We have made it to New Zealand safe and sound!
Our last few days in New Caledonia were busy and wonderful. On Wednesday we had another afterschool program that was messy but a lot of fun. On Thursday we helped out with a Womens appreciation night for some very hardworking New Caledonian women. They graciously let us apply yogurt facials that we concocted ourselves to their faces, and scandalously bright nail polish to their fingers and toes. We celebrated our womanhood by telling stories, eating massive amounts of pizza and chips, and watching The Devil Wears Prada in french. It was delightful. Angela and I busily tried to fit in as much as we could before leaving la Nouvelle Caledonie. We visited the cathedral and parks one last time, said goodbye to some friends we had made in the market and on the street, went to the aquarium and a musuem, ate our last ham baguettes, and spent time with our lovely church members.
On friday we were planning on holding a Family Fun night. We prepared to teach them some games like pictionary, scattegories, and charades and saw it as our chance to give back to this community that has so generoulsy loved and cared for us over the past few weeks. We shared short (tearful) speeches about how much they meant to us and how we loved and would miss them. Just as we thought we were sharing with them, they unbelievably shared with us. One by one, members of the congregation in the tahitian tradition of saying Bon Voyage brought shells up and draped them around our necks, kissing us on the cheeks for one last time. Angela and I could not contain our emotion as they layered us with shells, pearls, sarongs, shirts, dresses, and bags to remember them by. We wish we could have given them more in return, but they will always be remembered and loved in our hearts. We both feel truly blessed to have had this experience with such truly beautiful people.
Now we are in New Zealand! While very grateful to speak English with everyone we meet, we also have fallen in love with the warm and friendly nature of the people, the landscape, and the food. It is cold outside (it is there winter here!) But we have a warm and cozy cottage (complete with electric blankets) and a warm and cozy family to live with. Howard and Pam are absolutely wonderful and we are enjoying there company immensely. We are filling our short time in New Zealand up with seeing some of the sites of Auckland, visiting different church members, scrubbing down the sanctuary, helping to clean up the campgrounds, going to a meet and greet party, preparing some creative sunday school materials, and writing an article for their newsletter. We are also learning a lot about Maori culture, and picking up some colloquial sayings:
It is cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey
pinched-steal
shouting at us-paying for us
good on ya-very well done
blimey-goodness me
winter woolies- warm coats
Each person we have met here has been so friendly, warm, and accepting and Angela and I absolutey love it here just as we have loved every other place we have been priviliged enough to visit!
Tootles.
-Brittany and Angela
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Bonjour de la Nouvelle Caledonie
We have had an incredible (incroyable) past week in New Caledonia. During the work week we were kept busy by preparing for a wedding that was to be held at the Magenta church. We scrubbed, swept, and decorated the sanctuary until it was spotless and beautiful for a traditional Tahitian wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. The bride and groom were completely in love and everyone in the room could tell. Brittany sang a song in French and one in Tahitian for the service. Afterwords, we attended the largest wedding reception either one of us have ever been to. Around 400 people piled into the polenysian cultural center of Noumea in their finest island garments to eat, dance, and be merry. We feasted, laughed, danced with some very nice New Caledonian men and energetic children, and ate a slice of cake from a wedding cake that was about as tall as both our heights combined.
Our fifth of July (which was the fourth of July in America) was possibly one of the most wonderful days from our trip so far. We started out by going to a more rural Caledonian congregation that met in a house, called Immanuel. We were slightly terrified as we were going without a translator and had heard some slightly sketchy stuff about the area. However, we were pleasantly surprised when an array of all different people from different walks of life arrived and welcomed us with accepting and loving arms. The entire congregation was wearing blue tradition garments as a symbol of peace and welcoming for us. The service was lovely. We both shared short testimonies, Angela said a beautiful prayer, and Brittany served her first communion which was made up of grape punch and chocolate chip cookies, which seemed perfectly fitting.
After the service, we were blessed to see some local Melenysian dances, as well as some Tahitian dances and we listened to some of there songs in their local dialects. At the end of the service a group of young people with blue robes and face paint performed a traditional welcoming dance from the local culture. During the middle of the dance, two boys surprised us by pulling us out of our chairs, wrapped colorful sarongs around our waists and handed us palm leaf pom poms and sent us to the front to perform that very dance for the congregation. We went crazy and danced our hearts out, laughing the whole time. They prepared a marvellous feast for of us of roasted deer, noodles, rice, chicken, and baguettes. We ate and talked with them for hours, soaking up every moment. We both felt so blissfully happy that we could hardly keep from moving, and so we danced with some of the older women right until we had to leave. It was the most amazing experience and we were both completely overwhelmed with the spirit of joy, love, and acceptance.
Earlier in the week we were feeling slightly homesick and decided to celebrate our Fourth of July American style at McDonalds. Our boss, Kareva asked to join us, which we were grateful for. To our surprise, when we arrived at McDonalds, over 30 of our New Caledonian church members and friends were there to help us celebrate our Independence day. Some of them were even sporting Barack Obama t-shirts! Angela gave a small speech in french thanking everyone who came and how we felt like we had family with us on this important day. We chowed down on cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, fries, and cokes and talked and talked and talked. Finally, we took a group photo with Ronald McDonald, and said our Au Revoirs to everyone before going home for some rest. What a wonderful holiday.
We are both becoming very attached to this beautiful place, its people, culture, and love. It will be very difficult for us to have to say goodbye in a few days but the experiences that are we having here are unforgettable and we are constantly thanking our lucky stars for this summer.
Bonne Journee!
Brittany and Angela
Our fifth of July (which was the fourth of July in America) was possibly one of the most wonderful days from our trip so far. We started out by going to a more rural Caledonian congregation that met in a house, called Immanuel. We were slightly terrified as we were going without a translator and had heard some slightly sketchy stuff about the area. However, we were pleasantly surprised when an array of all different people from different walks of life arrived and welcomed us with accepting and loving arms. The entire congregation was wearing blue tradition garments as a symbol of peace and welcoming for us. The service was lovely. We both shared short testimonies, Angela said a beautiful prayer, and Brittany served her first communion which was made up of grape punch and chocolate chip cookies, which seemed perfectly fitting.
After the service, we were blessed to see some local Melenysian dances, as well as some Tahitian dances and we listened to some of there songs in their local dialects. At the end of the service a group of young people with blue robes and face paint performed a traditional welcoming dance from the local culture. During the middle of the dance, two boys surprised us by pulling us out of our chairs, wrapped colorful sarongs around our waists and handed us palm leaf pom poms and sent us to the front to perform that very dance for the congregation. We went crazy and danced our hearts out, laughing the whole time. They prepared a marvellous feast for of us of roasted deer, noodles, rice, chicken, and baguettes. We ate and talked with them for hours, soaking up every moment. We both felt so blissfully happy that we could hardly keep from moving, and so we danced with some of the older women right until we had to leave. It was the most amazing experience and we were both completely overwhelmed with the spirit of joy, love, and acceptance.
Earlier in the week we were feeling slightly homesick and decided to celebrate our Fourth of July American style at McDonalds. Our boss, Kareva asked to join us, which we were grateful for. To our surprise, when we arrived at McDonalds, over 30 of our New Caledonian church members and friends were there to help us celebrate our Independence day. Some of them were even sporting Barack Obama t-shirts! Angela gave a small speech in french thanking everyone who came and how we felt like we had family with us on this important day. We chowed down on cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, fries, and cokes and talked and talked and talked. Finally, we took a group photo with Ronald McDonald, and said our Au Revoirs to everyone before going home for some rest. What a wonderful holiday.
We are both becoming very attached to this beautiful place, its people, culture, and love. It will be very difficult for us to have to say goodbye in a few days but the experiences that are we having here are unforgettable and we are constantly thanking our lucky stars for this summer.
Bonne Journee!
Brittany and Angela
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sweating in South India...
Hey. It is HOT here. We sweat a lot. I don't really even know where to start on an update. We have been all over the place. In Uthamapalyam, where we spent most of our time, we were both preaching and singing at 1-3 villages every single day for 20 days. We stood on top of a mountain, played with monkeys, went on a boat, ate A LOT of food, saw a lot of people pooping on the side of the road, we peed in the forest, learned some Tamil, took cold bucket showers (which we actually really enjoy), used Eastern style toilets (aka a hole in the ground), visited some tea plantations, saw more monkeys, met amazing people, laughed hysterically with our body guard (the host family's son), and then took a train 13 hours to Prathipadu where we will be spending our last two weeks. It is HOT here. We don't want to sugar coat anything though. We have been having a great time, but everyday have experienced the full range of possible emotions from "I LOVE INDIA!" to "I HATE INDIA. I am not going to make it out alive." haha. And we laugh with each other a lot... over everything... because what else can we do? Here are some "only-in-India-conversations" we have with each other:
Kory: I smell bad, I think I am going to put on bug spray
Katie: I can't tell if this is poop or dirt on my pants. Kory: Just smell it and see
Katie: I would change my clothes, but I am too dirty.
Kory: Please don't leave me here (After our host dad came in while she was sleeping and told me to leave her with them in Uthamapalayam.)
Kory and Katie: Don't leave those out. The monkeys will steal them.
Kory (to the host family): But really, what do you use to wipe? Yea, like your butt.
We have been living the fantasy of five year old girls under our pink princess mosquito net every night. And every day before we leave, we have to monkey proof our room. The family here is actually really worried about the monkeys taking our stuff, but we hope EVERY day when we come back that we will catch some sneaky little monkeys in our room. A cow yelled at us yesterday. And we get stared at... always... everywhere. We can't communicate with anyone except our host family, so all our cell phone issues have made us appreciate American cell phone companies for the first time ever.
Let's see... what else. We see a lot in the villages. We see things that surprise us, make us sad, inspire us. Kory held a baby (for the 2nd time ever!). haha. It has been a HARD trip... and really really good.
We probably should cut this one a bit short. There is plenty more to say, a a ton more stories to tell but thepower randomly goes out so we dont want to lose this post.
ENJOY!
oh yeah to put this in perspective....1 monthin India is like 5 months in America...so we are freakin EXHAUSTED!
Kory: I smell bad, I think I am going to put on bug spray
Katie: I can't tell if this is poop or dirt on my pants. Kory: Just smell it and see
Katie: I would change my clothes, but I am too dirty.
Kory: Please don't leave me here (After our host dad came in while she was sleeping and told me to leave her with them in Uthamapalayam.)
Kory and Katie: Don't leave those out. The monkeys will steal them.
Kory (to the host family): But really, what do you use to wipe? Yea, like your butt.
We have been living the fantasy of five year old girls under our pink princess mosquito net every night. And every day before we leave, we have to monkey proof our room. The family here is actually really worried about the monkeys taking our stuff, but we hope EVERY day when we come back that we will catch some sneaky little monkeys in our room. A cow yelled at us yesterday. And we get stared at... always... everywhere. We can't communicate with anyone except our host family, so all our cell phone issues have made us appreciate American cell phone companies for the first time ever.
Let's see... what else. We see a lot in the villages. We see things that surprise us, make us sad, inspire us. Kory held a baby (for the 2nd time ever!). haha. It has been a HARD trip... and really really good.
We probably should cut this one a bit short. There is plenty more to say, a a ton more stories to tell but thepower randomly goes out so we dont want to lose this post.
ENJOY!
oh yeah to put this in perspective....1 monthin India is like 5 months in America...so we are freakin EXHAUSTED!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Nouvelle Caledonie
Bonjour!
We have been in Noumea for about a week and a half and are now starting to get a full grasp of this very different culture and of these incredibly generous people.
When we are at work, we plan and prepare for different events that we are in charge of. On Wednesday afternoons we run an after school program for local children, we teach Sunday school, give our testimonies at the morning services, plan family fun nights, prepare for a wedding coming up this weekend, are running a women's appreciation night, and we get the opportunity to travel around meeting incredibly families who are overly generous with their food and time. They are patient with our French, and we listen to their life stories which is a wonderful trade off for us.
During our free time we spend a lot of time in the city of Noumea. Everything is super expensive here, so we do the things that are free: go to parks, churches, the beach, and window shop. We love to get baguette sandwiches and eat them in the square and talk to the people who walk by. We also have been going to this beautiful cathedral called St. Joseph's almost every day to meditate and pray and sometimes we attend evening mass. Also in our spare time we are reading Le Petit Prince and Fables from Jean de la Fontaine together to improve our french and to laugh at how witty the stories are. Island life has been treating us well, and while bouts of homesickness come every now and then, we are learning so much and enjoying our time here immensely. The people are so loving and generous we are constantly astounded by the beauty in this place.
Au Revoir,
Brittany and Angela
We have been in Noumea for about a week and a half and are now starting to get a full grasp of this very different culture and of these incredibly generous people.
When we are at work, we plan and prepare for different events that we are in charge of. On Wednesday afternoons we run an after school program for local children, we teach Sunday school, give our testimonies at the morning services, plan family fun nights, prepare for a wedding coming up this weekend, are running a women's appreciation night, and we get the opportunity to travel around meeting incredibly families who are overly generous with their food and time. They are patient with our French, and we listen to their life stories which is a wonderful trade off for us.
During our free time we spend a lot of time in the city of Noumea. Everything is super expensive here, so we do the things that are free: go to parks, churches, the beach, and window shop. We love to get baguette sandwiches and eat them in the square and talk to the people who walk by. We also have been going to this beautiful cathedral called St. Joseph's almost every day to meditate and pray and sometimes we attend evening mass. Also in our spare time we are reading Le Petit Prince and Fables from Jean de la Fontaine together to improve our french and to laugh at how witty the stories are. Island life has been treating us well, and while bouts of homesickness come every now and then, we are learning so much and enjoying our time here immensely. The people are so loving and generous we are constantly astounded by the beauty in this place.
Au Revoir,
Brittany and Angela
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
independence, mo.
Well, I know you’ve all been dying to hear an update from the culturally and geographically exotic country of the United States of America…ha...I figured I might as well.
First of all, I’ve loved reading about all of your adventures! Keep updating…I live vicariously through you.
Things are going really well here! Twice a week, I go to the Outreach International office and help the interns there. Last week, we recorded a film that will show at Spec. It should be REALLY cool J
Things at Hawthorne are awesome. I’m in charge of Thursday night Bible Study for the kids and it’s always an experience. The kids at the Boys and Girls Club are so much fun and, while they keep me busy, they make me laugh like crazy.
I planned a worship service for the Sunday night Hawthorne church and some friends stopped by to help with music…;-) I helped at East 39th Streets VBS a few weeks ago and this week I’m doing music at New Walnut Park’s.
Here are some pictures of the kids from all these different places…
Monday, June 22, 2009
Hawai'i and New Caledonia
We have so much to fill you all in about! Our time in Hawaii was busy but splendid. We spent the week of reunion teaching a class full of adorable and charismatic 4-5 year olds, with some toddlers sneaking in every now and then. Our time with our kids: Kalanikapu, Akoni, David, Arrihau, and Hoakea was memorable to say the very least. Through crafts, stories, games, snack times, and potty breaks we came to love each of these boys. At reunion we also had the opportunity to lead recreation games each day (trainwreck and water balloon fights woohoo!) and helped out in other various aspects of worship and activities. We did not get much sleep, but we met incredible people and experienced incredible things.
Immediately falling reunion we flew to Hilo (which is on the Big Island of Hawai'i). There we led a vacation bible school for kids 7-13 years old that grew with each day as the kids kept inviting their friends. We studied Gifts of Grace, Joy, Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace. Since we had prepared a lot of our classes during Reunion, we had some free time during the day to experience more of the Hilo church and the Island. We climbed a volcano, learned about island cutlure, swam with a sea turtle, visited Kona (as in coffee), saw the different landscapes of the island, went to the planaterium, hiked through the rainforest, washed 300 window panes, visited water falls, and talked to some interesting characters in the farmer's market. We felt really blessed to have met so many compassionate people who were so eager to show us the beauties of their island. We spent a few more hours in Oahu with friends, and had to regrettably say Aloha to Hawai'i.
After a long flight, and multiple layovers we safely arrived in the beautiful country of New Caledonia (Nouvelle Caledonie). Customs, other than some strenuous swine flu testing, was easy. Our host family: Freddie, Patricia, Nana, and Vi have been wonderful and generous. We met withe Coreva, the full time minister here, today (our first day) and she explained to us some of our activities that we will be busy with for our three week stay in New Caledonia. We are preparing the church for a wedding (which Brittany has been asked to sing in!), running sunday school, leading an after school activity for the youth, visiting members in their homes, and helping out at the two congregations on the island. There is a rumor that a Karaoke night is also in store for us... The language barrier has been somewhat difficult, but Angela has been amazing with speaking french to the locals. We were able to visit with a church member today over lunch and had some wonderful discussion about philosophy, politics, and faith. We feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people, and we will post more as our adventures continue!
A Plus Tard (Until later)
Au Revoir.
Angela and Brittany
Immediately falling reunion we flew to Hilo (which is on the Big Island of Hawai'i). There we led a vacation bible school for kids 7-13 years old that grew with each day as the kids kept inviting their friends. We studied Gifts of Grace, Joy, Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace. Since we had prepared a lot of our classes during Reunion, we had some free time during the day to experience more of the Hilo church and the Island. We climbed a volcano, learned about island cutlure, swam with a sea turtle, visited Kona (as in coffee), saw the different landscapes of the island, went to the planaterium, hiked through the rainforest, washed 300 window panes, visited water falls, and talked to some interesting characters in the farmer's market. We felt really blessed to have met so many compassionate people who were so eager to show us the beauties of their island. We spent a few more hours in Oahu with friends, and had to regrettably say Aloha to Hawai'i.
After a long flight, and multiple layovers we safely arrived in the beautiful country of New Caledonia (Nouvelle Caledonie). Customs, other than some strenuous swine flu testing, was easy. Our host family: Freddie, Patricia, Nana, and Vi have been wonderful and generous. We met withe Coreva, the full time minister here, today (our first day) and she explained to us some of our activities that we will be busy with for our three week stay in New Caledonia. We are preparing the church for a wedding (which Brittany has been asked to sing in!), running sunday school, leading an after school activity for the youth, visiting members in their homes, and helping out at the two congregations on the island. There is a rumor that a Karaoke night is also in store for us... The language barrier has been somewhat difficult, but Angela has been amazing with speaking french to the locals. We were able to visit with a church member today over lunch and had some wonderful discussion about philosophy, politics, and faith. We feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people, and we will post more as our adventures continue!
A Plus Tard (Until later)
Au Revoir.
Angela and Brittany
Monday, June 15, 2009
Zambia
We've made it to Chingola! We're now at Catherine's (our host) house and settled. Jac and Sherri left this morning, so we're on our own now. We've been having a great time, and this week we'll start working with the local congregations to find a project to work on, and we'll also be working on surveys of different communities for Jac and Sherri's orphan program. We've been taken as sisters multiple times (twins a couple times). We've been traveling so much this past couple weeks it will be nice to slow down a bit, and have a home base for a while, but we're learning! Not much else to say at this point, we're having picture difficulties, but we'll try to put some up eventually. Hope everyone else is doing well!
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