Update for my home church

Quick explanation: The following is an update I wrote a few weeks ago for my home church, Community Mennonite. I thought it might be interesting to others too, and I’ve added some pictures from the camping weekend with my volunteer group.

with some of my peacebuilding volunteers at the riverside camping location

Hello to everyone at CMCL!

I miss you, and I miss my church home. I also miss singing in harmony, since I don’t get much of that here! I haven’t been in touch for a long time, so I just want to update you all on life in Laos. For those of you who don’t know, I’m serving with MCC in Vientiane, Laos, as an advisor to a peacebuilding volunteer group. I’m here on a two-year term, which actually ends this coming August, amazingly enough!

I spend most of my time working in the office for the volunteer group and meeting with them on the weekends, riding a motorbike around the city, tutoring a friend in English, and getting together with Lao and foreign friends. Actually my work has been really busy recently, but also very fun, because we had our annual camping weekend. This is something that these young adult volunteers never get to do otherwise, so they were VERY excited. We had a full weekend of 6am jogging, a trash outfit fashion show (part of the environmental theme), a quite adventurous hike through the river and nearby vegetable fields (complete with a wild monkey sighting!), a campfire and barbeque and learning about climate change. It was an exhausting weekend, but one full of good times with the volunteers and noticing cultural differences all the more because of being in such an intense setting.

I’ll be honest, over a year and a half is starting to feel really long to be away from family and friends. But I feel really fortunate to have lots of visitors this second year. Several friends came in the fall, and my parents are planning a trip this summer. And even as my thoughts are starting to turn homeward (but not TOO much), I’m reminded of what I love about Laos, and of the everyday experiences that will no longer be a normal part of my life when I leave here. I thought of this the other day when I went to visit my neighbors, whose grandmother had died. I lit some incense and joked along with the older folks when they tried to set me up with their nephew. And I knew how to sit politely and keep my hands folded when the monks came to perform a ceremony.

I look forward to seeing all of you when I return at the end of the summer. At this point, I’m planning to look for a job and an apartment in Philadelphia. But initially, and while I’m on the job hunt, I plan to visit friends who have spread out to different states and live with my parents in Lititz (and hopefully, see my brothers before they head off to college!). And of course, I’m looking forward to catching up with all of you at CMCL. Thank you so much for supporting me and keeping me in your prayers.

with one of the goofy volunteers

the beautiful mountains and fields of Vang Vieng, Laos (near where we saw the wild monkeys!)

some of the costumes from the Trash Fashion Show