Life in Africa

Life in africa is amazing. Every single day is packed full of life changing experiences. It is kind of hard to take it all in. Why do we have so much when others have so little? I got a quote today. "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." I think that the only reason that we are given so much is so that we can help and uplift others. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others. People are more important than any "thing".

We have been staying in a village and doing different service projects and visiting so many people who have nothing. They eat roots and beans that they grow themselves and gather dirty water so that they can boil it and drink it. Sanitation is very low, and clothing is scarce. Every child has tattered and torn clothes and no shoes. They run up and hold your hands and have the most beautiful bright white smiles. They have so much love to give. I think that we could give a little more love to everyone we see, no matter what the circumstances are. People have nothing, but they share the little that they have. We went to the village where the children all sang to us and we cleared some fields for them and their whole village showed up to recieve classes from some of the volunteers we were with... all on the spot. They made us a meal that we ate with our hands. The people here live to be about 44. They are extremely hard working and incredible.

Today, i went to a orphan babies home in kampala. I stayed and held the babies for a couple of hours. I fell in love with this baby called Cate who would not eat. She was 9 months old, but looked like a premie. She was skin and bones. I was determined to get her to eat, and she managed a half of a bottle. It broke my heart to know that she would probably not make it, and that there are millions of babies just like her who are affected by diseases and more who have no mothers or families. Makes me realize how much i love my family.

We have seen some wonderful and beautiful waterfalls and mountains, and have climbed through the rift valley. I ran a half marathon on the nile where hundreds of ugandans were along the sides of the road cheering me on and keeping me going. For the last 4 miles of the race, i had about 15 little boys running barefoot with me. They would look back and say "you must go faster or that one will catch up." Running a half marathon in africa is a good idea, but not a great idea. It was hot, and rough, but awesome!!

We are now coming on the second phase of the trip. The soccer girls come tomorrow morning and for two weeks, everything will be about them and their experiences. I think that it will be amazing. They are really fun and focused girls.

Best present ever!

For my birthday, I got to share my birthday breakfast that Jill made for me (waffles and icecream) with my twin Daven! We had a great day together, then i drove home with my favorite person, my mom, and when I got home these handsome boys came to my door with balloons and sang me the Mango song! How wonderful!! Then we rode bikes to my favorite frozen yogurt place and I ate mangoes on mine. I have wonderful roommates and friends that I love so much and they left tokens of love in my room for me. Keri and Mike know how cold I get, and how i long for palm trees and sand, so the printed out huge tropical scenes and hung them all over my walls...just what i needed.

Nauvoo

After a long time of no posts, I have decided to start up again. Mostly because of my granny Smith!
I took an impromptu trip to Nauvoo with Jill, and Trevor, and my twin Daven. He is the cutest baby in the whole world. I am serious. I met them in the airport in Des Moines, then we drove to Nauvoo through the prettiest countryside and along the Misipi. I really love the east side of America. It's beautiful! The city of Nauvoo was magical! Especially the new temple. I had an amazing time with the people that I love. The baby was my favorite part though.

Phuket

malaysia

Bali

cambodia

Oh Cambodia. I think this was my favorite place after Thailand. We flew into Siem Reap in the south of Cambodia. This is where the famous Angkor Wat is (on of the 7 wonders of the world). The first day we were there, me and two friends took a tuk tuk around the villages and the countryside of Cambodia. We stopped at markets and met so many wonderful people. The people are so good here, and so beautiful. A group of little kids picked us flowers and gave them to us and practiced their english with us. Cambodia has dusty roads, tons of vintage bicycles, like the kind that people pay lots of money for in the states. Tiny kids will ride huge bikes. Angkor Wat is an ancient temple complex built in the 1200s out of intricately carved stone. It is incredible! Wonderful even! Birds have dropped seeds on the tops of them and trees grew all over them. The biggest Wat has a massive stairway to heaven or Nirvana. A lot of it is damaged because of the wars with the French, Thai, Khmer Rouge, etc. We took a long bus ride through the simple villages to the capitol city Phnom Penh. Cambodia is a war-stricken country that has gone through a terrible genocide. Everyone in the country today has been directly affected by it. The Khmer Rough tortured and killed so many people and destroyed so much of the country. Everywhere we went we saw people with missing limbs, and NGO's set up to rebuild the country. We visited Tonle Sap which is the highschool that the Khmer Rough turned into a torture prison and killed hundreds of thousands of people. There were still bloodstains on the floors. Then we went to the killing fields where they would massacre people and leave the bodies. Every time it rains, teeth and bones and clothing come up from the soil. It was very sobering, but good to learn about how bad things can get with evil leaders.

Vietnam

We flew into Hanoi from Laos. This country is so different! It has french architecture on all the tall skinny colorful buildings. People have shops on the bottom level of the buildings and housing on the top. When we got there, we ate at a really nice restaurant then went to a waterpuppet show. These are unique to Vietnam. Back in the day, the people would do waterpuppet shows out on the rice paddies for entertainment. They are big puppets on bamboo poles that are under the water so it looks like they are dancing on top. So cool! The music here is awesome too. It is high and whiny, and i got a really great instrument. In the morning we went to Ho CHi Minh's maussoleum. This man was and still is so loved by his country. His body is embalmed and preserved in the maussolleum behind glasss. When we walked through, there were guards everywhere with bayonettes and they would make sure that we didn't talk or fold our arms. It was kind of eerie, but kind of cool too. We flew down to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city and went to sites from the American War fought in Vietnam. I didn't know that rubber grew on trees. It does and we saw the plantations. Then we went to the Cu Chi tunnels where a lot of the fighting took place. The vietcong fighters dug 200 km of tunnels. We crawled through some of the tiny tunnels and saw some of their ingenious booby traps. We also went to the war memorial museum. It is interesting to see how the war has changed the lives of the people who live here. Vietnam has a crazy amout of motorbikes! Like millions. THere is always a sea of them on every road, and they are swerving up onto the sidewalks and around objects, and they carry anything on them from cages of full grown pigs, to giant logs, to refrigerators. My favorite thing was to walk across the street into the motorbikes. I just walk out in a steady pace and bikes swerve around me and miss me by a couple of inches. I am invincible!

laos

What a beautiful country. We took a slowboat down the Mekong river for two days and slept in a small village the first night that exists to provide lodging for boat travelers. In the morning, me and a couple girls went for a jog into real Laos and we saw some people fixing the road. Two small girls were hauling the dirt, so we stopped to help. I think the whole village came out to watch the white girls haul dirt. It was great. We stayed two days in Luang Prabang, a beautiful village on the mekong River. We visited a cave on the cliffs of the river that had over 1000 statues of Buddha. In the morning we went to the street and bought a basket of sticky rice to give alms to the monks. They walk down the streets every morning with their bowls, and people put in food, or other offerings. We would put a handful of rice in each monks bowl as he walked by. When you do it, you have to be on your knees lower than the monks. There were about 300 monks. This place is so picturesque. The monks walk around the streets holding umbrellas. Luang Prabang has beautiful torquoise waterfalls. We visited two, one with leeches that ate my ankle blood, and another with bathing elephants. At the Hmong village, there were babies strapped to babies.

Last day of school

We had our last day of teaching at Baan Huuikiang Primary School. One of the saddest days ever! We made a CD for each student with pictures and songs on it, and hired an ice cream man to make as many icecream sandwiches (the real ones) as the kids wanted. The whole school gathered together in the morning and the students sang to us, "thank you ever so much" to the tune of happy birthday. Then every single student came up and gave us a rose, and gifts. I feel so undeserving! Then, we sang the mango song with the whole school. All day long we were showered with hugs and kisses and gifts and letters. Then at lunch, the cooks made our favorite food. I am so sad to leave this school. I love them so much!

eggy hotsprings

Our teachers at the Elementary school took me and Brent to the Hot Springs on sunday. All the teachers came just for us. This place was beautiful, and so nice. There were warm rivers, and geisers, and beautiful gardens. It smells like eggs because of the sulfur, and if it smells like eggs, might as well eat eggs right? In some parts, the water is so hot that it is boiling. I bought a basket of eggs for 60 cents and hung them in the water for 15 minutes. Then we all ate them with soy sauce. This is a genious idea!

Asian babies

I love the little kids I teach so much. They brighten my life so much! This week was the national teacher appreciation day for the teachers, and all the students gathered in the canteen. The teachers were seated on the stage, and there was a buddhist shrine, a Thai flag, and a picture of the king next to them. All the students came up one by one with a bunch of flowers and bowed to the shrine, and the flag, and the king, then to the teachers. We were invited to sit on the stage with the teachers, and all the students bowed with their hands and heads on the ground and gave us the flowers. They are taught to have so much respect for their religion, country, and elders from a very young age. It was an amazing experience, and made me feel a little uncomfortable. They gave us the microphone and we got to tell them thank you and how much we loved them. Then they started singing, "thank you ever so much" to the tune of happy birthday. I cried.

We had special ice cream sandwiches...real ones. White bread, ice cream scoops, jellies, and nuts....genious.

In the Jungle...

We went on an amazing excursion through the Thailand jungle! We all hopped in the back of a pickup truck and rode a couple hours north and started hiking. We had a guide with us, and we hiked through the most amazing jungle and mountains! We hiked through about five different hill tribes and met the different people in them. They sold us some of the handicrafts that they had made. They are really primative, and so nice. The hills were covered in a patchwork quilt of different crops, and I did something i have always dreamed about doing... I hiked through a mango forest!! At the end of our first day of hiking, we met 6 elephants ready for us to ride them. Elephants are such a majestic animal. They are so big and so gentle, and i love them! I got to sit on the very front of the elephant, on it's neck, and ride it like a horse. They are so big that it doesn't even bother them. We rode the elephants into the hilltribe village where we slept for the night. They made us a big feast and a fire, and the children sang around the fire with their bright traditional hilltribe clothing. I brought my uke with me and sang to them. I think they liked it. Something that was super interesting was that there were two albino children in the village. They had all the Asian characteristics, but their skin and hair was white and they had light eyes. After milo and toast the next morning, we set off for some more hiking. When we reached the river, our guide made us some bamboo rafts, and we floated down. By the time we got out of the river, no one was really on the rafts anymore. Ralph (my professor) threw us all in.

A day in the life...

This last sunday, we were invited to attend Longar at the Sihk Temple. I am so impressed by this faith. These people are so wonderful and so kind. They gave us beautiful headscarves to cover our heads, and we sat on the ground with them while they worshipped. Then we ate with them...indian food, it was wonderful, and vegetarian! No mysterious meats. Then they talked with us about their beliefs and their religion. Our professor, Ralph, finally got here, and he has a sweet bike. He let me ride on the back to the top of the mountain where we met the rest of the group for Banana waffles, and more of the temple. I was blessed by a buddist monk who threw water on me...so neat. There is a family in our ward that I have fallen in love with. Brother Dang drives us around on our excursions, and his family comes with. His wife, Thoi, is so sweet, and they have two sons, Ole, and Om. I like hanging out with them more than anybody. We went to the neatest place for dinner. They had a huge buffet of foods that you bring back to and grill and boil in the middle of your table.

BURMA

We found out that it would cost less to leave the country than to renew our visas, so we made a visa run to Burma. If you have been keeping up with the news, you know that Burma is having a lot of troubles with the Cyclones that have killed thousands of people, and the military government. We crossed the border in the north where there are not so many problems, and we took some motorcycle cars around to see the different sites. There were like 6 motorcycles, and we rode around like some sort of posse. We saw some great Wats that were Mahayana Buddism which is a lot different than the Buddism in our area. They have flashing lights... The women and children wear mud on their faces, I am not sure why, it is either to keep bad spirits away, or it's sunscreen. We were supposed to go see the longneck women of the Padang hilltribe that wear brass rings to elongate thier necks, but they only do it for tourist purposes, and to make a profit, and it is very dangerous for their health, so we didn't want to go. Everywhere we went, women and children would follow us around with umbrellas, and tied up birds for us to free. We were only there for a short time, but we will get to go back next month! We drove through the beautiful, majestic mountains of thailand, and stopped at the mekong river and the Golden Triangle where the opium trade was most prominent at one point.

Doi Suthep

To celebrate a huge Buddhist holiday, we hiked from the base of the mountain to a temple(wat) on the very top. There were thousands of people and monks walking and street vendors all the way up selling food and drinks. We started late at night, it was a 17km hike one way, and when we got to the top, we had to climb thousands of stairs to get to the wat. It was so crowded that it took us an hour for just the stairs. (there is a picture of the stairs a day before and the night of)Inside the wat, there were nuns and monks sleeping on the floors, and people worshipping with flowers and candles. The ancient story is that there was a sacred shrine placed on a white elephant and let loose and it brought it to the top of the mountain and then died. The shrine is still there and is covered in gold. It was amazing to be part of this amazing journey.

Chiang Mai

The fruit in Thailand is wonderful! This was like a giant pineapple lollipop! The lady carved it so beautifully for me. Can't even tell you how good it was. It rains a lot in chiang mai, which is a really good thing! It is so super hot when it doesn't. When it rains, it rains a lot, but that doesn't stop the motorbikes. They hide under plastic bags and umbrellas or nothing at all. It is fun to sit in the back of the rot dangs and watch the daredevil cyclists. They all look like they are having a lot of fun too! Our dorm on campus is cozy, no hot water, but we don't need it.

More happenings...

I've become an expert at Jaywalking, but it took a lot of practice. You just have to mosey your way on into the busy road full of speeding vehicles, and they weave their way around you or slow down. The trick is to not hesitate or change your walking speed at all. It is kind of magical.
We had an adventurous few days full of beautiful views and animals. We went on a night safari at this amazing place that had more animals than any zoo i have ever been to. We saw lions, all kinds of tigers, and bears, zebras, giraffes, elephants, wildabeasts, hyenas, crocodiles..... They were all pretty close to us too! They had a singing fountain with a lazer show that was better than Bellagio or Disneyland. We were pretty much the only ones there too, so we had the whole park to ourselves!
The next day, we went to get our visas renewed, but it turns out that it will be cheaper for us to make a visa run to Burma, so that's the plan. Then we hiked up a muddy jungly mountain to some amazing waterfalls.
We went to a butterfly farm, an orchid farm, a snake farm, a monkey farm, the queen's botanical garden's and a Buddhist temple on the very top of a mountain all in one day. At the snake farm, I kissed a poisonous python that they put around my neck. It was kind of creepy, and went against all my instincts. The monkeys were so cute and humanlike, but it was sad to see them with chains around their necks. They did all sorts of tricks like shoot hoops, ride bikes, and swim. The gardens were huge and beautiful, and the temple on the mountain is amazing! We are going to walk from the very base of the mountain all the way to the top (17km one way) with thousands of Buddhist worshippers.

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

So we are finally in Chiang Mai! We were in Bangkok for a few days staying with Brighton's future inlaws,and we were pampered. Manicures, pedicures, massages, shopping, and fine dining. And super soft comfortable beds. Chiang Mai is new and exciting. It is the motorbike capital of the world. They are everywhere weaving in and out of cars and people. Last night we went to family home evening at a member's humble home and I ate snake! It's kind of spicy. I was the only girl that ate it, and they thought I was crazy, but they loved it. I am excited to explore more of this wonderful place!

I think I'm turning Japanese

I am moving to Japan someday. I tried to take Daven with me, but Jill said no...Cmon Jill! Don't be so selfish! The people are so super nice. They went out of thier way to help the crazy tourist. Everything is so clean, but there are no garbages anywhere! Once we got here, we hit the subways and didn't stop till we were back at the airport. We saw so much of Tokyo, and ate wonderful foods. I ate tons of clear jelly cups filed with fruit. They do the jello thing right. And you can find noodle bars everywhere you go. We went to a couple of sushi bars where the chef stands in the middle and makes delicious plates of sushi and puts them on a conveyor belt that is moving around him. We sit around it and pull off the sushi that catches our eye. Then you pay according to plate color and how many you have. Japan is a lot more expensive than the states(I spent thousands and thousands of yen in two days), and the people are a lot friendlier and intelligent. The subways are filled with a sea of black suits and business men. We have a lot to learn from them. Tokyo is huge! We went to a place in Shibuya called Central Gai. That's where they film a lot of scenes from movies. It's like Las Vegas glitzy but not nearly as sleezy. They do have gambling though...but it looks more like super intense video games with loud techno music, dim lighting, and colorful flashing neon lights. They play with little metal balls that they collect in buckets. Amimae character advertisements are all over the city. Japan now has a special place in my heart.