Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Okay, Folks!  Sorry I haven't been so great at posting updates..  I've had a hard enough time trying to find the time to journal about everything, but no worries, I will back track and post things when I get home!
 
This weekend Marcos and I plus a friend, Anna, have been at Lake Atitlan.  It is sooo beautiful!! We went kayaking, did some shopping, and lots of eating!  Such a satisfying day...

Marcos and Anna, a girl volunteering at the orphanage who is from Spain.  

I had a wonderful first full day in Huehue!  We started out the day at Greg's (one of the teachers) apartment for worship, a perfect way to start the day.  I met Teacher Marcos's students- third grade advanced and fourth grade beginners. They're a lively bunch! I taught both classes an art lesson about watercolor.  I spent the afternoon at the orphanage, which they call the Fundacion or Fund for short.  I got lots of hugs and played on the swings and monkey bars with some of the younger kids, while Marcos tutored a couple students.  Later, all the teachers went to eat dinner at one of the teacher's houses-dinner was DELICIOUS! And I loved getting to know the teachers.  I'm really excited for the next two weeks!!  I do really wish I had a basic understanding of Spanish, but I'm trying...


I'm having a hard time loading pictures right now, but will work on it later!

Off to Guatemala I Go!

I leave for Guatemala in exactly ONE WEEK!  I'm SO excited to meet the children I've seen pictures of on Facebook and heard many stories about from several of my friends.  I have art lessons planned, clothes washing to pack, and brand new supplies to take to the kiddos.  I have a few more things to take care of before I leave, and then I'm off!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to the cost of my trip and for all the prayers, too!  I've ended up with more than I needed, so the rest will be donated to the school and orphanage where I will be helping.  Thank you so much for furthering education in Huehuetenango!!



Trip Details:

Leave Rochester, NY on Tuesday, June 2 at 7pm
Arrive in Guatemala City, Guatemala on Wednesday, June 3 at 10:30am

Volunteer at the local orphanage
Teach a few art classes, help with English lessons
Make some food
Spend quality time with some amazing kids and some awesome teachers
Learn and see lots of new things

Leave Guatemala City, Guatemala on Wednesday, June 17 at 1:20pm
Arrive in Rochester, NY on Thursday, June 18 at 10am



Thanks again!  I'll keep you posted during the trip!

"What's next?" They ask.

At every stage of life, there seems to be a reason for someone to ask, "What's next?"  There are several variations of the phrase: What will your next steps be?  When will you have kids?  What's the next chapter?  Where will you go next?  Wow, you're engaged, when are you getting married?  What are you going to do with your life? And the questions continue, yet all centered around what you are going to do in the next "stage" of your life.

I've been getting this question quite a bit recently...  I graduated-What's next?  I was accepted into a year long placement as an AmeriCorps VISTA- What will you be doing after that?

I know many people, including myself, who get annoyed with this question.  But recently, very recently, I've tried to put a more positive spin on it to challenge myself in couple different ways.

Challenge #1: Use this cliche question as a way to investigate what may come next.  No need to write things in stone, but my guess is that it can't hurt to start thinking a bit in advance.  Though, I've gotta say, it is sometimes nice to not think about the future for a spell. Living in the present is great!

Challenge #2: Take the opportunity to be honest with yourself and others, by telling them the truth.  
        Example:  I. Don't. Know.  It is perfectly acceptable to tell people you are still thinking about what
                        you want to do and what will be best for yourself.  You have to live each phase of life to
                        know what comes after.  We can't all see years into the future, though some seem to do
                        just that and it is okay, too.
        Example:  Well, I have some options...  List off your options and see what kind of feedback you
                         get.  You never know which people might have life advice to pass along or have some
                         connections to help you get going.  I think there's also something to speaking your
                         dreams; it keeps you accountable to them if people know what you want to do and
                         offers others a chance to lend you support.

I have realized I can't sit around waiting for the right opportunities to smack me in the face saying, "Here I am, your next step in life!"  Though, wouldn't it be great if that were the case??  I think the result would be fewer sleepless nights, no anxiety, and a bad case of 'going through the motions.'  Why think about my life goals if they're already planned out?!  It seems there might not be as much devotion, excitement, and motivation for each task.




So, what are my dreams, goals, and aspirations??  Here, I'll give you my top 20 as of now in this very moment...

• A very general life-long goal is to radiate Christ's love.  He's made my life, changed the way I live, and so I want to share what He's given me with others.
• Go on a cross-country road trip to visit all 50 states
• Teach art to inner city kids
• Have dreads
• Write and publish a book
• Visit the 7 wonders of the world
• Learn to play the violin
• Design a house and have it built
• Own some chicken and cows
• Live in another country-right now I'm thinking Uganda!
• See a Cirque du Soleil show live
• Hike the Grand Canyon
• Found a community arts center in an inner city that would mentor kids through fine art, theater, music, etc. 
• Go hang gliding
• Learn to ballroom, Irish, and swing dance
• Visit the San Diego Zoo
• Learn to survive in the wilderness, including how to shoot a gun/hunt
• Go ice fishing
• Vacation on each continent at least once, as well as visit Ireland, Greece, Rome, and Germany
• Have my own art show

Which one is up next??  I don't know...  But these are my current options:

• Attend grad school to obtain some type of business degree for when I start a non-profit
• Complete a second year of Vista either as a member or leader
• Visit home, substitute teach for a while, then travel to Uganda as an intern for an extended amount of time
• Find an art teacher position
• Continue working at Mary's Place Refugee Outreach Center, while maybe starting grad classes

What are your dreams, goals, and aspirations?!  I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

I've been doing some reading...

With my new work life (compared to school life), I've had time to read books I want to read, but never had time to because of school related reading requirements.  It's been SO GREAT!  I love reading and think it is a wonderful way to learn more about the world around you without ever leaving your bed or your comfy couch.  (Not to say that you shouldn't ever leave those places, because you should definitely experience life for yourself!)

Here are five very brief reviews, in no particular order, of a few books I recommend you take time to read:

1. Packing Light   By Allison Vesterfelt     
The author goes through her journey of leaving everything, literally everything, to follow her heart and travel the country.  She talks about her many layers of baggage and what incidents made her realize  she even had any.  I love her honesty with her feelings and thoughts along the way.  Vesterfelt has a beautiful way of analyzing those thoughts from a post-journey view point and through that, raises questions we all face.  How do I deal with my baggage?  What baggage do I even have??  What areas/aspects of my life am I absolutely unwilling to let go of?  I have many take-aways after having read this, but one of the biggest is that vision changes everything.  My outlook on life, the people in it and the moments I happen upon, is completely affected by the perspective I put on it.  It is not always possible to be happy about the way life turns out, but you can remain positive in that it won't stay that way forever.  This one is HIGHLY recommended.... by me.  :)


2. The Circle Maker   By Mark Batterson       

If you're looking for a spiritually challenging book, this is a good one!  It opens with a story about an African man who is bold and faithful in his prayers.  From there, Batterson pairs personal stories of failures and successes to share how he learned to pray big prayers, much like the African man.  Though you don't have to take everything he says as truth (as is true for any book), I was encouraged by his trust and boldness in the way he approaches prayer.  Dream big. Pray hard. Think long.

3.  The Alchemist   By Paulo Coelho        

A shepherd boy named Santiago herds his flock around the country side to earn a living, until he meets an old king.  This happenstance reshapes Santiago's direction and leads him on his way to find his "Personal Legend."  I enjoyed this one because it has Biblical references, but is written as a fable.  It took me a little bit to really get into this one, but I ended up enjoying it.  The moral is an uplifting one about following your dreams, even through major, life-altering obstacles.  

4.  Divergent   By Veronica Roth        

Set in Chicago, this dystopian novel follows a young girl trying to figure out who she is.  The society she lives in is broken into five different sections: Abnegation-the selfless, Candor-the honest, Dauntless-the brave, Amity-the peaceful, and Erudite-the intelligent.  Find out which virtue best suites you, as you learn more about Beatrice, the heroine, and how she handles the truth.  Filled with so much detail, it was easy for me to get caught up in another world.  It doesn't mean a lot when I say this is a great book, because I love science fiction and I love reading. BUT when my roommate says this is a great book and is caught reading the first two books in the trilogy during every spare moment and then proceeds to buy the last when her coworker keeps forgetting to bring it in to work for two whole weeks, that means a little more.  Christine classifies herself as a slower reader who really only likes non fiction, so the Divergent series has to be good, right??  RIGHT.  Set aside a weekend for this one. 

5.  101 Secrets for Your Twenties   By Paul Angone        

While some of these secrets aren't really secrets, I liked the reminder to live life to its fullest and experience moments while I'm not "tied" to any particular way of living.  The author puts a secret up and then elaborates on why it is important to know or do in your 20s.  This one is a light read that you might not need to purchase, but I did enjoy the laughs and advice tid-bits I picked up.  

Brought to you with love on this fine Sunday and now I will return to my Christmas movie-thon..  Holiday Inn down, White Christmas is up next and then The Holiday..  Who doesn't love old movies, dancing, and Jude Law?!?        

Life After Graduation as of Oct. 2013

Now that I have been a part of the "real world" for about 2 months, I can share what it has been like and what kind of transitions I've been through in all aspects of my life.



Business Life:  Rough, tough stuff- at first.  The past two months have had many ups and many downs with learning the ropes and figuring out priorities and what, exactly, is expected of me.  Yet, I feel like I've made a few mini-accomplishments.  One, I have successfully interviewed, "hired", and trained 4 new interns for Mary's Place.  I have also revised/written handbooks for volunteers and interns, designed a new brochure, enlisted my friend to redesign the logo, brought in several new college groups, found a couple people to help teach ESL classes, and am in the beginning stages of starting a citizenship class for adult refugees.  There is still soooo much I don't know about the refugees that I would love to know, but I know it will take time to build trust with them.  Thus far, I have learned two main lessons:  A. Stand up for yourself; Don't be taken advantage of by people who don't have authority over you, or even by people who do.  B. If you're butting heads with a co-worker, talk it out with someone you trust to come up with another strategy of communication.  Figure out what the issue really is and how best to address it.

Daniel.  He is such a character...  Super smart kid and very talented in soccer too. 

Learning a lot in English class!

Esperance, Jackie, and Celestin.  Esperance is very sweet and loving; she loves to give hugs!  Jackie is the sassy kindergartener...  love her, even if she is a sass.  Celestin loves being responsible for things and helping out.  He has been doing really well in school so far this year :)

Three of the older girls that come to Mary's Place: Salome, Nadine, and Awal.  I love getting to know these girls more and more as I spend time with them!  

Art day with Liz, Christina, and Bri :)

Social Life:  I am very fortunate to live so close (5 min drive, 10 min bike ride) to friends still in college!  On the other hand, it is mad difficult to live "far" away from best friends.  Bethy, my college next door neighbor and NY sister, now lives in Syracuse with her hubby.  Kels, my old roomie, lives 45 min away; Meghan lives over an hour away; and Liz just moved to Cincinnati....  There's my main cohort of friends and none of them are in close proximity, except for Christina, who's about 10 min away (which I love!).  It helps that one of my current roommates went through the same social crisis last year and the other is going through it now with me.  I have still managed to have fun doing weird things like square dancing with old folks, having a dance party for 3 hours in our kitchen, several game nights, many sleep overs, and much more!


Spiritual Life:  This has been a bit rough, not gonna lie.  For a while, I did a lot of sulking, reminiscing college and Uganda...  Then I got back into being a youth leader and I recently joined a life group through church with other young adults.  Both of these things have been vital to giving me the motivation to be active in my spiritual life again versus going through motions.  I'm still working on perfecting my routine of making sure I set aside time to spend with Christ, but it's definitely much better.  Again, my roommates have been super encouraging and we've had a few great conversations about sermons and an ABC (our names are Amanda, Bethany, and Christine, so everything has become ABC [fill in the blank: laundromat, cafe, motel, etc.]) prayer circle.  They are awesome!  Something Christine brought up one night that rang true to me is now that we aren't always surrounded by friends, we have to run to God with our life instead of relying on our friends to help us work things out.  So true, but hard.

What I do with the leftover time in my life:  Well, I've been doing a number of things when I'm not with other people or doing work related tasks.  A large portion of time has been spent watching White Collar on Netflix.  I have almost finished season 3 and don't know what I'll do afterward because none of the other seasons are up yet.  I have also succumbed to the hot trend of Candy Crush and now waste time playing that game before I fall asleep.   Bethany and I have cooking dates on Sundays, which are beautiful!!  One of the highlights of my week is deciding what to make and spending a large portion of our afternoon making delicious food.  So far, we've made baked ziti, fajitas, clam chowder, pork chops, and chili; everything is made from scratch!  Look out world- I can cook!!  I've been able to read a lot more and make it through books at a normal speed since I don't have boat loads of reading for 8 different classes.  I'm even auditing ceramics at college so that I have access to studio space and can keep up with my art-making.  I would like to start volunteering at least once a week somewhere local in the mornings because I don't go into work until 12pm.  Where I'd like to donate my time?  No idea right now..  maybe a nursing home or other non-profit, maybe I could find a gallery that needs extra help or see if the church office could use an extra hand.

Baked Ziti!

Fajitas with alll the toppings! :)

Clam chowder!

There is so much left to be learned, luckily I have many years to learn it...

Mary's Place and My New Home

My first week of "serving" (since I'm a glorified volunteer) is almost over!  I really like what is happening at my site, Mary's Place.  (Check out their website when you get a chance: http://www.marysplaceoutreach.org/mpo/ )  They help refugees that have been placed in the area by offering free ESL classes, food and clothing donations, and after-school tutoring, among other things.  Kathy first started the non-profit organization in 2009 and it has been growing ever since.  People are coming and going as they have received the knowledge they need to make a living in the US and more people are being relocated to the area all the time.

God really had my back on this one I think!  After applying to Rochester Youth Year, the program I am under within AmeriCorps, I was wait-listed. Crushed, I started to look for other similar opportunities in the Rochester area, one in particular was working at Nativity Prep School in the city.  Two days before I was going to leave for Uganda, I received a call from the Roberts Dean of Student Life, Brenda.  She said there was a very important email I needed to check before I left for my trip......

I was accepted!  I was so excited, but I was quickly hit with all the emotions and wonderful people of Uganda.  All through the rest of summer, training, up until I actually got to Mary's Place, I periodically felt like I had made the wrong choice because this had almost nothing to do with anything God has placed on my heart. SURPRISEEEE!

My dream to open and run my own arts community center had been my main motivation to gain experience in the non-profit world (I also wasn't quite ready for my own classroom yet).  But beyond gaining knowledge about non-profits, I have also put to use things I learned from my trip to Uganda.  Mary's Place serves many different types of people including Burmese, Nepali, and Africans from Congo, Zambia, and South Sudan.  I have been able to share my love for chapatti and samosa (pastry type things with vegetables inside) with them.  We talked about different languages and all kinds of things.  Its a slightly Americanized version of Africa in the US.  WHile the circumstances that brought these people to the US aren't any where near the best, I love it!

I am stoked to learn more about the Burmese and Nepali, too!  I am already planning awareness nights and food sharing events in my head, as well as marketing tools and ways to improve the programs already in place.

On a different note, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the house I moved into with fellow Roberts grads!  My housemates are Christine and Bethany, both are nurses and have a great love for the outdoors.  Mom and Corey came up for my day off this week to help me get organized and bring some odds and ends up.  I now have a dresser and mattress! (I'd been sleeping on the floor until Wednesday)  My mother has OCD and felt the need to clean every square inch of the 1.5 bathrooms in the house... Thanks, Mom! :)