New Camera

I got a new camera so I can get some good pics on the trip.

The bean...

Campfire cigar...

Nightgame at Wrigley...


Swapping glasses...


I'm also using the camera to take pics of stuff and post it on Craig's list.

Blender...

So, you want a blender? $2.

Minister/Teacher?

Since I started planning my trip to Vietnam, I've been thinking about what this means in terms of ministry. I quit my corporate-type job for ministry work in 2004, and I don't want to quit ministry to be a teacher. Instead, I want to find the ministry in my teaching.

I got to have a conversation last night with a minster and friend who has been teaching for years. I told him that I was worried that going from working with isolated elderly people, people on hospice, people in need, etc., to teaching, almost seems like a step backward. I know it's not, and I know that ministry is more than pastoring a church and can definitely include teaching. And, I know that there is a rich history of education as ministry. But on the other hand, I've never quite been one of those people that can think of anything as ministry and I wanted to talk to someone who has real experience as a teaching minister. He talked about working with students who would be the first in their families to get degrees, who didn't have a lot of economic privilege, who needed guidance, ("People like me", I thought to myself.) and the ministry of helping them navigate this process.

Earlier that morning I read something about the "This I Believe" project and the value of writing a faith statement. One of the things that I thought should go in mine is the idea that faith is as necessary to human life as air and water. We need something to believe in, to draw from, and to be inspired by. That's what I want to do with my students. Help them see a future where their world is bigger, and all of us have a place in it together.

I've also bee thinking a lot lately about Tangtong Gyalpo.

Tangtong Gyalpo(I just call him "Tang") is a sort of saint in certain Buddhist traditions. He was known as a bridgebuilder because, get this, he built bridges. Actual bridges. Not figurative bridges between communities and blah blah blah, but actual bridges. Because that's what people needed. I love that.

It reminds me that in order for people to see their similarities and share respect for each other's cultures and all that high-minded stuff, they first have to be able to talk to each other. They have to be able to ask where the bathroom is. So maybe teaching English is the best way for me to be a "Bridgebuilder"right now.

"Teacher"

I got two more shots on Wednesday. One in each cheek. Rabies and something else. I can't even keep track. (No pics of my punctured and band-aided buttocks - sorry ladies.) I've got more in three weeks.

I also started my volunteer tutoring gig at a center for southeast Asian folks in town. So I spent two hours tutoring Ruth Weissman today (Not her real name - not even remotely close). I was a little nervous because I had absolutely no idea what to do. All of the studying and lesson planning that I've done has been for groups, and I hate not having a plan. But when I got there, the Coordinator, Lord Groz (Again, not really anything like her real name at all) set me up with some books and we ended up mostly going through those. I was relieved to find that I really liked it. She even called me "teacher". It's definitely the kind of thing I could do all day, hopefully with a large group. Which is good. I didn't want to find out I hated teaching and end up working at the Da Nang TGI Fridays instead.

Blog Post One

4/16/08 (Moved from another blog)

So, I’m planning on moving to Vietnam for a while, and a blog seems like the best way to keep people posted on what I’ve got going on. And here it is. The blog. (Yeah, I know. Hold on to your seat.)

I received my first series of shots today. 2 in each arm, and one in each butt cheek. 1/2 a dozen shots and a lecture about using protection with the women and not petting the dogs (Or vice versa, I might not have been listening very well). The doc was talking about dengue and yellow fever, rabies and typhoid and encephalitis and hepatitis and malaria and… I was thinking of investing in one of those boy-in-the-bubble type space suits. It makes me wonder at what point I would prefer death over more shots and living in fear of water, the sun, and skunks (Seriously, he told me to watch out for skunks). But, I go back for more shots in a week, and more in a month, and more in 6 months (though I’m not sure how that’s going to work because I plan on being on the other side of the world). This thing is turning out to be an adventure already.