bathroom breaks

travelling on the bus is always interesting, you get on the bus its cold, next time you get off its hot. you jump states and time zones numerous times every couple of weeks. this has become normal, but yesterday as i took a nap i had never quite had this happen before . . . i fell asleep we were driving along the highway, i woke up to the Washington Monument on my right. and no this was not our end destination. we were on our way from philadelphia to richmond VA and i guess the Lincoln Memorial had the closest most accessible bathrooms, why not. but it was a great excuse to get off the bus and stretch our legs!

so close but yet so far

the other day we were on route from wisconsin to indiana. our route went right around this beautiful city - CHICAGO! i have been gone now for about 8 months, and i have wondered a bit about life after tour and have been asked if i would move back, my answer is always the same . . . i would love to, but its so hard to know exactly what life will look like after tour. as we drove by the city though i was squished in between two girls reading The Secret Garden. i kept pausing and starring out the windows and they would yank on my arm and say Auntie you stopped here and pick up where i left off. i would give the parental "yes girls" and continue starring and making vague comments about how auntie used to live here.

i couldn't keep from just watching the beautiful skyline drive by and replay hundreds of fond memories that each building and street held. i guess that chicago truly stole my heart and hasn't let it go quite yet, maybe it never will. who knows if i will ever reclaim my area code that i still hold dear to as my phone or return to the 606-- zip. but i do know that chicago has been the closest thing to home and has provided the environment to shape so much of who i am today!

please enjoy the pics, i personally just wanted to go down memory lane.

Long Bus Rides

Today was one of the longer bus rides, somewhere around the 8 hour mark. Thankfully I was completely exhausted and slept for probably 7 of the hours on and off, very nice. But we have the privilege of traveling on a bus that has a working video machine (as opposed to the last bus that I traveled on). As a treat for both of the chaperones (a little more quiet time without constant requests from the children) and the kids we watched the movie "Prince Caspian". I have to say that watching movies with the children is one of my favourite things, even though it doesn't happen that often. I love watching the facial expressions and hearing the reactions to the scenes.
Even though I did fall asleep for most of it (I previously have watched it, so don't worry I wasn't missing out on anything) I woke up in time for the great fight scene. Of course at this point the children were looking quite distressed and making many expressions of sadness. And then my favourite part of the movie, when it looks like all is going to be lost and they are fighting a loosing battle we watch as Lucy sees Aslan for the first time. The whole bus erupted in cheers of "ASLAN!" and fists raised high with new confidence that the battle would turn around. Of course it does, I hope I don't ruin it for those of you who have not watched it.
I have found the symbolic Christ-figure of Aslan to be very encouraging, even as of late. It is such a good picture of what happens in my own life when the battle seems to be getting the best of me and when I feel like there is no hope - I am suprised to see that "Aslan" has come to my aid. And really He has been there all along but I sometimes forget and think that I have to fight the battles by myself.
Even though I didn't raise my fist with the children in cheer for Aslan, inside I was just as joyful to see His presence recognized again.

You know you are north when . . .

It is hard to believe that just a couple of weeks ago I was longing for flip-flops and tank tops. From the pictures below you can guess that I am on the other side of the spectrum, wishing I had brought my winter coat and boots I have discarded along the way. The extremes that tour life brings is best noted in the temperature shifts. I just don't think that it is kind or necessary to go from 80 F to - 15 F drastically. I know that you are thinking, BUT you are a Canadian, you shouldn't be cold, this should be a nice spring day for you. However I don't think the body ever gets over the shock of the first blast of cold air in the morning. It literally took my breath away the other morning. After a sleep that was less than satisfying it does wonders to bring you to complete alertness, one of the many benefits I'm sure I just can't think of any more at the moment . . .

So as we made our trek to the great north, Houghton MI actually, and if you are a little rusty on your geography that would be the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which we are all wondering why it even belongs to Michigan when we had to go through Wisconsin to get to it. It was fun to watch sparse snow turn into a complete blanket of snow. Also the snowmobile world intrigued me as I saw little roads for them alongside the actual roads, complete with their own road signs. When we stopped for gas, of course there were snowmobiles stopping for gas, like it was their sole mode of transportation. And then what put me over the edge yesterday was discovering this parking lot, just for snowmobiles, located at Michigan Tech where our show has been for the last two nights.



I just couldn't resist sneaking a pic on one of the wonders!

Tomorrow we are heading south . . . Nebraska, oh how it is all relative.

Kids are Kids

The other day as I found myself on another long bus ride (this new choir tour does a lot of bus travelling!) I looked up to the front of the bus. I was having a conversation with another chaperone an then got so distracted that I had to stop my conversation - I was watching Rebbecca wrap a nap blanket (each child has a blanket that they nap with) around her head in some sort of head dress. It totally cracked me up because it was so random. Finally I had to figure out what was going on, so I took my camera and found out who Rebbecca had become . . . the evil stepmother in Cinderella. It all made sense now . . . well not really for my western mind, but I was able to see an African portrayal of the story.

The above picture is Joshua B in blue shirt (the fairy-god-mother, and yes don't worry he had a pencil for a wand) and Godfrey in red shirt ( the King/evil step-sister).

Below we have the narrators Florence (L) and Susan (R) - Susan I am sure did most of the narrating as Florence gets motion sick, so I'm sure Florence was just monitoring the acting and providing any sort of instruction she saw fit!


And drum roll please we have the two main stars of the show. I am sure you can take a guess at who is who. Fiona (L) is Cinderella and Rebbecca (R) is yes you are right the evil step-mother! She was taking her job seriously.



And again we have Fiona working her magic even if she just has an African Children's Choir bandanna to work with!


These are just a few of my new 26 boys and girls a part of choir 31. It is times like these that make my heart grow with love - it is so funny how you can never run out of room to love. Even when you feel like you have loved like never before something happens and a smiling face with a blanket wrapped around a head makes me explode!

Some Christmas Memories

I have just a moment to update this, but I wanted you to get a glimpse of what my Christmas looked like . . . Thankfully it was a fun day filled with a new family that I have grown to love deeply. I did miss my family and familiar Christmas traditions, but the transition of getting to giving to all of the children was wonderful! I hope you can see some of the new Christmas memories I tried to capture.

Here are some pics from the Christmas Eve Service that we all dressed up for.

Christmas morning . . . mitts and Bibles for presents!

Laura eating some delicious turkey that we made for the Christmas diner!

I wish I had the energy to blog more, I will try to update again soon. We are starting back at concerts tomorrow morning. It is hard to believe that our week of Christmas camp is now a memory and we are back on the road. It was very relaxing and restful. I hope your Christmas season has brought you joy and peace.

Merry Christmas Eve

Here are some pics of the past few days at camp!

(Peace, Patrick, and Hannington assisting in the decorating)

Last night we had a birthday party for all of the kids who had birthdays since tour started. The party hats were a big hit and of course a dance party began immediately. At breakfast this morning I saw all of the party hats again!

Here are a few pics I took this morning of Christmas Eve - thankfully the sun is shinning and the kids are able to play as much as they want outside. The last few days have been rainy and cold so they have been stuck inside.

Hannington and Rachel enjoying the lovely sunny morning!

Sarah and Gilbert small were taking a break from the big football game this morning to pose for a pic.

Apparently we are staying at a reunion centre - but I was excited to see us on the sign, at least I noticed three days after we got here!

Tonight we are going to attend a Christmas Eve service at the church that is hosting us at camp and then finish off the Christmas story with the kids after church. And the only thing left for the Aunties and Uncles is wrapping christmas presents . . . yeah!

Merry Christmas and much love to you all!