And they're off!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I'd love to be able to say that I was waylaid in writing by thrilling adventures, but alas, it's the result of a pitiful lack of anything interesting on which to report. We've finished our last three weeks of lecture and prepared for our outreach trips. The presidential election was mercifully uneventful and the electricity, as per usual, came and went as it pleased. It all made for a very un-noteworthy month. But now things are actually happening that are worth blogging about. So prepare yourselves!

We are now on day three of our outreach. Day three of lounging around a guesthouse in Kabul until we get a flight chartered. My team is staying here on our way to the province of Badakshan in Northeastern Afghanistan. Our hope is to conduct two three-week teacher training seminars in more remote villages where teachers have few resources and limited training. Our seminar teaches them basic skills like lesson planning, classroom discipline, organization, fun activities, etc. It also provides a great opportunity to promote moral lessons and healthy ways of instructing the children. It is still common to hit, insult, and demean children as means of punishment in the rural schools, so we aim to put a lot of focus on more positive teaching strategies.

We have a lot of challenges ahead of us- we still don't have a translator lined up, we have to get permission from the governor of Badakshan to conduct the trainings, find a place to stay, we don't have all the money we need, and so on and so forth. But we are confident in our calling and know this will be an extraordinary time of growth as we learn to depend on God and invest in the teachers here. So in other words..it will be really hard!! Living conditions in the villages are pretty stone age-esque, so it will be a big leap from my hygienic comfort zone. But by the grace of God I will get through it with little whining and complaining.

The outreach will last until around the 5th of November, at which point we will return to Mazar, have a debrief week and then I head home the 21st, just in time for Thanksgiving!! I get about 6 weeks off before returning in January for my final three months in Afghanistan. I've greatly appreciated everyone's prayers and financial support thus far and ask that you continue to lift up my team and I as we start out on this crazy adventure!

Well, this is goodbye for a while. I doubt I will have internet access for most of the trip, but I promise to post if I can. So stay classy, San Diego. And by San Diego I mean whatever city you happen to live in.

Janna