|
Trish Hershberger in Philippi, West Virginia.
June 3, 2006 To all my friends back home and around the world, Well, I had my last days at my worksites this week. I am officially done. It was all bittersweet in a way, but time to move on and go to the next phase of my life I guess. It's kinda crazy how attached you get to certain people, and I'm even going to miss this little town of Philippi, however boring it might have been sometimes. I have learned, grown and changed SO much while being here, it's amazing what 10 months in a completely foreign environment can do for you! The church here is the thing I'm going to miss the most. These people did EVERYTHING with us and for us. They were so involved in our lives and became some of our closest friends, it's really hard to let them all go. A bunch of us went out for pizza last night and it just doesn't quite seem like time to say goodbye to them yet. We are heading into what's called "Closure Week," and we are going to Rhode Island for the next 6 days! During this time we're going to do some sightseeing (Providence, Boston, Newport, etc) but also take a lot of time to reflect on our year here, the good and the bad, and to kind of put into perspective how going home might be for us. It could be a really positive thing, it could also be a really intense thing, we'll see. :) So this morning, in about 2 hours from now, I'm running in Philippi's 5K race, and then as soon as that's over, we jump into the car for the 13-hour ride to Rhode Island! Pray for us, not only safety for the trip, but for tension and that everything can be said that needs to be said while we're there. Thanks for all of your support this year, I couldn't have made it through Service Adventure without having you all behind me 100%. Your prayers and emails and phone calls carried me during difficult times, and I truly appreciate all that you have done for me. I'll see you all in a week! Love, Trish April 28, 2006 Hello all, Well I've been pretty busy lately! The school was on break last week, so part-time I have been working for a friend from church. I'm sure I've talked about him before, Dennis is his name, he's probably my closest friend from church, maybe even my closest friend in general. Anyway, he's a surveyor, so I went around with him, hiking through all kinds of woods, forging trails, walking through creeks, seriously several miles each day and it's been about 75-80 degrees! Talk about interesting though. One day it wasn't as nice of weather, so he took me to his shop and we made birdhouses for Habitat for Humanity. I got to use the saw and some kind of drill (obviously I know a lot), so I was pretty proud of myself. We fixed a seatbelt in a car, and went to lunch where we talked about the church (both Philippi specifically and the broader Christian church in general). What a neat day, I feel like I have a lot on my mind to think about now, especially things to do with church and what I feel like I want in a church after experiencing Philippi Mennonite this year. Anyway, for you Oregonians who I know will be jealous, I went SWIMMING in a pond the other day! By the time we got there, it actually wasn't really that warm outside anymore, but I decided there was no way I wasn't jumping in! So I ran with the dogs all the way down to the pond, threw my stuff on the ground, and jumped in! It was a little chilly, but TOTALLY worth it. There were all kinds of fish in there too, I don't think I've ever swam (knowingly) with fish. It was also really funny because one of the dogs was on the dock and was leaning really far over to look at the fish (with his butt sticking straight up in the air), so I told Rachel, "PUSH HIM IN!" and we just gave him a big shove! He didn't seem very happy, I'm pretty sure he got some water up his nose because he kept snorting for awhile afterwards, but it was well worth the laugh. :) The poor pup. The other night Rachel and my's favorite coffee shop (in a neighboring town) was open til 2:00am because the local college had exams. So of course, being the caffeine fanatics that we are, we just couldn't resist. We didn't want our housemate, Daniel, to know we were going, so we kind of hinted "Well we're going to bed now!" at 11:00 and snuck out about 10 minutes later. We stayed all the way til closing, then went stargazing for awhile, and didn't get back til 3:30, only to wake up 2 1/2 hours later for work! What an experience, it was so much fun to just get out and have a girls night (or morning??) out. For the night before Easter, our group went up to our friend's farm and camped out, had a big bon fire, complete with tinfoil dinners and lots of talking until late into the night. Then we got up around 5:00am to go to the church's sunrise service at a different farm. I've never been to a sunrise service before, but wow, what a great experience to just be out in nature, with the birds singing, and each person brought a different thing to share (a writing, a song, a devotion, a story). I just love my church so much! We also had this Lenten devotional book that each person contributed something and so each day was a new devotion by a different person for every day of Lent. It was great to get all those different perspectives on God. The other night our friend Dennis took us out to a place he's often referred to as "the bamboo forest." We all thought he was just kidding this whole time (it's hard to tell with him) but there really is a small bamboo forest flourishing just outside of Philippi right near a lake. Apparently some woman in the community was a missionary in China and brought back a shoot to plant. It really took off though and there is this amazing little grove of bamboo trees! So we decided we'd go there another time and cut some and we can take it home with us (sorry mom and dad!). I do have an urgent prayer request though. There is a little girl named Karena who was molested by a 16 year old relative back in February. Well after this happened she would not even leave her mother's side, so they put her on home bound, which means a teacher came to her house to tutor her. She finally decided to come back after spring break, but is constantly crying throughout the day at random times and there's nothing we can do for her except hug her. This girl is totally ruined because of what that boy chose to do, and it just makes me so upset and angry to think of it. The teacher and I were talking and both got a little misty-eyed, it's such a hard situation. Anyway, just pray for her adjustment back to school (it's where she needs to be) and that emotional healing can happen. At one point she was crying and I leaned down to tell her I was going to sit by her at lunch and she just looked at me and hugged me for probably a minute straight. I definitely almost lost it right there, this child needs a lot of love right now. Well, this email is MORE than long enough! I guess I had a lot to say. There are other things, things that aren't events that I want to tell you guys about, things I have been thinking about as far as how I've changed and am still changing here. I'm definitely getting to that stage where I don't want to leave these people, and it's getting so sad! Also, pray for me this weekend (Sunday morning, 8:30 am) as I run in the HALF-MARATHON!! 13.1 miles! I can't wait. Love you all! Trish April 11, 2006 Wow, time is flying here in Philippi! I can't believe I'm heading into my last couple months here. There's not a whole lot of news to report, but I'll update you on a few things. My leader, Jair, went to China for a work trip for 2 weeks, and took along a guy from our church, Dennis. Apparently, soon after they got there, they got really sick (it might've been E. Coli!), but overall I think it was a nice trip for them, despite throwing up for several days straight and spending most of their time in the hotel room together. :) Dennis let me and Rachel use his apartment while he was gone, so we ended up taking a vacation day Monday and spending the night up there to kind of have a girls night out. We made our own dinner, went for a nice long walk on the farm, went to a coffee shop, and spent a lot of time outside in the sun. I have some pictures from that and I'll put the link at the bottom of this email so you can check them out. Last night I ended up getting real sick, and so I went to bed at 8 or so because I wasn't feeling good. At around 1am I suddenly woke up and knew I was gonna puke, and I did. If you know me well, you know that I NEVER throw up, I literally don't even remember the last time I did, probably in early early elementary school. So today I am stuck at home, feeling cruddy, not wanting to eat anything at all. It could've been something I ate or even being out in the sun too long yesterday, but either way I know I haven't been this sick for a really long time. On a positive note, one that has nothing to do with vomitting, we had a couple over from church the other night, Lester and Maribeth Lind. Some of you might know Lester, he's a brother to Norm Lind from Salem. Anyway, he's always been one of my favorites because he's the only Oregonian connection I have here, and SO fun to talk to! His wife co-wrote the cookbook "Simply In Season" so we always look forward to potluck at church knowing that she'll bring something super good to eat. We played the game Taboo with them, which was a hoot! This Sunday for Easter we're having a sunrise service at a church member's house, so we're going up Saturday night to camp out, that should be way cool. The half-marathon is also coming up soon! All my training is finally paying off! April 30th is race day in Allentown, PA, and us 5 (me Rachel, Jair, Mike, Bob) are going up together and spending the night. The longest run I've done is 11 miles, but this week is the big 12-miler, and then we'll start decreasing our mileage again til race day. My body has definitely been tested a lot during this training, but it was nice to have partners to run with too. My parents visited a couple weekends ago. I think it was a really good experience for them to meet everyone I work with and to see the area I'm living in. It's quite a change from Oregon, that's for sure! It was nice having them around too, because I got to kind of have my own vacation and get away for awhile too. I'm getting really excited for these next couple months, we're going to be having our church retreat, going backpacking for a weekend, visiting all the east coast Service Adventure groups in Raleigh, NC, and in June we are going to New England (Boston, Rhode Island, etc etc) for a week before I finally come home on June 9! I'll be working at Drift Creek a few weeks, and then in August I leave for Goshen to go play soccer! It's all coming so fast! Anyway, that's a brief update on life here. I miss you all a lot, and I'll see you pretty soon! Love, Trish February 21, 2006 Just a few interesting news tidbits from good old Philippi, West Virginia. Nothing too detailed, I'm trying to keep these shorter with just enough info to keep you guys informed and let myself have more free time! :) We took a "recruiting trip" to Lancaster Mennonite High School in, where else, but Lancaster, PA. It's Rachel's old high school, so we stayed with her parents and took one day to do the whole Amish thing (shopping, eating at an Amish buffet, seeing a really cool gag gift store called "The Outhouse"). We also took an afternoon and toured a bunch of MCC stuff in Akron, PA. Talk about eye-opening! We got to hear a ton of cool stories and ate at this internation tea room at 10,000 villages. All in all, it was a really great trip, and nice to get away to a "bigger city." :) Our leaders are gone for a week, so they are putting me in charge of their two dogs (both labs). As a "reward" or "payment" for it, I get to stay in their apartment, sleep in their queen-sized bed, watch tv (cable!) and have a nice place to get away from everything (which has been much-needed lately). Last week was very revealing to me in that I realized just how close I'm getting to the students I work with, not only 1st grade, but also various other elementary school kids. One girl opened up to me about her alcoholic father and his abusiveness to her and her mom and sister. A teacher has been talking to me lately about how she's worried one of her students is being sexually abused at home. It's so weird to think these things are just so close to me now, when before it never affected me much because it was always happening to people I didn't know. As my time here is coming to somewhat of a close (only 3 1/2 months left, where did the time go??) I can't help but look at myself, and compare who I am now to the person I was a mere 6 months ago. It has definitely been the most emotionally taxing decision I have ever made, and though there are so many times I wish I could just leave and go back home, I do know that this is where God wanted me to be and that I HAVE benefitted from being here and serving. I may not know WHY, and I still may not know that until I leave here, but I'm learning to try to have peace in the fact that I was obedient even though things got really hard as a result. I guess that's why obedience is such a hard thing to accomplish. It often makes us uncomfortable or isn't "convenient" for us, but it is necessary. Anyway, I think that's about all for now. I'll send pictures soon (yes I mean that this time, mom!) :) If you think of it, I'd appreciate your prayers as I'm going through quite a rough time emotionally right now. I love you all, and your support has really helped me to be thankful for all of the great people I've met. Stay in touch! Love, Trish January 31, 2006 I'm going to try and make this short and sweet. Time is a precious thing and I don't always want to be on the computer, but I do want to stay in contact with everyone! Here goes nothin'. :) I first want to start with a quote from a little first grader that she said to me today that pretty much sums up my hair life: "Trish, your hair is wild today!" As if I didn't know that already, but it was still cute. :) Another story I want to tell about a first grader, Austyn. Let me give a brief background first. Austyn's mother and her boyfriend (who had been really into drugs) were killed in a fire last year, so he went to live with his grandmother (who also is into drug dealing). His grandmother was arrested and jailed for awhile this year as well. This boy has definitely been affected by all the drugs in the house and though he is super smart, in some areas he's not quite up to where he should be. His imagination, however, is remarkable for a 7 year old boy, and the stories he makes up are really entertaining! So, one day, for show and tell another boy brought in a picture of himself holding a monkey at the zoo. Well Austyn, with his crazy story-telling ability, had a conversation with me that went something like this: Austyn: I have a monkey at home Me: Oh really? Austyn: Yeah, it attacked me last night! Me: Wow! Where did you get it? Austyn: My grandma adopted it, it was living on the streets. Me: On the streets in Philippi? Austyn: Yeah. At that point I totally lost it and started laughing SO HARD, he cracks me up. A homeless monkey on the streets of Philippi is something I've yet to witness, but I'm glad there is at least one boy who would be more than willing to take the monkey in if we were to find one. :) My roommate and I are going to be running a 1/2 marathon with our two bosses on April 30th. It's in Allentown, PA and it's sponsored by Runner's World (the magazine), so it should be pretty awesome. 3,000 people are expected to attend! I'm excited! Those three are great running partners and I've developed deeper friendships with them all through running each week. Rachel and Daniel both went to Nicaragua a couple summers ago for short trips, so they made us an authentic meal complete with slideshow and information about the country. I'll send pictures soon. It was DELICIOUS! In about 2 weeks we're going to Lancaster Mennonite High School for our MMN (Mennonite Mission Network) recruiting trip! I'm really looking forward to that! We're also going to be visiting different Amish shops/restaurants and maybe seeing a little of what MCC does in Akron, pretty cool. Our church hosts a "Coffee House" about 3 times a year where we get together and drink coffee (duh) and eat snacks and people perform different things. Some examples are singing, poetry, playing piano, skits, etc. Me, Rachel, and a woman from our church are doing some hymns together, I'm bustin' out the tenor down low, it reminds me of my high school days. :) And Ben, I think of you when I'm singing down low, wishing that you were the alto above me. :) We finally got a car that us 3 participants can use! There is some weird insurance stuff that has kept us from being able to drive the unit van, but Dennis (a man from our church) is letting us use his BMW to cart around town! Cool huh? My first time ever driving a BMW and it's in Philippi, WV while in SERVICE ADVENTURE! It's cool because I'm the only one who knows how to drive a stick, so I get the driving privelages. :) I'll send a picture of it soon, it's bright red. The farm that's owned by some people at our church, called Shepherd's field, has a bunch of sheep that have begun to have baby lambs! So we went up to visit them the other afternoon, boy are they cute! I'll also send pictures of that soon too! Well, I think that's about all as far as updating you guys goes. I miss you all very much, and though I'm definitely learning and growing here, I often yearn for Oregon! There definitely is no place like home, I've decided. Homesickness has probably been my greatest struggle this year, it's kind of a constant thing for me, but sometimes it's worse than others (about a week ago it reached a pretty big peak). So remember me in your prayers as I try and focus on things here instead of everyone I miss. :) I love you all, you have been such a great support for me this year and I owe a lot to you. Love, Trish January, 13, 2006 First off, hello from a beautiful 65 degree day in Philippi, West Virginia! I can't believe that it's January! The weather has been phenomenal here, but apparently word has it we're expecting snow tomorrow! Crazy. Also, if you check out the subject line of this email, you'll notice I used part of the local lingo: "youn's". This is pronounced "yoonz" and means "you guys." My boss is always saying "youn's can do this when you're done" and it took me awhile to get used to. Anyway, just thought I'd share a little of the culture with youn's. :) So "adjusting" to life without Brandon, our past member, has been going smoothly. Us three (me, Dan, Rachel) hang out every evening and talk a whole lot more now that he's gone. Dan seems to be opening up quite a bit, which is fun to see. However, I'm getting kind of sick of my roommate, just a little. A lot of it has to do with us handling stress differently. I run, or journal, or call someone, whereas she complains all the time to the point that it makes her physically sick, which gives her yet another thing to complain about. She also stresses out unnecessarily about things, and it's getting really annoying. Anyway, that's just a tidbit. For the most part though, things have taken a totally different turn this half and it's going way better. The first 4 months were incredibly tough on me, and I wasn't really looking forward to coming back here. But this past week has been pretty stinkin' good, I'm just hoping it lasts. I've officially become the new maintenance girl for all the trucks at the food bank (there are four of them). I get to check the oil, fluids, tire pressure, clean them, all that good stuff! I'm learning a lot! :) This weekend our leaders are gone (yay!) so we get the house all to ourself. We're mostly hanging out w/ people from church. Tonight we're having an older couple over, and tomorrow night Rachel's host mom invited us over to eat dinner and watch "The Gods Must Be Crazy II" because we already watched the first one with them a couple weeks ago. Then Monday is FONDUE NIGHT! I'm so excited, I've never had fondue (I'm the only one), so it's definitely going to be a good experience. Last night we watched Farenheit 9/11. For all the hype and raving that went on about it, I really wasn't impressed at all. I'm sure many of you disagree with me and probably loved it, but I just did not enjoy it at all. I guess I just think there's a better way of going about things than the way Michael Moore chose to go. Next time we're going to watch "Bowling for Columbine" which should be a lot better and maybe not so politically biased. For the last week in all the service adventure units the group usually takes a trip somewhere for their "closure week." We were all talking the other night and it's in the works for us to go to FLORIDA! I'm so excited! There's nothing like a nice vacation on the beach to send you back home again. :) Well, I think that may be all for now. Keep the emails coming, I love hearing from everyone, even if I don't reply right away, I will eventually! Take care and I hope this finds you all safe and healthy! Love, Trish December 21, 2005 Okay, everyone! This is the last email update before I am in Oregon once again! Home sweet home, I can't wait! I hope this email finds you all healthy and enjoying the Christmas season. I know I love Christmas and winter in general, but I'd have to say my all-time favorite holiday is Easter. There's just something about it that I love. Anyway, our house has had fun decorating our tree, making Christmas cookies, having people over for dinner, and all that jazz. This past weekend us 4 plus our leader Jair went to Pittsburgh. When we first got there, Jair decided we "needed" to take a pitstop at Starbuck's (how convenient!) and that started our day off quite well. Jair is a total coffee shop guy, so Rachel and I love going places with him. Anyway, then we spent 5 hours at the Carnegie Museum of Art and also the Natural History one as well. The art was INCREDIBLE! I wish I could've stayed there longer, maybe some other time I guess. Afterwards we walked around Pitt and then went and ate dinner at this amazing Indian restaurant. We are doing pretty good in the ethnic food department, so far this year we've had Ethiopian (twice), Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Japanese. We're planning on going to Greek next! YUM! Anyway, it was a really fun trip, good to just get away from the house and spend time together. On Sunday, a woman at our church, Cheryl Miller, mentioned that she has a growth in her abdomen, they're not sure if it's cancerous, but she's getting the test results today actually. They have to do surgery no matter what, and I think she is kind of apprehensive. As soon as I found out, I nearly started crying. She's such a beautiful woman, so full of grace, and I can't imagine what she must be going through emotionally and spiritually. So just keep her in your prayers, please. As a lot of you know (I think), I've been playing on a volleyball team for the past 5 weeks or so, and it will continue through March I believe. We are doing okay, it's just hard because we all don't know each other as well as most of the other teams do. But I think overall we're having a lot of fun, and I know I'm definitely learning a LOT about volleyball! I'm the designated setter, so that's interesting learning how to do that, sprint all over the court to get the second hit and know enough about my hitters to place it right! Certainly a lot different than soccer! :) So Eliza, Rae, Liz, Courtney, I have a lot more respect for you gals now that I kind of know what you had to do! :) Last night a guy from our church, Dennis, had us over for dinner. He's a single guy (divorced), in his 50s, great sense of humor, travels a lot to other countries, is the most hilarious writer I have ever met. This guy is probably the person I click the most with out of everyone at church, I think it's because he reminds me a lot of my extended family (yes, I'm talking about the Schrocks). :) He reads us his stories a lot, which he's hoping to put together on cd (if so, I'll definitely be sharing them with everyone at home) and we pretty much laugh til we cry every time. Dennis is the one taking Rachel and I to Pitt on Friday to catch our flights/bus, so we are really looking forward to a 2 hour car ride with him. Dennis has somewhat transformed into my substitute host family, since mine lives an hour away and I hardly see them at all. He takes good care of me though, and I enjoy spending time with him. This morning at 7:00am the first grade teachers took me out to breakfast at a little restaurant in town. Most of you know I'm a total morning person, and breakfast just so happens to be my favorite meal of the day, so I was in heaven. :) They got me a REALLY cool sweatshirt for Christmas too! It says "Philippi Elementary Bullpups" on the front and then "TRISH" on the back, I'm SO excited to wear it! :) Then we just talked for a long time, they are great women. Tonight is the Elementary School's Christmas program, and although it's supposed to be just for family to come watch, I'm on honorary guest. :) Then we're having our house Christmas, taking down the tree, giving presents, and watching "It's a wonderful life." Thursday is more parties (including an "extravaganza" at the coffee shop, which Rachel and I wouldn't miss for the world!) and just winding down before we leave Friday morning. In other news: housemate situation is about to change. I can write more details later, but one of our guys has decided he needs to go home, permanently. This going to be a big switch, maybe a much-needed one, but we are aware that the dynamics of the house are going to change a lot once we come back from Christmas. Please keep us in your prayers right now, for travel, emotional well-being, and just in general. I look forward to see you all (or at least most of you!) when I come home! Have a Merry Christmas! Love, Trish Devember 14, 2005 Alright, everyone, Trish is back! :) Finally, the internet and phone usage is back to normal, and I am once again able to have contact with the outside world! :) What happened was that we had this kind of "assignment" thing for Mennonite Mission Network that we were supposed to have in, and all of us turned it in late, so we got busted. I don't think we had really been informed of how big a deal it was (or was it even?) so now that we know, our next one DEFINITELY will be in on time. :) And if you know me and how I am in school, I don't turn in late work, so this was a rare occasion. Speaking of which, what we had to do was a narrative, either in the form of a story, song, poem, whatever, just some creative way of telling how we've grown, what we've learned or how we are seeing God here in our service assignments. Anyway, we turned them in to MMN and I got a response about a week later saying they would like to put my narrative in the little pamphlet/magazine/insert " Purpose"!! Needless to say, I was pretty excited! They said it won't be printed until Sept. '06 though, but I'm still really flattered and look forward to reading it in print! The last two weekends we've spent our Saturdays butchering deer. What an experience! At first I thought there was no way I would be able to take it, but after we skinned it and it didn't look so much like a cute cuddly creature, it was just like working with regular meat and it wasn't so bad. It obviously wasn't enjoyable, but I definitely learned a lot about biology and anatomy in the process. So I'll send some pictures of that whole event later on. (Sorry to you vegetarians, I'll give you a heads up so that you're not surprised by the pictures I send!) This weekend we're going to Pittsburgh! Finally, we get to go on a trip again! We're going to visit the Carnegie Museums of Natural History and Art, which should be REALLY good. Then we're all going out to Indian food (my favorite!). So I'm looking forward to that a lot, to have a chance to kind of take a nice break away from West Virginia. We're also having a baby shower for Pam & baby Sarah on Sunday, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures then too so that you can see what the little one looks like! Other than that, I don't know that a lot is going on really. I can't wait to come home, especially to spend time with my family, but also to see everyone else. It gets kinda hard when everyone around you has only known you for 4 months, I just need some familiar people to hang out with for awhile! :) For those of you that would like to know, I get in Dec. 23 and leave Jan. 2. I hope to see some of you while I'm home! Love & Blessings, Trish November 21, 2005 Hello Hello Everyone! photos: trip to EMU, shooting BOW Update time again. Lots of time has passed since I last wrote, so I just decided it's time to buckle down and let you all know what's going on here in Philippi. As most of you know, my mom visited me the other weekend, which was fabulous and just way too much fun! It consisted of lots of cooking, lots of good food, lots of coffee, lots of long talks & late nights, and just that wonderful warm fuzzy feeling you get when mom is around. I'm pretty sure you all know what I'm talking about. :) The house situation is still up in the air. I don't really know what will happen at this point, and things are just kind of a roller coaster most of the time: one day extremely good, the next day...well you get the point. Anyway, just keep us all in your prayers as we decide what's best for our house and our stress levels. This past weekend we had all the east coast service adventure units over to our house, what a crazy fun time to spend together! There were a total of 10 girls and 6 boys. We went hiking at Seneca Rocks, had a worship time together, and just had lots of fun talks with each other. It was nice to find out that our unit isn't the only one that struggles with things, and to hear about all the fun things going on in all the other places and the fantastic people God has brought into this program. We are all going to have another weekend together in Raleigh in the spring, and we're all looking forward to it a lot! I don't think I mentioned this last time, but I joined a city-league volleyball team and so far we're 3-1! Not bad! Tonight we have 2 more games, so hopefully we'll still be over .500 by then! There are a few guys from my church who asked me to play, so I did. Well, sorry there's not a whole lot of interesting stuff going on right now! I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving this week, there are 40 or so of us getting together at church to have Thanksgiving together, should be pretty cool! But I will definitely miss my family. :( One month til I'm home again! I miss you all, thanks for everything you do for me! Love, Trish One more thing: My host dad, Kenny Kreider, is an artist and I had tried to attach some pictures of his artwork but it didn't work. So if any of you want to check out his art, here's his website: www.artwv.com Enjoy! Trish November 4, 2005 It's amazing to me how lost I can get in my life here that simple things like "keeping in touch" seemto be the first thing to go right out the window! I haven't really been that busy this week, pretty much just lazy. :) So the 30-Hour Famine went GREAT. Thanks for all the support, financial and otherwise. We had a really good experience. What we ended up doing was painting and remodeling our upstairs (Rachel and I's room, and the newly established "baby room" for the little one on the way). I actually didn't get that hungry really, but a few hours before we finally broke the fast, I was painting and literally had all of the energy sucked from me. I think it was especially meaningful that we were doing WORK instead of just fun little games the whole time because it really gave us a sense of what those people have to do while they're hungy. I gained a new respect for them. Doing manual labor in and of itself is a tough way of life, but to also be starving and exhausted on top of that, I'm impressed with what they deal with on a day to day basis. In other news: Mom is here!! It is the best feeling in the world to go to bed at night with a goodnight kiss from a mother, that's just something that you could never replace. It was funny when she first came because I was working at the school and I had to pick her up at the office. So immediately I start crying, then she starts crying, and then one of the teachers I work for started crying. :) We were all a big mess by the end of it. I've gotten a lot of really good conversations in with my mom driving in the car, going out to coffee, talking in my room with Rachel late at night. Last night my mom and I cooked what she calls "the Mennonite Meal" for everyone. This consists of: roast beef, mashed potatoes & gravy, creamed peas, fruit, and apple custard & pumpkin pies. We had a man over from church named Lester Lind (I think many of you Oregonians know his brother Norm) which made the evening even better because he's a native Oregonian and just a hoot in general. :) On a not so happy note I am asking for some major prayer for my household right now. We are undergoing some very stressful issues that are going to be dealt with sometime here in the next couple weeks that could seriously effect our living arrangements, possibly leaving us with one person fewer than we have right now. I don't feel comfortable going into details at this point, but would just request that you ask for wisdom and patience for all of us here. I guess this email is a lot shorter than normal! But I don't have a lot to say other than things are really going well here. I'm loving the school especially, a little girl came up to me the other day and said, "Trish, I love you SO much!" and I have to admit I got a little misty-eyed. :) I'm going to Virginia tomorrow with my mom and Rachel, where I will get to see some more friends from home! Thanks for all the emails, letters, packages, prayers, etc. etc. that all of you continually provide for me. The support I feel from home is indescribable. Love, Trish October 25, 2005 Oh my goodness, it started snowing last night and hasn't let up since! Once we got to school today at 8:30, they informed us we're going home at 10:00, nice of them to make up their minds AFTER we got here! :) Anyway, I took lots of pictures of the beautiful snow, so I'll send those in a bit, but can you believe I am getting snow in OCTOBER?! This is insane! I love West Virginia! :) Anyway, pictures will come as soon as I get home and send them to you guys! Hope those of you that are Oregonians are enjoying your rain, suckers! :) View pictures: Snowman, Quad Rocks Peace & Love, Trish Hope this email finds you well and healthy and strong! :) So I've spent a couple weekends with my host family lately, they are: Kenny & Kim Kreider, with daughter, Autumn (16, a Jr), and son, Ben (10, a 5th grader). They live an hour away, in Morgantown, where WVU is located (it's a lot like Corvallis). Kenny is an artist and Kim is a massage therapist. So, this means I get to see cool art (and he gives me cards with his art on it) and free massages whenever I want! Not too shabby! :) Autumn is more into fashion and makeup than I am, but I really enjoy talking to her. Ben is way into Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ace Ventura, all those good things, so we hang out a lot and laugh a lot together. He's weird just like me! So I am attaching yet some MORE pictures for you to see. Take care! Peace & Love, Trish Hey everyone, October 10, 2005 Okay, okay, so this is a much-needed update. There has been a lot going on and I have finally found some time to catch everyone up on Philippi, West Virginia. Most of these have to be short and sweet, so I'll try not to bore you with TMI (too much information). :) I milked a cow for the first time the other day. There is an after school program that I help with as a tutor/mentor and we took a field trip to this farm (for those of you that live near me, it was just like Fir Point). So we went on a hay ride, through a corn maze, and milked cows! Quite an interesting experience too. Also, one of the other girls that helps there with me is from the nearby college and is running for Miss West Virginia! Last year she got second so she's hoping she has a really good chance. I'll send a picture of her later. On Friday night when I got home from work, Chris Gardner was sitting on my living room couch talking to my housemates! So funny, and such a nice surprise! We all went out to Chinese food, and our unit leader, Jair, told us all about his 2 week trip to China. It was kinda funny because we walked into the restaurant, knew the owners, knew almost everyone in there, and then as we walked out, we ran into a lady from work. I guess that's what I get for living in Philippi. :) Our church held a "coffee house" with different entertainment such as skits, songs, stories, etc. Some of the things were very thought-provoking, and some were just making fun of Mennonites. Us four in the house did a skit on what was called "Mennobabble" where we overused such phrases as "I affirm that" or "wider faith community" or "facilitate" and "vision." We got it from this book we found in our kitchen, and everyone really liked it! Maybe I'll bring it back home to Oregon. Rachel and I decided to have a nice fun adventure and dye our hair last night. I have never dyed anyone's hair, let alone my OWN, and I can't believe she trusted me that much! :) So I did hers, then she did mine, and it all didn't turn out too bad. I think I look WAY different now, but I am also keeping in mind that next time I want to do it not such a "loud" red color, maybe more brown. I'll send pictures soon, hopefully none of you (mom) freak out. :) We (meaning, me, Rachel, Brandon, and our 61-yr-old boss, Bob) ran in a 5K on Saturday. Most of you know I absolutely LOVE running, but I have never actually raced. Anyway, there were about 180 participants total. I ended up getting first in my age bracket, and second in the women's overall, the first place girl only beat me by 14 seconds! I got a plaque and everything, so that was all pretty exciting! My unit leader, Jair, who used to coach U19 girls soccer, is all convinced that he is going to train me and make me even faster by December (when we're running our next 5K). Also, if you'd like to see pictures and info regarding the event, click on this link: http://www.iplayoutside.com/Events/2005/10/6766c.html there is even a really fun one [view picture] of me passing a guy! :) Today was the "bag sale" at the thrift store (aka Trish's Idea of Heaven). :) This means I fit everything I possibly can into a brown grocery sack, and it only costs me ONE DOLLAR. I seriously just bought my whole wardrobe for the coming year. It's nice as an employee too, though, because this sale clears out the whole store so we can put out all the winter stuff. Then once summer starts, we have this sale again, selling all the leftover winter stuff instead (can you guess who is going to be coming home loaded with a bunch of winter clothes next June?). :) Our hot water heater totally busted on Sunday morning, water was all over the floor (lucky for me and Rachel, it's located in our bathroom). So we had to go up to our neighbor's house to take showers. All in all, after this whole ordeal, I think I want to go get ready for church at our neighbor's house every Sunday, if possible. :) We got nice hot showers, good coffee, and even cream of wheat (which I had been craving for some time!). I took pictures of some of my students at school, which I will send soon as well. So expect a lot of pictures! :) One of the biggest things I'm learning here is frugality (is that even a word??) and living simply. I mean, I knew signing up for SA would mean giving up some things, but I really haven't felt like I've had to "give up" anything yet. All these things that I don't buy anymore, I don't even miss. It was quite a shocker even walking into Wal-Mart the other day (it was the first time in almost 2 months I set foot in that store) because I was suddenly bombarded with everything my life use to consist of, and realizing how much better life is not having to worry about those material things and not even caring that I don't have them anymore. It's amazing how happy you can be with so little, and I think I definitely took that for granted before I came here. MORE WITH LESS IS THE WAY TO GO! :) The people I have encountered and work with on a day to day basis are what is making this experience here worthwhile. The range of ages, personalities, backgrounds, races, income levels, etc. is staggering. I can remember telling one little girl how I was so excited that I had gotten some free stuff and she said, "When we go to the grocery store, we get everything for free," and just kind of not knowing quite how to respond to that. Also being at the thrift store and seeing all the different levels of need there are, especially in the county I live in. We are constantly making food boxes and it's eye-opening seeing how much Heart and Hand is doing for so many people. If you have time, I suggest you check out their website, because the thrift store is only a small part of what's going on there. Here's the link: http://www.heartandhandhouse.org/ Just a couple more things. :) I went to the local high school's men's and women's soccer games the other night. It was so nice to just sit and watch a couple games, I miss it a lot and really look forward to playing at Goshen next year. We all went cider-pressing the other day with our church. YUM! I don't know if I've mentioned this yet or not, but there is a deaf girl on my bus that I sit with every morning, and we write on a piece of paper back and forth. She is teaching me some things to say in sign language, but it's just fun connecting with her. Her name's Paula and she's in 7th grade. Well, that's it! I hope it wasn't too long, and expect pictures soon! Take Care, Trish September 28, 2005 Well, as most of you know, I went on a trip to Washington D.C. this past weekend with my housemates and a "chaperone" (I use that term loosely, he's such a goofball for an old guy) from church named Dennis Fisher. If any of you know Dale Hooley, the two are very similar. Boy, what an experience on so many levels! :) We had about a four hour drive there, which upon arriving at Daniel's grandparent's house rather late (we got lost) were greeted by Rachel's dad who was in town about a 1/2 mile away at a Mennonite teacher's conference. He was the one who came up with the brilliant idea that we (me, Rachel and Brandon, who all came from Mennonite schools) should all go and find our teachers there! Needless to say, it was like being home again the second I saw Gary Hull. :) Also there was: Wendi Miller, Darrell White, Zig Derochowski, Dave Engle, Dave Chambers, Lorena Roa and a few of the new folks from Western. They immediately invited Rachel and I out to ice cream, and we immediately agreed! :) It was just nice to catch up with people from home, Wendi and I talked a long time about soccer, which made me miss my girls back at home even more! Gary and Zig were both very inquisitive, and Mr. Engle, well you know how he is, quite the spaz. :) We got home kind of late, which was probably not the best idea considering the day that lay waiting ahead of us. The anti-war protest was an experience I won't ever forget. [see photo] Never before have I seen such a diversified group of people come together for such a unified cause. There were many people who were obviously not pacifists, just against the war in Iraq, which made things interesting. There were many others who seemed to be mostly interested in impeaching Bush, and still others whose main focus was Palestine. After awhile I wondered if we were really there for the same purpose? :) But it was a real eye-opener and reminder of the terrible things that war can do to peoples' lives. It's harder to grasp the concept of war when it's not actually taking place on our soil, but just imagining the deaths of the people over there and what the violence has done to both our soldiers and there's is remarkable. When we finally had all gathered on the streets surrounding the White House, there were so many people that we basically took a few baby steps, then stood in place and chanted a bunch for 5-10 minutes, took more baby steps, more chanting again, and so on for over an hour. Some of the chants were pretty funny, and probably not something I should be repeating to you folks, while others were completely offensive and not worth repeating ever. Total, we probably only moved a couple of blocks before we had to leave, but the distance is not what matters in this case. What really mattered was that over 250,000 people got together to tell President Bush how we felt about the war in Iraq, which ended up being what I believe they said was one of the largest anti-war rally's since the beginning of the war. Glad I was a part of it! After the march, we were pretty dead, so we decided to go out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant. What we thought was going to be a nice relaxing meal, turned out to be quite a walk first. However, the food was definitely worth it, oh my goodness. Some things were fairly spicey, and if you know me, I'm not usually too keen on that kind of stuff, but surprisingly I liked them a LOT. My favorite was this lamb dish that we had (we got several things). The walk back to the metro with full stomachs wasn't exactly pleasant, but we made it all right, and it was probably really good for us in the long run. When we separated from Dennis (he stayed at a hotel for the weekend), we had to walk home to Daniel's grandparents' house in the dark. This was not a good idea apparently because we probably walked 2 miles the wrong direction, which made for some bad attitudes (mostly coming from the boys, of course) and cranky people. Rachel and I, however, stayed pretty positive the whole time. I think what actually happened was we were so tired that we were pretty much numb emotionally from anything going on around us. Great timing! :) Overall it was a great experience, and nice to just have some time away from work and away from Philippi (which, believe it or not, can get old sometimes). :) As far as my job goes, I am learning more and more each day from these kids here. They possess a happiness and a care-free attitude that everyone seems to lose when they get older, it's a shame. They are continually teaching me how to stay positive, how to have fun, and just let loose. Hopefully this Friday I'll remember to bring my camera to school and take pictures of them so you can see how cute these little guys are! Well, I believe this email is WAY too long already! Hope you all are doing good! Keep the emails and pictures coming, I love hearing from everyone! And I should be able to send some DC pictures pretty soon here in the next couple of days. Take care! Love, Trish September 4, 2005 (from a letter from Trish posted on the mission bulletin board telling about her first week in Philippi) I just wanted to thank you for all of the financial and spiritual support that you’ve given me to go into Service Adventure! I am having the time of my life here in Philippi, and it’s better than anything I could’ve expected or hoped for! God is already teaching me so many things, and the people I’ve met are truly incredible and extremely diverse. Thanks again for everything you’ve given me, I really appreciate it a lot.” Photos from Trish:
|
|
|
 |