Unfair

Today I learned that my Grandma's health is deteriorating. I went home to BC in November and was able to spend quality time with her, but even though I saw her then, after a lung cancer diagnosis and a stroke, it still comes as a shock to hear that she isn't doing well.

Gram and I at my cousin's wedding in 2011

Today I also learned that a child I knew, a child I held and hugged, a little girl with beautiful bright eyes and a huge joyful smile, died in a tragic motorcycle accident. Rahma was six or seven years old and had a loving and caring foster mother and a foster sister and brother. All three children used to live at Cradle of Love Baby Home, where I volunteered in Tanzania in 2010-2011. Their mother is the nurse at the baby home. And my heart just breaks for her and her family, and their devastating loss.

Rahma playing at Cradle before bed in Oct. 2010

Today I realize anew how unfair life is, and I long for heaven more than ever.

Today Christmas means so much more to me. In just a few days we will celebrate the birth of the King who destroyed evil's grip on this world, and who will one day return here to bring an end, forever, to pain and suffering.

And today I am grateful for His gift, and that I can trust Him in all things.

_______________________________

Rahma, you will be missed by many. Rest in peace now until that day to come when He will wake you again.

Grandma, my thoughts and prayers are with you every second. I love you so much!

Five Minute Friday: Friend

I was walking with Grandpa past the big meeting tent at our church's campmeeting when he bumped into someone he knew and stopped to talk. "Ali," he said, "this is Pastor Bruce, the pastor at our church now, and this is his daughter, Jodi." I shyly grinned hello to both of them. "What grade is Jodi going into?" Grandpa asked. "Grade six," was Pastor Bruce's reply. "Hmm, same as you, Ali, right? Ali's going to be starting grade six at OKAA in the fall. Her family just moved back to Kelowna from Alberta a few weeks ago," Grandpa commented to Jodi and her dad. While Grandpa and Pastor Bruce talked, Jodi and I stood awkwardly beside them until their short conversation wrapped up. I waved goodbye. "See you at school, I guess," I said as I turned to walk away. Little did we know that warm July night in 1996, that by the end of the first few weeks of school that fall we would be headlong into a friendship that would still be going strong seventeen years later.

Saturday night with Jodi and other friends when I was home this March

I sat with Julie on the bus down to Wenatchee, WA, the first destination on our high school choir tour in the spring of 2000. I'd always known Julie. Her family had moved to Kelowna when she was just a toddler, and they had started coming to the church I'd been born into as soon as they'd settled in to their new house. Julie was a grade below me and we'd never been very close in elementary school. But now we were both in high school, where which grade you were in seemed to matter less as you passed by all ages of teenagers in the hallways between classes and during lunch. After the first day or so of the choir tour, I was spending a lot of time with Julie and her friends in grade eight. And when we returned from the trip, Julie and I just continued to hang out - at school, at church, at each other's houses on Saturday evenings, and occasionally after school during the week, too, if we had time. That week together in the bus on choir tour had broken us out of mold of being friends only with others in the same class. And we never even thought of going back to the way things were before.

A visit to the ski hill with Julie when I was home this March

"How was Academy Days? That was today, right?" Mum asked when I came home from school one afternoon in the spring of 2001. "Oh, it was fine. I think it's going on tomorrow, too," I replied. "Jonathon came." "Hmm, I guess he'll probably be in your class then next year, eh?" Mum responded. "Did his brothers come, too?" "I think so," I said, moping. "This is horrible. I know he's really smart. I thought valedictorian was between either me or Jodi. Now we're going to have to compete with him, too. I wish he'd just stay in Oliver and keep doing homeschool or going to the Adventist school in Penticton or whatever he was doing." Mum turned from the kitchen island where she was chopping vegetables for a soup. "Oh, Ali, you know the Penticton school only goes up to grade 10. If he wants to be in Adventist school for his last two years of high school, why shouldn't he come to OKAA? Besides, maybe you need a little academic challenge." Stewing I went to my room. For the next week or two I worried about what my last two years of high school would be like, but soon enough I forgot all about Jonathon, a boy whose father had gone to school at OKAA with my own mother years ago, and whose grandfather had worked alongside my own grandfather to build our church in the late 1970s. When school started again in the fall, I couldn't help keeping my distance from Jonathon for the first few weeks, but soon his parents began inviting their sons' friends and classmates over to their house on Saturday nights. I went when I was invited, and soon I nearly forgot about the things I'd heard about Jonathon's brains before he moved to Kelowna. Although he did eventually beat out Jodi and me for the title of graduating class valedictorian, I gained much more by his friendship than I ever would have had I won the distinction myself, but lost out on the chance to get to know him and his younger brothers. They've become almost like brothers to myself and my younger siblings and we've often gone dirt biking and quadding together, played board and card games late into the evening, and visited each other's homes whenever we're in the same city at the same time.

Jonathon, Stephen, Chris & me ~ Summer 2010

"Hey, suitemates! I'm Danielle." My sister Bryn and I looked up from our dorm room desks to see the head peeking around the bathroom door that we shared with the room next door. "But we've already met the two girls living next door," Bryn said tentatively. "Neither one is named Danielle." "Oh yeah, the other girl moved to a different room and now I'm living with Anna," Danielle explained. Later that evening the orchestra played for the university's Friday night vespers program. Afterward, Bryn and I packed up our violins, and left the church just behind Danielle. "Hey, I didn't know you played in orchestra!" I exclaimed. "Yeah," Danielle answered. "I play the cello. Neat, we'll all be in orchestra together!" The three of us talked the whole short walk back to the girls' dorm and up the three floors to our rooms. "Why don't you come into our room and talk for a bit, if you want," Bryn invited. "Tell Anna she's welcome, too, if she's back already." It was my first week attending Southern Adventist University in Tennessee after transferring from Walla Walla College in Washington state. I was rooming with Bryn, who had already been at Southern for a year, and I was hoping that I would make some friends soon. And now, after only a week, I'd made a friend who was not only my suitemate, but also would be in orchestra practices with me for three nights a week and would be traveling with me on all our orchestra trips for the year, and during the next two years that we attended Southern together as well.

Bryn, Danielle, Jonathan & me after graduation ~ May 2010

"Hi, I'm Danielle (a different one than in the story above). I just got here today and I just wanted to come say hi. It's sad that you're all the way over here in this hut, while the rest of us volunteers are in that apartment above the baby home together." I stood at the door and listened to Danielle introduce herself. It had only been two days since I'd arrived in Tanzania and already I felt alone, isolated from the five - now six - other girls living on the ADRA Tanzania compound. They were all here to volunteer with the Cradle of Love Baby Home, which was located on the far end of the compound. I, alone of the current volunteers, was here to work with ADRA, and therefore I lived in a hut all alone, made my solitary meals in the little kitchen hut next door to my room, and worked in an office by myself on the opposite side of the compound from the busy, noisy baby home. The next afternoon another Cradle volunteer, Ashley, knocked on my door. "Alison, we're making a meal together for supper tonight. You should join us! We can all get to know each other a little bit." My heart leapt. "Sure," I replied through my smile, "is there anything I can bring for the meal?" Ashley let me know what they could use and I dashed to my shelf in the kitchen cupboard to grab a few items before rushing to the volunteer apartment. Within a few days, I had become a part of the group. I wasn't alone in this new country anymore. I had new friends - from all over Europe and North America - to spend my evenings and weekends with. The next eight months didn't look quite so lonely anymore.

Our ranks grew to 12 by US Thanksgiving ~ the volunteers, November 2010

With each friend or set of friends (and this list is by no means exhaustive), I've had an awkward, bumpy beginning, but with each, as we've grown to know each other, we've made bonds that last. Bonds that stick even when we haven't seen each other for months, or sometimes even years. We can be apart, but when we're back together (or chatting on Skype when we can't be together), it's almost like we've never been separated. And that is the beauty of good friends. People who you miss when you're apart, but who fit back into your life again perfectly when you're together again.

*Note: All scenarios are written completely from my own memories. Others might have slightly different memories, but hopefully I'm not too far off the mark.

--------------------

My musings on the prompt 'friend' for Five Minute Friday. Join in next week if you feel inspired!

10 Things I Love About... Kezia!

Well, it seems my last 10 Things I Love About You post was a hit, so I've decided to continue the tradition whenever another person I love pops into my head.

And since today is my dear Danish friend Kezia's birthday, she's been on my mind and in my heart. I met Kezia last year during my first month in Tanzania. I worked for ADRA Tanzania for 8 months in 2010 and 2011. Kezia came to live on our campus and work at the on-site orphanage, Cradle of Love Baby Home, near the end of September and her being there was a huge blessing to my life during the next 7 months. Kezia, you are a wonderful friend and I treasure all our fun times together last year!

 So here it goes, the second edition of TTILAY.

1. Her amazing flexibility.

My friends, Anika, Kezia and Danielle, at the start of our October 2010 African safari.

2. Her love of Danish black licorice.

Not sure why the brand is called Blue Jeans...

3. Her incredible zest for life.

Kezia, Anika, me and Danielle in Ngorongoro Crater on our safari.

4. Her willingness and happiness to get right down to the kids'/babies' level to play with them.

5. Her absolute love for this little triplet (sister to my own Nina-girl)...

Explanation: Tessa didn't want to go to bed so Kezia told her she was going to sleep in her crib instead. Giggles all around!

...and this handsome little boy, Jackson, as well as a host of other special kids.

6. Her bargaining skills.

When she says "no," she means "no." Although her "no" was always accompanied with a smile. Taken at the Maasai market in Arusha.

7. Her intricately thinking, analytical, scientific/math-oriented brain. (I'm in awe of it.)

Yes, she did that whole maze using circles instead of just drawing a line from start to finish during our weekend trip to Babati.

8. Her faces. (She did her best to teach me crazy-faces during my time in TZ, but I fear I didn't catch on too well.)

Kezia and Danielle showcasing this formidable beast. I thought I'd get through 8 months in Tanzania without seeing a snake. Well, I was wrong. A friend brought one over a few days before I left. There's a long (and quite mean) story about how I "happened upon" the little critter (short version: it was lying in the microwave when I went to use it...), but suffice it to say that for the rest of the evening I sat on the other side of the living room from whoever was currently holding the creature.

9. Her wonderful capturing of life as it's lived.

Our group hiking to a dam for my last-day-in-Tanzania picnic.

10. Her tendency for grabbing the knees/legs of those nearest her, especially when startled.

Our last picture as a trio on the way to the airport for my flight back to North America.

Bonus. Her love of banana-bread dough with chocolate chips for dessert, breakfast, supper, special occasions... Really, for Kez any time is a good time for banana-bread dough. :)

Happy birthday, Kez! I miss you every day.

PL Trail Exploration

Danielle has been waiting for this day since August. This afternoon, I finally agreed to explore PL Trail with her. Meet our fellow traveler.













If you ever find yourself hiking PL Trail, beware of HANDKIND!

2nd Annual Waterslide Day

Last August, Bryn and our friends, Julie and Cherry, invented Annual Waterslide Day. Originally they were planning to go to Mariner's Reef, the largest waterslide park in the Okanagan Valley just across the lake in Westbank. Unfortunately, earlier that summer Mariner's Reef had been closed down and the land sold to contractors eager to turn the area into a subdivision. Bryn, Julie and Cherry had to amend their first plan and decided instead that Waterslide Day would be held annually at Atlantis Waterslides just outside Vernon, 40 minutes north of Kelowna. I already had plans to spend Sunday to Thursday on a Shuswap Lake houseboat with my dad, aunt, uncle and cousins, so I wasn't able to attend the inaugural Waterslide Day. But yesterday I was finally able to participate in Annual Waterslide Day!

This year, in addition to the three original Waterslide Day members making the journey to Vernon, there were five of us "new inductees" along: Chris, Andrew, Keli, Max and me. Everyone gathered at our house at 11 a.m. and then waited half an hour for the always-late Chris to drive up from his house in Oliver, an hour and a half south of Kelowna. While we waited, Max tried out my dad's massage chair and Andrew worked on a solution to our Log Stacker puzzle in the living room. Bryn, Julie, Cherry and Keli took over the TV room and cheered on Canada's Olympic women's softball team. I divided my time between talking to Andrew and Max in the living room and running to the TV room whenever I heard a loud celebration go up from the Olympic cheering squad to find out what had transpired in the game. Finally Chris arrived and we set out in two cars — the girls in Cherry's car and the guys in Max's jeep — to Vernon.

We spent a fun and eventful four and a half hours at Atlantis Waterslides waiting in long lines, plugging up the River Riot with our tubes, and warming up in the hot tub. When everyone was too extremely hungry to think about going on anymore waterslides, we gathered our belongings, took a few pictures together and drove back into Vernon, where we ate supper at Taco Del Mar. It was immensely delicious! When Julie, Andrew and Bryn were done their food, they ran just down the street to Tim Hortons and brought back some doughnuts, Tim Bits and other Tim Horton-y delights. Bryn and I decided that before going to Dairy Queen for a second dessert, we needed to make a detour and see the Vernon Community Music School once again. From 1998 until we graduated from high school, Bryn, Tyler and I had taken music lessons at VCMS and we wanted to make sure it still looked the same. It did and we continued back to the highway for DQ treats, which very few of us actually finished since we were so completely full by this time.

As we started back to Kelowna, those of us in the girl's car (now numbering five since Keli had decided to join the more exciting car) took another detour toward the north end of Okanagan Lake. We found a small public beach just past the Vernon airport and piled out for the first of three Lake Dunks. Max climbed a willow tree while Andrew found some of its branches tied together to form a swing, quickly climbed into it, and got Keli to push him. Bryn and I documented Andrew's tree swinging experience on video with Bryn's and Julie's cameras and then I took pictures of Cherry, Bryn and Julie on the beach and also an airplane that flew over us on final approach to the runway. Chris meanwhile was sitting on a log and twirling his key lanyard while he watched the rest of us run around. Bryn was in the process of trying to figure out how to get a picture of all eight of us sitting on the log when a little girl came walking across the beach, so Bryn asked if she could take the picture, which she kindly agreed to. Then it was time for us to dunk. The guys had all changed back into their clothes at the waterslides, so only us girls were adventurous enough to get wet again. As Julie and I started wading into the water, I joked that I should throw her in. When she asked if I was serious, I replied that if someone would help me I most definitely was serious. Immediately Max, Andrew and Keli, who had heard the exchange, were at my side begging Julie's permission to throw her into the lake. She agreed, sat down in the shallow water and held up her arms and legs. We all grabbed her hands and feet, swung her counting, "ONE-TWO-THREE" and threw her a couple feet into the water. Julie shrieked and yelped and splashed. The rest of us were helplessly giggling on the shore, half because we hadn't exerted ourselves enough to throw her very far and half because on TWO I had lost my footing and fell straight back into the water on my bottom. Later I found out that Bryn had caught the whole thing on video! When our laughter subsided, Max suggested they throw me next. It looked like fun and was an easy way to get wet so I also agreed to the Lake Toss. They must have swung me in just such a way that I turned mid-air and ended up landing in the water stomach-down. When I splashed my way back to the surface, I found Julie laughing so hard that she fell back into the water. Her fall caused me to start laughing too and when we tried to stop giggling, one of us would start again so it took a few minutes to stop completely. I think if we wouldn't have stopped we might have had to get one of the guys to rescue us from laugh-drowning. I wanted to try for a more dignified landing so while Bryn and Cherry waded into the water for their own Lake Dunk, the three guys tried the Lake Toss on me again. Although I didn't know it at the time, Chris, still sitting on the log, had picked up Bryn's camera and got this throw on video. This time Max and Andrew let go of my legs just a tiny bit before Keli let go of my arms which made it possible for me to land crouched in the water, but still on my feet! As it dawned on me that I had made a pretty good landing, I realized that I needed to finish in good Olympic style. I sprang straight up and threw my arms into the air like a gymnast who just nailed a difficult vault. Then Julie and I swam out a little ways and proceeded to get our legs tangled in a forest of seaweed. I mentioned that I'd heard this area was the Ogopogo's feeding ground and we both hurriedly headed back to the beach. Us girls dried off and we all ran back to the cars to continue on to the next lake.

The drive from Vernon to Oyama was relatively uneventful except for about five minutes when we couldn't see the guy's car anywhere behind us. We wondered if they had broken down and Cherry slowed to way below the speed limit so Max could catch up to us. They finally caught up just before we turned off the highway onto Oyama Rd. between Kalamalka Lake and Woods Lake. We drove to a small public beach on the south end of Kalamalka Lake and were delighted to find a small dock just a short swim from shore. Before Lake Dunk #2 we got some pictures of a really neat sand castle someone had made and was still intact near the water. Then Julie, Bryn, Cherry and I cautiously walked into the rocky-bottomed lake. Once it was deep enough we dunked under and started swimming to avoid walking on the sharp rocks. Julie got to the dock first and climbed up the ladder at the back and then helped me climb up the side of the dock. Cherry was strong enough to pull herself up and she and Julie hauled Bryn up. We decided our course of action and started with the 4-Person Synchronized Dive. When we were all back on the dock, Julie, Cherry and I executed the Lake Tossed on Bryn, then Julie, Bryn and I attempted to Lake Toss Cherry although, without her strength, we were little weaklings and barely even got her over the edge of the dock. Our final event was the 4-Person Synchronized Cannon Ball. Cherry, Julie and I cannon balled with such enthusiasm that we managed to sink our feet into the surprisingly muddy lake bottom up to our ankles and when we surfaced, we laughed and shrieked so much that we almost drank half the lake (just a slight hyperbole)!! We finally calmed down enough to swim to shore and quickly raced back to our cars for the final dip.

We drove about 20 seconds to the other side of the thin strip of land separating the two lakes and parked beside the railway tracks next to Woods Lake. Bryn got to the beach first and found a rope hanging from a willow tree. I decided to sacrifice myself and tested out the rope to see if it could hold any weight; I soon pronounced it swing-able. As I swung out over the shallow edge of the lake, I realized that I was holding the rope too high and if I let go I would surely hit the bottom of the lake so I decided against swinging my way into the lake. Bryn tried the rope too, but held on lower so her fall into the water would be shorter. In the end it didn't help too much since she hit the bottom anyway, but her landing wasn't too hard and it provided us with new laughs because she looked so funny. Then us girls swam out to one of the buoy's and tried to push it completely under water without much success. Finally, spent of all energy, we walked back up to the railway tracks and watched the strange game that the guys had invented as we were swimming and then sat around the parking lot and talked for a bit until we all were so thirsty we had to leave.

We drove to Winfield on the opposite side of Woods Lake from the highway which gave us a really pretty view of dusk settling over the valley. At Winfield we got onto the highway again and came back to our house. Again Cherry's driving got us to our destination much before the guys arrived. We had no idea where the three other guys had gone until they finally showed up and said they had stopped at Andrew's house on the way to let him change into clean clothes. Andrew had put on a plaid shirt to match the plaid shirts that Chris and Max were wearing. I told Keli that he needed one also to match the rest of the guys and he asked if my dad had any plaid shirts. I ran to find one and then got the idea that all us girls should wear plaid shirts too for some pictures. Bryn and I each only had one plaid shirt, but I grabbed two other of my dad's shirts for Cherry and Julie, which were of course way too big. We decided that the shirts not fitting right would make an even better plaid photoshoot since none of our plaid patterns and colours matched anyway. My mum had a great time taking crazy pictures of us with both her cameras and told me later that she had taken 79 pictures of us in our plaid! When the photoshoot was finished, we discussed plans for doing stuff together another day this week and then everyone headed home.

I'm pretty sure that the second Waterslide Day was much more eventful than the first, but now we'll have to figure out how to make the third even better!

Julie Days

After coming home from college, I had three days between trips to relax in Kelowna. I spent a good part of those three days with one of my bestest friends, Julie. On Tuesday we hung out and talked, a lot. Wednesday afternoon we biked 9 km's on the Mission Park Greenway from my house to the lake. It was downhill on the way there, which meant it was uphill coming back. After biking 18 km's total that day, I'm still recovering!

On the Manteo Resort dock before starting the uphill journey back

On Thursday, my mum took Bryn, Julie and me out to Milestone's for lunch where I spent a good portion of the meal trying to watch the Canada/Norway World Championship hockey game on a TV much too far away from our table. Then we drove downtown to the Sails and Kerry Park where my mum held a mini-photoshoot of the three of us.

Other activities included having an English-author movie night and playing mini-golf at Scandia. Friday morning our family drove to Lacombe, AB for a weekend family reunion and Sunday morning, before we had even started driving home, Julie flew back to Andrews for PT summer school. Hopefully August comes quickly so that I can hang out with Julie again when she comes home to do her clinicals!