The Hope of Intellectual Transformation in Africa

This post is a request to everyone who reads it for ideas. Does anyone know of a charity or other organization or resource that could help a South African student finish his education? Please help me network and re-post this on your blog or ask those around you for ideas. Any help in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated.

Some of you may remember a post I wrote a while ago called "Sheltered". It was about a man named Michael who has become a dear friend. My last post about him was my expression of shock over his relation of life as a Black Man in South Africa, and the extraordinary ways in which he has overcome his circumstances. He has an amazing disposition and outlook on life. He has worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get where he is. He funded his first College diploma using all the money he earned while working at a vegetable market and surviving on rotten or damaged vegetables given to him by his employer. He and his wife had to leave their two children 6 and 2 with family in order to come out for his studies in England. At times they were surviving on one slice of bread per day. Yet they never complained, and I didn't even know about the extreme difficulties they endured until months afterward when they had finally come out of them.

In 2007, he was recognized by the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a promising teacher and scholar. As the Headmaster of the school where he works, this extraordinary man is an example both to the students of his school as well as many others around him. He is trying to show his children, his students and his community that education is a priority and the catalyst for change. He is now and will continue to make significant contributions to the African educational system. He is in his second year of a Post Graduate Degree in Education and has run into trouble with funding. He has had to put his degree on hold. He wrote me an email requesting help in researching potential resources in the U.S. that could assist him in finishing his degree. I've been looking, but everything I seem to find is designed for students studying here in the States.

So again, if you know of any avenues that I can look into that might be able to help him, please let me know.

I recommend following the link at the top, to my other post and reading more about Michael.

**Note: He does not qualify for the Perpetual Education Fund.

In Case You Were Wondering

I was grateful that this five month separation timed out to be over the summer, because there is a lot to do here in the summer. I also decided to help things along and signed Z up for a new community class every month. This month she is in tumbling, next month she has a martial arts class, in July it's swimming and for August, I bought passes to a place called Jumping Jacks, so we can just go whenever.

I have also been keeping a very close eye on community events. Yesterday there was free admission and half price passes to Jumping Jacks with free food and stuff. Today at the library, they had a book festival with puppet shows, readings, face painting, crafts, workshops, book signings and a free book for every child there.

The Farmer's Market is 4 blocks from my parents house. Last week they had a May Pole with live fiddling to dance around it as we untied the ribbons. (I've always wondered exactly what a May Pole entailed) It was so festive.

I've decided that I really love Provo. There are loads of things to do around here if you're looking for them. It's a college town, but it is a unique college town because a higher percentage of the students have started families, so it is also extremely family friendly. There are lots of trees, majestic mountains, old neighborhoods filled with homes full of character. I love Center Street. Academy Square, The Tabernacle and City Hall are all beautiful buildings. I could go on, but in short, I am glad I am here for now.

I set out to be extremely busy and that is exactly what I am. Almost too much sometimes, there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. It's gets a little annoying sometimes, but that is what I wanted and I am grateful. I would much rather be too busy than not busy enough. Whenever things slow down my thoughts turn to Brent.

Being busy helps, but my Faith has helps even more. I had a very interesting experience the day Brent left. Up until that point, whenever I thought about Brent leaving, I was overwhelmed with tears. Early in the morning of the day he left, we went to the Temple. As we were driving home from the Temple I felt so incredibly peaceful and happy. It was strange for me because I knew in a matter of hours that he would be leaving me. I knew this event would be the beginning of a very difficult period of my life. I knew I would miss him to the point of physical pain. But despite all that, I was happy.

That is probably the best description of what it has been like since he has left. It has been EXTREMELY challenging, but I am happy. As I have focused on my dedication to the lord, my burdens have been made light. Not that they are taken away, or made any less difficult, but I have received strength and peace so that I may bear them well.

Brent has also been doing well. I am envious of all the new skills and information he is acquiring. It sounds fascinating to me and I can't wait until we have time to really talk so I can hear more about it. I get to talk to him once a week for about 2 to 5 minutes. As you can imagine, I don't get much information out of him in that amount of time. But he said that Basic Training is pretty much what he expected. He got into shape before he went and the physical demands have not been much of a challenge for him. He said he got into trouble a few weeks ago for showering early. He was afraid he had made the drill sergeant's trouble list, but the very next week he was given the privilege of being Platoon Leader. He also said he was amazed that they could be so busy and yet still spend so much time waiting around for things. I definitely don't envy that.

I bought a ticket to South Carolina for his Basic Graduation at the end of June. I will fly in on Wednesday night. Thursday is Family Day where I go to a bunch of Army programs designed to show families what their soldier has experienced. Then I get to spend the rest of the day with Brent on post. The next day, his graduation is at 9am and we should have the rest of the day together on or off post. He will probably ship out Saturday morning, but I purchased a ticket that won't bring me home until late Saturday night just in case I can see him on Saturday too. If not, I'll spend the day exploring Columbia or Greensville. I CAN'T WAIT. It is nice that we can break up his time away with a visit. It gives me a short-term goal to look forward to.

5 favorites

Rachel over at Life In Pictures tagged me for this ages ago, and I completely forgot, but I'm bored and waiting for something so here we go.

5 favorite TV Shows

1. The Office
2. Chuck
3. My Name is Earl
4. 30 Rock
5. George Lopez (cheezy, but funny and reminds me of growing up in Southern California)


5 things I did yesterday

1. Went to the Gym
2. Did Babysitting/Temple trade off with my sister-in-law
3. Bought a recommended Allergy remedy from the health food store
4. Came home to a fantastic dinner courtesy of my father
5. Wrote Brent an extremely long letter


5 favorite restaurants

(I don't really have a favorite, I really prefer to go to a new restaurant every time we go out. Below is a list of places with food I find myself craving.)

1. The Bombay House
2. Thai Chili Pepper
3. Zupas
4. Wingers (I can't get enough of their sauce)
5. Bajios


5 things on my wish list (at the moment)

1. Brent
2. Corrective Laser Eye Surgery
3. A New Wardrobe
4. New Cameras (Video and Still)
5. A new perfume that I LOVE. (I have a hard time finding scents that I like. Any suggestions?)

If you feel like doing this, then you're tagged.

New Family Picture

We had a monumentally busy extended weekend, leading up to Monday when we dropped Brent off at a hotel in SLC to fly out from there for Basic. Contemplating it all enough to write about it is not something I care to do right now, but I felt like I should say something.

I've been pretty exhausted for most of this week. I am quitting my job, which is an unexpected relief. Unexpected because it's been a great job and I'm leaving (for several reasons) a lot sooner than I actually expected. But I'm relieved and actually kinda trunky; now that I know I'm leaving I'm ready to be done and move on. I am going to enroll Zariah in a bunch of summer community classes and take her hiking and maybe even camping this summer as much as I can. I just want to do TONS of fun Utah summer stuff to keep us busy.

In other really good news; Brenda is in town! Yea! She has Fabulous timing to boot. She came just in time to catch Brent and get us a new family picture! Woohoo! She is so awesome in so many ways, and I'm so glad she's here.

It's Official

The last six months have been one big roller coaster ride. I know I've only hinted at what sort of jobs we've been looking into, but after two experiences of counting our eggs before they're hatched, I promised myself I wouldn't tell anyone about any more jobs until it was official. Well, something finally happened and now it's official. But first, a short run down of the last six months.

September: Accept job in Taiwan, discover they lied about salary, turn job down. Start turning in applications everywhere.

October: Continue turning in applications to any and every job we can find. Find a fantastic position with the Utah State Legislature where Brent had his internship before we left for England that he absolutely LOVED. He already knew the people he would be working with and had an extremely positive response from the Legislator in charge of hiring. He was even more qualified than they were asking for and was a shoe in for the position.

November: I start working at a nearby office. We discover that due to budget cuts nobody will be hired for awesome job with Legislature. Brent starts vigorously pursuing applications with the Border Patrol and Air Force as well as continuing to submit applications everywhere else.

Late November: Brent picks up a seasonal job to hold us over. Air Force isn't looking like a possibility because the time line wouldn't have Brent into training, until August 2009 and we can't wait that long!!! The Border Patrol is looking like our only option.

December: Brent decides to talk to an Army Recruiter. We feel surprisingly good about the Army option and decide to pursue it and see what happens.

January: Brent turns down a job with the Border Patrol with my blessing (don't get me started)

Late January: Brent applies to become an Army Officer and is turned down. (Two of the three members of the Officer Board said "yes" one was unsure and left his recommendation blank)

February: One can only apply to become an Officer twice, ever. The whole month is spent going back and forth between; "Should we just go enlisted now and apply again later with a different Officer Board?" or "Should we take our chances at winning over the third board member?" After going back and forth on the issue all month, as well as encountering several minor hold ups, we decided to take our chances with the Board on March 4th and see what happens.

March 4th: Brent goes before the Officer Board and after seeing improvement in is Physical test scores and asking about three questions, he is approved.

March 5th: I accompany Brent to SLC for the day as he goes through paperwork, signs the contract and is sworn into the United States Army.

Another reason I didn't write about any of this is because we had no idea what was going to happen until the day before it actually happened. Now to address why we decided to go ahead with the Army in the first place despite some obvious drawbacks.

First and foremost, when Brent came home after talking to an Army recruiter for the first time and told me about the options within the Army, I felt really good about it. Unexpectedly and surprisingly good about it. I don't take those feelings lightly.

Other strong benefits to the Army:

• Brent will go in as an Officer, meaning right off the bat he will receive three months of intensive leadership training and secret clearance. Both of which will be valuable in future career goals. Going Officer also means, from what we've heard, significantly better treatment, significantly better pay, better housing, and all around better life for all of us. It is also a professional work experience which is something he is lacking and something that everyone wants.
• The Army will pay off up to $65,000 in student loans which we desperately need. With the Officer pay and the CLRP (College Loan Repayment Program), we should be completely debt free in 4 to 5 years. When we would have normally been paying on our current debts for anywhere from 20-35 years.
• On top of Salary we get a housing and food stipend and will be completely covered as far as insurance and retirement goes.
• There are a limited number of overseas bases or we might have put all 10 of our desired locations overseas. We submitted our top five desired locations as; Belgium, Italy, Germany, Japan and Korea. Of those five the most likely place we would go is Korea, but we would be thrilled to go to any of them. We would like to continue to live in other countries, but doing it through the Army who will take care of travel and moving arrangements is way better than cramming all our stuff into 6 suitcases or paying through the nose to have it transported. Not to mention being able to live in a completely foreign country on or near an American community with American conveniences close by sounds ideal.

There are strong down-sides of course beginning with a 5 month separation while he is in training, eventual deployment and the risks involved with that. We had some lengthy discussions about that up front. We came to terms with the risks and trials involved with Brent's joining the Army. We will deal with them as they come.

I am also working really hard not to have any expectations besides Brent's Salary and the CLRP. We don't know exactly what job they will give him within the Army. We may never go overseas. The initial 5 months could be longer. Who knows how long is deployment will be. In the end we decided that even if all we gain from the Army is work experience, leadership experience and a sound financial situation, we'll be happy.

So, we are excited and happy with our decision. Brent ships out mid-April to Ft. Jackson South Carolina. From there he will go on to Ft. Benning, Georgia. I am hoping I'll be able to work out seeing him at least once in both places. Meanwhile, Zariah and I will continue to stay with my parents and join him in August/September. By that time it will have been almost a year of living with my parents. I don't think this next 6 months will be nearly as frustrating as the first 6, simply because there is an end in sight. We are now officially moving toward a goal instead of floating in limbo. That makes it easier already to relish the time we have to spend here.

So there you have it. I would love to hear your response.

Checkin in

So I've obviously been taking a break from the Blogging world. Like I mentioned before, I've been a little uninspired because of the whole waiting thing. Most all of my extra time, thoughts and energy are diverted to what is going to happen next. But on top of that I've also started a job which means less time and because I'm in front of a computer the whole time I'm at work, I've kind of lost the desire to be on the computer as much at home.

I'll still write once in a while. In fact Brent is pretty close to getting a job we've been working on for a few months. So I'll post all about that once it's certain.

Just checkin in.

Baby's Gotta Go

For weeks whenever anyone asked Zoe what she wanted for Christmas she would exclaim "A PEE-PEE TRAINING DOLL!". She had, of course, seen a commercial for this doll. After quite a bit of discussion, Brent and I decided not to buy it for her because although she would be really excited at first, I have to wonder how long it would keep her entertained. There are also a lot of small pieces that I didn't think would be very fun to keep track of.

When my mother began asking what Zariah might like for Christmas I told her about several toys I thought she might enjoy, but my mother had already seen how much she wanted it and asked if it was okay to buy her the "Pee-Pee Training Doll". I figured, who am I to deny my mother the kind of reaction that she knows she will get when my little girl opens this particular present on Christmas Morning?

You've got to check out the commercial for this thing. It's hilarious, in a kinda messed up way.

Now that I think about it, I am almost just as interested to see my Grandmother's reaction to this doll. She has always had a HUGE collection of dolls. She particularly loves dolls with personality. If there's one thing this doll has, it's personality!