Shabbat Shalom

My mom and mark requested that I go with to their Messianic church this morning. Originally, I was not very keen on the idea, but as I came to see the idea more as a cultural immersion, rather than a forced exposure, I became more enthusiastic about attending.

I walked into the church and was overwhelmed by the amount of Hebrew written all over. Messianic people are Torah Aware Christians. They celebrate much like the Reform Jewish faith does. I felt as if I was back in fourth grade as a little village girl in Fiddler on the Roof. They had a group of dancers that would dance traditional Jewish praise dances and then they would follow the Torah around the room 3 on each side. It was as if it was straight out of the bible.



They then opened up the Torah and said a prayer as well all reached our hands out to the Torah. My mom said that the prayer we prayed was to give us the Torah/take the Torah and carry it to the world. Someone then pics up the huge Tabernacle and the Torah and carries it around the room so people can touch it while everyone sings in Hebrew again.

They then got into the sermon which had some interesting points to me. One of which was the idea that the enemy is the current ruler of the world, which, as you think about it and think about the greed of even the Church itself this statements seems to be held true, but there are still Christians everywhere who still help to carry out the light of Christ (or Yeshua as the Messanic people call Him) One of my favorite points brought up in the sermon was one that I am a firm believer in. They brought up the idea that the Torah is not our guideline, Jesus/Yeshua is. We should follow Christ. The Torah/Bible is only there to keep us from crossing the boundry into the enemy's territory.

If there was one thing I really took out of this Shabbat Shalom, it was that music really is a universal language. I do not understand Hebrew and most of the songs were in Hebrew, but I did understand the feel of the music. The notes carried me right up to God until I found myself closing my eyes and just humming along while tapping my hands on the pew in front of me.

God works in many marvelous and amazing ways. I cannot see what adventures he has planned for me as I drive home tomorrow. My camera is packed away so I will have to upload pictures later.

Until next time!
McConnell out

We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. --Romans 12:5-6

Old, But New

My day started rather late again today. Although I woke up around 0500 to go for a run, I then returned to my nice warm bed and slept until 1100. I took a shower when I woke up then did my favorite lets wander around the house in a bathrobe routine as I was entirely too lazy to get dressed. (I'm a college student on break, leave me alone!)

Eventually Clare finally got a hold of me and we decided to start an epic adventure. (It always is an adventure when Clare and I hang out) About a block away from my house we had to pull over and take a picture with the world's most pointless sign placement ever; located in the middle of Steepleview Rd in Woodbury, MN.
Oh how I love Woodbury... Anyways, So Clare and I first made a random run to Cub foods where we ran into my Aunt Cammie who invited me to the family's annual Nouveau Beaujoulais party (i'm excited) and we bothered Mitch at work for a bit. I was labeled as 'specia,l' we clipped some of the carts together, then started making plans for after he got off work at 22:00. The debate was first between movies that were showing, but nothing good was showing late enough, and Mitch really wanted to go to Applebees... it was all just a confusing not planned plan; it didn't help that we couldn't get a hold of any of the other guys to help plan. Clare and I decided to run errands until we could get a hold of everyone else.

Errands ended up being us making a random run to the dollar tree, buying junkfood, a horsehead on a stick (Connie would be proud) and epic glowstick swords. We couldn't resist testing out our new purchases. We drove to the playground by my house and tested out the versatility of our new glowing toys. Let me tell you, as much fun as they were, they did not last long. We made sure to get some fun pictures! We tried to take one timed picture on these moving... suspended... block things (yeah I do not have a clue how to describe them...) and I was sprinting to get on one of them before the camera took the picture, while Clare was struggling to stay on top....well she failed at that and fell right on her ass. It was, to say the least, hilarious.

Anyways, we drove around for a bit doing this and that from one end of Minnesota to the other then met the guy sat Tim's house. It was like a reunion. Practically my whole group of guys from high school hanging out in one place at the same time. We went to applebees and squeezed 10 people in a single corner booth. The amount of water cups at the end of the night practically took over the entire table.















The night continued with us deciding to do our favorite activity: go to Blockbuster video and find the worst looking movies possible. It was a close call between YoYo Girl Cop and Megashark vs. Giant Octopus. In the end the latter won. Think of the worst movie you have ever seen in your entire life; add in the worst special effects ever (apparently done by 'tiny juggernaut'), a dash of extremly predictable moments, and top it off with a pinch of an utter fail at a plot line and you have Megashark vs. Giant Octopus. The best part of the entire movie was when the shark jumped out of the water and ate a the plane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBizgLZX7W0

Overall, another wonderfully successful day!
Until next time,
McConnell out.

"We can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God"
Romans 5:100

Discovering a Dream

It amazes me just how often the average college student switches majors. In high school, I used to stand by and watch as all of my friends seemed unable to to stand fast on any of their decisions. They would bounce around all sorts of majors, switch from one college to another, change friend groups, and never seem able to simply settle on one big picture. I would laugh at these indecisive friends of mine and never imagine such a difficulty ever happening to me. I was a French and Music major at Northern Michigan University until the end! I would never change!

Well, one semester of school and one trip to Haiti later and I am a biology-physiology premedical major with a minor in French. Two semesters of pursuing this decision later and I discover that this really is not exactly what I want. I hate science. I want to be a doctor and help Haiti, but I don't want to get my bachelors in this!

I now faced a problem, what the heck did I want to do with my life? I wanted to see the world; of this much I was certain, but how to go about this? I was sick of the average college life; sick of school and the drudgery of studying. I talked with my dad at some length about what I wanted out of life and discovered I am so similar to him that it is almost frightening. I spent days stressing over how to get what I wanted out of life with whatever I got my bachelors degree in. Were there a degree in 'world traveler' I would go for that in a heartbeat, but sadly there is no such thing. I also could not just pack up my bags and go on a random trip, as that requires money that I did not have. (Even with a dad working for Delta airlines, traveling is expensive; the plane rides themselves just are not)

I went out to eat with a good friend of mine from high school named Brent who had just returned from a year and a half deployment to Korea with the Air Force. We were talking about the future and how I was thinking about transferring back home to the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities ("I would never leave Northern Michigan University," guess we all have figured out by now that I'm just like everyone else!) and joining the Marine Corps ROTC program offered there. We talked at length about my past year in the Army ROTC and how I loved military life and then we went on to talk about what I would do if I were to enlist in the Marine Corps. I had been doing research on different MOS and had found that Combat Camera seemed to interest me quite a bit. Brent asked what that was and I told him it was rather similar to photojournalism.

Photojournalism. That word rang in my head over and over again as if an echo trying to find its way through the maze of my hemispheres to a specific lobe of my brain. photojournalism ... photojournalism ... photojournalism.

Shit. I'm a dumbass. My eyes widened and I couldn't help but blurt out, 'I finally figured it out!' Which, needless to say, completely confused poor Brent. I didn't care, I had figured out what I was going to do with my life. (I did eventually explain to him why I had suddenly frightened the poor kid. He was not that worried, he had dealt with my A.D.H.D. all throughout high school choir.)

Photojournalism, what an amazing word! I had always loved taking pictures throughout my whole life. When we would go on trips to my cabin or as a family to various parts of the world I would always be that person who always had a camera with them. I would have so many pictures when we returned that they wouldn't fit on the maximum 5 target photo CDs. English had also always been my strong point in high school and I thank my sophomore year English teacher, Mrs. Meysenberg, for this one as well has Mrs. Dow who had always tried to get me to read one of my poems for speech team, but never succeeded in getting me to join. However, she was always the first person I brought a new poem to, because I knew she would take as much excitement in reading it as I had in writing it. I love writing!

Northern Michigan University does not offer photojournalism as a major, but they do offer an extremely strong photography program. I am going to finish up my sophomore year at NMU as a declared photography major (I get a Macbook computer now!) then I will transfer back to University of Minnesota Twin Cities and finish up with a photojournalism degree. I will travel the world for a few years and do whatever I can with that degree, then come back and go to medical school. I am so excited I cannot even begin to describe it. I love knowing what I am going to do with my life!

"I was a French and Music major at Northern Michigan University until the end! I would never change!”

I guess we have proven that statement not to be true! I am pretty set on my current life decision, but you never know. However, for now, I am going to try my best to at least weekly (and then daily as time allows) keep up a blog here just to let the world know where God has taken me and my camera. (I need a new camera…) I am not expecting it to be anywhere exotic right off the bat, but for now I am satisfied with opening my eyes up more to the world around me and finding the beauty and inspiration in what God has given me.

Until next time!
McConnell out

The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
-2 Corinthians 5:17

Haiti Day 10

Jouer 10
Le 11 Janvier, 2009

The day started out b the beach again, where we haggled with some salesmen to get a few trinkets to take home with us. We relaxed and I got more sunburned especially on my face. We then headed for the airport. I swear, I almost peed my pants the entire drive there. It’s scary driving in Haiti. There are no rules of the road. I could have sworn we almost died about twenty times. Luckily, we made it through the hustle and bustle and somehow ended up at the airport.
I swear, there are about 50 security checks in the Port au Prince airport. I have never felt so uncomfortable flying in my entire life. Normally, I just ease and breeze through it, but here I was, stumbling the entire way. I am no longer used to chaos, crowds, and being stressed.
I’m torn. Since being in Port-Au-Prince and not at the orphanage, I have just felt anxious to get home. The main part of my heart, however, is still at the orphanage. They say home is where the heart is. What if your heart is stuck with a hundred orphans thousands of miles away? They say just follow your feet, they will lead you home. I know I’ll be back one day soon. The orphanage still has a ton of work that needs to be done on it.
This trip has changed my heart in many ways. They don’t need teachers in Haiti, they need doctors. I feel called by the Lord to do so…to become a doctor, but it scares me because I’m terrible with science… Anatomy and biologoy… whatever! I’m just terrible. I then thought of my favorite quote, “if God brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it.” God has brought me to it. The road will be difficult and long and I’ll really have to work hard and sacrifice a lot, but I will get there. I know I will, there is not a doubt in my mind.
Haiti has changed my perspective on a lot of things in life. For one, my patience has more than doubled after everything there. I also appreciate more of what I have and realize just how little I really do need. I think, no, I know Haiti will change the way I go about my life. Everything I do, the money I earn, the subjects I study, all will go towards returning to and helping Haiti. I used to groan and moan about homework or work. Nothing compares to what I just did in Haiti. Everything is better if you allow yourself to enjoy it, which I think is the opposite of the general American way of thinking. We all think pessimistically about so much in life. Yes, if you are going to think something sucks, it will suck; but if you constantly try to look for something fun or positive about your situation, then life will breeze by and take you with it with a smile on your face.
We made it to the airport after breaking off the ‘oh crap’ handle. Adam: “so that’s how the other one broke off!” Sudden stops do not work so well with them.
We had to wait twenty minutes on the ground before we got in our Miami gate and we were running late. We pushed forward as much as we could through a security and dead out sprinted to our next plane. I had an asthma attack in the process.
We would have made it with just five minutes before they shut the door, but our plane had not even come yet even though the monitors all read ‘on time.’ The plane boarded a half hour late, and then the fuel gage was broken. The maintenance guy was on break and all they needed was a five minute stick test. We ended up leaving an hour and a half late and did not land in Minneapolis until 1 a.m.
Saying goodbye was hard. We discovered just how small a world it is when we found out Andy and my mom were in the same divorce class. I can already feel the stress of the world around me cave in. The culture shock is intense as I return to the world in which I live; bidding goodbye to the world I now call home.

Haiti Day 9

Jouer 9

Le 10 Janvier, 2009

I woke up this morning around 7 or so and brushed my teeth. I then just wandered around and joked around with the Haitian workers and the group. The group was mixed in feelings with all those heading home today. Some were excited and some were not, then there was me: I’d rather curl up and die than leave Haiti, but I have to go. I need to go to school.

Breakfast was solid pancakes, pineapple, and oatmeal once again. I sat next to Ronnie whose presence just seems to calm me. We had a lot of fun and it was easy to see just how close the group had become.

After breakfast, Jerry and I checked his e-mail to find that Steph had sent us the names of the two kids the orphanage was sponsoring. The boy was Tiken who was a part of the first group. The girl was Judencie!! I could not believe it when I heard. My favorite girl in the orphanage was the one the youth group was sponsoring! I had Wilfred help me find them, got our picture taken, then loaded my stuff on the bus. (Couldn’t find Tiken L)

The worst part of the entire trip came next: saying goodbye.

The goodbyes started with Ricardo who just hollered ‘Megrit!” then gave me a huge hug. It was like saying goodbye to family. We exchanged emails because he wants to practice his English and I want to practice my French and we both want to keep in touch. Next was Marcello; (Marco) more hugs and he gave me his number. Then Emmanuel- who refused email address exchanges because I have to come back again to get it. It’s hard to say goodbye. Then we all took some pictures. Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Ronnie. I almost cried! We exchanged hugs and email addresses, then I headed towards the bus and had almost made it when I got a ‘hey, hey!’ from Jerry, “you forgetting your own fellow roof team!?” I ran back and gave them all a hug. I already miss Jerry. He makes me smile so much, he’s such a friendly guy, and really took such good care of me. I finished with hugs and hopped on the bus to Port-au-Prince.

We dropped the Texans off at the airport then our group crammed into the Kia with me, Andy, and Annie in the back. It was a fun, semi-bumpy ride as we passed through a few stereotypical Haitian towns with everything built on piles of dump. The ride lasted and hour and a half and I got a little sunburned, but we made it safely to ____ bay. It’s easy to forget we’re in Haiti while we’re in this place. It is like being in a hotel in the Bahamas again. The rooms are gorgeous and we had an amazing lunch with a ton of bread and butter. Right after lunch, we swam in the ocean, which felt amazing, bought some jewelry from the beach vendors, laid in the sun, watched the sun set, then took a nice warm shower before meeting up to talk for a while before dinner. Exhaustion came quick. I finished my book, now it is time for sleep.

Haiti Day 8

Jouer 8
Le 9 Janvier, 2009

This morning was a slow morning. I stayed up too late reading because I had a lot of difficulty putting my book down. We had devotions around 6:30 and I just felt like lead. I did not want today to start because I did not want it to end. It’s my last day at the orphanage. Tomorrow morning we head to the hotel and are on the plane the following evening. I love this place. I don’t want to leave; I can’t leave, and yet, I may not stay. I have to go… The day has to start.
We went right to work on the roof. I have found a new meaning to the show title, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.’ That roof was HOT. I think I burned my legs several times over. The sun and humidity were enough to make me cringe
Breakfast came right on time and, like usual, the roof team made sure to sit in the shade. Breakfast was good and I got in a fun conversation with God, the kitchen help, in French.. We’ve had fun with her because she has taken an obvious liking to Adam. She’s 16, he’s 29 and has a girlfriend, so it is fun to tease her in French about her affections.
After another amazing breakfast, it was back to work. Annie and I couldn’t touch ground without being attacked by people. Son and Annie got in a conversation, which I interpreted. (Mike used me as an interpreter this morning with the workers too…nerve wrecking but I did alright) The gist of the conversation was that Son supports his family of seven siblings and his mother. Annie asked about his education and the end result is she’s going to sponsor him for school, which is really cool. I swear though, now every worker knows I speak French. I made about ten new friends today because they all started talking with me in French. It is almost unbelievable just how much my French has improved and how much more comfortable I am speaking/ conversing in French. I got a ton of compliments. Even Wilfred told me I speak French really well. It is a good feeling.
At one point, some of the older orphan girls (like the ones we took swimming) got a hold of me. Naomi and Judencie (especially Judencie) are easily my two favorites. Judencie calls me Mama and she is just so adorable yet, at the same time, she’s more mature than most 10 year olds here; same with Naomi. We took some cute pictures and then I hopped back on the ridiculously hot roof until lunch.
Lunch was good, once again, and afterwards we went to the Wozo to cool off. We took the bus and sang ‘the wheels on the bus’ on the way. I was surprised when the kids sang along. Jerry tried to get a hold of Tim to find out which kids the youth group was sponsoring for me, then I used the phone to call my mom and Dan. Left a message with mom and talked to Dan for about 5 minutes, which was really awesome, before swimming with the kids. I did not get as into this group as the last one, but that was probably mostly because I was beyond tired and hot. We finished up with the swim and returned to the orphanage.
They were doing stuff on the roof that was closer to the edge than I was comfortable with so, instead, I played with the orphans. Gabriolla and I kept exchanging just… understanding looks. I was surrounded by so many kids-all they want is attention. They have people caring for them, but attention like that is rare. As I was sitting there I almost started to cry because it hit me like a brick wall as to just how much I love this place. I don’t want to go home. I want to stay and work with this team and play with the orphans and use my French all day. I’m in love.
I went to check on dinner and was taken by a bunch of Haitian neighborhood kids who sat me in a circle and we played duck duck goose. It was so much fun! I played a few rounds with (Abbe and Odeal included, of course) then I went inside the orphanage to see if they needed my help.
Naturally, of course, they did not because they were just cementing. I just sat and talked with Son for a bit and, when he left, I talked with three other workers who were done for the day and were just visiting. Two of them were brothers my own age and they are so funny at work. When they use the wheelbarrow they make car noises, which all the guys in my group get a kick out of. Now my group makes the noises as well, any time the brothers go by- wheelbarrow or not. It has established a connection where real words are stopped by language barriers.
Dinner came a little later than usual at around 9 pm and afterwards we all gathered all of the old wood and trash in a huge pile and burned it. It was such a blast! As I was walking to the fire, I passed Ronnie and asked him if he had an email so we could stay in touch. He was really glad and is giving it to me tomorrow along with his phone number, but he has to do so carefully because giving out a phone number to people you do not know in Haiti is dangerous. (We’re good with each other though) I thanked him, gave him a hug, and together we went to the fire.
The guys, being the pyros they are, made the fire big in every way possible and were entertained by the cement bags burning (empty ones) because they turned the fire green. After a while, we let the fire die, took our showers, and headed for bed.

It’s my last night here
I don’t want to go

I wish I could stay like this forever.

Haiti Day 7

Jouer 7
Le 8 Janvier, 2009

I woke up earlier than the rest of my tent again this morning. It was a hot day right off the bat. We did our morning devotions then I joined Jim and Andy in the basement to hook up the waste pipes. (huge 3 inch pipes) It was a slow process and I often times found myself rather bored.
I wandered outside, at one point, and was attacked by Odeal and his friends. It was lots of fun and I rather enjoyed myself. They pretended to be knights with some type of metal tripod-like thing. It was fun playing along. At one point, one girl accidently hit my elbow pretty badly. She looked so afraid and sorry as her brother checked to make sure I was okay. I did everything I could to reassure them that I was fine and gave her a hug. They then switched their game a built a castle out of rocks. It was really cute and I couldn’t help but to take a picture of it.
At around 8:30 we had breakfast and I really did not feel like being awake. Mike had invited the Haitian workers who normally eat after us to eat with us which turned out to be a mistake because they ate EVERYTHING. (and I mean everything) As much as I love breakfast, I really didn’t mind that much, but a few of the guys were pretty annoyed so they scrapped that idea. We had issues with them drinking our Culligan water too because that is expensive and they’ve already had the bacteria in the tap water their whole lives. The tap water is just as cold and just as convenient, but oh well.
After breakfast, I continued to do virtually nothing for Andy and Jim except hand them bits and run to the far tool shed to get certain sixed bits. On one of my runs I ran into one of the women from the Texas group carrying around the smallest girl from the orphanage. Let me tell you, she is the most adorable thing ever!! She is no older than two years old, extremely small, and she has just the biggest brown eyes anyone will ever see. I commented on how adorable she was and the woman shot me a desperate look. “Yeah, and we’re taking her to the hospital because she drank bleach.” All I could think was ‘Dear God, please, not her, she’s too young and too adorable.’ She’s being adopted with her brother too! Yves, (head of the orphanage) and two of the Texan ladies rushed to the hospital and I had to return to work.
I continued to do nothing until lunch came at 12:30. We had buttered bread and salad again, and then we packed up and took six new kids to the Wozo. We walked them this time, four girls and two boys, and they were extremely cute. When we got there, I was in charge and had to play translator, so I led them to the bathrooms where they could change into their suits.
They were all excited to go swimming except for one girl. We got her in eventually and, by the end, she was jumping in by herself and having a blast. Judenci was the girl I played with in the water the most. She was sweet and adorable and extremely light. I jumped in with her on my back dunked her, and had her jump in and swimming to me. At one point, she asked me if I’d be her mama while I’m here. (I’m surprised I understood) I told her I would and she just gave me the biggest hug ever. The girls and I went for a walk through the garden. We gave all the kids their own soda, which they loved, but what they loved even more was shaking it and making their drink fizz all over. It was extremely adorable.
When it came time to return I was exhausted. I sent them to the bathroom to change and waited with the group by the pool. There was a well-dressed woman laying at the pool the whole time and she called to me asking me if I spoke French. It was extremely easy to talk with her because her accent was so simple in comparison to the typical Haitian accent. She’s French Canadian so French is her first language and the pronunciation was like I learned in school. (It’s difficult with the Haitians because French is a second language for them too) I learned she was here visiting her fiancé’s family and I told her about the orphanage. It was a short conversation, but it increased my confidence in my French speaking skills
The walk back was long and hot and three of the four girls decided they liked me best and wanted to walk with me. I was worried because drivers in Haiti don’t care about pedestrians, but we all made it back in one piece, though we were extremely tired.
I joined the roofing team again for the evening and we started out just setting up the rafters at a different part of the roof. I didn’t participate in that because it was just set up stuff; instead, Jerry taught me how to juggle. The various Haitian workers, neighbors, and orphans alike all seemed amused and curious as they watched me learn. I can only imagine how it looks to anyone who doesn’t know what juggling is.
We got set up by dusk and I climbed the ladder to the thin board platform. We got one channel screwed in without me hyperventilating, but that wasn’t enough for Jerry. He was determined to get me to go higher. I was nervous, but, I don’t know, something just clicked and soon I was climbing up and down like it was nothing. The whole group got a kick out of that and they took a lot of fun pictures. I was excited because the roof is my favorite place to work. You can see everything and all the Haitians look at you in such a funny way it’s awesome.
I looked over the wall and had to do a double take. There were four Chickens way up in a tree!! Jerry said he saw them fly up; since when can chickens fly that high?
I couldn’t ponder it for long. We were on the roof for two hours before it started to sprinkle. We went to dinner early and just waited about 45 minutes before eating. We found out the little girl who drank bleach was going to be fine and ate our fill, then did our usual night talks, showers, and closed up shop; another day gone.