Searching for connection

Dear Anne,

I have been feeling a little disconnected from things. During school I was so wrapped up in finals but now that school is over my brain still feels a little foggy. I think one problem is, is that I am too wrapped up in my own brain. I admit I get so focused on my own problems that I can forget what is going on in other peoples lives, I hope this doesn't sound selfish.  

Lately my church has been going through a series on Discipleship and one thing I have really been struck by is how much discipleship has to do with other people. I guess I should not be surprised by this especially since Jesus was the ultimate servant and was always involved in working with others. But the series has left me wondering, how can I serve. I do serve at my church with the nursery and what we call hospitality but it doesn't feel to be enough. 

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After the Boston Marathon Bombing I thought about giving blood as you know I hate shots and needles, so that seemed like a big deal, but over a month has gone by and I have not done it. Now with another home of mine in the middle of pain and destruction (Oklahoma) ... I feel I must do something. Being so far away and being in my usual mindset of blocking things out I could easily go on with life as if nothing happened. But I don't want to. 

I don't know where this originates as I found it on Facebook

As you know I have been going through some valleys in my walk with God and I am really trying to change that. Now that I am back from vacation with my mom and I don't have any "out of the normal plans" I am starting a 30 day bible/devotional reading plan. But I am thinking about what type of service I can do. I am still really thinking of giving blood... is that enough? 

I don't have an answer to that yet but I want to do good in this world. 

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Besides working with the children at the church nursery and going down to Honduras last year and hopefully next year, I have never really felt called to serve some place. When people talk about "spiritual gifts" I never know what to say. And without an answer I feel like I am little lost in where to serve or what to do. 

 Any way I guess I don't have a good conclusion to this post. I am just hoping through serving others I will feel more connected.   

Love,

Blaire

Finished My Semester

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Yes it is from the Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I am happy to report that I am done with my finals! 

Over this last month I have taken a break from blogging and in some aspects life. I hope once life gets back to normal and I have more mental energy I will be able to write more blog posts. I have these thoughts of giving up on this blog as I don't feel I have much to say or I don't have the mental energy to write. But I went to an event from my almmater and my old adviser told me she read my blog; I was very touched and for that reason I hope I can keep up with it. It is always nice to know something you have taken time to write has been read by others.

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I sadly do not have much to catch you guys up on. I feel I have spent most of my month researching and writing papers. One paper was turn of the century fashion, I hope to use that paper to begin my thesis. As you probably know from my post about Downton Abbey, the stories I have been writing, or if you follow me on Pinterest I have fallen head over heels with the Edwardian time period. So I knew I wanted to do a paper on the turn of the century. I thought about doing my thesis on women's professionalism (like what careers became the more feminine careers and what not) but after sitting through a thesis proposal workshop where one adviser said "chose your own Hell" I had a change of heart. I have always loved fashion, I think it is so much more than what people wear, but what they value and what society values. So I turned my mind towards turn of the century fashion. As I began researching my paper I discovered that single working girls had more of a disposable income and used their fashion to get away from the strict uniforms of their jobs and possibly move up in the world. I would really like to talk about that. Of course I know I need a good argument for my thesis... so this summer I will be researching it. Wish me luck.

Besides finishing up school, I did go and visit my sister, niece and nephew. I know it was in the middle of the craziness of finals but I REALLY needed a break to go see them. I had a great time being Auntie Blaire and even though we didn't do anything overly big being with them was awesome. Also, my dad and step-mom surprised me with a day trip to see me... which was sweet to see them.

The only picture I took while I was there of my nephew crawling

But now school is over and I have the summer to look forward to. I know I need to be researching for my thesis... so I will probably be hanging out in some archives. I do hope to get some fun reading in (aka books without footnotes). I have been watching a lot of mindless TV but now I can't wait to cross some books off my reading list.

Hope to post more later.

My Journey to Honduras!



Aqua Viva Internacional =Living Water International

First of all Honduras is a beautiful country. 

We arrived late on Saturday morning in the town of San Pedro Sula. Then we had to drive four hours to the city La Ceiba. Our stop in Honduras is Burger King... I think they were trying to ease our way into the country. 

Some our gang at BK

After the four hour drive we got to stay in this beautiful hotel.

The hotel was right on the ocean, I loved standing in the warm water. It had lots of fresh pineapple and we were able to take hot showers there as well. We started and ended our week there which was a very nice treat. 

Our team in front of the church

On Sunday we went to this church. Some of the staff/members of this church work with Living Water so they prayed for us and as we left they all gave us hugs and kisses. It was a great encouragement to start off the week. 

Then after church we had to drive another hour and half to a town called Seda. 

Sunset from the roof of our 2nd hotel 

The town of Seda.

On Monday we drove to the sight. So one expectation I had was that we were going to be working in a village, and that it would be a town like you see in "feed the children" commercials. We were in at a school in the town Descrmbro, Honduras, a agricultural town and some of the people are "middle class". I put it in quotes because I don't want people to think of American middle class. It is middle class for Honduras which means they mostly don't have electricity and maybe running water. By running water I mean they have a tank of water in their back yard. The primary water source for this village of apox. 3,000 is a river that serves as a dishwasher, laundromat & waste removal service for the community. The people of Descombro know that the water is unclean but only half of the community can afford to buy purified water and a lot of the students buy soda.

The school

One day these student practiced the drums from the start to end of the day.

The red doors in the back ground the bathrooms.

The windows of the school were covered in wooden planks. 

Inside a classroom. 

The teachers of the school cooked our meals for us while we were a the school. 

I was on the hygiene team which is more like the teaching team. For each class we did two hygiene, one bible story and then a craft. A hygiene story talked about how to wash their hands properly, how to treat diarrhea, what food to eat properly, how to keep water clean and how to use the pump properly. On the first day we talked about germs and we used glitter to represent germs. When we came into lunch with the drilling team, my friend joked that  "the drilling team was covered in mud and the hygiene team was covered in glitter."

On Tuesday our machine was broken so while some of the Living Water staff went to get new equipment we were able to walk around one of the villages the school serves. The school served up to 5 to 6 local villages but this was the closest village.

While there some house like this one (above)... they would sit right next to the mud hut house (below). I will admit when I arrived in Honduras I thought all the houses were going to be like the one below.

The biggest take away I will take away from the walk through the village was just how generous people were.

We stopped by one house that had a few coconut trees. The guy, who owned the house came out and asked if we want some and would not let us pay for them. Then he began cutting them down and taking his machete to cut them apart so we could drink coconut milk. His wife was there holding this little baby and I was saying how cute he was, in my most broken Spanish. She just came and placed him in my arms so I could hold him. I thought "whoa, she doesn't know who I am but she gave me her son." I love little babies, so this was a great moment for me.

I just loved all the horses.

A shot of the main road in the village

 On Wednesday we did what is called a good news bracelet.

My good news bracelet.  

Black- represents the sin that separates us from God.

Red- represents the blood of Christ that was shed for the sacrifice of our sins.

White- when we accept Christ we become white as snow. 

Blue- represents baptism

Green- represents the new creation God makes us.

Yellow- represents the glory of heaven. 

The day we made the bracelets the kids acted like we were passing out candy when we were giving out the beads. Some kids tricked us to giving more beads to It was great to see how receptive to the story of Christ and what it all meant.

I can't talk much about the drilling project as I mostly stood on the side lines and watched. But next year I would love to be part of the drilling team and get my hands, t-shirt, and pants dirty. 

Here are some pictures from the drilling sight...

At the beginning there was just dirt.

LOTS of hard work being done.

Never leave home with out your duct tape

One guy on our team had broken his foot so every day he had to wrap his foot with tape to make sure his boot did not get wet. Well his tape did not always hold up so I told him I had duct tape, of course it was bright pink, but it worked to protect his foot. I must say it looked quite stylish. It was just lucky I had it because I just threw it into my luggage at the last minute.

I know there were a lot of challenges for the drilling team, with broken machine parts, and the fact they kept hitting rock, rock they couldn't get through. So out of faith on Wednesday they had to send down some pipe and then attempt to pump to see if they could get water. God blessed us and we had water! My friend put it best... "Looking back we see this as a blessing in disguise (sometimes God has to slow us down for our own good)."

This was a great relief to all of us!

On Wednesday we also had our intense moment of being stuck on the other side of the border. To read more about that read my Shove comes to Push post. When we finally left on Wednesday we didn't know at that moment if we were able to come back and finish/dedicate the well. I wasn't so concerned about that but I hated not knowing if I was going to come back and see my students. I was amazed even with the barrier of not speaking Spanish how much I loved them and how much they loved us. Fortunately we were able to come back and finish the work we started.

At the end of that was water. 

Both the drilling and hygiene team at the pump. 

At the dedication of the pump. 

Lots of the girls gathered around me and I tried to put my arm around them all.

I can't fully explain how wonderful it was to be on this trip. I knew I was going down to serve them but I felt so blessed by the people I met there. It was a wonderful and amazing journey. I highly recommend that every one go on a mission trip. The best thing to do is find a cause, country, or another area you are passionate about and see how you can serve there. I can't wait to go back to Honduras and if God wants me, I will go back next year. 

When I left Honduras, I told Emmillo (the boss) "I am not going to say Adiós but Hast Luego (see you later)."     

I know these aren't the best pictures... but I am going to miss the beauty of Honduras. 

 

Reflection from Honduras

Me holding a Honduran baby... made my day.

Do you notice the coconuts?

Hey lovely readers,

I am still doing reflection on my trip to Honduras. I am also still waiting for my old school film to be developed but my friend took this picture of me and this Honduran baby. 

If you know me, you know I LOVE children so worked on the Hygiene team as a part of our trip. This means I was teaching children about healthiness: proper nutrition; how to treat diarrhea; how to wash hands properly; brushing teeth; and how to use the pump properly (picture in last post of pump). Then we did bible lessons. We taught two classes in the morning for younger kids and then two classes in the afternoon for the older children. Also we played hop scotch and did jump rope with the kids. I attempted soccer or futbol but I stunk. The younger kids, first to sixth grade, really touched my heart and working/playing with them really brought a joy to my heart 

One afternoon when machinery was broken our "tour guide" and translator took us on the tour of the village. (I promise I will have pictures.) In the village we saw a mix of houses some were nice-meaning 50% of homes had water, probably no electricity, and no A/C- and a few were mud huts. 

At the house in the picture, this guy had coconuts and he noticed us admiring them and he offered some of them to us and would take no money for it. Then I was admiring his little boy and his wife just came up to me and put him in his arms. Then as we were leaving the grandma offered us oranges. They were so generous.

On our last day all the little kids gave us hugs and kisses. Then at the dedication ceremony the little girls wanted to be close to me (picture in last post). I made an impromptu speech about how their faces will live in my memory forever and one little girl shouted "ours too (in Spanish)." I knew that when I was going down there I was there to serve them and but I felt they blessed me so much more. They opened their hearts to us and even though we were only there for a week I felt how much they loved us. I was so blessed by their love.

I was really touched in how much they gave and how loving they were. That is one thing I want to bring back with me now that I am in the states.

Love you all. 

1 More Week!

Hello Lovely Readers,

I am one week away from going to Honduras! I hope by now most of you know for a long time I have had a desire to go work with Living Water International to go help dig a well. I have raised support, gotten my shots, and bought some supplies (need to buy more). Now I have a week until I go!

I am sad to say that I have not fully wrapped my head around the fact that I am leaving. I have been in summer school, which I actually really enjoyed, and then went on a last minute trip to California to see my mom.  So please pray for my head and my heart to be prepared for this trip and all that will come. 

I have had some mix emotions facing me this summer. Even though school has been a fun learning experience it was stressful. Also just some emotional stuff has been going on, on the side. I have had major amounts of homesick. My mom has been sick of this summer and has to have surgery, hence the reason for my trip to my mom, to see her before surgery. 

My mom and I

While I was at my mom's I went through some of my boxes from my childhood to high school: found my old porcelian dolls; went through year books; and some of my notebooks full of stories. I also got to try on my Nana's wedding dress. My Nana was quite small, you can't tell in the picture but the back could not zip all the way up, but it was very fun to try it on. 

Me in my nana's dress. 

Also my older sister has been pregnant and I am realizing how much I miss my niece growing up and now I am missing my nephew. I know my dream was to live in Boston but sometimes I wish I could telaporte to see my family. Fortunately I can skype with my family so I talk to my sister and niece every two weeks. Today was great and I got to skype and see my nephew. (I love that part of technology). 

My niece looking at my nephew

With all this going on I have not really given my attention to this trip. Is that bad? Or is that just life? This week I am in prep mode for this trip. I know it is last minute prep but better than nothing. 

If you have been watching the Olympics you have probably heard this song:

I have really loved it.

Please be praying for my trip down to Honduras, not just for me but for the people we will interact with and the conversations we will have.  

I will keep you posted on my trip. 

Bits of Splendor

I had a wonderful relaxing weekend, which is a nice way to start off Spring Break but my Bits of Splendor come from moments with some kids. I work in the church nursery so having little tender moments with kids is not unusual but this week these two moments caught me off guard as I was not in the nursery for either one of them.

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The first one happened on Saturday. I was at a leadership meeting for my church and after catching up with some people I ran to the bathroom, when I cam out I realized I was one of the last ones there. I came down the stairs to leave and little boy "M", who is six years old, and I have taught in Sunday school and baby sat for was at the bottom of the stairs. He had his jacket on with the hood hanging over his head like a cape. I said "goodbye M." He looked up at me and said "goodbye Miss Blaire" and when I got to the bottom of the stairs he said "you are always willing to help, thank you," and gave my leg a little hug. I said "of course I love to help" and I think I patted his head. It was a very sweet moment. "M" and I have an up and down history, as his Sunday school teacher some times I have stop him from running and being a typical six year old boy and I am sure he doesn't like it at all. But when I am his baby sitter he gets very cuddly and likes to sit on my lap. So I was very touched that he hugged me and recognized my willingness to help. 

There is this little girl "E" who every time I see her for a the first few minutes looks at me as if I am a stranger but then after a bit she is very chatty. I have grown accustom to this so on Sunday when I said hello to her I was happily surprised she waived at me. Then later after church I ran into her and her dad and she just started talking away about her purple dress and how she got to wear a pink one Saturday and she really wanted me to see it. Her dad wanted to get her brother from the nursery but "E" didn't want to go so her dad asked if she would like to stay with me, she said yes. Then to talk to her better I knelt down on my knees so I could be eye to eye with her. But then she too knelt down. It was very cute. 

Sorry I do not have any pictures of "M" and "E" they are really cute kids.