Crazy Halloween

There were 6000 people that came to our Halloween event yesterday. It's put on by a church here called Solid Rock. True story.

The Compassion DTS showed up at 7 AM and worked til 11 AM on setting up Candy Land. There was a guided tour through candy-themed tents that we set up. We also had a row of games (dart throwing, bean bag toss, "fishing" for a candy, etc.). And we had a huge tent covering for serving hot dogs and baked goods. We showed up again at 4. The event started at 5 and went til 8.

I was a greeter and then I helped run the candy fishing game. It was almost non-stop work, except for a few texts and then a few-minute verbal text. I did the entire night in a Scottish accent, which led to a few wonderful conversations."

Christine (college-age church girl): "Where are they from?"
Tracy (older church staff): "They're from YWAM and Scotland."
Christine: "Oh so that's like real! (To me:) I thought you were wearing that kilt a bit freely, like it wasn't your first time."
Me: "Aye."
We talked for a little bit and then she left quickly enough that I never got to clarify that I was just joking.

Me: "Go ahead laddie. It's your turn."
Boy didn't respond, so I turn to the old person on the side.
Me: "What do Americans say for laddie and lassie?"
Oldie: "Well, 'boy' or 'girl' works just fine, except 'boy' is sometimes used for (quieter, with intensity:) 'negros' so I wouldn't use that. It's not Kosher."

Old Person #2: "You know, I have a friend with a condo in.... I want to say North Umbridge, but that's not it. Oh, it's Newcastle."
Me: "Sounds like a good place for a castle."
She "knew" I was Scottish, but she doesn't know Newcastle is actually in England.

So many adventures...

I went snorkeling at the Children's Beach on Thursday. The whole cast of Finding Nemo was there. There were moorish idols and regal tangs. It was a perfect shallow snorkeling place without waves. There was coral growing everywhere too. It was really cool watching a turtle on the rocky shore while it was feeding.

Friday was the deadline for the $2500 outreach deposit. There were maybe a dozen people who owed an average of maybe $2000. There's so many people here who just did not have their lives together at all before they got here. And a few people just came from really poor countries, including Jacinta from Uganda, who's on my Rwanda team. On Friday, the people who still owed money sat in front of the class on the edge of the stage. We had worship music playing and people who wanted to share money would give them a slip of paper with a number of dollars committed to them. It was very emotional and very moving. It convinced me to write support letters for my team. By the end of the hour of that meeting, there was $15000 less owed, and now only 5 people owed money.

I went with my roommates to a MMA (mixed martial arts) gym on Friday. We did jogging, bag hitting, offense/defense drills, and then just normal sparring. Then we did a drill where someone standing over you drops a medicine ball on your abs while you're doing crunches. I like that drill. It's a good way to work the abs pretty hard. I was sore the next day, but only on my left side where I took a harder hit.

So awesome...

Camping was cool. Fresh guava on the trees that lined the hiking trail was amazing. I used a guitar case for my pillow. Pictures are on Facebook.

But the main part of "So awesome..." involves my first acting experience since 8th grade. I auditioned a few days ago. Three other guys auditioned too. I got the part.

I was a narrator for a 13-minute film. We recorded takes for just over an hour. We did at least two takes for 26 different chunks of lines. I feel like I did an almost decent job. The director/writer/recorder is a YWAM staff guy that had to fly to Atlanta, Georgia tonight because he's on the board for International Christian Visual Media. So he said normally he would do 7 or 8 takes, but he feels pretty good about what he got.

He's going to enter the film into film festivals and see if it can win any prizes.

I'll get a copy by December to show to everyone.

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Our speaker, Matt Rawlins, is speaking to both us and the Justice DTS together. So Dawn and Pieter asked us to be very welcoming to them. I told Dawn I could name them all like she had me do our school when it started, and she loved the idea. So on Monday, she gave me the microphone. "You guys, this is going to seem really, really creepy, but will all the Justice students please stand up." And then they sat down when I said the first and (sometimes middle and) and last name and where they're from. Since I had studied the Facebook group they were part of, I got 47 of the 50 students. The weird part was how many Justice students said they were really grateful and thought that was really nice. I guess they felt like I was just introducing them to the Compassion students. Cool.

My time here is so hard to condense...

For my small group meeting on Thursday, we went cliff jumping at a place called the End of the World. For real. I’m still alive though. No picture this time.

Dodge ball tournament tonight. It was fun. Even though my team was pretty awful. Dodge ball is such a great sport. It really tests your reflexes. I love it.

McDonald’s Run Tonight. I had two McChickens, a large fries, and a hot fudge sundae. Such a great meal.

The speakers this last week were Trent and Trey Sheppard. They were all over the place in what they talked about. They were just filled with stories. The stories mostly centered on influencing the world and the humanity of Jesus. Everything was being translated in Korean too. Hence the joke, “I think our speaker is really good, but that Korean guy keeps interrupting him!”

Our speaker next week is speaking to both us and the Justice DTS.

I’m learning Kinyarwanda. It’s really cool and crazy. They have 10 different classes of nouns.

I'm leaving to go camping in two hours with the guys.

Rwanda

I don’t know what we’ll be doing in Rwanda, but I am going to start studying Kinyarwanda like crazy. I always run into a few Indians at engineering companies, because so many of them are engineers, so it would have been more auspicious if I were learning Hindi and going to India, which would include building houses (which I’m well trained for). India’s also one of the fastest growing economies in the world, so it’s really interesting to me. I also think I'd like Indian food much much more than Rwandan food. The other 7 Rwanda people had Rwanda as their first choice, (Rwanda was my second choice), but our leader Mikaela said she stole me away from India cause she wanted more guys.

So at first I had mixed feelings, cause if the entire world revolved around me, I might have made a couple adjustments to my destination and team. But dude! I’m going to Africa. And anyways, before the DTS started, I’ve always told people I’m going to Rwanda.



Meet the Rwanda Team

Mikaela Joy Moxness. The staff member who will be our leader. A missionary kid. She’s from Indonesia, but her parents are from the States. I immediately felt nervous about having a hyper 19-year-old girl as a leader, but her first words could not have been more perfect. She called us all together and said “I know some of you may be nervous about have a 19-year-old girl as a leader, but I really see you guys as the leaders and I’m just helping to send you out to be leaders.” Well done.

Now, in order of favoritism…

Luke Cook. He probably enjoys my humor more than anyone else here. He’s a former college football quarterback and a very cool guy.

Kara Dannenberg. She is 18 but seems much older. We’ve been hanging out a bit, and she’s a lot of fun. She has an awesome thunderous laugh, especially at most of the things I say. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 2 months now. She’s the one that loves her boyfriend “more than a really good dump after not having had one for a really long time.”

Michelle Berry. She’s 25. Her boyfriend is 35. There are three 25-year-old girls in my school. They’re all very down-to-earth and are fun and easy to hang out with. We make fun of the 18-year-olds together. Well, mainly, I do, but they participate as the audience.

Jacinta Kanyunyunzi. She’s from Uganda and grew up in her later years in Philadelphia. She’s nice and she’s acculturated with American humor, which is great. She’s also graduated from college here in the States. She speaks a bunch of Bantu languages so that will be helpful.

Sam Loewen. He had a blog about fashion before the DTS started. He’s an art major. The way he talks is very effeminate. He is awesome. He’s really nice and easy to hang out with.

Madi Kozacek. She’s nice. Not super outgoing, but she is somewhat approachable. She’s from Washington. She’s been dating her boyfriend for 6 months.

Katie Green. She is the Canadian patient. I’m not saying this to be funny or mean, but she has low self-esteem and doesn’t understand guys at all so she reminds me of bad past experiences, which is unpleasant to me, so I’ve been more distant with her lately. Cause she says something really mean, and then she doesn’t understand at all why what she said crossed a line, and then when I explain it to her, she says she doesn’t understand guys at all. She also often frets about her problems. I am very motivated to read that book on counseling. I believe that the majority of the time, people’s general well-being doesn’t improve drastically or maybe even noticeably, and any changes are hard-earned. I’ve grown more cynical from having failed so much at trying to help people over the last few years. But still, I don’t want to let that compassionate part of me die. I’ll just have to cut my losses and try, try again.

Week End.

I can't believe it's only been two weeks. We're all such good friends.

On Tuesday night we learn where we'll be sent.

We went cliff jumping today. It was about 40 feet up. I thought about diving in, but I heard my mom in my head say "Cory! Remember you have a mother." (seriously.) There was also a blow hole (pictures on Facebook). It was maybe 50 feet up. The crazy thing was having to jump into the right area, because it's surrounded by rock on 4 sides. I almost chickened out, but I heard my dad in my head say "Remember you have a father too." (just kidding.) Anyway, I totally jumped into the blow hole. And climbed back up. The water level in there changed by maybe ten feet between when it was filling up and when it was at its lowest, so it was a lot of fun to swim in that area.

Then we watched part of the Fellowship of the Ring. We didn't watch the full movie. You see, we watched all of the non-extended version. Now I want to watch the scenes that were left out.

Then I went with a bunch of people to McDonald's.

The Canadian Patient

If I could do any job, and ambition and finances were not factors at all, two vocations that I would absolutely love are stand-up comedian and counselor. This post is about the counselor part.

Going into this DTS, I had heard that 90+% of the students will have experienced abuse and come from broken families. That sounds like the case here, except I would add you could also throw in problems with sex, drugs, and/or alcohol.

Here’s the story of one of my friends / classmates. I take confidentiality very seriously, except everyone reading this is 3,000 miles away and will certainly never meet her in person, so I think this is appropriate. We’ll call her G.

G’s parents separated when she was around age 13/14. She developed anorexia and bulimia. She was hospitalized for it at one point. She’s better now, but it still acts up when she’s stressed.

She’s had one four-month boyfriend and 2 one-week boyfriends. She likes a guy here, but she knows not to date right now. But she’s having a hard time being content in singleness.

She felt like a loner in middle school and high school. She currently feels disconnected with her roommates, but she says it’s getting better.

She’s very pretty, but she hates the way she looks. She’s convinced she’s ugly. A small part of it stems from when she was rejected for her looks by a guy she liked at age 13.

Her mom has MS and is in a wheel chair. Her dad is legally blind because of a drug addiction. They’re both on disability. She says her mom is controlling and doesn’t trust her. She doesn’t get along with her dad at all.

I am not in danger of having a savior complex. She has plenty of real help here. But I have no idea where I’d start if I were a counselor.
It’s happened a handful of times where I’ve had a “counselor-patient”-like relationship with somebody. I don’t actually look for that at all, but I must have just struck some people as trustworthy/wise/approachable. And when it happens, I mainly always just listen. And then at the end sometimes I throw in my two cents on something, and that normally proves to be a bit helpful, which is cool. But no one has ever reversed into being a completely well-adjusted person. So I want to get better at helping people. So I got a book another book on counseling. I’ve read Christian Counseling: A Comprehensive Guide by Gary Collins. It was very disappointing. So now I am awaiting The Professional Counselor: A Process Guide to Helping. And after that I'm going to get Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically by John MacArthur (or something like it).

Week 2

I have my laptop now, which is awesome. I can have Skype dates and spend time on Wikipedia. One of my roommates says I'm on Wikipedia every time he sees me on the computer.

Staff members gave testimonies this week. I am so eternally grateful that I do not have Korean parents. "On top of doing my school work, my parents gave me workbooks in each subject so that I had to do extra." When a Korean American guy said this, all the other Korean Americans started laughing, one of them saying, "That's so Korean!" One of the staff members, a Korean guy, had parents that chose his high school classes and his major in college- Computer Engineering, so that he would become a successful person. After a year of that, he did three years of art, without telling his parents, and then they found out. But before he finished, he decided to do dancing and studied that for 3 years. Before he finished that, he changed to singing. Then he joined YWAM. He's 28 and does not have a degree.

I remember when I was choosing between whether or not to skip two years of math in high school. I choose to do it, and it was a great decision, but I don't think I even consulted my parents about it. It's such a dangerous parenting style, but it totally paid off. I'm very lucky.

I did another Safeway run last night with my roommates. I got fruit for in between meals. I also got French Vanilla creamer for the plain coffee we get during break.

I built my first frame today. We're building a two-story, eight-unit residence. One really nice thing about doing construction is that it makes me appreciate desk jobs more. I would hate to do hard labor for 8 hours a day for a career.

It`s Friday! But Sunday`s coming!

It`s weird to think that it`s only been a week cause it feels like we`re all age-old friends. Maybe it`s sharing our life stories, or maybe it`s doing everything together 24 hours a day, but our team unity is top notch.

Also, in the last two days, I`ve had maybe five people tell me I`m the funniest person they`ve ever met.

On the work duty side of things, I`ve installed two door knobs and installed two sheets of ply wood onto wall frames in the last two days.

After working for a full day`s work for so many years, the 2-hour work duty we have here is really nice. It`s like nothing.

It`s amazing how well I sleep here. I think I`m averaging between 7 and 8 hours. I fall asleep so quickly. Maybe it`s because of how much energy I`m spending all day, or that we have such a regular schedule, or how nice life is these days, or that my consciously chosen, deliberate, pre-meditated sins are pretty much down to zero.

We are volunteering as security guards for the Iron Man World Championship tomorrow from 18:00 to 24:00 (21:00 to 03:00 for you).

Tuesday

I can't believe it's only been 2 days.

I'm a construction worker for two hours a day. I like it. It'll get me to be a pretty good handiman, since we're putting up walls and installing toilets and doing plumbing and electrical installations.

I have snacks. And I have a system of going through the lunch and dinner lines at the beginning and at the end. Sometimes I miss the end. But I'm definitely getting enough food here.

The speaker talked about grace, the glory of God, and a history of the world through Christian eyes. It was really good.

I can't wait to find out how long it takes for something I mail here to make its way to the mainland.

We still haven't officially started yet...

Today we went to the beach. No sun burn. Score. SPF 50 every hour did the trick.

The beach in Hawaii is nothing like the beach in Oregon. It was a completely different experience. It was awesome. Among other things, it was at least as warm as the pool at Oregon State.

We played touch football, guys against girls. We invented ridiculous rules to try to level the playing field (like we could only catch one-handed), and we still crushed them.

If I'm going to go through the dinner line a second time, I need to go right now.

One last parting thought- I have a really hot date tomorrow. I think things might even work out to upgrade it from a phone date to a Skype date.

I am alive and well.

In the last two days, I have had conversations in Norwegian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

The leader noticed that I hadn't forgotten a single name during any of the introductory stuff and so at the first gathering he announced to the school that I knew every person's name. If anyone is creeped out by that, I wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway.

Walmart is only a 30 minute walk away.

My work duty will be construction. I'm in the special skills category because of my house building trips to Mexico and a few weeks of volunteering at Habitat for Humanity.

I suppose I could go through a play-by-play of my day, but that would result in an extremely long blog post and would require a bored, desperate personality that I don't have. :-P