North Korea books

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

In the past year I've read two very, very good books about North Korea. It's a place that has intrigued me for quite some time, and I was happy to find some books about it that not only were informative, but exceedingly well-written. One was fiction (Orphan Master) and one non-fiction (Nothing to Envy), but both are thoroughly researched and steeped in facts.

Should you wish to read more about either or check out other readers' reviews, try Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6178648-nothing-to-envy?from_search=true

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11529868-the-orphan-master-s-son?ac=1

I must say, I do find it impressive that after over 25,000 people reading and rating Nothing to Envy, the book has an extremely high ranking of almost 4.5 stars (out of a possible 5). Apparently I'm not the only one on Goodreads who thought it was a good read!

Corn maze

We went to a corn maze! Having never been to one before, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, the word "maze" made me think that there was an entrance and an exit, and you were supposed to find your way from one to the other, and avoid getting stuck in dead ends and having to backtrack. Maybe there are some like that out there, but at the one we went to, the idea was to find things hidden inside of the maze. We pretty much always knew how to get out, but didn't really know where we were inside of it, or which parts of it we hadn't been to yet. There were lots of paths, and they all looked alike!

We went with two international students who are studying at the university in our town for the year. We've become friends and will miss them when the return to South Korea and Taiwan at the end of the school year! Afterwards we bought pumpkins and then returned home to carve them - more fall fun. It seemed like a good cultural event to introduce our friends to some quirky American things, as well as giving us an excuse to do something we wanted to do, but probably wouldn't do on our own.

Zarya had to go to bed halfway through the carving experience, but every time we go outside, she runs over to the pumpkins and pats the one Andrew did and informs me it's Baba's pumpkin, and then identifies Mama's pumpkin. I guess halfway-carved was enough for her to know whose was whose! Because we are not amazing artists, I'm intentionally not including pictures of our pumpkins here. Whatever you are imaging them to look like is probably better than reality, so we'll leave it at that.

Jesus Film update

For those of you who read my ministry newsletters, you might recall that The JESUS Film has been a major undertaking of late. And by "of late," I suppose I mean for nearly three years now! The Zanaki and Kabwa people groups now have the film in their own languages, as of earlier this year. The Simbiti and Jita people groups will both have it before too much longer - they will start recording next month.

I was quite excited to receive a recent update from a colleague in Musoma about what has been happening with the Zanaki and Kabwa film. Back in August, an organization called Life  Ministry did some evangelism/church planting/Jesus Film showing training for Christian leaders from these groups. Exciting stuff! They equipped them with generators, projectors, and a way to transport these things - motorcycle carts, so now these leaders can travel around their areas to do evangelism and church planting through showing the film. Hooray! I haven't heard a progress report on how it's going, but I'm just excited to know that things are continuing and these films are being used to spread the gospel in people's heart languages!

Fall Fun at Vale Wood Farm

"Baby Ben" - a calf with a perfect 7 on his face

They were squealing, "Cow! Cow!" as they ran up to this big picture

Exploring straw. Fascinating stuff if you are under age 2.

Don't like sandboxes? Try corn boxes!

My very near and dear friend Shannon and I met up today for some fall fun. We started off at the sunken gardens of St. Francis something or other... it was a monastery across the street from St. Francis College in Loretto, PA. Anyway, it was kind of wet and not the right season to properly enjoy it, but we could tell it would be smashingly gorgeous in the spring and summer. We plan to go back next year to enjoy it once again when there are flowers and waterfalls.

Next we went over to Vale Wood Farm (http://www.valewoodfarms.com) and weren't quite sure what to expect there, but it was fabulous! As you can see from the pictures above, it was quite the farmy day for our little ones. Joel and Zarya were just barely old enough to really enjoy it, which means we can keep going back for years of more fun in the future.

In addition to games (everything from corn slingshot launches and hay slides to a table with toy tractors on it), there were piglets, goats, chickens, peacocks, and a calf with a 7 on his face. Apparently if you are a football fan, you immediately think of some Pittsburgh Steelers player who is #7 and named Ben, but to me and Shannon, it was just cool that little Ben the calf had a 7 on his face, and to our toddlers, it was just ridiculously exciting to see a calf up close. We appreciated that they also had picnic tables for us to eat our sack lunches, toilets (you'll recall I'm quite pregnant, so this was a must), and lots of grass for running around. We didn't even get around to the adult or kid hay  mazes or go on a hay ride farm tour, but should we have had older kids who didn't require getting home to take naps, that would have been fun, too. Our kids were more at the corn box stage, and that was fine with us. Shannon and I got to talk and visit while they dug around in dried corn. And corn is just as much fun as sand, but a whole lot cleaner.

We finished things off with teensy weensy ice cream cones, and of course I felt compelled to buy milk, ice cream, and yogurt in the dairy store because it looked so fresh and good.

All in all, a very fun fall day!

Visit from Nammie

Andrew's mom came out to visit us earlier this week, and Zarya soaked up every minute of attention from Nammie! It only took her an hour or so to figure out that while parents might sometimes be too busy to read your entire library to you, grandmothers aren't. Let's just say that this first picture was enacted about six hundred times during the course of five days.

Although the pessimists who run weather websites predicted rain during Wendy's visit, we enjoyed lots of crisp, sunny days. We went up to the Amish town in the north of the county and did the tourist thing one day, went to our favorite park (pictured here) another day, and enjoyed our other favorite park the following day. Our town might not be a major metropolis, but we have some very nice parks here! Of course Zarya thought spending multiple mornings at various parks was a great way to show her Nammie her new town.

Other grandmotherly treats for the adults included her making us an apple pie and spending her final evening here babysitting while we went on a date. Months ago we'd been given tickets for a fun event, but weren't sure how we were going to make that happen. However, it fell right during Wendy's visit, and voila! Off we went all by ourselves, knowing that Zarya was happily being read to, fed, bathed, and put to bed by a very capable person.

It's a long trip from Oregon to Pennsylvania, but we're sure glad that Wendy took the time to come visit. She didn't even appear to have any jetlag!

What I miss... what I don't miss

Passion fruit in my backyard

Beautiful views of Lake Victoria

Fresh tilapia and chips

Are there things I miss about life in Tanzania? Most definitely! Are there things I am happy to have left behind? Of course! I was happy to be there, and I'm also happy to be here in Pennsylvania. There are a lot of perks in both places, and I have found that I really like both locations.

What I miss:
-Fresh, cheap tropical fruit
-Cheap phone plans
-Interaction with the translators
-Missionary women's Bible study
-Being near a large body of water
-Never wondering what the weather will be
-Not having to have seasonal clothes (see point above...)
-Fresh fish caught within sight of where you're eating it
-Ease of obtaining drugs (j/k... I mean not having to get a prescription to buy medicine)
And I could keep on going, but those are the ones that are coming to mind right now.

What I don't miss:
-Mosquitoes, snakes, lizards, cockroaches, millipedes, ants, etc. in my house
-Sweating year-round
-Dust
-Shopping, working, interacting with officials, and going to church in Swahili
-Being a day's drive from the nearest reliable hospital
-Errands like getting a driver's license renewed taking all day
-Being the center of attention all the time
-Power outages, water outages, internet outages
-Stores running out of basic things and not knowing when they'll have them again
-Having to decide whom to help and whom to deny, seemingly constantly
And I could keep on going here, too!