Okay. So here is an attempt at making an entry with more than just a picture of me chewing on sugar cane-even though I know you guys adored that one. Ha. Anyways, things are going along here. So much has happened, I find it hard to condense it down into blog entries..and at the same time, I think that taking so much in at once makes it hard to separate things out into blog entries…if that makes sense. So today started my second week of work. Last week felt pretty long. Chalk it up to jet lag and various things. But, the weekend went by quickly, and here we are on week number two.
First, let me just start off with what has been incredibly difficult for us: apartment hunting. Wow, it is just an outrageous task here! I would have never guessed, but it is. First of all, as soon as people see or hear that we are Americans, the price of a place jumps at least 20%. We have to try to explain to them in detail that we are volunteering for an NGO, not some lavishly rich Diplomats, etc. Secondly, some people refuse to rent to us just because we are Westerners. They would straight up prefer to just leave a flat vacant as opposed to rent to a Westerner. Needless to say discrimination is alive and well here. Which is an interesting lesson to learn. Part of me knows that it is a gooood lesson for me to learn. Discrimination is still alive and well in the U.S. and other Western countries, but I by way of being Caucasian usually don’t experience it. So, I think in that respect it is probably healthy for me to live in it for a while. The selfish part of me that just wants to move into an apartment as soon as possible on my I-volunteer –for-an-NGO- budget wants to be the heck done with it and get a decent apartment at a decent price. So, for those of you that are in prayer for me during this time, that is a HUGE thing to pray for/about.
Other than that I have been working on adjusting to the time difference. Still. I thought I would be done by now, but I usually wake up at least once a night for while and wake up for good around 6:30 in the morning. It just makes for tough days when I am tired, so another prayer point. Additionally, I think a combination of sleep issues plus new food has been making me feel sick about once a day as my body gradually adjusts. Okay. So those are some of my struggles so far.

Good things. The ex-pat community here at the office is great! They are like a little family. And it is wonderful to be immediately swept up into that. The other two girls that came down here at the same time are wonderful as well. It is so nice to have people sharing your experience.

It is a continual process learning about things here. Some things to learn…you can only eat with your right hand. Also at traditional restaurants there is no silverware. Crossing the road is like real life Frogger. Seriously. We adapted by finding a native person crossing the road and then following them. If we don’t, we pretty much hap-hazardly dodge cars all the way across. Also, not to my surprise, but kind of, there is really no diversity here, or Westerners. I think that I (and the other girls) generally anticipated that we would see more of either here…but we really haven’t seen any. All of the women wear traditional dress 95% of the time. Westerners…we might go days without seeing one. This also leads to us being stared at a lot when we are out.

Anyways, my time is about up to get this updated and take care of all my other email duties. Tomorrow I am heading out to a rural village to meet with some of our rescued victims and a newly appointed official for that region. That should be interesting. It will be a three hour card ride each way out into rural areas. Also good news…we had a raid last week-which I wasn’t a part of because I’m still new-but the perpetrator was jailed immediately, which is apparently un-heard of. So that is cool to see justice taking place so quickly. Anyways, I hope that you all are well…I’ll try and write more soon. I discovered that the only way to add pictures on this internet connection is one at a time, and on the “small” size. So, apologies for that. These are all pictures from my commute to work. Please note that the crazy small yellow things are the auto rickshaws that we take everywhere for transportation!

just another afternoon at the office, snacking on some sugarcane. (better pictures to come soon)

well, i am here safe and sound and have been so since very early saturday morning. i only have internet at work right now so my updates may be inconsistent for a while. lots has happened, probably too much to condense into a quick paragraph right now. i've been working on trying to discreetly take some pictures as to not be "that westerner" with her camera around her neck at all times. i'll try to get them up in the next few days. overall everything here is good so far. oh, and did i mention that i never get cold. never. and i love that! anyways, hope everything is good state side..considering most of you are sleeping right now! will try to update again soon! :)

this is what my room currently looks like i as i attempt to pack. yikes.

Good News! the fundraising dinner went really really well! i am now significantly closer to my goal-which is great! i am done with work too, which is a big step in being able to get ready for everything. now it's time for a weekend of seeing friends and saying goodbyes, which will be sad..but its only for ten months. :)

today starts my last week of work. (hurray) i was home for the weekend this past weekend, and finally got a chance to get a handle on my fundraising. to date i am about halfway there, which is great! and tomorrow is the fundraising dinner that we are having at andiamo's in grosse pointe. so i'm hoping that that will help to bridge the gap between what i have and what i need. for now, it's time to work on my speech that i have to give at the dinner!

down to 18 days and counting now until i leave! time is flying by! this week things went one step further with me being ready as i got my vaccinations! holding with their twenty three year long pattern of being miserable, hepatitis a, tetanus, and polio remained the same miserable experience. in fact, i still have some small bruises. (it's okay, you can feel bad for me.)
in exciting news, one of the girls that is going over there too called me yesterday to get my flight information so that she could get onto my flight. that would be wonderfully amazing. so, hopefully it will work out.
this past week, Jim Wallace, the editor of Sojourner's Magazine, came to MSU to speak. he was phenomenal. he has written a book called, "God's Politics: Why the Right doesn't get it, and the Left gets it wrong". he spoke a lot about the grey areas of between religion and politics from both ends of the political spectrum. a lot of what he spoke about testified to the need for social justice, and was very affirming and encouraging as i prepare to go over to the other side of the world to do just that. bring social justice to enslaved people who need it.
that's all for now i suppose. the countdown continues!