Another Year Begins

I have gotten many comments on my not updating my blog enough. It has been a while. It seems that I find it more diffucult to catch up once I am behind. So I have decided to start the new year off fresh, with a few highlights of the past 6 months...

• Jungle camp went great. I survived and am living once again in civilization. It ended in July. Here are a few pictures of the house.

• Immediately after jungle camp my roommates and I moved from our apartment that had no running water, 3 bed rooms, and one level to a 4 bedroom, 2 story apartment with not only running water but has two bathrooms! We also added one more roommate to our household, Kay Zue, she is from Mexico and is in the same class. We are quite happy with our new dwelling.
• The rest of July and part of August was spent at home in Montana. I worked at little tea shop where my boss graciously lets me work the little I am home. "Thanks Pam!" I spent time in Idaho for some R&R with my great aunt and uncle, hiking in the mountains and picking hucleberrys (one of my favorite things to do.) And I spent some time at my brothers house in Alberta. Talking with my brother and his wife and wrestling with my two nephews. The 4 weeks went by fast.
• The end of August brought the start of a new semester. Back at school in Ontario, and nicely settled into the new apartment, the semster began with Phonetics, the study of speech sounds, a class I enjoyed. Then Grammar, how to break down a language into grammatical form. It was fun but challaging. Next was Culture and how to use a program called CLAWare. This helps Tribal missionaries to be able to file not only the language but also the culture so that they can better understand them.
• November and December brought one of the hardest classes of the semester but definetly a highlight, the CLA (Culture and Language Aquisition) practicum. I spent 6 weeks learning a Panamanian tribal language called Naso as well as their culture. This class was not just to learn a language but to solidify the tecniques we had been learning the whole semester, and learn and take part in as much of the culture as we could without actually being in the tribe. I sent two hours a day in a language/culture session, then spent the rest of the day filing what I learned into CLAWare, review, and watching the kids of fellow classmates.
• Class wasn't all that filled my day in December. I was part of the New Tribes choir. We put on a Christmas concert every year for the community in the local community center. As well as being part of a trio, a first for me. Avie, Joy and I sang a song in the concert. I don't normally do that sort of thing. Getting up in front of people isn't my strong point but I enjoyed it. And the song sounded great thanks to my two partners. Then of couse there was Christmas parties and banquets to go to. Also a group of us went caroling around town. Another first for me. I loved it! It was great to see people smile and sing along as they are standing in their doorways. It was very cold by well worth it.
• Winter Break started midway through December. And with the last half of the semester being so busy I was ready for a break. I flew home to Montana but not without an unplanned overnight stay in Denver. The extended layover was not an unwelcome one. Why did you stay in Denver you might ask? Simple reason, the flight was overbooked and I gave up my seat and for the free round trip ticket. Little to my knowledge that the Christmas season is NEVER a good time to give up as seat. As I watch the plane leave, the ticket agent was vigourously typing away at the computer. "The next open seat is Christmas Eve," she told me. My heart skipped a beat! I didn't want to stay that long. Needless to say I got on a flight the next day and made it home safely.
• The break was only three weeks long and went by rather quickly. I work a few days, again at the tea shop. Spent Christmas with my parents and New Years with my brother and family in Alberta. And filled in the rest of the days visiting friends and doing homework.
• The flight back to school is a story in itself. I had made arragements with a fellow classmate to pick me up in Detroit at the airport. Everything was as planned until I tried to check in. The flight I was supposed to be on was cancelled! "No problem," the ticket agent told me, "we will just book you on another flight". As my fight was being rebooked as snow storm was coming in. My cancelled flight was supposed to leave at 3:30 pm, the new flight was scheduled to leave at 2. I got there a little after 1 pm. With my bags checked, my new flight plan in order, I said good bye to my parents and went through security to wait for the plane. By this time the weather outside was not good. Blowing snow and low cloud cover made it impossible for my plane to land. After circling several times, the plane had to divert to another town to refuel. With the delay I was going to miss my connecting flight in Minniapolis and again had to rebook. 3 hours later the plane finally landed. After boarding, and de-icing, we were off. Finally. My connecting flight in Minniapolis was to leave at 9 pm. We arrive at the gate at 9:05. Once again I must rebook. Thankfully there was one more flight out that night. I caught the last flight at 10:15 pm to my final destination, Detroit. You might have realized by this point my friend was unaware that all of this was going on (a down side to not having cell phones). As I flew the last part of the trip. I tried to think of some way of tracking them down. Not only was I on a different flight, I was flying into a different terminal! I found out in Minniapolis that the paging system was closed for the night. That was out. I thought that maybe I could leave my luggage on the belt and take the shuttle to the other terminal and try to find them. As ideas ran through my head, all seemed to fail. Finally I prayed, "Lord, I don't know how this is going to work out, but I know you can do it." The plane landed and as I walked to the baggage claim all I could say was, "Lord, it's in your hands." As I passed through the doors to the baggage claim who was there to greet me, my friends!! Praise the Lord! God had worked everything out! Isn't He wonderful! We all made it back to school safely. And me happy to be back.
• January. That brings you up to date. Classes began on the 8th. And for the week we are studing Heath and Wellness.

I will try to be more faithful in keeping you all up dated.