Market Experience! :]

Wow! I just got back from the market. I got a skirt that should have been $15-20 dollars for 5 bucks... Got Mason something really really awesome... Got both of my sisters something small but expensive and cool ;) I know what I am getting momma and daddy, I have to find just the right one! Very fun.

So... About the market. There are so many fruits that I had never seen before! I had (for the first time ever, I might add) fresh papaya for breakfast. The market experience here is quite interesting in that there's not many stores with set prices. You can bargain with the merchant and get things much cheaper than the price tag says. I saw lots of knock off Ray-Ban, Dulce and Gabbana, and Coach sunglasses, along with enough Victoria's Secret perfumes to make a whole army high. So yeah! It was really fun. One thing that was not so fun, aka gave me a bigger rush than if I would have jumped off the empire state building, was the traffic. It was TERRIFYING to walk on the side of the road. The drivers are day dreaming or something because they will come within inches of you. They pass 3 big trucks on a 2 car road. Yeah.

Within my first two hours in this country I realized that this is not America anymore when it comes to driving. Never again will I wish that an old lady would drive faster, or that Gramps would just pass, even though the yellow line is solid. These people drive like morons because there are no yellow lines, and there are no "School Zone" signs to make old ladies drive slower. On our way to this campus that we're staying on, from the airport, We saw a car accident. We had been waiting for twenty of so minutes before being able to pass. I waited patiently for the bus to move again, and figured that they were just waiting for the paramedics and/or firemen to finish up. WRONG. We were finally able to drive by (I think the guy in the vehicle behind the one that had an accident moved the crushed little pickup into the other lane so that he could pass...) and what I saw horrified me. In the road, beside a little black pickup truck with the bed of the truck torn in half on one side, were 3 lifeless bodies. One of the guys was severed completely in half. The other guy that I could see clearly had a huge hole in the back of his head, with the contents thereof all over the road. I couldn't really see what happened to the other guy, as he fell out of the other side of the bed of the truck. They ride around back there all the time around here, and it's not illegal. Though I wish it was, because those guys would have been less likely to die if they had a law about buckling up around here.
Talk about culture shock! Seeing that wreck and those mangled guys made me cry. Yep. That's right folks. Like a little girl getting coal for Christmas. There were all kinds of people around, and no one did anything. It's like "Hey! Look! There's a white girl with brown hair and green eyes!" and every guy in town can't take his eyes off me, but there is DEAD PEOPLE in the road and they're like "Huh? Where? Oh yeah, him? He's been there since Thursday." It's crazy. Needless to say, that was a sobering experience that made me realize how selfish it is to ask Jesus to wait about coming back. Sometimes in a first world country we forget that less fortunate countries actually exist, you know?

The girls that sold me the skirt for 5 dollars? Yeah the look that they got on their faces when I pulled out $20 was insane. And I could blow through $20 in less that 10 minutes in Wal-Mart on any given trip. I came to the realization that 1: I can be a real brat when it comes to getting what I want and 2: how little happiness depends on stuff. I have honestly been having a blast here just walking around campus trying to learn spanish from the locals. I would LOVE to come work in a place like this for a year. That's the best way to learn the language anyway. The kids are so sweet here. I took lots of pictures of the kids at the elementary school here today! They LOVE the camera. :)I could seriously live here for 6 months to a year on $1000. Food is cheap, water is cheap, clothes are cheap (AND CUTE!). The only problem would be the fact that I am indeed, a white girl. White girls are NOT safe here. At all. The locals are poor, so they steal white girls hoping that the white girl's boyfriend, husband, female friends, etc. will be willing to pay ransom for the girl's safety. CRAZY! I think that I would totally consider moving to a central American country in a few years. Before that happens, however, I will A: get my bachelor's in Nursing and B: obtain mad skills in martial arts. :) Haha I might not know Karate right now, but I do know "freestyle kick you booty" so I promise that I am *relatively* safe here :) I'm not going down unless the boy at least has some SERIOUS injuries. Daddy didn't raise no fool ;) haha So yeah. Miss you guys and I hope to see you soon!!

Honduras!

We are FINALLY here (and have been, sans-internet, since Friday around noon)! I've found Honduras to be an amazing country so far - perfect weather and sweet people all around. Though the boys can be a bit forward sometimes, it's been really fun getting to know people. I am even brushing up on my Spanish a bit! ¿Donde esta el baño? Hahaha! Anyways... That's all for right now :]

HEADING TO HONDURAS!! :D

We are officially pulling out of Fountainview for our mission trip! More later... Gotta go ;)

Chicken Pox, Check-ups, Confinement and Hydrotherapy :)

For the past 3 days, I have been confined to my room. My 4 hall mates have to use a different bathroom, and I am not allowed to use the hall phone, or even venture out to the lobby. Why you ask? Well, on Friday we found out that my friend John LaVanture has Chicken Pox. I have had a strange rash on my legs for about a month now, but all of the sudden this rash became a big deal.

You see, originally I went to the deans about my ring toe (the fourth one, right beside the pinkie toe :P) because in vespers it started to hurt like crazy! When Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. James got to looking at my leg, they kind of assumed that I had chicken pox. (because John has chicken pox?) So with that, I was confined to my room. And it has been wonderful. Haha!

Yesterday I watched some sermons on Rosa's little portable DVD player that she brought for me. I also read a book by Doug Bachelor called Who Do You Think You Are? about our identities in Christ. Very, very powerful little book.

On Friday night I noticed a big, long, red streak going from my hurt toe all the way up to 2 inches past my ankle. I pretty much started freaking out and insisting that we take me to a doctor (or just skip a step and take me right to the morgue). You see, that streak meant that the infection in my puffy, painful little toe was trying to spread all over my body and kill me! (hi, my name is melodramatic! What's yours?)

So anyways... We did hot and cold treatment on it since it was already about 10pm. *Side note: Hot and Cold treatment is a form of self torture natural remedy where you stick the affected limb into a tub of scolding hot water, as hot as you can stand, for 3 minutes. Then you have another tub, full of freezing cold water, on standby. The 2nd tub is there so that at the end of your 3 minutes in the hot water you may thrust your poor, afflicted appendage into this subzero pool of misery for 30 whole seconds! You know what you do after that? Repeat the process about 5 times. Haha!*

So yeah! We did that to my foot on Friday night and then around 11pm finally got to sleep. We got up at 1am to make sure that the red streak wasn't spreading, or else we'd have to go to the ER at one in the morning. Thank goodness it wasn't moving, so we went back to bed. Woke up yesterday morning to find that my toe was a little more swollen, so I called my daddy, who is a medical Superman (paramedic). He said that I should go to the doctor and get antibiotics, and/or try soaking it in Epsom salt. I soaked my foot for 2 hours in Epsom salt, and then put a charcoal poultice on it for the rest of the day. 12,000IUs of vitamin D and 8,000-10,000mg of vitamin C later, the red streak is completely gone as of last night, as is most of the pain in my toe! Praise the Lord!

I still have the rash on my legs and whatever, so I am still quarantined. I have an appointment at the clinic on Monday, so hopefully when they tell us that I, in fact, do NOT have chicken pox! then hopefully I will be unleashed allowed to return to my normal civilian life. Although I am ready to escape the confinement of these four walls, I will admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed having the bathroom to myself. :) Anyways, that's life right now.

Wear your seatbelt, take your Vitamin C, and tell your family you love them!

PS - I love you gram, mommy, daddy, Libby, Maddi, Allie, the rest of the Hasty crew, Uncle Mel and his clan! You're all the cooliest!

PPS -
*24 days until my mission trip to Honduras
*3 months 13 days until Jr/Sr Campout (crazy! I remember my jr year campout like it was yesterday!)
*3 months 25 days till grad
*6 months 18 days until my 18th birthday! :P haha

Out with the old, In with the new... :)

At the end of this past summer, I was in a pretty awesome hardcore dirt biking accident. I broke my wrist, chipped my tooth, and got a pretty good concussion out of the whole deal. Over Christmas break, we found out that, while the bone in my wrist is healed for the most part, I have some ligament damage in there that will need to be fixed surgically. The surgery has a pretty long recovery period (depending on what all they have to fix once they get in there) so we decided that I would have to wait until this coming summer after graduation for me to have the surgery. My hand still functions completely normally. The only problem is that it's always tingly and painful. In order to try and minimize my pain between then and my surgery, I was told to minimize the use of that hand/arm. It's my left hand, and I am left handed, so that was a pretty stupid idea, I thought. This included playing flute too!


I came back to school and told Craig that I couldn't play anymore. Shortly after that, I decided to take up piano, as the piano is apparently a more "neutral" position for my wrist than the flute (or something like that). I have had one lesson so far and it's going GREAT! I like piano a lot. 


The moral of the story is this: why does God allow pain to happen? The pain in my wrist let me know that there was a problem in there. A problem that needed to be fixed. Pain and suffering in this world lets us know that there is a problem with it. It's called the sin problem and it needs to be fixed. Just like my wrist will need surgery, we all need God to do a heart surgery on us to replace our cold, stony hearts. We can take "pain killers" like relationships, money, status, and lots of other things to help us forget that something is wrong. However, just like Advil doesn't fix the core problem in my wrist, these things don't make our ailment go away. So whenever you feel like you're going through a lot and you don't understand why God is allowing things to happen to you, remember: it's a reminder from God that this world is not our home so we shouldn't get too comfortable here.


Makes me homesick for Heaven though, how about you?


He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
--Revelation 21:4

Sun Run Here I come! :)

I am currently training for a 10K in April called the Vancouver Sun Run. It is the second largest timed 10K in the world with a grand total of 60,000 participants per year. Is that cool or what?! I am so excited.

Yesterday in PE, I had the opportunity to test out my training thus far. We had one hour to make it to the slide (approx. 5K from the school) and back (10K total). My goal for the Sun Run is 48 minutes, but I knew that I would not be able to go quite that fast yet. My goal was to make it to the slide before we had to turn around! With much thanks to Heather and Andrew, who kept me motivated and truckin' along, we made it! Now I just have to shave some time off of it and I will be good to go!

This morning as I was replacing the water jug for the girls' dorm water fountain, I smooshed my finger in between the dispenser and the jug. When I went to pull my finger out, the jug tipped over! (It was one of the inconvenient ones that didn't have a handle.) And when the jug hit the wall, it EXPLODED! Right in half as a matter of fact! It was quite the predicament as approx. 5 gallons of water (mixed with dirt and aloe from the house plant that got in the way of the explosive jug) spilled all over the carpet. All of this took place before 6am, mind you. Needless to say, I am wide awake today. And I got a 2nd shower this morning. Haha Anyways, that's life these days. It's week of prayer and Nathan Renner is here. He's a great speaker and this week of prayer is just what I needed as I am trying to strengthen my relationship with God as much as possible before grad! Less than 4 months till graduation!!! :D

Las Vegas and other interesting happenings... :)

Well, it was an amazing tour in Las Vegas, and I was really blessed by Revelation Today by John Bradshaw. It was a real privilege to be a part of that ministry sharing our music with the world! Since I have less memory than that of a grapefruit, I have forgotten most of the exciting happenings of the trip except eating in a casino. That was really rather fun!

Since we have come back from the trip, school and work have resumed pretty uneventfully. I have been practicing guitar a lot so that I can finish the song that I am trying to write... As part of my practice, I learned one of my very favorite songs by Mumford and Sons called Awake My Soul. If you haven't heard it, [don't you dare close this tab, because you haven't even finished this whole post] open a new tab and go listen to it!! I pretty much love Mumford and Sons.

I am still trying to decide where to go to college. I have prayed a lot about it and I am thinking more and more that University of Kentucky might be detrimental to my spiritual health, so I don't know. God will definitely have to work some miracles to pay for Southern, but that's where I would really like to go. I mean, yes. There are some bad apples at Southern. But at least it's an apple orchard, you know? Good apples have the right environment to grow there and they don't have to be influenced by the bad ones. It just seems that the more I pray about it, the more University of Kentucky seems like a pumpkin patch. If I was looking for other things in life, then sure! Pumpkins are fine. But I don't want to be a pumpkin. The whole reason that I came to Fountainview was to become an apple, and the last thing I want to do is go right back to being a little pumpkin. You see, pumpkins are mushie on the inside. People don't generally scrape the insides of apples out for halloween because they are consistent all the way through. Pumpkins look great on the outside and they look like they have everything together, but they allow people to just come and empty them out. That's not cool. I don't like that empty feeling the world offers. I know that I could choose to make UofK an apple orchard experience or whatever, but I am honest with myself enough to know that my environment affects me a lot. We'll see where God leads and I would still really like to live at home so I guess UofK is not completely out of the picture, but I am not about to turn back on my faith so that I can live at home... That's a hard thing to say but I am sure that where ever God leads me will be the best for my growth and for my family.

Dear Lord, PLEASE not more than 3 hours from home. I beg of you!!! Amen.

Anyways. Now I am going to learn some other cool songs. :) Hasta la vista!