AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off, this is cute:

Secondly,
3 days.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, that's all.
Time to do more homework. :-)

Love,
Stephanie

আগ্রহান্বিত

My Facebook status currently says "Stephanie is আগ্রহান্বিত."

আগ্রহান্বিত --> Bengali for "eager; zealous; intent; intently desirous; inclined (to); wistful."

I honestly can't read every consonant in it, but it's something like ag...in.....yeah. I know some letters. Working on it.

Anyway, finals are next week. I'm done with classes right now. Literally just finished. The work I have to turn in gets turned in on Monday, or emailed over the weekend if I'm ambitious. School is almost done.

It's strange. My last practical criticism class was today. I'm gonna miss that class. I don't think I appreciated it enough while I was still in it. Oh well. I took good notes.

India in five days.
India in five days.
India in five days.

To do:
Open Citibank account.
Get traveler's checks.
Pick up work checks.
Deposit work checks.
Start taking malaria meds so I don't turn into mosquito-woman.
Find out what malaria does so I don't continue to think of it as something that might turn me into a superhero.
Pack (ha).
Learn Bangla.

Sorry, this post isn't very inspirational. It's really just me keeping a record of what I need to do before I leave.

Oh, and pray. I've been doing that, a lot. Not enough, but a lot. I've been told by about five different people in the past week that spiritual warfare is going on like whoa in India, specifically Kolkata, right now. I don't mean literal physical violence - I mean, people are actually doing exorcisms and stuff. There's so much idolatry that demon possession happens all the time. And then exorcisms happen. And demons leave. Lldksfjaljfdslkj!

If you're reading this right now, please pray for India.
Thanks. :-)

Love,
Stephanie

Request. (not a prayer request)

You know those silly little make-sure-you're-not-a-robot word verification thingies you have to type before you comment on a blog post?

When responding to something I've posted, please create a definition for the word your computer makes you type.

Thanks.

:-p

-Stephanie

Homework, focus, and motivation.

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Colossians 3:22-24

Okay, so. I know I'm not technically a slave. But, if you're a college student, you know that sometimes, it feels like we're slaves to school. Especially the week before finals. Like nearly every other student at IWU, I'm having difficulty finding the motivation to study, to revise papers, to prepare for finals. I just don't want to. It's even more difficult to do all this work when all I want is to hang out with my friends before I go to India.

The point of this post is not for me to complain about all the work I have to do - everyone has that. The point is to remind me, and you, that we're not really working to get the A or for our professors. We're working for something much bigger than Ed 255. In Colossians 3:23, slaves are told to work with all their hearts, because it's really the Lord they are serving.

And that's the mindset that I need to have.

Love,
Stephanie

Clothes

...I have too much clothing.

As I unpack and repack my school clothes, I'm point blank annoyed by the amount of clothing in my room. It's disturbing. Why do I own so much clothing? Why are there people in this world who have two shirts, and I have, like...fifty? Jaljfslkdjfadlksjf!!

Only owning four t-shirts in India is going to be weird. Good, but weird. I won't be able to sift through stuff trying to figure out what I want to wear. Bueno.

-Stephanie

[edit] This website just made my day.

Now that I have seen, I am responsible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGx-xU6TnU8

"Now that I have seen
I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
Now that I have held you
In my own arms
I cannot let go till you are..."

Albertine - Brooke Fraser.

Tonight, I saw "Born Into Brothels". First off, it was brilliantly made. However, it made me think about the effectiveness (and ineffectiveness) of service work. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong advocate for serving others. But...in the movie, the filmmaker went into a specific brothel community in Kolkata, and taught nine kids to take photographs. Subsequently, those nine kids were motivated to do something with their lives other than hang out in the brothels. Most of them ended up going to either boarding schools, or staying at home but eventually going to a university. This is good. Education is good. But it bugged me, because...what about all the other kids? Doesn't it make more sense to do something through the government, or a giant NGO that affects thousands of children? I mean, I'm glad that these kids' lives were changed, and that they're no longer sitting around in the brothels all day. But...I can't help but think of their younger siblings. How are their lives? Do they have to do more work now that their older sisters and brothers are gone? Are the mothers sleeping with more men per day? Are the fathers beating their wives more now that the kids are gone? I mean, I'm sure some of this is just my personal bias, but...there's got to be a better way to help more kids.

Granted, at the end of the film, it was said that, with the money made from selling the photographs and the movie's income, a school for kids from brothels has been opened in Kolkata. Hurray! This is super!

And I might work there.

But...argh. I just...I can't shake the knowledge that there's so much more that needs to be done. And I feel so blessed that I have the resources to pay for a plane ticket, to have financial support in India, and to work my butt off trying to help these kids get educations so they can do what they want to do- which isn't wash dishes in the brothels.

And I'm reminded again how blessed I am to be able to go to IWU.

11 days. I'm not ready.

-Stephanie

Ola!

Hello world!
*waves*
I'm very, very new to this whole blogging thing. I mean, I've had blogs. Three, maybe. But this is the first time I've actually had a blog for a purpose, one that I think people might consider reading.

In twelve days, I will be last-minute packing and trying to figure out exactly how much stuff I can realistically bring with me on the plane. To be honest, I'm really excited about that. For months, I've been saying that I want to be much more minimalistic than I am, and I haven't practically done that very well. So now I get to, by myself, carry everything that will come with me to India. Good. Time for a learning experience.

---

My brain still doesn't understand that I'm going to India.
It still feels like a book I'm writing, a bedtime story I'm telling, a D&D adventure I'm crafting for kids I'm babysitting. It doesn't feel like something I'll actually be doing.

I'm going to go work on Bengali.

-Stephanie