down time

I've been getting in the habit of emailing people in an attempt to acclimate to different mediums of communication. I think email will have to be my primary means communication during this next semester. I've also been reading a book called "we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" by Philip Gourevitch. By no means am I going to be prepared for everything I will perceive and experience next semester, but I feel like I have an inkling of a clue now. And I'm not even finished.

My days at home are so slow! I read, sleep, play Age of Empires, and watch shows with my family. And eat. Oh man, do we eat. There are some fine eatings here at home, especially when I think of the last semester at GC (not to dis the dining commons, but man... home cooked is far superior). Desserts on every countertop. Snacks in every cupboard. Refrigerator bountiful. It's hard with my college student mindset to resist eating all this free food!

I've also been working on some tunes while I've been home. I mentioned it in my last post but here is a link to my new project: Mansa Musa!

I felt restless today. Whenever I'm home, my thoughts don't proceed correctly--instead of a normal, linear progression of thought, my brain tends to scatter and rest on a variety of different things. It really is nothing personal about my family or whatever, but the quietness of this place, the seclusion, the isolation... it changes me. My mind isn't squeezed into its functioning corner. It can flutter about, rest, pick back up. It's nice! But at the same time, it's requiring me to change my patterns of thought. It really is a different structure at home. I suppose I should be thankful for the exercise in changing how I think. I'm about to experience a elemental change in thinking, I hope. If nothing else, I will soon be somewhere with a whole different structure than what I'm familiar with. And I can't wait.

ahh, here we go...

I need to get back into blogging if I'm going to be posting a blog every day or every so often while I'm in Rwanda. 

Let me start by saying that I am immensely excited to depart for Rwanda. I cant wait to meet all the people from go ed, students and staff. i cant wait to really get a feel for the program, academically, spiritually, culturally-- to dive into this thing wholeheartedly. I don't know the journey that I'm about to embark on, but i know it's going to be epic. I can already tell I'm going to look back on these words and say "wow, he never knew what was coming."

I think I still have a lot of preparation to do before I leave. I very much want to pour over this thing in prayer, devour the reading list they recommend, as well as seek out the heart of god in his word on a lot of different issues before I leave. 

My Christmas was excellent. It was just a beautiful day to relax, spend time with my family, and make some music absentmindedly. I've been working hard on a track to release and figure out what my limits are for when I'm in Africa as far as music goes… my metal jams have been spinning. Anyway, I went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie with the family, and it was good. My dad got me this mission impossible season from 1988 for Christmas, so we watched an episode of that too once we got back, accompanied by some chocolate panda paws and Christmas cookies. Mmmm. 

One of the things I am most looking forward to is being thrust into a foreign, completely different lifestyle than the one I have right now. The one I have now is pretty mundane-- I sleep, I eat, I read, I play my guitar, I see a few people… that's it essentially. When I get to Rwanda, not only will it be a vastly different cultural framework, but I will be cast back into a sense of academia that I've tingled for in recent days too. I'm also pumped about getting rid of my phone for a semester, only using it when it matters. And pumped to not be around the din of American consumerism constantly. But what am I saying? How can I possibly prepare or anticipate the growth, change, joy, and love that I am hopefully going to experience and understand? I can't, really. 

God is so good and beautiful. I have cherished him today and last week for how good he is to me and my family.