The Journey of a Lifetime!

I haven't said much about it, but that's because I don't know much about it myself.  But, over the past few days I've gotten some more details about my upcoming trip overseas.  

Kimmie and I will be traveling to Uganda for two weeks, Ethiopia for two days, and Israel for about 5 days.  We will be working with children in Gulu (Uganda) who had been kidnapped and forced to become soldiers against their own people.  Obviously, the horrors they witnessed while with the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army -- an extremist group terrorizing the people) have traumatized these children, so many of them deal with anger and depression and post traumatic stress disorder.  We will be working with them using art and music to help them heal from the pain they have endured.  We will also be training the adults in their community on how to understand their issues and work with them.  For more information on this community, check out the Invisible Children website.  There you can see videos about the plight of this community.

In Ethiopia, we will be meeting with pastors who are trying to open a safe house for women and children escaping from the sex trade.  I don't know much about this, but it is definitely an atrocity that needs to stop.  I'll post more info as I get it.  

In Israel, we plan on meeting with contacts about starting arts programs there for kids who have been ravaged by the ongoing conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis.  We will be staying in Tel Aviv for a few nights then moving on to Jerusalem.  Sandy briefly went over some of the details about where we would be going, but I didn't catch it all.  Again, more info to come.

The past few days, we've been planning for the trip -- today we packed supply suitcases and they are HEAVY!!!  We also continued our study the psychological effects of damaging the brain -- through trauma, stroke, or drug use -- even if you never lose consciousness.  It was fascinating that SO much can affect our moods, behaviors, thought patterns...  an overactive part in the brain can cause depression, anxiety, aggression, even suicide.  A DEAD part of the brain can impair judgement, mood control, and lead to addictions.  It makes me want to get MY brain scanned and see what's wrong with ME!!  HAHAHA!

In other news, tomorrow night we girls -- Kimmie, Tracy, Nicole, Beezee, Misha, and I -- have been cordially invited to attend dinner with the guys -- Nathan, Curly Paul, Duane, Jason, and Jacob.  Our first concern (because we are all WOMEN!!) was, "What in the WORLD are we going to WEAR?!"  We were told that it would be dressy attire as the boys are wearing jackets and ties, but guys have NO CONCEPT of what dressy means.  Basically, if it's a DRESS, it's dressy.  But, in women's world, there are casual dresses, business dresses, cocktail dresses, church dresses, summer dresses, ball gowns, prom dresses, bridesmaids dresses...  need I go on?  SO, needless to say, the past three days we've been in QUITE a quandary.  We called Nathan tonight -- the only guy who would know the difference between a cocktail dress and a casual dress -- and asked him what EXACTLY dressy meant.  He said "Easter dress"...  soooo.... we were to look like dyed eggs?  "Without the pastel colors," he clarified.  OOOH... so that REALLY cleared things up for us.  

In the end, we thank GOD for the LBD (Little Black Dress) that pretty much fits into ANY fashion emergency.  So, we'll all look like we've just returned from a funeral, but we won't get any citations from the fashion police!