Draders in Deutschland

Culture surprise!

2009-07-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

At this point in our stay in Germany (a little over half-way), I'm finding it unexpected to be experiencing culture - not shock, exactly, more surprise. Yes, culture surprise. Situations that leave me thinking things ranging from "Hm, what an odd way to think/behave!" to "Now why would you do that?" and finally to "Oh no you di'n't!"

Zum beispiel (For example):

1. Butting in line
This keeps happening to me. If there's a line, I stand directly in front of the goal, behind the person who is actually paying or putting away their step (in step class at the gym). Inevitably, someone cuts in from the left or right, standing beside the person in front of me at the cash. I suppose they are physically closer to the cashier, but then they actually have to step in front of me, who has been there longer.
When it happened at McDonalds (and got between me and my child's food), I, a Canadian (here's how I know I've been here for a while), said something! And here's how we know we're not in Canada: it was all very pleasant. They smiled apologetically, and said, "Oh well, look, here's our
food - we didn't make you wait very long!" I smiled and wished them a good day. In Canada we would probably have settled for dirty looks and cold shoulders (after I apologized for standing in their way!). I think I might prefer this pleasant confrontation instead of unpleasant politeness. (I would have said something the other day to a lady who butted in line, but Kaia had just fallen into her change room and caused a bit of a ruckus, so I let it go. Sometimes, it's better that way.)

2. Birthdays
Birthdays may not be celebrated in any way before the actual date of birth. Very important. This is causing some difficulty for us since Lia's will happen in the first 4 days of holidays. I wanted her to be able to celebrate her birthday at Kindergarten. So, I talked it over with a friend, and said that maybe I could just send the cupcakes (NOT cookies - cookies are only for Christmas time. The crazy Canadians sent maple leaf cookies on July 1st, can you believe it?! What is this, Christmas in July?) during the last week of kindergarten, less than a week ahead of her birthday. However, it can't be done. I inquired as to why, and from what I gather, it's just considered bad luck. But I'm not superstitious and neither is my friend. Still, she said, "But really, you can't do it." Shade!

3. Pigeons - the rats of the air
Neighbours beside us (we can just see their roof), have a multitude of pigeons living on their roof. We felt so sorry for them. The noise. The smell. The pigeons!! Ick. I wondered what could be done for them. Then one night, we were sitting enjoying a steak grilled on our charcoal grill (apparently propane BBQs are for old people nearing death - but I much prefer them), when we heard a strange sound above the pigeon ruckus. It sounded almost like someone calling to the pigeons. Indeed, we stood up and saw an arm reaching out of one of the windows, and the pigeons all gather around the window. And then - horrors - the pigeons went IN THE HOUSE. I almost screamed.

The next day I told my German teacher about this awful scene, and she said, "Oh, pigeon racers!" She told me all about the poor man's horses. They raise pigeons to race. They have special clocks in which they place the fastest pigeon's ankle bracelet, and then bring the clocks to a special location where they drink a beer and figure out who wins and give each other tips on how to care for their rats - I mean - pigeons.

Wow. I just looked up pigeon racing, and there are so many links. Here's a few to enjoy:
www.speedpigeon.com
www.purebredpigeon.com
www.pigeonnetwork.com
http://forum.pigeonbasics.com/m-1225393326/

And of course, Wikipedia explains how it works: Competing birds are taken from their lofts and must race home. The time taken and distance are recorded and the fastest bird is declared the winner. Races are generally between 100 and 1000km in distance. To compete in a race, it must wear a permanent, unique numbered ring or band that is placed on its leg at about 5 days of age. For a race to be conducted, the competing pigeons must be entered into the race, usually at the organisation's clubhouse, and taken away from their home to be released at a predetermined time and location. The distance between the bird's home loft and the racepoint is carefully measured by GPS and the time taken by the bird to return is measured using one of the two acceptable timing methods. Here's a picture of an old-style timer.

So, I can imagine how the racing is interesting and fun, and that it's gratifying to be part of a worldwide community etc, etc. Sure. But at the end of the day, when you have rats living in your attic (and I spoke to witnesses who say it STINKS), you gotta ask yourself if maybe you should get another hobby. Or at least locate them in an outbuilding!

So the pigeon racing isn't actually a German culture surprise, exactly, since they do it all over the world, but I heard of it here first. And in Canada, they sure wouldn't be living in your attic.
Oh, Germany! What will you think of next?

Happy Canada Day!!

2009-07-02T12:39:00.001-07:00

We just had a Canada Day party last night, with almost 20 German friends here, sporting red and white clothes and even a Vancouver Canucks T-shirt. Marc had made a Canadian music playlist, so we were grooving to Great Big Sea, Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams (well-known in Germany!), and even a little Shania. I had posted info around the room and then asked questions about Canada and we had prizes for correct answers. The buttons and tatoos were big hits. I had baked (cherry cheesecake like a Canadian flag, maple butter, maple syrup pie, red berry pie and a taco salad, along with other red and white food) and decorated up a storm. Lia thought it was as good as Christmas (and all the more exciting since it seemed to come completely out of the blue, though I had been planning for a while) since she even got gifts from people, and I sent maple leaf cookies for all the kids at kindergarten. We were even more patriotic than in Canada. Germans don't really get patriotic...culturally nationalism is a bad word here, given their history. But they really have a lot to be proud of. And so does Canada! Herzlichen Gluckwunsch, Kanada!

Fun times!

2009-07-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

The past little while has been quite busy. We haven't been blogging because it's been nonstop, and because our blog is about our time in Germany, and well, we weren't here! Maybe we'll write about it, but that'll be later. For now, back to the German adventures...

So I have this friend. She's very fun, and is always thinking of interesting things to do. For my birthday, she gave me a girls night out- tickets to what she called an adult circus (for lack of a better description). I was thinking that it wasn't my thing, exactly, but we're kind of "when in Rome"-ing it these days, so I went. It turned out to be a pretty amazing variety show, even in German. Skills like that are translingual.

This variety show puts on a new show every two to three months, featuring acrobats, jugglers, dancers, singers, illusionists and comedy. It's in a tent (seating 300 and serving food and drinks). Totally fun!

EXTRASCHICHT! (http://www.extraschicht.de/)
A night of excitement. A night of discovery. A night of industry and technology?? Once again, I had to trust my friend, and just go along with her, even though it didn't sound very exciting. On the drive to our first location, I was able to read up on it, and it started to sound much better...
"Once a year the Metropolitan Ruhr District celebrates a colorful cultural festival: For one night only, former industrial plants are turned into unforgettable stages for performances by international artists. More than 160,000 visitors will embark on an exciting journey of discovery and be treated to an impressive taste of what the European Capital of Culture 2010 will offer. "

So we started out with some food - always a good start, although I have to say I was a little disappointed since that was definitely not the focus of the evening (like, there were pretzels, sausage and cake - that's it...), and I really like food.
But, we saw some cool jugglers, had great conversation, got caught in the rain, took a boat ride, ate some birthday cake, saw some art, a physics show, and odd exhibits (like these two guys on exercise bikes connected to record players and film strips. An interesting sound/light/motion experiement. Turns out it's very hard to pedal consistently, although I'm not sure they were trying to. Neat effect.). I was introduced to Brause - a candy(?) that all German kids love. (learn more: http://www.todocandy.com/fizzy-sour-candy-ahoj-brause.php) Myself, not a fan, though it was an experience. Kinda fizzy, but mostly foamy. And quite medicinal.

They had these cool light balloons all along the river which added to the festive spirit. And all the industrial buildings were lit up in various fun and interesting ways. The finale of our evening was a Waterworks show (like fireworks, though with water fountains), set to music by 4 avant-garde violinists. Very cool. It was inspiring to see this area (very industrial, blue collar) embracing its roots, and combining that with art in a way that was totally exciting and inspiring. Awesome!

Ja hoo!

2009-04-29T13:16:00.001-07:00

The past few days have been personally satisfying and Germanly encouraging for me.
Today I took both girls swimming. The event started and ended with some tears (not mine, thankfully!), featured pee on the floor, and a dirty swim diaper, but on the whole it was a raging success. We swam outside, played in the kids' pool, sat in a warm tub and had a tonne of fun.
Yesterday I went to a flea market (ALWAYS exciting) with my friend, and despite the rain, found a few items for my new nephew who will be joining the world in August. Yay! Then Kaia and I headed to the dentist since she had a little fall that resulted in a pushed-in tooth. Everything seems fine for now. The visit was encouraging for me since the dentist didn't speak English. I filled out the form, booked new appointments for Lia and Kaia and spoke with the dentist and receptionist all in German. Let's just hope I understood as much as I think I did!
After picking up Lia at Kindergarten, the three girls went shopping with a few goals, one of which was to get haircuts. Despite some major fussiness BOTH Lia and I got our hair cut. (Wow!) The girls were angelic while they waited for me, and I spoke German to the hairdresser. I even explained "hockey hair" to her in order to illustrate why I wanted the back trimmed a little shorter.
So I feel that I've turned another corner on the language front. Although it's always difficult, and I get impatient, I'm pretty encouraged, too. And Lia is always willing to translate for me! :)

Those Were the Days

2009-04-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Fire day
As we drove back from spending Easter weekend in Maastricht, we passed hundreds (literally) of bonfires in fields and backyards. We thought this was a little odd, but it turns out that in Germany on the Saturday night before Easter, that's what you do - burn stuff. Happy Fire Day!

Pillow Fight Day
During a recent visit to Cologne (April 4th), we noticed the air was becoming increasingly filled with little fluffs (which we assumed came from trees or flowers). Walking back towards the Cathedral, we noticed more and more feathers on the ground and in the air (and in our lungs). And then, in the plaza in front of the cathedral, we saw hundreds of people engaged in a giant pillow-fight, ankle-deep in feathers and goose down from exploded pillows (and a few synthetic-filled pillows). City clean-up crews were standing at the sidelines, waiting for their turn to move in and start to clean up the mess.
Happy Pillow Fight Day! (www.pillowfightday.com)

Maastricht and Valkenburg

2009-04-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Marc here (I love ice cream).

Karla and I got a chance to get away for 2 days while my parents were visiting. We drove 1.5hrs to Maastricht, and spent our time at a spa hotel in Valkenburg. The weather was beautiful (20~23 degrees and blue skies/sunny) and Maastricht is a beautiful, diverse city. It's in the Netherlands technically, but it's surrounded by Belgium and Germany.
We ate ice cream, shopped a cool flea market (and bought some antiques that made Karla's day), dodged bicycles in cobbledstones pedestrian areas, enjoyed the river Maas, and the usual 12th century Romanesque Basilica that you find in all nice European towns :)

Valkenburg is mostly known for some castle ruins "the only castle in the Netherlands that's built on a hill", according to the tourist information. It turns out that it's also the only hill in the Netherlands :)

Underneath the castle hill, there is 800 years of limestone quarrying history (to build the castle and surrounding village). The resulting caves became a kind of tourist attraction in the 1800s, and were decorated with a whole series of carvings - they have also housed clergy escaping persecution in the 1700s, and more recently over 600 villagers for 6 days during the liberation of Valkenburg in 1945. There is graffiti spanning hundreds of years, including a series of profiles of American soldiers (and signatures, rank, and home city info). On a sad note, in 1993, two boys got into the caves somehow (they've tried to lock down every entrance), and were unable to find their way out :(
In one section of the caves, you can see where the limestone quarry intersected a well from the castle above - it's amazing to see how deep inside the hill you are you actually standing, when you look up the well shaft (and then down, even further). Good times!

Fear and Loathing in Das Spielplatz

2009-04-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

Going to the Spielplatz gives rise to some surprising and contradictory feelings in me. First there's the fear and loathing (surprising) and then also contentedness and dread (contradictory).
So the contentedness comes in as I take in the beautiful sunny day, realizing I'm taking my children on an outing that is good for them and that they enjoy, but then, I dread the boredom of standing in the sweltering sun, chasing kids from one either dangerous or boring piece of equipment to the next. And also, sand in my shoes, and the walk home with whiny kids.
The fear and loathing is tied to the language/cultural barrier I experience on a daily basis, but even more acutely at the playground. I realized today that I find it necessary, (and helpful) to repeat silently, "I do not have the plague, I do not have the plague, I do NOT have the plague!" as I circulate at the Spielplatz. As much as I have learned in these few months of twice weekly language classes, I still can't converse with someone who doesn't have significant patience and/or an English education of some sort.* Strangers are, by definition, unknown, and as such, are generally out. So I stand in silence, smiling a LOT. I see Moms from the Kindergarten, but we don't do any more than smile since communicating is so difficult. I am hesitant to talk even with my own kids in English lest I give away my un-German-ness to those who don't know me already as "The Canadian" (as if the grinning idiot schtick didn't tip them off that I am "different").
By the time we arrive the benches are full, so I lurk by the tree, trying to keep sight of both girls. Or else I follow them around, hoping they don't meet a friend and make me go back to my tree. No really, when they meet a friend, I'm thrilled - they're integrating! They're having fun! That's good!
My ever-watchful gaze lands on some little boys and girls with big sticks, whipping them in the air, millimetres from each others' eyes. An attacked boy retreats to a bush where he yells loudly at the bigger boy, clearly distraught by his near blinding. And no one intervenes. Where are their parents? Should I step in? Perform a rescue? But who to save, as the hunted becomes the hunter.
Truth is, playground etiquette confuses me in my own land, never mind in another culture. At least this playground is fun, and not too dangerous. High platforms, huge gaps between stairs, loads of moving parts. What could go wrong?

*Note: Most Germans have had English in high school, but apparently the classes are very boring and stressful without much speaking practice. They tense up immediately upon realizing that I speak "nur ein bisschen Deutsch".

Die Neue Spielplatz!

2009-03-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

We have a new playground! (Spielplatz).
Over the past week, the old decrepit equipment at our local playground disappeared. The only clue that something good was going to happen was that 2 new benches were installed. But now, just in time for our first full sunny weekend since the fall, a whole bunch of new playground stuff was installed! The whole neighbourhood was out in force, watching their kids play on the new stuff. It was really fun, because it`s been a very grey couple of months, and now it`s sunny and everyone is out and about.
We know many of the parents and kids because they also attend our neighbourhood Kindergarten - so that just adds to the feeling of community.

This past week, Lia had to take a standardized German langugage test (every pre-school kid needs to take it) and she passed with flying colours (better than some of the native German-speaking kids - can you tell that we`re proud? :)

Emergency Preparedness 101

2009-03-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

You never really expect that you'll see someone's fingernail pulled out (unless you watch the show 24 a lot), much less your own child's. But that's what happened this weekend. Poor Kaia got a heavy wood lid slammed on her hands. The resulting injury didn't actually break any of her fingers (although they didn't look too good), but the middle finger of her left hand was hurt the most: Kaia's fingernail was ripped right out (!)

Yes, it was as graphic and terrible as you could imagine. We got Kaia to the hospital to have her finger bandaged and X-rayed (and to update her tetanus shot), but before we got there, things were a bit crazy. Every piece of gauze and tape in our first aid kit is designed for grown-ups - so bandaging a tiny, tiny hand (while the child is flipping out) was a big challenge. It also turns out that opening bandaids while you`re shaking is way harder than it should be!
The German health care system has been awesome (as usual). Kaia was seen and treated within 10 minutes in the ER (although getting the X-ray took longer because it was lunch time). We've been to a pediatrician once already to rebandage everything, and we have several more appointments booked.
Kaia is holding up very well and didn't need any painkillers after the first 12 hours or so. It's hard on her parents though... :)

Helau! It's Karneval!

2009-02-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

It's Karneval time! (or was, when this post was written)

A little background...
Apparently Karneval developed in this area really strongly because it was a way to express subversive anti-Prussian and anti-French thoughts in times of occupation, through parody and mockery. Cologne and Dusseldorf are the epi-center of Karneval happenings - and you either love it or hate it.
Basically, it runs from the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, to Ash Wednesday itself. On different days, there are different emphases - like on Altweiber, women cut off men's ties. Then there's the carnival fools take over city hall literally. Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), most businesses are closed and there are parades and more tomfoolery (read: public drunkeness before lunch). In Bochum, there is even a special Goose-riding club that puts on a crazy event where horseback riders try to catch a greased goose. Cultural idiosyncrasies are tough to translate at the best of times, so yes, it is as weird as it sounds :)

So far, for us, all we know is that Lia gets to dress up (like a Princess, of course!) for 4 days, and she's pretty excited. I put a little bit of blush and lip gloss on her this morning, and she just looked at me adoringly and said, "Mommy, I love you!" I melted. She was very solemn as she danced to crazy polka music at the kindergarten. Funny.

We didn't participate in too many other Karneval events, but we did do the Rosenmontag parade (walking distance from our house) - and our kids both collected more candy than they'll be allowed to eat in a year!

Just an ordinary day

2009-02-19T10:18:00.001-08:00

So, we've been a little quiet lately. Nothing much going on, is all.
Except for another WWII bomb finding which closed the main street near our house for a bit.
And there was that time when Marc had a business trip to Paris for the day, and I locked myself (and the kids) out of the house...at least I didn't lock a child in the house! We took refuge at the neighbours'.
Normally, things aren't that exciting. Marc goes to work, I go shopping (easy come, easy go?) I go to the gym (I'm really getting into the Step class - which is called Step Intro, but I feel like I've jumped into the deep end - I'm mixing metaphors, but you know what I mean !), I learn German, I play with Kaia, and I pick Lia up from Kindergarten. And feeding the kids seems to be a full-time occupation these days. Picky!! However, they both enjoy my meatloaf, and I can sneak lots of vegetables into it, so Kaia's eating pretty much nothing but. She also LOVES cashews and Cornflakes. And Bologna (I found some nitrate-free lunch meat, so I'm not feeling so guilty anymore! Yay!). Lia likes waffles, bread with cream cheese, peanut butter and Nutella, Tzaziki and peppers. And Special K - but not Canadian Special K, German Special K. There is a huge difference. Seriously. And I have to agree with her.

Here's Kaia enjoying her indoor sandbox (featuring Love Rice imported from Canada - it's a long story - thanks Dad!)

I'm also taking steps toward starting an English language conversation class which is very exciting! I can't wait to start teaching again.

Oh, and I had my first massage since leaving Canada. It was awesome.

A headache recently has been the lice outbreak at the kindergarten. That's been an ongoing situation for a month now. We do 2 hairchecks a day - and this on a child who doesn't stand for any amount of hairbrushing by the gentlest person with the gentlest brush on the gentlest day of year. We've washed everything we own at 60 degrees several times (some things are smaller, and white things are darker) and are living with no cushions, throws or rugs anywhere. We haven't really "gotten" lice, but there have been a few visitors from other kids at the kindergarten. So we are making it as inhospitable as possible. Lice, begone!

We have a card which gives discounts at various attractions in the area, so it's encouraging us to get out on the weekends, even in these frigid temperatures. -3 is REALLY cold! We went to Sealife and parked in the designated parking lot which is so incredibly far from Sealife itself, it's hilarious, and there was a fairly brutal wind. Add to that the ridulously long ramp (I guess it was a pretty steep incline, and there must be some very conservative German rules about the slope of a ramp for wheelchairs, because while Lia and Marc managed the stairs in about 30 seconds, Kaia and I zigged and zagged down that ramp for nearly 30 minutes, it seemed. Back and forth, back and forth...) and then being unable to find Sealife for quite a while (we were thinking that had we been on the Amazing Race, they would have shown us looking really foolish and lost, and then a closeup of the sign clearly indicating our destination which we just passed several times) we were REALLY glad to get there. The kids loved it, and we got some funny photos:

Another Saturday we took the kids to a local pool/sauna complex, and then returned by ourselves for Valentine's Day - very relaxing and fun. They have a wave pool, a smaller pool with slides for the kids (which Kaia loved, and I was so relieved since she HATED it the first time I took her swimming), a work-out room, a warm indoor pool, a cool outdoor pool and two warm outdoor pools that have a very high salt content. And they have a huge sauna area which is pretty spectacular with many flavours and styles of saunas, as well as a steam room. Great fun for the whole family.

Lia and Kaia celebrated their half-birthdays with peach pie and a Mary Poppins DVD. They are growing by leaps and bounds, becoming more and more independent and funny. And cute. And sweet. I love them dearly, and they make even the most ordinary day something spectacular.

Amsterd&#% !

2009-02-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

We've just returned from Canada...what a trip!

At the outset, we were a little nervous about the flight. Kaia seemed to be teething. We loaded up and went to get Lia from Kindergarten with lots of time to get to the airport. Lia came to the car sobbing because she had bit Marc, and when he yelled, she was scared and sad. And maybe sorry. Maybe.
A block into our journey, I felt a cold and wet sensation and discovered that I had forgotten to put the valve in Lia's milk which was in the backpack on my lap. We had to return home and clean out the whole bag - it had leaked on all the food we brought, and there was a lot! But our neighbour saw my plight and helped, which was great.
So, a good trip until...our Dusseldorf to Amsterdam plane had a mechanical problem which caused a 3 hour delay and we missed the plane to Toronto. The only option was to overnight in Amsterdam (with no luggage, which remained in the system), and take a flight to Toronto via Paris early the next morning. We slept for 7 hours in Amsterdam (having been in airports for the previous 7 hours, and having only managed to travel 300kms), and got up early the next morning to fly to Paris which made no progress, but took quite a lot of time. And then we almost missed the flight from Paris to Toronto, since the connection was so short. After security, Marc scooped up both girls, and I grabbed all our stuff, and we took off running. I suggested that Marc not run over the nuns, and he missed them narrowly. As he was huffing and puffing along, Lia started rubbing his chest and said, "This is hard, eh, Daddy? It's hard. But it's okay. It'll be okay. It'll be okay, Daddy." And it was, kinda.
We arrived in Toronto 18 hours late, but we were glad to just collect our bags and head to our family and friends so we could -- what? No luggage? Upon making this discovery, we were a little ... crestfallen. And we spent the next several hours making a luggage claim, renting our car (and a carseat, since it had been checked, along with our stroller and bags containing clothes and Christmas presents), and making many trips to the potty. But at last we were on the road in our shiny red, massive SUV (Welcome to North America!) which would have been really handy if we had had all our gear!
I made a 2am (Germany time) trip to Zellers to get our 'first needs' (hopefully covered by KLM) with my wonderful sister who kept me on task and made the decision making and purchase process a joy. Or something as reasonably close to a joy as one could expect. It was very nice to be together.

So we had a very busy whirlwindy two weeks,visiting, celebrating Christmas for the 3rd time, welcoming our first nephew, Luke (VERY sweet), and somewhere in there, Marc worked fulltime! I really enjoyed singing in the Praise Team on Sunday. I miss that so much! It was wonderful to see family and friends and just be together. We visited our favourite restaurants, and had many great conversations. Lia and I even got to make a snowman together.

Our luggage came, one piece at a time, usually at midnight, right before we needed it. Marc got his work clothes Sunday night, and we got the Christmas presents right before heading to my sister's for "Christmas". God continues to teach me the importance of doing everything in love and the unimportance of stuff. In fact, a dependence on stuff can be quite inconvenient!
Right before we left, we were hit with some illness...imagine a house with 6 children and 4 adults. All children and at least one adult throwing up...somehow it wasn't so bad. Although I was really nauseous for the entire flight home, and Kaia vomited upon landing in Amsterdam. Marc sat between the kids and did a fantastic job. The people behind him said, "Good parents!", but they were talking to him! (We did get our luggage this time, by the way! We were pleasantly surprised.)

It's nice to be in Germany. Feels familiar and home-like. And it's nice to be done traveling. We're quite tired of loading/unloading the stroller to get past security checks, planing/deplaning, and going through revolving doors that aren't designed for strollers. Maybe we'll never travel again...
Ah, who am I kidding? But only direct flights from now on. That is our new rule and our advice for anyone traveling with children.

Here are some random photos of our adventures in Canada...

The snow finds us

2009-01-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

Last week we decided that we needed to have some snow this winter. Never mind that we're visiting Canada in January in the snowiest snowful winter ever. So with our neighbours we drove a few hours north and went schlittenfahren. Fun time had by all. Except the kids. We should have maybe more paid attention to the fact that ALL the families returning to their cars included multiple children bawling their eyes out. I made a mental note not to stay THAT long, and set forth.
Every trip to the bottom of the hill was met with, "Noch mal! Do it again!" Lia had a blast. We didn't stay that long, we really didn't. And yet, all 4 kids were crying as we returned to our cars. We had a lovely time at a bakery to warm up, then drove 3 hours in a snowstorm to get home again. Yes, the snowstorm lasted for the duration of our drive. Yes, that means the snow came with us. First time since 1997, there is snow in the Ruhrgebiet.

Here are some shots of our adventure.

Kaboom!

2009-01-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve/Silvester 2009 was celebrated with a bang. We went to a friend's house for
Raclette - YUMMY! - and drove home at 12:45, despite warnings to wait a while. We should have waited, perhaps. It was ... how do I put this ... CRAZY! After enjoying a full 45 minutes of do-it-yourself fireworks surrounding us, there were still lots of explosions around our vehicle. And under our vehicle. I drove, and it was freaky.
In the morning, we took a walk to survey the damage...

Marc found an unexploded package and was VERY excited. Even though Silvester was over, he lit it up on our balcony...

So, Kaboom! I mean, Happy New Year! Also, Frohes Neues Jahr!

Joyeux Noel!

2008-12-31T03:24:00.001-08:00

On the 23rd, just one day after 3 trips to the doctor in one day (and several antibiotic prescriptions), we drove to Paris. I was a little worried about the drive since lately, Lia had been asking, "Are we there yet?" after a five minute drive to church or the grocery store. Somehow, we managed. We checked into our hotel and called Marc's cousin. He and his girlfriend came over and cooked us dinner in our little kitchenette! Marc's grandparents who were also staying in the hotel, came by for a little visit as well. Remarkably, the girls both went to sleep in the same room, and didn't wake up even with all the noise and excitement in the next room.

The next day we went on a little walk around the hotel, enjoying La Bastille and Le Jardin des Plantes which had a few animals (miniature Koala bears and kangaroos). Lia enjoyed chasing pigeons and avoiding Mommy's camera.

I found a stand selling crepes right by the playground - happy day! - and we chased our ham and cheese crepe down with some real Italian pizza in our hotel room. Naps were followed by a Mass at a nearby cathedral. The kids did well for the first hour, but we left a little early since they were literally running circles around us. That evening we had réveillon* - I like this tradition very much! An exciting thing was that at the mass, Bonpa ran into his cousin whom he had not expected to see, and invited her to join us. So I met another member of the French extended family.

*In France and some other French-speaking places, including Quebec, Northern Ontario and parts of the U.S., réveillon is a long dinner and possibly party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word réveil (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until midnight and beyond. The food consumed at réveillons is generally of an exceptional or luxury nature. For instance, appetizers may include lobster, oysters, escargots or foie gras, etc. Quality wine is usually consumed at such dinners, often with champagne or similar sparkling wines as a conclusion. (from Wikipedia)

Marc's aunt and cousin had prepared all of these amazing hors dòeuvres (the photo shows only a portion of the food presented), including foie gras, champagne, wine, chocolates and many other delicious treats. We did what we could.

The next day was Christmas day! The cousins and grandparents came to our room to open gifts. Kaia took a little while to warm up to Bonpa, and treated him with "The Look", but eventually gave in to a smile...

After a hurried gift opening, we rushed off to the Seine for our lunch cruise. We were quite early, so Lia and I went on a little adventure to see the tower. Very exciting for Lia - she knew about la tour Eiffel, but unfortunately, only from watching Dora! %Where are we going? Tower, mountain, winter palace! We did it! We saved Friendship Day!%

Oh, Dora! Is there anyone you cannot help?

Lia and I also chased pigeons.

At last we were seated, the boat started moving, and we were served our amuse bouches. Lia was not so sure what she thought about French cuisine. We didn't tell her what escargots are, but still, she passed. Thankfully, there was a slice of meat on top, and that went down without question.

The meal was over 4 hours long, and the kids did suprisingly well. Lia found a Venezuelan friend at a nearby table. They were speaking German and Spanish to each other until they realized they both spoke English, and things went better from there. Besides, they were both able to communicate without words through the magic that is dance.

The food was amazing, the scenery superb and the company delightful - what more could you ask for?

After the cruise, we said some goodbyes, and went with the cousins to see another cousin who is a firefighter in Paris. We hung out, heard some stories, and as we were saying goodbye, he gave his patch "Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris" to Kaia - ripped it right off his jacket (it was velcroed, but still, very cool!)

Then we had Reveillons part Deux (still lots of food leftover afterwards!), and we made a gingerbread house (the Canadian contribution)! All in all, a wonderful time! Joyeux Noel!

Getting ready for Christmas/Weihnachtstag/Noel

2008-12-29T13:12:00.000-08:00

Despite trying to fit in with German culture and celebrating new holidays and practices (St. Martin's Day, St. Niklaus Day, etc), we broke with German tradition and set up our tree ahead of the 24th. Weihnachtsbaum were being sold from the beginning of December, but they aren't usually decorated until the 24th. We decided we couldn't wait. We put on our Bruce Cockburn Christmas album (best Christmas album ever, by the way), and decorated our Tannenbaum with ornaments brought from Canada and a few purchased here. Kaia enjoyed helping, handing me ornaments as carefully as she could. Lia enjoyed hearing stories of where each ornament came from, and when Granny happened to call in the middle of decorating, she was treated to a spontaneous and heartfelt, "Thank you for the beautiful ornaments, Granny!!"

Above is a picture of part of our new nativity scene. I had seen it in a store in Köln, and then at one of the booths at the local Christmas market. We visited it every time we went to the market, and Marc and I had several "discussions" about purchasing it. I was for, he was not...
One evening Marc and I arranged for a baby sittter, and went to the market by ourselves to get some Christmas presents and have an evening out. We went to see the creche, but it was gone! I was very sad, since I had this little hope that maybe Marc would come around. I looked so crestfallen that Marc very quickly whispered in my ear that he had bought it! The next morning he organized a treasure hunt complete with clues for Lia to find each piece. Then we read the Christmas story from Matthew and arranged it carefully on the piano. This will be a family tradition for many years to come. I can just imagine the treasure hunt getting more and more elaborate every tear.

Also keeping with tradition, I had the opportunity to sing this Christmas season. At our neighbours' church, I sang a couple of my songs which fit very nicely into the 3rd Sunday of advent service (Holy and Sea to Sea). This is a picture of our last-minute band playing a few traditional German carols: Süßer die Glocken nie klingen and Tochter Zion, freue dich. Our neighbours are on accordion and guitar with their little daughter looking on. I also sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel at the church we attend, and was very well received.

I've already written about the Christmas markets and how fun they are. We decided our last visit to a Weihnachtsmarkt would be to Dortmund where they have the world's largest Christmas tree. It was really big (constructed of many smaller trees), but probably more impressive at night, lit up and viewed through a haze of Gluhwein.

Here are a few more fun sights from the Dortmund market - a yummy looking garbage can...and a ketchup cow. Mmm...

Merry Christmas Rose!

2008-12-27T02:40:00.001-08:00

So we've been talking about sponsoring a Sudanese orphan who is the same age as our kids, so that they can sort of "grow-up" in parallel. We'd really like our kids to gain an awareness of poverty, and develop a relationship with the poor in some way. (it shouldn't be an "us and them" sort of idea. and we shouldn't simply pity the poor - it's just another way of distancing ourselves. We should participate in lives of people in need (it goes both ways when you have a relationship). Obviously, a sponsorship is a fairly small thing from this side, but it will make a huge difference for the sponsored child (and it seems more real, now that I've seen sponsorship results in person).
Anyway, I contacted Christian Horizons, who organizes orphan sponsorships at St. Bartholomew's orphanage in Kajo Keji, South Sudan. (Lahash International is also involved here). They came back with a little 1-year old who needs sponsorship: Rose!
It turns out that I know her! She is the only little kid whose name I actually learned when I visited St. Bartholomew's! I held her and have tonnes of photos with her - what a great coincidence! It's just an extra feeling of connection that I have to South Sudan now...

Here are some photos...

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 9

2008-12-19T22:53:00.000-08:00

My last post from the trip to Sudan itself. I'm sure I'll have at least one other post with more wrap-up kind of thoughts....

DAY 9

My current latitude is 0.15 degrees (Entebbe/Kampala is very close to the equator). We're landing our MAF plane as I speak (didn't get to ride upfront - this time it's a different pilot named Achim - it's apparently against the rule, and a previous passenger nearly crashed the plane once, when they panicked and grabbed/yanked the yoke, just as Achim was touching down)

Here ends the series - thanks for sticking with me. I figured you'd like the as-it-happens reporting, even if it came with all my personal feelings/commentary. I'm going to try and make some edited blog posts with pictures (dradersindeutschland.blogspot.com)

I had one last muddy "shower" this morning, but I'm already coated in red dust.

I said goodbye to the large cockroaches and lizards in the latrine (and gave away the rest of my toilet paper to Lloyd since I won't need that where I'm going).

We gave away Bruce's rooster (which he received from a pastor who knew him, as a wedding present) to a couple that's getting married next week.

My favourite Sudanese dish that I will miss the most is a fresh peanut butter, tomato and onion salad, served with deep-fried flatbread. No one got sick at all on this visit, praise the Lord.

My main biblical association with Sudan is Nehemiah, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall. We read and discussed that a lot, given Sudan's destruction and the current rebuilding.

Through the night and early this morning, we had many meetings, many speeches, lots of breast-beating, interventions, prayer and complicated discussion that was over our head. Enoka called a bunch of the revival centre leaders from around the area to come to deal with the issues that had surfaced. Overall, unfortunately, David characterized the whole ordeal as a "dialogue of the deaf" (I say ordeal because we were very tired, it was freaking hot/sticky, and everyone's speech was long. And translated). Enoka and the Revival leadership couldn't understand the problems with the type of control they are exerting on the "young" members of the water team (they are all 20-35, with multiple kids each). Enoka and the elders all said that anyone could come to them to make a complaint, and they would fire Enoka if necessary, but unfortunately, they are just off-base. (Ie. The team members know that Enoka will never be fired, and that's not what they want anyway. They just want the ability to run day-to-day operations for the water project as respected, capable individuals, which they are).

Our time ended with many apologies for having to witness their internal problems. Much thanking of the donors for their ideas and advice. Godfrey was quite conciliatory in his speech, saying nice things about the leadership and Enoka. But afterwards, I asked him what changed - and he said, oh nothing has changed. But the situation was becoming worse, so I'm just saying what everyone wants me to say (out of respect for us). In the end, Godfrey is sticking it out a bit more with the team.

We visited the UN (who will discuss buying our water in 2 weeks at a meeting of all the NGOs in the area). We also visited DRC (Danish refugee council) and they are coming by to inspect the bottling first. If bottling water becomes a "pull" instead of a "push", then maybe there's a chance. It felt good to get out of there (our plane decided to come at 2pm, instead of 10am). My negative feelings are tempered by the 24hours of diplomacy/discussions (both formal and informal). It feels like leadership training is desperately needed to help people work together. I spent a bunch of time one-on-one with the various team members, who were speaking to me quite freely now (not really to anyone else though). I've included an email from Josh below which I thought was quite insightful - please read past the end of my email to see it.

Lots of love to all!

Marc

From: Josh MacFadyen
To: Marc Drader
Sent: Tue Nov 25 07:30:31 2008
Subject: Re: Day 8 - crisis in leadership

Yum, fresh peanut butter :)

Thanks for writing so carefully about this. It actually helps bring reality and humanity to my own 'out of body' experience, lived vicariously through yours! :) I was as shocked as you when I read this, only it's a lot more personal for you after working so hard there this week.

It's probably a very important side of Sudan to see. Part of the attraction of 'missionary' or relief work for Westerners is that one gets to invest in simple solutions for real problems in an environment where our work will be appreciated more than anywhere else in the world. But what you had to experience today is reminder to me that these folks are just as human and just as complex as anyone else, and likely more complex given the poverty, war, and spiritual oppression they've had to endure all their lives.

Some of us need to (and should) believe that life is somehow simpler there and that a short term missions trip with IT will have guranteed results for the local people. But it seems the ones who really change their lives on those missions trips are the missionaries; the ones who really do the blessing are the local people. And in that way, diverting the year's all-inclusive-resort monies to a missions trip is entirely beneficial.

The other missionaries (and I include you guys here) should be very aware that even a lifetime of service or the relief efforts of an entire church/NGO can only change or help a community so much. Sometimes these monumental efforts are partially or even completely reversed during their lives or shortly after they end. It's not surprising. Imagine trying to do something as simple as convincing/teaching your neighbourhood to compost, or encouraging a congregation to pray, and then compare that to convincing/teaching an impoverished, polluted, war-torn community to actually do something difficult (like leadership) with their limited resources. Seeing as though we are quite human; it should be considered a miracle when it works. Only God can change our hearts. We plant, someone else waters, but he does the growing.

Every minute you spent in Sudan will have temporal and eternal benefit. God will bring the increase, and will not let his Word return to him void. I hope this is encouraging and doesn't sound moralizing; you know way more about this than I do. I'm just coming to terms with my own sense of mission and relief, again, vicariously though you.

Safely home now,

Josh

P.S. Cameron says "Maaaarc! I got trains for Christmas."

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 8

2008-12-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

Things went kind of sideways on day 8 of my Sudan trip. I've edited out some of the specifics, but left a lot of details still. Keep in mind that there are many sides to every story, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm an outsider with very little cultural knowledge...

DAY 8
Today, we had a final planning session with the team. We set out a progression of priorities for increasing their salary, based on whatever money is generated by the water bottling, and internet cafe. We also bought 80% of a biosand filters for each of the 7 members of the team. They'll each need to pay the remaining 12,000 shillings ($8) to get the water filter for their family. Everything seemed well and good, but then it got a bit dramatic:
Godfrey (the project manager) has been quite stressed and made some tearful accusations about the lack of transparency by revival movement leadership, unfair demands on him and his team, and he voiced fears that everything would fall apart once we leave. We haven't heard anyone speak from the heart like this. Mostly we get pretty formal speeches from people.

Unfortunately, Godfrey is the most educated, most gifted leader we've met here. He really gets it. (He's trained a medical tech, so the bottling, testing, filters, etc is right up his alley). He says his friends make fun of him because he makes so little at this job (he has been offered higher salaries by several organizations). He is considering leaving the project (he said he cried last night while falling asleep). It really sucks because this is the guy I like the most and respect the most here, and I'm sad to hear all this.

I got separated from our traveling in the afternoon and got a chance to speak with Godfrey alone (I also spoke with some of the workers in some depth - although the main leader took them aside and told them not to talk to us). I sent some detailed notes to IT, because there's some pretty serious issues here.

Godfrey has told us that he cannot stay with the water project. And all 6 of the workers will leave when he goes. They are just staying as long as Godfrey is shielding them from the Revival leaders' control. Two things are holding him back from leaving:
-relationship with Bruce
-involvement in the Episcopal Church

Godfrey's closest friend is pastor Kaya (head of a 300 person baptist NGO that sponsors evangelism, education). Kaya feels sorry for his best friend Godfrey. He offered him 3x more money/month to test and work with borehole wells (water harvest international). Godfrey gave his CV today.

In parallel, the hospital asked him to work fulltime as a lab tech. Currently working part-time as a tech trainer (4hrs/week and he makes more than with his 30hrs/week at the water project). A few months ago, a Japanese NGO selected him for 3 month course in Japan and job to bring plumbing to this area. He is waiting to see if they come back (delayed due to Japanese elections).

Godfrey feels like instead of developing his life, he is losing out due to the abuse he takes while working with Revival. After another big discussion, Godfrey seemed like he might stick around for another couple months if something changes rapidly. So now we're in a meeting the revival leadership to convince them to turn over more day to day control to Godfrey (like the keys to the truck, or the ability to buy supplies without asking). Bruce will recommend to IT that someone come here for a couple of months to manage the situation as it is quite fragile. Bruce stated to Godfrey that the allegations of fraud will be dealt with by IT, and to have patience with that. (We're not tackling that one so far. What a mess!)

Wow. Tough day. I don't know if my crazy notes made any sense, but it felt as if everything was crashing down around us. IT has a big mess on their hands here, and I'm still reeling from some of my conversations today. (I was the only one that these guys talked to, since I got away from the main group of "visitors"). It's the age-old issue of young leaders chafing under the older leaders' control. But it's also allegations of fraud, and our work seems to be in jeopardy. Personally, I am reconsidering everything I've thought about everything here. It's definitely more gray and complicated.

It doesn't make me like this part of Sudan any less, but makes me lose a bit of hope for the Revival Movement and the water bottling that we've implemented this week. Even the internet access is at risk - the team believes that they will lose access as soon as we leave... :( :(

Is this my "welcome to the real world" moment, at the end of a pretty amazing out-of-body-experience week? I'm checked in for my KLM flights home. Pray for us tomorrow. More meetings and then a lot of travel.
Love, Marc

PS. Turns out that we've had a team of 5 women cooking for us this whole week. We're very high maintenance. (Consider the amazing eggplant and peanut butter dish we had: just making the peanut butter takes hours to roast the peanuts, shell them and grind them with a rock. And we have fresh peanuts and peanut butter every day!). They also have to kill chickens or whatever meat and prepare them for us (remember there is no refridgeration anywhere, so the only way to have meat is fresh).

PPS. Yesterday, I burned my other thumb and hand (!) when the lid came off a thermos that they were using to pour tea for me. The burn was not as bad this time. But it makes me very nervous when I see those thermoses.

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 6 & 7

2008-12-16T12:10:00.001-08:00

If you're just starting to read this blog now, you'll need to go back a couple of posts to the beginning of Marc's trip diary for a visit to Sudan that happened in November...Almost all photos are from Lloyd Hipel

DAY 6

We had a group meeting with the Sudanese water team. We brought shirts and hats which they are using as uniforms (which got them fairly excited. They have 2 t-shirts each, so every day they will wash the other shirt for the next day.
The water team (all 7 people who work 9am-3pm) earns $840/month. The problem is that this isn't enough to live on. And it's not paid on time or at all, depending on whether International Teams has money in it's account. And everyone has other responsibilities raising their siblings or kids and making more money :( But they are still better off than lots of people I guess...

We call it an "incentive" as opposed to a salary, but it was tough to hear everyone's story about how this incentive was not enough to meet their needs:
Matt has two sisters who's school fees are 80,000 each (he gets paid 150,000) so that's his contribution to the family (he also has his own wife and kid).
Pony is a mom who has to get her kids off to school, then come work on the water project before going to the market to sell clothes (she's a tailor in the late evenings) and cook for her family. I don't know how she makes enough money to supplement her 200,000 (just a big bag of flour that lasts a month costs 75,000. Obviously you need more than flour though. Also maize and sorghum for pocho - the local porridge).
Three of the guys use their own bicycles to pedal >30kms to the Revival Centre. They each leave their homes at 6am, arrive at 9am and then get home around 6pm. The catch is that they don't eat all day until they get home. They were asking if there was any chance that the water project could supply breakfast (they have no money to buy breakfast somewhere, assuming that someone would sell them breakfast). They also wondered if they could use the two bikes that are owned by the project instead of their personal bikes. None of the team members is drinking safe water at home (it costs 60,000 to get a biosand filter).

Overall, I kept wanting to jump up and make commitments that I couldn't keep. The temptation to try to find a quick-fix is_so_ strong (and a quick fix is so elusive/impossible). I'm going to do something though.

No bottling this morning - the generator was down (needed an oil change). We visited an orphanage where Christian Horizons is now sponsoring all the children due to Bruce's efforts on a previous trip (and a UK guy has setup a foundation for the babies house). Most babies are dropped off because the mom has died in childbirth and the dad can't raise the baby. At 5 years old, they ask the dad again if he can take his child back - but if not, then they stay in the orphanage until they can take care of themselves. They actually have to screen the parents who are dropping off kids pretty carefully. The orphanage has developed the reputation of having better conditions for children than in their own homes in the village... There are 85 children at the orphanage.
We held the babies and toddlers and played with the bigger kids and looked around. I miss my kids. I really want them to experience this too. There was lots of singing and dancing to welcome us. Apparently the kids busted out their best clothes to see us, and they looked pretty sharp at 10am this morning (we only arrived at 3pm though, so things were starting to fall apart :) We had 1 hour of various speeches (including some tearjerkers, like how the kids aren't orphans anymore thanks to us, they are known as children of God instead). I feel a bit worn out emotionally, and on the verge of wanting to disconnect and not think about it anymore. Or invest my life/lifestyle into this "true evangelism". Either way, the situation demands a strong response (literally - people are making us aware of both their triumphs and their many needs and demanding a response :)

Cool practice here in Sudan: at the beginning of every meal, someone comes around with a pitcher and basin for you to wash your hands. This happens again at the end (since you eat with your hands). It's a cool experience/habit and makes it feel like we're all connected in service and love.

Driving around: when you see someone you know, or someone you want to talk to, you just screech to a halt in the middle of the road (others will go around) and have a chat. It's the main method for spreading news (ie. We found out the president is now coming on Dec 1, instead of Tuesday :) a guy from Water Harvest International was driving by and wanted to meet us and say hi.
When you stop to talk to someone, it's African handshakes all around. Lots of "you are welcome", "hello", "thank you".

Other favourite habit: sitting around talking on plastic chairs. Everywhere you go, a certain times of day when people aren't working (waiting for dinner or whatever), everyone pulls out a plastic chair and sits around at the side of the road, in front of their tukuls, in front of stores, etc. I've seen very few non-plastic chairs :)

Tomorrow is church (we're going to several services, so it will be a churchy day. I'm anticpating a lot of cool music/drumming)

PS. We heard tonight that the Kajo Keji "hospital" (such as it is) is being closed. The NGO operating it has run out of money. The county dug up enough money for salaries for the staff until the end of December. But after that, it's closing for good. Nearest hospital will then by Moyo in Uganda. Not good.

DAY 7

"the place of convenience is located over there" (ie. the latrine).

Whenever I think, wow, everyone should come visit South Sudan and get involved here, I am reminded that it takes a certain je ne sais quoi to use the squat latrines (those splashes on the wall are from the mortar, right?) and to "shower" with a plastic bucket of brackish water.

The smell of grass fires is has been strong for 2 days now - the air is more still in the evening, so it's a bit heavy. Any low-lying areas tend to fill up with the smoke from these fires - not very good air to breathe all night while you sleep (during the day we breathe red dust instead, kicked up by any passing vehicles (we followed a truck for an hour today, so my clothes started turning red :)

%We are proud of our school. It's best in the county%
This was part of the singing-welcome by the Jalimo community. This is where IT is hoping to build a secondary school next year if there is interest/funds. Again, the school is operating outside, and in mud huts under pretty tough conditions. They have 211 high school students. 69 are billeted with individual families since there not dormitories. There are 21 staff in total). Next year, they expect 300-400 students to register. This school took everyone in the county by surprise because they placed highest in testing, and they have the worst facilities - no one expects anything good to come from here.) The school was originally founded in 1948, despite no support from the northern govt for education of the southern population. (Churches run all the schools here as a result of this). It was demolished and rebuilt several times throughout the wars. When we walked around the falling-apart mud/grass buildings (which we were built 3 years ago), we saw lots of high school students studying for upcoming exams. Apparently lots of them disappeared into the bush to study since they knew there would be lots of distractions today). We had a big meeting, and the hope of building permanent facilities next year was the main topic of many speeches. It's impressive because everyone values education a lot, and knows that it's the only way out. But the support for education isn't coming from govt sources for now - just communities banding together and trying to make it work. They even have a science teacher and a couple of shelves of beakers and a couple chemicals. All the classrooms have wood benches that were donated by the Jesuit Refugee Service (a big upgrade from the mud benches).

As we drive around, we're seeing the Samaritan's Purse Church Reconstruction Program (CRP) churches everywhere - it's pretty cool! Jalimo just got one, and it's being consecrated by the archbishop in January. The Anglican services here are similar in form to Canada, except the prayer book is in Bari (language of the Kuku people) and the songs are a mix of Bari/English. Lots of singing and all the leaders and visitors sit up front around the table. Just a bit north from here, arabic is the trade language, along with some English.

David preached at two churches today (Wudu and Jalimo). He tried an illustration that almost backfired: he asked if everyone liked mango trees, and why. The answer: "shade!" (He was expecting "fruit"). Eventually some people also said fruit :) The mango trees have fruit in December and May here (we're just missing it - but this is definitely the place to be during mango season - there are so many trees!)

When we arrived in Jalimo, we found out again that everyone (hundreds of people) waited all day for us yesterday, and then again all morning (we finally had a service/meeting at 1pm :(
We're outdoors under 4 _giant_ mango trees (threatening us with fruit) The church in Jalimo kicked off a fundraiser after the service for a youth conference run by the Revival Movement in a couple of weeks. They were asking for donations from 50 to 2500 shillings ($0.03 to $1.80). Turns out the money is to buy a goat, so that the conference can happen. (I put in enough for a half a goat on impulse :) Poor goat. (It was good though because church offerings and this fundraiser were done in a way that the amount given is anonymous. We don't want to show up and be seen as giving away tonnes of money).
At the end of the service a weird thing happened which we haven't debriefed yet: during an alter call, someone brought up a flailing teenager, who looked like she was having a massive seizure. After some praying by the pastors/leaders. Either it was an act, or it was a medical condition, or it was spiritual. I don't know what to think - it was hard to take.

After the long service, I broke out the balloons we brought with David, and made a lot of balloon "animals" (actually, snakes - I'm not very good at these). It was pretty tough - we had a lot of balloons, but there were way way more kids. I kind of wish I hadn't done it - kids don't like to share, so there was starting to be some pushing/shoving. Lesson #1 - always bring enough gifts for everyone. I should've learned this from Daryl and Sabrina's experiences in Namibia.

Tomorrow is our last full in South Sudan. On Tuesday we fly to Kampala (4 hops on an MAF route). We'll arrive in the afternoon sometime, and then Bruce and I are catching a KLM flight home at 10:55pm.

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 5

2008-12-15T12:18:00.001-08:00

Continuation of Marc's email travel diary (10 days in South Sudan in November)

DAY 5

My favourite scene in Sudan (repeated over and over everyday): Sudanese woman walking toward us on the side of the road with two tiny feet sticking out on either side of her waist (from the baby which is tied to her back with a shawl). Very cute/beautiful. The babies are either wide-eyed and curious and straining to see anything (since they are facing their mom's back), or they are passed out/sleeping :)

We're winning on the water taste front. Today's production only had a slight after-taste. So we're pretty pumped. Last batch tested well too (no ecoli or other bacteria).
A long meeting with Zamba Duku today again (the ex-teacher turned soldier turned NGO/entrepreneur turned legislator (and speaker of the house). He wanted to be the first to buy 5 cases of water (to put in the president's guest house when he visits Kajo Keji on Tuesday now). We'll produce those first cases tomorrow. The history lesson continues: Sudan has been in civil war (in the south) since 1955. There was a 10 year break from 1972-1983, and then continued war between the arab north and black south. We saw a bunch of British buildings from 1910s which were bombed out by the north (basically, they flew over in planes and bombed anything with a roof. The population here was helpless). Unfortunately, the north was grudgingly forced to accept the peace process, but they are not being genuine about it (for example, the north runs the oil infrastructure in parts of south Sudan, and is supposed to give 50% of revenue to the south Sudan govt. But these payments have been tapering off (although oil prices have been going up). the international community has kind of stepped back, so the govt here feels a bit abandoned and cannot begin to address the infrastructure needs that they have (electricity/water/hospitals/education and the list goes on).

I did an Internet setup training session for an hour with a half-dozen people. "Steve" and "Grace" (everyone has an english name that they've picked in addition to their Sudanese name) will be the stewards of the internet-related equipment. We talked to a carpenter and the plaster guys about finishing a section of the new building first, so that we do the final installation of the antenna and wiring tomorrow.

We visited a theological school, a primary school (all schools are run by churches since the north never built any, and the south sudan govt has too many demands/priorities currently) and various church compounds. One of the most interesting visits was to Samaritan's Purse compound. There was a mid-20s dude there (Chris) who was in charge of the Kajo Keji base, where SP is running a church reconstruction program. It's not what they usually do, the SP has been given tonnes of funds for rebuilding church buildings, everywhere that they were destroyed. So over the past 1.5 years, Chris has built up 6 construction crews, a small fleet of quads, 4x4s, and 7-ton trucks. They've built 31 churches so far, and they will hit their goal of 52 churches in a couple of months. After that SP will likely shut down the base, and move on to different projects in different counties. Chris is trying to diversify SP's involvement into agriculture, training, water, etc so that they will stay in Kajo Keji even after the CRP program is finished. It's really cool because he seems quite committed to this region (he grew up as an MK in Congo, Tanzania, Uganda so he has no specific reason to be attached here, but he was pretty passionate about it).

It might be the heat talking, but I really love this area and it was quite inspiring today. I kept running through all the different scenarios that could bring me back to South Sudan in the future :) I would love for Karla and Lia and Kaia to experience this place.

Logu visit - we drove 7kms (45 minutes) to see the site where Internation Teams was supposed to build a primary school this week. The school is currently operating outdoors (seriously, they use a giant tree as a blackboard). Supplies are kept in a mud/grass building (pretty poor shape. Not even made of home-made bricks). The "facilities" were basically stone-aged.
They've been told for 4 years now that the government would help. International Teams has promised for some years now that they would build the school. But now, due to lack of interest, IT postponed the school building until March 09 (_if_ they can scrape together a team and funds). They did forward $10k in advance of the March trip to show committment, but everyone wanted to know whether they could start spending the money to build the foundations - but we didn't know the answer to that.
The speeches made it clear that there was disappointment over promises that have yet to unfold. Impatience to see any progress.
It was heart breaking to be the bearer of bad news like that. Logu is definitely a step down from where we are. Tukul huts are all made of mud instead of bricks. There is tonnes of rapid development in South Sudan, but it's concentrated in the cities (like Juba, the capital). The development potential is bypassing the rural parts of Sudan and leaving them further and further behind for critical things like education, water, health stuffs.

Tonight we've got impromptu visitors from Morobu (90 miles away, at the edge of Sudan/Uganda/DRC). The bishop of the charismatic church wants to partner with the Revival movement (Episcopal church).
They heard we were here, so they made the 9 hour trip! (9 of them in a 4x4) to meet with us to join the partnership (this means that they want the join the relationship with the Canadian churches that is currently benefiting the Revival Movement)
Every meeting we have has a bit of a formula (we've had about 6 formal meetings today that all included these elements, not in this order everytime):
-greetings with African handshakes all around
-sit down in seniority order
-speech by "leader" of each party to the discussioon includes introduction of team members, thanks to the host, compliments to the other parties, mention accomplishments, praise God repeatedly, drop some names to establish your position/relationship, list your needs and talk about partnership a lot. Occasional singing/drumming. It feels like we are often witnessing some kind of dance/negotiation that we don't understand completely. There is always an undertone and second message behind what is being said. Very interesting!

The Morubu county bishop's requests were for help with starting a hospital/clinic (nearest one is 30 miles/5 hours away), HIV/AIDS program, water program, schools, income-generation activities. Morubu is even more forgotten/remote than Kajo Keji county.
The bishop said that Americans and Canadians have come and had big evangelistic meetings, with big altar calls, but then they left the people: hungry, uneducated, sick and thirsty. He saw the example of concrete things at the Kajo Keji Revival Centre (water/building/etc) and said that was true evangelism. (He also said Islam is coming and bringing with it food/water/hospital programs). To win Sudan, we need true evangelism.

Overall, a very emotional and conflicted day for me. I bounced around between the enormity of the needs, the excitement of being here and doing "my bit", the smallness of what we're doing, the charm/warmth/hope of the place, the optimism that all the NGOs and UN are doing lots of good, the pessimism that it will all be destroyed in 2 years and we'll disappoint the traumatized Sudanese people again.
I haven't landed completely yet. Will sleep on it.
Good night all,
-Marc

PS. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but it's NOT quiet here at night at all. There are radios blaring, people talking, goats bleating and lots going on until 11 or 11:30pm or so. Then it all starts again at 6:30am. My ear plugs are like gold (good thing I brought extras for the others). I'm sleeping well though. And I'm quite used to the latrine and how to wash now. Doesn't seem too bad any more, so I may have painted too harsh a picture in previous emails.
PPS. My thumb burn is pretty well healed.

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 3 & 4

2008-12-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

Continuation of my travel diary from the trip to Sudan in November...

DAY 3

Today, we solved problems and streamlined/reconfigured processes: Several ozonation and water bottling issues were resolved with panty-hose, zip ties, and a toilet tank float/valve. We spent lots of time training and talking about how to sell water (and get the bottles back through deposits, etc). Quality assurance was a big topic too. Our main issue: even though the water is quite clean, it tastes bad. So today, we took the ozone scrubber and re-purposed it for filtering (activated charcoal). (We have another part which will be fine for ozone scrubbing). Results for test batch #3 are tomorrow. The taste of batch #2 is much improved compared to day 1. Next experiment is to ozonate well-water directly as opposed to biofiltering it first to see how that tastes.

For my part, I spent a lot of time wandering around with a 2.5m wood pole with an antenna on top, reading my BlackBerry and surveying the site for the best location/orientation for the antenna. Did more internet trials today and basically, it seems that we will be limited to 57.6kbps modem speeds (which was killer back in 1993). Problem is that most webpages are designed for broadband (even gmail and yahoomail are terribly large webpages), so it's a slow experience. Less risk that we'll go over the 600Mb cap though, at these rates :) The issue is with the Zain Uganda back-end, not the mobile phone throughput. Anyway, everyone seemed grateful to be able to check their emails - until now the leadership here only communicates with Canada every couple of months when they travel to Uganda, and this causes many problems when they are trying to coordinate large transfers of money and building-projects. It didn't seem like too big a deal before to me, but everyone here is making a big deal.

We also surveyed the site with Philip's 100' tape measure, so that future buildings/fish-ponds/etc can be visualized/designed from Canada. Maybe tomorrow we'll check out some land where the fish-farming project might be built. David Knight (Lincoln Road Chapel pastor) arrives tomorrow to join our team. The 4 of us then have a number of appointments being set up to promote the water project to the local govt/military officials.

The food has been fantastic: beef and chicken with great sauces, fresh bread (cooked on a fire like everything else), deep fried roots of stuff, deep-fried bread chunks, peanut sauces, bananas, oranges (that are actually green on the outside), various greens that taste amazing. Overall I'm eating well. It seems that Bruce and Gord (who have been here many times previously) built it up to be much harder than it actually is.

Showering still isn't any fun though. Neither is going to the bathroom. And tonight the generator ran out of gas at the guest house.
Also, the nearest cellphone tower is down, so it's extra quiet for me :)

There are a lot more stars in Sudan than in Germany. Good night all! (Although I expect this email won't actually transmit until tomorrow morning, when the cellphone tower will be back up presumably)

DAY 4
"Prostitutes/immorality is not entertained in this guest house apart from your own wife" (Rule #1 of the guesthouse where we are staying).

This morning started with a couple hours of bottling/training. David Knight arrived at 10am on MAF, and after he arrived, we all got in a 4x4 and travelled to see the security office, the commissioner and the office that oversees all the NGOs operating in Kajo Keji county. We also visited the local Anglican diocese office (and later had a meeting about a solar mango dryer project for the widows association). Both the security office and the commisioner were a bit of a bust: the men in charge were off somewhere making preparations for the president's visit (which is apparently on Monday now). We'll be going back tomorrow to see them for real. We met with their replacements though and had a very warm reception. They were especially excited about having internet access that could benefit the general population (right now, only a couple of NGOs in the area have internet and it's not available to everyone). So that's cool. The people we met seem very in tune with what's required to develop this part of Sudan as the UNHCR continues to repatriate tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people (it's the quite the exercise, since IDP are sometimes living on someone else's land for 20 years. Now they have to leave so that the descendants of the original pre-war land-owner can move back. Complicated. Some parts of southern Sudan have a lot of unrest and lawlessness. But Kajo Keji is now quite stable - all the local officials were rightfully proud of this. They were saying that anyone who gets visitors must be living in a desirable/agreeable place to visit :)

The dirt tracks to get to each of these offices were unbelievably bad. You definitely need a 4x4 and lots of gravol (or muscle-relaxants?). But it's better than it used to be: the bota-bota fares have dropped on by 30% on a number of routes recently due to the "improvements" (ie. It costs less fuel/time to travel)

After lunch, we ran another bottling trial, and then had a big meeting about the aforementioned mango dryer project (we brought money to get it built. The diocese will manage the project). I got a chance to phone Karla too ($0.50/minute from a Ugandan cellphone, which isn't too bad). Lloyd and I went for a walk (ok, an hour expedition in the hottest part of the day that left me completely worn out) around the village of wudu (also called Kajo Keji, even though Kajo Keji is the country name). We were unsuccessful in locating any souvenirs. But we'll try again.

Compared to what Bruce described from last year, it was unbelievably developed (in a "#-of-brick-buildings" kind of way. There's still no water or electricity. They sell Coke everywhere, but at these temperatures, it's hardly worth it :) (By the way, the bricks are all made locally from the clay soil - only cement and corrugated tin is imported. Most huts are made of bricks, mud and thatch (nothing imported). After over-doing it in the sun, I had to take a break and eat/drink/laydown to recover from the headache.

Last-minute addition before I send this email: we just met with the speaker of the house for the govt of South Sudan, as well as the commissioner (they came and found us. Bruce was in pyjamas for the meeting:). They were very excited about the internet access. They were wondering about whether it could be done in a few other places :) He told us all about the political/military situation here (he's an ex-SPLA soldier who found God after realizing that all his friends were dead from the war).
The peace process here is a bit broken due to lack of support from the international community after the peace process was grudgingly signed by the north (forced by the international community in the first place). They think one of the things that the church can do is to tell people to work hard (if you don't work, you don't get to eat). 20 years of war has made people get used to hand-outs, and destroyed their energy for work (since everything was continually getting destroyed during the war).
Another interesting area was the repatriation of exiled Sudanese - the movement of people only happen during the few short months during the year when crops are not yet started, and thatch is plentiful (so that they can build a new hut when they return to Sudan). The govt here goes down to Uganda on recruitment drives to try to convince their former population to return and re-settle and help build Southern Sudan.

Very interesting conversation overall. I'm still processing. Best history less you'll ever get, given that he's a participant in this history making.

South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 1 & 2

2008-12-14T10:31:00.001-08:00

I (Marc) recently travelled to South Sudan on a 10-day trip with some Canadian engineers on the second phase of a water filtration project. Our main tasks was to setup a water bottling line as an income-generating project for the Revival Movement of South Sudan (local NGO). My side project was to setup an internet connection using a mobile phone and an external antenna (pointed at neighbouring Uganda). I wrote a kind of travel diary during my time in Uganda and South Sudan - and I'm posting it now in pieces, with some photos. The trip was Nov 16-25, so this is a tiny bit out of date, but not too much - I have still have a tan!

Our trip was through International Teams (http://www.iteams.ca). More info about the water project here: http://www.enviro-stewards.com/sudan/

DAY 1 - Kampala, Uganda
Day 0 was my trip from Germany I guess.
We (Bruce, Lloyd and myself) are crashing at this school in a tiny bedroom with 3 beds and a bare light-bulb (the ILTS school earns money by hosting people as they pass through for $20/night incl bfast and supper). The main lady (Anne Mwangi) at the school is teaching, and raising some orphans and helping other random people who get dropped off here. For the school part, class size varies from 9 to 25 students, and classes last 10 weeks, followed by 12 weeks in refugee camps and a debrief at the end (2 full sessions per year - guest teachers wanted :)

Early early this morning, after a late late bedtime (11:30pm or so, due to a long line at the airport, and a very caref/well slow anyway, immigration officer), a rooster jumped up on my pillow and crowed extremely loudly in my ear. Turns out the chicken coop is just outside our window (the rooster wasn't really in the room, but almost :) I put in earplugs and went back to sleep. we were "had" by the same early-morning-rooster-trick in Namibia. Stupid roosters. Who do they think they are? And don't they know it's still dark out?

After an early start, we drove around Kampala all day, breathing in dust, diesel and various other odors and particulates (my throat/nose/eyes are reacting to the assault on my senses), and collected visas, cash, SIM cards, food, tickets and other necessary vitals.
Lunch was a $3 buffet of Ugandan food (maize porridge, plantains, potatoes, beef, chicken, rice and ground nut saucy stuff. Delicious).

Kampala alternates from developed and kind of cool, to chaotic and slummy. We shopped for bananas, pineapple, and melons in a super-local market. Felt very safe there, and most people speak enough english to figure stuff out, so it's easy to function there. I kept seeing everything during the day through Karla's eyes (or what I imagine Karla would notice, based on our trip to Namibia): the nice big fun Shoprite, the multitude of craft markets selling every kind of beautiful craft you can imagine (which I can't buy until the end of the trip because it would put me over our weight limit for tomorrow's Cessna flight with MAF), the music everywhere (kind of cool), everyone in suits and nice clothes, driving around on "bota bota" motorcycle taxis, looking proper, despite the dust/diesel exhaust swirling everywhere. I saw lots of good looking streetfood, but never had a chance to eat some.

The Southern Sudan embassy finally gave us visas, after hours of waiting (they told us to come back tomorrow, because their printer was broken, but our flight is at 7am :(, so we stayed and eventually they got it together. Anyway, tomorrow we're flying in an MAF cessna (or something similar) to a dirt strip, and I'm pretty excited about it.

DAY 2 - Kajo Keji, South Sudan ("You are Welcome")
My day started out with me losing a cage match with 2 mosquitoes who somehow got under my treated mosquito net. Well, I didn't totally lose. They both ended up dead, but from the size of the mess, it seems that they got what they came for :(

MAF flies from the Kajjansi airstrip in Kampala (as opposed to Entebbe international airport south of town). To get to the airfield involved an very bouncy dirt road (in town). It didn't look official at all - more like we were driving to a dangerous drug deal in a slum/jungle (things are very lush right now, the rainy season ended last week. Malaria, here we come!)

There were 6 people (3 of us on this Sudan project, two others, plus the pilot). Thanks to a mistake on the weight and balance sheet (it was for the wrong aircraft type), the pilot said he needed me to sit up front with him!! After he figured out the sheet mix-up (we were in a Cessna C208), he didn't really need me there, but let me stay. So, I got a headset (to hear the pilot, and also all the air traffic stuff) and a tutorial on flying in Africa from this guy.

Best flight ever! Plus you can use your BlackBerry and carry knives onboard :)

We flew 1.5 hours to Arua, Uganda (dirt strip) to re-fuel, cross exit customs and then hop across the border to Kajo Keji airstrip in Sudan (30min flight). It wasn't too bumpy, but we all took gravol in advance, after hearing Bruce's stories of all his previous flights. In Kajo Keji, the Anglican Archbishop of Sudan was leaving on the MAF plane that we arrived on, so we got to meet him briefly.

On Thursday, to celebrate the fact that road to Juba (capital of southern Sudan, 100kms away) is re-opening, after years of de-mining, the president of southern Sudan is driving down to Kajo Keji. Apparently, we will get to meet him and promote our water project (the Anglican Revival Movement here seems well connected, or maybe just well-noticed by the government).

Once we arrived at the revival movement compound, we had a small welcome meeting with 20 people or so. A couple of speeches by them (introductions, thankyous, you're welcomes, etc) and a couple by us. The cool part was that everything that got said kept being interrupted by joyful clapping (if people were happy to hear something), or if they were _really_ excited, someone would break into song, and everyone would join in(complete with 5 different percussionists, and lots of melody/harmony stuff). Very cool culturally. Same thing happened later in the day - when we gave away Revival Water t-shirts to the local team (for example). Very exciting atmosphere and it feel very heart-felt.

Our rooms at the "Solomon guest house") in Kajo Keji have the feel of a prison cell (concrete room, with a steel bed, a chair, and barred metal door with a padlock). The toilet is a hole in the ground (with a flush though), and the "shower" isn't working. So I had a bird-bath in a half-tiled stall, trying to balance in the muddy water, while avoiding the ants and the strange splats/stains on the wall. Felt great! I washed off at least 2 out of the last 3 days worth of grime :)

During the afternoon and evening, we unpacked and assembled everything we needed to bottle water. (Ozone generator, tanks, piping, bottle cleaners, capping machine, etc). There were some glitches (the ozone meter isn't giving us a reading to prove the ozone diffusion into the water is working), and a critical valve is only letting drips through, instead of opening properly, but we should get that fixed tomorrow. We bottled 3 cases of water today, and we're incubating some samples overnight to see if the sterilization worked.

For me personally, the big triumph today was hooking up a BlackBerry to a laptop, adding an external antenna, configuring a Zain mobile phone account and presto: internet connectivity on the revival movement's laptop (proof of concept anyway). Next step is to find a high place to install the antenna (to get a better signal and faster speeds) and then roll it out internet-cafe-style so others can use the connection (for a fee). It felt great to have this succeed, as I was quite worried about the Zain SIM card configuration...

Somewhere in the middle of the day, I scalded by whole thumb with boiling water (by accident). I've now got a nicely-boiled-lobster look (although it's hard to see under the polysporin and gauze :) One last comment before I go: I don't know why I thought that Sudanese and Ugandan cultures would be very similar (and in some ways they are..), but the "feel" of the culture/people is quite different here compared to Uganda. I'm thoroughly enjoying this so far (the food is great too, although I know they don't eat like this normally)

Ruined for Toyota

2008-12-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

So, an unexpected perk of our little situation here in Deutschland is that we are now an unofficial automobile test-driver. So far we've had a VW van, a BMW wagon and our current vehicle is a Mercedes wagon. Have to say that the VW was a tank - did NOT enjoy it. The BMW felt very powerful and comfortable - just what you want in a vehicle.
You know, I never really understood the big deal about fancy cars (and I realize that a wagon isn't that fancy, but still, it's a beamer), but now I think I'm catching on. Nice things are nicer.
It was a little tricky to get used to how to work the windshield wipers and the heating, but once I realized that it was more intuitive than I expected, and they kind of did anticipate my every need - there really was a button for that - then we got on much better. One of my favourite buttons is the seat warmer. 3 levels of intensity for your every heating need. Level one for when you run out to the Apotheke to fill a prescription, Level 2 for when you've just walked your child to the kindergarten and are on your way to the gym, and Level 3 after a few hours of wandering around the Weihnachtsmarkt. Gluhwein is all well and good, but it doesn't reach everywhere.
So good news, the Mercedes has all the critical features I enjoyed in the BMW (wonderful GPS lady, large trunk space and of course, the seat warmer). Can I also note that this Mercedes is an automatic which would have been pretty useful back in the beginning when everything was new and tricky. Would have taken some of the pressure off.
Just like now I finally have a debit card which really makes purchases much smoother - also would have been much nicer back in the beginning...but I digress.

A disadvantage of these powerful cars is the ease at which we break speed limits. They purr like kittens at rather high speeds (except for the VW which sounded more like a rhino). The tires on our Mercedes are only rated for 210km/h, which is good. Wouldn't want to go too much over that anyhow. :) Actually the real problem is in town.
We've received our first ticket (I say received because we've seen the flash of the camera several times now, but we've only gotten one ticket in the mail - 20 euros plus a 9 euro processing fee from the rental car company.)
Luckily, Marc got the first ticket. It's better that way, trust me! :) The notice includes a grainy black and white snapshot of the driver, just to remove all doubt and put the blame squarely on the right shoulders. We have a lovely portrait of Marc smiling away enroute to Hattingen.

Advent, aka "Pass the fire extinguisher, please!"

2008-11-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

I am loving the festive spirit in the air. It's not even December yet, but the Christmas markets have been up for a week already. I've had my Gluhwein, roasted almonds and chestnuts, and crepes (both sweet and savory), but I fought off the impulse to buy a chocolate covered apple today. I think it may win next time. We'll see.

Today I went to a craft (basteln)-making session with our neighbour - very fun! I made an advent wreath and a decoration for our door, using stars, pine cones, cinnamon, star anise, birch bark, etc. We also enjoyed yummy snacks, including my first taste of Baumkuchen - a German classic.

However, the event that I'm really burning to write about is the Adventsgärtlein at the Kindergarten. They had sent a big letter home about it, which didn't do us much good, although I did understand enough to get a babysitter for Kaia, since there was something about absolute Stille. Seems like one-year-olds would not have that.
Lia's teacher had told us to be sure to be on time, and we were!! We gathered in the main room where we were admonished again to be very quiet. We proceeded slowly into the gym where there was a large spiral made of pine boughs and a large candle in the middle. We sat around the perimeter of the room, and one of the teachers told a story in German about Mary making a dress for Jesus out of the moon, sun and stars...uh, it loses something in the translation, I guess.
Slowly and ceremoniously another teacher took an apple with a candle in it, and, holding it in two hands, walked carefully around the spiral until she reached the large candle in the centre, and she lit her candle. She reached down and picked up a golden foil star lying on a bough and replaced the star with her apple candle, being very careful to position the round apple so it would not tip and allow the flame to come in contact with the flammable tree branches. She walked back along the spiral path until the end, where there were more apples. She picked up another, and handed it to one of the children from Lia's class.
So there were 20-some 3-5 year-olds all to perform this task (with increasing fire hazard levels as more and more candles were burning at knee level along the path) with absolute Stille. And some of them did - especially near the beginning. But there was one kid who had been getting restless, and had seen enough to know exactly what to do, and he didn't feel like he needed to walk slowly. So he kind of ran, and tripped on a bough, and skidded a bit, and knocked over some candles. Marc and some other parents hopped up quickly, and righted the apples before anything caught fire. Everyone else seemed quite composed, but I think I may have gasped a little loudly. There were no actual injuries, I guess, but there could have been - don't you think? Would something like this EVER happen in Canada? Even the foil stars - they were sharp!
So everyone recovered nicely, and the next kids were very careful. Lia was the very last child - except for the boy that didn't get an apple (not sure what happened there - poor kleine Mark) - and I think her courage faded a bit the longer she had to wait. So she wanted Daddy to go with her, which left me with a great view of her glowing face as she completed her task carefully and solemnly. And then, with the smell of singed hair lingering in the room, we made our way out into the night, unsure of what an Adventsgärtlein was really about...

Bombs Away!

2008-11-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

Back in September, I was having a chat with a colleague at his desk, when we heard an enormous crash outside (it sounded structural - we actually looked out the windows overlooking the parking garage to see if it had collapsed, or if a construction crane had fallen over or something).
But everything outside was peaceful - we had a beautiful clear view of Stiepel and the Kemnader lake (and Ruhr river), with the towns of Witten and Hattingen on the opposite side of the valley.

It took an hour, but it turns out the internet told us what happened:
An unexploded WWII bomb went off in Hattingen at a construction site when a backhoe scrapped it while digging out some foundations. 17 people were hurt (acoustic shock) but no one was gravely injured. The house being dug out was quite damaged, and I bet the backhoe didn't do too well either... Here`s an article about the incident.
The Ruhr river valley suffered a lot of bombing during WWII since it was a nexus of heavy industry and manufacturing (as well as coal mining). You would never know it now... Unless someone discovers unexploded ordinance the hard way :(

The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew it Was None of His Business

2008-11-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

Early in her kindergarten career, Lia was not happy about going to kindergarten. This was made evident by much weeping and gnashing of teeth (enough that on a particularly rushed and stressful day, when Lia was throwing a fit, we ended up taking her home).
To try to turn kindergarten into a daily routine, and a fun experience, I decided to read Lia a book each day at kindergarten as I dropped her off. The book first book she picked was all in German, but Lia made me translate the story, which unfolded as follows:

A mole decides to explore the wide world above, and pokes its head above ground one morning. A second later, someone defecates on the mole's head. (See the drawing above. Yes, that`s excrement.)
On the next page, the mole starts going around trying to find the culprit, and we are introduced to a graphic tour of all the animals which inhabit the barnyard. Each time, the shape/size/style of the animal's droppings is wrong, so the mole concludes that it wasn't the horse... it wasn't the cow... etc...
Finally, it gives up and some flies come buzzing around (yes, the pile of droppings is still on the mole's head throughout the whole story). The flies reveal to our protagonist (through their advanced sense of taste) that it is dog poop. The mole decides to confront the sleeping dog in the farmyard, but at the last minute decides against it, and defecates on the dog's head instead.

The End.

This story became Lia's favourite book, and required-reading every day for about two weeks.
I thought this might just be an interesting cultural difference between Canada and Germany, but it turns out that it's a UK book. Go figure.

-Marc

Happy St. Martin's Day!

2008-11-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Without knowing or understanding much about St Martin's Day, we ended up at Lia's kindergarten on November 11th with our neighbours and friends, paper lanterns (built and decorated by Karla and Lia a few days earlier) in hand. Every kid there had a lantern on the end of a stick lit up with a battery-powered light. Despite the dark, cold, and rain, we were a cheerful bunch! After some songs and a re-enactment of Martin's encounter with a poor person (apparently he cut his coat in half and gave it to a someone...but I don't have all the details about Martin), we all formed a parade.

We followed a horse, while eating the giant Bretzels that were hanging around our necks on purple and pink ribbons. The kindergarten had asked us whether we wanted to pre-order our Martinstag Bretzels along with everyone else, so we were all set.

Children were singing, poking each other in the head (accidentally, I'm sure) with those lanterns-on-a-stick, and a police officer was walking ahead of the horse and rider to stop traffic.
Once we had walked a big loop, we ended up back at the kindergarten, while the fire department set up a gigantic bonfire. It seemed to me that those guys sure enjoyed starting a big fire for a change. Some more songs were sung, and we headed inside for hotdogs and Gluhwein. It was a strange mix - but I think Karla and I are integrating here despite ourselves and our lack of understanding about what's going on :)

On the way home, we watched the massive fire truck put out the enormous bonfire in the kindergarten yard. Huge though it was, that poor fire never had a chance.

It turns out that every school in Bochum has St Martin's Day parades. But there are so many that they are spaced out over two weeks, so as to prevent the world's most massive traffic-jam-inducing, lantern-waving, Bretzel-eating parade of children. Sure enough, the other night, from our balcony, I heard a brass band playing some vaguely familiar Martinstag tunes.

It's pretty cool here in Bochum, once it begins to feel familiar. Happy St. Martin's Day!

-Marc

Etosha and home

2008-11-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

Our next 3 days were spent in Rundu, visiting the Orphans and Vulnerable Children project (for more on the OVC, check out the Neufeld's blog), going with Daryl and Sabrina and some volunteers to do home-based care for the OVC, and touring the hospital.

We went for dinner with other missionaries at a lodge overlooking the river bordering Angola, and enjoyed Kudu steaks! We also visited some friends of Daryl and Sabrina and had a delicious lamb braai (BBQ). We were even given an ostrich egg (which did make it home safely)!

After Rundu, we drove to Etosha. Along the way, we stopped to see Mufasa, a 'tame' lion. I scratched his belly and shook his hand. Pretty crazy!

In Etosha we found the Onguma Safari Camp where we set up our tent, cooked our chicken and preassembled potato packs and went to sleep listening to lions rumbling not very far off. I comforted myself with recalling the strong fence and gate which we found wide open the next morning at 6am!! Lions can still eat you in the morning...why did they leave it open?? Another question I have is why the German guys at the next campsite felt the need to blast "Ave Maria" before bed. It was a little surreal to brush my teeth while fighting the urge to break out into my best operatic stylings.

In Etosha, we saw SO MANY amazing animals. Oh look, a giraffe! Wow, an actual rhino! Hey, an ostrich! O my goodness, there's a pair of lions!!

We got up early each morning, and the motto of the day was, "Keep your eyes peeled!" Here's some photos of us with peeled peepers:

Not necessarily so attractive, but we were pretty good spotters. Until...

We had been driving for a while without seeing anything. All of a sudden, some sharp-eyed person saw a turtle. We backed up and found it. Sabrina got out (yes, there are signs everywhere saying not to exit the vehicle, but hey, we hadn't seen anything for miles...) to take some photos. Marc was driving, and joked that this was just the time to see a leopard. Just then, he looked into the bush straight in front of the van, and spotted the evil grin of a hyena. A HYENA.

Marc had just one word to say: "Sabrinagetbackinthecar! Sabrinagetbackinthecar!! Sabrinagetbackinthecar!!! She did. She even got a photo of the hyena bush. We all laughed nervously for the next few miles. And no one got out of the car again.

No one else knew it was Thanksgiving, but we were very excited to have Kudu steak again for our Thanksgiving dinner at the Halali resort. Just before dinner, we went to the waterhole that is just outside the resort, and lit by spotlights. We happened to see a rhino - very rare and exciting. After dinner we went and sat for an hour or so, and only saw a jackal. Bah! We already saw one of them things - and way closer too! Our lack of results later just underlined the excitement and good fortune of seeing the rhinoceros earlier. We went to bed happy.

We drove to Tsumeb, a beautiful little town, had a quick lunch at Wimpy's and said goodbye to Daryl and Sabrina. It was pretty tearful on both sides. We had had a wonderful time with our good friends. Thanks for the memories!!

Marc and I checked into our hotel, and napped. Keeping your eyes peeled all day can be exhausting! :)We did a quick tour of the block around our hotel, but it was pretty deserted on a Sunday. We did get some beautiful shots in the light of the setting sun.We had a yummy dinner at the hotel. Fish and steak. The waitress asked us, "How must it be cooked?" so earnestly, it was as if it was life and death. Which, I guess, it was...

We watched a little South African TV before bed - a game show and a sitcom. Funny. It's so strange how everything was in English which makes it much easier in some ways than living in Germany. Much harder in other ways. We had lots to think and talk about - nice to have the down time before going back to our new home away from home, and children that don't really allow for much debriefing.

In the morning, Marc picked up our car at the Avis car rental. He was very nervous about this because he had overheard someone talking the night before about how hard it was to get a rental car. Thankfully Marc had made a reservation, so our car had been driven up from Windhoek the night before. There were no cars available for drop-ins. So, we drove ourselves to Windhoek in our little car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and no AC in 40 degree weather. We stopped in Okahandja just before Windhoek to have lunch and buy our last souvenirs. We also tried to have cool drinks, but the 'cool' don't last too long.

We pulled into our pension and relaxed around the pool for a few minutes, watching a little bird who was missing a foot. He looked like he had a peg leg, but he did just fine. He looked tough, though. Like you wouldn't want to meet him in the birdhouse alley after dark.

We located the shopping area for the next day, and scoped out a few places before they closed. Then we headed to Joe's Beerhouse for the Bushman's Sosatie: a skewer of crocodile, ostrich, zebra, kudu and chicken. We thought that crocodile really does taste like chicken, but the locals (like our Chobe guide, Innocent) say chicken tastes like crocodile. Whatever. Yummy!

The next day we shopped, had a delicious lunch in a little cafe (including carrot/orange/ginger juice) and headed to the airport. No delays like on the way to Africa (7 hours late -did we mention that? Also that they temporarily lost our luggage?), it was mercifully uneventful.
And so ended our first experience of Africa. I feel like this trip has just whetted my appetite. What an amazing place. So many challenges for the locals and anyone trying to bring support. We are thankful for our time and can't wait to see Africa and Daryl and Sabrina again! :)

Chobe Game Reserve

2008-11-04T13:13:00.001-08:00

Day 2 was a trip to Botswana. Amazing!! Check out the Chobe game reserve at this website: www.botswana-places.co.za/chobe

The morning was a boat trip along the river between Namibia and Botswana.

We saw so many animals - elephants thundering down the hill toward us and splashing around in the water, hippos yawning, Cape buffalo by the billions, crocodiles pretending to be logs, logs pretending to be crocodiles...

The afternoon was a driving safari. With our guide Innocent driving, we saw more elephants, including a rather close encounter with a single elephant. He came VERY close to us - no one was even breathing! No cats, unfortunately. Still, amazing and FUN!

Driving from Zambia to Botswana was interesting in itself. We were thankful for our guide who helped us do customs. We passed maybe 60 transport trucks waiting to take a ferry over to Botswana - it can only take one at a time, so drivers wait sometimes for 2 weeks. It's unreal. Lots of prostitution and trouble with all those bored drivers sitting around for weeks at a time. Anybody want to build a bridge?

That evening we tried a traditional African restaurant where the waitresses wore traditional clothing and we heard an awesome band. We were given a welcome drink made with corn which is an odd taste and texture for a drink, we found. Luckily, the actual meal was much more to our liking - chicken with peanut sauce, with wild eggplant and sweet potato leaves for vegetables. Dinner was accompanied at first by some drumming which was cool at first, but I had had enough after about 30 minutes. African rhythms are way too complicated for me, so it seemed kind of random and noisy, and it was a wee bit tricky to talk over the ruckus. We tried though, and Daryl and Sabrina told us of their experiences at the hospital. (Heart-breaking and frustrating most of the time, it seems -- power outages causing deaths, lack of training and compassion on the part of most medical professionals, wards based on gender only, putting TB patients, burn victims, psych patients etc all together....A surprising thing is that the pharmacy is well stocked. There is enough stuff, there isn't enough staff. Daryl and Sabrina are trying to influence change, but it's a slow process.) So after a lot of drumming, other musicians joined the lonely drummers, and the ensemble was fantastic. We had a great time talking and enjoying our banana splits.

Next day was the afore blogged gorge activities and Livingston Island - here's a double rainbow at the very edge of the falls.

The following day, we made the long drive back to Rundu (about 8 hours), stopping in Katima to shop for baskets and wraps. We saw many fires along the way and miles and miles of trenches dug for internet cable. Also frequently visible were cows and goats which were actually quite dangerous since they run onto the road without warning. Even elephants do, especially at dusk when the tarmac remains warm as the air cools. Unfortunately, early on in the road trip, we hit a baby goat. He didn't suffer. Despite the casualty, we had a lot of fun talking and listening to music. I took a million blurry pictures through the window of gigantic termite hills and tiny roadside villages.

Africa...

2008-11-04T12:39:00.001-08:00

Victoria Falls - the most scenic place on earth to throw up

2008-10-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

Marc here - taking a chance to post about our most recent vacation

We got off to a rough start on day 3 (I know, we're blogging out of order): Karla was sick, and had to skip the "Gorge Activities" in the morning.

So it was without my wife's support that I overcame my paralyzing fear of heights just long enough to get strapped into the safety gear - and then there was no turning back: we rappeled down a cliff, flew across the gorge on a zipline, and the piece de resistance was the "gorge swing" - which sounds harmless (ie. all the kids like to play on swings, right?) but actually involves a 30m free fall featuring 3.5 seconds of terrifying fear/adrenaline/gasping-for-breath, followed by the chafing of a lifetime from the safety harness as the ropes swing you way out into the middle of the gorge and away from the sharp rocks that you were falling towards just a few moments ago.
This photo (left) shows me stepping out into a free fall - it's hard to enjoy the scenery at 9.8m/s^2....

The key to the zipline is to run as fast as you can off the edge :)
In this case, at least I'm hanging on to something, which made me feel marginally safer...

Of course, the "the flying fox" style is even more daring (there goes Daryl)

Karla joined us at noon, for a speedboat ride to Livingstone Island to have lunch at the top of the falls. But first, we went on a guided swim to the edge of the falls (let's not forget my paralyzing fear of heights). Karla still wasn't feeling well - but she hung in there with us to make some great photos!
Right before the photos below were taken, Karla threw up, and then was the first to jump into the "Devil's pool" where you can swim right to the edge. I don't think she has ever been sick in such a beautiful place (rainbows/mist/waterfall/etc)

Jumping into this pool takes some courage - the edge of the falls is about 15 feet away.

The flow of water over the edge is only a couple of inches where we're sitting, but the current is very strong on both the left and right side of this "pool"

Don't look over the edge - it's a long way down. The cliff in the background belongs to Zimbabwe (the Zambezi river gorge is the dividing line in this area)

After a walk along the edge of the falls, we had lunch. The servers could tell that Karla was not doing well, and somehow they managed to find her a mattress, so she could rest - while Daryl, Sabrina and I enjoyed a fantastic lunch and drinks.

After 3 days in Livingstone, it felt like we were leaving Zambia too soon - but our time in Rundu and Etosha continued to exceed our expectations...

White-water rafting in Zambia!!

2008-10-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

Africa! We have just returned from visiting 3 countries on the dark continent and we are awed by its beauty and the struggle of day-to-day life. It shares some similarities with other places we've visited, but combines it all together in a completely different way. And each area is distinct from the next. Different struggles and different successes, different things to enjoy. There were many heart-breaking situations we saw and heard about - so much to process. Not a dull moment, that's for certain! What with daredevil activities, a death threat or two, close encounters with wild animals, church politics and illness, we had quite the time!

We met up with our friends Daryl and Sabrina Neufeld who are volunteering in Namibia for a year at the local hospital as a pharmacist and a physio-therapist. You can check out their blog at http://www.neufeldsinnamibia.blogspot.com/

October 2

They drove from Rundu to Katima and then on to Livingstone to meet us at the airport. We travelled 24 hours, and then were delayed another 7 hours for our last 1 hr flight! We arrived, tired and excited and without our luggage. Stores were closed - it was 7pm after all. But thankfully, the Neufelds had enough stuff to lend us what we needed for the next day of white-water rafting on the Zambezi river at the base of Victoria Falls!!

October 3

The rafting was so much fun. We were a little nervous, and didn't know what to expect, but if I had known before what I knew after, I would have been even more excited! We drove in an open truck with bench seats to a Tire shop - that's where Bundu Adventures has its headquarters. (It's all very random, and I was never really sure where we were going or what we were doing.) But we paid there, and then headed to the falls! After an amusing safety briefing (featuring our guide, "Potato" reading an abbreviated list of all the possible injuries, followed by "Blah, blah, blah - just sign it!"), we got our safety gear and walked down the gorge to the river. There were lots of rafts, from different companies, but our guide was the best by far. We had spirit! We were the only raft giving each other high fives with our paddles. And Potato would explain each rapid with great detail, telling us where we were headed, and why. It didn't do us much good on the first rapid, unfortunately - we went down backwards which means much less control over the direction of the raft. The difference it made surprised me since I felt totally out of control the whole time, but I soon noticed that Potato was very skilled at steering our raft, even when we were too chicken to paddle at first!

Here's Marc almost falling out of the boat. My paddle held him in long enough for Daryl to haul him back in. There were no other accidental spills until later on...

Woohoo! Full recovery!!

Thumbs up!

Brace yourselves!

Yup, that's our boat!
One rapid was so scary, they were going to close it the following week. Wonderful timing! Wise, or chicken? You decide... I chose to leave our raft, (just for that rapid) go down the easier way, and let one of the daredevil riverboarders have a turn on the raft. Sure enough, the boat flipped, and everyone was thrown out. Daryl was thrown far and my raft went to pick him up. Sabrina surfaced underneath the raft, and had to go back under to come back up again. Potato gathered everyone quickly since they had to be on the raft (now upside down) before the next rapid. Woohoo!

What happens at Terra's...comes to Germany!

2008-09-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

I just read the book that Terra made up of the extraordinary goodbye party she threw - photos of everyone and letters too. Thank you so much everyone!! It was so much fun, and to have the pictures and your letters to me really means so much! And thanks, Terra, for organizing such a great time! It makes me miss you all quite a lot! Enjoy each other. I'm realizing in a new way what a gift it is to have a community like we have at home.

Folks from home...

2008-09-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

This week, my parents, sister, BIL (Brother-In-Law), and niece arrived at 6am at the airport an hour away, and Marc's licence has expired, so it was up to me to drive them. I was a little nervous to find my way on my own, but everything worked out very well. I was even able to drive my neighbour to work on the way. The luggage and people didn't all fit in the van, so we loaded up we could, and two people took the tram home!
We had a few fun jet-lagged days of shopping and seeing a few local sights, and then I drove my sister and BIL to a different airport a little further away so they could go to Scotland. The rest of us continued on to a small town in Holland. We didn't have too much time, but we did manage to see bicycles and a windmill, so what more do you need?

I have previously sang the praises of our GPS system, and now I think I would sing them even louder because we have a new rental car (a VW, not a BMW), with a new system and a new lady. She's nice enough and everything, but she's a little cryptic. Not really what you want in a GPS system. When we get on a straight stretch, she says something like, "Prepare to go straight on soon!" So, if I understand you correctly, right now, I am going straight, and I need to prepare myself to go straight in a little while? Okay, deep breath everyone, and... straight on!
On the way to the airport, we were going on the Autobohn (LOVE it), and she said, "Follow the parallel carriageway". Ooh, a riddle! Fun! But then again, not so fun when you're trying to get somewhere! I'm still not sure what we did right and what we did wrong, but we ended up going in circles - not big circles, little tight expressway circles. Round and round. Things were looking pretty familiar, and we were getting a little nauseous when finally, they started to look a little different, and we were on a different highway which happened to be the one we wanted! I have yet to follow the parallel carriageway (I think), but I'm sure it can't be as fun as those circles.

Yesterday all of us went to Cologne, which was wonderful - the beautiful, sunny weather certainly helped - it's been rainy and chilly lately. We saw the huge cathedral there, and went to the chocolate museum! http://www.chocolateatlas.com/Cologne_Chocolate_Museum/Cologne_Chocolate_Museum.htm) We had schnitzel along the Rhine, watching the boats traveling down the river.
On the way there, the children had been very well behaved, but were getting restless. A certain someone was driving, and a certain other someone told the first someone to do a quick U-Turn. The resulting swerve caused a certain younger someone's head to connect with something hard. Immediately, she started crying (more like bellowing), "I want to go HO-OME!!!" Just as immediately, the other younger someone started wailing just as loudly, "I don't want to go HO-OME!!!" Both of them are not really prone to this behaviour, and they had the same pitch, volume and intensity. It was so funny, the adults burst out laughing which didn't help matters. Thankfully, we were close to the parking lot, and could get out and find something fun!

We're heading to Africa this week. Everyone's a little nervous for various reasons. We'd love to have your prayers for my parents babysitting, and us travelling. We're excited though - should be fun and eye-opening! Stay tuned - it might be a few weeks...

The first month - a restrospective

2008-09-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a month already!!
A quick status update:
Our house:
We have been to IKEA 3 times, and expect to need to go again maybe once or twice more. But mostly, we have what we need. We're putting up curtains and lights, which is quite the endeavour - the ceiling (and walls) are a thin layer of plaster over concrete, and we have yet to find the right drill bit. We still don't have an oven, the dishwasher racks do not roll, but the bees are gone, our grass has been cut (reduces risk of ticks and poison ivy) and we have most of our furniture (most excitingly, a dining room table and chairs, and wardrobes!)
Language learning:
I have had 3 German lessons, and am learning all the time from friends. (Funny story: At the gym, my trainer asked for my phone number, and I said that I didn't know it, but I could go get my handy (cell phone) and tell her. She looked at me strangely, and I realized that she had said "Vorname" - for nah-muh - which means my name. Kind of sounds like "phone number" with an accent, don't you think?) Extracurricular:
I've been to the gym 4 times and have gone to 2 group classes (in the last one, the instructor came off the stage and corrected me, and later spoke to me from the stage - she must have thought I was a little slow...).
Marc has been go-karting, and to a men's breakfast, we've been to a football game, and I've sung at a wedding, gone to Mom's group twice, and to a flea market .
The children:
Lia is settled in Kindergarten, more or less. She talks about all the kids there, and seems to be enjoying herself. She is entering the Terrible 3s, but it's comforting to know that this is a regular stage, and that she is actually adjusting very well.
Kaia is no longer nursing, is learning to walk, and has lots of hair. She is very busy and LOVES playing on the stairs. I went to the neighbour's for something really quickly, and left the door ajar so I could get back in when I returned (the door locks automatically), and Marc found Kaia up the stairs and heading for the street! Pray for her safety, and our energy!
Work:
Marc has yet to have a complete full week at work due to numerous appointments, but is starting to feel in the groove.
Other stuff:
We have a housecleaner and babysitters and most importantly a church home with quite a few friends, and fabulous neighbours!
We miss home, and all you wonderful folks, but are feeling pretty settled here. More and more visits are starting to get organized- so make sure to book yours now!! :)

Are you ready for some football??

2008-09-16T07:29:00.001-07:00

We had a great time at the football game. It was a small event- just 20, 000 people. ;) Tobias had just been to a 'real' football game the day before. 70,000, I think? But, "our" team won - we think - we left early to beat the crowd on the trams!

It was pretty exciting for a number of reasons: to be out without kids, to be out with our new friends, to be at an organized sporting event of any kind (kinda new for me) and to be at a real live football game in Europe. Hence the big smiles.

The away team's fans were crowded in a little triangle of the stadium, surrounded by police. Things get a little crazy, apparently. Nothing while we were there, though!
I really enjoyed all the funny cheers, and seeing so many people all jumping together looks really strange - a little like the crowd in the background of Wii sporting events, Marc thought.

Here are our neighbours, Miriam and Tobias, sharing pretzels and cheesy bread with us! Lecker!

Rivalry, yes - Violence, no!
(Remind anyone of "Clean, yes! Germs, no!"?)

An upward swing

2008-09-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

So things have definitely improved since the mid-week hurdle - thanks everyone for your prayers and nice thoughts and comments! :)
Lia still cried a bit, going to Kindergarten the next two days, but stayed and had a great time. Friday evening was a social time at the Kindergarten, for families to hang out and have pizza and talk. So that was good for her, I think. Our neighbours came over after their kids were down, and we had tea and looked at both of our wedding photos. Great conversation and fun times had by all.
This morning we went to a nearby town - kind of a town within a town, and found a good spot to visit when people come to visit us -- nudge-nudge, wink-wink -- and had a delicious lunch of savoury pancakes. Even Lia ate well!
After dinner (Marc cooked, and it was very 'lecker'), we went on another walk in the woods near our house. It's HUGE - I had no idea. There are amazing animals (wild boar, deer with antlers, and goats), holly growing everywhere, and huge trees (which one might expect to find in a forest...). It was all very beautiful, with the setting sun shining through the leaves and lighting up the ferns under the deer's feet. Food for the soul.
Tomorrow we're doing church and our first outing sans children: a football game with our neighbours. Yippee!

"My momma said there'd be days like this..." a.k.a "Every little thing will be alright"

2008-09-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

It all began Tuesday night. Marc had a dinner out with a few important folks. I was to put the kids to bed. And meet with Anke to go over the music with me for the wedding next Friday. We quickly ate dinner, and Marc left. Kaia went down like ... Kaia. No problem. Lia's turn. She wanted a snack. She wanted a book. She wanted a butterfly story. All very regular requests, which was fine, but then it came time for me to leave. The clock was ticking and soon Anke would be here. Lia could sense this, I think. She would NOT let me go. Sometimes she resists, but never like this. She kicked and fussed and said "No!" and "I don't like you!" and would NOT stay in her room, much less her bed. Anke came. Lia came upstairs and was VERY sweet and cute. "Mommy, I forgot to say I love you!"
It's all a blur to me at this point, but for the next hour, I bargained and cuddled and sang and ignored and changed a completely dry diaper and fed her a snack and let her play...all while Anke and I spoke for minutes at a time. My blood pressure was a wee bit high. At one point in all of that, as I was leaving her room for the 100th time, hoping it was the last, her door handle came off in my hand (we have to pull really hard in order to close the door completely)! This made me feel even more crazed.
Finally, I told her that she had to stay in her bed, but she didn't have to sleep. In fact, she probably shouldn't even close her eyes if she didn't want to. She said, "But I'm a little bit tired, so maybe I'll close them a little." And Lia was down.

So after a late and frustrating evening, Wednesday began. Marc had a big day, and needed to be at work early. I would get Lia to Kindergarten and be back to meet the housecleaner (yay!). While eating breakfast we talked about her friends at Kindergarten and all the fun she has, because she was making noises about not wanting to go. I was feeling Momma-guilt over dragging her across the world and sticking her in Kindergarten in a foreign language, but we persevered. We put on her 'dancing dress' and headed out (a little late), although I hadn't had time to feed Kaia. No problem, I'd turn right around again, and attend to her every need afterwards.
Long story a big shorter, Lia wouldn't stay. I was late for the appointment, and stressed about it, and I just didn't have the heart to force her to stay. Tears were welling up in my eyes. Our neighbour Miriam was there dropping off her child, and I told her the situation. She offered to go let the cleaner in and explain what we wanted. She also offered her cleaning supplies because we didn't have any - what were we thinking?!?!
So I tried (gloomily) to get Lia playing with something fun. She wouldn't. She did, however, have a poopy diaper which I changed. This procedure was not without its share of problems...let's just say I decorated my shoe. Having recently become VERY sick from a minute amount of this substance, poop makes me VERY stressed. I had had enough. "Lia, let's go back home." She brightened up immediately, just in time for her teacher to come out and see her chatting away, a huge smile on her face. She didn't look like she needed to go home, but I did!
We opened the door to the kindergarten and realized it was raining. Anticipating a rapid return to the house, I had not brought the umbrella. Now I should note that I have a few odd and unreasonable fears, and getting caught in the rain is top of the list (although I DO like pina coladas). We ventured forth - what else could we do? As we hurried along the uneven paving stones, Lia tripped. She scraped her chin a little and her knee a lot. Waaah! So I'm pushing Kaia in the stroller in one hand, holding a bawling (and very heavy) Lia in the other, trying to avoid the massive slugs and dog doodoo everywhere (very European).
In this fashion we arrived home. Our house cleaner was there, and things calmed down, although it wasn't a great day even from then on. It just wasn't as catastrophic as the morning. (The cleaning lady actually made the floors and windows look worse, which is quite a feat.)

When Marc came home, things really picked up. We had dinner and Lia and I worked on painting and re-wallpapering her doll house. (I'm way more excited about this than she is, but I'm sure everyone would have expected that!)
Miriam came by with some beautiful Gerber daisies for me, and our two families hung out on our stairs, having ice cream, chasing children, and deciding that 2 children is really lots to have.

We've been listening nonstop to Puntamayo World Playground because it is awesome and it is one of two CDs we brought with us. One of the songs is sung by Bob Marley's mother and Taj Mahal: "Don't worry about a thing, 'cuz every little thing will be alright..." When it's not playing on the CD player, it's playing in my head, and it's quite a good theme song for this move, and for days like this.

A photo strip

2008-09-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

A quiet Saturday morning stroll through the woods.

Ah, here we are at the restaurant. Time for a refreshing local beer.

Hey Daddy, that looks yummy.

I'll have a sip!

Hmm. That doesn't smell very good!

I think I'll just have my water.

Teething...nothing more than teething...

2008-09-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Today we were awakened early by Kaia. She's going through something, and I think we'll use my go-to diagnosis: teething. So it was a weird day of being always a little bit sleepy and a little bit quiet for those who were sleeping and a little bit awake when asleep.
KAIA TOOK HER FIRST STEPS TODAY!! Daddy witnessed this milestone while I was at the gym. Multiple steps, apparently, and a few times. She showed me her newfound talents when I returned, and I was so glad.

Another day, another IKEA wardrobe assembled. We're thinking of applying for jobs. We would have preferred to have them assemble, but it takes WAY longer for them to arrive, so we bought a few things and put them together ourselves. Our house is becoming ever so slightly less echo-y. Yodelayheehoo!

I fought my nerves and went to the gym. It felt like my first day of school. I had a trainer show me the machines and set up an exercise program for me (all included, just like childcare!!). So I'm excited that some normal parts of life are returning. Plus I needed something to offset the chocolate and cheese and beer and cheese and sausage and bread and cheese and chocolate...

Our neighbours were going to the park this afternoon and we tagged along. Lots of fun, and really good conversation. Then back to their place for coffee and chocolate. It's so amazing to have them - it makes all the difference. We prayed for community here, and voila. And they were praying for neighbours. I'm not sure what kind of neighbours they were praying for, so hopefully we are also that. Neighbours we are for sure...

Please enjoy the new gadgets on my blog - the webcam helps you keep your eye on places pretty much anywhere around the world, and you can translate words into German and back again. I had a German joke of the day, but until I can read the jokes, I thought maybe I should delay that one. You never know! :)

We're hoping for a better sleep tonight. How much sleep can one toddler lose?

Feelings...nothing more than feelings...

2008-09-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

So far things have been too crazy for anyone to be shocked by anything - culturally or not. I was hoping that if I held my tongue just right and had a good attitude, I would escape culture shock. But nope. Apparently no one is immune. Now that things are a little more routine, I find I'm missing home, and missing people (ahem, flights to Europe are remarkably cheap sometimes, you know...), dreaming wacky dreams, and frustrated how everything is more of a hassle than it should be.
But yesterday, they really were because our tap was being fixed right at the dinner hour, and then when I finally had carefully made dinner (involving unwashed pans, unwashed vegetables and raw chicken) sans water, I discovered that also our oven doesn't work. Aye Carumba! (Not German, but it felt right.) So we microwaved the casserole, and it was passable. (My neighbour heard the story, felt bad, and made us supper tonight!!)
Looking back over our calendar causes lumps in my throat. Remember when? It was just 2 weeks ago, but it seems like forever! So weird.
However, our kids are really adorable, and they cheer me up quite a lot. Here's a photo of Kaia at the top of our slide!Lia has adjusted to being in Kindergarten better than her mother is adjusting to Lia being in Kindergarten. It's hard to know how much to leave her there each day, since it's completely up to us.
Did I mention that Kaia is eating again?? And guess what her favourite food is? Meat! Some of you know that I am a meat-a-saurus, and now so are my daughters. Tonight, we were having a pre-bed snack, I was washing dishes and heard Marc say, "Don't cuddle with your meat, Lia." Apparently she was holding it close, petting it, and telling it that it was okay. Maybe we do need a child psychologist?? I muttered, "Another sentence you never thought you'd say." And Marc said, "Oh Karla, I've said that to you!"
Having kids along when I'm out and about can be a good and a bad thing since people stop me all the time to make comments and ask questions. It feels friendly-like, but I have no idea what they're saying. I smile and nod, and mostly that works!

We went to city hall Tuesday to get some papers signed. And then to Ikea again. This time with one child only, and enough money. What a difference!!
Wednesday was mostly finishing unpacking boxes. At last! It's feeling really good to have the boxes out of the way. Now if we just had some furniture to put the stuff in...
This morning I walked Lia to Kindergarten with our neighbour and then she and her 2 year-old came in for tea and cookies. Fun! IKEA made a delivery and Kaia and I went to the mall for the afternoon. I have found several of my favourite stores here (C&A, H&M and Pimkie), which is exciting! :)
Tomorrow, we're going to investigate the language school. Then we need to find childcare for Kaia during the class times.

Marc is enjoying work. He biked today for the first time - 8km, uphill both ways. :p Everyone eats together in the university cafeteria which is fun and social.

So things are good. Overall, I'm feeling quite positively about being here, but not so much about not being there.

Church

2008-08-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today we went to church - it was great. A whole other set of vocabulary, but I don't really know too much at this point, anyway! Marc tried to translate, so I understood the overall point of the sermon. We met many people this morning, including a babysitter (yippee!) and a missionary colleague of our missionary friend. Small world!! There is a Mom's group that I will try to attend, but it will be a challenge since I really don't know any German yet.
Lia and Kaia were in the same Sunday school "class", and one of the helpers said she did very well, but she didn't seem to realize that no one spoke English there because she kept chattering away to everyone the entire time. She was fearless, coming up to people and being so friendly. It may be because before we left for church she wanted to make sure she was beautiful so that the people would like her!! We told her that if she was friendly and kind, that was all she needed to be. (And also she was beautiful!) She played with a little girl there who had on the same dress as her, just in a different colour.
We had a quick lunch of doners, and then drove an hour to a huge park - it had a butterfly conservatory, a splashpark with sand and climbers everywhere. This place was huge and crazy and dirty and great. Perfect for kids.
The 180km/hr (in parts) drive home included traffic jams, amazing dirty diapers, some upchucking and lots of singing. We are all exhausted and are heading to bed.
Lia goes to kindergarten tomorrow!!

Icklibidy, everyone!

2008-08-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

Kids are amazing. They really are quite flexible. Or at least, Lia is, and Kaia is when she decides she wants to be, which really is most of the time. How can one's personality be so clear at 12 months old??
We visited Lia's Kindergarten yesterday. It's a short walk from home, and has only 50 kids in 2 classes, ranging in age from 3-6. Everyone speaks German. Her class was doing gymnastics in the gym when we came, so we toured an empty classroom. Lia loved all the toys, and we were impressed by the place. It's small, but well supplied, and the workers seemed very friendly and competent. We stuck our noses in to the gym to see some of the faces she'll be meeting, and all the kids slowly gathered near the door with wide eyes and a few smiles. Um, hi, everybody...Lia handled it very well!
After the gym, we went to get me a debit card and to look at a gym - I really need a workout!! The gym looks great - they have the same machines as at home, and everything is included (even childcare) and the kids' room looks better than in Canada. I didn't see it in action, unfortunately, but I'm sure it'll be great. I love how all the toys and furniture are wooden instead of plastic.
On the way home, they were getting hungry and tired, and Lia, for the first time, said she didn't want to be in Germany anymore, she wanted to go home. The other home. I was expecting this, but thought it would have come sooner. When we went to L.A. she said it about 25 times for the first few days, and she was having a great time with friends. I told her that in Canada, she wouldn't be going to Kindergarten, because Kindergarten doesn't exist for another 2 years. Her eyes widened, and she said nothing more about leaving.
Marc went into work today for a few hours. The kids were playing this afternoon while I made dinner - first time cooking in Europe - we had spaghetti, salad, bread with Brie, Gouda and grapes for dessert. Yum. Oh, right, the kids. Lia was singing, "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, the medicine go KAIA!!! Just a spoonful of KAIA!!! - in the most delightful way!!! For every job that must be done, there is an elephant of fun. KAIA, Nooo!!!" Apparently Kaia was getting in her way, and Kaia is not easily deterred. I share Lia's frustration.
Lia has made the time change adjustment better than any of us, and Kaia is still struggling. She wakes up just as we go to bed. There is usually one thing she wants - good luck figuring out what it is, and it's different every time. She actually looks offended sometimes when I put the wrong thing on her tray. She turns away melodramatically. I feel like she's saying, "How could you?? I wanted bread, not cheese!" I've learned not to put her chair too near the wall, since the rejected items get smeared, and the walls are textured. I think feeding Kaia is our greatest challenge these days, and we haven't yet found replacements for our go-to snacks of Cheerios and Goldfish. Visitors, you know what to bring!
(By the way, I was scanning the baby food section for jars to please her sensitive palate, and discovered pureed cookies, and chocolate baby food. I suppose it's just pudding, but it seems wrong.)
I have to say, that despite the challenges, we are enjoying our kids very much. Sometimes, I can't even stand it. :) Kaia is so smiley (when well-fed), and gives really enthusiastic hugs. She pats me on the back, and rubs my arm. And if you consider a good sliming a gesture of affection, we are most beloved. (Tip for visitors: Don't wear black when holding Kaia.) The usually play together really well. When we went to visit our neighbours, the four girls were playing while the adults talked, and just at first, Lia and Kaia sat close together for comfort, I think. They kept their eyes on the other kids and their backs to each other, playing with their toys. I think they'll be there for one another.

My Dad had a great idea of including a few German words that apply to each entry, so here's today's German lesson, with context.
On the journey here, Lia kept using spaaseeba ("Thank you" in Russian) as a catch-all exclamation (the influence of a Belarus visitor this summer). Yesterday, I taught her "Ich liebe dich" (I love you" in German), and that became the new phrase to use.
"Oh Kaia, icklibidy!" Translation: "Oh Kaia, you're so funny!"
"Kaia, icklibidy!" Trans: "Kaia, look!"
"Icklibidy, Kaia!" Trans: "Watch out, Kaia!"

Icklibidy, everyone!

Day Three

2008-08-28T12:37:00.001-07:00

Today we woke up at noon. We're not sure what timezone we're in now, but I think it's somewhere in Asia.
This was our big IKEA day, so we were a little concerned that we had slept away the best part of it. Nonetheless, we ventured forth, determined to procure some chairs at least and some kind of fabric stuff so the house could become less echo-y and more gentle on little heads. Oh, and some wardrobes, and a table, and lights, and lamps, and a mirror, and bathmats, and a towel stand and rugs and pillows...and four hours later...what, you don't take credit cards? Our interac card won't work? Do you see our 2 screaming children and 2 carts full of stuff, and whole list of stuff we want you to deliver and assemble????
Marc worked some magic with the bank machine and every card we own (I'm sure they'll be frozen tomorrow), and got some cash. A lot of cash. We bought it all with just 50 euros to spare. Meanwhile, I was having one of those moments I had dreamed about since we heard we were coming. The one where I have 2 crying children and everyone within earshot is turning to look. And look. And then I feed my baby some hot dog. (She loves it!! Mommy loved it too, right then.)
We escaped IKEA without further incident, except that Lia really, really needed an ice cream cone for dessert. And we headed home, Karla driving and eating ice cream which made Marc nervous. But then he had some ice cream too.

Addendum:
Can I just say, that I LOVE our GPS system. For the directionally challenged, it is a boon. There is a very clear map, and a friendly British lady tells you where to turn. She gives you lots of warning, and she doesn't even say anything when you don't follow her instructions. She's just quiet, as if clearing her throat, and patiently recalculates the route. I need to give her a name, because I think she's just wonderful.

Day Two

2008-08-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

This morning we awoke at 10:15 to our doorbell. It took us quite a while to recognize the sound. It was our relocation coordinator, wondering where we were, since we had missed the 10am appointment at the kindergarten. Shoot. Snore.

We dragged ourselves out of bed, and decided to hit the mall. We discovered a Toys 'R Us there, which was great because we needed a whole bunch of stuff. Lots of it is exactly the same as at home, and some is quite different. Kaia got a cute Italian high chair seat which is very adaptable. I love it! Marc also got a phone, so we can call home. (We have a great long-distance plan, so people can call us, and we'll call right back. Don't forget the time change!)

Marc thought it was time for me to practice driving, so I drove us home. It was quite successful, even though there is a lot to get used to. Our car is standard, and runs on Diesel. There's no key and no ignition. You insert the fob into the dash, put your foot on the clutch and press the 'Start/Stop" button. And go! (Also, reverse is to the left of 1st, so you can accidentally back up quite easily if you're flustered at an intersection. Yippee! Not a good combination since everyone's raring to go, and tends to anticipate the green light. Hasn't happened yet, but look for a blog post called, "Oops! Sorry!")

After the mall, the kids napped, and I scarfed down some of that yummy soup before going (BY MYSELF) to my friend's house. We went to a big grocery store and got lots more home essentials. I almost did a happy dance when I bought a basil plant, some fall mums and some ice cream. (Basil always makes me happy,and I've always wanted to buy plants when we've traveled, but it's not really practical. It made me feel like we're really living here!)

We unpacked for the rest of the evening, and finally went to bed around midnight, just as Kaia figured she was ready to party. We tried to pat her down a few times, but every time she would cry louder and louder (that kid has pipes!!), and so finally she woke up Lia who wanted a snack. Okay, everybody up. Might as well call Gramma and Poppa. We had a really nice chat and I think we all felt more connected.

Day One

2008-08-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Guten Morgen!
It's 2pm for us, after a long flight and crazy morning of trying to put kids to sleep for the 5th time, and telling rather unmotivated movers where to put boxes (they got a look in their eyes every time we told them the box was to go 2 floors down). We arrived home 5 minutes before the movers came at 8am (2am in K/W...). Shortly after that, our car was dropped off. Marc had the internet working in no time, so we're quite hooked up already!
There were balloons and a beautiful sign decorated with candies which read "Welcome in Germany!" There were lots of groceries already in our fridge, and our neighbour came at noon (I was sleeping) with a huge pot of steaming hot stew which was the best thing I've ever tasted!

I kind of thought we'd take it easy for the first day, having not slept and all, but we...
- met our landlord (He wants me to do music at his wedding in September!)
- had a quick visit with our friends (very thoughtful and helpful)
- introduced ourselves to our neighbours, and went in to play (well, we talked and the kids played
- went grocery shopping
- got all our stuff, and began the unpacking process

It's 3am now, and Kaia is wide awake. Lia's sleeping, at least, but that means she'll be up early!
So we're feeling pretty encouraged, I think. I still can't believe it's happening...
Karla (for 2 sleeping Draders, 1 half-asleep, and 1 WIDE awake)