So...it's been a while?

is the blog dead?

if not, here's a short update on my life: Until a few days ago, i was living in Montana working on a large potato and wheat farm. I have since moved to the great (or so i hear) Upland, IN to live in a camper on a small veggie farm (a CSA) with some friends. Anyone traveling through Indiana ought to stop by...my camper is clean and comfy - I've also got a tent :)

Ashraaf's House

Just in case this didn't make it to your inbox...

Dear Friends -

We wanted to give you an update on our dear friend Ashraaf Helmi. As you may remember, Ashraaf is the facilities manager of the MESP properties in Cairo. On Tuesday, Ashraaf, with much fear and trembling, told David Holt and Dia’a Nashed that a major portion of his family dwelling, a simple mud structure in the south of Egypt, desperately needs reinforcement since construction by owners of an adjoining building wall has threatened his own home and family.

Ashraaf, who has never asked for money before, approached David and Dia’a with a request for assistance. Reinforcing his house will cost approximately $3,000. The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) has offered to contribute $2,000 towards the total cost. Although the Student Programs department of the CCCU has a policy of not requesting funds from alumni, we feel that this is a special circumstance. If you are interested in contributing towards the final goal of $3,000, we invite you to make contributions via PayPal.

We’ve set up an e-mail account (ashraafshouse@gmail.com) to receive contributions. In order to send money via PayPal you must have a PayPal account. Go to https://www.paypal.com/ to sign up and create a user name and password. Click “Sign Up” at the top of the page and follow the prompts. Once you’ve logged in, click “Send Money” on the upper left side of the page. Enter the e-mail address above (ashraafshouse@gmail.com), the amount, and currency. Select “Services/Goods” and then continue.

We’ll be capping donations after we reach a total of $1,000, and we will send you out an e-mail as soon as we reach that goal.

If you have concerns about the legitimacy of this request, feel free to e-mail Elizabeth Hanna (ehanna@cccu.org), Marketing and Alumni Specialist for Student Programs.

Sincerely,

The Student Programs Team

Lindsay update

Hey all,
I as well haven't checked the blog out in awhile. It was nice to hear about Heather and Chris and a little bit of Chelsea too! Its crazy to thinkthe lives we are leading now, isin't it? Well as for me, I am an educational assistant at an elementary school here inNewberg, OR. Its acutally a lot of fun. I've submitted a few applications to graduate schools for Environmental Policy and sustainable development and am waiting to hear back from them sometime in late March, early April. Someitmes I feel as though our lives (Nick and I) are constantly in a state of apprehension or waiting..waiting for the next step, waiting for the next place to go. But we have been blessed with an amazing community here. Nick and I will be leading a group of high schoolers (8 of them) on a trip to Rwanda for three weeks this summer. Nick and I have both been there already, on separate occasions, and jumped at the opportunity to get paid to lead a trip of highs choolers to expand their world view. that is essentially what the goal of the trip is. We were scheduled to lead a young Life trip down to Mexico, but it has since been cancelled due to safety precautions. I guess there have been numerous incidents of desperate Mexicans posing as police officers or officials, holding up vans of Americans; holding the men to gun point while they rape the women. and then they let them go. So taking young highschool girls and boys on a trip down to Mexico for spring break had to be cancelled. I was bummed at first, but really, can you conscientiously say let's just go anyway? especially when there are young lives in your hands? I couldn't. so maybe if you have a spare moment, pray for those Mexicans who are committing these acts. It is very disturbing and pray for their hearts.
Well my lunch break is over, so I gotta get back to the kindergarten classroom. yikes! Heather, I don't know how you come home with energy, working with toddlers all day. :)

Much love,

Lindsay

long time no see

hello all,
i'm not sure how many check this blog anymore, but i hope it's more than i imgaine. I have little to say at this point except that I am now living near manhattan, mt. My job is on a very large farm and i'm living with a friend (it's his dad's farm). life is good and i'll write more another time after i get aquainted with my new life as a farmhand in montana. If any of you happen to be driving or flying by, be sure to stop in.
later
ANdrew

Well, I will admit I don't check the blog nearly as often as I used to. I guess with wishing that I was actively doing more with what I learned during the semester, sometimes I avoid thinking about it. I am still doing day care - right now I'm the head teacher in the infant room. I will say I've learned a lot and I don't mind the age but writing lesson plans to include seven different areas of development is a pain in the neck. Upcoming weekly theme: emotions Upcoming art: shove a marker into a three month olds hand; tell him/her to draw how he/she feels But hey, it is a stable job with benefits.

Chris and I have made visits to Dartmouth and Ohio State in looking at the next step in grad school for him. On the way to Dartmouth, we stopped and spent a weekend with Chelsea. It was wonderful and refreshing. We have also recently purchased a fancy camera for me in my goals to become a photographer. I would like to be able, someday, to show up at all those non-profits that won't hire me and convince them to let me go take pictures of the things they are doing in the world. That's the latest here.

The death of the blog

Well either our blog has died or else nobody has anything interesting to write about.
So heres a story: I'm a reading and writing tutor at a Migrant elementary school in Newberg, OR. I rotate around four different classes, and mostly I deal with the lower achieving students. I have a morning and and afternoon kindergarten class that I help in, in addition to a first grade class and a third grade class. The morning kindergarten class is an all Spanish classroom, meaning that instruction and speaking is all in Spanish. Well, I'm not sure how this all worked out but somehow I (who speaks very little Spanish) was placed in this classroom to help with literacy. Much said, thrust into a spanish classroom has improved my spanish skills immensely. Also, I was about to walk a group of students to the reading room when the first word that popped in to my head was yella bena. woops, that should have been vamanos. huh.... I am always intrigued at the mind's capacity for language development.
There have been many firsts since working at the elementary school. Last week, when I was working on a paper with a tantrum-thrower third grader, he lost his temper and I ducked as a pencil was thrown at my face. Pencil dodging was not part of the job description. :)

Yesterday I was working in the afternoon kindergarten classroom. We were split up into small groups and I was in charge of reading a book to them and having them find the letter T in words and make connections between the letter and the sound it makes. One of the boys, Xaviar, kept making growling noises and grabbing the book that was in my hands. After the first grab I told him his behavior was inappropriate for the classroom and he needed to stop. After twice more, trying to ignore his behavior, I got up (luckily the buzzer rang and it was the end of our rotation time) and asked him to take my hand and told him we were going out in the hall for a chat. A couple words later I am physically dragging him by his wrists, kicking and screaming, out into the hallway. Lovely.
that is all for today. If there is anybody from MESP out there, just comment with "hey." :)

back again

Hello everyone! I thought that I would write an update, since life has been fairly eventful lately. Namely, I got married. Everything went well, and the whole day was a lot of fun. So sorry most of you couldn't make it--you were missed. Our new address is:
Scott and Margaret Vande Kraats
#409-33353 Marshall Road
Abbotsford, B.C.
V2S 8N9 Canada

I'll leave you with some pictures. This one is from the trip back to B.C.--I believe its taken in Washington somewhere.

scott and I

the ever-growing clan (minus my brother's girlfriend)

my brother and I