This weekend, my church has cancelled all four of its services to instead have a weekend of service. Today's installment: service for Malawi. I'm pretty excited about this: PCTR is sponsoring nine wells in nine villages in the Sakata area. Clean water for people I've met and sang and danced with!
The day started off with a ceremony in a park downtown on the river. There were songs and my pastor spoke and introduced our partners in this event: the mayor of Toms River, the directors of the YMCA, the superintendent of schools. Also present were Rev. Stephen and his wife Liz from the Allentown church. I was really, really happy to see them. Stephen spoke about the people in Malawi and what a difference this is making. He said that there were people there who were praying for us today. You know, people say things like that all the time, but for some reason this really struck me. My eyes got a little teary--yes, it's true-- as I pictured Bonongwe. Violet. Mwalabu. Jeannie. Countless others. I felt so connected to them in that moment. They're so grateful for what they do have, and so hopeful for what they might have someday. Incredible, and an awesome reminder. I try to be positive and thankful every day, but it's good to be reminded.
After the ceremony was a 5k that I foolishly convinced my junior high youth group kids (who are apparently all also cross country stars) to enter with me. They were all super crazy competitive and ran their 6.5 minute miles in circles around me. One of my girls promised she would run with me the whole time, no matter how slow I needed to go. She actually did stick with me, and we kept a slow steady pace of almost a minute and a half faster than I run on my own. I was sore later, but it was a beautiful sunny happy day.
I brought two types of Malawian food to share: cassava and fried bananas. I didn't even cook the cassava (you might see it called yucca in grocery stores, although it should really be yuca) to really emphasize how bland and starchy this last-resort food is. On the other end of the spectrum was fried bananas (mash bananas, add flour, fry in oil), which we bought from a woman passing through the village on brick making day-- very tasty, but definitely not something that the typical villager gets to enjoy often, if ever at all.
The connection I felt today to that place over 7000 miles away was incredible. I hope to go back and see those people-- and their new, clean, covered wells.
Showing posts with label Toms River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toms River. Show all posts
09 April 2011
14 August 2010
Jersey fresh
Oh, how I love New Jersey. Well, except for the traffic that seems to meet me whenever I try to go somewhere more than 15 minutes away-- that's getting old. But I suppose it's to be expected when your state is this awesome. Everyone wants to check it out.
Anyway. I love food, and am particularly enthusiastic about local food. New Jersey produces a lot of really awesome foodstuffs. I needed to share my last two snacks because they were both awesomely delicious and both grown literally within a stone's throw of where I ate them. I'm sharing them with you so you can be jealous, but also so I have it in writing and can remember how good this was forever.
My last food at camp: wheat toast with elderberry jam, as made by my friends Andrew Walker and Drew Lovering. The elderberries were growing in Lower Meadow, which is about thirty seconds from Lakeside, the cabin I was living in until a few hours. So good.
My first food at home: tomato with fresh basil. The tomato is a Rutgers tomato, bought at Agricultural Field Day this past spring, and planted on the side of my parents' house. The basil has been growing in a little pot on the back porch of the aforementioned Lakeside all summer (also purchased at the aforementioned Ag Field Day). It's kind of a pathetic couple of sweet basil plants, not a ton of leaves, but what was there was delicious. The pot fell over while I was driving home and one of the plants broke, so I ate it with a tomato. So good.
A few weeks ago, a group of staff members got together in the evening and had a lengthy discussion about how we produce and consume food. It was a really great conversation, mainly focused on the local food movement but also covered other ideas about GMOs and other food issues. I really think food is interesting; everyone needs it, so we might as well actually think about what we're doing with it. But beyond my love of cooking and eating and talking about food, Jersey fresh foods are just one of the many reasons why I love my home state.
Anyway. I love food, and am particularly enthusiastic about local food. New Jersey produces a lot of really awesome foodstuffs. I needed to share my last two snacks because they were both awesomely delicious and both grown literally within a stone's throw of where I ate them. I'm sharing them with you so you can be jealous, but also so I have it in writing and can remember how good this was forever.
My last food at camp: wheat toast with elderberry jam, as made by my friends Andrew Walker and Drew Lovering. The elderberries were growing in Lower Meadow, which is about thirty seconds from Lakeside, the cabin I was living in until a few hours. So good.
My first food at home: tomato with fresh basil. The tomato is a Rutgers tomato, bought at Agricultural Field Day this past spring, and planted on the side of my parents' house. The basil has been growing in a little pot on the back porch of the aforementioned Lakeside all summer (also purchased at the aforementioned Ag Field Day). It's kind of a pathetic couple of sweet basil plants, not a ton of leaves, but what was there was delicious. The pot fell over while I was driving home and one of the plants broke, so I ate it with a tomato. So good.
A few weeks ago, a group of staff members got together in the evening and had a lengthy discussion about how we produce and consume food. It was a really great conversation, mainly focused on the local food movement but also covered other ideas about GMOs and other food issues. I really think food is interesting; everyone needs it, so we might as well actually think about what we're doing with it. But beyond my love of cooking and eating and talking about food, Jersey fresh foods are just one of the many reasons why I love my home state.
15 July 2010
50,000+ miles later
Rather than spending this week's day off on my graduate work, I instead spent it driving great distances within my beloved state to see my beloved undergrad advisor, who was vacationing with her family in Cape May Point. I figured, when in doubt about my masters, visit the person who has actually already successfully seen me through obtaining a degree. This was a great choice for several reasons:
1. I got to drive basically the entire length of New Jersey.
1a. This included going straight through the Pinelands National Reserve, pitch pines and wetlands galore, oh happy day!
2. I got to swim in the ocean (sort of, it was kind of where the Atlantic meets the Delaware Bay, but there were waves, and salt, and that's all that matters).
3. I got to chat about things, grad school related and not, with someone totally awesome.
3a. It's reassuring to discuss my challenges in grad school with Melina because she knows me as a student, and she successfully went through the same program I'm in.
4. Melina has really cute children. REALLY cute.
So, 380 miles over the course of about 36 hours was pretty sweet. I visited my parents and slept at home in Toms River, which was nice. The trip back to TR from Cape May was not so nice though. That part of the Garden State Parkway is under quite a bit of construction, and received heavy rains on and off during the day. It wasn't actively raining as I drove by the start of the construction zone, around mile 60, but I saw a truck a little ahead of me hit a pretty deep puddle, so I tapped the brake to slow down a little before getting to it myself. Unfortunately, the water started way sooner than I had thought, and I began to hydroplane a little. I stayed under control for a few moments before careening toward the guardrail along the left lane and then starting to fly toward the construction zone--and cars-- in the right lanes. I began to spin a little bit, and as the rear of the car headed perpendicular to the right side of the road and I saw a car heading toward my door, I panicked and slammed the brake, which sent me spinning into the construction zone, taking out a few of those orange barrels and finally coming to a stop, facing in the right direction in a huge puddle in the construction area.
I think I'm a pretty good driver; I do enough of it. In fact, this morning I broke 139,000 miles on my little (now scratched up) car, which is more than 50,000 more than I bought it with just over 3 years ago. That's a lot, considering I'd drive it to college and leave it parked for most of the semester, for the first year I had it. When I drive, I'm often more worried about other crazies around me than my own ability. However, yesterday afternoon, I am extremely grateful for all those around me on the Parkway who were on their game, paying attention and driving carefully. The fact that my faithful automobile and I weren't harmed means that we can enjoy more roadtrips together in the future, starting with this weekend, when I drive great distances in New Jersey again to deliver my friend Tim home to South Seaside Park for his birthday, and go to the Ocean County Fair to celebrate it with our friends.
1. I got to drive basically the entire length of New Jersey.
1a. This included going straight through the Pinelands National Reserve, pitch pines and wetlands galore, oh happy day!
2. I got to swim in the ocean (sort of, it was kind of where the Atlantic meets the Delaware Bay, but there were waves, and salt, and that's all that matters).
3. I got to chat about things, grad school related and not, with someone totally awesome.
3a. It's reassuring to discuss my challenges in grad school with Melina because she knows me as a student, and she successfully went through the same program I'm in.
4. Melina has really cute children. REALLY cute.
So, 380 miles over the course of about 36 hours was pretty sweet. I visited my parents and slept at home in Toms River, which was nice. The trip back to TR from Cape May was not so nice though. That part of the Garden State Parkway is under quite a bit of construction, and received heavy rains on and off during the day. It wasn't actively raining as I drove by the start of the construction zone, around mile 60, but I saw a truck a little ahead of me hit a pretty deep puddle, so I tapped the brake to slow down a little before getting to it myself. Unfortunately, the water started way sooner than I had thought, and I began to hydroplane a little. I stayed under control for a few moments before careening toward the guardrail along the left lane and then starting to fly toward the construction zone--and cars-- in the right lanes. I began to spin a little bit, and as the rear of the car headed perpendicular to the right side of the road and I saw a car heading toward my door, I panicked and slammed the brake, which sent me spinning into the construction zone, taking out a few of those orange barrels and finally coming to a stop, facing in the right direction in a huge puddle in the construction area.
I think I'm a pretty good driver; I do enough of it. In fact, this morning I broke 139,000 miles on my little (now scratched up) car, which is more than 50,000 more than I bought it with just over 3 years ago. That's a lot, considering I'd drive it to college and leave it parked for most of the semester, for the first year I had it. When I drive, I'm often more worried about other crazies around me than my own ability. However, yesterday afternoon, I am extremely grateful for all those around me on the Parkway who were on their game, paying attention and driving carefully. The fact that my faithful automobile and I weren't harmed means that we can enjoy more roadtrips together in the future, starting with this weekend, when I drive great distances in New Jersey again to deliver my friend Tim home to South Seaside Park for his birthday, and go to the Ocean County Fair to celebrate it with our friends.
19 May 2010
You know how I roll...
...on four wheels, for many, many miles.
I did another one of those quick trips to Virginia. Actually, like I wrote last time, I did two. The first was for the Muddy Buddy 10K in Richmond the first weekend of this month. That was a really good time! I joined forces with a good friend and last year's partner, Brian, who thankfully is not super competitive, thus allowing my slow self to have a good time and not worry too much. It was excellent catching up with him and his family, but I did a lot of driving that weekend, since I was in the midst of finals. I ended up staying with my older brother and his wife outside of Philly for the two nights following the race in hopes that the few hours less driving I was doing would be put to good use on my final paper. Regardless of how said final paper turned out, it was nice to hang out with them for a few days before heading back to Rutgers to administer final exams to my students.
If the circle I drove it that weekend wasn't large enough, how about this past weekend? This is my new personal record for solo distance driving in a day, due to my poor planning. The former record was my trip to Northern Virginia and back in a night; this time I went to Richmond, then further north in New Jersey than I started, then back to Toms River over the course of the weekend-- just over 800 miles total, but just over 550 of them were between Friday morning and the wee hours of Saturday. I had a choir concert, a retreat at camp, and these two friends coming into Richmond from Mali and Montana all in the same 72 hour period. It had to be done.
After choir rehearsal on Thursday night (which ended about 9.45), I drove to my friend Amanda's place in northern Maryland and spent the night, to knock a couple of hours off the Friday travels. Thank goodness for her! On Friday morning, I drove to Richmond to meet up with Jeremy and Brendan, who I haven't seen since November 2008.
Jeremy, myself, Brendan
Our friend Taylor was also in town for the occasion, as well as Brendan's girlfriend Paige. The five of us went out for lunch and wandered around the city of Richmond for several hours while other people were at work. There was the Virginia Art Museum, frisbee in the park, and finally people got off work and congregated at our friend Justin's apartment in The Fan. A few other people I knew in college were there, so it was a lot of fun to see people, but especially the two who moved so far away.
About 11PM, I headed out, destined for camp. My dear friend Cheryl was leading the Jr. High retreat this weekend, and I really needed to be there for it. I arrived at about 5.30AM and crashed on the couch in my soon to be home for the summer before going to breakfast at 8 and helping work the retreat for the rest of the day. (I napped at every opportunity, but definitely slept like a champion the following night!) The retreat went really well. Cheryl is amazing, the weather was beautiful, and it was really nice to see everyone at Johnsonburg.
I drove home late Sunday morning for my choir concert in the afternoon, which went well. We sang Faure's Requiem among other awesome pieces. I'm glad I could be part of all of these things, though I definitely felt it the next day and will not be attempting any other completely insane trips like this any time soon. When I got home, my dad was singing that Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere" to me. He said we need to rewrite the words for me. He may have a point.
Now, did you catch the part where I said soon to be home for the summer? It's true. I'm about to start packing, and will leave for camp in the morning. After a lot of thinking, I decided to work in the kitchen there this summer while finishing my Master's thesis. I'll be living in a little cabin called Lakeside... obviously by the lake... with my good friend Lauren and a pair of crazy cats. I am sure this will result in a lot of adventures, and think this blog may transition into just a general life adventures blog, not exclusive to travelling hundreds of miles in order to make an entry. This is in part because I'll be staying still for a while (which I guess is relative in the grand scheme of things when it comes to me-- I'm going to Worton, Maryland on a mission trip at the end of June with my home church's Jr. High youth group). At the end of a not-really-that-long-while, I'll actually be heading to Malawi (sort of southeast-central Africa) to do a bit of mission work for a few weeks. This will be at the end of August. I'm pretty excited, and have already had all of my shots. My life is getting to be one big adventure these days! Stay tuned, won't you?
I did another one of those quick trips to Virginia. Actually, like I wrote last time, I did two. The first was for the Muddy Buddy 10K in Richmond the first weekend of this month. That was a really good time! I joined forces with a good friend and last year's partner, Brian, who thankfully is not super competitive, thus allowing my slow self to have a good time and not worry too much. It was excellent catching up with him and his family, but I did a lot of driving that weekend, since I was in the midst of finals. I ended up staying with my older brother and his wife outside of Philly for the two nights following the race in hopes that the few hours less driving I was doing would be put to good use on my final paper. Regardless of how said final paper turned out, it was nice to hang out with them for a few days before heading back to Rutgers to administer final exams to my students.
If the circle I drove it that weekend wasn't large enough, how about this past weekend? This is my new personal record for solo distance driving in a day, due to my poor planning. The former record was my trip to Northern Virginia and back in a night; this time I went to Richmond, then further north in New Jersey than I started, then back to Toms River over the course of the weekend-- just over 800 miles total, but just over 550 of them were between Friday morning and the wee hours of Saturday. I had a choir concert, a retreat at camp, and these two friends coming into Richmond from Mali and Montana all in the same 72 hour period. It had to be done.
After choir rehearsal on Thursday night (which ended about 9.45), I drove to my friend Amanda's place in northern Maryland and spent the night, to knock a couple of hours off the Friday travels. Thank goodness for her! On Friday morning, I drove to Richmond to meet up with Jeremy and Brendan, who I haven't seen since November 2008.
Jeremy, myself, Brendan
Our friend Taylor was also in town for the occasion, as well as Brendan's girlfriend Paige. The five of us went out for lunch and wandered around the city of Richmond for several hours while other people were at work. There was the Virginia Art Museum, frisbee in the park, and finally people got off work and congregated at our friend Justin's apartment in The Fan. A few other people I knew in college were there, so it was a lot of fun to see people, but especially the two who moved so far away.
About 11PM, I headed out, destined for camp. My dear friend Cheryl was leading the Jr. High retreat this weekend, and I really needed to be there for it. I arrived at about 5.30AM and crashed on the couch in my soon to be home for the summer before going to breakfast at 8 and helping work the retreat for the rest of the day. (I napped at every opportunity, but definitely slept like a champion the following night!) The retreat went really well. Cheryl is amazing, the weather was beautiful, and it was really nice to see everyone at Johnsonburg.
I drove home late Sunday morning for my choir concert in the afternoon, which went well. We sang Faure's Requiem among other awesome pieces. I'm glad I could be part of all of these things, though I definitely felt it the next day and will not be attempting any other completely insane trips like this any time soon. When I got home, my dad was singing that Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere" to me. He said we need to rewrite the words for me. He may have a point.
Now, did you catch the part where I said soon to be home for the summer? It's true. I'm about to start packing, and will leave for camp in the morning. After a lot of thinking, I decided to work in the kitchen there this summer while finishing my Master's thesis. I'll be living in a little cabin called Lakeside... obviously by the lake... with my good friend Lauren and a pair of crazy cats. I am sure this will result in a lot of adventures, and think this blog may transition into just a general life adventures blog, not exclusive to travelling hundreds of miles in order to make an entry. This is in part because I'll be staying still for a while (which I guess is relative in the grand scheme of things when it comes to me-- I'm going to Worton, Maryland on a mission trip at the end of June with my home church's Jr. High youth group). At the end of a not-really-that-long-while, I'll actually be heading to Malawi (sort of southeast-central Africa) to do a bit of mission work for a few weeks. This will be at the end of August. I'm pretty excited, and have already had all of my shots. My life is getting to be one big adventure these days! Stay tuned, won't you?
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