grow something new

A Nepali Lesson Saves the Day

I woke up in not such a good mood this morning, with one paper to finish and 2 more looming ahead.  Between work and classes and meetings there was hardly time to eat some crackers for lunch.  I'm not asking for pity - I really have quite an easy life compared to most of the world.  But it's hard not to get disgruntled when assignments and obligations overtake the joy of learning.

This all changed when Julia and I left for our weekly Nepali language lessons with Harka, a Nepali pastor working on his doctorate. Slowly penciling devnagari consenants (carefully paired with vowels A and E) into our nepali notebooks made of homemade paper, I was reminded of the breadth of learning I'm offered.  In exchange, Harka gave us copies of his thesis to edit.  A topic which I was relentlessly searching for sources on this week for one of my papers.  He also told us about a Nepali church that meets each week in L.A.  And so I left in a much better mood.  Reading about atonement in Hinduism, and memorizing the Nepali alphabet (again), and learning from brothers and sisters: that's why I'm here.

Oh, and I can now say "I am a crow or a sinner" in Nepali : )

Abolition

I know I dedicated a blog to this topic early, but there are just 21 days left until Stop the Traffik will be presenting a document of (hopefully) 1 million signatures to the U.N., urging them to endorse a fund used to end human traffiking (slavery).  Stop the Traffik is actually a coalition of 800 organizations in over 50 countries all working together.  Just in one of my Children at Risk meetings today, 2 people from these member organizations explained the necessity of this petition, particularly since most countries don't acknowledge that slavery is actually practiced within their boundaries.

You can sign the petition (and learn lots more) by clicking on the following link:

Stop the Traffik

Thanks!

SoCal

[Who would have thought it requires chains & crampons?]

Friendly

Tamarisk = evil

A day with HabitatWork...

Christmas

It's been a year since I was last home, and that was plenty long enough.  Christmas still went by too quickly, but being home with family and friends for almost 2 weeks was the hugest gift.  Between long talks over coffee with my family, and too-quick trips to coffee shops to catch up with friends, I'm pretty sure I consumed way too much caffeine.  (At one point our household was brewing about 6-8 pots per day.) 

Also abundant were slumber parties.  My first slumber party experience this  Christmas was with my two Grandmas.  Not so many pillow fights, but plenty of late-night chatting.  Grandma Krabill then experienced a slumber party with her grandchildren...all of us.  We made her a little pathway through the sleeping bags to the bathroom for that one.

Mama's theme this year was Snowflakes, and of course it was as beautiful and delicious as ever.  The Krabill/Kraybill crew came over for the day, and the cousins wished we lived closer to each other so that our reunions could happen more than once a year. 

A light snowfall graced Camp Hill just before Ryan and I headed back to California early Monday morning.   

And as you might guess from knowing me, and mom, and Matthew, and James...and pretty much everyone in the family...there are lots more photos!