate is filed; and the classes are underway. In seven weeks I'll be a college alumna. YIKES.
From March to August two things will be preponderating my time: work and support-raising. I'll be teaching swim lessons and doing other small things on the side just to pay the bills. I don't want to get a JOB-job since I'll be leaving the country in a few months for a year-long STINT (Short Term INTernational) trip in the Middle East. I should be hearing back about my application fairly soon! A few of my school friends are also applying to STINT in Desert Rivers. Our partnership is really taking off; over 20 students from Davis so far have applied to go there for the summer! I'm really excited to do ministry over there, but the months leading up to it are really scary. I've never had to raise that much support before!
I'll start sending out letters and calling people once I get officially accepted, but if you want to join my support team, please let me know! I need:
In addition to school, work, and ministry, I've also started training for an olympic-distance triathlon. My goal is to compete in my first triathlon on March 31st at Cal Poly SLO. I feel okay about the swimming, but everything else is totally foreign to me. I've been training hard, both on my own and with the UCD triathlon team. Biking is the newest for me. That was an unintentional play on words because my bike model is the "Newest."
A Fuji Newest 1.0. My parents paid for it as a Christmas present. I love it so much! Heidi's boyfriend, Bill, got me a bike computer for our secret Santa exchange, so I'm having a lot of fun biking, watching the miles rack up. Biking is hard for me, but I really like it because you can see so much and you can go so fast! It took awhile to be able to drink from my water bottle while I bike or use hand signals, but I feel really confident about that stuff now.
Moving right along to my musings, I've been reading a lot. I just finished Into Thin Air, which is a personal narrative of the Everest Disaster of 1996, when 12 people died. Climbing the mountain sounds hard, yes, but I thought it was WAY harder before I read this book! They have 4 camps between base camp and the summit, and they are real camps with bathrooms and mess halls. Sherpa chefs make hot meals for everyone using the fresh produce brought up daily by yaks. You can bring whatever you want, too. One woman even brought her espresso maker, along with a lot of other unnecessary machines and gadgets, and the sherpas carry it all. In fact, the "solo" climber of that year had hired 18 sherpas to carry all his stuff and guide him! You don't even have to be skilled to climb the mountain-- you just have to have a lot of money. In fact, there's a practice called "short-roping," where a sherpa will actually clip a client's harness to a rope, attach it to himself, and PULL people for hours and hours!!!! All the client has to do is stay upright! Plus, sherpas, guides, and past climbers have fixed ropes and ladders to many of the difficult faces. LADDERS!
I know ascending Everest is a formidable feat. The inclement weather and lack of oxygen make even existing difficult. But I thought it was WAY more treacherous before reading this book about all the lost lives. Ironic, huh?
Well, I'm off to the library to do research for 2 papers. Farewell.
This is my last quarter in college. The graduating application is in; the major certificate is filed; and the classes are underway. In seven weeks I'll be a college alumna. YIKES.
From March to August two things will be preponderating my time: work and support-raising. I'll be teaching swim lessons and doing other small things on the side just to pay the bills. I don't want to get a JOB-job since I'll be leaving the country in a few months for a year-long STINT (Short Term INTernational) trip in the Middle East. I should be hearing back about my application fairly soon! A few of my school friends are also applying to STINT in Desert Rivers. Our partnership is really taking off; over 20 students from Davis so far have applied to go there for the summer! I'm really excited to do ministry over there, but the months leading up to it are really scary. I've never had to raise that much support before!
I'll start sending out letters and calling people once I get officially accepted, but if you want to join my support team, please let me know! I need:
- Financial support (monthly or one-time)
- Prayer
- Contacts. If you know ONE person whom you think would be interested in supporting a missionary, I'd love to get his/her contact info!
In addition to school, work, and ministry, I've also started training for an olympic-distance triathlon. My goal is to compete in my first triathlon on March 31st at Cal Poly SLO. I feel okay about the swimming, but everything else is totally foreign to me. I've been training hard, both on my own and with the UCD triathlon team. Biking is the newest for me. That was an unintentional play on words because my bike model is the "Newest."
A Fuji Newest 1.0. My parents paid for it as a Christmas present. I love it so much! Heidi's boyfriend, Bill, got me a bike computer for our secret Santa exchange, so I'm having a lot of fun biking, watching the miles rack up. Biking is hard for me, but I really like it because you can see so much and you can go so fast! It took awhile to be able to drink from my water bottle while I bike or use hand signals, but I feel really confident about that stuff now.
Moving right along to my musings, I've been reading a lot. I just finished Into Thin Air, which is a personal narrative of the Everest Disaster of 1996, when 12 people died. Climbing the mountain sounds hard, yes, but I thought it was WAY harder before I read this book! They have 4 camps between base camp and the summit, and they are real camps with bathrooms and mess halls. Sherpa chefs make hot meals for everyone using the fresh produce brought up daily by yaks. You can bring whatever you want, too. One woman even brought her espresso maker, along with a lot of other unnecessary machines and gadgets, and the sherpas carry it all. In fact, the "solo" climber of that year had hired 18 sherpas to carry all his stuff and guide him! You don't even have to be skilled to climb the mountain-- you just have to have a lot of money. In fact, there's a practice called "short-roping," where a sherpa will actually clip a client's harness to a rope, attach it to himself, and PULL people for hours and hours!!!! All the client has to do is stay upright! Plus, sherpas, guides, and past climbers have fixed ropes and ladders to many of the difficult faces. LADDERS!
I know ascending Everest is a formidable feat. The inclement weather and lack of oxygen make even existing difficult. But I thought it was WAY more treacherous before reading this book about all the lost lives. Ironic, huh?
Well, I'm off to the library to do research for 2 papers. Farewell.