World Travels...Ayi!

Alright, I've just done the math. And it's been a crazy month. In the last 30 days, I have done the following:

Black: driving to Oregon for Grandma Wilson | Blue: driving back to Utah | Burgundy: Flying to Africa | Gray: Flying home from Africa | Light Green: flying to see Britni

Driven through 6 states [Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho]
Spent time in 7 airports [SLC, Detroit, JFK, Amsterdam, Johannesberg, Midway, Indianapolis]
Passed through 4 countries [USA, Netherlands, South Africa, Swaziland]
Spent the night in 7 different cities [SLC, Tualatin, Salem, Johannesberg, Manzini, Nelspruit, Urbana]
Spent approximately 30 hours in various airports
Driven for approximately 58 hours [as a driver and passenger]
Spent 54 hours flying in planes

Was located in:
Oregon for 9 days
Utah for 8 days
Africa for 12 days
Illinois for 3 days [yes, this one is March - but it's still part of the travelling]

Goodness. Travel is exhausting! I hope that wherever you are, you are well, not jet-lagged, and enjoying the comforts of your own space. :-) Happy first weekend of March!

Johannesburg!!!

We finally made it! All the way to Africa!!! It's about 11:30pm here, and we have breakfast tomorrow morning between 6:30-8am. Our bus leaves a little after 8am to drive to Swaziland.

Tomorrow is all about orientation and getting ready to be with the kids at the carepoint. We leave at 8am, drive 5 hours, and then get orientated to what we're about to do for the next week and a half.

It's raining here in Johannesburg, and there is some lightning and thunder going on. We're so ready to be with the kids. It's so exciting knowing that it's almost time for us to meet them and be with them at the carepoint.

Love you all!!!

SLC - DTW - AMS - JHB

We're out of the USA! As I write this, our team is sitting outside our gate in the Amsterdam airport. We've got two more hours before we board and take off to Johannesburg - where we will stay overnight before traveling to Swaziland tomorrow morning.

The whole team is pretty tired, and some members were already battling illness before we left...so please pray that we will all stay (or get) healthy. After we board the plane in Amsterdam, our flight to Johannesburg will be about 11 hours [insert enthusiastic "woo-hoo" here].

There are 25 of us, and each team member has two bags weighing 50 lbs. each. Except for one woman, who has an extra - we packed 51 bags total to bring with us. Praise the Lord that we had wonderful Delta concierges who passed bags through if they were over weight or more than the two we should have per person.

The internet here in Amsterdam is on a 30 minute free session, of which I have 10 minutes left, and it's running kind of slowly, so I should not go on much more for fear of this post not publishing once finished.

Know that we are all safe and sound, and that our journey into the continent of Africa is about to begin. We will arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa at about 10pm.

Looking forward to keeping you all up to date with what is happening with our team in Swaziland.

--Jackie

On your mark...

Get set...
Go!

That's right! Tomorrow I leave for Swaziland! I can't believe the time has actually come! It seems like this last year we've been planning and planning and we'd never actually be getting on a plane, but here we are getting ready to leave on a plane at 8:30 in the morning on Saturday!

As we're on our journey, I don't know what internet access will be like, so I don't know for sure if I'll be able to communicate with everyone about what's happening. However, each day, our team will be doing a devotional together, and I have scheduled a post with that devotional to come up each day we're traveling or in-country. Please do read them and pray along with us.

While our team is in Africa, please pray for:
safe travel - we'll be going by plane and bus, through Malaria zones, and in a country with high rates of HIV
the kids we'll be ministering to - that their hearts would be open, and their needs met
the team members - that we would mesh well and be blessed by the kids and carepoint staff
our families and friends at home - that they would provide the necessary support so the team can come back knowing there is not chaos at home.

Specifically for me:
pray that my professors would be patient with me as I work to catch up after returning from Swaziland
pray that I would be receptive to everything God wants to speak to me while we're there
pray that I'll wake up on time! :-)
that I would be able to minister to these kids in a way that they will understand and receive - and that they will do the same for me.

Thank you all for your incredible support as I've prepared to leave with our team. The time is finally here, and I can't wait to share everything we do with you - either as it happens, or upon returning to the U.S.

Phoenix Wrap-Up

This weekend was very interesting. I experienced a new place, and new people, great food, good conversation, and differing opinions. Though Phoenix was full of great buildings with stories to tell, the city itself felt very deserted. I expected that it would be a little more bustling, especially since it's the home of ASU. But whenever we'd go out on the streets, it would be fairly empty. In Salt Lake, there are people and cars moving from place to place. Buses and TRAX are transporting people, and everyone is going somewhere. In Phoenix, I didn't even see many cars unless I was on one of the streets farther from my hotel.

NCHC was a great experience, I learned new things, and had great conversations with my peers. Our session on newsletters went really well, and I feel that it was helpful for colleges looking to improve their newsletter program or to start a newsletter. I felt really good knowing that things I had to say could help these programs communicate more effectively to their audiences of students, faculty, alumni, donors, and college/university leadership.

Phoenix was not what I was expecting. It was much more quiet, and afforded much more personal time than I had anticipated. Sessions I attended were well done, but that is not the case for many of the sessions attended by my peers - some were awkward and poorly done, while others were very thought-provoking and had us talking for hours afterward.

Moral of the story: Phoenix is bad, NCHC is good. :)

Phoenix - Day 3 - in Photos

There are a lot of these in the city

Water features are everywhere...in the desert

The beautiful Fransiscan church I mentioned yesterday

Mosaic mural on the walls of the Convention Center.
You can see the skirt I wore today in one of the mirrored tiles. :-)

These "Phoenix Point of Pride" signs are all over

statues outside the Herberger Theatre Building

Our hotel (and conference location) from 2 blocks away

See the mist coming from the overhang?

Listening intently to the questions and comments at our newsletter session

We spent the evening inside the Arizona Science Center (like OMSI or Clark)

Elizabeth sorting blood platelets inside the heart

0 of 173 people are like me! :-)

Phoenix - Day 2

See, I told you I'd blog every day. :)

Well, technically right now I'm supposed to be wandering around the "Arts District" of Phoenix to read the city. It's 93 degrees, dry, and not a cloud to be seen. So - I'm sitting in my hotel room with my roommates blogging about the day so far.

City as text turned out to not be what we expected, and we didn't understand how to look at our environment in the way they wanted us to. The so-called "Arts District" wasn't really "artsy" - in fact, there are far more artsy things around the hotel than in that part of town. just across the street from us there is a beautiful Fransiscan church, a theater, Arizona Symphony/Opera building, and some public art.

One thing that has really struck me about Phoenix is the architecture. All the buildings have something different to say, and they say it in a completely individual way. Even the buildings that look alike because they're part of the business sector have different materials and styles crafted into the building. There are so many places here with a look of old history - like they have seen much and could tell great stories. I wonder if that's what is supposed to be happening this afternoon with the City as Text experience - to find the stories and the history of this place. Honestly, I feel that I've gotten more out of the experience just by observing and snapping pictures than I did with explicit instructions about how to go about reading the city.

First impressions of Phoenix: Full of history, Mixture of old and new architecture, HOT.

Tonight we went to the opening Plenary. The topic was the current debate about the Arizona Immigration Law (SB 1070?). The panel of speakers came from many different realms - Business/Law, Law/Journalism, Hispanic/Chicano Education, Education/Activism, and Medicine. I didn't know much about the Arizona immigration law, so the discussion fostered a lot of new questions and knowledge for me. I was impressed by the level of understanding each of the panel members possessed, and most of them were great speakers (one in particular had a hard time reading from his notes, but spoke great when allowed to think on his feet). The interactions between each of the panel members was also amusing to watch. One woman made her dislike for another panel member quite obvious in her body language each time he spoke. At the end of the night, it was agreed upon by all of the panel members that there must be some kind of immigration reform in this country - though not all agreed on the purpose or method of that reform.

Following the plenary was dinner and then the student party. The contingent from Westminster went to the party, and  then decided that we would be better served hanging out on our own, and headed back to our rooms (there was dancing in a circle, and I detest dancing in a circle...gross). I went to check out the fitness center and work out, while my roommates crashed on our beds.

The first full day in Phoenix, general day 2, was full of interesting experiences and new ideas. I'm looking forward to what the rest of the conference will bring.

Phoenix - Day 1

I'm going to try to blog about NCHC each day. There isn't a whole lot to talk about today other than the plane ride and hotel.

We arrived in Phoenix tonight at 9:30pm, where even late at night it managed to be 89 degrees outside. The forecast for the whole weekend is low 90s through Sunday. Eew. I'm not cut out for hot weather...
Our taxi ride to the hotel was ridiculously expensive. We were at $8 before even leaving the airport grounds!

By Sunday morning maybe I'll have a good enough feel of the city to get a bus/lite rail to the airport. Seriously.
Since Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings, I'm back on the same time as you Oregonians! Tomorrow morning will come quickly so that's all for tonight.

Check back tomorrow for observations about the "City as Text" workshop!

Home Sweet Salt Lake

We finally made it back to Salt Lake City after a very long day of travel and a slightly delayed flight out of Dublin to Chicago. Everyone in our group made it back in one piece, thankfully, and so did our luggage! Hooray!

Our last night in Dublin was a fun one! Morgan and I went with John and Kagen to see a real session on Thursday night, and it was amazing! The night we were supposed to see one in Limerick, it wasn't happening, and then Chris took us to a pub in Galway that was supposed to have one, but instead we caught the tail end of a wake...not quite what we were looking for (that night I was spilled upon by what I'm told was cider...eew).

BUT, this session was fantastic! Two flutes, a fiddle, an accordion, a guitar, and two mandolins were playing...there were a couple of times they brought out a tin whistle, one woman almost played the uileann pipes, and there was a balladier (sp?) as well! When we had to go, John and Kagen wanted to take a picture with the woman who sang, and they said we were singers from the US, and the musicians essentially forced us to sing right there...we ended up singing one verse of Amazing Grace and then they wanted something "American Gospel" and the first thing we could think of that we knew was "Wade in the Water". What a fun experience, the Irish music was great, and it deepened my love/appreciation of it!!!

As amazing as Ireland was, it's nice to be sitting in my own bed and ready to sleep in Salt Lake again! I'm looking forward to sleeping in and doing nothing but unpacking tomorrow!

"As you slide down the bannister of life, may the splinters face the right way for you" :)

Dublin

I don't have much to say at the moment, but I know that mom's been reading these for updates on what's happening here!

Currently, I do not have a singing voice, I've been hacking for a couple days, and I thought maybe I was getting sick, though nothing else felt icky. Emily, on the other hand, thought it was allergies and gave me some Claritin (I think) today, and that helped to clear things up. I don't have any allergies that I know of, but it was nice to not be hacking up a lung every five minutes today.

Today we sang in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, and the stained glass windows were glorious! It had a great acoustic (especially compared to the last church we sang in) and the choir sounded great from the audience (since I was sitting watching and not singing).

Tonight we're headed into the city to go to book stores, and there's a chance that I'll buy a dress, but we'll see how that goes. :)

Abientot!

You Did Good, God.

We visited the Giant's Causeway today, and it was absolutely breathtaking. The causeway itself was amazing, but, the cliffs and coastline that surrounded it was simply awe-inspiring. I didn't want to do anything but sit and take in the splendor. As I sat there, between Brady and John, all I kept thinking was "Wow. You did good, God. You did good."

How majestic and powerful the cliffs were and how wonderfully and carefully made it was...painfully beautiful.

Graceful

On the 7th of May, we performed a benefit concert in Ballina, Ireland for the Mayo Cancer Support Center there. This concert took place with another choir and so we only sang the first half of the concert, they did the second and we did a piece together at the end of the night...

Unfortunately, about 3 pieces into the concert, one of our members fainted 3/4 of the way through the piece. It was the first night we had performed Agnus Dei in front of an audience and we followed up that song with Eric Whitacre's Waternight. It was Waternight that witnessed this event, right on the line that reads "If you close your eyes". Talk about perfect timing, huh?

If you haven't already guessed, that choir member, was me. It was the first time I ever fainted in performance and I still haven't heard the end of it, and today is several nights later. I began blacking out, and thought that I could make it to the end of the song, and then go sit down, but, this did not happen. I have no memory of what happened approximately 8 measures before I went down, and I've heard several versions of what happened from almost every member of the choir.

Here's the basics: I took about 2 1/2 steps out from the choir (I was standing in the front row), I looked up at something on the ceiling, and raised my hand like I wanted to grab something, then kind of staggered to the ground in what's been dubbed a "Princess Faint".

When I came to, apparently I was smiling, but I didn't know what had happened or why everyone was asking if I was okay, until Chris looked me in the face and said "You fainted." Then, I was so embarrassed that I started to cry, and Willy Ray took me over to the front row on the side to sit with him for the rest of the concert. Up until then I'd been thinking "why are you waking me up, I was sleeping!" and "Why am I on the ground?" and "Where am I?"

They all took really good care of me, Garrett even asked if I'd eaten anything since falling and got me some brown bread from the hotel bar (yum!). I did not have a concussion, thank goodness, I have a non-visible bruise on my eyebrow from where my head hit the dance floor, and a visible one on my thigh from where my hip hit the floor. There's some smaller bruises on my arm and leg, but I'm totally fine, and nothing major has happened since that would give me pause or a cause to worry.

It is nice, however, to know that when I faint, which isn't often, I do it gracefully and simply slide downward to the floor (the last time I fainted was in a Presbyterian church service and I slid out of a chair!)

Galway to Ballina

Hello again!

Today we left Galway and headed to Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland. The trip was grand, I got sick on the bus the other day, but today was much better. Ali introduced me to a fun new band, and I'm quite excited about getting home and purchasing things on iTunes!! :-)

Our hotel has a spa/pool/health center, and I went and hung out in the jacuzzi tonight and also a steam room, which was wonderful...I haven't been sleeping well, I've been waking up with a cramp in my shoulder for the last couple days, and while sitting in the steam room, a friend massaged my cramp out of my shoulder, which was fantastic, I feel so much better now.

Tomorrow we're going to a secondary school to talk to the students about life in America, etc. and it should be fun. Tomorrow night, we will be giving a benefit concert with, um, let's see if I can get it right... Cor Maigheo. They're a "professional" (i guess) choir here, and our concert will be to benefit the Mayo Cancer Clinic here in Ballina, or County Mayo.

"May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live"

Quick Update -- Compliments

Hello! It's currently 10pm in Limerick, Ireland and we're on our way to see a "session" at one of the local pubs...basically this means we're going to watch people perform traditional Irish music!!! (which, if you've never heard it, it's great stuff!)

I am so overwhelmed by the number of comments I receive when I sign during our concerts. Chris has me interpreting one of our songs in American Sign Language, and everytime I do it, at least 2-3 people come to me and comment on how gorgeous it is. What can I say? The language is beautiful and not enough people get to experience the joy that can come from the blending of two seemingly different things -- one used by those who can't hear, and another by those who use their voices and ears equally.

Also, tonight, I was reminded why I sing. A man came to our concert tonight that was simply needing a lift. He was expecting to pray at the church we were singing in, but instead was stuck listening to our singing. He was so touched and moved by us that he even purchased one of our CDs at the end of the concert. THAT is why I sing. To touch people's lives and allow God to speak through music to people's souls. How powerful is this beauty that is music?

With that, I will leave you to think -- how does music speak to you?

IRELAND!

We're in Ireland! We finally made it, I never thought we'd get here, or that we'd actually board the plane, but we did, and tomorrow morning we're on our way to the third city on our tour! It's been such a great experience so far, and I'm so glad to get to have it with the awesome people in Chamber Singers! There will be pictures when I get back to the states and my own computer, but for now, suffice it to say that Ireland is entirely beautiful. It reminds me a little of home, with how green it is! Tonight, I was called after by an Irishman outside a pub asking why my skirt was so long (we were walking back from a concert, so I had my choir dress on, of course.) The girls I was walking with found it hilarious, at the time, I did not...It was more embarrassing than anything else.

Well, super early morning tomorrow...at this rate it'll be about 5 hours of sleep...eew. I better sign off, I'll probably use my roommate's computers more often now and try to keep updated on what's happening here!

Till we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand!