Shiny New!

Look!

I changed my blog finally! Haha! 

Hopefully we've progressed a bit in the area of graphics...ok moving on.

I'm obviously home from Kenya.  

If you missed that development, my bad!  I've been in the US for...about 6 weeks now.  Crazy how time flies.  I spent two weeks at home, catching up with family, sleeping off the jet lag, and floating around in a re-entry culture shock daze.  I got into Detroit Saturday night and we stopped at a Wendy's on the way home so I could get a cheeseburger.  I told the guy at the cash register to make sure it was the best burger they'd ever made because I'd just flown in from Africa after 16 months, and it wasn't too shabby!  I've heard sad stories about things not tasting good after that long away, but I am very glad to say that it tasted just as delicious as I remembered!  I went to church the next morning (I know, crazy right?!), and afterwards my dad's side of the family came over.  It's all kind of a blur but I do remember being really happy to be home and with family again.  And I remember tasting my first chip with dip on it and literally getting tears in my eyes because it tasted SO GOOD! Plus I was seriously exhausted and forcing myself to stay awake till at least 8PM, so things were a bit overwhelming. haha!

So that first week home was mostly a hazy mix of hugs, the same questions over and over, and lots of food.  Although I do have to say I was happily surprised by the ratio of people who actually cared to those who only wanted the surface level report of my time in Kenya.  I was wisely advised to go into conversations expecting people to not really care, then if they did it was a pleasant surprise!  That strategy seemed to help me not be too disappointed when the handful of people pulled the 

"So how was Africa?" 

"Well, it was really hard but I learned a lot.  This one time..." 

"Oh that's so nice dear!  Did you hear that my son Billy here made the Honor Roll AGAIN!? He is just...blah blah blah"

hahahha!  It really happens!  But yeah, it was really nice when people took the time to even try to understand what I'd experienced.  I don't expect people to get it...no one really can unless they've experienced being in a different culture long term, but I really appreciate it when they at least attempt to understand.  

Now I've been back at BCOM for about 4 weeks, and it's been great so far!  It's refreshing to be around old friends again and to have a whole class of people who experienced overseas internship to talk to.  I miss Kenya and my friends there a lot, but it's been comforting to be around other friends for a while in the meantime.  I'll be graduating in August and I'll be heading home to Michigan for some amount of time for some exciting family events like weddings and such.  Some time in the fall, October being the latest, I'll return to the Bethany campus to go through an application process with Bethany International, the sending agency of Bethany.  I'm hoping to return with them to Kenya to help get an adult literacy program started as a door into the community there.  I'm really excited about that step, but to be totally honest I feel really unprepared at this point.  I'm glad I still have many months before I even get ready to go back and get to work.  For now I'm focused on finished classes and getting some training from an existing adult literacy program here in Minneapolis called SALT (Somali Adult Literacy Training).

Well, those are the practical updates for now.  Maybe now that I like my blog more I'll write more often...yeeeaahh we'll see about that! haha!