Fix You (formerly titled Getting to Know People Better)

I was looking at a friends' blog and saw something she wrote about getting to know people. (Read it here.) There are definitely some things in there that I can relate to about Christian community.

What about you? Do you find that when you talk about personal stuff, maybe not-so-happy stuff, not really looking for advice, they just try to "fix you" and give you advice? Do you find that you do the same thing when people open up to you? Usually I'd prefer to just discuss whatever is on my mind and know that I'm not the only one thinking or feeling that way. Maybe some advice would help at some point, but a lot of it doesn't do much for me. But since I sometimes try to fix people, maybe the others don't really mean to try to fix me either. So patience probably is necessary. And Christian community has been good to me in many ways too. I've had some great discussions, been very encouraged, and I've been supported and empowered in other ways too. I've encountered people who were on the journey like me and didn't try to fix me.

And now, some random song lyrics that this post reminded me of, even though I'm not sure if they have anything to do with what I wrote:

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
when you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

--Fix You by Coldplay

Anticipation (Part 2)

More than five hundred years after Part 1:

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

--Luke 2:1-7 (NLT)

And eight days later a man named Simeon gave Mary more to anticipate, both good and bad:

This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but he will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.

--Luke 2:34-35 (NLT)

Skiing

On Thursday my brother and I drove out to Sunshine Village (in Banff) for some skiing. Actually, he joined the dark side (snowboarding) several years ago, so he snowboarded. The weather was a little windy and snowy, but it was great to get back on skis after almost a year of not skiing. Pretty well every run was open and the snow was good just about everywhere except at the top of Goat's Eye Mountain. Up there, the snow was hard-packed with rocks sticking through. (A word of advice if you're going there soon: when you get off the Goat's Eye chair, go left (facing up the mountain), not right. The snow to the left isn't good, but it's better than the stuff to the right.) But once we got down to the tree line, Goat's Eye had some of the best skiing of the day. The snow was good, there was moderately-difficult glade skiing, and there were nice, wide, steep runs too. It was great.

I didn't bring a camera, so I'm going to show you this shot from one of Sunshine's webcams instead. This is what the place looks like right now. Click on the picture to see all three webcams.

Job soon?

I had my second interview with Sherritt today. This is my first "second interview" of this job search, so I'm getting more optimistic. It is competitive though, so I don't know if I'll get it. I think it would be a good job though.

It's so much fun-akkah to celebrate Hanukkah

I've never actually celebrated Hanukkah, but apparently, that festival is going on right now. So here's a little something from the Talmud about the origin of Hanukkah:

When the Hellenists entered the sanctuary, they defiled all the oil that was found there. When the government of the House of Asmoneans prevailed and conquered them, oil was sought (to feed the holy lamp in the sanctuary) and only one vial was found with the seal of the high priest intact. The vial contained sufficient oil for one day only, but a miracle occurred, and it fed the holy lamp eight days in succession. These eight days were the following year established as days of good cheer, on which psalms of praise and acknowledgment (of God's wonders) were to be recited.

(And thanks to Adam Sandler for writing the title for this post.)

Happy Hanukkah, everyone!

Daring to Dream

Today a few friends and I began making plans to build a mansion. One of the main ideas is that we want everything to be big. For example, someone suggested the toilets should be so big that you can count the seconds before the sploosh. But then someone decided the toilets should be bottomless instead.

Every room would have a giant lava lamp. There was a bit of debate on whether we should be able to swim in the lava lamps, or if we should use real lava. We might be able to do both if we can get special suits.

I'm probably going to have to find a job before I can move out of my parents' house and contribute to building this mansion.

Ed Stelmach's New Job

Ed Stelmach gets sworn in as premier tomorrow. I think he comes across as an intelligent guy with a lot of integrity. I just sometimes wonder if he's too nice. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. For one thing, there's free food at the swearing in ceremony. That alone makes him look good.

I don't know if anyone's been trying to leave comments on this blog, but I'd just like to remind you, you do not need a Google or Blogger membership to do that. Just pick "Other" or "Anonymous" in the "Choose your identity" area. And that "Word verification" thing is just there to make sure spammers' computers don't leave comments.

Now when will I get a new job?

Anticipation

Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.

The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
You will enlarge the nation of Israel,
and its people will rejoice.
They will rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest
and like warriors dividing the plunder.
For you will break the yoke of their slavery
and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.
You will break the oppressor’s rod,
just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.
The boots of the warrior
and the uniforms bloodstained by war
will all be burned.
They will be fuel for the fire.

For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
will make this happen!

--Isaiah 9:1-7 (NLT)

The Final Vote

Tomorrow we pick our new premier. I know I've been down on Ted Morton and I haven't really mentioned Jim Dinning or Ed Stelmach. So today I'll talk about them. I've looked at some of their policies, and it's hard to decide which are better. Morton doesn't say as much about policy on his website as the other candidates. Stelmach and Dinning say a lot, but Stelmach seems more vague. This could mean he wants to put more time and thought into the specific details and wants to avoid making foolish promises, or it could mean he's not good with details.

I saw part of the debate on TV last night, and I think Morton and Dinning are both better public speakers than Stelmach, not that Stelmach is that bad. Personally I didn't think Ralph Klein was a wonderful public speaker either (I remember him saying "um" a lot), and people kept voting for him. But he was funnier than Stelmach.

Of course, policy isn't everything, and public speaking skills are less important to me than policy. Integrity and leadership skill are also very important. I'm not sure how any of the candidates are with leadership skill, but it seems like Stelmach has the best reputation for integrity. People even call him "Honest Ed."

And then there's Ted Morton. I've been hard on him, so now I'll be sort of nice to him. While I am not taking back the negative things I've said about him and I'm pretty sure I won't vote for him, a lot of his policies seem about as good as the other candidates' (with a few exceptions). Overall he seems like a smart guy (except for his comment about Edmonton being the capital of northern Alberta), and he probably has a few good ideas. I think he is somewhat extreme, but maybe not as bad as Jim Dinning thinks. I think it is good to have a few people in the legislature who are kind of extreme (left or right wing), because they tend to have a few good ideas that the more moderate people don't think of. So I hope Ted Morton remains as an MLA, but I hope he doesn't become premier.

Comments on Bill 208 (or Another Reason Why I'm Not Supportin' Morton)

So neither McPherson nor Norris made it onto the second ballot for the Alberta PC Leadership. I'm still not telling you which of those two I voted for, but if I'd changed by vote, the final result wouldn't have changed. And now the second ballot is coming up so I have to pick someone else to vote for. Here are some of my thoughts on something one of the candidates did a while back.

A while ago, the Alberta government was considering Bill 208, a bill introduced by Ted Morton. One thing this bill would do is allow marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. Now that our country allows same-sex marriage, I think it's very important that religious groups retain the right to choose who they marry. But I'm not sure that marriage commissioners should have that right. Before the beginning of gay marriage, I think marriage commissioners were expected to marry any couple that was legally eligible for marriage. (I've been having trouble confirming this though. Even the Alberta government website seems kind of vague, although I didn't read the Marriage Act, or whatever it's called.) If I'm right about that, allowing marriage commissioners to refuse to do same-sex weddings could open a big can of worms. Here's the big question: should people be able to refuse to perform parts of their job that conflict with their religious beliefs?

Some specific examples: Should Catholic pharmacists be allowed to refuse to sell birth control? Should Muslim fundamentalists working at a passport office be able to refuse to process applications for women who don't wear burkas? (Thanks to a guy named Mark who posted a comment here for that idea.) Should postal workers be able to refuse to deliver advertising that they disagree with? Or should all these people find different jobs if they want to opt out of certain duties?

I think Bill 208 would've given special treatment--not equal treatment--to people who oppose gay marriage. It seems to treat homosexuality like it's one of the biggest issues, while the issue is only mentioned a handful of times in the Bible--far less than it talks about defending the oppressed, helping the poor, etc. And as an evangelical Christian, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when political candidates can almost automatically get a lot of the evangelical vote just by promising to fight the "gay agenda." This just seems to confirm some groups' portrayal of Christians as bigots.

The other section of Bill 208 (letting teachers and students opt out of class discussions on same-sex marriage) seems to have the same problem. While I really hope teachers don't treat students who are against gay marriage like narrow-minded bigots, giving special treatment to people who disagree with a liberal position on one issue doesn't seem to be a good solution. Students can't opt out of other discussions, can they?

New Premier Coming Soon...

Tomorrow the members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta will pick a new leader, and hence, Alberta's new premier. I did get myself a membership a while back, so I'll be voting. So far I think my first choice is Gary McPherson. My main reservation about him is his lack of experience in government, although he has a lot of other relevant experiences. He strikes me as an unselfish person who cares about the little guy, but smart enough not to just throw money at every problem. However, he's probably the lowest-profile candidate so it looks like he'll finish last. Even so, voting for him tomorrow isn't a wasted vote, because it still shows support for his priorities and it helps prevent someone else from getting 50% of the vote, which is necessary to win on the first ballot. (I'm kind of still in the anybody-but-Morton camp--click here to find out why--although my impression of him has softened somewhat.)

Assuming it goes to a second ballot (which will have three people on it), I'm leaning toward voting for Mark Norris, if he makes it to the second ballot. Some people are saying Jim Dinning and Ted Morton will probably make the second ballot and the third person could be Mark Norris, Ed Stelmach, or Lyle Oberg. So herein is my dilemma: do I vote for Gary McPherson on the first ballot as planned, or do I vote for Mark Norris to help ensure he at least places third so he can be on the second ballot?

It's secret ballot, so whatever I decide, I probably won't post my decision on this blog.

Weird Dream

Last night I dreamed I was in Toronto. Somewhere in the city (I'm not sure where), I had to go to the bathroom. I headed over to the urinals and was surprised to find something that looked like a payphone where the urinal was supposed to be. There was even a little barrier between it and the next phone like some bathrooms have between urinals. I looked over to the side and realized there was a urinal just a couple of spots to my right. I went over there and started peeing. Someone walked up to what I thought was a phone beside me and put a coin in. The wall opened up, revealing a subway station behind it. The guy walked through and the wall closed behind him. So apparently the thing that looked like a payphone wasn't actually a phone.

I was in Toronto last summer, and I can assure you that this isn't how they control access to their Subway stations. They use turnstiles instead.

A letter to God

Here's part of a letter to God, found in the book A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren:

I feel that I may be falling away from my faith. But then again, if I hold back from honestly pursuing the truth, wouldn't that be pulling away from you--even worse? If I let go of or loosen my grip on some things I've never before doubted, will I fall away from you? Or could I actually find myself falling into you?

I just started reading this book, and like this author's other books, he has a knack for writing stuff that I can identify with (even if I don't agree with a few parts). I think I could identify with this letter more a year ago. Then I was more afraid of falling away from my faith than I am now, although I may never be able to guarantee that I will never fall away from Christianity. While I'm less inclined to question the core of Christianity, I still ask questions and express opinions that seem to bother certain Christians. But it's better than just believing something because someone told me to. And I have found that some Christians are understanding and some even agree with me.

Meet the Parents

Imagine you're meeting your future in-laws for the first time and your future wife's father says this:

"Eat, drink, and be merry; for it is your right to take my child. But let me explain the true situation to you. I have given my daughter to seven husbands, and when each came to her he died in the night. But for the present be merry."

That's from Tobit 7:9-11 (RSV) in the Apocrypha. Comforting, isn't it?

I've got to read more of the Apocrypha sometime.

New Life Church

If you've known me for two years or more, you probably know that I spent a few months in Colorado Springs, Colorado in the fall of 2004. If you've seen the news in the last few days, you may have heard about Ted Haggard (the senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs and the president of the National Association of Evangelicals). His church, New Life Church, is where I went to church when I was in Colorado. It's a huge church, so I never met him, but I did hear him preach and I saw the effects of his ministry there. I also made some friends there and I also worked with people from that church.

Without getting into what I liked and disliked about that church and its pastor, I just want to say that I'm saddened by what's going on there now. If you pray, please pray for them. Although I don't keep in touch with most of the people I knew there, I'm sure this is a tough time for them.

If you want to read Ted Haggard's statement on this, click here.

No Shave November

Back in 2000-2001 I did a one year program at North American Baptist College (NABC, now known as Taylor University College). While there, some students introduced me to the tradition of No Shave November. I didn't participate, but since some people from my church also went to that college, word got around at my church. Eventually, my friend Luke (who never went to Taylor) moved to California. Today I got an email from him reminding me about No Shave November. Once again, I don't think I'll participate. Maybe I'll grow a goatee or something, but if I have a job interview, I need to look even more handsome than I usually do, and to some job interviewers, that means being clean-shaven. (Besides, if I get a job at a refinery, I'll probably need to be clean-shaven on the job too.)

So why write this when I could've just ignored it and most of you would never have known that I was avoiding participating in this? I want to direct you to Luke's No Shave November blog, where he will post something every day about the joys of facial hair and having female friends with leg hair. Here it is:

http://noshavenovember.blogspot.com/

The Browser Wars

Last week, Microsoft and Mozilla both released new versions of their web browsers. I must say, Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 is a major improvement over version 6. Mozilla's Firefox 2 is an improvement, but not nearly as major as IE7. But with 5 years since the last major release of IE and 2 years since the last major release of Firefox, IE had a lot more catching up to do. Some of its best new features (like tabbed browsing and the search bar) were copied from Firefox.

Both new versions seem to run faster and more efficiently than the old ones. I think I prefer IE7's screen layout. It just seems more compact. Even if you remove the bookmark toolbar in Firefox, you still have less room on the screen than with IE (it's about even if you don't have multiple tabs open in Firefox). Firefox just introduced a spell check for web forms, which IE doesn't have. In fact, Firefox is checking my spelling right now.

Both browsers have phishing filters now. Both have the option of sending the address of every page you visit to some website to check if it's on a list of known phishing sites. If this is a privacy concern for you, Firefox provides the option of just checking if the site you're visiting is on a regularly-downloaded list of phishing sites (this isn't quite as secure as the other method). IE doesn't have this option. Both browsers have the option of shutting off this feature.

Quote of the Day

"Education bears no relationship to intelligence."
--Ralph Klein

Second post about Uganda

Waaaay back in May and June I went to Uganda, and around the end of June I did a blog post summarizing my trip. Now here's one story from the trip:

In 1971 a man named Idi Amin led a military coup in Uganda. While he was in charge, most religious groups were illegal, but some, including Catholics, Anglicans, and Muslims, were still allowed. In 1979 Idi Amin was defeated, and religious freedom began to improve.

In southwest Uganda, there was a man named Ignatius who had grown up in a nominally Christian church. In his church, and in any other churches in this area, Christianity had been reduced to mere ritual. Then he met a man who had recently returned from Kampala, the capital. This man had met a Canadian missionary named Stan Hoffman. This missionary had told him that these rituals weren'’t enough to please God, that he actually had to turn away from his sinful life and follow Jesus. Ignatius thought about this message, and in time he decided to follow Jesus.

This form of Christianity was quite new in this area so Ignatius quickly became a leader among the "“born again"” Christians in the area. They had no church building, so they met under a tree. Other people in the area got suspicious of this group, thinking they might be a revolutionary group. Soon, Ignatius was arrested and spent time in jail for his faith. The Canadian missionary, Stan Hoffman, heard about this and helped Ignatius get his name cleared. The authorities heard about how Ignatius's life had changed and if anything, he was less likely to be violent than he was before. They realized he wasn'’t a revolutionary leader and so they let him go.

As a pastor, Ignatius found a lot of success in starting churches in the surrounding region. His wife Mary, also a pastor, became the head evangelist for the Church of God in that region of Uganda.

I met Ignatius in Kampala where we were building the dorm at the Church of God headquarters. He had come to Kampala with many of the teenagers from his church. They had all come to Kampala for a national youth convention. Ignatius was always eager to help with the building project and to talk with us. It was inspiring to hear about his faithfulness in getting the church going in southwest Uganda even with all that opposition.

Later, our whole group went to visit a small village called Kasaroza where Ignatius lives. We visited his church and met many people whose lives had been changed through their work. We saw how they are also helping educate the kids through a nursery school, and how theyÂ’re helping people with AIDS. We met some of the orphans that Ignatius and his wife care for (some of them are provided for through child sponsorships from overseas).

Kasaroza was probably the most unique place I have ever visited, in comparison to Edmonton. It'’s a beautiful place (check out this picture) and the people were quite hospitable. But we saw a darker side too. At one point two teenage boys stole a couple of small things from our group, and when they were caught, they were beaten for it. Definitely different from home.

Goodbye Earl

It looks like the Earl Grey's Cup won't be returning to Edmonton this year. The Eskimos have been officially mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. And I happened to be at the game. The Eskimos scored a touchdown on the last play of the game, but they were still 3 points behind. Maybe if they'd scored one play earlier, maybe they could've done an onside kick and scored again, but it didn't happen. So the amazing 34-year playoff streak is over.

Job interviews

I might not be unemployed much longer. I have two job interviews later this week, one on Thursday, one on Friday, both with energy companies in the Edmonton area.

And then there's the age-old question: does God want me at a specific job or a specific city, or is it completely my decision? I am sure that God wants me to follow him in everything I do, wherever I am though. So my plan is to use my brain in picking a job, and if God doesn't give me some clear indication (and he hasn't given me obvious indications of what job to take or what to take in school in the past), then I think it either doesn't matter which job I pick, or using my brain will bring me to the right place.

Anyone want to comment? Comments from atheists are welcome.

More eastern Canada pictures

I've uploaded the last of my eastern Canada pictures. Even though many of these pictures were taken in Ontario, they are in the "Quebec 2006" album on my photo site. Enjoy!

The other side of the federal accountability act

I heard another side to this federal accountability act issue recently. (Click here to see what I wrote about it before, and click here to see an article about someone's defense of the Act.) The Auditor General is claiming that the new Act would've have stopped the advertizing scandal from coming to light. The article mentioned that existing access to information laws have stopped some government employees from even writing reports. Instead they just give certain reports orally so that the public never finds out.

This makes me wonder if any access to information/accountability law is enough. Maybe a different approach, or something else with an accountability law would work better.

I don't envy politicians. I sometimes find it easy to point out certain things they're doing wrong, but trying to figure out how to do it right is a lot tougher.

Another weekend away

This time I went to Fort McMurray, that place where I worked last year. I got to see my cousin, her husband, their son, and their new daughter. I lived with the first three of them last year, but I had never met their daughter Ava yet. My grandma came along too and got to see her new great-granddaughter.

So I got to hang out with my relatives and see some old friends (i.e. people I met last year, who I haven't seen in 6-10 months) that I don't seem to talk to very much anymore. Hopefully I'll keep keeping in touch with at least a few of them. It was a good visit.

And if you've never been there, I want to clear up a common misconception: many parts of Fort Mac aren't ugly. For example, check out the view from my cousin's back door:

Nothing about politics! Yay!

Last weekend I went to a camp called Deer Valley Meadows with the youth group from my church. This is the camp that I went to for a week every summer from late elementary school to high school, and I've been there for numerous other things, including camp cousnelling, over the years. But it's been three years since the last time I was there. So it was good to see the place again. I have many good memories there, and my times there have helped me grow spiritually too.

For me personally, this weekend gave me yet another reminder (I've had a lot of these reminders this year) of the need to be fully committed to God. Of course, I also have plenty of questions about what it means to be fully committed to God, and I also wonder if as Christians we're trying too hard to give kids and teens certainty when we may not be certain ourselves. Maybe we should be trying harder to teach them to question and find the truth themselves. (I'm not saying spiritual truth is relative, I'm just saying it's hard--maybe impossible--for us to be totally sure what's right.)

I also got to enjoy nature. I saw the northern lights, ate chokecherries, and had a great view of the Red Deer River valley, which was pretty foggy one morning.

Now on to federal politics...

Last time I talked about provincial politics, and today I'm talking about federal politics.

Back in January, I voted for the Conservative Party, and I was happy to see Stephen Harper become Prime Minister of Canada, although I did have some reservations about him. One of the main reasons I voted for them was to bring some more integrity into government, because the Liberal Party really seemed to be lacking it. But now the Information Commissioner is claiming the new accountability laws will reduce the public's access to information and make it easier for the government to cover up corruption. That bill passed the House of Commons, so now the Senate is the last place where it could get changed. And Harper doesn't seem to like the idea of the Senate challenging the democratically elected House of Commons, at least when it comes to other bills.

Meanwhile, Harper seems to want to stifle criticism about the war in Afghanistan by saying something about our soldiers needing to know that our country strongly supports what they're trying to do. While I can sympathize with that (it would suck to do any job--let alone risk my life--knowing that the people I'm doing it for don't appreciate it), it makes a convenient excuse for the Prime Minister to hide behind when he's being criticized. As Thomas Jefferson was misquoted as saying, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

And finally, we get to the issue of security certificates: those pieces of paper that allow the Canadian government to keep non-Canadians imprisioned indefinitely without a trial, based on secret evidence. If they would quickly deport these people without a trial if they're considered a threat to national security, I suppose that could be okay, but indefinite imprisionment without a fair trial shouldn't happen. And don't give me any of that crap about them "not deserving the very rights that they're fighting against by supporting terrorism." They're accused of supporting terrorism and they should have a fair trial to determine if that's true. Let's overcome evil with good here, rather than sink to the terrorists' level. And after what was revealed about the Maher Arar case this week, I don't think we can trust our government and police to always provide accurate evidence when the evidence can't be challenged by the accused.

But I'm not just blaming the Conservatives for all these problems. The Liberals have been quite involved in some of these things too. Maybe I'll vote for the Green Party next time.

Goodbye Ralph

So the members of Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party will be choosing a new premier for our province later this year. I don't know a whole lot about most of the candidates, but I've heard a few things.

First of all, Ted Morton seems overly right wing to me, and I tend to be a little bit right wing politically. Maybe he has a few good ideas, but he seems overly focused on disputes between the province and the federal government, and I'm not impressed with his views on addressing root causes of crime. Here's a quote from a September 13 Edmonton Journal article: "After Hancock said the province should tackle crime by tackling its root causes like drug addiction, Morton shot that his parents 'don't care about root causes,' but want criminals arrested and punished." Has Ted Morton ever heard of the statistics that show that longer jail sentences tend not to reduce crime rates? (Unfortunately, I don't know where those statistics come from. If anyone can tell me, please leave a comment.) I'm not saying we should abolish jails. I do think they form some deterrent, and at the very least, they keep violent people away from potential victims. But reducing drug addiction and other things that motivate people to commit crimes will probably make a much bigger difference than just being tough on offenders. Doesn't the US have tougher sentences than Canada, but more violent crime?

Meanwhile, there's a lower profile candidate named Gary McPherson who seems impressive. He's the director of the Canadian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, which has something to do with using business to address social problems. Things like that make him look more caring than some other candidates. But his web site doesn't say much about his policy ideas yet. My friend Grace has met him and thinks he'd be good.

I think I'll keep an eye on this campaign. If a particular candidate inspires me, or if it looks like someone I don't like might win, maybe I'll join the party (it only costs $5 to influence the future of this province) and vote.

On top of the world

On Saturday I went hiking in Kananaskis Country with some of the guys from Navigators (one of the many Christian ministries at the U of A). We climbed Mount Allan, which is supposed to have the highest maintained hiking trail in the Canadian Rockies. There's some amazing scenery at the top, and some neat rock formations, like this ridge, where there was a (partial) wall of rock on either side of the path:


It was a good chance to enjoy nature, reconnect with a few friends I hadn't seen much over the summer, and get to know a few people I didn't know or didn't know well. And in the car, we got to have an interesting discussion on what bugs me about evangelical Christianity, a certain evangelical Christian belief that I'm not sure I agree with, and a bit of what I like about evangelical Christianity. (And yes, I am an evangelical Christian.)

Off to Kananaskis and Fort McMurray

It looks like I'll be out of town for parts of the next two weekends. This weekend I'll be in the Calgary and Kananaskis area on Friday and Saturday, and the weekend after that I think I'll be visiting my cousin in Fort McMurray. Yep, I just can't stay in one place very long.

It looks like both of my readers haven't answered my question in the previous post. I guess it's probably a tough question, so even if you're not really sure of an answer, please just post a response telling me what's on your mind about that subject.

Question about questions

So nobody wants to comment on nuking Iran (see my previous post)? Well, I sure hope nuking Iran isn't necessary.

Anyway, on to the main subject of this posting. My question today is for all the Christians in the room. It's inspired by a conversation I had today.

Is it possible for a church to uphold certain beliefs (such as the existence of God and the divinity and resurrection of Jesus), and yet give its members and even its leaders the freedom to question those beliefs?

An extreme solution?

Check out this article: We should nuke Iran

Sounds like a pretty extreme solution. Is this guy exagerating the danger posed by Iran? Could there be a less violent solution? Or is this writer correct?

Please leave comments and tell me what you think.

Fraud

I checked my credit card bill yesterday and found something interesting: a $300 charge from Air Canada on August 19. That was just a few days before I flew home, but I flew on Westjet and I booked my flight at the start of August, so this didn't seem right. I checked into it, and the booking was under someone else's name. The Air Canada person told me I had to contact my credit card company to get it fixed up. So I did that, and after a quick conversation on the phone, it was almost cleared up. I won't have to pay for that transaction, but I will have to sign a form that they'll mail to me, and I'll be without a MasterCard for a week or two until they can send me a replacement card with a different card number. Fortunately I still have a Visa card and a debit card.

This incident makes me glad that I check my bill carefully each month, because if I left it for too long and noticed the fraud too late, I would've been stuck paying for it. The moral of the story: check your credit card bill (and bank statement too) every month for fraud.

Formulas

"Formulas presuppose God is more a computer or a circus monkey than an intelligent Being." -- Donald Miller, "Searching for God Knows What"

It seems like when I get into a conversation about God, if I'm trying to answer somebody's questions about God, quite often I'll throw in some kind of formulaic pat answer. It doesn't seem to matter whether I'm talking with a Christian or not, and it doesn't seem to matter that formulaic answers tend to bug me; I still give formulaic answers. (Maybe the people who give me pat answers don't mean to either.) I know that my finite mind will never fully comprehend an infinite God, but I think I could do better than I do. Maybe sometimes the formulaic answer is the best answer I have so far. Other times, I think I know an answer that's better than a formula, but it's hard to express. Sometimes what's in my heart seems to transcend any formulaic answer, and that's hard for me to express.

So if I give you a formulaic answer to something, please know that it's probably not intentional. Tell me that my answer seemed formulaic, then wait a week, and by then, maybe I'll come up with a slightly better response (not necessarily an answer) to your question.

By the way, I found that quote at the start in the free, downloadable first chapter of "Searching for God Knows What," which you can read here. It's an interesting and funny read, but so far, that's the only part of the book I've read, since I don't have the actual book.

Home

My odyssey is over. I'm home. The trip was pretty good, but it's good to see my family again. Not only did I get to see my parents, I got to see my brother, who returned from a year in Philadelphia two weeks ago. (See this page to read about what he was doing.) Today at the airport was the first time I've seen him since February. I'm looking forward to seeing friends again too, so don't hesitate to call me. (Sorry ladies, I don't give out my phone number on my blog.)

But I'll be somewhat busy because I need to unpack, prepare for a presentation about my Uganda trip (which could be as soon as next week), and look for a job. Yup, no more learning for me. I'm looking for a long-term job.

Almost home

I'm in Toronto now visiting my friends Dave and Christine. They moved here a year ago. They've been busy with Christine's parents for the past week, so they're a little tired now. But I'm a little tired too. We've checked out a few things in Toronto like the Canadian National Exhibition, and we've hung out at their apartment too.

Early Tuesday morning, I'll be catching a plane to Edmonton. It's been a good trip, but it will be good to be home. If you live in Edmonton, hopefully I'll see you soon.

Reflections on traveling

I've made my way to Aylmer, Ontario, which is near London. This is in the heart of Canada's Ahmish country, so for the second time this year (the first time being when I went to Pennsylvania in February) I've seen horses pulling buggies on the highway.

Traveling alone like this does sometimes get lonely. It's been great to get together with a few friends in various cities, but then later in the evenings (except here in Aylmer and my one night of a very brief stay in Hamilton) I'm back at a hostel or university residence. It's times like this that I'm glad I'm not staying at a hotel. At least at the hostel in Montreal, there were people to talk to, and I even knew two of the other guests. (But those two guests were spending most of their time with each other, not me, not that I can blame them. They are boyfriend and girlfriend, and they won't see each other for a year.) Also, I'm sometimes alone during the day because my friends have jobs.

But on the brighter side, this has been a good chance to rediscover east-central Canada. I lived in Ottawa when I was almost too young to remember, and I traveled throughout eastern Canada with my family in 1997, but this experience has been different. In 1997 I was 15. I wasn't all that rebellious, but I wasn't super enthusiastic about spending 3 weeks with my family and seeing lots of historical and educational stuff. Yeah, the 1997 vacation was generally a good vacation, but I think I'm more enthusiastic this time around. I also have more freedom to do what I want (which includes seeing some historical and educational stuff) and through finding my own way around and making my own decisions, I think I get to know the cities better and my appreciation for these cities grows. In 1997, we only spent a day or two in Montreal and I barely remember it. This time, despite seeing the same street performers every night a block from the hostel, and finding very little that interested me in the Rue St. Catherines shopping district, there were many other things I enjoyed about Montreal. (And I enjoyed the street performers too, the first time anyway.)

Here in Aylmer I'm getting a little more acquainted with another branch of Christianity--the
German Church of God. It's affilliated with my church and my grandma goes to one of those churches, but until I went to Uganda I never really had a chance to learn much about those churches from people who actually go to them. Now that I'm visiting friends that I met in Uganda and visiting their church, I'm learning even more. They are more conservative than my church and I've heard a few things that I disagree with, but I'm grateful for the chance to meet more people there and get an inside look.

Bad translation

It turns out my posting entitled "French music" had some bad translation. My dictionary claimed the word "pis" means "worse" but someone in Quebec told me that in Quebec (but not in France) "pis" means "and". So here's a slightly corrected rough translation of part of the song "Degenerations":

Your great-great-grandmother, she had fourteen children
Your great-grandmother had almost as many
And your grandmother had three and that was enough
And your mother did not want any; you were an accident
And you, my little girl, you change partners all the time
When you make mistakes, you have an abortion
But there are mornings, you wake up crying
When you dream at night of being surrounded by children

So maybe it'a not as preachy as I thought, but the lyrics are still intersting.

Farewell to Montreal

I'm in Ottawa now. Today I took the train from Montreal to Kingston to visit a friend in Kingston (Kelly). I met him on the Uganda trip. Another friend from the trip (Harry) was on his way from Hamilton to Ottawa, so he went to Kingston too. We had some lunch and then I hitched a ride to Ottawa with Harry. Unfortunately Kelly's wife Chantelle (who was also on the Uganda trip) couldn't be there.

Here are a few memories of Montreal:

-Seeing an entire museum of nativity scenes--including one from Uganda--at St. Joseph's oratory.

-Being introduced to various Asian foods (including some pretty good Vietnamese soup) by a Vietnamese friend who moved to Montreal recently.

-Seeing French signs everywhere, usually with no English on them, even in the most touristy areas and in the English movie theatre. But as soon as I tried to order some food (for example, a Beaver Tail) in French, the cashiers would respond in English.

-Visiting Rue St. Catherine (a popular street with lots of stores and restaurants) on the last day of the World Outgames. The road was closed to cars and there were lots of people, including a few in clothes that were...um...interesting. While I do believe homosexual activity isn't right, homosexuality is something I want to understand better, and maybe this experience got me one step closer to understanding.

But I'm tired, so I'm probably forgetting some things. I quite liked Old Montreal, but I suppose Old Quebec City is probably better, but I had less time to explore there.

Sometime soon (maybe next week) my former roommate Ryan will be leaving for Egypt for a year. He didn't come to Ottawa with me, so today was the last time I will see him for a year. Be sure to pray for him if that's something you do.

Farewell to Chicoutimi

I'm in Montreal now. The program in Chicoutimi is over, so now I'm visiting friends. I accidentally ended up staying in the same hostel in Montreal as my former roommate Ryan, just as I accidentally ended up doing the French immersion program at the same place as him.

Wednesday and Thursday night, I went to the "Rhythmes du Monde" festival where they have free concerts by bands from all over the world. This is an annual festival in Chicoutimi, and I think Edmonton should copy it.

Friday night was our final party and I was out for most of the night. Saturday morning I said goodbye.

And remember: If the cheese doesn't squeak, it's not real poutine.

A Day in the Life of Alex

I'm finally getting around to writing about a typical day in Chicoutimi. On a typical day I start off with a class at 8h45 (that's French for 8:45). I'm in a class with 14 or 15 other students who are around the same level as me in French. At the start of class, our professor asks each of us what we did the previous evening. We each have to explain in French. This is good practice, especially with past-tense verbs.

The class is roughly three-hours or a bit more, with a 20-minute break in the middle. This can get a little too long, but it's a lot better than a three-hour engineering lecture. We don't just listen to our professor talk like we would in engineering, we're given worksheets to work on and we get chances to practice speaking French. A couple of times, we got into small groups to discuss interesting issues like the death penalty and the ideal age for marriage. These discussions are more interesting than most of what we do in the class, but they're tough. It does help build my French ability beyond things like, "Yesterday, I did my homework. Then I went to 'Le Bistrot.' Then I went to bed." It resembles a high school class more than a university class, although we do get university credit for it.

After class we have a cafeteria lunch. After lunch, the activities vary. Mondays, we typically learn traditional Québecois dances and we listen to someone talk about Québecois food or music. As much as I like the music and food in Québec (aside from the very mediocre cafeteria food), the music and food part of the afternoon can be a little boring and I get tired easily during that part of the afternoon. After that we have a choice of activities and I participate in sports. Monday evenings we watch a Québecois movie. They're hard to understand, but subtitles (in French) help some.

Tuesday afternoons we have our choice of workshops to do. I chose canoeing. But sometimes that's been cancelled due to weather or very low attendance. This week I went hiking with a different group because canoeing was cancelled.

Wednesday afternoons we have another choice in activities, and I chose the Gumboots dance, some kind of African dance. Wednesday evening is typically improv night, where some students do improv in French. Less than half of the people participate and the ones that do only do it once, and I didn't participate.

Thursday afternoon we have a class on Québecois culture. This is the time of the week when I'm most likely to drink coffee. The last two times, we watched kids' movies, so that was a bit more fun, but I still needed coffee.

Friday afternoons are usually free, and sometimes there's a party of some sort at the university in the evening.

When I'm free for the evening I eat supper with my host family. They're quite friendly and quite helpful with French. The father of the family in particular is quite funny, but he's been away on business for three weeks. My free evenings vary greatly. Sometimes I do homework. (Yes, we get some homework, but it's a lot less than in any other 6-credit university course I've taken.) Sometimes I go places with friends. One time I went to a place in the river valley where they have free line dancing 4 nights a week. Those line dances are a lot harder than Cadillac Ranch!

So if you're considering doing French immersion, you've now had a quick look at what UQAC (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi) is like. But you'll have to read my other postings if you want to hear about more specific, fun, and interesting happenings.

The Fugitive Goes Whale-Watching

I visited Tadoussac on Sunday with a bunch of other people from language school. Tadoussac is a little town in Quebec where the Saguenay meets the St. Lawrence. It's about 800 km from the ocean, but the ocean's tide comes all the way over to Tadoussac, bringing with it salt water and whales. The picture here is of two humpback whales.

In other news, last Friday we had our "Soirée Québecoise" at the school. We were all supposed to dress up in traditional Québecois clothing and we did a bunch of traditional dances and had some competitions. I didn't put a lot of effort into my costume, so on Friday afternoon I went to find a shirt to wear. I had the addresses and hours for two second-hand clothing stores on the same road. I arrived at the first one before it was supposed to close, but there was a big "Fermé" (Closed) sign on the door. But the sign with the store's hours said it should still be open. I decided to try the door just in case someone had just forgotten to change the "Fermé" sign that day. It was unlocked, but as soon as I opened it I heard a long beeping noise. Now I know a lot of stores have a beeping thing to tell the employees when someone enters the store, but this wasn't just a short beep, and I couldn't see any signs of life in the store. I didn't go in the store; I just closed the door. Soon, I could hear faint siren-like alarm sounds through the closed door. So I left and went to the other clothing store.

My fingerprints got left on the door handle, but I don't have a criminal record, so the police won't know who I am. But I didn't take anything or even enter the store, so even if they could track me down, I should be okay.

My host claims that most people in Chicoutimi do lock their doors, and they definitely don't intentionally set an alarm while leaving the door unlocked. So I guess an employee must have forgotten to lock the door.

I've posted more photos (including photos of the Soirée Québecoise) on my photo site in the Quebec 2006 album.

Christianity in Chicoutimi (or The Strangest Grape Juice I've Ever Tasted)

Here in Quebec, on several occcasions I've heard people say, "Because the Catholic Church was so restrictive in the old days, people weren't allowed to _______________." For example, when we were learning Quebecois dances, we were told that a certain dance that we learned was banned by the Church because it involved changing partners. The church was also pretty strict about how women dressed. (I think their dresses had to go right down to their feet.) The church couldn't control the government, but they did have a lot of power over everybody's daily life in Quebec.

Eventually things changed and now Quebec is one of the most secular parts of North America. A lot of people have some nominal attachment to the Catholic Church, but there don't seem to be a whole lot of committed Christians here. I get the impression that the super-restrictive Christianity of the past eventually pushed people away.

But Christianity doesn't have to be that way. From what I've seen, filling Christianity with extra restrictions that are only very loosely based on the Bible seems to help people obey the "do not" rules in the Bible, but not the "do" rules, especially, "Love your neighbour as yourself," and, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength," which happen to be the two most important commands in the Bible.

But enough preaching. I've been to mass at the Catholic cathedral here twice. It was far from full, but there was reasonably good turnout. I couldn't understand it very well, but what few things I could understand seemed consistent with Christianity the way I see it, and they don't seem to be trying to control people's lives the way they used to.

This past Sunday I went to a Protestant church with some of the other students. There are only two or three Protestant churches in Chicoutimi. Somebody said this one seems to be a Brethren church. It was different from what I'm used to. The chairs were arranged facing the centre instead of the front. Most of the women (but not all of them) wore some sort of covering on their heads, but aside from that, people were dressed pretty normally. During the service, people would sit quietly for a short time, then someone would get up and say something, pray, or get the church singing a song. (A couple of the songs were familiar, but in French.) And eventually, somebody preached a sermon, and they served communion. This was probably the first time I've ever had communion with wine. (Seems like most Protestant churches use grape juice, just like Jesus would have if he'd been an early-21st century Protestant.) I understood the church service better than at the Catholic church, but it was still tough. I think I picked up on something about Jesus having victory over death, and the sermon had something to do with Proverbs 15:1, which says (in English), "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." So it seemed to be a pretty good church, and the people seemed friendly (although I unfortunately spent more time talking with my classmates than with the other people).

Meanwhile, at the university, I'm not the only Christian in this program. There are some others in my class and in other classes. A few of them are here because they want to be missionaries in French-speaking parts of Africa. I've gone to church with a few of them each week, and last week several of us got together to pray. On Sunday a bunch of us went to the church that I already told you about. They seem to be eager to make a difference in the lives of the people in this program. As for making a difference in the city in general, sometimes I wonder how much difference we can make in Chicoutimi when we don't speak French very well and we're only here for five weeks. But God's strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), so who knows?

The other side of the coin

I've seen the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail several times, and of course one of my favourite scenes is the one with the French soldier talking with the knights (or "k-nig-its", as he liked to call them) with his rediculous French accent. Now I've seen the other side of the coin.

Here's how it happened. Yesterday, in our weekly class on Québecois culture, we watched the movie Asterix in Britain, a French animated movie from 1986. (Asterix is apparently quite popular in Quebec even though these cartoons don't come from Quebec.) The movie was in French, and the British characters in the movie were hilarious. The movie didn't have any subtitles, so the British characters all spoke French, but with silly-sounding British accents. (Which makes me wonder how silly my accent sounds to everyone in Quebec.) The main British guy loved to start his sentences with, "Je dit..." which is French for "I say..." Maybe it's not quite as funny as Monty Python, but it's the most entertaining French movie I've seen yet. (And of course I understood the French-speaking British people with the bad accents far better than any of the French people in the movie.) Another funny thing in the movie: It showed the British Parliament and Big Ben made completely out of wood. Even though the clocks were replaced with sundials, it still had that hourly chime. Another scene in the movie showed a sundial making a ticking sound.

French music

I have an hour free right now. I could be doing homework or studying, but I decided to write today's second blog entry instead.

I got my very first French CD a while back. It's by a band called MesAïeux. It's kind of a neo-traditional band. Their song Dégénerations seems to be fairly popular here, at least with the students in this program. You can watch the video at http://mesaieux.qc.ca/intro.php?lang=anglais. When you go to that page, click on Multimedias, then click on Videos, and then click on the second video screen that you see. For some weird reason, the video is split into three parts, so you'll need to click on the ">>" button when the video stops abruptly.

In case you're wondering what the song is about, it's about some of the ways society has changed over the generations. Here's a rough translation of one verse (with some help from world.altavista.com and a dictionary):

Your great-great-grandmother, she had fourteen children
Your great-grandmother had almost as many
And worse your grandmother had three and that was enough
Worse your mother did not want any; you were an accident
And worse you, my little girl, you change partners all the time
When you make mistakes, you have an abortion
But there are mornings, you wake up crying
When you dream at night of being surrounded by children

So yeah, it has interesting lyrics. Hope you enjoy it.

(Note: It turns out I made a mistake in Translation. See the August 9, 2006 posting entitled "Bad Translation" for a correction.)

Cathedral pics

And now the moment you've all been waiting for (or at least the moment Grace has been waiting for), a picture of the cathedral:
As usual, I've posted more pictures (including some of the inside of the cathedral) at my photo site in the "Quebec 2006" album.

And so begins my third week here. A while ago my hosts told me that for most people things really start to click in the third week. They start thinking and dreaming in French, and understanding French becomes easier. As for me, my French keeps improving, but it's still really hard to understand people who don't dumb down their French, and I really have to concentrate to understand dumbed-down French consistently. I haven't had any French dreams, but then I've only had one English dream that I can remember. But I've improved a lot, and it's less than half over.

Back from the capital

I'm back from a trip to Quebec City. We were only there for one night, but it was good. Last night I saw some street performers in Old Québec and visited an Irish pub where they had some live celtic music. I heard a few familiar songs like "Irish Eyes are Smiling" and "Farewell to Nova Scotia." Most of the songs were in English, but a few were in French. And they played this one really fast instrumental song. The fiddler's hand was a blur! He was an amazing player.

Today I got to visit the Québec Citadel, the Plains of Abraham, and the Parliament, and I fell in a wading pool. One big difference between Québec and Edmonton is that when you visit a historic site in Québec, you think, "Wow, there was a big battle here!" but when you visit a historic site in Edmonton you think, "Wow, people traded fur here!"

Here's a picture of the Citadel's regimental goat and the goatkeeper:

As always, I've posted more pics in the "Québec 2006" album at my photo site (use the link on the right side of the page).

Ironic event of the week: Someone else in the same program as me told me that Chicoutimi doesn't have enough organic food stores. The funny part: I'm pretty sure I've seen her smoking.

A few pics

This is me with my housemate Joey. He's a medical resident in Montréal, where it's pretty easy to get by with just English, but he wants to speak French well too.


Here we see a couple of buildings by the Saguenay River in Chicoutimi.


And this is a grizzly bear at the Zoo Sauvage in St-Felicien.

Check out these and more photos by clicking on "My photos" on the right-hand side of the main page, and then click on the "Quebec 2006" album. All the wildlife photos (so far) were taken at the zoo.

Funny French name

Funniest place name I've heard so far in Québec: Baie des Ha! Ha! If you don't believe it exists, check out this page. Not only does it prove Baie des Ha! Ha! exists, it's an interesting story about cheese too!

My first messe

Yesterday I experienced my first Catholic mass. (I went on Saturday because most of us went on a trip to the Lac St-Jean area today.) I went to the local cathedral with a few other people from language school, including my former roommate Ryan. They had a little booklet with the liturgy printed in it, so that really helped me understand what they were saying. Even with that book, it was hard to follow, since it was in French. When the priest gave the homily (Protestant translation: sermon), I didn't understand a thing because there was no printed outline, and there was an echo. But I must say, I did appreciate the parts of the mass that I could understand. I recognized some things like the Apostles' Creed in French. A song that was part of the liturgy said something like, "Jesus is dead, Jesus is alive..." And the cathedral is beautiful. It's quite an old building with a lot of statues, carvings, and stained-glass windows. I'll probably go back sometime, maybe on a Sunday when they have a longer mass. (The Saturday mass was fairly short.)

In French, mass is spelled "messe," so it's kind of funny seeing the signs in front of Catholic churches saying when the "messes" are.

So today, Sunday, five busloads of us went for a trip about halfway around Lac St-Jean. We visited a zoo where the animals seem to live in a more natural habitat than most zoos, and we visited a historic village with a big waterfall. It was a good chance to see some nature and get to know some of the people at language school better, even though our conversations in French tend to be fairly shallow.

I still find it hard to understand people in French, especially if they speak French well, because they talk fast and use big words. Our teachers and my hosts have quite a bit of experience with non-French-speakers so they're good at dumbing it down, but even then it's difficult. But some people don't know how to dumb it down very well.

Edmonton's new nemesis

Today I met someone from Edmonton's new nemesis. Yes, she's from Raleigh, North Carolina, and she introduced herself to me after seeing me in my Oilers shirt. But she was a gracious future loser. (Remember: every time the Oilers have lost in the Stanley Cup final, they won the Cup the next year. Yes, that only happened once. Meanwhile, every time the Flames reached the final, they lost in the first round the next year. Just thought I'd throw in that little detail.)

I finally uploaded a few pictures from Chicoutimi. Check them out at http://photos.yahoo.com/ascheuer. They're in the album called...wait for it...Quebec 2006.

Bike rental from a real bike shop: $120. Buying a bike from Canadian tire: $130

Yesterday I said I was going to buy a used bike, but it turns out that the two stores that were supposed to have used bikes don`t sell used bikes. One of them would rent me a pretty good bike for $120, but that seemed expensive, especially after my housemate bought one at Canadian Tire for a similar price. So I walked to Canadian Tire and bought a $130 bike. I`m sure it`s not as good as the one from the other store, but this is just for a month. I know my brother would be rolling in his grave if he had one. (We`re having him cremated. By the way, he is still alive, in case anyone was wondering.)

By the way, if anybody knows anyone in Chicoutimi who wants to buy a month-old bike sometime around August 5, tell them about me.

Be sure to check out Ryan`s site at http://www.traveljournals.net/travelers/torchmaker/. He`s my old roomate and he`s also here in Chicoutimi.

For some of our activities here, we`ve been put into groups with our class and the other two classes that are around the same level (level 5 in my case). Today we had to vote on a name. Our team is now called "le cinq." Don`t blame me; I voted for "Liberté cinquant-cinq."

Je ne parle pas anglais

The program has begun. On Sunday I made my way to the Université de Québec à Chicoutimi. The people who worked there didn`t speak English with me, although they might have said a word or two when I couldn`t understand them. I spent the afternoon and evening at the home of the family that I`ll be living with. The only person who was there at the time didn`t speak English, so that was a good chance to practice my French. Later my roommate arrived. He`s from Vancouver, living in Montreal, and doing the same program as me. His name is Joey. Since we hadn`t signed the form saying we`ll only speak French, we spoke English­. Later, the rest of the family arrived. They seem to know a bit of English, but they don`t speak English around us.

On Monday we were back at the university where we had our placement tests. I found the oral interview much easier than the written test. I don`t think I was ever totally sure of any of the answers on the written test. We also had a tour of Chicoutimi that afternoon. It has about as many people as Fort McMurray, but in some ways it seems like a bigger city. It`s probably just more established, whereas in Fort McMurray, they have to play catch-up with the infrastructure.

Today we had our first classes. I got put in a level 5 class (6 being the lowest level and 1 being highest), which is pretty much what I was hoping for. Today we also signed our forms saying we`ll only speak French, so there`s no turning back now. (I think I can still write email, write for this blog, and make long distance phone calls in English though.) I`m speaking French better than I ever have before, but I`m still not very good. This will be a challenge. I mentioned something about Jesus today that probably sounded really clichéd, so I don`t think I`ll be having any deep or complicated conversations for a while, not that I won`t try.

Seems like a great group of people here, but communication is harder than usual. I think I`ll enjoy it, but if you pray, please remember to pray for me.

Please leave comments in this blog. It would be great to hear a little something from all of you. (If the comment feature doesn`t work, send me an email so I can fix it. If you don`t have my email address, just leave it until someone else tells me it`s not working.) Anyway, I`m off to get a used bike.

Federalist sighting

I have arrived in Chicoutimi safe and sound. At the Montreal airport I met two Americans who are doing the same program as me in Chicoutimi, so we shared a cab from the airport into the city. I mentioned that it`s Canada Day, but they seemed more interested in sleeping than going to a Canada Day event. So I went by myself. There was live music (mostly in French) and fireworks. There was a good-sized crowd out there, so I guess some people do care about Canada Day here. There were several Canadian flags up there, some `Labatt Bleue` ads, and not a single Canadian government logo in sight.

My French still really sucks, but I did manage to order a sub at Quizno`s completely in French. It helped that the menu was bilingual. Growing up eating out of bilingual food packages might have helped a bit too. Chicoutimi seems to be a beautiful city, and quite a few people here speak English much better than I speak French. The French immersion program starts tomorrow, so starting tomorrow I`m not allowed to speak English. That will be when the learning curve really gets steep.

Bon nuit. (Good night.)

Alex

Slight delay

So I was supposed to leave for Chicoutimi tonight, around midnight, but I got a call from Air Canada saying my first flight will be delayed so I'll miss my connections. So instead they're putting me on a flight leaving Edmonton at 8 in the morning tomorrow. This means I get one more night in my bed instead of sleeping on the plane. I was going to arrive in Chicoutimi early anyway, so this delay is fine, and I should still be able to see the Canada Day fireworks.

The downside is I have to get up around 5 in the morning. I think I'll try that newfangled "web check-in" thingamajig they have now so I'll have one less lineup to stand in at the airport.

The first post about Uganda

So, here’s my first entry about Uganda. I went there with a group from the Church of God in Western Canada. So there were people from a few parts of Alberta and a couple of parts of BC there. Three people from Ontario showed up later. (I actually found out I’m sort of related to Carroll, one of the Ontario people. She’s my mom’s cousin’s husband’s cousin. We German Canadians have ways of figuring these things out.)

The main reason we were there was to do construction on a dorm building at the Church of God headquarters in Kampala, Uganda (the capital city). So we laid bricks and mortar for several days. These were big, cinder-block-style bricks. (If you want to see pictures before and after, check out my photo page using the links on the right side of the main page of this blog. Go to the Uganda album. Picture number 1274 shows the building when we arrived, number 1410 shows it when we finished working on it, and number 1736 shows it after some other people worked on it.) We also went to a smaller village called Kasaroza in the southwest. There, we attended a church building dedication, played with the kids, walked to the top of a big hill where we could see Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which, ironically, isn’t democratic), and painted a couple of buildings. After we left Kasaroza, we spent a couple of days in Queen Elizabeth National Park seeing wildlife, and we went white water rafting on the Nile one day.

I didn’t personally know any of the people in this group before the trip started. I’d seen and heard of the group leaders (Stan and Marion Hoffman) and a few other people, but I didn’t know them personally. When we arrived in Uganda, we stayed at the home of Tim and Colleen Stevenson, two missionaries who I had also seen and heard of before, but again, I didn’t know them personally. But there was one person living in Uganda that I knew before I went there—Glenna Phippen. She’s a missionary from the church I go to. She’s a friend of my parents, so I’ve known her all my life, and in 2004, she went to Uganda as a missionary. This was the first time I’d seen her since then.

Although I didn’t know most of the people at first, it didn’t take too long to get to know them. We’d sometimes sit close together on the plane (depending on what seats we were assigned), we’d work together all day, eat together, hang out together in the evenings, and ride the matatus (taxi vans) together. So we had many chances to discuss just about everything, from theological issues and politics to relationships and sports. (Yes, this was during the Oilers’ amazing playoff run. We checked scores online quite regularly, and we even got back to Canada early enough to see the last five games.)

One thing I liked about this trip that my previous short-term missions experiences were missing was that I was already acquainted with this ministry beforehand. The Hoffmans are semi-retired missionaries who I’ve been hearing about all my life. They actually got the Church of God in Uganda restarted after a brutal dictator got defeated. I’ve been hearing about the Stevensons for many years too. And for the last couple of years, someone I actually knew has been a missionary in Uganda. And now I get to see the fruits of their labour and contribute a bit to the continuing work there. The Church of God has grown from one church to about 549 churches since the early 1980s, and I could see how effective they are at providing education, health care, and other forms of help there.

I also saw some of the joy that people seem to get when they get into a real, loving relationship with God, rather than just performing a bunch of rituals. Overall, I’d say the good effects of Christianity are quite a bit more visible in Uganda than at home in Canada. I suppose it could be because I was around Christians all the time there and didn’t pay much attention to the media, so I didn’t hear as many complaints about Christianity as I sometimes hear in Canada. But I think there’s more to it than that. But that could be a topic for a future blog post where I go on a rant about religion.

(I know I’ve only been talking about the Church of God and I’ve been ignoring other denominations. I am sure many other denominations are making a significant difference in Uganda too, but since I spent all my time in Uganda with the Church of God, I just don’t have much to say about these other denominations here.)

I’m planning to post more stuff later. Today I’ve given you an overview of my experience, but I would like to tell you some stories about people I met and other interesting experiences. So keep checking back at this blog.

I'm off again

So tomorrow night I leave for Quebec. I'll be doing a government-funded French-immersion program at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. It's a five-week program ending in early August. I'll arrive a day early, which means I get to experience Canada Day in one of the most separatist regions of the country. But apparently they do have Canada Day celebrations there, so I'll probably check it out.

Meanwhile, I'll try to add some stuff to this blog about my time in Africa. Don't forget to check out my Africa pictures at http://photos.yahoo.com/ascheuer.