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2007-07-17T19:57:00.001+10:00

Rice Part 3 of 3

2007-01-22T18:28:00.000+11:00

This entry had to be split into 3 parts. Please read Rice Part 1 and 2 below before reading this one...

The rice is transported back to an island where each bundle is first check to remove any bad rice from the bundles.

THen the rice is beaten over a drum to seperate the rice husks.

The rice is then spread out to dry in the sun.

At about 2pm we were able to take a break and have lunch which was basically a "mountain of rice" mixed with a bit of stew.

Once the rice is dried out it is either crushed in a mortar and pestle to remove the husk or more often the case these days is it is taken to a rice merchant who has the machinary to automate the husking process. In one day we along with other members of Michiel's extended family managed to harvest about five 90kg bags of rice. I will never look at a grain of rice the same way again....

Rice Part 2 of 3

2007-01-22T18:14:00.000+11:00

I seem to have trouble uploading more than 5 photos into one blog therefore I have had to split this entry into three parts. You should read Rice Part 1 first which is below this entry....

Once the rice is cut it has to be tied together into bundles....

Then the bundles are loaded onto a boat...

Once the boat is full ( i.e. Just before the water starts flowing over the gunwhales.) the load is taken back to an island for further "processing".

Here we are taking a bit of a time out. All the rice is cut and bundled and we are waiting for the boat to return.... Some people pay lots of money for a mud bath....

Rice Part 1

2007-01-22T17:41:00.000+11:00

As mentioned Madagascar consumes more rice per capita than any other country. But how do they grow and harvest their rice? Well we got to find out. We spent a day working for Michiel harvesting rice the traditional Malagasy way.

First of all we had to get a boat out to an island near where we were working....

THe local boats are used to carry all sorts of things. As you can see there is not much room for error....

The rice paddys are in the shadows of the capital.

Next we had to walk through the neighbouring paddys to the one we were to harvest. Sometimes the water was up to waist deep...

Once at the paddy it is a matter of first cutting the rice with a sickle.

Tana

2007-01-18T21:30:00.000+11:00

Last Wednesday some of our group did a tour of Antananarivo or Tana for short with a local Malagasy lady. Tana is the capital of Madagascar and has been influenced heavily by its French and to a lesser extent British history.

View of Tana from the top of the hill near where the "Evil" Queen used to roll the Christians over a cliff.... The next Queen who converted to Christianity actually had a church built on top of the hill in honour of those Martyred.

A lot of Tana is built on the side of a fairly steep hill....

It may be hard to beleive but Madagascar consumes more rice per capita than any other country. Tana is very much a mixture of houses and rice paddys....

The Malagasy buy their food to be cooked each day at the local markets.

Here we all are having a traditional Malagasy dinner at Michiel's place. Michiel is one of the Malagasy working for MAF.

Madagascar 1

2007-01-18T18:06:00.000+11:00

We have been in Madagascar for about 4 days now. Madagascar to a certain extent feels more European than Africa it is certainly different to anywhere I have been before (I have not been to Europe yet). Since being here we have been here we have been introduced to the work that MAF and a few other mission organisations are doing here. Most of us but not me yet have been able to fly with MAF to one of the remote villiages that they support. Hopefully I will get to go in the next couple of days.

Checking out the MAF plane.....

We have learnt that shipping containers can be used for all sorts of things including building a garage. MAF use this garage to service and maintain various vehicles including hovercraft for various mission organisations.....

One of the more unusal vehicles currently stored at the MAF Garage.

Hover Aid is just getting established in Madagascar. It has the potential to open up access to a number of remote villages and provide relief support after cyclones which occur quite frequently in Madagascar

Botswana

2007-01-18T00:28:00.000+11:00

While staying at Livingstone (Vic Falls) we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Chobe National Park in Botswana for the day. The day was very enjoyable and included a river cruise in the morning and drive through the national park in the afternoon. We saw many animals including Fish Eagles, Hippos, Warthog, Elephant, Girrafe, Impala, Mongoose and monkeys. Here is a sample of the more than 450 photos I took during our one day in Botswana.

Vic Falls

2007-01-16T23:42:00.000+11:00

Wow two blog postings in one day that must be a record for me.....

We have been very fortunate to spend a whole day visiting both the Zimbabwe and Zambian sides of Victoria Falls here is a small sample of the photos we took.

Here are the falls from a distance on take off to Joburg. Definetly looks more like a bush fire than a waterfall from the distance....

Zambia Botswana

2007-01-16T22:37:00.000+11:00

Well it has been over a week since my last blog at an aweful lot of stuff has happened in this time so it will probably take a couple of entries to catchup. We are now in Madagascar and have from time to time reasonable internet access so the entires should be a bit more frequent now.

Malawi was really the beginning of the more touristy part of our trip as we spent a couple of days travelling through Zambia to Victoria Falls where we spent 3 nights. While there we took a day trip into Botswana to visit Chobe National Park.

What should have been just an overnight stop in Lusaka the capital of Zambia turned out to be a bit longer because of the brakes on the bus needing a bit of attention. The brakes had started to become a little less responsive as we were entering the city and Roger decided to have them checked out while we were in Lusaka. It turned out that we hade a small leak which needed fixing and they also replaced the pads while we were there. We were very fortunate that we had this problem in Lusaka and not in some of the more remote places that we have travelled through. Although it took most of the day to fix it was done in a very new garage that wouldn't have been out of place in Australia. We have probably travelled several thousand kilometers since this would have last been the case. And even though at times we had up to 4 people working on the bus it cost us less than 15 dollars in Labour and about 90 dollars for parts. It did however mean that instead of leaving at 8am we left Lusaka at 5pm and travelled through the sunset and arrived in Livingstone (Vic Falls) about 11pm at night.

Back in Malawi

2007-01-07T07:01:00.000+11:00

After spending 6 days in Lichinga (Mozambique) we are now back in Malawi and have spent the afternoon chilling out beside and in Lake Malawi.

Our time in Lichinga was quite busy. Some of the activities that we got up to included painting the Crane’s guest house.

Having a traditional african lunch with Franklin and Elizabeth Choo.

Riding a bike 30kms round trip out to a local village where we spent over 3 hours. Here we are sitting on the porch of the Chief’s house.

Hi from Mozambique

2007-01-04T06:10:00.000+11:00

Well we have been in Africa for over a week now. Internet access is very limited here so this post is going to be very brief. We have had a great trip so far travelling through Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Currently we are in Lichinga in Mozambique. It has been raining most of the time for the last few days but we have been busy visiting the hospital, teaching English, learning about the Yao culture and painting rooms for the Crane family. Following are a few photos from our trip so far.

Sunrise in Mauritius

Lunch on the road in South Africa

Village in Mozambique

2 Weeks to go

2006-12-12T14:06:00.000+11:00

Well only 2 weeks till I leave for Africa with the following bunch of great people.

Backrow L to R is Glen Spencer, Randolph Nott, Me, Roger Kemp and David Brice.
Frontrow L to R is Jonathan Spencer, James Sinclair, Ruth Mann, Barbara Kemp and Melaine Crook.

While some of the group are leaving earlier to visit other parts of the world first, the majority of the group will be leaving on the 26th December 2006.

Key Dates are as follows:

Dec 26th Depart Sydney
Dec 27th Arrive Joburg
Dec 28-30 Driving to Lichinga
Dec 31-Jan 5th Working in Lichinga
Jan 6th Visit Malawi
Jan 7-9th Driving thru Zambia
Jan 10-11th Victoria Falls
Jan 12th Fly to Joburg
Jan 13th Fly to Mauritius
Jan 14th Fly to Madagascar
Jan 15-20th Madagascar
Jan 21st Some return home, Some stay longer

I will be back in Sydney on 30th January 2007.

Will keep you posted as the trip unfolds and depending on Internet Access.

Intership for 2007

2006-11-22T15:14:00.000+11:00

Wow time is just flying by at the moment. It doesn't seem like almost two months since my last post. In that time have been finishing essays and exams, a party or two. and U2 concert which was nearly as good as Rosin's gig....

Well God seems to be at work opening doors for me to be going into cross cultural mission. I have been fortunate to be selected as the Global interAction Cross Cultural Intern at Morling College for next year. Which means I will be off to visit another mission field in the middle of next year along with some training and mentoring by a very experienced and respected missionary. Global interAction is an organisation that exists to be empowering communities to develop their own distinctive ways of following Jesus. I'm really excited to see what transpires from this opporunity.

Well just over a month till I leave for Africa to visit several missionaries that my church supports in Mozambique and Madagascar. Will post more about this soon.

Vision Statement

2006-09-25T21:22:00.000+10:00

As most of my family and close friends are aware the last few years have been a bit of a transitioning time for me. Making the decision to step out of my full time IT career and go and study at theological college full time has been a rather big transition. Well with just over a year to go with my current course things seem to be hotting up in terms of determining where to from here.

On the weekend I attended what was called a Focused Living Retreat (yes I wondered what it was about too before I got there). The main aim of the time was to take a look back at where you have been and then to reflect on where are you going. One of the main outcomes was to draft a personal vision statement. In the past I have really struggled to come up with anything real concrete however this time around I was rather surprised.

The following is what I have come up with as a first draft which potentially still needs some work. For example I'm not sure if I'm happy with the term "disadvantaged people group." Anyway here it is. I would welcome peoples feedback and thoughts on it.

"To live amongst and journey with a disadvantaged people group in order to share God's love with them via deed and word."

While this statement does bring a certain amount of direction to where to next. There is still plenty of questions yet to be answered. For example still not sure whether we are talking locally in Australia or somewhere overseas. I guess all will be revealed at the appropriate time......

Koh Samet 8th – 10th July 2006

2006-07-13T22:40:00.000+10:00

We are now almost at the end of our time in Thailand. I can’t believe the three weeks has almost gone by already. Our last few days where spent on Koh Samet Island doing our debriefing. It’s a tough life living on a tropical Island for a couple of days. For some reason this was the point of the trip at which the most people where sick…. Not sure if it was something they ate, too much sun or the gruelling nearly 24 hours it took us to get here from Chiang Mai. Fortunately the illnesses where short lived and I think everybody enjoyed most of their time on the Island. It truly was a great place to be reflecting on what God has been teaching us throughout the trip.

Chiang Mai (Part 2) 5th – 7th July

2006-07-10T00:33:00.000+10:00

Well here we all are with Chiang Mai in the background. From the left we have Myself, Valerie, Mel, Erin, Chris, Sarah & Michael. The photo was taken near Doi Suthep.

This is Bible College Chiang Mai style (McGilvary Seminary), I wonder if the new buildings at Morling will be this grand?

No weekly or fortnightly shopping trips in Chiang Mai. The usual practise is for women todo the shopping daily going to the local markets for fresh produce for that day’s meals, and to have a bit of a chat....

One of the last things we did in Chiang Mai (before almost missing our train) was to go and visit Rajabhat University with Paul. Part of our visit included visiting the Culture department and their musem of traditional instruments and unlike most museum’s they were more they happy for us to play with the exhibits. We also got to chat with some students learning English. Their English was a lot better than our Thai.

Chiang Mai (Part 1) 30th June to 4th July 2006

2006-07-05T12:27:00.000+10:00

We are spending about a week in Chiang Mai. A large metropolis in Northern Thailand. We have had the opportunity to visit lots of different ministries, too many to list and talk about them all here unfortunately. The following is just a sample of some of what we have done here so far.

We have visited several orphanages including the House of Love where the following pictures where taken. The House of Love works with various tribal people groups and provides a refuge for children who are unable for various reason to stay in their home villages.

We have had several opportunites to stroll the streets of Chiang Mai. One thing that is very obvious walking around is the high regard that the Thai people have for their king.

One evening we even got taught how to cook our own Pad Thai, Tom Yum and Green Curry. Our instructors name was Meow and there where lots of young cats around. We also almost burnt down the kitchen at one stage.

We even had the opportunity to go to a local church on Sunday where we meet Pastor Timothy and Pastor Saul. They have a big week coming up this week as they are going to Burma to meet with the leaders of the Karen people and representatives of the Burma Government to help facilitate a peace between the two waring parties. This conflict has been going on for decades and has the potential to bring peace to a large number of people. It was very encouraging to hear Pastor Timothy's journey with Christ over the last thirty years that has brought him to this point where in a largely nonchristian environment he has been able to earn the trust of both sides of this conflict and has been able to bring both sides together to talk, with the aim of peace. A peace, if succesful, that will have huge ramifications for a large number of people.

On Monday we had the opportunity to go out into one of the villages a few hours out of Chiang Mai to visit Michael's sponsor child. As I also have a Compassion sponsor child that I have been unable to visit as yet, it was great to see the work that Compassion was doing in this village. It was obvious to me that Compassion was enriching the lives of the children in the project without removing them from their family and culture. The family provided one of the best Thai meals that we have had for lunch.

We also had the privilege of spending a day learning about Thai Buddism with Paul, one of the Gia missionaries working here in Chiang Mai. Paul is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to Buddism and has a great ministry here building relationships with some of the monks and sharing with them about Christianity. Our day started with leaving the guest house by 6am so that we could go and see the monks collecting alms. One of the temples we visited was a forest temple where the Buddha statues are housed underground in tunnels.

Chiang Rai 29th June 2006

2006-07-04T18:23:00.000+10:00

Well we didn’t have very long in Chiang Rai (one night and most of a day) but we certainly covered a lot of ground…. The following is only part of the story….

While in Chiang Rai we got to spend time with Lyndal Bruner who has been a missionary in Thailand for 14 years. Lyndal is very actively working with Ethnic Thai orphans. Her Ministry covers quite a few areas but is mainly focused on helping orphans stay in their communities usually with extended family members. This often involves working with the family and sometime schools to start-up micro-enterprises that generate a small amount of income to help offset the costs of caring for the orphans. She is also quite involved in advocacy with the local Chiang Rai authorities on behalf of the orphans, amongst other things. It was obvious to me and I think the rest of the team that Lyndal was not only passionate about helping individual orphans but was also keen to focus on social, political and spiritual issues that influence the plight of the orphans. Lyndal very much had a holistic approach to her ministry which I found enlightening, challenging and encouraging. She certainly gave us plenty to reflect on as we went on to visit other ministries in Thailand….

The following pictures are an example micro-enterprise project that we visited where Lyndal’s team has provided a small loan to enable a grandmother to raise some extra income to support her granddaughter by farming catfish in their backyard. Grandma was in the middle of changing the water when we visited.

On our way out of Chang Rai we visited a Karen tribal village and managed to go for a spin on some elephants.

Ban Luang 25th – 28th June 2006

2006-07-03T20:07:00.000+10:00

Well after catching an overnight VIP coach from Bangkok we arrived in Nan at 5:30am to be met by Larry Martin and to board our truck for the last hour or so into Ban Luang in rural Thailand. The trip was very scenic. The sun was just rising, clouds and mist still surrounded the range that we needed to cross.

Jan and Larry’s house.

While in the area we got to teach English to a number of classes in various local schools.

Mel, Chris and I got the opportunity to get dressed up and go and spend the morning helping some of Jan and Larry’s neighbours plant corn seeds. The pictures hide how steep the slope was, but the views where great. We provided much entertainment for the locals who spent a fair bit of time laughing and talking about us and our strange ways.

As the TV reception was no good at the Martins, Larry organised for us to take his TV around to one of his neighbours who’s TV didn’t work so well, but he had a satellite dish and great reception in order to watch Australia play Italy in the World Cup.

The last morning we where with the Martin’s we had an opportunity to rise at 6am and go for a walk to the next village to visit the local markets.

Bangkok – 23rd-24th June 2006

2006-07-03T19:02:00.000+10:00

I'm currently away on a 3 week Global Awarness Mission Trip organised by Morling College. Our first port of call in Thailand was the Capital city Bangkok. We only really got to scrape the surface of what was to see as we where only there two nights. The first night after arriving at the hotel at 11:30pm Bangkok time (2:30am Sydney time) Michael and I thought it was our patriotic duty to watch Australia tie with Croatia at 2am Bangkok time. The next morning we met with Ash Baker from Urban Neighbourhoods of Hope (UNOH). Ash is currently living and working in Khlong Toei Slum. We didn’t think we it would be possible for us to visit the slum as they don’t usually allow visitors unless you have a purpose for being there. However Ash invited us to come visit that afternoon if we where prepared to play soccer with some of the children. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos as it wasn’t appropriate for us to be acting like tourists. Which is probably a good thing given how much better the locals where at soccer compared to us. The girls where also luck enough to be invited to partake in an aerobics class in 30 plus degrees. Needless to say that none of them lasted as long as the locals who where more acclimatised to the heat and humidity. For more info about UNOH please checkout their website www.unoh.org. It was great to get a glimpse of the work that Ash, Scott and the rest of the team are doing in Khlong Toei. The kids really seemed to be enjoying themselves and having lots of fun. It is encouraging to see the body of Christ at work in such places. Truly a real life example of what it means to be incarnational.

It didn’t take long for Michael to sniff out a great Thai coffee shop, only 30 Baht (AUD 1.10) a lot cheaper than the Starbucks across the road.

Apparently you haven’t seen Bangkok till you have been to the Grand Palace. So after a quite exhilarating long boat ride up the river we arrived at the Grand Palace where we hooked up with a local guide called Tony (not his real name I’m sure). Tony was very good value providing much information and entertainment on our walk around the Grand Palace.

First Blog

2006-07-02T19:13:00.000+10:00

Well, have finally stopped procrastinating and actually biten the bullet and created a blog. This is something that I have been thinking of doing for awhile. But have been uncertain about whether I would be able to find time to keep it going.

I'm currently in the middle of a 3 week Global Mission Awarness trip and have felt compelled to be sharing online some of what we have experienced. Hopefully the blogging will continue even when the trip is over. My plan is as time permits to post some blogs about the trip. We are currently staying in a guest house in Chiang Mai with free wireless internet during office hours so hopefully should be able to bring you up to date shortly. Interesting that a place that only offers toast and fruit for breakfast offers free internet....