Confirmations 101

Some people believe in luck. Others believe in coincidence. Karma. Or even the power of positive thoughts.

Prayers take the cake.

Here’s why.

Friday morning, St-Laurent, French Guiana, 7am: Sarah and I take the little boat across the border to Surinam. All goes well. We hop in a taxi to Paramaribo, leaving at 9am for a 2 hour drive.

Friday morning, Paramaribo, Surinam, 11am: The driver doesn’t recognize the street address we give him and I don’t know how to drive around this city. At all. I just know how the guest house looks like, and have a general feel for where it is. Quick prayer and plea for help. We take a random-ish left turn on my random directions. Hey, that’s the street we’re looking for and HEY! That’s the house too!

Saturday morning, Paramaribo, Surinam, 3:15am: 3am bus shuttle to the airport isn’t showing up. Instead of panicking, a quick prayer and plea for help – hey look, the bus is pulling up!

Saturday morning, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, 7:20am: WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY 8AM CONNECTING FLIGHT IS CLOSED?!? But I just arrived via Caribbean Airlines from Paramaribo, I had no other choice but to arrive at this time!! (quick internal prayer and major plea for help) Check-in lady finally lets me check in, rushes me through the legal stuff while I chuck luggage in (please don’t lose it this time, please don’t lose it this time …).

… “Closed” flight ended up being delayed instead, giving me 45 extra minutes to go through security and reaching the waiting room in a comfortable time frame.

Saturday afternoon, NYC, JFK airport, 4pm: After waiting over New York City for a storm to pass, I land quite a few hours later. (Had I still kept that connection continuing to Ottawa, I would have missed it – it was leaving at 3:30pm from the OTHER airport in NYC, LaGuardia …) Sarah was on another flight to the same destination as me (the flight was full by the time she bought her own tickets) – and we had no tangible way to inform each other of when and where our delayed and possibly misplaced flights ended up (no, I don’t have a cell phone). Quick prayer for help before landing. Exiting the baggage pick-up, who’s standing right there waiting for me? Sarah.

And all our luggage made it safely too.

Now. I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t do your best effort to be ready and to do things yourself – on the contrary, I’m a strong believer at being absolutely ready and organized to the best of your abilities. But when things are no longer in control, asking God for inspiration, or a nudge in the right direction, isn’t a bad idea.  … Of course that last one, with Sarah finding me, was no easy task for her. Apparently no one in the airport was helpful, there was a lot of wandering outside the airport involved … but there was one baggage claim clerk that helped her confirm where and when my flight landed, though he let her know it wasn’t his job to do this. Who knows. The confirmation from that prayer perhaps inspired that gentleman to help out anyway, allowing Sarah to find me … (there are more details involved in this one, including wrong flight numbers, landing in Philadelphia, and other such things …)

Last prayer and confirmation I have to share:

July 2007, Israël, Haïfa, the Shrine of Baha’u'llah: Prayer: I’m not sure helping out an English teacher in a private school in Brazil is the right place for me as a Year of Service, though they’ve confirmed it was all good and I was expected t arrive in mid-January. I pray intensively in the Shrine at the threshold of Baha’u'llah’s tomb that my capacities be used at their maximum, wherever that may be.

July 19th, 2007, Ottawa, Canada – less than 24 hours after arriving from my pilgrimage to Haïfa: I receive an email from the private school in Brazil saying they can’t house me, and that I should apply another year, or apply somewhere else for my Year of Service. I glance rather quickly at the list of places that asked for help. Though I’d previously seen the article on French Guiana and had though “Ack! No way! I don’t want to go live in villages, I know I can’t do it!”, this time I though “Well, I speak French, and there’s a lack of French-speaking people to help around the international Baha’i community as I’ve learned while in Haïfa …” An hour and a couple of emails later, the Canadian pioneer committee received the new list of countries I’d picked as destinations, immediately contacted Jackie in French Guiana (yep, this committee’s all about effective action, let me tell you that …!), and she contacted me back asap with thorough info concerning the country and the status of the community there. (Still in that same hour.)

No other country replied.

I went to French Guiana.

When praying, I had in the back of my mind that my capacities were mainly music – forgetting that speaking French was a capacity, and teaching how to practice a language like you practice music, being patient (to a certain degree), and other such things that I can do but didn’t realize could be useful … discovering abilities and capacities that I didn’t knew I had also happened …

Man, were my capacities stretched to the limit.

But again – my prayers had been answered.

Last-Minutes Ramblings …

What does one do when one’s luggage is overweight?

Say, “Darn”, then remember to be less materialistic, and get on with it.

T-minus 11 hours and counting.

Hm.

Interesting.

Being in contact with people affected by the flu, getting three vaccinations in one sitting that attack my immunity system, and lying on a cold wooden floor for a few hours in a pretty but cold stone house, results in getting the flu myself.

Like a Mack Truck …

So it hit me a few days ago that I was really leaving for good. A friend recently came back from Africa, and while flipping through her enormous pile of pictures, I thought, “Hey, that’s what I’ll be doing in … two weeks?!?”

If I can count the days and they’re numbered under 20, then that’s a shocker to me. So it hit me, then and there. Like a Mack truck. Optimus Prime size, actually.

I’ve been on my toes ever since, trying to finish up as much of Ruhi book 5 as possible, getting vaccinations (a little last minute, but still in the safe zone), and preparing my Masters’ application for September 2008.

Needless to say, my head’s a little foggy as to what will be my reality in two weeks.

How about treating it as an adventure. I think that’ll work.

Visas – Part III

Yay, the Visa’s here!! It was just … so much easier than anticipated …

On a different note, I finished buying all my necessary items for the trip, minus the maple syrup for the Walker family (hey, once you tasted the real stuff, you can’t get enough …) and the vaccinations.

I ran into some complications concerning luggage … I’m going to have to throw my viola as a checked-in baggage, since it’s too big to be a carry on. This is every musician’s nightmare, especially when friends of yours have had things happen to them, such as one’s cello’s head getting chopped off by heaven knows what … (this from an instrument that was stored inside a rock-solid travel case, too … it was mangled …). So – computer comes on board with me, small suitcase comes on board with me – large suitcase and viola go down the hatch. I’ll pray. A lot.

Otherwise, met up with a friend who had previously served in French Guiana (Dulcie – http://deejustine.blogspot.com/) and we chatted away for a good deal concerning the routine and the way of life there.

Things are looking good!

(still twitching about the viola in the baggage compartment … *twitch* *twitch*)

Visas – Part II

So, the visa form is gone in the mail, along with my passport … double-eep! But this is how these thing are usually done, so I trust it’ll be fine. I’ll know in three to four weeks. As a matter of fact, I have a tracking number for my package … let’s see where it is! … Hey, it’s reached the US. Good. I’ll see when it reaches Washintgon, then I’ll get happy.

I have also gotten hold of my International Driving Permit … along with it came a nice flier with little pictures of foreign road signs. Some interesting ones: Italian school crossings have the children depicted as practically dancing their way to school; European signs include the warning of “Flammable Forest” (with what happened in Greece, I now understand why); and Belgium actually has a sign saying “Passage Difficile” (“Difficult Passage”) for any complicated road design.

I have now officially started my Ruhi Book 5 class, which discusses of Junior Youth projects (age range 12-15, which is what I’ll be focusing on). It looks promising. Hopefully I’ll have put a dent in the book by the time I have to leave.

The Tickets Are In!

Huzzah! Today’s victories:

• Purchased my plane ticket. Departure, October 31st, 10am, from Ottawa; arrival, November 1st, 12:15am, Paramaribo (Suriname). Return departure: August 2nd 2008, 4am (ugh), Paramaribo; arrival, August 2nd, 5:36pm, Ottawa.
• Got medical insurance and emergency return trip coverage (if something happens back at home and they need me earlier than my planned return date, they pay me the ticket).
• Bought more stuff for “The List” (toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, many mini razors)
• Learned that even thought I only have a G2 driver’s permit, I CAN have an international driver’s permit!

Fun factor: passport photos are a little expensive. I needed two for my international driver’s permit, and need one more for my visa. Entertainingly enough, the man to whom I spoke concerning the driver’s permit informed me that I could take my own pictures, and that they could authenticate them once I brought them in person to the office. So I set up the timer on my camera, set the camera on the stairwell railing, crouched low enough to have my face in the picture (failed a few times), photoshoped the thing to get the picture the right size, stuck four copies on one 4″x6″ .jpeg file, brought the file to the pharmacy, and paid 0.33$ to get the pictures developed (as opposed to 9.99$ x2 for four pictures). Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Instrument on The Go

The villages where I’m to work are very strong on family, culture, and music. Thus, I was informed that, had I an instrument, I should bring it, for I’m guaranteed to participate in jam sessions almost every night. On the other hand, if I had a fairly good instrument, I should bring a cheaper one in its place. The hot and humid temperature is well known to destroy wooden instruments.

It’s been about two months now that I’ve been looking high and low for a cheap violin, but for a low sum, and a reasonable sound, there aren’t many. Borrowing one from a friend or family member that doesn’t use theirs often makes me feel cheap. I can hear it now: “Hey, can I borrow your violin for a year? I’m going to South America, and the humidity’s known to damage instruments, and I don’t want to bring mine … can I ruin yours instead?”

So, you can imagine how relieved (and dumb) I felt today when I was staring at my viola case by my desk … nice, cheap (yet good enough for me to want to play it) … who cares if I bring a viola instead of a violin? I can do as much music with it! Now why hadn’t I thought of this before …

So, I went and bought a decent case (it originally came in a black cardboard case – not very good for traveling, if you ask me) and a nice unbreakable fiber-glass bow, and now I’m all set!

One thing less from the list!

Lists!

There are so many things I need to keep into account, that I’ve decided to make a list of things to do and to buy before leaving.

“A list” has now become “lists”, plural.

The titles are as such:

• Things to organize (such as visas, immunizations, learning to drive standard …),
• Things to buy before leaving (such as toothpaste, shampoo, feminine stuff, sunscreen, bug repellent … things seemingly simple are relatively expensive down there, so I’ve been encouraged to bring my own stuff for the whole nine months …)
• Things to bring, legal (passport, visa, birth certificate …)
• Things to bring, general (3 to 4 changes of clothing, sandals, swimsuit, mosquito net)
• Classroom items (paints, markers, crayons, stickers …)

Plus the computer and the violin (and any other portable instruments … there go my tin whistles …).

Talk about lists!

Visas – Part I

There’s this funny, funny thing that you need to get to stay in some countries. This thing is a piece of paper, apparently something very official … it’s called a MasterCard … or is that a Visa?

You get visas though the country’s embassy situated in your own home country. There’s not one in Canada for Suriname, though, just one in Washington. After finding the Consulate’s phone number (yay, Internet!) and speaking to a very helpful gentleman, I found out I can get the visa application form and information of the embassy’s official site (surinameembassy.org). Simple. Easy. A little expensive (175$ for a mult-entry visa). But simple.
NOW I have to answer questions such as, “Where are you staying in Suriname?”, and give them an address and a phone number. That’s a problem: I’m only staying in a guest house one night! And what kind of visa do I need, tourist or transit? I’m inclined to pick “transit” … this is when I contact Jackie (my host in French Guiana) or the International Pioneering Comittee and see what gives.

Plus I need to send in a copy of my return ticked (I think now would be a good time to buy a plane ticket!!), my original passport and enough money for them to post it back.

Eek.

Stay tuned. The Visa experience may be long and complicated.