I loved my work in PNG and I loved the people.  It was not without its hardships but I learned a lot about myself and now I have a better idea of what I am looking for in regards to future work.  At this point I am looking into other options for literacy work outside the US.  India is still on the short list as well as some other countries.  I haven’t really ruled anything out yet and am proceeding with prayer, lots of emails and conversations.  Hopefully I will have a place confirmed sooner rather then later and then begin the process to raise more financial support, get things in order and head out once again.

But in the meantime I have time here and plan to use it wisely.  I want to enjoy my family, friends and just being in California again.  I still have some archiving to finish from work in PNG.  And a long list of the typical appointments doctor, dentist, etc. that you have when you return from living abroad.

If you are in California I would love to reconnect with you, if you are not in California I would still like to try.  Please send me an email at joy.candee@gmail.com and I will call you or email you back.  It would be great just to get together but I also have lots of stories and pictures from PNG and love answering questions.  And of course I will continue to keep you all posted here with tales of transition, life and my slice of the world.

In the past 48 hours I have greeted my mom, dad and brother, done some laundry, started to unpack, slept two nights in my own bed, bought a cell phone (want the number? email me!), visited with my Grandparents, driven a car (this is a big one for me), taken our dog for a walk when it was still dark outside (another big one) and generally began the settling in process.

I still have to buy a car, buy a computer, really unpack and organize my room in order to start feeling like this might be normal but it is all baby steps.

Today the appointments start.  Chiropractor, dentist and a pedicure (maybe I will let them remove some callouses or maybe I will keep them as a personal souvenir for awhile).  Then tomorrow a hair cut and maybe a trip to the doctor to find out about my G6PD blood test (malaria eradication is still at the back of my mind).

Last night my brother and I went out to eat and we asked for something that hadn’t been on the menu for a long time and this lead somehow into us chatting with our server about PNG.  She asked me what the hardest thing about it was and I responded that while living in the village and being on one hand very integrated but on the other hand feeling and knowing you will always be an outsider was very hard.  I think in America for me it is difficult coming back because I probably look and act most of the time pretty integrated and normal but somehow inside. how I think and feel is not the same anymore.  It will be a continual adjustment but I am thankful for conversations like this and the little opportunities to share with people who are interested.

These past couple of days have been super special.  It is great to be able to be with friends who know you well even after you’ve been away from the US.  We all change and grow but if our friendship foundations are strong enough they can endure those changes gracefully.  And in the best cases, this just makes the friendship even more precious.

This weekend was actually rather rainy and stormy in Atlanta so we kept having to choose multiple activities in case the weather didn’t cooperate with our first plan.  This lead to many earnest checkings of weather.com which made me laugh because rarely did it ever tell us anything we couldn’t have found out by simply looking outside.  I do understand and appreciate weather forecasting services in the US but it is just one of the many things is no longer part of my ‘normal’.  But despite the uncooperative weather we managed to have lots of fun just hanging out, enjoying good food, visiting an art museum with live jazz music, getting a walking tour of Emory where Jenny V. works and driving around together.  I am so thankful for Jenny and Jenny.

It is always nice to put faces with different names and email addresses, I also enjoyed being reconnected with friends that I have gotten to know over my last few years of interactions.  Some of the bonding took place during the retreat in Malaysia where bread pudding and evenings at the hotel lounge made for shared comedy and happy memories.  Thanks Sue (pictures above with me) for rekindling some of those memories and for great talks and laughs over the past couple of days.

Besides debriefing with Sue, lots of yummy meals and meetings with almost ever office department, I also got the chance to do a bit of impromptu art.  For some people this might be their debriefing dream (good or bad) but for me it was a means to an end.  After some roughly cut silhouettes that ended up looking more like strange old men instead of  cute Onobasulu children, I ended up with a paper full of the paper equivalent of stick people and books with Onobasulu titles pertaining not to real Onobasulu books but instead to things that happened, were normal or part of day to day life there.  Not my finest artwork but yet another way to help process and work through the past three years.

So after all that excitement, I had some productive meetings with guys who work as directors over different world regions and areas.  This was where we discussed options for the future and what it would look like to stay working with literacy but with a team in another part of the world.  India is still one of those options but the feelers are out for other teams and situations that might work.  I am doing a bit of trail blazing with this but that just makes it more fun.  The next few months will give me time to talk to teams, maybe visit some places and prayerfully look into what the future could look like.  At this point I will be back in California at least a couple of months with no plans to come back to Georgia until July for some more pre-field training.  The future is a bit hazy at this point but it is all very exciting.  Basically the world is open to me and I know more or less what I am looking for so I am going to explore which doors remain open and which doors shut.  So that’s the plan…at least for now.

And now I am in Atlanta, Georgia.  This week is going to be a combination of work things and time with friends.  Tuesday and Wednesday are my debrief, reentry and future planning sessions.  Please pray during this time that I would benefit from the meetings and come away with a good plan for this next year.  Although I will no longer be in Papua New Guinea I hope to find another country where I can serve through literacy.

It has been great to see Jenny V. again and to be met at the airport.  We have chatted, caught up, eaten at Steak and Shake and enjoyed each others company.  Thursday evening Jenny O. (now Jenny A. but it somehow seems strange to refer to her like that) will be arriving from Chicago.  I am looking forward to this mini college reunion.  We haven’t been together since Jenny’s wedding in August 2009.

And after yet another full week, on Monday the 23rd I fly to California.  I am looking forward to being back in the golden state but for now I will enjoy all the southern delights and my friends here in Atlanta.

Kirkstall Abbey

Trying out the stone coffins.

There is one for everyone.

The river Aire on a beautiful sunny day.

A cream tea.  Yorkshire tea with milk, scone, jam, cream.  Yummy!

Dinner with new friends.

British toad in a hole.  Not egg in toast.  Sausage in fluffy pastry yummyness. Way better!

Malham Cove

Me on top of the cliff with the amazing limestone pavement.  A scene from HarryPotter was filmed up here.

Once again, beautiful weather with lots of sun.  Lovely.

But still very cold.  Cold enough for icicles!

But that didn’t make the waterfalls any less pretty coming from the natural rock formations.

An amazing Yorkshire view.

Goodbye from Yorkshire.

]]> http://joyellen.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/west-yorkshire/feed/ 0 joycandee IMG_8381 IMG_8376 IMG_8377 IMG_8382 IMG_8387 IMG_8403 IMG_8404 IMG_8407 IMG_8417 IMG_8425 IMG_8437 IMG_8435 IMG_8426 IMG_8440 http://joyellen.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/a-visit-to-york/ http://joyellen.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/a-visit-to-york/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:22:46 +0000 joycandee http://joyellen.wordpress.com/?p=3484 ]]> My last visit to England was about 8 years ago now.  I visited London and Oxford and had a great time with two of my German siblings.  One was attending Oxford at the time and the other traveled with me.   Now I am seeing another part of the country.  It is wonderful to spend time with Helen but since she is working, I took myself to York.  I could have easily spent another couple of days getting to know the city and exploring all the little side streets and shops.  I did not make it to Bettys tea shop but I do have a whole tin of Yorkshire Tea to bring back to the US thanks to Helen.  Tea is obviously very important here.  And since I enjoy a warm cup of tea every now and then, I did have a cup of tea in the afternoon while in York but other then that, I spent the whole day walking around, enjoying the city and the uncharacteristic but beautiful English sunshine.  Here are a few pictures of York!

York is now much bigger than its walled in city but the old city has plenty to see.  It was fun to walk along the wall and to orient myself and see the mix of old and new.

For lunch I had a pasty. I went for an nontraditional chicken and vegetable stuffed one but it was still very yummy.  It was also warm and hearty, perfect for a cold day.

I came across the minster because I heard the bells first. Of course you can see the tops from almost anywhere in the city but the bells were ringing, playing all sorts of different church songs.  It was beautiful to admire such an amazing building with a the perfect soundtrack.

I took a tour of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall.  It was amazing to see the wooden beams and paintings that lined the walls.  The craftsmanship that went into this building was quite remarkable.  All of the beams are held together by wooden pegs.

This was a stained glass window from one of the other rooms.

The view from the gardens over the river.  The day was once again beautiful. I am sure England will return to its cold and rainy winters soon enough but I am so thankful to have my days here in the sunshine.

Little towns dotted the landscape.  I never really thought too much about the English countryside but this is what it should look like.

The steep ascent to the top.

The view complete with military plane.  We heard and saw at least 6 of them wiz by during the day weaving low through the mountains.

Just part of the view from the top!

Helen with her eyes shut against the crazy wind.  We did it!

Happy but trying to stay balanced and not get blown off.  This was not a day to stand on the marker.

More of the great view complete with part of a dry stone wall in the foreground.  These crisscross the landscape dividing the fields.  They are amazingly engineered, running up and down the hillsides.

Rasta painted sheep grazing on the hillside.  They are actually painted to mark ownership but some of them were covered in quite an amazing mix of colors.

A cave that we passed on our way back down the mountain that was probably the result of quarrying the rocks for the nearby villages.

The view from inside.  We followed the rock paths to the very back.  It was both beautiful and echoy.

The final path down back towards the car. We made a large circle up and around the mountain.

Did you know that all the unmarked swans in England belong to the queen? Well, it’s true.  They do.

The sunset over one of the lakes.  We enjoyed it while sipping a cup of tea.  Lovely.

Behind the big Rathaus in Hannover.  It was super cold and windy.

With Regine in front of HER poster after her concert in Hildesheim.  Regine is an opera singer and it is great to get to attend her performances.  She shines on stage.  We saw her perform during the New Years Concert with the Hildesheim orchestra.

The most important part of Köln outside of the amazing Dome is of course a Kölsch.  This is a nice light beer served in a small thin glass. I am enjoying my second of the evening in a typical beer hall where the food served is yummy but just an accessory for the beer.  It is all about atmosphere and the people!

Grete and I by a park in Bonn.  We spent the day relaxing and shopping and seeing the city.  It was great!

Gift giving for the Sturms is seriously fun.  With all the creative talent there is never a dull moment.  Even the wrapping can be special.  This bow was hand drawn by Damian because he did’t want to waste time trying to tie a bow.  Go figure.

Me and the boys with them wearing their new PNG hats.

Everyone enjoying their new gifts and me (those knees are mine) relaxing on the couch.

Those who play hard also sleep hard.  A few family members enjoying an afternoon doze during our family get together at the Becks.

My German Papa all wrapped up for Christmas.

Between Christmas an New Years we filled the time with knitting.  This is the cousin’s Zußdorf knitting group.  I am still working on my scarf.

Me and my German cousin Annika.

Florian’s Birthday always has the final say.  29 this year on the 31st.  Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Flo!

Then a fun relaxed evening enjoying raclette and the chocolate game where it begins on your forehead and should end up in your mouth. Mama did very well. Papa complained his forehead was too big and Franzi and I…

Did end up getting the chocolate to our mouths but ended up with quite a bit on our faces too!

The food was as always delicious and I helped Franzi make these special berry, espresso, creamy desserts and Papa liked it because he got to carmalize the tops with one of his favorite food toys.

New Years wouldn’t be complete without fireworks from sparklers to big fly into the sky and bang firecrackers.  The whole neighborhood lit up at midnight.

A toast to the New Year.  May this year be better than the last!