Running Hot Water.... Sooo Good.

March 25, 2008


Travel time! Well the past few weeks have been filled with traveling in country and this past week out of country. I took a quick trip back to the US leaving Wednesday morning and coming back Sunday morning. I met lot of interesting people in the trip. On the way there I was sitting at the gate in San Salvador, and a large group of gringos came through and began entering my gate (its all closed off here, its not like Atlanta haha). They check every carryon bag that enters the individual gate. Anyways, one guy came and sat down one chair away from me, and the rest of them sat down in the other aisle across from us. My first comment to the guy beside me as I saw them entering was…… “man, that’s a bunch of white people….haha.” He didn’t know how to take me, until he saw me smiling, and then we started chatting. Apparently, they are a Catholic missionary group from Kansas…Benedictine College to be exact. They were building houses and stuff down here. This guy was one of their two leaders, and he was part of a group called FOCUS (www.focusonline.org) from what he told me, a graduate of LSU and member of Campus Crusades eventually became Catholic, and then with the help of some apologists like Scott Hahn, began a mirror of Campus Crusades, but in a Catholic form. They are in a period of deep expansion right now, yet only enter universities where the bishop invites them into the dioceses. It was an interesting group. I think they said they are going into Kentucky and Auburn and some other impressive schools soon. And for all you Prince of Peacers, Steve Wood gave their last 6 week training session. Sweeeet. It gave us a common talking point.

Cari and the little tike.

*On that note, Steve Wood, the EWTN host of Faith and Family will be giving talks every Wednesday of April 2008 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm on the book of Romans at Prince of Peace. He calls Romans the “most important letter in the history of the world.” Better yet it is free… all that is required to bring is a Bible and a friend (check it out more here (http://www.popteens.org/) under "EWTN at POP").*


So, eventually, I get on the plane, and about midway through the flight start up a convo with the guy to my left….I was in the emergency exit window seat….lots of ROOM! He had a strong French accent, but he didn’t look French. Come to find out he was a Serbian born Canadian. He had left Serbian at the start of the wars there a while ago. He knew the Serbian language of course, and had to learn Russian in school. Later he started English, then moved to Canada, where he finished English and had to learn French. I hate people like this :) He told me that English was the easiest one to learn….go figure, but makes sense. He works for Sony Ericsson and gets to travel a lot (I’m sure all the languages help). We went on to discuss the cell phone situation in the Latin America and in the US, he called the US cell phone companies “disgusting” as far as their prices. They charge so much more than Latin America and other places because they know they can he says. Interesting. We chatted about random things, it was good. I thought he was weird at first, but then I just realized he was European and Canadian.
On the plane ride from Atlanta to Greenville, I was sitting beside a man who attends the same church as my sister. We chatted on that line for a while, and then after talking about my work in Peace Corps, we discussed the dynamics of my water project here and he threw out some ideas as a mechanical engineer. It was a tasty chat…haha.

Which one of us is pregnant?

There were a ton of delays all day in Atlanta due to the storms all along the east coast, but luckily it only affected my late flight by an hour. My sister picked me up, and I proceeded to her house to eat all the leftovers available at one in the morning (airport food is expensive :). All day Thursday I pretty much hung out at Cari’s house, and with Elija and Jonah, which was very fun…..because I didn’t get thrown up on directly. Before Mass that night we ate SUSHI wahooo…. I stayed at Rick’s house, and then met John and Jerome Friday for a snack around lunchtime, and then spent the rest of the day with the parents at Cari’s. That night after watching the Da Vinci Code, I stayed at Cari’s and then Saturday hung out there until the Vigil that night. The Triduum is the Church at its best; it’s the best part of the liturgical year.
I headed back early Sunday morning after a nice meal Friday and Saturday night. I didn’t talk to anyone on the flight to Atlanta, I slept! On the flight from Atlanta though, I sat beside a female Jewish Rabbi! She was with a large group from University of California at San Diego going to El Salvador on a Jewish Grant to work there for a week in Santa Ana. We got to chat about a range of issues, it was fun. I caught the end of Becoming Jane as the in-flight movie…..I thought I was watching Pride and Prejudice…. Oh Jane Austen.

Elija and I, pre Cari giving me haircut

Anyways, I made it back to my house here, and filled in the host fam and all that jazz. Although at that point I realized that I had forgotten to back up my computer on the external hard drive at Ricks….d’oh!


Also, my camera broke while I was at home, I had used it to take a pic of the kids, and five minutes later I took it out to take another and the screen was cracked….. also very sad. One positive side though, was that the Ipod became uncorrupted after the battery died and I plugged it back in the computer. So I kept something intact :)

My fam.

In other random news, I have downloaded Skype to mess around with that, let me know if any of you have it on your computer, it makes for cheap/free talking.
Oh yeah, I brought back an extra guitar (Edward you remember the one I snagged from you in Spain?), to get a little practice in here. Notice the new sections on the sidebar here on the blog of songs that I am learning and going to learn…..I also stocked up on books from home as well :)….I might have to skip Darwin, its slow going.

PS...my camera broke... so I'll have to be creative with pictures the next little while.

In closing, I would like to welcome all those who came into the Catholic family this Easter all over the world. I’ll see you all this Sunday.



"Let all Pious men and all lovers of God rejoice in the splendor of this feast; let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord; let those who have borne the burden of Lent now receive their pay, and those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward; let any who came after the third hour be grateful to join in the feast, and those who may have come after the sixth, let them not be afraid of being too late, for the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him who comes on the eleventh hour as well as to him who has toiled since the first: yes, He has pity on the last and He serves the first; He rewards the one and is generous to the other; he repays the deed and praises the effort.


Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day; you who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today. The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one: let no one go away hungry. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of his goodness.

Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh.

When Isaiah foresaw all this, he cried out: "O Hades, you have been angered by encourntering Him in the nether world." Hades is angered because frustrated, it is angered because it has been mocked, it is angered because it has been destroyed, it is angered because it has been reduced to naught, it is angered because it is now captive. It seized a body, and lo! it discovered God; it seized earth, and, behold! it encountered heaven; it seized the visible, and was overcome by the invisible.

O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen and life is freed, Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen."

5th Century Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom