Our First Snowfall!

We had our first "snowfall" this morning. I woke up to loud thunder and bright flashes of lightning around 5:30, but didn't open my door until 6:30, when I saw slushy, hail-y, snow on the ground!

The kids were so excited about the snow (thought it's more hail and slush than "snow") it was nearly impossible to get them to pay attention in class. For PE, they got to walk outside to go down to the gym and play volleyball.

The snow outside the elementary building
Snow in the car park
This was taken at about 7:00am this morning, so it's pretty dark, but you can kind of make out the snow and some snowflakes (more like rainy and hail...) that I woke up to!

Hunza

Here are just some teasers from the trip I just took up to Hunza - an area in Northern Pakistan where the Himalayas, Karakorams, and Hindu-Kush Mountains all come together. I'm going to make a photo album on facebook with all of the pictures, so you'll be able to see them all there.

kids :)

Just 2 quick stories to (hopefully) make you smile!

I have only one German student, and this week, he is our "hand monitor," meaning he is in charge of making sure the students wash their hands before going to lunch and at other times during the day.
Yesterday, a lot of the students were rushing through washing their hands, and not doing as good of a job as he thought they should - he takes his job very seriously! He actually ran after a couple of them to make them come back and do a better job! Towards the end of the line, when I could tell he was being very harsh on them for not washing their hands properly, I almost said "looks like we've got a hands-Nazi here!" Fortunately, I thought before I spoke. Not only is he German (and I've learned that Germans are still ashamed of their history), but none of the other students would have understood at all! No Seinfeld here to teach about soup-Nazis, either!

We've been studying the prefix "omni" in Bible - omnipresent, omniscient, etc.
Today, one of my students made a very sweet acrostic with my name (Miss Carroll), putting a nice adjective for every letter. For the "o" in Carroll, she wrote "omnigood"!!

Urglish

I bought a new flashlight the other weekend, it's one that doesn't need batteries - you just pump the handle and it charges up. The shop keeper asked if I wanted the box for it - I didn't really think I needed it, but I said sure anyway. I'm so glad I did!

This is what's written on the side of the box, exactly as it appears: (fyi for you non-British speakers - "torch" = "flashlight")

Product Characteristics:

1) This product is a new science and technology product and made with high and new science and technology. It can illuminate only placing it in rhythm.

2) No need any power, no environmental pollution. Low noise and health, Comparing with common torch.it can be several times on lift.

3) Con stantly using this health torch, it can benefit to your palm, arm and shoulder stretching and blood circulation, so as to let your hands relax and brain clever,hand and brain coor dinate and promote your brain memory and health composition.

Doesn't that make you smile?!

Miscellaneous

Here are just some miscellaneous pictures I haven't put up that you might like...

This butterfly was at the bottom of the chairlift in Murree. I got several really good pictures of it - isn't it beautiful?!



Cows.




One foggy walk in Murree.



My first few nights here, I was painfully bored, as everyone thought I needed time to "settle in." I hadn't brought any cards with me, because I thought maybe they'd be seen as sinful or something. Little did I know how much I enjoy playing solitaire. So I spent my first 2 nights here creating my own deck of playing cards - before I went to the grocery store and saw that they have piles of cards!



In Murree, you can rent a horse to ride up and down the road. The horses are usually gorgeous like this one, but you don't really ride them anywhere except on the road with all the cars and people. Often, you'll see them sickenly emaciated - you could hang a rope on their hip bones and wash clothes on their ribs. Yet people still ride them or pull carts with them. No one knows what kind of horses they are, but I call them Albinos.
In Lahore, people used donkeys to pull carts and do all that work, but I haven't seen many up here.
Okay - just some odds and ends for you to look at!

Weekend in Lahore

I went to a Pakistan Orientation in Lahore this past weekend. It was a great time of fellowship and learning more about the country's history, politics, religion, culture, etc, etc...
The place where we stayed had a beautiful garden, and there was lots of new wildlife around, including a pair of nesting falcons! I took more pictures of animals than anything else, so here they are:



This is some African bird which people were calling something like a "Hoosa." A whatsa? I don't know.


To make me feel as if I were camping in Yosemite, there were plenty of wild chipmunks running all over the campus.



I'd been trying to get a picture of this falcon all morning, and had just about given up, when I wandered on to the basketball courts and he was just sitting right there!



The next day, this one was sitting up on the phone wire, squaking at the other, who was gathering twigs and such to build a nest in a tree near by.


On the bus ride home, we stopped at this truck stop, which had a Pakistani restaurant, a KFC, and... a Subway! You can barely make out their sign on the far right of this picture. I was so excited to go in and be able to say "a 6 inch on Italian, please." Even if I did have to repeat it a few times...

A Walk in the Woods

I walked into Murree this weekend with some friends, and we took the forest trail, rather than the road we've walked on before. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, and hardly put my camera away. Here are some glimpses of the trail, and some of Murree. We went on the tourist-y chairlift, which takes you down the mountain to a little snack/picnic area, then you hop back on and go back up. It was a really fun day, and the weather was great!

Animals!

One little monkey, sitting on the security wall outside the elementary school building.






A tiny baby monkey with it's mom (or somebody), walking around the basketball court outside my classroom window.






I think that, if Fort Worth really wants to take the title of "Cow Town" seriously, they need to take some pointers from Pakistan!






No, I'm not calling my students animals, but this is the view from my classroom while the kids were outside at PE...


and this was taken 3 minutes after they came inside. When the kids are away, the monkeys will play!

I took my love and I took it down...

This past weekend was pretty full. On Friday night, a lodge nearby hosted a dance lesson in Hebrew dancing, which was very, very fun! They have several more dances planned in the upcoming weeks, and I am really looking forward to them.




I went down to Islamabad on Saturday for some shopping, and had a very productive day! The road down is technically 4 lanes across - 2 each way. With the monsoon season, though, it's been really rainy, and, therefore, very muddy: Here, the mud is spilling over the retaining wall into a gutter on the side of the road.




Here, the mud has broken through the retaining wall and completely covered the closest 2 lanes of traffic, but was stopped by the divider. Traffic here is pushed into 2 lanes - one each way.







Once in Islamabad, we got a lot of shopping done. You have to go to at least 5 different shopping centers to pick up whatever you need, and one had canaries for sale. In the cage with the canaries, though, were a few birds that looked like pheasants (like this one on the left).




And this bird here, which is very colorful, but I'm not sure what it is. Any ideas?








It was a very busy weekend, and it was difficult to get up on Monday, but the week is off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to settling into a routine!

Pictures!

My laptop got connected to the internet here yesterday, which makes me feel a bit more at home - using my own computer and programs rather than the school's (especially because the filter on the school's internet wouldn't let me get to facebook! it was horrible!).
This means that I'm now able to upload some pictures I've taken to give you a better idea of where I am.


This is my bedroom. The bathroom is to the left and a short hall with lots of closet space that I don't need! There's also a nice big window seat just on the other side of the lamp.









This is the living room. My bedroom is through a door to the right, and the stove and sink are on the other side of the island to the left. That's the fridge that freezes my milk back in the corner by the window. It's all very cozy :)




I took this from a place where we had dinner last night. The school and where I'm living are just to the left of the saddle in the mountain. The saddle itself is the little town where we can do basic grocery shopping. Down to the right are homes - at night, when their lights are on, the whole mountain just glitters!







This is the sunset.













The first day of school is tomorrow! I met most of my students and their parents today. They're mostly Korean or German, with one Irish and one American; I have 9 total now. My classroom was basically already decorated and set up; I've just made some adjustments and additions. Our first 2 days are planned out, so I'll be busy until Monday working on the actual lesson plans for the rest of the term. They're on the quarter system here, so first term ends in October. It's nice to have it broken up that way - makes it easier to plan.

I never experienced jet lag, which was great - I didn't have time for it! I can't believe I still haven't been here 1 week. It feels like a lot longer than just 5 days!


Please pray that I'll be confident in my lesson plans, that I'll get and stay organized, and for positive working relationships with the rest of the faculty.

Here I Am!

Well, it's 9:00am on Saturday in Pakistan. I arrived yesterday morning at 7:00am and waited around for my luggage for about an hour. When I walked out of the airport, a woman from the school called out my name (I wonder how she knew who I was? Maybe I just stand out that much...) We hopped in a van-type thing and headed up, around Islamabad, into the Himalayan foothills to the school. It was hot and humid, very much like Texas in August, and I'd soaked through my salwar kameez before I ever even got my luggage.

I have my own "flat" in a gorgeous complex with most of the other staff. It's about a 5 minute drive from where we live to the school, so you have to hitch a ride and time it right to be able to get to and from the school with whoever has a car. During the school year, there's a bus that goes back and forth a few times a day.

I was wide awake when I arrived yesterday, having slept very well on both my flight from LA to London and from London to Islamabad, so I was able to stay awake all day and go to sleep at night after dinner like a normal person, which was my plan. So yesterday I got tours of the school, the housing complex, and the little down you can walk to down the road.

We went to a store there where I picked up a few essentials - Lays potato chips, Honey Nut Cheerios, and apple juice. Down the street, you can buy chicken. Live chicken. Which they will kill, clean, and gut for you right there, then you take it home and boil all the meat off the bones to eat. I hear in Islamabad, and maybe Murree proper, you can buy frozen, meatless chicken. I think I'll hold out for that. At least for now. One day I'll experience picking out my own chicken to have killed, but I'm not quite ready for that yet. Accross the street from the chicken place, they have goats tied up for the same purpose, or they have pre-prepared goats - their skinless, gutless bodies hanging by their hairy tails for you to choose from... I'm sure I'll get used to it.

This morning I got a ride over to the school to use the internet (which is where I am now, obviously), and saw my first monkeys! We saw 3 playing in the baptismal oustide by the basketball courts. They are so fun to watch! Though I've been told they are annoying, can be dangerous, and can be rabid. I'm up in the computer room now, and can see the baptismal and basketball court out the window. When I looked out a few minutes ago, there were then at least 6 more monkeys playing in the baptismal and on the court. One monkey climbed up the hoop, sat on the rim, and then climbed in and hung onto the inside of the net. I have a feeling I won't get tired of watching them any time soon.

The school grounds used to be a retreat area for the British Army, so not only is it old, it's also beautiful. It's very foggy up here, very green, and very lush. Walking around, I can't help but think that I'm somewhere between Hogwarts and "Gorillas in the Mist." I've had all the formal tours, but I can't wait to explore more!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the official business - orientation. The students will also start arriving this week. I've met most all of the staff at least once, and everyone is very friendly. The school secretary is from Oregon, but it seems that most everyone else is from New Zealand or the UK.

We're driving into Murree today to do some more shopping. I'm sure I'll have more stories to tell, and will certainly keep you posted!

It was very, very difficult for me to leave San Jose, and almost more so during my layover in LA, because I knew it was the last time I'd be close to anything familiar. Once the plane took off for London, though, I started looking ahead. I haven't felt homesick or lonely at all yet, but please pray that some good friends will come along and relationships will develop with people I can trust and relate to.

Alright. The monkeys are gone and this post is long enough. More to come soon, I'm sure!

Commissioning

Today at church I went up on stage with one of the pastors for the church to pray over me. It's been really encouraging how my church has supported me. I never even had to ask for it; word just got out that I was planning on going to Pakistan, and they came to me and said "we want to support you however we can." Which I thought was really cool.
So today I went up on stage and looked out at the congregation while they stretched out their hands to pray over me and commission me to go off to Pakistan. It was really overwhelming, and I was glad the pastor didn't ask me to say anything, because I was on the verge of tears as it was, and I don't think I would've been able to speak.

After church, there was a missions lunch. I gave a power point presentation which was basically all about me - just about myself and what has gotten me to this point, so it was really easy, and actually almost fun. The group was pretty small and I knew almost everyone there, so it was really relaxed. I usually get pretty nervous talking in front of people, but this was good.

After me, a couple who had gone to Mexico talked about their trip, which was interesting. The wife is a teacher, and she's been going to Mexico during her summers every year for 17 years now, which was pretty encouraging to me, because that's kind of what I've always planned on doing - teaching during the year and going on trips during the summer. It was good to see someone else actually doing it. And that way, you get to develop relationships with people and still keep up with them over the years, not just go on one trip and then never see those people again.

I leave on Wednesday! Tomorrow will be busy, but then my sister is coming up on Tuesday, so we'll all get some time together as a family before I leave. Maybe my next post will be from Pakistan!

Itinerary

My flight itinerary came in the mail today. TEAM arranged my flights through a travel agency they use, so they figured it out and booked it all for me (which is quite nice!).

I'll be leaving from here on July 30th, flying to LA, then to London, then into Islamabad. It'll take a long time, but flying to the other side of Earth really isn't that complicated. I mean, I'll only be on 3 planes, and 2 of those I'll be getting on in the United States, which is easy; and I've been to Heathrow before, so I feel relatively confident I'll be able to find my gate there (even though it's a bloody huge airport!)

Coming back (May 31st), is just one stop in London, then on to San Francisco, which is even easier! I'll be sad to sit in a car for an hour, but at least I'll be home :)

But really, the only vaguely unknown or frightening thing about getting there is getting picked up at the airport in Islamabad. But hopefully some friends will be there to greet me. If not, well, what good is worrying?

Only 22 days!

No Sweat

I knew I didn't need to worry about my visa coming. There's a perfect time for everything, and all the paperwork up to this point has gone so incredibly smoothly, I had no reason to fear that I wouldn't get the visa, too. After all, how could I have gotten this far, just to not be able to actually go?
so, praise the Lord! The visa came this morning! He knows what's up :)

Shots

I just got 4 shots to prepare me for going overseas. I met with a doctor at a travel clinic in Los Gatos and we compared lists of recommended shots. I ended up getting Hepatitis A & B, Polio, Tetanus, and am going to be taking Typhoid pills all week. I decided to just get all 4 shots today, rather than 2 today and 2 next week, to save time (and gas!). So I got 2 shots in each arm, and my shoulders are a little sore, but so far it's going fine!

The doctor I met with is from India, and, after going over the shot-business, he looked me in the eye and asked why I'm going to Pakistan. I told him the short version (I want to teach overseas, met a missionary family with kids at a school there, so I decided to go), then he got very serious and told me that he considers Pakistan to be the 3rd (or 4th) most dangerous place in the world for foreigners to travel - with Iraq, Afghanistan, and maybe Colombia (or was it Congo? but I think he threw that one in just to get some of the focus out of the Middle East/South Asia). He told me, quite sternly, to be careful, wished me luck, and shook my hand with both of his before leaving.

I still don't have my visa, and am waiting patiently, trusting that it will come in time. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and I'll just go as soon as I can!

TEAM in Chicago

I just got back from a week-long training session in Wheaton, Illinois. Actually, it was in Carol Stream, right outside Wheaton, at the TEAM headquarters.

We all arrived on Monday to TEAM's offices and apartments. They bought a few small apartment buildings on a small area of land along with their office building. The apartments are pretty old, and Chicago's humid weather made them kind of musty without the air conditioner on, but they were very homey and comfortable. There were only 6 of us for this session. TEAM has 3 summer training sessions for short-term missionaries. We were the second. The first had about 15, so we were a pretty small group (by any standards). We were all girls, all between the ages of 20 and 24, and all staying together on the same floor of the same apartment building, so we got to be pretty close by the end of the week. Two of the girls are spending the summer teaching English in the Czech Republic, one girl is teaching English in China, another is helping at a hospital in Japan, and the 5th is going to Pakistan to teach English and disciple women at the hospital close to the school I will be teaching at. She'll only be there for the summer, but our trips will over-lap by a week or so, and hopefully I'll get to see her before she leaves!

When I arrived at O'Hare, a car from A-1 Limos picked me up, and the driver just happened to be from Pakistan! The drive took about an hour, and we spent the whole time talking about Pakistan, his family, how he ended up in Chicago, and all that good stuff. It was such a blessing to start the week off hearing from a native about Pakistan. He said that Murree, the city I'll be in, is beautiful and something of a vacation spot, and that the chicken curry is delicious.

On Monday night, all 6 of us girls met with our 3 main leaders for the week, and we all had Chicago-style pizza for dinner, while making informal introductions.

Tuesday morning we met at 8:00 and the majority of TEAM's staff from the offices came over to pray for us! This was by far the most encouraging session of the week. Because there were only 6 of us, they took the time for each of us to stand up and tell our story of how we ended up there, where we were going, and what we were going to do. This was a great time for us girls to get to know each other better, too. When one girl was done telling her story, we'd all spend a few minutes praying specifically for her, then we'd hear from the next. It was so great to have these total strangers caring for us and praying for us so devotedly after having just met us! One of the greatest things, too, was that, during the week when we'd go into the offices for something, they would remember us and stop to talk to us more about what we were doing!

Then, all day Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and half of Friday, we had different sessions led by different people about everything from being a servant, to finances, to safety, to working as a team with our assigned places.

On Wednesday night, we went to Chicago's "Little India," to meet with an outreach organization there called the South Asian Friendship Center who focuses on the (rather large) Muslim population in Chicago. We had a chance to walk around and browse through shops, window shop, and check out the grocery stores. Then we walked to an Indian restaurant for their buffet, which turned out to be delicious! I was afraid I wouldn't like it, so I'd actually packed a little snack in my purse, but ended up not needing it :)

After dinner, our leaders left us and drove to Millennium Park, giving us a chance to prove our capabilities in navigating public transportation to find our own way to the park. Luckily, two of the girls with us are students in Chicago and use the bus and train system frequently, so we were able to get there with out a problem. This is a fear of mine, since I've never been too comfortable using city buses. Fortunately, I'm not allowed out on my own while I'm in Pakistan, so I won't need to worry about it too much. And if I do end up alone somehow... well, I'll probably then have bigger issues to deal with than figuring out the bus system.

TEAM knew we'd be sitting all day in a musty basement for these sessions, so they, with their gracious hospitality, provided us all with guest passes for the week to the local gym. Had I known this, I would've brought gym clothes and shoes, but I did have my swim suit. So two of the girls and I walked over to they gym twice during the week, which was a great break to be able to get out and move a little.

The other 5 girls are going on their trips for just the summer, and most of them left directly from Chicago. I still have at least a month left, and this trip gave me a great jump-start to get myself really ready. I started putting together a packing list, and have got a detailed idea of what I need to leave behind for my parents (in terms of contact info, my passport number, and all that business).

I've also been really nervous about whether or not I'll be a good teacher. I'll be teaching 4th and 5th grade together (my 2 favorite grades!), but it's been a year since I've done any formal teaching, and I'm afraid I'll get there and be completely lost for the first few weeks. So, rather than worry about it for nothing, I got out my teaching materials from TCU and my one month of teaching in Fort Worth and have started "reviewing." This has been really good because it's gotten me excited about teaching again. I'm looking over lesson plans that I made during my student teaching and remembering how much fun I had making them and then teaching them. I'm sure my first few weeks will be crazy regardless of what I do to prepare, but at least I can go into it knowing that I'm capable!

I know this is a really long post, and it's okay if you didn't read the whole thing. I'll try to make my future blogs less therapeutic for me, and more interesting for you, but that was my week in Wheaton!

The Beginning

Welcome to my online journal, chronicling my adventures in Pakistan for the next year. I'm very excited to be going, and can't wait to see what my Father has in store for me!
I'm sure I will have many stories, so check back here often if you want to stay updated! And please, keep me updated with what you're doing - I don't want to be cut off for a whole year!

Here's to the future!