Scribbles in the Sun

I'm currently re-designing my blog....stay tuned! Kelly

So this happened today:  The Venezuelan president announced that they will be raising the price of gasoline...we currently (and even with the price hike) have the cheapest gasoline in the world, but even this small hike might infuse a bit of extra money into the economy.  Will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days.  If you are interested in how this came to be and what it may mean, please read this news article .  Thanks for stopping by!

I have had my fair share of odd moments living here in Venezuela.  It's inevitable when you live in a culture that's not your own.  Today I went shopping for groceries (which in itself is a weekly adventure full of lineups and fingerprints but that is a story for another time) and in the one supermarket I went to, I was able to find a few items that are scarce.  So I filled my basket, lined up to pay, and when it was finally my turn, my debit card wouldn't work.  I had him run it through again, and again, the transaction failed.  I knew I had money in the account, and I had just used the card half an hour earlier, but he didn't want to run it through a third time because often cards get blocked if you try running it through too many times and then it's just a big hassle to get it working again.  The total of my groceries was about 3000 Bolivares, and I took a quick look in my wallet and realized I didn't have enough cash to cover it either.  I started ...

If you have a presence on any sort of social media, you will probably be familiar with the debate over the last few years as to the point of selfies. I would say that yes, there has been an unhealthy obsession growing over presenting yourself a certain way, or even just plain presenting yourself too much!  But when I saw this photo, which was taken today, I was reminded that sometimes selfies are important.  I'm a terrible photographer; not that I take bad photos...it's just that I FORGET to take photos.  When I was in kids ministry, and we were having a big event like VBS, I would ask someone to be the photographer because I knew that I would just forget to record or capture the event.  It's been months since I used my camera.  And now, with my cell phone I can take quick snapshots of life and ministry in Venezuela but of course I'm rarely in them for one of two reasons: a) if I'm alone, I feel ridiculous taking a photo of myself (short arms, FYI) and I u...

Well, I decided to sit down and dust off the ol' blog. So here I am. I make a point of not making new year's resolutions... however, I'll admit that for 2016 I have dedicated a whole page in my planner to "blog ideas". It's currently blank but who knows what brilliant ideas might come to me this year? I'm happy to have kicked 2015 out the door and I'm welcoming 2016 with open arms. Ok, my arms are protecting my vital organs, so lets say open palms. Not that 2015 was a total bust; I managed to survive 2 overseas moves in a year, spent a great year in Canada, I'm back living in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, I was able to do a bit of travelling....among other things. In fact, while I was bemoaning this past year (to myself, of course) I had stop and force myself to gain a bit of perspective. I have food on the table, I'm healthy, I get to be a part of an excellent ministry, I have friends and family and look!...I've made...

My favourite worship song in Spanish at the moment....

I've been trying to slowly sort through some photos and sometimes I laugh because I can't remember why or when I took some of them.  But I came across this one and I thought it is fitting... "La Gran Aventura"....The Great Adventure.  Life is certainly an adventure these days!  If we haven't been in contact recently, then you might not know that I'll be heading back to Caracas on July 31 for another term.  Already having lived in Caracas for 3 years, I'm excited to go back to see friends, familiar sights, and eat some of my favourite foods again.  But at the same time, a lot has changed....some friends have moved away, and some of those treats are a little harder to come by these days.  Living in another country and culture isn't always the "adventure" it's cracked up to be...there are frustrating, difficult days in amongst the great days as well. However, I really want to live these next few years with the attitude of 1980-something S...

Just an update that I had a great time out in Summerland BC!  It was so good to be with the Hieberts once again, and Lukas and Mackenzie survived my caretaking.  I was also able to have a visit with Murray and Michelle Derksen (our Regional Developers) in Kelowna, and made a few new friends along the way. Plus, the weather was great, and although a little chilly at times, there was no snow and I didn't have to wear a parka! We also talked a lot about Caracas, and our return later this coming summer.  My thoughts have been turning back to Caracas more often, and the other day when I was grocery shopping, I came across this cereal: I've never noticed it on the shelf before (although I don't make a habit of buying sugar cereals....ok, I do buy Golden Grahams on occasion. And Mini Wheats. Ok, never mind.) but as soon as I saw it, I realized it looked so familiar....in fact, I think it's basically the same as a Venezuelan snack I buy (again, "on occasion"): O...

I'm off on another whirlwind adventure tomorrow....this time to Summerland BC where I'll be looking after Chris and Angela's boys.  I'm so super excited to see everyone after almost 7 months of Hiebert withdrawl!   I'm attempting once again to polish my ninja packing skills and only take a carry-on because I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for baggage that just a few months ago was free.  Harumph.  I'm quickly realizing that Canadian packing is different than Caribbean packing; a few sweaters and jeans take up waaaaay more room than tanktops and shorts in a suitcase!  But I'm determined.  I may wear the same 2 outfits for 10 days, but I'll make it happen.  Here is my suitcase all packed up! And now after closing the suitcase, I'm hoping I might make it to Edmonton in time to look for a new carry-on....the handle and wheels are all of a sudden misbehaving on this one!!! P.S.  I sent out a newsletter yesterday AND made a blog post toda...

So I've been mulling this over for awhile....and I even wrote the idea for this blog a few weeks ago on a grocery list and I've had to hold onto that outdated grocery list ever since.  I finally have a nice quiet morning to sit online and I really want to throw out that piece of paper today, so here I am blogging.  I've shared with a few people the awkwardness of moving back to Canada and trying to figure out greetings again.  In Venezuela I'm used to greeting people with a quick kiss to the cheek....well, more of an "air kiss"....and if it's a friend, that's usually followed by a hug. Of course, coming back to Canada, there's no better way to alienate people than by going around kissing and hugging everyone.  Now I'm confused; do I hug? Shake hands? Do nothing?  When I was talking about this with a friend, they mentioned to me that they felt people don't even shake hands very much anymore.  And I think that might be true, I've had my f...

As many of you know, I'm now back in Cold Lake, Alberta for my home assignment year.  It's been interesting getting used to being back for more than a week or two of holiday!  The local Walmart and Canadian Tire stores are still quite overwhelming but I'm definitely loving the short amount of time it takes to get around town!  It was a beautiful fall, and it was great to enjoy my first fall season in 4 years!  However, fall leads to winter and winter leads to snow.  There has been snow here for a week or two now and I'm getting re-acquainted with shoveling and  scraping car windows...Winter has lost a bit of it's romanticism for me!  I do look forward to celebrating Christmas with snow, and I pulled out my decorations yesterday in hopes of getting some decorating done this coming week. Sometimes I look through the Venezuelan news headlines, and this one caught my eye today:  A group of women made the world's largest hallaca !  This is like ...

Good news for the week:  we got our cedulas as well as the ID needed to sell our vehicles!  Thank you so much for praying!! Our paperwork is now all in place and the last few hurdles to jump are packing, moving my belongings to the Hieberts, Meetup group tomorrow, arranging to sell my car, a bit of last minute shopping and finally getting on the plane on Friday.  Still feels like a mountain of thing to do, but I'm thankful for a quiet day today to work on it. Of course, I love all things 80's ESPECIALLY hair bands so you will forgive me for posting the following video that came to mind while I was writing this.  What would the day be without some cheeziness from Kelly?

It's been a find-a-worm-in-your-mango kind of week.  No, really....today I took a nice big bite then saw a worm meandering through the mango.  Thankfully, I hadn't swallowed yet! Blaaaaeeech.  Right now this transition phase is a bit of a beast, it's tiring, it's a rollercoaster.  But there are bright spots, and I'm thankful for teammates, family, and friends here and back in Canada who are walking with me through these crazy days, worms and all! My great news for the week is that yesterday our passports were delivered back to us, with our visas stamped inside!! Woohooo!!!!!! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for this to happen!! That means that I am one step closer to home assignment.  My flights are booked and although there are still a few things to be done here (renew my identification card, arrange to sell my car etc) I can *almost* allow myself to get excited to travel.  Things are never set in stone here and plans can change in an instant ...

Just an update on the visa situation for those who are curious... I was able to renew my passport at lightning speed and got the new one in only one week! Today we were able to submit our paperwork to renew our visas.  I have a temporary visa for Venezuela, which means that I have to renew it every year, but the positive side to it is that I don't have to leave the country every 90 days like you would on a tourist visa.  I need to renew my visa before I leave the country for home assignment in Canada, because it was a pain in the rear to get in the first place and I sure don't want to lose it now!!  So now we wait for word on how long it will be, my hope is that it will be ready in under 2 weeks.  Right now we are sitting at just under 4 weeks until departure so it would really be great if God would speed up the hands that are dealing with our papers and passports!

It's been a bit of a stressful week for me here in Caracas....It's that time of year again, when I make the trek to the immigration office to renew my visa (which usually turns into 4 or 5 treks).  My last trip to the office yesterday included an officer who had no interest in answering any of my questions, who yelled at me (because he didn't understand what I was asking), and who walked away from me while I was still asking questions. I followed him out as he left the office, and he started yelling at another lady who had obviously been waiting to talk to him. I know that the Angers have also had some run-ins with him while they have been waiting for their ID cards but thankfully God gave me an extra helping of grace as I walked back to my car. It's been a rollercoaster, as we are still learning how things work here when it comes to our documents as foreigners but I'm thankful that it looks like things will work out so that I can arrive in Canada in August.  Would ...

So, my favourite worship band right now is "En Espiritu y En Verdad" and they are from Spain.  Obviously I listen to more Spanish worship these days compared to English....but I suppose that is a part of being separated from the North American worship culture.  I'm just not up to date on what people up north are listening to!  But this is a great band, and I'd like to think that even if I didn't speak Spanish, I'd still enjoy listening to them.  Just thought I'd share a great song that I'm enjoying these days.

I was going to title this post "Meet the Team"...but then the Flintstones theme started running in my head; "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones.....".  But what is done is done and I suppose I'll be singing that song for the rest of the day.  But I do want to share the most up-to-date photo of our team, and you will notice that we have gained 4 people!  The Angers family joined us here in Caracas recently and we are enjoying getting to know them!  Martin and Nadia have come all the way from Quebec, and have had Venezuela on their hearts for many years.  They have 4 children, 2 have also joined us here in Caracas; Eliana and Jean-Samuel.  On the right side of the photo is the Hiebert Family; Chris, Angela, Mackenzie (R) and Lukas (L).  And I am stuck in the middle, a great place to be with these 2 families who are my family here in Venezuela.  While the Hieberts and I head back to Canada for the next year, the Angers will be "holding down the fort...

I often find that weekends are the busiest time of the week for me.  During the weekdays, I'm usually at home trying to get some reading done, answering those elusive emails (oh...sorry to those who are still waiting!), grocery shopping, meeting/prayer with our team, trying to do some organizing and planning for home assignment, and other various "stuff"....it's different every week.  But come the weekend, I'm not home very much!  This past Friday, we had a team meeting at the Hieberts' house, then I went out for supper with the Angers, the new family who has joined our team here in Caracas.  It was a great opportunity to just spend some "fun" time with them.  Saturday morning I was up and drove over to Altamira in the rain to meet up with the English conversation group I'm a part of.  It's always great, and as usual, what is planned for 2 hours together turned into about 6 hours together!  We met under a big tent at the park in the rain, cra...

If you like reading missionary bios, here's a short one that I read today of a Canadian-born missionary who worked in the DRC.  Thankful for the encouragement gleaned from the pioneers. Click HERE to read the bio!

Well, I have been silent here for a little too long I guess.  **Hello? Anyone still out there reading this?** Over these last few month, with the unrest here in Venezuela, I've had a hard time figuring out just how to process and share my thoughts....so I just didn't. People have asked me lately if things are "back to normal" here.  My knee-jerk reaction is to say "NO!!" but then I realized that although there isn't as much happening as a few months ago, we have settled into a "new normal". That doesn't mean that that the protests, blockades, and tear-gas have stopped; they still continue on in a few concentrated areas.  But we are learning how to continue on with life and work around things.  I have never felt in danger, but I have been slightly panicked a few times trying to find my way back to my house when roads have been blocked...for those of you who know how directionally challenged I am, you will now be amazed that I even made it ho...