New Life, New House, New school

After a late night of putting together a powerpoint presentaion for both services at church, and the outline for speaking to the Sunday School classes, last Sunday I shared with Trinity about my time in Sudan. It was harder than I thought it would be, to cram about 7GB of pictures and a year's worth of life (a VERY different life) into one 5 minute power point presentation and a 45 minute talk. One of the church members commented that they could have had me speak at several of the sunday school classes, for as much information as they wanted to hear about Sudan. So, for those who attended, thank you for coming, and sorry that it was so short.

Currently, I'm enroute to Morgantown, WV for graduate school in Counseling, in which I begin on Monday. This has been an extremely quick turn around time from leaving Africa, to coming home, and then leaving again. I hope that my parents are coping. ;) Morgantown is about 5 hours away from Bowie, and I have fridays off from classes, so we will see about return visits now and then.

Just so you all are in the loop, last week when I went to Morgantown to meet my roomate and see my new house, I also had an interview with Nuru International (Nuru= light of God in Kiswahili), which is a new development organization for developing countries, such as Kenya, Sudan, etc. At first I was definitely going to decline an invitation to work there because I am set to attend grad school and then onto working at Tumaini Counseling center in Nairobi, Kenya; however, at the interview I was told that the contracts are only year-to-year. The CEO of Nuru was impressed by my interview and asked if I change my mind about grad school, to contact him. After the interview, I contemplated this.
A year is not very long in the span of life and grad school will always be there, and God-willing, so will Tumaini. I took this before God in prayer, and also to all my friends and family (even the Starbucks barista). Upon giving it great thought, made a pro/con list, and prayed, I decided that working for Nuru for a year is a great plan for the next year. HOWEVER, I don't officially have the job yet. If the funding is available for the second team to go out (the first team leaves Sept 22), then most likely I will be on that second team. The plan is for the second team to leave around February and would be in SW'n Kenya for 6 months. After the six months is completed, I would work for Nuru state-side for another 4-6 months.

So what would I be doing for Nuru? Well, based on my experience in Ikotos, I would be the Project Manager for the Education sector. My job would be to check out the existing school on the project site (if there is an existing school), and talk to the town elders/officials about what their needs and concerns are in regards to education. At the end of the six months, I would be doing a lot of processing from the data I gathered, and then training volunteers for the project. **Note: The information here is what I gathered from the interview, and from the website, www.nuruinternational.org So it is possible that my job description and description of Nuru is not completely accurate and some aspects may be missing.

What about grad school? Well, I will definitely be attending this fall, and we will see what happens in the next 6 months as to whether or not I continue in the spring. If I go to Kenya with Nuru, then I will be dropping out of grad school for a year and will attempt it again after Nuru. I am also looking into attending Liberty University instead of returning to WVU. That plan is still extremely undefined and undetermined. The most I have done is order an information packet from Liberty. The reason for the switch is so that A: I will need Bible school credit for AIM, and B: Liberty offers an online program in which I can work and go to school. The program is 48 credit hours and they offer 8-week long sessions. I still haven't decided if I want to do the online program or not-- I very much enjoy the interaction and debate that happens in the classroom. However, as I realized in the past, when I had an internship at the Dept. of State, I work better through distance learning, while working full-time. Apparently it keeps me focused.

So, we will see what the future brings. Thank you all for following along.

BTW- Here are some pictures of my new house in Morgantown and of my friends Greta and Melissa who came to visit while I was there. Greta is leaving for Nicaragua this week, through Mennonite Christian Council (MCC), within the SALT program. She will be teaching music at a cultural center. For more info on her, check out her blog that's linked to the right of my page. Also, my new roomate, Lori, whom I've just met, is very nice and I think we will get along well. However, she is leaving in February for 3 months with Mercy Ships, serving in Benin, W.Africa as a nurse. Wow, that connection is amazing, eh?

Fridge picture with some of my Africa friends, mixed with my old American buds

All the prayer cards I've received from other missionaries in Africa (if you don't see yours, contact me, so I can get one!)

In my bedroom, the giant tin trunk from Kenya that I brought my stuff in. It will now serve as a dresser because I currently don't own anything better.

My living room with gas-burning fire place!

Greta and I at our old favorite studying place-- We've waited 2 years to hang out here again, first she was in Amsterdam, then I was in Sudan, and now she's going away again. :(