Thursday, December 30, 2010

I sit here at a cross road, and even though I am not going back to a new school. I feel like a lot is changing in my life.
Since I've been back from Uganda, I havent talked much about it, I was an acclimatizer or what ever they are really called without a doubt
But this sneaking thought keeps on coming into my head, that they way I can best love Uganda, America, Scotland, heck even Timbuktu is to care for the environment because by doing that (not the extreme version) you care for people
Did you know that organic farmers love their Job ? I didn't until this summer
Did you know that conventional farms take up huge tracts of land and are business like in the way they are run? I didn't until this summer
Did you know that conventional dry cleaning hurts the workers who work in the dry cleaning stores? I didn't until last year
Did you know this can be easily remedied by just looking up a eco friendly dry cleaner in your area? believe me if there is two in Wichita you can find one anywhere
I watched a documentary on coal mining yesterday, I was on Morgan Spurlocks TV show called 30 days and he was in it. And It was one of the most politically neutral things i have ever seen and because of this I allowed it to hit me in the gut.
Right now there is not a better alternative then coal for electricity, but coal mining is one of the most dangerous jobs and the not dangerous version is tearing away the beautiful mountain tops of west virginia. I sat there my mouth literally drooling over the beautiful scenery I was seeing, and then I found out it was slowly going away.
I know the answer to protect peoples lively hoods is not doing away with electricity and trying to stop the government from allowing coal based electricity. Instead I believe that a solution must be found that works as well as coal, so that slowly the coal industry can become obsolete.
I have become convinced more and more over the past several months of my life, that what I pay for and purchase can do as much to affect the country, as voting for a particular politician, if not more. Not that buying more is good, actually I am all for buying less. What I mean is we must put thought behind our purchases,
That and we must get out of our bubbles and care for the people around us, the little old lady down the street, we must know the people we live around. We must take like and live it not like it is something to get through but instead we must recognizing that it itself is also a treasure. We must embrace it. We have to get back to the basics.
We must go outside and play in God's wonderful creation,
we must be present with the people around us
we(and I'm talking mostly to myself here) must get off our butts and really live life

When I realized I wasnt having the typical usp community experience/I love CCU

I was sitting at re-entry and everyone was talking about how unique they found the USP community and how much they were going to miss community when they got home,
and all I could think is, USP you were great, but I can't wait to get back to the CCU community
I realized then how blessed I am to go to a school like ccu. When others are dreading the day they go back I have been going through CCU withdraws since June,
And I am not the only person who has experienced this
tons of people do
almost my whole school misses it terribly when they are gone, when many people get homesick when they go to college, CCU students get schoolsick when they are away
Wheather its the mountains, the community at the school, even the professors at CCU, there is something about it that just captures your heart and wont let it go.
and CCU is far far far from being perfect.
but maybe just maybe it's the perfect place for me
see you in a week and a day CCU

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Re Entry Incidents

Weirdest thisng I have done: Washed my hands at the Baltimore Airport. Can you believe it Hot Water comes out of an automatic tap. Like you just put your hands under the faucet and bam warm water.

America is really like this? event...... the amount of plastic trash me and my Dad got at panda express, oh my goodness. Where were the ceramic plates or brown paper bags

Oh look theres Uganda! event sitting at the DC airport when a dark skinned (trying to think of the most politucally correct way to say this, correct me please) girl came and sat next to mne, wiping her clean chair off before she sat down. This is what all the Ugandans do, it made me so happy !!

all this happened within 10 minutes, part of me is wondering if that was rentry, but something tells me I'm not done yet

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

( so I was reluctant to post this because I don't want people to worry but I also felt like I need to share more, whatever you do make sure you don't only read part of this)
So a common theme during USP is tension. The difficult time that will arise during the semester that will help you grow as a person.
I had my first crying experience yesterday. I am very very low on sleep thanks to a rooster that wakes me up at 4:30 in the morning. I am realizing once again (for like the one hundredth time) how special the community at CCU is, and well it makes me miss it. And then my canceled class was going to be held after all with my officially worst favorite teacher. It was to much to handle. And I had one of those feeling that I just wanted to go home.....

But God is good really good. and it's weird this morning I was sitting in my faith and Action class. Which is my only all American class. and I just kept on thinking about Scotland. One of the things I have learned here is how much I truly do feel called to live there someday, and how you can't just make up those feelings. Because believe me if you could, I would of made those feelings up about Uganda, and it would be more then just a place I'm studying at for the semester. And the more I thought about living in Scotland one day, the more I became comfortable with living here for the semester. How the stuff I learn here could really help me in the future. And then I started to dream about stuff like helping train and being emotional support for missionaries in other places, while living in Scotland, and well I started to get excited, really excited.
Part of the thing that has been hard here, is that I'm not adapting to the Ugandan culture as well as I adapt to the culture in Scotland. Instead of feeling like I understand it well enough to help other people adapt, I feel like I need help myself. But it's good really good, because I know this will help me in the future, help others.

Well I know this post will be continued further, but right now it's time for a nap. I love you all and miss you.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Incorporating Uganda life into America

This time is going to be gone in a mere week and a half's time
I often think here that I haven't changed at all, and then I do something like write a Christmas list and it slaps me in the face.
I'm so glad we are going to be going through re-entry in Entebbe, I need it.
I know some part of incorporating what I have learned here and experienced here at home will be easy, such as presence, and others will be hard such as street food and walking.
It's going to be weird going back, while I believe home wont feel terribly different, going back to CCU is going to be very different. In some ways I feel like I am transferring all over again. The emotion of leaving people behind that I had before going to CCU, it is defiantly there and very real.
Not to say I am not excited, I have much more purpose and direction behind my major after being here. I think I'm actually going to speak in class, my professors might faint. And mountains oh my goodness they are calling my heart. And I miss my friends so much. And I'm ready to be back to my addicted to volunteering self. Snappers and street church you have been on my heart all semester, I miss ya so much.

Has anybody who is reading this gone through reverse culture shock before? Does anybody have any pearls of wisdom for me? Does anyone have any advice? Please even if you're a secret reader of my blog ( I know plenty of people read it and don't comment thanks to my little map) if you have any advice please leave a comment. It's okay with me if you don't tell me who you are.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Okay so I think I'm preparing you guys for the transition to my blog being back about America
I found out the USA recently passed a law requiring healthier school lunches in the USA
I couldn't be a bigger fan
yes libertarian leaning ( well more then any other political party) me is a huge fan
See when I was little my preschool teacher called me spit on a griddle meaning that I was overly hyper, test were done and it was a fact, I had ADHD
but my mom didn't want to give me medication unless it was necessary. So I was on the feingold diet with meant no artificial anything, especially colors.
And while it wasn't a 100% success story, (and I'm not convinced this wasn't because I sneaked artificial food) it worked
That past is why I'm on the slow journey of trying to move towards all natural diet and mostly not processed/ organic diet once again. With my past it's hard for me to believe that the skeptics about organic food are right.
That and I've read the boxes of massed produced food. The place where I was, was serving relatively healthy food ( had lots of vitamins, basic food groups) and I still couldn't believe how much junk was in the food
We are what we eat.

more insight on the subject
fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Response

Okay I'm getting a little controversial here but okay.
In light of John 8 how should Christians see the death penalty?
Should chrisitans be for or against capital punishment ?
If you would like you can email me your response kimberly.joy.mac@gmail.com