It's so nice to be a student again! Although we've had a lot of life lessons and cultural lessons over the last few years, we haven't really had any academic lessons. The great thing about classes is that they require you to read and think about materials you otherwise might never pick up. Here's a sampling of things we've read (individually) and discussed (together) in the last couple of weeks:

• Dylan read Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol, for his education class. It takes a very pessimistic outlook on education in America, noting especially the policy of paying for public schools through property taxes which leads to already advantaged neighborhoods having the best funded schools. This system is notoriously difficult to change because of course no one wants to give up any of the money coming into their school or pay extra money that would go to some other unrelated school. Hm. 

• Christiy read Purple Hibsiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for an Africa focused summer reading assignment. Adichie, a Nigerian, has written several award-winning novels set in both Nigeria and America. Purple Hibiscus tells the story of a young girl raised in an abusive home who learns to open up when she goes to stay with her aunt and cousins. The backdrop is a politically unstable and repressive Nigeria, which eventually forces the girl's aunt to immigrate to America. Beautifully written.
  


• Dylan read "A Mathematician's Lament," by Paul Lockhart, for a math class. This article laments that modern culture has turned math into a series of uninteresting formulas to memorize rather than the art it should be. He compares the loss to what it would be like if we required everyone to take music classes not to learn to play but to learn all the notations and rules without sound. Click here to link to the article. I read just the first five pages and found it really interesting.
  


• Christiy read "Making it in America," by Adam Davidson, for an economics class. Did you know that in the past decade manufacturing output in the United States has actually gone up by one third and yet, at the same time, employment in manufacturing has gone down by a third? Davidson explains that the level of technical ability required to work in a factory has drastically changed. Gone are the days when you could be hired to do a simple push-button job and then rise up through the company. There are some simple jobs left, but to jump from there to the next level, you probably need a degree in computer science. As Davidson says, this is good news for anyone in America with a degree. Not so much for everyone else.

For those who don't know, Squam Lake is up in New Hampshire and is the site of a week-long annual reunion for Dylan's family. Since we weren't able to get there from Namibia, this is the first time we've attended since 2011! So exciting!

The weather was beautiful and a bunch of people were even brave enough to get in the lake on the first evening we were there (the water was pretty chilly)! One tradition at Squam is for a group of people to swim out to the raft and then jump to catch frisbees thrown by people back on the dock (see first photo). 

One special event this year was the celebration of Mimi and Granddad's 60th wedding anniversary! (These are Dylan's mom's parents.) We got all dressed up and went to a nice restaurant to celebrate.

Ann brought comfy pants for all the girls from Cambodia so we had a little fashion show while the guys played frisbee golf.

Of course, a trip to Squam wouldn't be complete without a climb up (and picture on top of) Mt. Rattlesnake which overlooks Squam Lake. This is a fairly short climb - half the family ran up instead of walking! 

Abby wasn't able to join us since her summer job is out in the wilds of Montana, and, sadly, Dylan and I were only able to stay for a couple days as Dylan had to get back to DC for classes. It was great to see everyone though, and so nice to be in such a beautiful area of the country!

After a 2-day cross-country road trip and a harrowing drive through DC city streets in our 16ft moving truck, we arrived safely at our new apartment! With my parents' help we finished unpacking in just a few days, leaving us free to explore our new city!

Some interesting findings so far:

- DC is a great place to run into people! So far we've met up with a family I knew in England, a girl from our church in Egypt, and another RPCV from Tsumeb.

- Christiy went on a tour of the capitol building and got to sit in on some Senate business and then ended up exiting the building right behind Senator John McCain.

- Dylan got to view a private collection of original Escher prints at the National Gallery during his Math for America orientation.

- Between the humidity and the hills, running is completely different here than in Indiana! Fortunately there are shaded sidewalks almost everywhere.

- Every time I've gone out I've heard at least a couple people speaking a foreign language and there's a huge variety of ethnic restaurants here. Within walking distance we have Italian, Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese. Definitely a diverse place!

- We live only one block away from a grocery store and three blocks from a weekly farmer's market! We knew about the grocery store but the farmer's market was a pleasant surprise.

- A small group from the church we went to on Sunday meets right across the street from us! We're planning to go there for a few weeks at least.

Dylan will be starting his classes this week! In fact he's already read one of the books assigned for the course - a rather depressing book about inequalities in the US public school system. Hopefully our two years teaching in Namibia have prepared him for at least some of the challenges he'll face here! Dylan will start student teaching this fall.

Christiy will be taking a summer class starting at the end of June and then working at a French immersion summer camp in July and August! I'll be an assistant teacher for a native French speaker who will be the main teacher. The camp is for preschoolers, a mix of native French speakers and first time learners. Camp will finish just in time for me to start my semester at AU at the end of August.

So, praise God for safe travel and meetings with friends from former places and a super accessible small group and a summer job for Christiy! What a good start to our time here!

Some of our students and church family from Tsumeb had the amazing opportunity to visit America - so of course we drove down south to spend a few days with them! These nine girls are part of DAT - Discipling African Teens - a hostel run by missionaries Elizabeth & Gary Wilkins, who also drill wells to provide clean water for villages in Namibia and Angola (see their website: www.byrovision.org). Some of the DAT girls were in Dylan's math classes and all attended our church in Tsumeb, where several of them sang with me on our worship team. We were so excited to get to see them again five months after leaving Namibia! Their trip to the States was organized and funded by Elizabeth & Gary's home church, Gracepoint, in Alabama, in order to inspire the girls and widen their horizons. 

During their month-long stay in the States the girls are sharing their testimonies and music with many churches, businesses, and individuals. They're also learning about American history and culture through visiting local schools and museums, seeing Alabama's state capital, and living with local host families. I think their least favorite, although very beneficial, activity has been going to a proper dentist and getting their teeth taken care of while they're here! Fortunately that's balanced out by a lot of fun activities like horseback riding, baseball games (they actually sang the national anthem to open the game!), the zoo, Huntsville Space Center, and visits further afield to the Chattanooga Aquarium and Six Flags Over Georgia.

While we were in Atlanta, Pastor Rick found this friendly busker who improvised with one of the girls' songs. Several passers-by whipped out their cellphones to record the event. =)

We so enjoyed getting to spend time with the girls and with Elizabeth and Gary and their church family in Alabama. Thankful that God arranged this opportunity for us and them!

Okay, the last month and a half has been lost in blogging silence because we've been waiting on all our universities to get back to us - a process which was just concluded yesterday! In the end we were accepted EVERYWHERE we'd applied!

Our decision largely came down to the financial aid we were offered at each school. At one point we looked into taking out some large loans and realized that if we did, we'd end up paying back almost twice what we'd borrowed! Fortunately, with some generous merit awards/fellowships, we will both be able to attend grad school without any loans at.....

American University in Washington DC!

We're excited for the chance to live in the Capital, and for our programs at American. Dylan will get his MAT (Master's in Teaching) and I will get my MSDM (Master of Development Management). My program is two years long and Dylan's program is one year with a four year teaching commitment following (related to his fellowship with Math for America), so we will for sure be in the DC area for the next five years. Crazy!

We already started apartment hunting online and hope to be able to make a scouting trip out there in the next month or so. It's so nice to have a destination in mind and be able to make plans! God really provided for us in opening the door for both of us to study at the same school at the same time!

Thank you to all who have been praying for us during this process! It all came down to a final acceptance to a very competitive program and I'm sure the prayers helped! Next on our agenda will be finding a place to live, figuring out what to do about a car and phones, seeing what churches are around that area, and probably a lot of other things that I haven't processed yet. I've started praying that God would prepare a place for us there; I'd appreciate your prayers for that too.

Happy Spring!

Here are a few things that have been super exciting for us after two years in Africa that you may be taking for granted…

1.     Microwaves. I’ll start small. It is so nice to be able to pop leftovers in the microwave rather than heating them up in the oven or on the stove. Microwaves are also great for melting butter, reheating forgotten cups of tea/hot chocolate, and popping microwave popcorn (although I’m pretty good at the stove kind now)!

2.     Grocery stores. This is probably a place you go at least once a week, but do you ever stop to marvel at just how many different kinds of food are available to you?? At our grocery store there are three separate cheese areas, each with at least ten different kinds of cheese (or more). You can also get all kinds of berries, in spite of there being two feet of snow outside right now, and anything from staple fruits (apples, oranges, etc) to weird spiky yellow melons (kiwanos) that I’ve never even seen before. There’s a WHOLE AISLE of breakfast cereals, which in Namibia would pretty much only consist of cornflakes and all-bran. Anybody who has lived overseas can probably understand the wonder of an American grocery store.

3.     Libraries. I don’t know if this is true everywhere, but Fort Wayne has an awesome library system. There are fourteen branches and you can order a book from any of them for pick-up at your own branch. There are quiet study tables, free wi-fi, movies, and tons of books! I wish my kids in Namibia had access to something this good!

4.     Specialty stores. Office Depot, Best Buy, Michael’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods…Each of these stores is easily five times bigger than the biggest department stores in Namibia, and they specialize! So many office supplies! So many electronics! So many crafts! So many sports items! There are also specialty stores devoted to body products, candles, games, spices, cookware… You can find ANYTHING in America.

5.     Restaurant Variety. Within a twenty minute drive from home I could be eating Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Greek, or Middle Eastern cuisine. I could also be eating steak, seafood, fondue, burgers, or breakfast. So many CHOICES! Of course I can also make most of these at home thanks to the international foods section in the grocery store!

Hope this makes you take a moment to appreciate American life. =)

Guess what? It's February, which means we have officially been back in America for just over one month! And we chose the snowiest January in Fort Wayne history to be here! I'm not exaggerating - we beat the old record by about 3 inches. I'm loving it because it's my first proper winter in three years, and this is what January SHOULD look like! Dylan is a little less enthusiastic. He recently escaped to California for a week, but came to - yes, more snow. =)

So what have we been doing for the last month? First of all, we were greeted at the airport by my mom, dad, brother and all the grandparents! Sherlock (the Beagle) was waiting for us at home. We enjoyed New Years and "second Christmas" with my family and took a new family portrait - it was the first time all five of us have been together since Christmas 2010. We played lots of games, including new versions of our favorite, Ticket to Ride. =)

We're still playing games, but after the holidays finished we felt like we should add a few productive things to our routine. Dylan's teaching himself computer programming and I'm teaching myself statistics. The local library is a great resource, both for textbooks and fun reading. We've been regularly exercising in an attempt to combat the great American calorie intake. Dylan's starting a part-time job with a local tutoring center, and I'm volunteering as a tutor with church and singing in the church choir. There's been a good amount of snow shoveling in the last month too!

Otherwise, we're enjoying the luxury of not having to rush around or struggle through the many snow storms to work or appointments! We're getting to know a few people at our church here, and also have time to catch up with old friends around the country - thus far in San Diego and Cincinnati. We're also enjoying luxuries such as washing machines, central heating, and having a car!! 

On kind of a side note, this weekend we went to the Fort Wayne Farmer's Market, which was surprisingly well attended considering the rain that was turning the snow to sleet on Saturday morning! Dylan and I used to go to Wheaton's farmer's market all the time. It's always fun to meet people who actually grow/raise/make local products that are useful and good for you! Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable, Miracle, is what got us started on this. I recommend it if you haven't read it!

Hope you have a lovely February!

We headed west from Phnom Penh for four hours in a taxi and a further half hour in a boat in order to reach Tatai Riverfront Resort in Koh Kong Province. This is a relatively new place run by locals who used to work at a foreign-owned resort and decided to start their own business! The resort currently consists of a restaurant, where we were served a four-course dinner each night, and four wooden cottages with steps leading right into the river. The river is really unique because it is salty for half the year and fresh the other half! It also goes up and down by several feet with the ocean tides. We enjoyed swimming, canoeing, hiking, fresh coconut milk and seafood, exploring waterfalls, and beautiful sunsets!

Some interesting notes:
- Driving in Cambodia is much more aggressive in the country than in the city. I think we honked at every car or motorbike we saw and then proceeded to pass them as fast as possible!
- One night our main course consisted of a plate of shrimps and a plate of crabs, heads, shells and all. Those of you who know me will know that I don't do well with food that has eyes! So Dylan popped the heads off most of the shrimp (although I did one myself!) while I attacked the crab. Man those things are hard to eat!
- We found out that coconuts are super heavy. Guesstimating around 8 pounds. Those would seriously hurt you if they fell on you from a tree.
- The resident dog, Tonek, was a terrible beggar! He would come and stand on his hind legs by our table for minutes at a time waiting for us to give him some scraps. And he'd growl if we didn't "pay" him for his effort!
- Since we were the only guests we really got VIP treatment - whenever we went on an excursion in a boat, we would be picked up and dropped off right at the steps of our cabin. Door to door boat service!
- One of our excursions was a mountain trek. The only thing was we couldn't ell when we reached the top of the mountain! The trees were so dense we couldn't see more than ten feet away in any direction, so no spectacular view at the top. Still a cool experience though, ducking under bamboo and watching our guide hack off hanging branches with his machete as we went!

We arrived in Dhaka in the middle of the night last night after an unexpectedly luxurious flight (got bumped up to business class!). It was dark, so we couldn’t see much, but we could tell the traffic and driving were pretty similar to Egypt – no lanes, no passing rules, and lots of honking! Our walk around during daylight today confirmed that Dhaka is surprisingly similar to Cairo, but with tuk-tuks and rickshaws in place of taxis. We are in a Maadi-like suburb rather than downtown, which means we can move around here freely in spite of the hartals (strikes) that have been taking place on and off for the last three months.

The reason there have been so many strikes is that, constitutionally, the ruling government should have stepped down in October in preparation for the elections to be held in early January. They didn’t step down, which theoretically allows them to influence the upcoming elections more than they should. So for the last three months the opposition party has periodically called for “hartals” or strikes where no one is allowed to travel. Anyone who does drive into the city risks getting hit by a Molotov cocktail. These strikes have made it difficult for Dan to work, and the current one will prevent Dylan and I from going into downtown Dhaka at all.

However, there’s plenty to explore in Gulshan, where we’re staying. Today we went to a Fair Trade arts and crafts shop that sells beautiful fabrics and decorations, walked around Banani Lake, visited the American Club and braved a very crowded grocery store. They have so many fruits here that I’ve never seen before! No white onions, which I thought was odd, but a huge curry section! The meat section included a mutton head.

This evening we went to a Christmas Concert at AISD – American International School Dhaka. The school itself seems pretty nice. For Dylan and I, who grew up in international schools, it’s interesting to compare the ones in different countries. On our way back to the apartment we accidentally took a motorized rickshaw – a bicycle that has been hooked up to an electric motor so it can zip through traffic, trailing a narrow seat for passengers. Fortunately we made it back in one piece!

Currently we are besieged by mosquitoes and probably going to bed soon. I’m glad we were able to stay awake all day in spite of struggling with jet lag! More adventures to follow in the coming weeks. =)

Today I celebrated my 27th birthday and my last day in Namibia! Tomorrow we'll be flying out on our way to Bangladesh and Cambodia for a Coster Christmas. Some of the things I did to celebrate were: going out for pizza (ordered one with avocado as I don't think that's a common topping in the US), doing laundry in a real washing machine and dryer (even though the washing took a couple hours and the dryer never really worked at all), doing one last round of souvenir shopping in the craft market (although our suitcases are already full!), and skyping with Mom and Dad in Fort Wayne. I also got a typhoid shot, but that wasn't so fun...

Our goodbyes last week went well. The staff at each of our schools made time for everyone to get together and say goodbye to us along with giving speeches and presents. We said goodbye to our classes by giving each learner a papyrus bookmark from Egypt, which they loved. Many learners also wrote letters to us to say goodbye, which we’re taking with us back to America.

We left Tsumeb on a cloudy, wet morning. The dogs did their best to keep us there – Dylan could barely walk from the gate to the car, they were jumping on him so much! Our suitcases were wrapped in plastic garbage bags in the back of our open bakkie. Just to prove that we have not learned everything about Namibia, our ride showed up four hours early rather than two hours late as we anticipated!

Looking at the clouds ringing the tops of the hills between Tsumeb and Otavi on our drive to Windhoek, I was reminded more of Rwanda than Namibia. Thanks to the rain we’ve been having, everything is greener and more alive than normal. It’s a good last image to have of our home here. =)