the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, October 27

Outside My Window... the pitch blackness that I am coming to love

I am thinking... that my husband is very strong inside

I am thankful for... people who sit and listen

From the kitchen... a chicken and an apple tart that tasted like home

I am wearing... pj's

I am creating... a lapbook about China

I am going... to work on check two for sometime in the future

I am reading... psalm 27, and remembering

I am hoping... to better understand Nonverbal Learning Disorder

I am hearing... plenti rokrok

Around the house... stupid rainflies that drive me mental ... all over the computer screen, in my eyelashes and on my skin. gross.

One of my favorite things... news from a friend

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: helping my grade 7/8 students to write a first draft and soothing my youngest, who just doesn't seem to have been made for a classroom.

Here is picture thought I am sharing

letter home

This is coming from the Yahoo Sustainable Organizers group. Her son's school (see bottom) seems to have a problem with kids throwing away perfectly good pencils. She needs someone like you to have some third world kids write a testimonial about the fact that they don't have enough pencils to do their schoolwork or something to that effect. Would you be willing to write something for her to present at the school? It doesn't have to be long. And perhaps some pictures as adjunct. If you don't have time, no problemo.
Thanks, Ev

Hi Ev,

I have no problem writing to you on this topic. It is evident all day, every day, all around us, in abundance.
Here at M*** School both pencils and paper are in short supply due to the cost of having things shipped to such a remote place. You know the Exercise books little primary kids use in school, to learn to print well, etc? We all use those to write in, or spiral bound notebooks if they can be found. Even my senior high school students write in 65 or 92 page primers. That is just what we have.

To write WITH, we can buy red, black or blue papermate pens which usually work, though not always. There are also a few boxes of the bic pens that are clear on the outside. It is kind of funny how frustrating that can get for all us North Americans. We are so lush that we don’t even know it until we try to function with NO choice (or very little choice.

Pencils are horrible. We can purchase them but have little hope of sharpening them very often. They are soft and break easily so we usually all just write in pen.

All texts and novels must be shared. I am not sure that a single school day has gone by where each student had everything he or she needed to do their work. We don’t mind sharing at all ... we are accustomed to it and no one complains. Most of the students here, Nationals and ex-pat’s alike, don’t know it any other way. They don’t notice the mouldy musty smell of all the curriculum and notebooks either.

Many Nationals do not go to school, and when they do, I don’t see them bringing home textbooks or notebooks. They just memorize the information because they are used to that method, having learned all about their heritage and culture from their families in just this way. They also know how much of a privilege it is to be able to learn English and to be in a school at all.

Another example, though not directly related to school materials, is with dishes. Last week I noticed that one square, porcelain dish I would use back home for maybe an apple crisp (only did that twice here since I pay almost 1 dollar per apple!) had a crack in it. I could not trust it in an oven, and instead, put it at the back door so my work meri could take it to the pit. There was also a small cereal type bowl with a crack that I left at the door as well. Now, these cracks were such that if you were to wiggle the sides of the dishes back and forth, you would hear the tell-tale grinding of the two broken sides. I think we all know that sound and what happens, suddenly, one day if we try to use them again.
My work meri asked if she could take them home instead. She knew they still had plenty of life in them because, of course, she does not have an oven to worry about ... and no fancy apple crisp to be baking.

When I give her lunch, on the days she helps me work around the house, I give her soup or leftovers in a washed pasta sauce jar. It becomes another drinking glass for her family, for times she has access to fresh, unsalted water (remembering we are surrounded by the Baltic Sea which is salt water and I have a collection tank and a good filter which, again, she does not)

The work meris and guards all regularly check out the base’s “garbage” pit for things that we wasteful, rich North Americans decide cannot be used any longer, and they take these things home with them. It is humbling to re-examine our ways when we so often boast of how environmentally friendly and economically minded we (think we) are.

I know I, for one, have been changed.

Kristina Campbell
Islands Region, Papua New Guinea, West New Britain Province

thursday throwback

I was so stinking tired when we got to Japan, I hardly even took the time to look out the window. I have no idea what Japan's scenery has to offer, in Narita. It was our second flight, but a long one ... Chicago to Japan was just over 12 hours. I do remember, once on solid ground again, that wish I had slept a bit on board. My legs were like Jello and though I wanted to eat, I also thought I just.might.barf.right.here.and.now so I passed.

I mean, what do you eat in a completely foreign country, anyway? I can't read any of the signs, I have no idea what it will truly cost me, in the end, or if my stomach will handle it well.

I believe we had a total of 1 big hour in Narita before we boarded our third flight of the "day". I use the term "day" loosely because it had already been two. We wouldn't be able to drop onto a bed until we landed in Singapore, in another 6 or 7 hours. I can't remember ... an adventure in itself; a story for another day.

the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, October 20

Outside My Window... the sounds of crickets and palm branches blowing in the slight breeze

I am thinking... that prayer is amazing

I am thankful for... my husband. he has to put up with a lot.

From the kitchen... a crock pot with sweet and sour chicken inside. I hope it isn't too tough.

I am wearing... a light brown reebok ringer tee and a brown skirt that smells like mildew.

I am creating... a letter to the parents of my high school students.

I am going... to try to pass check one, language, on thursday

I am reading... a time to pray by evelyn christenson
and old issues of today's creative homearts. they are truly terrible but I am desperate

I am hoping... to finish strong

I am hearing... some co-workers in the pool

Around the house... many geckos. kind of weird.

One of my favorite things... cupcakes and icing and anything mexican

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: getting well. passing check 1

Here is picture thought I am sharing

messages home

Wow. Thank you so much for your email and the picture. You don’t realize how much you miss home until you can’t get there ... and Neal was JUST thinking about the gorge the other day. Your picture was incredibly timely. I am having quite a bit of homesickness here, now that the “honeymoon” phase is over. My mom tells me it is all quite normal but it isn’t pleasant, especially when you add in the heat! What I wouldn’t give for some of that cool, crisp fall air!

Maybe to some it would seem silly and insignificant to send a fall picture but when you are sweating here and missing home, it is a balm!

My mom sent some pictures from Athletic Park and my brother sent some from the Muskokas. Neal’s old boss, in Sarnia, sent some from his cousin when he went to Algonquin. So nice; I still have to go there someday.

Jonam’s eye seems a bit better today and we were loaned some cream for it, so we are thankful and hopeful it won’t last long. Good thing we know so many caring people. My inbox was full to overflowing this morning when I woke up. All I could do was read, cry and smile. It was good. Takes a trip overseas for me to finally see some of the stuff I am made of. Not all of it is good, but I am definitely a work in progress and I am learning to appreciate even more those little moments each day that point to goodness and grace. SO, I am certainly working it all out, under many an eye as we live in a fishbowl. Never thought I would learn so much in such a small time frame.



Kristina

sarere sampela samting

homeschooling wasn't incredibly popular in the town we moved from, before coming to Papua New Guinea. that is an understatement, actually. out of a population estimated to be 5000, there were exactly three families homeschooling last year. our family was counted in that "three". if we were to, say, return home next school year, 2009, and resume our home studies, the two families who homeschooled with us last year will, both, have their boys in the local high school. One of the families already has their 14 year old son in high school, for grade 9, this year. The other family will send their first child in 2009. they will still have their second child, a young boy, at home, (in grade 5 I think) but he is pretty young to be a companion for my boys. None of this occurred to me until this very afternoon. Isn't that crazy? Next September I will have one son in grade 9 and one in grade 8 and we would be the only ones homeschooling in our town, legitimately, since the young boy in grade 5 lives out in the country, the next town over.
When Barbie et al move closer to her and her husband's family, that means we will be an hour away (or more, depending) from each other.

I cannot imagine what that all will be like. I will simply have to trust the Lord in that ... and believe that my boys will honestly be ok with it, too.

so as I was pondering all this, sitting at my table here, in Papua New Guinea, I heard a tractor in the backyard, harvesting kon (corn) just like they would be doing back home, and I thought "how bizarre".
and for a second, I forgot where, exactly, I was ...

friday freefall

one thing that has surprised me, here, is how UN creative I feel these days. I thought for sure that moving to a tropical island would, I dunno, unleash some hugely creative something and I would be dying to paint or alter something or cut some serious lino, or write a great novel ... even a haiku would suffice.

nogat.

I need to pray about that one. It is so strange.

Right now I am feeling more kinship with our Sonlight Core 5 stuff. The lapbooks we are making are coming along swimmingly; time flies when you're having fun! I wish I would have homeschooled using Sonlight! Wouldn't it be amazing to write for them? Maybe not ... that would be work, wouldn't it. Here is another excerpt I have to try and use, somehow, in my Learn to Write the Novel Way novel.


where is it? on the beach, near Ipperwash, Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada
when is it? mid-summer, 2007, July or early August, Sunday morning
who is present? my husband, my two boys, me. vacant beach other than whatever wildlife presented itself
what is happening? water lapping on the shore. occasional seagulls, butterflies basking in the sun. slow beach walking, swim play

I know it seems wrong to many, but we really needed to come here, to take a break and just re-learn how to breathe. This has been one of the hardest years of our lives; the most pain-filled summer I have ever known, yet I wouldn't change it for anything.

I love getting "away" even if it is just a drive down the road toward different scenery. I especially relish a trip to the beach. This day wasn't really any different from any others except we "should have" been at REAL church, or so they say. I think God understands why we needed to come. I may even go so far as to suggest that He invited us.

We all hiked down the side of the sand hill with increasingly accelerated steps, each one hoping their toes will be the first to touch the warm, glittering multitude of grains. I carried the drinks and snacks, my husband had the camera and some blankets while the boys simplified things, bringing only their towels and enthusiasm.

The vastness of the clear blue sky, complete with the whitest of cirrus clouds, seemed to further emphasize the wondrous expanse of water awaiting us. Many have tried to capture the simple beauty of a Great Lake but the result is always cheapened, somehow, though undertaken with the best of intentions. Like an air-brushed postcard of Niagara Falls "at night", or a howling wolf on an over-sized tee ... drinking in the vision before my eyes, alone, would have to suffice.

Even the simplest of sights do not go unnoticed on a trip to the beach. Butterflies seem brighter, water-washed pebbles illuminate as gold and precious gems, illusions of treasure discovered only by you. The perfect mixture of warmth and wind while our skin slowly deepens in colour, shedding its paleness of winter; a harbinger of long days and nights ahead.

There is something surreal in the listening ... only the familiar sounds of water, waves and whiling away time in the comforting company of family.

home.

A critic of our "church" must be living with his eyes closed.

wordless wednesday

tuesday timetable

I have embarked upon some things here that are, perhaps, a little bit out of my league, seeing as how there are no Internet cafes anywhere near me and the library at the school is not equipped like my personal one was at home.

I am stumped as to how to begin writing my novel already. I just don't feel it. That is tragic.

I did, however, start my classroom of grade 7/8 students working on a lapbook about China. They are slightly overwhelmed at this point, never having heard the term, much less seen one. Thankfully I have taken a course and have samples of mini books etc and there is a supply of some differently coloured papers and file folders here. Now, if only I could have all of YOU here alongside me, to help me figure out the practical part of this I would be all set. I am deciding that I need to facilitate this class in a huge way. I am going to dictate booklets and even some topics they put inside said booklets, otherwise I am going to get a lot of ugly folders. I love that this is such a clean canvas for me on one hand and feel overwhelmed at what I am proposing (mostly because I do not have a pattern to either follow or adapt). I trust that it will all fall beautifully in place, eventually. Just because I am teaching more than two does not mean I have forgotten how to homeschool ... I have simply added to my "territory". Plus it helps that Barb doesn't mind sending me files that Dan's Guardian blocks.

Some days, I honestly wonder how I make it. Talk about NOT seeing the trees in the forest. If only I could make sense of The Way They Learn ...

So, for the second week of term two, I am teaching the following:
Grades 9-12

Learn to Write the Novel Way, where we are beginning Step 6
Analogies
Abeka Spelling 10
Journal
Reader`s Response

Grade 7 and 8
Sonlight Core 5 Eastern Hemisphere, where we are currently studying China
Easy Grammar, just marking the Prepositions Review Test (Prep Phrase vs Adverb)
Spelling, various books
All the Small Poems
memorizing Footprints in the Sands, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
music (rehearsing for Christmas ... I Will Testify to Love and two others undetermined at this point)
Journal

maybe I am forgetting something.

sande sindaun

I haven't been able to blog for a whole week now, though I know I shouldn't complain (maski long toktok). The people here never blog and they are just fine. Today, we went to work in our friends garden. It was dirty work but we enjoyed it immensely. They had already taken the biggest brush away and burned most of the plot. We got ash all over us but we didn't care. Gabby toktok wantaim ol. Em skulim mipela. While working in the garden we saw a few huge butterflies, a blakbokis (big fruit bat ... we are talking they are so big that when they fly you think it is just a large black bird, like maybe a buzzard). Our friends have planted many things, including kabis (cabbage) but the bugs (banatang)get to most of it before they can eat it (kaikai). We were given the only kabis that was good (gutpela)

... that meant a lot to us. These may be zinneas but I can't remember (mi lus tingim nem bilong en) taim bilong waswas.

the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, October 6

Outside My Window... that big, honking, blue, blow-up pool that I pray never gets a hole.

I am thinking... that I do not seem to measure time by days or months, but by experiences and emotions

I am thankful for... Bikman

From the kitchen... chocolate chip banana muffins

I am wearing... a black skirt that I bought in town that everyone around here also bought and a ripped top that is, otherwise, quite nice

I am creating... memories to last a lifetime

I am going... to check and see if any pinapples are ripe

I am reading... the Blue Bottle Club (again) by Penelope J.Stokes

I am hoping... to actually write this novel I naively said I would write

I am hearing... the sounds of Lego being sorted by two boys, a red-eye cawing and a machete cutting through weeds

Around the house... Jonam, Evan, Mary Anne na mi

One of my favorite things... my EasyYo yogourt maker

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: finishing my planning for the next 10 week term and continuing to make it as much like homeschooling as possible

the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, October 6

Outside My Window... that big, honking, blue, blow-up pool that I pray never gets a gash ... it is literally only one foot outside my livingroom window

I am thinking... that His grace still amazes me

I am thankful for... encouragement

From the kitchen... a feast for an early Canadian Thanksgiving

I am wearing... a grungy pink and white t-shirt that cost a buck and white cut-off jogging pant capri things that cost me about 56 cents

I am creating... a bibliography ( I am totally seeing an analogy to life there )

I am going... to brush my teeth, much to the delight of all around me, I am sure

I am reading... a short novel by Ann Tatlock, called a Room of My Own

I am hoping... to endorse a wonderful friend by having her edit my latest study guide

I am hearing... my youngest son humming

Around the house... same ol, same ol. mary anne, jonam, evan and me

One of my favorite things... internet

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: getting re-started in school after a long break, editing and publishing my guide and finding at least one package for us in the mailroom

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

sunday spiritual

I have been thinking a lot about an article I read recently on "worm theology" it seems to explain much that I was unable to put to words on my own. I love when that happens.
this article appeared on crosswalk.com (you can probably find it in the archives) and it really took me by storm. To quote the authour:

The apostle Paul wrote that we shouldn’t think more about ourselves than we ought; rather, we should use “sober judgment” in our self-assessment (Romans 12:3). Sober judgment means being realistic. It doesn’t mean we should pretend we don’t have gifts when we do, or that we should pretend we have talents, gifts, and abilities when we don’t. Paul is telling us to be honest and realistic, not to despise ourselves.

C.S. Lewis also commented on the very same thing, only in a different period of time.

We may be content to remain what we call “ordinary people”: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility: it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.

there is little I can say which would add to the truths above except that I agree, wholeheartedly. I can only hope that my life is a reflection of it, and that I can teach it to my children.

saturday something

the trip to Walindi was a huge success ... Neal even saw himself swimming above a reef shark. the piece de resistance came when he presented me with an "I thought about you and I hope you had a great day, too" gift. Have to love thoughtful men.

I did finish my novel, Rob. I think your wife would like it, too. It is the second time reading it for me. It is very inspiring.

I did not completely finish writing my novel study but I only have seven chapters left to go and that can be done today, methinks. Then the editing. whoo hoo, cannot wait. *sarcasm*

the boys also brought home some incredible shells, you know, the kind you see in those shells from around the world type books,just.lying.there.on.the.sand.

then there was the package that came, from b
and the email that choked me up from tom, saying that he met and sat next to my dad thursday night. I miss my family; the tears were happy. can you say "good day?"

God never ceases to amaze me, here on this island
... one more photo to make you wish you were here ... tropical paradise

friday freefall

today, the boys are going to Walindi Resort, to try some serious snorkeling before the next school term begins on Tuesday.
Neal is going as well, with some of our neighbours ... must pack as many missionaries as possible into one, big, white van.

I.am.staying.happily.home.

The realization hit me yesterday afternoon. I really and truly had zero desire to go though the whole thing was initially (kind of) set up as a way for our family to get off the base for a change. But I am happy right here.

I have some plans ... finish the novel I am currently reading and finish the study guide I started writing some time last year. It has taken too long and needs to move on already. I have so many other ideas of things to write.

now, to convince the other missionaries here that I know what I am doing and they do NOT need to try to "fix" me any longer ...

thursday throwback

Where is it? a vacation at Uncle Toivo's cottage, near Perry Sound, Ontario

When is it? late summer, almost fall. You can swim but you need pj's at night

Who? the year is 1979. My parents, my brother, Auntie Pat and Uncle Toivo are there plus some other "family", some speaking Finnish, some English. The woodstove is roasting the turkey and a pie waits on the counter ... freshly picked berries.

What is happening? I am sitting on the couch, beneath the picture window, wearing shorts and a long-sleeved shirt since I just came up from a quick lake swim.

My hair is wet.

I am tired of hoping Eric will play with me again, so I got out the game with the owl on it and I am trying to play alone. I have never been able to figure this game out but I have always wanted to be a teacher; this makes me feel kind of like one.

I can't wait to eat the supper my mom and Auntie Pat have worked all afternoon to make. Friends and family will probably stop by later for drinks and cards. I will lie on the top bunk, complaining of the heat and driving my poor parents crazy. They'll say "Kris ... just go to sleep" at least a hundred times and my mom will give me a cool cloth to use for my face, my wrists, my ankles.

I can't stop whining. I am only eight you know, but I wish I was a teenager already.

The trees are already changing colour ... yellow, gold, red, orange and brown. I look at the rock edges, sharp, jagged, sparkling and fierce in their solidity. Eric and I love to climb them, sitting on hte mossy ledges that protrude out over Birr Lake. You can almost see the whole lake from any given point. If you are willing to sit still long enough, with some wild bird seed in your hand, a chipmunk will scurry over and eat right out of your hand. But, what is time at the cottage? Here, time stands still.

A lone loon passes by, unseen but not unheard. I wish I could write for you the sound he makes ... the beautiful, unmatched call found only up North, never back home in the city. I could sit up here all day; so could Eric. I am practicing being really quiet so he won't mind my tagging along ... I'm not allowed out of sight by myself.

I want to live here.

*****

I have slightly worn jeans on now; floods, black rubber boots and faded cream and red sweater on. The sun is warming my face and the flat of my rock seat but it's not enough to make me feel sweaty. I partly want to see a bear but mostly pray I never will. My brother tells me all kinds of stories about things that only smart older brothers know, like how the big, green, metal barrel along the side of the road is where you can hear the people in China if you are patient enough and wait long enough ... standing and listening.

I am very patient.

wordless wednesday