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I got my hair plated. I sat for 6 hours...and it still was only half done. the omatako was paining. But here is the half-done, amanda-with-cap version.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Thanksgiving
12 people.
my house.
5 countries represented.
chicken.
game tenderloin.
mashed potatoes.
corn.
sweet potatoes.
baked pineapple.
broetchens.
greek salad.
cooldrink.
tang.
hot apple cider.
watermelon.
ice cream.
pumpkin pie.
sweet whipped cream.
prayer.
laughter.
spider stories.
more laughter.
hot inside.
cool outside.
more laughter.
a million stars.
mmm.
priceless.
i hope your Thanksgiving was a great one!
my house.
5 countries represented.
chicken.
game tenderloin.
mashed potatoes.
corn.
sweet potatoes.
baked pineapple.
broetchens.
greek salad.
cooldrink.
tang.
hot apple cider.
watermelon.
ice cream.
pumpkin pie.
sweet whipped cream.
prayer.
laughter.
spider stories.
more laughter.
hot inside.
cool outside.
more laughter.
a million stars.
mmm.
priceless.
i hope your Thanksgiving was a great one!
Monday, November 20, 2006
Special
the latter half of this week was just that - special. starting with Thursday, when all of us who meet at the woodcarver's each week, met in the evening for special time together. 13 of us gathered (7 adults and 6 children) to worship the Lord together and remember Jesus. We met at the Christ's Hope International center in town at 7pm. we began by reading John 13 which describes Jesus taking on the role of a servant, and washing his disciple's feet. We learned from His example about the significance of servanthood and humility. Then we washed one another's feet. The oldest and the youngest all washed another's feet and were washed - an act of humilty and remembering that Jesus humbled himself to serve.
Then we gathered around the table to fellowship and feast. we broke bread together and shared the Lord's supper. for many this was the first time they had ever shared the Lord's supper or even broken bread with other believers this way. It was a very sweet time.
After dinner we watched "The Passion of the Christ". Again, a first for several people there. Maveja was one of the those. It was beautiful to experience this with her. I was overwhelmed with such a sense of thankfulness, not only for what Christ did in redeeming me, but what he has done in redeeming my sister, Maveja. I asked her several days later what she experienced that night and it was evident that the whole night really impacted her. She related that she just felt something unexplainable that night, just being together - all of us - and rembering Jesus like that. He response to the film was summed up mainly by this sentiment,
"I kept thinking, why did I live so long just going on sinning like I did, when Jesus did that for me?"
I seriously love this girl. Her life in Christ means so much to me. I am so thankful to God for allowing me to see the change He has worked and continues to work in her.
On friday Maveja and Buddy came over to my house for dinner. We had spaghetti and salad. Buddy brought this bread called "Lambort" bread because it reminded him of Lambys bread in Lord of the Rings. Then we watched a movie - an absolutely awful movie - NOT my pick. i sent the other two to Funky Video (yes, that is the actual name of the video rental store) So we watched "Ultrviolet" starring Mila Jovovich. nearly two hours of my life I will never get back. Maveja spent the night at my place because we were all getting up early the next morning...
for our Saturday ride to Grossbarmen. Yes, we rode our bikes the 25k to GB, spent the day at the pool, then rode home 25k. A total of 50 k. (31 miles, for you Americans out there) It took about 2 hours each way. We hoped to leave right at 7am to avoid the heat, but Buddy had some bike issues, so we eneded up leaving at 7:40. Still ok though, because it ended up being fairly cool most of the way. Then we spent the day by the pool, had a swim, played Uno, ate ice cream, talked about Jesus, and then decided to head home around 3:00. It was good timing too, as there were storms on the horizon - following us the whole way. Which, I might add, ended up being a huge belssing, because it was overcast mostly which cooled the ride home a lot.
Back at my place we ate the remaining spaghetti leftovers and lounged around my livingroom for a bit while Buddy lamented "losing his omatako somewhere on the road". Then it was time for everyone to part ways and take a much needed SHOWER.
On Sunday we met at Buddy's and broke open the Word, worshiped God with our voices and prayer, and anjoyed each others company. Christaan, Buddy, Rena, Julia, Miriam, Bieata and myself were all there reading and discussing the second half of James chapter 2. Maveja couldn't make it and neither could Nelda and both were very missed.
Yes, indeed, this was a speacial week.
Then we gathered around the table to fellowship and feast. we broke bread together and shared the Lord's supper. for many this was the first time they had ever shared the Lord's supper or even broken bread with other believers this way. It was a very sweet time.
After dinner we watched "The Passion of the Christ". Again, a first for several people there. Maveja was one of the those. It was beautiful to experience this with her. I was overwhelmed with such a sense of thankfulness, not only for what Christ did in redeeming me, but what he has done in redeeming my sister, Maveja. I asked her several days later what she experienced that night and it was evident that the whole night really impacted her. She related that she just felt something unexplainable that night, just being together - all of us - and rembering Jesus like that. He response to the film was summed up mainly by this sentiment,
"I kept thinking, why did I live so long just going on sinning like I did, when Jesus did that for me?"
I seriously love this girl. Her life in Christ means so much to me. I am so thankful to God for allowing me to see the change He has worked and continues to work in her.
On friday Maveja and Buddy came over to my house for dinner. We had spaghetti and salad. Buddy brought this bread called "Lambort" bread because it reminded him of Lambys bread in Lord of the Rings. Then we watched a movie - an absolutely awful movie - NOT my pick. i sent the other two to Funky Video (yes, that is the actual name of the video rental store) So we watched "Ultrviolet" starring Mila Jovovich. nearly two hours of my life I will never get back. Maveja spent the night at my place because we were all getting up early the next morning...
for our Saturday ride to Grossbarmen. Yes, we rode our bikes the 25k to GB, spent the day at the pool, then rode home 25k. A total of 50 k. (31 miles, for you Americans out there) It took about 2 hours each way. We hoped to leave right at 7am to avoid the heat, but Buddy had some bike issues, so we eneded up leaving at 7:40. Still ok though, because it ended up being fairly cool most of the way. Then we spent the day by the pool, had a swim, played Uno, ate ice cream, talked about Jesus, and then decided to head home around 3:00. It was good timing too, as there were storms on the horizon - following us the whole way. Which, I might add, ended up being a huge belssing, because it was overcast mostly which cooled the ride home a lot.
Back at my place we ate the remaining spaghetti leftovers and lounged around my livingroom for a bit while Buddy lamented "losing his omatako somewhere on the road". Then it was time for everyone to part ways and take a much needed SHOWER.
On Sunday we met at Buddy's and broke open the Word, worshiped God with our voices and prayer, and anjoyed each others company. Christaan, Buddy, Rena, Julia, Miriam, Bieata and myself were all there reading and discussing the second half of James chapter 2. Maveja couldn't make it and neither could Nelda and both were very missed.
Yes, indeed, this was a speacial week.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
The Sounds Of My Life
so i got this from Joel, who got it from his sister....fun.
IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
Opening Credits: You Know How I Do –Taking Back Sunday
Waking Up: So Right – Dave Matthews Band
First Day At School: Mother Jupiter - Shrug
Falling In Love: Homecoming King - Guster
Fight Song: You and I Both – Jason Mraz
Breaking Up: Storms in Africa - Enya
Prom: Days Were Golden – Sunny Day Real Estate
Life's Ok: Total Depravity – Havalina Rail Co.
Mental Breakdown: Grace Flood – O.C. Supertones
Driving: Return of the Antagonist -Grits
Flashback: Superman -Blindside
Getting Back Together: Find Your Way To Me – Vineyard Music
Birth of Child: Taking Your Leave – Learning Afrikaans
Wedding: Backyard - Guster
Final Battle: Turpentine Chaser – Dashboard Confessional
Death Scene: New Orleans Instrumental No.1 - REM
Funeral Song: Two Promises – Sunny Day Real Estate
End Credits: Light & Day – The Polyphonic Spree
Thursday, November 16, 2006
South African Parliament Approves Gay Marriages
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: November 14, 2006
NYTIMES
JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 14 — South Africa’s Parliament overwhelmingly voted today to legalize same-sex marriages, making the nation the first in Africa and the fifth in the world to remove legal barriers to gay and lesbian unions, according to activists.The legislature voted after the nation’s highest court ruled that South Africa’s marriages statutes violated the constitution’s guarantee of equal rights. The court gave the government a year to amend the legal definition of marriage. That deadline expires in two weeks.Melanie Judge, program manager for OUT, a gay rights advocacy group, noted that the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada were the only other countries to allow same-sex marriages nationwide. In most African nations, she said, homosexuality is still treated as a crime. Some penalties are stiffer than those for rape or murder..Ms. Judge credited South Africa’s liberal constitution with forcing change.“This has been a litmus test of our constitutional values,” she said in a telephone interview. “What does equality really mean? What does it look like? Equality does not exist on a sliding scale.”Religious groups and traditional leaders strenuously opposed the measure, arguing that if necessary the constitution should be amended to outlaw same-sex unions. But the ruling African National Congress virtually demanded that lawmakers support the bill.Despite deep divisions within the party, the measure passed 230 to 41. It must now be approved by the Council of Provinces, a quasi-federal chamber, and be signed the president to become law.Vytjie Mentor, the party’s caucus chairman, told the South African newspaper The Sunday Independent earlier this month that he expected legislators belonging to the African National Congress to vote for the measure, regardless of their personal views.There is “no such thing as a free vote or a vote of conscience,” he said. “How do you give someone permission to discriminate in the name of the A.N.C.? How do you allow for someone to vote against the constitution and the policies of the A.N.C., which is antidiscrimination?”The new law allows both heterosexual and same-sex couples to register their unions either as marriages or civil partnerships. But in a concession to critics, it also allows civil officers to refuse to marry same-sex couples on the basis on conscience. Ms. Judge, the gay rights advocate, predicted that provision will be challenged in court.“We can’t be in the situation where civil officers can decide who they want to marry and who they don’t want to marry,” she said. “They aren’t able to refuse to marry a black person and a white person. This is unconstitutional.”
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Web posted at 7:45:24 GMT
SA approves same-sex unions
SOUTH Africa's parliament has voted to legalise same-sex weddings - the first African country to approve such unions.
The controversial Civil Union bill was passed by 230 votes to 41.
The legislation was introduced after the Constitutional Court ruled last year that the existing laws discriminated against homosexuals.
The ruling African National Congress ordered all MPs to turn up and vote for the bill, despite the opposition of church and traditional leaders.
The bill provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnised and registered by either a marriage or civil union".
The existing Marriage Act defines a marriage as a "union between a man and a woman".
During the debate before the vote, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told MPs: "In breaking with our past...
we need to fight and resist all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia."
But, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, president of the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference, said the bill would be a blow against democracy.
"The impression we got is that there is overwhelming opposition to this bill from people throughout South Africa," he told South Africa's Daily News before the vote.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe told MPs that those who voted for same-sex marriages would face divine wrath.
However, some gay rights activists have also criticised the bill, because it gives officials the right not to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies if this would conflict with their "conscience, religion and belief".
In the face of such strong feelings, the ANC had issued a three-line whip, instructing all MPs to vote in favour of the bill.
The ANC has a huge majority in parliament.
Last year, the Constitutional Court gave the government until December 1, 2006 to legalise same-sex weddings, after gay rights activists took the issue to court.
The ruling was based on the constitution, which was the first in the world specifically to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.
This is unusual in Africa where homosexuality is largely taboo - notably in its neighbour Zimbabwe.
Published: November 14, 2006
NYTIMES
JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 14 — South Africa’s Parliament overwhelmingly voted today to legalize same-sex marriages, making the nation the first in Africa and the fifth in the world to remove legal barriers to gay and lesbian unions, according to activists.The legislature voted after the nation’s highest court ruled that South Africa’s marriages statutes violated the constitution’s guarantee of equal rights. The court gave the government a year to amend the legal definition of marriage. That deadline expires in two weeks.Melanie Judge, program manager for OUT, a gay rights advocacy group, noted that the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada were the only other countries to allow same-sex marriages nationwide. In most African nations, she said, homosexuality is still treated as a crime. Some penalties are stiffer than those for rape or murder..Ms. Judge credited South Africa’s liberal constitution with forcing change.“This has been a litmus test of our constitutional values,” she said in a telephone interview. “What does equality really mean? What does it look like? Equality does not exist on a sliding scale.”Religious groups and traditional leaders strenuously opposed the measure, arguing that if necessary the constitution should be amended to outlaw same-sex unions. But the ruling African National Congress virtually demanded that lawmakers support the bill.Despite deep divisions within the party, the measure passed 230 to 41. It must now be approved by the Council of Provinces, a quasi-federal chamber, and be signed the president to become law.Vytjie Mentor, the party’s caucus chairman, told the South African newspaper The Sunday Independent earlier this month that he expected legislators belonging to the African National Congress to vote for the measure, regardless of their personal views.There is “no such thing as a free vote or a vote of conscience,” he said. “How do you give someone permission to discriminate in the name of the A.N.C.? How do you allow for someone to vote against the constitution and the policies of the A.N.C., which is antidiscrimination?”The new law allows both heterosexual and same-sex couples to register their unions either as marriages or civil partnerships. But in a concession to critics, it also allows civil officers to refuse to marry same-sex couples on the basis on conscience. Ms. Judge, the gay rights advocate, predicted that provision will be challenged in court.“We can’t be in the situation where civil officers can decide who they want to marry and who they don’t want to marry,” she said. “They aren’t able to refuse to marry a black person and a white person. This is unconstitutional.”
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Web posted at 7:45:24 GMT
SA approves same-sex unions
SOUTH Africa's parliament has voted to legalise same-sex weddings - the first African country to approve such unions.
The controversial Civil Union bill was passed by 230 votes to 41.
The legislation was introduced after the Constitutional Court ruled last year that the existing laws discriminated against homosexuals.
The ruling African National Congress ordered all MPs to turn up and vote for the bill, despite the opposition of church and traditional leaders.
The bill provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnised and registered by either a marriage or civil union".
The existing Marriage Act defines a marriage as a "union between a man and a woman".
During the debate before the vote, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told MPs: "In breaking with our past...
we need to fight and resist all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia."
But, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, president of the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference, said the bill would be a blow against democracy.
"The impression we got is that there is overwhelming opposition to this bill from people throughout South Africa," he told South Africa's Daily News before the vote.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe told MPs that those who voted for same-sex marriages would face divine wrath.
However, some gay rights activists have also criticised the bill, because it gives officials the right not to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies if this would conflict with their "conscience, religion and belief".
In the face of such strong feelings, the ANC had issued a three-line whip, instructing all MPs to vote in favour of the bill.
The ANC has a huge majority in parliament.
Last year, the Constitutional Court gave the government until December 1, 2006 to legalise same-sex weddings, after gay rights activists took the issue to court.
The ruling was based on the constitution, which was the first in the world specifically to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.
This is unusual in Africa where homosexuality is largely taboo - notably in its neighbour Zimbabwe.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
I AM NOT GOING TO SLEEP…EVER!
Ok, so everyone has by now noticed my mini-obsession with Hairy Hairdressers. But believe me, if you were here right now, you would see that this is completely justified. Remember when I took a picture of what I considered to be the Big Daddy Hairy….NOT EVEN CLOSE!!! If that one was the Big Daddy, then tonight I met THE GOLIATH HAIRY. No, I do not have pictures. There was NO WAY I was taking my eyes off that thing; it probably would have eaten me if I turned my back on it. I walked into my bathroom to brush my teeth and out of the corner of my eye I saw movement, which I at first thought must have been a moth down near the baseboard. I turned my gaze, and that’s when I saw…IT. It was about 4 inches long and was cruising along the floor. It ran and hid in the corner beside my trash bin. I immediately took off my flip flop and tried to gather the courage to approach. All the while I’m thinking, what if my flip flop doesn’t have enough force to crush this monstrosity??? What if it jumps at me??? What if I simply anger it and it hides, and then comes to cut off all my hair in the middle of the night out of revenge??? But my fear of not killing it, and knowing that it was loose somewhere in my house was even worse. I smacked at it once, and missed. It ran farther back into the corner where I couldn’t see it anymore. But I knew his game…he was thinking, “I’ll hide in the corner out of her sight and she’ll have to move the trash bin, then when she moves it, I’ll attack!” So rather than move the bin out of the way, I just rattled it around a bit. And he jumped. My trash bin is a typical plastic bucket, which is I’m guessing approx. 1foot from rim to floor? And I saw this guy jump up and he popped up above the rim of the bucket. Twice. Then he made a dash for it and ran behind the toilet (very difficult to reach) and I began to pray that he would move again, otherwise I might have been forced to have an all-night vigil. And move he did. He started to scurry up the wall and I mustered up all my courage and as much velocity as possible with a flip flop, and…WHACK! He fell and PRAISE THE LORD didn’t move. That would have been the perfect time for a picture, because he didn’t even look injured, but I smacked him again for good measure, because I seriously think he was faking it. After I stopped shaking (major adrenaline rush) I called Buddy. We had previously had a conversation about how big these guys could get and Buddy had mentioned that he would kind of like to see a big one, even though he wasn’t so sure he really wanted to. I said “Buddy, I promise, you DON’T want to see one.” I put Goliath’s corpse into a jar to show B when he comes over next time (that is, if he even comes near my house again. After this, he may not) Perhaps I will get a photo – postmortem – although you totally can’t appreciate his immense girth now, because he’s kind of crumpled. Either way, suffice it to say that I’m a bit jumpy right now, and sleep…well…we’ll see...
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Maveja's email
Maveja has an email address now. I helped her set up a gmail account. So if you are interested in writing her something to encourage her, or if you just want to say hello, email me and I'll give you the address! I'm sure she would love to get emails from people in the States who have been praying for her.
Friday, November 03, 2006
I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeVille...
This one I refer to as, "The Big Daddy Hairy". I'm sure you're dying for a close-up, (fodder for nightmares) but i didn't want to let him get away while i fiddled around to get a shot, so its too fuzzy to zoom in. i did kill him, by the way...this was his last big moment on my wall. by the way, Vincent told me that its called a Red Roman Spider, and I think he's right. Its a Solifugae.
http://www.museums.org.za/bio/arachnids/solifugae.htm
One of Buddy's little friends:
http://www.museums.org.za/bio/arachnids/solifugae.htm
One of Buddy's little friends:
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