love in every language

2008-02-15T23:38:00.001+05:30

i just found out that i will get to hang out with the pope when he is visiting the US in april. and by i will get to hang out, i mean myself and the entire rest of my office. this is cool and funny to me at the same time.

2008-01-10T20:00:00.000+05:30

it is national migration week here at usccb. this means that there is a lot of focus on our migration and refugee services (mrs) department. a small write up was done about what i do, so i thought i would share it, because it explains my job better than i usually do probably. :)

"Did you know...

In many war torn countries children, whose parents were lost to them due to death or separation, often find themselves alone and without any source of comfort or support. Another population of unaccompanied children are those who try to find passage to the United States. As many as 100,000 unaccompanied, undocumented children enter the United States every year with the hope of reuniting with their family or finding work that will enable them to send money back home. Approximately 10,000 of these are detained by the federal government and may be released to family in the United States or returned to their country of origin. Alone in the United States or in a refugee situation overseas, undocumented children are in a very vulnerable situation; it is in this context that the problem of human trafficking can easily intersect broader refugee crises and immigration.

Through its Safe Passages program, MRS ensures that children traveling without adult relatives and without legal travel documents are provided a safe haven, and receive appropriate child-welfare standards of care while in the custody of the U.S. government. For children smuggled in and at risk from organized crime, MRS works with more than 30 diocesan offices to determine whether family reunification is a suitable option, and follows up with children to ensure their well-being."

2007-11-22T01:04:00.000+05:30

so great:

http://www.freerice.com/

2007-09-27T09:09:00.000+05:30

it shows how long it has been since i have posted that when i went to write this entry it took me a second to remember how to make a new post. goodness. anyways, i am headed for the capitol--washington d.c. I got a job with USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) in their Refugee Department and will be starting Oct 9th. My official title will be "Family Reunification and Child Specialist". Basically, USCCB is one of two agencies that are referred refugee, migrant, and trafficked children from the federal government and are responsible for conducting assessments and making recommendations on placements of the children.
I'm excited, and the job has come together and worked out amazingly.
I will have a lot of Hispanic clients, and will need to be able to do interviews and translate for clients, and for this reason, I decided a trip to the Dominican Republic was necessary to brush up and get ready for that level of communication. :) So, on Thursday I will leave to go to the DR for five days.
Whirlwind.

2007-08-05T16:52:00.000+05:30

my last day in south asia. it is full of people and packing. i am currently desperately trying to figure out how to get everything back to the U.S. and not pay $250 extra for it. it is quite challenging. i now have a scale in my room and am juggling between three different suitcases. the last few days have been great. the people that have been in my life here are fantastic, and i have been deeply blessed by them.

please continue to pray for me as i continue this process and travel back. i am pretty worn out physically and emotionally and it is just a long stinking trip. thanks so much, and i will see you when i get back in country! (monday night!) finally, a small depiction of the ridiculousness of monsoon season!

2007-07-31T16:56:00.000+05:30

well hello. it has been a while...i may not even have readers at this point! (and i can't say that i would blame you!) amazingly enough, i am winding down my last days here in south asia. i myself am struggling to realize that i will be on a plane back to the US as of monday morning. for now i am trying to take everything in and store it away in my mind for the days when i won't be here. let's catch up on some things.

my mom and her friend, lisa caramagno, visited recently! it was incredibly fun and exciting to have them here and show them what my life has been like for the last ten months. we went to lots of restaurants, did some shopping, and headed down to a beach resort area for a day. all in all i think they were ready to return to the States, and may have even kissed the ground upon landing in NYC. South Asia is no easy place to visit or live in, but they were champs!
i have a few things on my "to do before i leave" list. i accomplished one of them last night. i had my hair chemically straightened, or "rebonded". 4.5 hours of treatment, 48 hours of no washing, and you can have lovely straight hair too. you may be thinking to yourself, "Marianne, your hair is straight already.." well, that is thanks to my dear friends blow dryer and straightener. there are a few challenging things in addition to sitting still for 4.5 hours:

not getting your hair wet when it is monsoon season. i should probably receive a prize for my efforts.
not washing your hair for 48 hours. in addition to not washing, i am not supposed to put it in a pony tail, clip, use bobby pins, or anything else that will disturb the now straight hair. this essentially means i cannot hide my un-washed hair, which i hate.

our maid, whom the faithful readers may remember from her famous appearance on my blog around thanksgiving time, had a marked leave of unexplained absence for about 1.5 weeks. this behavior was unprecedented, and we were convinced that she may have randomly quit without explanation. however, much to my surprise on monday morning at 8:30 as the doorbell rang and i peered out the peep hole, her little 4'6 self was standing outside. i joyfully opened the door and in my best mime+english abilities attempted to ask her where she had been. to which she responded by making a face (tilting her head to the side and sticking out her tongue) and saying "husband". i took it to mean that her husband had died. i immediately felt awful, and attempted to convey how sorry i was. she however, did not seem phased by discussing this most recent death of her spouse. i was surprised, but chalked it up to being one of those things lost in translation. i came into work, and later on in the morning was talking to one of my co-workers about it, and before i could even finish, she said, "ugh..these workers are always kiling off so many family members!" she proceeded to tell me how it is common for domestic workers to claim death in the family instead of asking for vacation. goodness. this makes more sense now seeing as how our maid's uncle, mother, and husband had all "died" within a three month span, with no remarkable sadness or grief being displayed on her account. i'm still slightly unnerved by it though.

there is a strange dichotomy going on regarding the internal vs external reality of my leaving. externally, everything is the same. i take the same autos to work, drive on the roads, see my same co-workers, hang out with my same friends, etc. internally though, there is a storm that surges from time to time demanding to attempt to recognize and deal with the fact that life as i have come to know it for the last ten months will be ending on monday. it is very strange and makes me feel unsettled.

so, that is a jumbled bunch of snippets from life right now. my hair and i (it takes on an entity of its own when it requires this much care) are about to head to the gym (with my rain jacket on, of course). i would greatly appreciate prayers as i transition back home.... and i am incredibly excited to see everyone again!

2007-06-17T18:56:00.000+05:30

joy.

2007-06-05T18:48:00.000+05:30

my blog has been quiet as of late, which is reflective of just how busy life here has been. in the last two and a half weeks there have been two visitors to our corner of the world. my time here is seeming to wrap up quickly. today my roommate and i tried to figure out a weekend to do some sight seeing, and found that there are really only two weekends that we can actually get away before i leave.

things in general have been good. God is doing some very cool stuff, right, i know that's so vague...but i can't be descript, so, vague you get! ;)

a few pictures from things lately:

--scratch the few part--the internet is being snail-like and won't let me upload more than just this one. so, one picture of the outside of a beautiful old french villa i stayed at in a town a few hours south of here last weekend. more stories and pictures sometime when i have things i can write about and internet that is not molassess!

2007-05-13T15:36:00.000+05:30

okay...so here they are in no order of any sort...(my battery is going to run out soon!)

camel riding in the desert!

indoor ski slope at the mall of the emirates

CARIBOU!!!! (does it get much better than that? no.)

rogue camels wandering around the desert.

nicolette at the beach with the burj al arab hotel (shaped like a sail in the background)
danielle and i at the beach.

okay. that is all for now! happy mother's day to all the moms, and happy birthday to my brother!

2007-05-07T18:21:00.000+05:30

website is under construction! apologies for those of you who have been checking it. you don't really need a login to see it, i just had to do that for a few days until i could work on it a bit!
dubai was fantastic fabulous! i will throw up some pictures and stories when i get a few mins and a functioning computer..mine is currently dead.

2007-04-27T12:02:00.000+05:30

my roommate and i's conversation a couple of minutes ago. (background: she threw up this morning after drinking one sip of her tea):

nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says:
at the risk of sounding like *****, is it possible that i have a worm and just don't know it
nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says:
i know i haven't really lost weight, but maybe i am eating enough to support us both
Marianne says: muahahaha
Marianne says: possibly.
Marianne says: we need you on cipro. STAT!
nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says: stat
nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says: yes stat
nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says: and with it all I am still hungry
nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says: which just annoys me
Marianne says: the worm needs to be fed!
Marianne says: and it does not like tea!!!!
nicolettegrams@yahoo.com says: feed it!
Marianne says: get it straight zicolette
Marianne says: when else in our lives will our conversations go like this.....?? lol + sigh.

2007-04-25T16:59:00.000+05:30

on being famous...

this morning as i was brushing my teeth, i got a text from an ex-pat friend saying that one of my roommates and i were pictured in the paper. we had been anticipating this as the paper photographer took our photo on saturday night when we were out with friends. when we got into the office, one of our co-workers started talking about how he had seen us. we proceeded to investigate online to see if we could dig it up. the great part (at least to us) was that in a joke on the press, who had caused some serious trouble for us last time we were in the news, we had told the reporter a fake name for my roommate, and that we were from mozambique. as we were perusing the world wide web, our landlord, of all people, texted me and said, "nice to see you guys in the paper this morning". we found the article which included a photo of the two of us-the three guys we were with had been mysteriously cropped out, and a small column on the reporter's take of the place we were at that night. some of the highlights included:
"A lot of ex-pats were seen tapping their feet to the music. Some of the people spotted include Anita, Nichola, Marianne, Peter, and Eric."
so funny...my life here is just funny sometimes.

2007-04-23T14:49:00.000+05:30

i almost blend in, right? :)

2007-04-19T17:57:00.000+05:30

I ventured to the airport this week to pick up my roommate as she returned from her two week trip to the states. Pick ups from the airport are a special process here, as are many things. We have to hire a car to take us, and the cheapest cars do not have air conditioning. So, around 11:00 pm I got picked up from my flat and made my way, windows down through the city to the airport. I had sprayed myself with bug spray in anticipation of the mosquitos, brought a bottle of water because the lows these days are in the 70’s, and my trusty iPod. After my driver tried to drop me off for departures (wrong, I do not have any luggage even!), and then circled around once before he understood that I meant park and wait, we finally slid into a parking spot sandwhiched between other people waiting.
I texted my roommate in hopes of her phone being charged enough to respond back to me, and waited in the back seat of the car until I knew she was close to coming out. She called me once she made it to baggage claim, and it was time for me to move.
I now needed to make my way up to the arrivals section of the airport. It is entirely outdoors, there is nowhere you can go inside the airport to meet arriving people. There is a long guard rail that lines about 100 feet of the arrivals area, so its kind of like a Hollywood Premiere type of walk from the exit door of the airport to the end of the section where you can finally greet your friends and family-except it is far from the glamour of Hollywood. A world away both literally and figuratively.
The rail to the airport walkway of fame was lined by about 300 people, and 98% of them were men as it was around midnight, and most women are in by about 9:00 here. I of course, was the only Westerner on that side of the rail. I managed to make my way up to the front so I could easily spot my roommate and we could find each other among the masses. People looked on in bewilderment at my lone white face in the sea of south asian skin tones.
My front row spot proved to be the highlight of the night, as I watched all of the bewildered Western businessmen clumsily making their way down the walkway in a jet lagged, culture and climate shocked condition, while the flight crew knowingly makes their way down the concrete carpet and into their travel van.
The business men meanwhile frantically searched for their names on all of the placards, and listened as men would call out, “Mr. Frieberg, Mr. Frieberg!”. I could not help but be amused by this process, as well as feel glad that after being here for about six months I am comfortable on the side of the rail that I was on. I have crossed over. I am no longer the Westerner walking around in a constant state of confusion and shock. Rather, I feel comfortable in my own skin here.

2007-04-01T19:31:00.000+05:30

Matt: i was like..marianne is getting interviewed on the internet...it looked like you were on cnn

ha. if only.

this weekend, south asia is winning in our ongoing battle.
1. i got incredibly sick last night, and didn't go to bed until 7:00 am this morning.
2. my atm card would not work.
3. my atm card does not work because unbeknownest to me, it expired yesterday.
4. there were riots/protests yesterday. i had to stay inside my flat all day until it was over.

argh.

2007-03-29T22:16:00.000+05:30

this is my roommate, nicolette, on the right. she left for the u.s. for two weeks tonight. this makes me sad, because i like her. you may be thinking to yourself, "marianne, two weeks is a short time". oh, but its a long time when you live in a fish bowl sized bubble.

2007-03-26T20:52:00.000+05:30

Marriott asks:

would you like some...

.....sugar? or some brown?

south asia is full of tough decisions.

2007-03-22T18:36:00.000+05:30

-exciting, but makes me laugh: http://www.noelheikkinen.com/ go to the march 21 post.

-i have killed three mosquitos in the last ten minutes

-the temperature in my room is 86 degrees. when i have two fans running on full speed.

2007-03-13T21:06:00.000+05:30

ok. in entirely true and new news, it is watermelon season here, and the streets are glistening green and red.

to be fair, i had never seen a bug bat in the U.S.! i will work harder on my fact checking before i decide that things do or do not exist in entire countries. :)

2007-03-13T07:38:00.000+05:30

As promised, I present to you the Bug Bat:

so, you hunt down some bugs around your room...preferably before bed time when they will wait around to bite you all night long. it looks a little like this.

then, when you catch one, their little bodies spark and sizzle until they dissapear. it is quite exciting. we tried to capture it in the picture, but it happens too fast.

2007-03-08T23:07:00.000+05:30

i am aware that i am well overdue for an update, and for that i apologize. it has been really busy here since i got back. i will try to get around to updating this and sending out an update email this weekend.

for now though here is a picture from the most recent village trip i went on:

these two girls are amazing. and if i can get it cleared, i will share their story.

2007-02-28T17:54:00.000+05:30

excerpts from an article in Christianity Today:

"Wouldn't it be ironic if Western Christians were more excited about what God did through William Wilberforce to fight slavery in 1807 than about what God wants to do through us to fight slavery in 2007?

The question would seem absurd if not for the fact that there are more slaves in the world today than were extracted from Africa during 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade. More than 25 million human beings are slaves in 2007. They are not slaves in a metaphorical sense. They are held in forced servitude by other human beings.

Today, many North American Christians who have entered the joy of God's passionate global mission embrace evangelism and compassion ministries that bring food, housing, microloans, and medicine to the poor. Yet many are also beginning to see the true basis of slavery, which is another source of suffering for the poor—aggressive violence. That is the core reality of forced labor: coercion and terror. Poverty, ignorance, and spiritual darkness are all part of a complex set of social factors that exacerbate slaves' original vulnerability, but once enslaved, they need someone to rescue them from the brutal hand of their oppressor.

For Nagaraj and his family, who worked 16 hours a day, six days a week, making bricks, there was no mystery about what kept them and 80 other slaves inside the four walls of their compound. It was the vicious beatings unleashed upon those who tried to run away. For Elisabeth, a 16-year-old girl held inside a brothel in Thailand, it was money for Bible college that lured her into the hands of a sex trafficker who lied about a job across the border. Once inside the brothel, however, it was sheer violent terror that forced her to submit to multiple rapes by the brothel's paying customers.

Hundreds of millions of poor people in the developing world today are suffering under an epidemic of violence—domestic abuse, sexual violence, slavery, illegal detention, police abuse, land seizures, and extortion. In their moment of greatest need, Nagaraj and Elisabeth and these millions of others are not crying out for a sermon or food or medicine or housing or microloans. In due course, they may. But right now, they are crying out for someone to restrain the hand of the oppressor. They are crying out for the ministry of justice. You can give all kinds of goods and services to the poor in the name of Christ—but if you have not restrained the hand of the oppressor from simply taking these things away, you have not done much that is significant or sustainable."

2007-02-20T22:12:00.000+05:30

an intense couple of weeks.
back in my corner of the world once again.

2007-01-23T14:22:00.000+05:30

I broke into my bottle of olive oil tonight. My three ounce two dollar bottle of olive oil. I was attempting to make pasta and it was necessary. I made my pasta. An assortment of jumbled together ingredients that would not necessarily combine in the real world. Penne noodles (imported from my trip to Thailand because they are expensive here), Green Pepper (called Capsicum here), garlic, and a chopped up tomato sautéed in the olive oil. I cooked the pasta once the water had been boiling for a few minutes and had boiled all of the germs away. I drained the water down our sink which has no garbage disposal (they don’t exist here). I combined my ingredients and seasoned them with a packet of oregano pizza seasoning from our ordered in pizza the other night. Grated cheese for pasta does not exist here either. Pasta sauce does, but is very over priced. And for what it makes in price, it lacks in taste.
I came upstairs and hopped onto our secret internet connection. I began emailing and looking for pictures of a hair cut. I have caved, or rather my hair is the longest it has been since middle school, and I made myself a hair appointment. At a place called “Bounce”. We’ll see how this goes. I decided to use a visual aid since I can assume that verbal aid will be lacking. I also looked for flights to Dubai. I am really wanting to be able to go and visit a friend there in a month or two. The culture and life style here is very oppressive and can be consuming if you don’t give yourself a mental and physical break every few months. The internet connection died. I’m left with two pictures that I found-has anyone ever tried to find hair cut pictures on the internet? Its actually quite difficult.
At some point tonight as I am going to bed or even already asleep, I will be plagued by water dripping onto the tin roof outside my window from a drain a few stories above me. This drain-where ever it is-has become my arch enemy of night time. It claps down onto the tin roof and keeps me awake with its untimely rhythms. I’ve become convinced that Chinese water torture probably is horrible.

2007-01-20T17:05:00.000+05:30

in my new profile pic i am drinking some coconut juice(?) milk(?). despite the fact that i look quite pleased, it was not that tasty. the new pic reminded me that i need to post some pics from thailand. so, here are a few:

here we are at the airport. if you can click on the pic, we are pointing to the master card ad that says, "Getting away from the hustle and bustle. Priceless." In a third world city of 8 million that statement could not be true. I think for my own health I will need to leave once more before my time here is over. It is a tough place to live.

Our first real day in Thailand we went on an elephant ride. To keep people occupied while they waited for their elephant ride, the place had a monkey. It was really sad that he was chained up, but he was so cool to interact with.

We were pals.

Here is a pic of Virginia behind us. It is a bit difficult to try and take a picture of yourself while riding an elephant. The place took pictures for you, but in typical tourist trap fashion charged an outrageous amount. Volunteer budget does not equal outrageous amount items.

this was the best that i could do as far as documentation. here are nicollette and i's feet and our guide with the elephants ears included to prove that yes, we really were riding an elephant.

okay. that is all for now, i will post more at some point.

2007-01-19T18:40:00.000+05:30

Last weekend i had the opportunity to see Blood Diamonds. I realize this movie has probably been out for a while in the U.S., but the rest of the world tends to have a delayed uptake. Anyways, I would highly recommend that all blog readers go out and see it. The movie is well done and brings to light a problem not often addressed by the first world. Beyond that, I think that it can offer you a greater insight into what I am doing dragging myself half way around the world for ten months.

In other news we are having some people changes at the office here soon. Five of our office members are having their time here come to an end or are shifting to a different office. Please pray for that as the people that you live and work with when overseas are essentially your family.

2007-01-07T20:56:00.000+05:30

we have found a random three foot space of wireless network at our apartment that occasionally works, hence the more frequent updating. well, there was december and now january. i had a birthday, there was also christmas, new year's, and a trip to thailand. so, here are some pictures mostly because i'm finding that lately i'm not doing well with articulating and detailing all of the events. the day to day becomes the day to day no matter where you are in the world i suppose. so, on with the pictures.

here i am happy as can be about going to the beach for my birthday.

then we went out to dinner:

next, was christmas. this was our christmas morning spread:

nothing even comparable to home, but not too bad for three girls living off of volunteer budgets in south asia.

we had all of our young people friends over for brunch. we made fruit salad, scrambled eggs, pancakes, crepes, toast, and banana bread.
we also had a mandatory rule that you had to wear your pajamas just like you would if you were at home with your family on christmas morning. it was great.

later in the afternoon we went over to one of our boss' house for dinner and a gift exchange with thirty or so other ex-pats. we did manage to get in a fight with our auto driver along the way. no, i'm not kidding, my roommate punched him in the shoulder! he was trying to do some serious swindling and just being sketchy in general. in the end it was more humorous than anything..but still quite surreal! i got to hang out with my boss' daughter, Adelaide, who is rivaling my old babysitting girl, Abbie, for being my favorite child in the world.

okay. it takes ages to load pictures here because the internet connections are so slow/bad. so i will do pictures of thailand another time. i've been told that people often are asking for updates, maybe an easier way to fill in the gap would be to get on my mass email list which i send updates out to. if you want to be added to that, just leave a comment on any of my posts with your email address, and i will add you! :)

2007-01-05T11:04:00.000+05:30

good press.

thailand was amazing. exactly the fresh breath of air that i needed. pictures to come in time.

2006-12-28T12:03:00.000+05:30

My birthday and Christmas were great. For my birthday, we went down to the beach an hour away and then came back and had dinner at a good Italian restaurant called Bella Ciao. Christmas began with having the 30 and under crowd over to our apartment for brunch. We all cooked and brought things and it was really good. Later in the afternoon, we went over to one of our boss’ house where about 25 ex pats were gathered for dinner and to do a gift exchange. It was nowhere near what my birthday and Christmas are like at home, but it was probably as good as they can get for being so far away!
I do have one a story about my favorite birthday present that I wanted to share. As I mentioned earlier, we went to the beach about an hour south of here. Now, as you drive to the beach, you drive along the coast, where the Tsunami came up and destroyed everything. The aftermath is still visible in the shacks that are loosely constructed lining the coast line, the absence of trees, and the presence of lakes that did not previously exist in areas away from the shore.
When we arrived at the resort, after lounging by the pool for a while, we made our way out to the beach. We were quickly seen by the locals and soon three children appeared by our sides. Once the children realized that we weren’t going to buy anything, the two boys started talking to my roommate, and the girl began to talk to me. We discussed the usual topics, where I am from, what grade she is in school, if she was around when Tsunami hit, etc. Her name was Olivia, and she was 11 years old, in Standard 6 in school. She proceeded to ask me if we were staying at the resort for the weekend. I told her that we were just down for the day. She continued to ask why we were down for the day, and I told her that it was my birthday.
We continued to talk for a few more minutes before she made her way back to the area where her family and friends were selling items. I continued to walk along the beach, and after a few minutes she came back down to me again. When she returned she had a small heart shaped necklace charm, and said, “Here, this is for your birthday, Happy Birthday!”. I was blown away. I could not comprehend how this 11 year old girl…who had been in Tsunami…who has nothing…lives in shack on the beach selling cheap jewelry to tourists…could be moved to give me a gift for my birthday. It still floors me. I think that it is one of the most concrete ways in which I have ever seen the love of Christ manifested in human form and interaction. That was my first thought in response to the situation, and it has stuck with me. I think it may be the best birthday present that I have ever received, and it provided me exceeding joy and peace about the fact that I was and continue to be miles and miles away from home this holiday season. So simple, yet so cool and meaningful. God works in amazing ways to move us and provide for us.
Tonight we are off to Thailand for six days, and I will post more pictures and stories when I return. Happy New Year!

2006-12-22T11:03:00.000+05:30

As promised (to some of you) here are the pictures of the creepy Santas that were caravaning around town last weekend. There were 6-8 busses of them.

Unsettling, no?

Also, this is how we roll in S. Asia:

finally, just because i like it, a picture at one of our favorite restaurants, Bella Ciao:

tonight: Christmas Play at church and hanging out with the group

tomorrow: tomorrow beach and dinner at bella ciao for my birthday

2006-12-15T12:05:00.000+05:30

Sorry that it has been a while since I’ve written. Life has been very busy here, and continues to be, so this will be a quick update. I am doing well, lots of things have been happening…one big and sadly unsuccessful raid, weddings, christmas parties, friends departing back to the states for the holidays. We have been moving and shaking here. So much so that the other night when we got home I fell asleep on my bed before I even ate dinner or did anything, because I was so exhausted. But it’s a good exhausted.
I’d like to tell you guys about one huge thing that has been taking up my time. Our office is in the process of doing a program evaluation for the aftercare (social work) department to measure how effective our services are that we provide for our rescued victims. Now, this is a task that I would much prefer to pass up. Statistics was my least favourite class in undergrad, and I more or less cursed it as I endured three of its miserable courses. However, here it comes to haunt me despite my best attempts to evade it.
But, as I have been going through the laborious process of doing data entry and getting ready to run tests on these surveys, I have been confronted with some very cool things. The surveys contain lots of questions about what was helpful to the victims, etc. and on quite a few surveys, one of the most meaningful things for the victims has been their release from bonded labour. It is amazing to see that in their words and know that it has remained as a life changing event for them. This may seem as though it would be obvious to some of you reading this for them to say that, but it is just a powerful thing to be able to read it and know that you are a part of that life change for people. And all of you, as my supporters are part of it as well.
I just wanted to share that with you all, and bring some joy and encouragement to your Christmas season. I will try and update again soon and throw in some pictures.

2006-11-28T18:50:00.000+05:30

thanksgiving was last thursday. the day started out with our maid coming at 8:30. despite the fact that we were there-and up-she decided that it would be a good idea to lay down on our floor and sleep. not kidding. here is a picture:

this picture was taken from our upstairs. notice how she carefully positioned herself underneath our coffee table so that she could still fit her whole body on the rug. this was maybe the most ridiculous thing that has happened yet. we proceeded to try and wake her up by making noise: slamming doors, playing music, talking. she did not budge. finally, i walked downstairs with my roommate, said, "excuse me." and she woke up with a sheepish grin on her face. we told her to go home for the day.

later in the day, we had thanksgiving at a restaurant that is owned by an American on the bottom floor of our office building. here is a picture of my roommates and i from that:

after dinner (which was medium good-south asia just doesn't do thanksgiving) we went to see Casino Royale. seeing a movie here is an experience in itself. first, you have assigned seating. second, everyone claps and cheers anytime they think something is worth either of those actions. third, they cut any scandalous parts of the movie. fine by me, but, that leaves holes and gaps in the plot and dialogue. fourth, there is an intermission in the middle. for about ten minutes. they just stop the movie where ever it is and everyone can get up and go to the bathroom or get refreshments.
friday was work again, and then on saturday we had a official christmas season kick off at the house of a guy who works for the consulate here. this is our young person crew minus a few:

that's all for now. i'm off to meet up with some ex pats who were wandering the same grocery store as us this past saturday. every westerner over here is automatically friends by default of living here and being westernized. happy christmas season.

2006-11-19T15:59:00.000+05:30

i also got sick this weekend. not sure what it was, but i was definitely down and out for all of saturday. i'm doing okay so far today (sunday) but it was rough. please continue to pray for health as my body continues to adjust to this side of the world. also, at my office this week there is a lot lot lot that needs to get done. so, it will be hectic and intense. thanksgiving is this week also..which i have to keep reminding myself of. somehow we all seem to just be caught up in the work and climate and different things that make us forget that thanksgiving is in fact on thursday. we will be having a proper thanksgiving dinner at the diner downstairs which is owned by an american. it will be good, but not as good as my mom's thanksgiving cooking unfortunately. the new apartment is good. we are enjoying having a place to call home.

2006-11-15T19:08:00.000+05:30

2006-10-30T18:31:00.000+05:30

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!

2006-10-24T18:12:00.000+05:30

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

2006-10-24T11:55:00.000+05:30

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! :)

2006-10-18T09:30:00.000+05:30

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

2006-10-14T07:25:00.000+05:30

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. :)

2006-10-10T06:43:00.000+05:30

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!

2006-10-02T05:50:00.000+05:30

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!

2006-09-19T06:23:00.000+05:30

I just got back from training in Washington D.C. last week! It was really really good. I learned a lot about the organization, and feel even more excited about the work it is doing and the fact that I get to be a part of it. I tend to think of myself as a relatively decent evaluator of non profits having spent significant time over the last two years in four different non profit organizations, and I can say without a doubt, that I am whole heartedly impressed with. The work that is doing is so thorough and professional...I was quite impressed.
Now I am back, and working at my agency for a few more weeks while also trying to fund raise. I need about $7900.00 in the next 4.5 weeks. This is where the people who are getting my letters and are reading this come in. My contact information for donations is at the bottom, please refer to it for sending donations. Before I went to training, I was more hesitant to ask people to donate money, but I have found myself at two conclusions in the last week:
1. time is of the essence, I need to do this more frequently in order to raise sufficient support to go
2. after going through training, I truly beleive that this organization and what I will be doing is a more than justifiable cause for people to donate to. If I was 100% behind what I was doing before, I am now 150% behind it, and have no hesitations about the integrity of the organization or what I will be doing when it comes to asking people to donate.

It is time for me to go print off some support letters, address some envelopes, and hope that people's hearts will be moved as they consider this endeavor.

2006-09-05T21:46:00.001+05:30

so, this is the beginning. there's a long way to go from here, but i just wanted to get this up and running for people who wanted to find out more and follow me on this journey! so here are some basics about me:

I graduated from Calvin College in Michigan with my undergraduate degree in Social Work and continued on to Michigan State University to get my Masters in Social Work through a one year program. My studies focused on clinical social work, and working with unaccompanied refugee minors and trafficking victims. International experiences come as a second nature to me having spent some of my childhood years in Peru, Belgium and Germany. In college I continued my travels to South Africa, England, and Guatemala where I studied subjects such as trafficking, post apartheid challenges, did mission work, and was finally able to use my Spanish. Outside of traveling and studying I enjoy horseback riding, dancing, soccer and an occasional surfing adventure whenever the ocean is near by.

so, that's kind of the basic about who i am. the important part is what i will be doing for the next ten months. i will be going to south asia with International Justice Mission (ijm.org). here is my support letter that i am sending out:

Dear Blog Reader,

As you may already know, I have been accepted to a ten month work (fellowship) program through an organization called. Throughout these ten months I will be responsible for doing social work with people who are victims of bonded slavery in South Asia. While it might seem like slavery is a practice of the past, National Geographic Magazine estimated that approximately 27 million people are held in bonded labor around the world today.

Let me explain a little bit more about to give you a clearer picture of what I will be doing; is a non-profit organization comprised of attorneys, law enforcement officials and social workers which works in countries all over the world to stop human rights abuses such as sex trafficking, modern day slavery, un-prosecuted rape, and illegal land seizure. seeks to bring justice to the victims of these abhorrent practices in an effective and systematic manner. partners with host country’s government and law enforcement to investigate trafficking and slavery rings. then breaks down rings and prosecutes perpetrators in order to ensure the end of an exploitative cycle. Once this is done, the social work staff seeks to connect and provide victims with the proper resources to help rehabilitate them socially, psychologically and financially, and to prepare them for re-entry into their society.

There are many ways you can fight injustice in the world today. However, I ask you to partner with me as I join with to personally take a stand against it. is a non-profit organization that serves people for free, thus I am raising support to fund my trip and expenses. The total estimated cost of my trip will be about $9,000. I am able to contribute somewhat to this experience from my own funds and savings, but am also paying off graduate school at this point and am unable to completely fund it myself. Please seriously consider if you can join with me in this venture. Any gift, no matter what the amount, is helpful and will help rescue former slaves from a life of oppression that you and I cannot even begin to imagine.

If you are able to support me in this, there are two ways in which you can make a donation:

You can send checks directly to me, and I will ensure that they are used solely to cover the expenses of my trip. Or, you can make a tax deductible donation and write the check out to International Justice Mission. In accordance with IRS standards however, you may not write my name anywhere on the check, even the memo line. All checks should be sent to me, and I will either route them toward my trip, or send them on to a financial coordinator at IJM.

Thank you for your consideration of supporting me in this endeavor. I believe in it so strongly not only because it will be life changing for me, but because I know that it will be life changing for all of the people that I encounter. Please feel free to check out ’s website (.org) to learn more about the organization. Please contact me with any questions you might have.

Sincerely,

Marianne

if any of you out there are considering supporting me, please send it to: