Trekking with Rhinos

Last Saturday, I went on my first Ugandan “safari” experience. And it was certainly fun! (This is your "lucky" day, because for once it's a blog post with pictures!!! If you want to see the picture bigger, just click on it and it should open. Then you can hit your browser's "back" button to continue reading.)

We had several short-term visitors at New Hope at the moment, and so one of them wanted to go see some rhinoceros at a sanctuary nearby – and she opened it up to whoever else wanted to come along to decrease the per person transportation costs. There ended up being eight of us!

So Saturday morning we left dark and early (instead of bright and early, because at 5:30 a.m. it is still very dark here!!!). After we hit the tarmac (paved road) in Luwero (the larger town 30 minutes away), it started to rain – and it really poured for a bit of the drive. In the back seat, we (our team coordinator’s wife, myself, and a Canadian visitor) were pretty talkative most of the way when we could actually hear one another ;-)

Eventually the sun rose, though it was still really overcast. We got to the rhino sanctuary before 8.

The sign for the sanctuary on the main road; no, those are NOT real rhinos!

While we were checking in and paying at the main office, we got our first “wild” life sighting – a warthog named Pumbaa, appropriately enough :) But he was quite domesticated, not really wild at all. The staff were petting him, so some of our group did too! Very very wiry & bristly – certainly not like petting fur!

Warthog Pumbaa eating the doormats…I don’t know why…

Wild Ugandan rhinos were victim to a lot of poaching, especially during the civil wars in the 1980s. The last one was actually killed in 1983. So the rhinos at the sanctuary have been re-introduced to Uganda, and the staff are working on breeding them with the hopes of one day releasing some to other wildlife parks in Uganda. Currently, this sanctuary is the only place to see wild rhinos in Uganda.

The rhinos have personal guards who are with them 24/7 to make sure they are doing fine, and also to keep track of their whereabouts to make it easier to take tourists to find them. In our case, we drove for a few minutes deeper into the sanctuary, then followed our guide trekking through the grass on foot to where the rhinos were. Within an hour of arriving, we had our eyes on two rhinos! Bella, who I think is the founding matron in the sanctuary, and Luna, her 14-month old calf.

Meet Bella the Rhino!

It was kind of hard to get good pictures because of all the grass (it is certainly still rainy growing season!), and because rhinos don’t hold their heads up very much (too busy eating, and their heads are very heavy!).

Bella is currently pregnant (baby rhinos stay in the womb for 16 months!), but still nursing Luna – which we got to see for a couple minutes! 

Luna nursing from mother Bella

It was rainy (just lightly sprinkling) and chilly, which initially seemed like a downside…but it was actually good because otherwise the rhinos may have just bedded down for the day. The guide told us rhinos usually eat most of the night, when it’s cooler, and then in the heat they sleep.

We followed Bella and Luna as they meandered along, chomping away at the short grass. We stayed at a respectful distance, though, of course! This pictures shows about how close we were. Sorry it’s just the rhinos butts! ;-) 

Safari Esther & the Rhino Butts

Here’s the best picture I got of this first family group, this is Luna the “baby.” She was standing still because she had just been peeing. I got a picture of that too, but I was laughing too much and so the picture is shaky because of the gray skies. 

Luna Posing

We went back to our car and drove to another spot to see a different group of rhinos. This one was two of the “teenage” girls (Malaika, age 4 and Laloyo, age 3.5) and Moja, the dominant male in the herd (there are 14 rhinos currently living on the sanctuary). We followed a trail the rhinos had made through the grass that was taller than we were (but not thick, so we could still see), and found them feeding.

The Teenagers Feeding

We moved to one side, and as we watched the three rhinos started moving back towards the road and our car. The guide said they could smell the fuel from the car and were curious about what was going on. Sure enough, when we got to the car they were just standing on the road looking at it from a short distance away. The guides had told us that rhinos cannot see very well, they have much better hearing.

We stood at the front end of our vehicle, and the rhinos were just standing there looking towards us from behind the rear of the van. It was pretty amazing! 

Curious Rhinos - note the mirror of the van in the foreground!

It made the guide and the guard a little nervous, so they told us to get in the van. We did, and being in the back seat I was only about 8-9 feet away from these massive mammals. Thankfully with glass/metal between me and them! Here’s a video I took at that point (sorry for all the noise, my camera makes a lot of focusing noise as it takes video).

After a few minutes, the girls got bored and headed off into the bush on the other side of the road. Then Moja came and stood behind the van. He has had his horn sawn off, because just a couple months ago one of the young males had died from an injury in a fight. Anyways, Moja took several steps nearer, until finally I’m sure he was no more than 6 feet away. Then he backed up a bit and turned to go parallel to our vehicle. When he did, I realized by my sudden panting that I had been holding my breath a bit! :D

Moja lumbering towards the front end of the vehicle

He then went towards where the two guides were standing outside of the vehicle. He turned and faced them, and they moved quickly to the back end of the vehicle. When they did, Moja took a step towards our vehicle, but then changed his mind and “ran” (for about five steps) off into the bush. Our heart beats were all a bit higher after that! It had looked for a minute like he might charge at either our guides or the vehicle. I never felt actually in danger, just had a very healthy respect for these large, wild animals!

That ended our rhino sightings for the day – but not our experience! We drove some good distance (still within the sanctuary) to the lodge where we would have lunch. On the way, we saw monkeys, mongoose, bushbuck (like dear), and birds! Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of the first three, our driver wasn’t the slow down & stop for every moving creature type…. But I did get a picture of this family of Helmeted Guineafowl as they ran to stay ahead of us on the road. 

Helmeted Guineafowl, 2 Parents & 3 Chicks

We got to the lodge early, so I lay relaxing on a hammock and ended up falling asleep for a bit! The lunch was amazing, such delicious food!!! Then it was time to head back home to Kasana.

But on the way, we did convince the driver to stop when we spotted a large swarm of butterflies!!

Butterfly Cluster!

I think there must have been a carcass or some small mineral area or something to attract so many. In an area not much more than one square foot, there were dozens and dozens of butterflies, of probably 7 or 8 types!

Zooming in on the smaller ones

By then the sun had come out again, and we had an uneventful drive back to Kasana – taking exciting memories with us!

My next post will be about some recent interesting insect incidents!

A Jonah Day

It’s Thanksgiving morning as I begin to write this, and I am sitting in a friend’s car in Jinja, Uganda as we stop to pick up some things on our way to Kobwin.

Last night we stayed at a resort on the shore of Lake Victoria, not far from the source of the Nile River. Yesterday was rather challenging….but through it all I am remembering to focus on God’s goodness and faithfulness.

It started in the morning. We were leaving Kasana at 9, but I had to run up to the admin office before then. I wasn’t planning to bring the sponsorship laptop with me, and I couldn’t sign in to access that email remotely. So I wanted to set up an automatic vacation response so people emailing questions would know it would be a couple of days. But I couldn’t find it anywhere in Outlook.

Made it home and it was time to go. In the process of trying to finish things up, I forgot to close my windows (hopefully it doesn’t rain too hard while we’re gone) and I forgot to grab my sleeping blinders. Neither of which I realized until that night.

We made it into Kampala, I got a few things I needed at one of the malls, and we had a good conversation with our driver. He is one of New Hope’s grown sons, now with a wife and a new baby, and we really appreciate him!

{It’s now Friday morning in Kobwin! I didn’t want to write as we drove, because I wanted to observe the new regions of Uganda where I had not yet been!}

So on Wednesday for lunch we went to a restaurant I had been to a couple of times earlier this year. It’s in Entebbe, not far from Lake Victoria. Sitting there looking at the lake somehow felt so restful and just what my soul needed. I had delicious chicken lasagna for lunch (and dinner, thanks to a takeaway box!).

At the airport, we picked up a gal who had spent a year at Kasana and another at Kobwin. Then we really got on the road, back up through Kampala and then off towards Jinja. There was a good bit of traffic, plus tons of slow, big trucks. So the journey seemed long and a bit tense.

We arrived at the resort tired and hungry. Once we got a bit settled in our rooms, we went to the outdoor seating area for dinner. Thankfully Constance & Allison had called in to preorder their food, and I was just eating my leftovers…so we didn’t have to wait for that.

Within 10 minutes of being outside, I could tell the mosquitoes had found me and were having a feast. So I headed inside and counted seven quickly swelling lumps. :/ I had also found out there was no wifi at the resort, which was disappointing because I had been hoping to enjoy a Skype with my family.

I was pretty sore and tired, so I was looking forward to a hot shower Constance said they would have. Fought with the bathroom door a bit that wouldn’t lock easily and wouldn’t stay closed, then thought I heard someone trying to come into my room. I still don’t know what the latter was about, I was too nervous to come out and didn’t want to have to fight with the door again.

Got all ready for my shower, turned on the hot water, and it was cold. My hand ran into a spider web in the corner, and he ran away as I continued letting the water run hoping it would warm up. No such success……I gave up in frustration.

Let down the mosquito net (which had a small hole) and grabbed my tablet to read in bed for a little while. Fought with the confusing bedcovers….It took me a bit to figure out that instead of having a sheet and a blanket, two sheets had evidently been sewn together to make a sort of duvet (a word I learned in N.Ireland!) over the blanket.

This is when I realized I didn’t have my blinders, and the lovely porch light right outside my window would make it hard for me to sleep. Climbed out of bed and turned it off, and as I climbed back in something among the covers moved and all I could see at first was a tail.

“You’ve got to be kidding, please don’t let there be a snake in my bed!!!” was my first thought. Then I noticed a small foot near the root end of the tail and breathed a sigh of relief. It was “only” one of the common 5-6” skink lizards that I usually enjoy watching. But I was still definitely NOT amenable to him sharing a bed with me. He wanted to run away as well – so I untucked the mosquito net near where he was and he fell to the floor and scurried off.

At that point I curled up in bed and had a self-pity cry. It had all been a bit too many failed expectations and frustrations for one night, I guess. If I had been making the decision at that moment about going home for Christmas, I would have gone in a heartbeat. But the decision to stay had thankfully been made the week before on a better day, in a more reasonable frame of mind!

I finished the chapter on Friendship that I had been reading in C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, and then I turned to my current relaxation reading: Anne of Avonlea. The title of the next chapter was “A Jonah Day,” about a day when teacher Anne Shirley felt like a failure.

A toothache colored her day all dark, and she was irritated and harsh with her pupils. On top of that, assuming that a package contained a banned nut cake, she told the offending student to drop it in the fire….and since the package was actually fireworks it created no small sensation! Then her trouble-maker student put a mouse in her desk, and she actually whipped him for it….something she had said she would never do.

Wow did I ever identify with her that evening! It may not seem like God would typically use a fluffy fiction book to encourage a frustrated, somewhat weepy daughter…..but He did just that :)

“Jonah days come to everybody,” as Marilla reminded Anne, and “This day’s done and there’s a new one coming tomorrow with no mistakes {and no frustrations} in it yet.”

And so yesterday (Thanksgiving) my attitude and thus my day were very much better! Thanks to God’s unending faithfulness and graciousness even in those times when I get so frustrated when things don’t go my way.

On Thanksgiving, I had the privilege of worshipping God as I watched His lovely sunrise over Lake Victoria. I took a shower that, while still not hot was not as cold as it might have been. We arrived in the beautiful Kobwin safely. I was reunited to some dear friends and greeted warmly. We had a delicious dinner. And I had no problem with cell phone signal to call my family for a bit before I went to bed.

Through ALL of it—both a Jonah day and Thanksgiving—God is good :)

Spring Break Edition of YKYLiCUW

A continuation of the previous post, specifically about this past weekend's adventures!

~~The rainy weather makes puddles in the capital's street that are a deep orange color.

~~You are not a fan of taxi parks. Especially when, as in this case, it's just hundreds of taxi vans parked closely together and bumper to bumper....there's barely space to walk between! Plus the continuing rain doesn't help.

~~A couple boxes of chicks and at least one rooster accompany you on the boat ride.

~~Said boat ride takes nearly four hours!

~~You are annoyed by said rain, (and very thankful that the boat has a tarp over it!) until the sun begins to break through the clouds and you get to see a rainbow!!!

~~A short drive from the island jetty brings you to the small beach hotel where you will spend the night.

~~You eat dinner and go to bed listening to the crash of the waves on the lake shore.

~~But before you go to bed, you take your first running water shower in 10 weeks!! And with hot water too!! You’re surprised at how much water you get in your eyes….but maybe that was just from this particular shower head.

~~Trying to figure out a bathroom door that doesn’t want to stay shut, how to make a round mosquito net work with a four-postered bed, and overly-squishy pillows make you miss your banda bed back “home.”

~~You awake to take a long birding walk along the shore, and love every moment.

~~A few steps away from the sandy beach, and you find yourself in thick trees.

~~You sit on a bench swing back at the hotel’s beach doing nothing except listening to the waves, watching the birds, and thinking about how you could do this always…..but life doesn’t work like that… :/

~~One of the hotel staff comes and talks to you for a while, and you learn more about Ugandan culture. Including the fact that this gal thought she would never be of a high enough “level” to have a conversation with a muzungu….

~~There’s a super playful (half-grown) puppy running around the grounds that you quickly nickname “Floppy” because of his over-sized ears ;-)

~~As you eat lunch, you watch a large-ish lizard (I think he must have been nearly two feet, including the tail!) eat his lunch….I think a dragon fly?...on a nearby walkway.

~~You take tons of photos and videos……mostly of birds, I must admit ;)

~~You’re fixing to go sit on another bench to journal, when you suddenly see a monkey! And later, you realize there is a whole troop of monkeys in the woods very nearby…..probably close to a dozen!

~~As you watch the monkeys groom one another and pick food off the trees, it seems so very familiar. You’ve seen it before….in nature movies. Then you remember that this isn’t a nature movie, that you’re standing there watching live, wild monkeys in person. Wow!

~~You try to use the Internet to just check email and Facebook (yes, I’m an addict….) but it’s too slow and you give up.

~~You eat fish for dinner….fish that in the morning had been swimming around in the lake! Thanks to the fishing skills of the young couple who knew about this beautiful island and let you tag along.

~~The next morning, you get a bike and enjoy a long ride….pushing it up the hill, riding through the town, and out to a secluded spot overlooking part of the island coast. You’re thankful to be wearing capris for all that rather than a skirt!

~~During your ride, everyone from little kids to older folks is excited to see you. The little kids yell “hi!” and “bye!” and it seems to make their day when you say hi back. And the older ones holler “muzungu, what are you doing??” or “where are you going?”….to which you don’t answer, because the one is obvious and the other you don’t know for sure…

~~You spend the next three hours sitting in one place, meditating on God’s Word and worshipping Him. It is a beautiful time, and reminds you of times you’ve done the same in other places around the world. You are thankful that God is the same always and everywhere!!! (for more on this, check out the post on my other blog)

~~When you ride back down the steep hill you came up, you don’t pedal from the time you leave the town to the time you’re on the hotel road. Instead, you’re squeezing the brakes almost non-stop. You’re thankful they’re in good working condition!!!

~~You enjoy playing games with the folks you came with, and wading in the lake, and just relaxing and recharging J

~~A couple times, African guys come over and try to strike up a conversation. You’re not interested, so you keep responses short.

~~You hope to take another last hot shower……..but the hot water does not come out. After dinner you try again, take half of a cold shower and then the hot water comes!

~~Your room’s trash can displays the results of your “drinking addiction” – it is FULL of WATER bottles! ;-) Since tap water is not safe to drink, you must buy bottled water from the hotel restaurant. Every time you go you ask for at least one bottle….sometimes three…..

~~You wake up at 2 a.m. from a dream of going for a walk with one of your best college friends, wishing that you really could. You listen to the rain that is pouring down, and go back to sleep…..to have a very odd dream, probably thanks to the malaria med side effects :P

~~Morning comes, and with it the end of your time on the beautiful island. You hope you’ll be back.

~~The boat ride back is super choppy. You grab the bench in front of you and close your eyes often for the middle hour of the ride. Thankfully the motion sickness doesn’t fully make its way to the point of nausea.

~~You distract yourself by watching the antics of the full-grown chickens trying to escape the handmade rough, wooden crates they’re being transported in.

~~A little over three hours later, you’re very glad to be back on solid ground.

~~Another three hours later, you arrive back at your banda. One of the Institute girls has just gotten back from her school day and greets you with an excited “Auntie!!!” and an enthusiastic hug.

~~Everyone is glad to see you again, and after dinner the wee two-year-old is begging for a piggy back ride, as always. It’s good to be home J

Ireland Update 7

This was all nearly a month ago now….but I’m finally sitting down to write about our last week in N. Ireland. I had written about the first two days in the plane coming back, but I lost my tablet that had that on it. So that’s part of what’s been holding me back – I hate writing things a second time. :P

If you want to see pictures from our time in Ireland, almost 500 of my 1,300 pictures are posted on Facebook! Mostly with detailed captions J

Day 21 - Tuesday, June 18

Tuesday was our big sightseeing day. We started off by visiting Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge that used to be used by fishermen to get from the mainland to an island. The bridge has planking that is less than two feet wide, with a rope mesh extending maybe another foot or so to either side. The sides of the bridge are intersecting ropes that come up about four feet to the rope handrails. The bridge is over a chasm which is almost 100 feet deep and 65 feet wide. So crossing it was a bit of a stretch for height-sensitive me. But it was totally worth it!

We hung out for quite a while on the island reached by crossing the bridge. Tons of gulls and guillemots were flying around the cliffs of the island, probably trying to get situated for nesting season. Their calls were so loud that I was looking around for a big group of seals! I actually lay down on the grassy top of the island and just watched the birds for a while, so that was fun. Most of us ate our sack lunches as a picnic on the island as well.

Next, we stopped at a coastal town (don’t remember which one…) to do some shopping. Several of us went to a used book store and found some neat old hymnals. I also got an old copy of C.S.Lewis’ book “That Hideous Strength” and a devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that looked interesting. Just started reading the latter this morning and am SO glad I got it! I also liked walking around looking at the architecture of the town. At a bakery, I tried a “fifteen tray bake” and liked it! They’re evidently a traditional Irish treat, kind of similar to what many people call magic cookie bars in the States, but with marshmallows and cherries instead of chocolate and nuts.

Later in the afternoon we went to Giant’s Causeway. It’s this amazing geographical formation on the coast, probably formed by volcanic activity as Ireland separated from Scotland. Basically, it is a VAST structure of thousands of usually hexagonal columns of varying height that fit together like a giant puzzle. You’ll have to look at my pictures or Google it to see what I mean because it’s hard to explain. Anyway, the structure runs from the base of a mountain out into the ocean as a peninsula – and it’s great fun to scramble around on and explore!

After we looked around there for a while, we hiked up the shepherd’s trail to the top of the mountain overlooking the causeway. Part of the trail used switchbacks, but the last part was a steep 162 stairs! We were glad to reach the top. Once we had enjoyed the view, we followed the trail along the ridge back to the visitor center. Everything was so green and pretty, and out on the Giant’s Causeway I loved watching the waves crash onto the pillars of stone J

That evening we were on our own for dinner in one of the coastal towns, so a couple of the other girls and I ended up at a hamburger place actually. The inside was decorated in a ‘50s American style, with a poster cut out of Elvis and such. We were fairly amused J We had the best sweet potato fries I had ever tasted though!

After dinner, we reunited with a couple of the other team members and waited at the meeting place for the rest of the team, including the drivers. They were late and it was chilly…so we ended up crowding seven of us onto one park bench. Folks driving by us were staring and waving…and we ended up watching and laughing at some pigeons that looked like they were wrestling up on a balcony ledge. Once we got back to our youth hostel, one of the gals and I took a walk on the beach watching the sunset. It was a good chance to talk J

Day 22 - Wednesday, June 19

That morning I hustled down the beach for about 30 minutes so I could get back to the place where we had been Monday evening. I climbed up onto one of the island-ish rocks and just enjoyed sitting there with the wind blowing around me and the birds circling and calling. And the sound of the waves crashing. It was wonderful – good time for reflection too.

After breakfast, we got all of our stuff packed and loaded up. We still did some sightseeing around the area before heading out though. First stop was Dunluce Castle, now an old ruins that may date back to the 1300s and was occupied until one day in 1639 the kitchen fell into the sea! According to Ireland’s National Trust website, these ruins may have served as C.S. Lewis’ inspiration for Cair Paravel!  We had fun going a little ways into a cave/tunnel right under the cliffs the castle ruins are on. We didn’t go into the castle itself, because we would have had to pay. But we had fun climbing on the rocks around it!

Our next stop was at the small town of Ballintoy. Looked into a pretty church there, then went down, down the hillside to the coast where we scrambled around on more rocky outcroppings. Then back to the van for sack lunches and time to bid farewell to the beautiful Irish North Coast. After driving a couple hours, we stopped at Glenariff Forest Park to go hiking, but sadly the main attraction—a hike to a beautiful waterfall—was closed because of winter storm damage. We still hiked around though.

We had planned to go to a lighthouse near Belfast, but traffic delayed us too much. So we ended up eating at a tiny restaurant in Belfast that had an interesting mixed menu of pizza/Italian and Chinese/Asian food. It was delicious though! And then it was back to the home sweet home of our cottages…at least for a couple more days.

Day 23 - Thursday, June 20

The next day we literally had nothing planned. I’m pretty sure that’s the only day that happened on the whole trip! It was wonderful. We just hung out, played games, relaxed, etc.

That evening after dinner I went out to the observation deck on my own. I had a lot to think about. The trip was fast coming to an end, and with it my time at JBU was truly concluding. I’d known for a long time that I would cry about graduating and having to say goodbye to that place and everything it had meant to me for four years at some point. I expected it to happen in May, but it didn’t. It happened that night in Ireland instead. God was really gracious through that, reminding me of some important things. Later, one of the gals and I took a walk up Joe’s mountain and just talked about stuff – so that was good and helped me process things some more.

Day 24 - Friday, June 21

Spent a good part of the day in Belfast. A couple of us went to the Titanic museum together. The ship was built in Belfast, and the museum is located near the area where the gigantic ship was created and first put off into the ocean. It has an interestingly broad range of topics, clear from the early industrial history of Belfast all the way through the science of deep sea exploration. So it has relatively little on the crash of the Titanic, and more on the ship’s complete story from beginning to end. Quite interesting!

Once we got back into the Belfast city center, we grabbed some lunch and ate on the lawn of the city hall. Then we went together to go shopping at Primark, Ireland’s version of a department store similar to Macy’s. I wasn’t in a shopping mood though, and felt very out of place in the crowded store. So I meandered my way back to a coffee shop. Watched some street performers on the way, and just spent some time writing the previous Ireland Update and a few post cards.

When it came time to meet up with the rest of the team to ride the city bus back to Lakeside Manor, where we had parked our van, I was in full-fledged shut down mode. I’m still not sure completely why. In a way I guess it was culture shock. I just felt very very out of my element. After being in small towns for three weeks and almost exclusively with our small team, to suddenly be in the big city surrounded by hundreds of people really put me on edge for some reason. It’s not like I don’t know how to function in cities….spent my whole life until college in Dallas, and lived in D.C. for two months last summer without ever having that feeling. But that’s what happened. I just had to crawl in my shell for a while. Once we had ridden the bus out of the city center into the more residential area, I started doing fine again. It was pretty odd.

Day 25 - Saturday, June 22

Another very chill day – lots of playing table games and such. That evening, the owners of the cottages where we stayed hosted a BBQ for a ton of their friends. They invited our team too, so we went over for a while. Got to talk to an Irish gal and hear about what God is doing in her life – it was really good! It rained some during the evening, and we saw a *gorgeous* double rainbow that went all the way across. It was so very pretty!

Later, all of the main people we had worked with in Killyleagh – Wally, Heather, Samantha, Sam and Craig – came over for one last time. We just had a great time hanging out, including a dance party for most people. But then we had to say goodbye to our Killyleagh teammates L

Day 26 - Sunday, June 23

Went back into Belfast for a day of seeing C.S. Lewis related sites. We started by attending a service at St. Mark’s Church, which has a number of Lewis connections:

• ·         Jack’s grandfather was the pastor of the church during Jack’s childhood
• ·         Jack’s parents were married in the church
• ·         The baptismal font where Warren and Jack were both baptized as babies is in the back
• ·         The pulpit is the same one which Jack would have watched his grandfather preach in
• ·         On the door of the parsonage is a doorknob with a lion’s head
• ·         One of the stained glass windows was given to the church by Warren and Jack later in life in memory of their parents

It was SUCH a beautiful church – just loved it! After the service, a guy who goes there gave us the C.S. Lewis tour of the church, during which he explained all of the above. He also pointed out various things about the symbolism of the church. I enjoyed it all J

We also stopped by the house where Jack and Warren lived as children – Little Lea. We couldn’t go in, because it is now privately owned…but it was still neat to see. Our last Lewis stop was at the statue of The Searcher, commissioned in honor of the 100^th anniversary of Lewis’ birth. It shows a man looking into a wardrobe, and on the back of the wardrobe there is a copy of a letter Lewis wrote to a young lady asking about the Christian symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia.

After that, we went to St. George’s Market in Belfast, which is basically a large building with a whole collection of vendor booths – everything from food to vintage stuff to handmade items. It was fun wandering around it J

That evening was our last one together as a whole team. So the leaders took the time to get each of us a coke bottle with a Gaelic name on it and make up a definition for the names that had something to do with what each one of us had contributed to the team. It was a time of lots of laughter, but also of encouragement. Sam came back for one last time, and a few of us ended up staying up until 4 a.m. because going to bed meant saying goodbye to Sam. We watched the sky turn light, since the sun comes up super early there.

Day 27 - Monday, June 24

The next day we spent the morning cleaning the cottages and packing up all of the JBU equipment that gets stored at Lakeside Manor during the year. It went by super fast, so that was nice. I also got my own stuff packed up. Before lunch we took one last hike up Joe’s Mountain to bid it farewell.

After lunch we went to Castleward, the former manor home of a rich family. They turned it over to the National Trust fund when they were too in debt to pay their taxes, or something like that. Now it’s basically a museum. It has lots of interesting architecture and artifacts. After getting a really great tour of the house, we walked around on the property for a while, and found some really fat pigs in the farm near the lough.

That evening we went back to Strangford for a final team dinner at a nice restaurant, the Cuan. After we finished, we went to Asda to buy any foodstuff we wanted to take home. Then it was time for our team to say goodbye to three of our members, who had to go to Belfast because they were on different flights out of Ireland.

Day 28 - Tuesday, June 25

We got up early that morning to finish up last minute things at the cottages and depart for Belfast. It was a long day of traveling. We flew from Belfast to Newark to Houston to XNA, the regional airport in northwest Arkansas. In Newark things got really stressful and crazy. Long story short, our layover was too short for everything we had to do, and half of our team didn’t make it onto the flight to Houston. I did, but in the process I accidentally left my backpack behind, and it’s still lost. We were worried that the other half of the team wasn’t going to make it to Houston in time to catch the flight to XNA – but amazingly they made it just in time. We were all so relieved when we saw them get on our little three-seat-across plane to go up to XNA. Then once we landed in XNA it was really time to say goodbye.

The End.

My parents had come up to Siloam Springs to pick me up. We stayed in our tent that night at the Arkansas welcome center, though I didn’t sleep very well. Lots on my mind, plus jetlag. The next day the three of us spent the day at Natural Falls State Park. That was fun. I got to show them a few of the places where I enjoyed spending time during my day-long excursions out there on my own. Then we drove back down to Dallas, back home. But as much as that will always be home, I have a lot of places now that feel like home. And I miss the places and the people that make each so special. But that’s what life is….moving on, saying goodbye, but holding tight to the memories and the lessons.

Speaking of lessons….if you want to read about what I learned over in Ireland, in a spiritual/reflective sense, check it out here. Thank you to each and every person who partnered with me in this trip through prayer and through financial giving! I couldn’t have done it without you.

Ireland Update 1

Sorry for no pictures - we don't have much internet here, and I think it's more important for me to spend time with the team and sleep :)

Day 1 - Wednesday, May 29
In some ways today has been an overly simple day. We flew into Belfast, spent the afternoon there, then drove out to the cottages where we'll be staying the rest of the month. On the other hand, it's been a fantastic day - even though our team of 14 students and the two leaders who travelled with us has been rather sleep deprived. Our flight left Newark, NJ at 9:15 p.m., and we arrived in Belfast at 9 a.m. local time - and the leaders tried to keep us busy so we wouldn't sleep until tonight!

In Belfast, we enjoyed lunch at John Brown University's house there, Lakeside Manor. We then rode a bus to do a bit of touring. Went around the Queen's University campus a little, then through a museum and botanical garden. Visited a local coffee shop, and then came the BEST PART of the Belfast day: we went to the C.S. Lewis reading room, which we entered by going through the actual wardrobe door from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie!!! I was very thrilled and would have shrieked a bit if we hadn't been in the middle of a library where students were studying for finals - but it was still an immensely exciting experience :)

Once we got to the cottages where we are staying, between Downpatrick and Killyleagh, we unloaded our stuff and started settling in. A rainbow over the distant mountains of Scotland which we could see greeted us. We ate a delicious lasagna dinner, and then we students hiked up a little hill to a viewing platform. The hills here are immensely green, but right now the yellow Gorse bushes are also abundantly blooming all over!

In the evening, I started tracking birds. Loving the selection here - quite different species from the U.S.! It didn't take me long to identify European Goldfinches or to find a Tit nest in a water pump with a broken-off handle. At 9 or 9:30, the leaders finally "allowed" us to go to bed (trying to help us make the six-hour time transition). I hadn't slept a wink since we got off the plane, so I was glad to crash, and I basically slept straight through the night. Here in Ireland, the sun doesn't set until nearly 11, and it rises at about 4 (I've heard) - so the days are very long! All day on our first day we had beautiful sunshine weather - though there must have been some clouds when we came to the cottages because there was a rainbow.

Day 2 - Thursday, May 30
After breakfast, we started in on some training/preparation work for our main ministry, which will occur June 2-16. We tied cording onto name tags, learned the songs we will be teaching the kids, and heard from David Wallace about what to expect from the kids here. David Wallace is the Youth for Christ representative who has been stationed in Killyleagh for the last three years, and he is our team's main contact/coordinator.

Most of our student team also went to the top of a taller hill, called Joe's Mountain, where we climbed onto a pillar from which we could see a 360-degree view of the landscape. It is beautiful :) In the evening after dinner we drove to the ruins of Inch Abbey, founded in about 800 A.D. It was really neat with holes where the stained glass windows used to be, no ceiling, and luscious grass for the carpet. The Jackdaws (similar to our crows) were nesting in the holes in the wall. We also played Ultimate Frisbee in a grassy patch beside the ruins. Again, I thankfully didn't have an issue sleeping through the night. The weather maintained its inordinary sunny quality, which made me happy.

Day 3 - Friday, May 31
Today we focused on more specific preparation for the Kids Club (aka VBS program) which we shall be leading for elementary-aged kids during the ten weekdays. The people who will be teaching the lessons (including me) went through the curriculum which Mrs. Balzer wrote a few years ago for a different town.

Our theme for the VBS is Incredible Kids, talking about character attributes from Col. 3:12-17 as "super powers." As a result, part of what we did today was to plan costumes and "super hero personas" for each of our team members. We'll be doing brief skits each day to set up the lesson topic for the day.

Another program we'll be doing is a sports camp for the teenagers, which will be held three times a week in the evenings. Each night of that, we will have a "half time" when a couple of our team will share their testimonies. I will be sharing mine on Thursday at about 7:45 p.m., which would be 1:45 in the afternoon central time. I would appreciate our prayers for that, as well as for all of our outreach opportunities. Our Kids Club will be from 3:30-5 Ireland time, and the sports camp will be from 7-8:30. We will also be doing presentations in schools, though I don't yet know any more details about that.

This evening we went to Downpatrick, the nearest larger city, which has an Asda (Ireland's version of WalMart). It is also home to the grave which is most commonly attributed to hold St. Patrick's remains. This area of Northern Ireland is the heart of his area of ministry, so we will be visiting several sites related to that.

The Whirlwind

Soooo…it’s been ten days since I flew out to the East Coast, and I have yet to publish anything on here telling you anything about what’s been happening.  I’m quickly realizing that there is more to do than there is time to do it…especially when all I want to do on the weekend is go play tourist or vege.  As a result, I’m going to try to keep this post quick.  I hope to come back later and add a few pictures…but realize that may not happen and that a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing!  So hang on to your hats folks, it’s been quite the two weeks!

Wednesday June 6 – last day of nannying before setting off on my Washington adventure (for the latter see my previous post)…good happy day in some ways but still also a sad day.  Visited with a friend that evening!

Thursday June 7 – Packing….lots of packing and then almost completely repacking.  Included in this day was a breakdown under the feelings of overwhelmed-ness.  Emotions weren’t helping any.  But it all got done in the end….

Friday June 8 – Flew to Houston for a layover, then my flight to Baltimore got delayed.  Didn’t get in until after 11, if I remember right.  Family friends the Davises were kindly there to pick me up and take me to their home for the weekend.

Saturday June 9 – Mrs. Davis took me shopping for the stuff I didn’t bring, and it was also nice to just have some down time to relax on their beautiful back porch between the rush of packing and leaving and the task of acclimating to a completely different city.  Had fun with the Davis girls!

Sunday June 10 – Attended the Davis’ church…the sermon was certainly applicable to how I was feeling about then.  The pastor was talking about how even when we fail, that doesn’t mean God cannot or will not use us.  Here I was, facing a huge unknown, and God knew just what I needed to hear J
After lunch we loaded my stuff into the car and eventually meandered our way to my apartment! (Driving in DC is very confusing!).  Unloaded, then was dropped off at campus for orientation!  Met my apartment-mates later that evening and started getting settled in.

Monday June 11 – Amazingly managed to get everything unpacked and find a home for all of it by mid-afternoon!  Had our first class on Ethics that evening.  Long class sessions…..6:30-9:30 Monday/Thursday evenings and 9-12 Friday mornings :/  Professor is GREAT though – he’s a good teacher, there’s just a LOT of info.  Thankfully there’s a whole group of girls from the off-campus apartments I’m staying at in my same program, so we commute back and forth together, especially in the evenings.

Tuesday June 12 – Had a big welcome ceremony that morning, then an orientation session from the program with suggestions for how to make the most of our internships.  Five of the six of us who are working in the same building went together and tried out the route from campus to our internship location, then had lunch together.  It would have been totally great, except for the fact that it was raining…but it was still good J  Went on an adventure to Target to get a few extra things that afternoon.

Wednesday June 13 – First day of internships!!!!!!  Lots of orientation information, which was great to hear but a bit of an overload.  After learning some of the basics, we were able to head out early.  Interesting evening lecture from an investigative journalist that night!

Thursday June 14 – After some more orientation-type activities, we dove right in.  Summarized a press release into a story for broadcast, then worked on writing an article from a summary of a research study.  Couldn’t resist visiting the National Cathedral for a little while (only 15 minute walk from the office!)  Second ethics class.

Friday June 15 – Got up early to go run…class in the morning, then third day of internship. Had my story from the day before checked and posted, then wrote a second piece which was also posted that afternoon.  After arriving at the apartment, an apartment-mate and I went to the zoo just for a little while.  Headed to campus for a trivia game hosted by TFAS (the sponsors of the five programs, of which mine is one).  Joined a team with one girl from my internship and four other random people, and we won!!!!!!!  Had dinner with the other girl to celebrate.

Saturday June 16 – Attended a fascinating seminar about the Constitution by a Reagan administration official.  LOVED IT!  Then joined up with a couple other Woodley girls at the Smithsonians.  Wandered around the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, then called it a day when that closed.  Chilled with the apartment-mates all evening (including watching a movie) rather than doing anything productive…

Sunday June 17 – Father’s Day!  Met up with Josiah and Carolyn Davis to visit their church, had an IPJ friend along with me!  Absolutely loved it – very convicting and very good.  Invited out to the main Davis house for lunch, which was fun J  Came back just in time to change and leave the apartment again, headed for campus to join a bus tour of the monuments organized by the program.  Definitely a good experience!

Monday June 18 – Another internship day – completed two stories, both of which were posted to the web.  Also was able to learn more about how things are posted to the site, which is great exposure for me to get a little familiar with that!!!  Another night of class – followed by a feeble attempt at productiveness this evening.

Random notes:  ~~Otters say "maaaaa."  At least the National Zoo ones do!  ~~The Catbirds here don't know they're supposed to be shy.  I've seen more and closer than the rest of my whole life.  ~~The Pileated Woodpecker on the tree outside my internship window didn't know he's supposed to be out in the woods far from people either.  ~~Squirrels are all sorts of colors here!  Just yesterday saw a black one and a brownish-grey one almost right next to each other.  ~~And metro is crazy until you get used to it :P

Well that’s all folks, and now I must get to bed because tomorrow we hit the repeat button all over again J  Thanks for reading!  Comments always appreciated – it just might encourage me to post more often!

Our Crazy Weather and My Fun Day

We've had crazy weather this winter...both in Dallas and here in NWA. I haven't been in Dallas for the crazy weather, so I'll mostly talk about the NWA part :) The crazy weather has been in the form of snow - and TONS OF SNOW!

It snowed a bit on the weekend my parents brought me back to school - Jan. 9. But it wasn't much. It did stick around for several days though.

Our second snow storm came on Jan. 20th. It started early in the morning, if I remember right. I walked to my 9:00a.m. class through the falling snow and enjoyed taking some pictures of it :)

I would guess it snowed 2-4 inches....so not too much. Most of the snow disappeared in about a week, except for places where there had been a big pile of it.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous the weekend of the 29th, with highs in the 60's! I went for a walk to downtown and took pictures - I may have even been in a t-shirt.

It changed pretty quick after that though. On Feb. 1, it started snowing at about 1a.m. and continued to snow for well over 12 hours. It was basically a blizzard that morning - that's what a weather website was calling it! Campus closed down at 10:30a.m. and all classes for the rest of the day were cancelled. My prof. had cancelled my 9:00 class even before campus closed. I heard that only six classes were held that day.

Since that was a Tuesday, we were supposed to put the newspaper together in the evening. Because classes were cancelled, we decided to do it in the afternoon instead - so I had to walk the quarter mile or so to the honors house where the Threefold office is.

The snow was still falling at that point. After I finished laying out my pages for the paper, I went to dinner in the cafeteria. While I was there, one of the other students got the email saying classes were cancelled for the next day as well. It was so funny how cheering broke out in the cafeteria, kind of in waves as more students figured out what was going on.

So the next day my friend Brooke and I decided to get outside and take snow pictures! It was about 10*, but we didn't let that stop us :D We had a blast for nearly an hour and a half.

Most of the trees were really pretty because they were covered in icicles that were glistening in the sun :) I would guess there was about 6" of snow from that storm.

Our adventures included following deer tracks through the woods to an area I had heard looked like Narnia,

walking across the soccer field to get back to my dorm,

me being "forced" to eat snow after I shocked Brooke by saying I couldn't remember eating snow before (I liked it - I just look funny because I was laughing so hard at Brooke's shocked-ness),

and taking pictures of each other.

On Friday the 4th we got a little more snow - but not for too long. It just made everything pretty again :)

While Brooke and I were out and about, I had further shocked Brooke by admitting I had never been sledding before. I mean, come on - I'm from Dallas - when does Dallas ever get enough snow to go sledding? (Well, last year and this year it has...but I haven't been there either time!) So the next day (Sat. 5th) we got together to go sledding. But first we had to get the six inches of snow off of her car.......that took a while...and then we had to get her car out of the parking spot. And once we finally did get out, we weren't sure where we would find sleds. So we went to a hardware store and got "drip pans" instead - they look like giant cookie sheets. We think they're meant to be used under running generators, but not sure. Anyhow, we went with two of Brooke's other friends over to the honors hill which is THE sledding hill of Siloam and had a lot of fun sledding :)

(This is us trying to go down with three people on the cookie sheet - it didn't work. Two people worked great though :D)

And I loved it! :) After we finished sledding, we made snow cream (like ice cream - but made of snow and condensed milk - YUM!) and enjoyed it together :)

The snow from that storm is still around, although it had been cleared off most of the roads and gotten very trampled down everywhere else and was actually getting a little dangerous, what from the melting and refreezing it's done. But the weather wasn't done with Arkansas yet!

Tuesday night (8th) another snow storm was forecasted to hit our area. After I finished my part of laying out the paper in the Threefold office (at about 1:30 in the morning), I walked back over to my dorm. The snow had been falling for 30-45 minutes at that point, and was just a light dusting on the ground. I loved it because it was dark outside, so the snow falling through the light beams from the street lights was really pretty, and I could listen to the snow falling, and I felt like Lucy discovering Narnia :)

I went to bed in pretty short order, and woke up at 6:30. I got an automated call that classes were cancelled for the day because of the snow - which made me so happy because I had been feeling very overwhelmed about that day's homework. So I went back to sleep until 9. When I got up and looked outside, I could hardly believe my eyes. It had snowed so much that I could hardly see the cars in the parking lot - there were just lots of car-shaped white humps with antennas sticking out of them! It continued snowing until about 2 that afternoon - a total of TWO FEET!

That afternoon (yesterday) I trekked across the Quad (breaking my own path through the snow that was up to my knees!) to work on my homework assignment for the next day - it was fun, but it sure was cold toooo!!! When I was at dinner, I once again witnessed students' jubilation at learning classes were cancelled for our fourth snow day of the semester. That freed me up from worrying about homework that would have been due today, so I went to a movie night in a friend's room. I also hung out with some of the girls on my hall and talked with Nathan on the phone for an hour :D

So that brings me up to today - and was it ever a fun day!

I woke up at about nine, spent some time talking to Mom on the phone and doing other stuff until 10 when the Health Center opened for the day. Went down there and rode the bike machine for an hour (went 10 miles) and did some weights stuff. While I rode the bike I was reading John Perkins' autobiography for one of my classes.

After that I ate lunch with several friends of mine, and they invited me to play Wallyball with them. So we played that for an hour and a half or so, and I was actually doing all right at it! When I had tried it before (back in my freshman fall) I had done poorly...but this time I was actually a tiny bit co-ordinated!

After we finished playing, we decided to go sledding. But this time, we went to the big tall hill near the 100 stairs. We'd heard about a slope there that somebody found.

(I "stole" this picture from one of my hall mates of when they went down the big hill yesterday. We didn't have this sled today)

By the time we got to it, though, there wasn't much snow on parts of it because so many people had gone down it. So we promptly put more snow on it! As we were putting snow on it, the twins and I ended up sliding down it (without any type of sled under us!). I actually got stuck partway down on a vine type thing that was attached to something at the top and the bottom...but I was able to get myself loose.

After everyone in our group had gone down the hill, we had to hike up the 100 stairs which was a tad dangerous because they were covered in snow! But lots of other people had been going up/down them, and there was a handrail to hang on to, so it was fine :) The next time I went down, I tried to use my "sled" - but it decided it didn't want to go down the hill. My body, however, decided to keep going without the sled! That time hurt a lot more - and I got a bruise from it - but it was still fun :D The crazy thing about this slope is that as you're going down you're kicking up a lot of snow that flies up in your face - and then at the bottom there's this mound of snow from everyone sledding down - so it's quite the ride :) The third (and last) time I went down I used a friend's inner tube - and that was definitely the best :D

Lynnette and I then decided to walk the Dogwood Trail all around the campus - it was her idea and a bit crazy, but we had a ton of fun. It took us about an hour to go the 1.8 miles, following deer trails or human trails...but we were still walking in snow that was at least to half way up our legs. We made the mistake of going the uphill direction though :/

We wrote our names with our fingers in the snow. Lots of other people had been doing it too. At one point we saw four or five dear crossing the trail - we felt so sorry for them being out in this cold and having to walk through the deep snow!! There were also lots of cute little birdies out singing :) Of course I felt even more sorry for them than for the deer!

When we got about halfway around the trail, we stopped and lay down in the snow for a while - it was kind of cold but it actually felt nice too! It was so quiet and peaceful and the moon was up (it was only about 4:30p.m. at that point) - it was just wonderful...I could have almost fallen asleep :D

We came back around to the parking lot area for the library, and there was a big mound of snow around a lamp post - so I suggested that we climb up it - and we did, crazy as it was for us to do that :D It was pretty difficult to climb because of sinking into the snow anytime we tried to step up. But we did it in the end!

Of course, once we quit walking in the snow and were walking on the cleared sidewalk is when I started to realize just how COLD my ankles and feet were. I was very glad to get back to my room and take off my snow-packed boots and socks and take a nice warm shower! But the hot water made my feet hurt so bad because they were so cold--they're all right now though :)

Since then I've just been blogging and doing some homework reading and enjoying the last of my snow day...tomorrow I have a test in my one class, but then it will be the weekend all over again! While I'm enjoying the time off, I'm also ready for all the snow to just go away. This weekend it's supposed to get up to 50 degrees, and by next Thursday the high is supposed to be 70, so I'm really looking forward to that! And then my parents come for Family Weekend!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I've had such a wonderful day - thanks to all my friends who made it possible! :D

The last couple weeks of summer....

After our quick trip to Colorado for Nathan's Acceptance (into USAFA) Day parade (see these two posts on his blog to read about that) on August 2nd-4th, I nannied Christopher for one day and then they went on a family vacation. During the week they were gone (Aug. 9th-13), I was able to spend time with friends and put in 2-3 full days of work for Mrs. Stewart (my high school teacher - I'm her assistant when I'm in town), so that was really nice. I was also supposed to work on packing during that week. I think I did a bit, but not much. Oh, and before our Colorado trip I had taken Christopher back to the pool for a birthday party. That time I had my swimming suit on, so I was more willing to get wet - and so he did better than the first time I took him!

Anyway, the last week before coming back to JBU (Aug. 16-20) I nannied in the mornings, and one afternoon I think. I finally had both boys again, which made me happy :) I hadn't seen much of Brian for about five weeks, and I was missing him! (Mom kind of made fun of me for that - but I really do love those little guys!) During that week, we went back to the Museum of Nature and Science, and we also went to the Zoo again. On the other days, we would often go to the park and to Barnes & Noble. If I remember right, Brian asked me one time why I had to go back to college and why I couldn't keep coming over to spend time with him...but I promised him I would come see him when I'm in town :) Hopefully Christopher will remember who I am - I'm relatively sure he will.

On Saturday, August 21st, Dad and Mom and I packed up the van with all my *stuff* for college and headed out for a couple days of camping. We stayed at Devils Den State Park. The first night it was *really* hot and muggy, but the next morning we were able to get out early and do some hiking. We went on several *long* hikes, and in the afternoon we enjoyed some air conditioning at a place that had a beautiful over look and *lots* of hummingbird feeders! What's more, the owner of the gift shop had recently gotten a beautiful cockatoo, and I got to hold him! :D

Then on Monday the 23rd we came over to JBU and Dad and Mom helped me get moved into my room - the same room I had last year! My wonderful room mate Jessica arrived a little later in the afternoon, and we spent the next couple days arranging/unpacking.

And thus ended my wonderful summer at home - It's so odd living two different lives in a sense. I slip so easily from one to another now! I really haven't been homesick a bit...although I do miss Dad and Mom and Nathan and Bluebonnet. But at the same time I'm so glad to be back at JBU - it really is a second home.

An Animal Post

Written 8/2/2010 at Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado!

I’ve seen lots of fun animal things recently, so here’s a random list of all the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

• I was walking in my neighborhood one day, and a young/baby Cardinal flew off the ground from just a couple feet in front of me! The mom was right around there too. I never would have seen the baby if it hadn’t flown!
• At the place I house sat last week, there were two dogs – Buddy, a big black lab as sweet as could be, and Bailey, a small black Schnauzer/Jack Russell Terrier mix, as hyper as could be! Well, there are lots from them J 1) Buddy slept in the same bedroom I did every night. So did Bailey, but she always sleeps in her crate in there. Buddy chose to J 2) Buddy was very laid back – all he needed to make him happy was lots of water and lots of petting. Bailey, on the other hand, would just about go crazy! She loves having her toys thrown (both inside and outside). The funniest part of that was the way she would slide across the wooden floor when she went running to fetch her toy :D 3) Buddy liked eying the many rabbits that lived in the neighborhood during our walks. Of course, I never let him chase one. But I found it funny that such a sweet dog seemed to want to hunt poor cute little bunnies! 4) Whenever I started petting Buddy, Bailey would run over and want her share too.
• I went to the Dallas Zoo on Dollar Day. Tons of fun animal things from there, of course, but the three biggest are: 1) the wild Great Egrets that had a nest in the flamingo exhibit (it was open air), 2) the species of bird in the children’s aviary that loved poking their long beaks into peoples’ pockets and backpacks, and 3) the little weaver birds in the other aviary that were making their nests right above the path. The males were being absolute clowns (hanging upside down on one foot) trying to show off the nests they had made, and the females were busy dive bombing anyone who stood still on the path to watch the males!
• Last night we were camping at Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, and three things happened there too. 1) There were a couple Painted Bunting babies that were begging to be fed by their papa right near our site! FUN!!! J 2) There were TONS (as in, 40-50) of vultures/other raptors circling above our site. At first we were wondering what had died to attract that many birds, but then we guessed that they were using thermals instead. 3) Two butterflies thought the wooden legs of our campstools tasted really yummy…..who knows why! After we finished at the camp fire and moved to the picnic table, the butterflies followed us, so I took a bite out of my apple and let them drink some juice from there. They both stayed for a super long time and were really “tame”! I got some good pictures J

Ok, I couldn't think of as many things as I thought I had seen...but oh well.

(edit on 9/11/10) - Ah, I remembered another couple things I meant to put on here!

• One day I was waiting for the train at a station and I watched a Grackle (a kind of blackbird) catch and eat a grasshopper. I found that interesting for some reason - I must have been tired that day!
• A few days later I watched a little sparrow try to catch a moth, again while waiting for the train. The moth kept getting away!
• Oh, and another one from the zoo - the two macaws who were madly in love with one another - evidenced by them preening each other almost non-stop and regurgitating for each other. Even a little kid recognized it: "look, they're making out!" lol

I just love watching God's creation! :)