Prayer request from my friend Amy who's a missionary teacher in Tanzania

Hi everyone! I just wanted to ask you all to pray for Tanzania and all of East Africa right now. I don't know how much you've heard about the drought here, but it is getting very serious. Apparently there hasn't been enough rain the last few years, and this year it's finally catching up. For me, this means that we don't have power for most of the day, almost every day. This is an inconvenience, and definitely makes me hot, tired, and sweaty, but even though it makes me uncomfortable it's not life threatening. Many farmers, however, are having terrible problems because they can't plant their crops because it's so dry. This means they don't have enough food to eat and many have started eating the seeds they should be planting for food. It also means food prices in Dar are going up, which is very difficult for many Tanzanians. Please pray that rain would come quickly (the rainy season is supposed to start sometime in March or April, no one knows exactly when) and that it would rain enough that the land and people can recover. Also, please pray that I would be grateful for what God has given me and that I won't get frustrated with the power cuts. I'm beginning to feel very tired and stressed out because I can't do the work I need to without power (mainly a computer) and I feel it's beginning to take a toll on my attitude towards my students and living here. So this is just a quick note to ask for your prayers specifically for rain in East Africa. I'll write more in the next week or so about some of the awesome things God is doing here. Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support!
In Christ,
Amy

Attack of the Giant Sloth

So last Saturday Melissa, Gates and I went to the Fernbank Museum for Gates's birthday. None of us had ever been there, so we leisurely walked around the museum and took in all the sights. What's interesting about this museum is that the featured attraction is more or less a lot of fake animals, including a giant sloth. This was the biggest sloth I had ever seen by far. So I asked a guy who was also looking at the sloth if he could take our picture. I told him to try to get the sloth in there. Wow- did he ever. Can you even see us??

We also got to walk through the new Chocolate exhibit that will be there until mid-March. Unfortunately they only have free chocolate samples on Sundays!! So keep that in mind if you plan on seeing it. There's nothing worse then spending 30 minutes learning about chocolate and then having no free access to chocolate at the end. But it was really fun. Here's an interesting fact- the country that consumes the most chocolate is the U.S., and the country that grows the most chaco plants is the Ivory Coast.

Breakthrough

Sometime around the early 1990's Coca-cola came out with a new brand of "pop" called OK Soda. I distinctly remember it's shiny silver and black can and it's very unique flavor, which the rumor going around was that it secretly was a combination of all of Coca-cola's soda products. It was marketed heavily with TV and radio ads during it's short duration on grocery store shelves. The ads were really strange, featuring comments that people would make to a 1-800 hotline about how their lives had been affected by Ok soda. My cousins Andy and I used to scheme about calling the number and leaving something just totally brillant and hilarious. I guess we never really did that because I don't remember hearing any ads with our comments. Also, when we sensed that OK soda was going to be pulled off the shelf, Andy kept one of the cans and had me sign a can so we could forever have a keepsake of what that soda meant to us.

What's really funny is that from time to time something will spark my memory of OK soda and I'll launch into this story about what a crazy product it was, but no one has ever been able to corroborate my story outside of my fellow midwestern cousins. As you guessed this happened today (I was telling my coworkers about it) and thus, this blog was born. I also did some research because it always baffled me why I was the only one who knew about it.

So today, I found out why:
Despite a nationwide advertising campaign and intense media attention, OK Soda was marketed only in select areas, representing different demographic areas during the summer of 1994. This is a common form of marketing research known as "test marketing", in which a product is launched on a small-scale to determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is introduced to the wider market. Some of the testing locations were:
Austin, Texas
Boston, Massachusetts
Denver, Colorado
Knoxville, Tennessee
Portland, Oregon
Providence, Rhode Island
Little Rock, Arkansas
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Omaha, Nebraska
Fargo, North Dakota
Sacramento, California
Seattle, Washington
Atlantic Canada
Most soda drinkers found the taste blandly unappealing, and OK Soda never captured more than 3% of the beverage market in any of the target locations, failing to match Zyman's hype. The project was cancelled by Coca-Cola just seven months after its kickoff, and the soda was never widely released to the public.

So apparently none of my southern friends ever got a chance to benefit from this phenominon.

More interesting Ok Soda facts:

OK Soda had a more "citric" taste than traditional colas, almost like a Fruit Punch version of Coke's Fresca. Some reviewers described it as "slightly spicy". Others likened it to a combination of orange soda and flat Coca-Cola. In contrast to earlier beverages from the 1980s also noted for their marketing campaigns, such as Jolt and Red Bull, OK Soda's caffeine content was not emphasized. A 12-ounce serving of OK Soda had only 40.5 milligrams of caffeine, slightly less than Coca-Cola itself (45.6 mg).

Many OK Soda fans have attempted to recreate the taste of OK Soda from memory. Though the actual formula is unknown, a generally accepted recipe for the approximate taste is:

¼ orange soda
¾ semi-flat Coca-Cola
a splash of Dr. Pepper

This new book I'm reading

I've been reading a book called "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok which is about the friendship of two boys growing up as Orthodox Jews in New York City. It's very intriguting because I know almost nothing of this type of belief system and the story itself is very interesting. I'm not sure how many people today still live according to this same tradition, but I think that it's more common then it may seem. We have many Jews that live right around my church although I'm not sure if they are orthodox or not. Anyway, I was reading last night trying to get my mind off things enough to fall asleep, and came across this quote. Reuven (Hebrew for Robert I believe) is one of the boys and his father said this to him soon after WWII ended and it was discovered that over 6 million Jews were killed:

"Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of any eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here. Do you understanding what I am saying?"

It's interesting too regarding the reference Reuven's dad makes to an "eye" because at the beginning of the book Reuven was hit in the eye with a baseball. He almost went blind from the glass that was embedded in it as a result. So Reuven developed a new found gratefulness for eyesight.

Office politics

I learned an important lesson today in office politics. The question was, what do I do if I break something? Do I tell our HR person? Do I walk away?? Will anyone notice or care? The things you think about when you work inside a 10 x 5 box all day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jessica
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 1:18 PM
To: Dora
Subject: paper shredders

Dora,

I majorly screwed up the paper shredder. I’m really sorry. There is still some paper stuck in it that I couldn’t get out. If there is something I can do just let me know. Thanks,

Jessica


________________________________________
From: Dora
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 1:47 PM
To: Jessica
Subject: RE: paper shredders


Thank you for your honesty. J Someone commented to me a few minutes ago how “people” jam the shredder and walks away for another person to fix. No worrries. I appreciate you stepping up and telling on yourself. Your secret is safe with me. J I’ll check it. I usually can un-jam it.



Dora

Great times in Tennessee!!

A group of us went to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee last weekend and rented a cabin and had a good time enjoying the snow and relaxation!! This cabin was probably one of the nicest cabins I've ever been to. The bed I had was like sleeping on a cloud. We also had great conversations and a time of praise, worship, and reflection on Sunday. Props go to my car which was made up of Lisa H, Laura D and Amy Mo for our sweet dance moves to Millenium Hip Hop and using the phone-a-friend option to Laura Rod, Jeremy, Kate and Brent's car to help us understand a particularly hard Bible question. We couldn't google it, so what else can you do? Fortunately speaker cell phones can do the trick. It was really fun. Also, we celebrated Ryan, Betsy and Jamie's birthday's so Happy Birthday again to you guys. You don't look a day over 21. At least...to me!!

Tales of the new house

One of my favorite things in the world is to find new back ways to get places when I'm driving somewhere. Today I discovered a back way to my new house. My friends Gates and Melissa told me about it this weekend so I tried it out. In typical Atlanta fashion I drove on the same road all the way all the way there yet the name of the road changed three times. As a seasoned Atlanta driver this did not confuse me and I pressed on all the way to my house unscathed.

Upon getting to the house I checked the mail and then went and inspected my new deck which was installed this week. That's the cool part of being involved in a townhouse complex.

The next thing was to bring my large rubbermaid container around the side of the house to the back and put it into my crawl space to store the stuff. I hauled the thing back there and immediately noticed the swarm of ducks which greeted me by my pond front. Relying on my past experiences with ducks and geese that were never pleasant I tried to stay clear of them as I wedged open the door and placed the container inside. While I was struggling with that I heard a huge squaking behind me. I turned around only to see a smaller duck being chased wildly by a larger duck. The larger duck immediately tackled the smaller and started biting it. I was thinking "is this like the survival of the fittest and they're killing off the weak or something?" It was really weird. Then suddenly I realized...they were mating!! Darn it!! And right next to Jeremy's plastic chairs that he let me borrow for the painting party that I needed to get to return to him!

I had no choice, so I approached the ducks, sort of waddling like a duck, going real slow-like. Apparently they weren't getting too busy because luckily for me they flew a few feet away and got some privacy for themselves. So I was able to rescue the chairs and put them in my car for safe keeping. I guess the neighbors I really need to be concerned about are the non-human kind!! And their future generations...

Pictures of the snow we got last weekend!!

It's Georgia snow, so it's not a lot and it didn't stay, and today it was 61 degrees, but it was fun while it lasted!

For all you LOST fans out there like me...

Crash

Last Friday I was able to participate in some of my favorite weekend activites: watching a movie, eating pizza, drinking a beer, and hanging out. My regular pizza-loving buddy is my roommate Heather. We like the same kind of pizza from the same pizza place as well, which I think is a very unique trait to find in a friend.

The movie of the night was "Crash" which has random characters in it like Sandra Bullock, Ryan Phillippe, Brendan Fraiser and Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda). It is indeed a fascinating movie and it gives you tons to think about. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone because of the content and subject matter. But I think it's an important movie to get Americans thinking more about the realities of racism in our country. It does affect all of us. This movie is also very good to watch on DVD so that way if you need to take a break or pause it to discuss it you can. We had to take a break mid-way to make some decaff coffee and catch up to make sure we understood the plot correctly.

I've been thinking a lot about the premise of the movie lately and it's interesting to see how much we stereotype different people groups, mostly in fun of course. When I get home from work each day I normally watch at least one seinfeld rerun from 6:00-7:00. Last night's episode centered around Elaine's new boyfriend who was a communist. He dressed in plain clothes and had random literature in his car about it. They made some great jokes about the clothes and him being "red". Fortunately I don't think communists will watch the show and freak out.

But, take for example, the the rioting going on by some Muslims against one of the Danish embassys in the Middle East for posting a cartoon making fun of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. It may not seem to affect the U.S. directly, however, the movie "Crash" showes viewers how forms of racism, prejudice and stereotyping interconnects us globally much more then we realize.

Awesome!

I ran for 18 minutes straight today at the gym!!

This semester

For some reason I have really been struggling this semester with doubts about the program I am pursuing. At first I thought this was really disturbing and abnormal. But fortunately I have two friends who have gone through the graduate school experience and reassure me that not only is this a normal feeling, but that this degree is exactly what I should be pursuing. I can't tell you how encouraging that was. It's very easy to look around at my classmates and wonder if I will really make a good counselor, especially as I am learning about some really crazy mental disorders. Did you know that demon possesion is a mental disorder, only if a person is being possessed against their wishes? So another words, if the person wants to be possessed, it's not necessarily a disorder. Yeah, stuff like that.

I also have one class in which the teacher totally has not met my expectations. This is really hard because it's an important class and I'm paying a boatload of money for this. I've been thinking and praying a lot about this because it's amazing how easy it is to be discontent. By the third class I was dreading even walking up the steps to the school. And I have 13 more weeks of this! I needed to turn it over to the Lord and piper down about it. I know that He has me in this program and this class for a reason. I know I am blessed with skills in which I can use to read the book and comprehend if for myself. I am blessed to have a girl who in my head I call "Herminone" (she knows ALL the answers) in a group project because she will be a big help. It's going to be ok.

More fun cousin pictures

I feel like I'm always talking about one cousin or another so I decided I had to do another cousin post. Here are some fun pictures of my cousin Nick who is 9. I just ran across these again the other day. They were taken at Christmastime, which unfortunately is one of the only times I get to see Nick throughout the year.

For a time that Christmas Eve, Nick got a hold of my camera and took a couple of these. I think you can recognize those. The other pictures are of two of Nick's older sisters, Emily and Christy, who are equally as cool, and of me trying to get Nick as he was hiding somewhere behind my chair while we were singing Christmas carols...