An Ill Wind is Blowing from the UN

The weather debate is about to reach pandemic proportions. How many of you really honestly believe we are in the middle of global warming? Now come on people, really think about it because our president is about to go to Copenhagen in December and sign the United Nations Climate Change Treaty that would cede US sovereignty. You need to look up that treaty and read what it says. Then go and look up The Supremacy Clause in the US Constitution (Article VI, paragraph 2). This clause establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. TREATIES as the supreme law of the land. Concerns have been raised in the past that a particularly ambitious treaty may supersede the US Constitution. That time is coming pretty fast.

I’m 56 and I can remember all of the textbooks and teachers and scientists of the time saying we were headed toward a mini-ice age again. Then somewhere along the line during the eighty’s I suspect, the word got out that we were in the midst of global warming. The temperatures are rising, the ice caps are melting, there is a hole in the ozone. There is the greenhouse effect with carbon dioxide.

Guess what! When YOU breathe in oxygen YOU exhale (GASP!) CO2! Trees and other plants absorb the CO2 and they produce (GASP!) oxygen! All of God’s creatures breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2. Now with all of this talk about ‘carbon footprints’ just what is the government going to do? Tax the human race for breathing?

I was reading several papers (that were inadvertently humorous) about the amount of methane gas that one single cow produces in a day. It was astonishing. One standard full grown cow ‘emits’ up to 1000 liters of gas. So there is now talk being bandied about in Washington and in the Green Circles of taxing the cattle owners because their animals are contributing to the green house effect. What about the parents of little boys? Are they going to tax them because the kid has gone on a school trip and ate a bunch of hotdogs or whatever and spent the rest of the time grossing out the other kids with their gaseous emissions?

Is the New World Order going to tax the countries or states that have volcanoes and hot springs? When Mount St. Helens erupted in May of 1980 it blew a hole in the ozone that was phenomenal and the CO2 it belched out was record breaking! So is all of Washington state and all of Hawaii going to have to pay for being in the ring of fire?

So what happened to Global Warming? I am sure you are wearing long sleeves this week as I am, and probably have turned the heater on in the early morning. The hot cup of coffee is probably warming your hands as you read this. This may come as a bit of a surprise, the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998! And before that, the hottest years on record were 1921, 1931 and 1934. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures and the climate models put out by the climate warming gurus did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

The people in the state of Montana were probably wondering about global warming just last week when why were watching the temps plummet and the snow fall as they were standing in front of their fireplaces wearing their thermals.
So what on Earth is going on with our Earth? Climate change skeptics, who passionately and consistently argue that man’s influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it coming. They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is.

So I throw this challenge out to you, go to your library, grab an encyclopedia, get on the internet, call your congressman, I don’t care which, but check into the UN Climate Change Treaty. It is a nasty bit of business and does not have your best interest at the heart of it.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t recycle, you should. I’m not saying you should be wasteful and harm your environment. But you better wake up and smell that hot coffee you are holding in your cold hands because an ill wind is blowing and it is not the perfect storm.

Arthritis and Banks are both causes of Pain

As I sit here listening to the rain pouring down outside and hitting something with a loud insistent drip drop DRIP DROP!, I am feeling the pain. I have never felt so icky and not been sick. As the old folks say, the ‘Arthur’ is messing with my bones and ‘Ben’ and ‘Ty’ and ‘Mo” are my only friends. I have discovered that Tylenol will take the edge off the arthritis pain but it’s the Ben Gay and the extra little Motrin that will keep me pain free long enough to get some work done.

Arthritis is one of those things that only ‘old’ people get. Funny how 56 was so OLD when I was much younger and now that I AM 56, my brain doesn’t want to come to terms with my aching joints and muscles! My mother is getting a chuckle over all of this and my sister commented that I now walk like our grandmother did! Mamaw fell a few times in her life time as I have and I understand her fear of falling!

I read a lot and came across some articles about the Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act, which brings up another big pain! Have you ever found yourself waiting to get access to your money after you deposit a check? Banks commonly “hold” a deposited check for several days before crediting the money to your account. You could deposit a big check on Friday (even direct deposit), write a check later that same day, and have your check bounce because the funds from your deposit aren’t made available to you until Tuesday (for a local check) or much later (for a non-local check).

A federal law called Check 21 which went into effect in October of 2004, helps banks, savings and loans, and credit unions to process the checks you write faster, but it doesn’t require banks to shorten those inconvenient check holds. Banks don’t even have to count weekends toward the number of days a check is held, even though they clear checks on the weekends. So who exactly reaps the benefits from Check 21? Not necessarily you nor I, the average Joe banking consumer. The new law does not require banks to process deposited checks any more quickly than they do now. Thus, consumers did gain fast access to cash or the ability to pay bills in a timely manner. just yet.

Just what is this Check 21? Check 21 is sweeping federal law that takes away your ability to get back your original paper checks. Under this law, consumers are more likely to bounce checks and may find themselves paying higher bank fees. The complicated law gives some rights, but those rights depend on a variety of factors, including how the merchant and the bank decide to process your check.

It's frustrating to me when I get paid by direct deposit only from out of state banks. I do contract work and they pay me electronically. The money is supposed to be in my account on Thursday. I will check and it says it there but the funds are not accessible to me for 3 more days. Banks do handsprings to speed up the check-clearing and funds-transfer process on their side, but then treat their customers as if the bank has to wait for the horse drawn stagecoach to get there with the money.

I once had a bank tell me it was going to put a three-day hold on a cashier's check drawn on that very same bank. Another time that stands out in my memory was when we sold our house in Tupelo. The realtor wrote us a check on the exact same bank we were using and when we went in to deposit the check at a branch that we had used for nearly 20 years, we had to prove who we were! Plus they called the real estate agent that had issued the check to us! In the mean time, the mortgage company was waiting on their money and even though we ‘had it’ we didn’t have it because the bank would not release it until the prerequisite 5 business days had passed and they didn’t count the weekend.

Banks are a mystery to me and a necessary evil. They assume that everyone is kiting checks and bouncing and defaulting. But holding on to the consumer’s money in this electronic day and age of swiping a plastic debit card and it is immediately out of your account and into another is ridiculous. It’s just another way of keeping the consumers money for a little while longer and racking up those fees.

Too bad Tylenol and Motrin won’t clear that pain up!

Flapping my 'right' wings

The week before September 7th, several things happened that I thought I should write about. Some of it I started on and then hit the delete key and did away with it. It was cathartic action. Now that is a great word isn’t it? Catharsis…from the Greek language meaning to cleanse and purge. A more up to date definition in Webster’s Dictionary is 2 a : purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art b : a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension 3 : elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression.

It seems that many people need a little catharsis when it comes to politics and our present administration, and I am including myself in this so don’t everyone jump on my little wagon at once to start beating me in the head. It is no secret that I am conservative about a lot of things. It is also no secret that I did not vote for the present administration. That was my right the last time I checked that I could vote for whomever or against whomever and I have exercised that right many times since I was 18 years old.

Last week I received an e-mail calling me a self indulgent right wing leaning writer and one of my friends accused me of being racist when I made the statement that if I had younger children in school that I would probably not send them on Tuesday, when the POTUS will be speaking. I have read the speech and it’s all well and good. He isn’t saying anything that any parent, teacher or school administrator has not been saying for years. And for that matter, if more parents would take on more responsibility for their kids education, Mr. Obama would not feel the need to go on television to speak to the kids. The government is not a baby sitter. The government should not the one that is responsible to make sure a child gets a meal and gets their school work done. The government should not have to be the one that teaches you that you need to wash your hands when you go to the bathroom or to cover your mouth when you sneeze or to stay at home when you are running a fever. What I took issue with was the poorly worded agenda of lesson plans that were sent down the pike. The White House has even said that it was poor worded so I was not making anything up.

The fact that our president is of mixed race is not an issue with me. Or have people forgotten that he is of mixed parentage. He is a man. And apparently he is surrounded by people that need to go back to school and learn how to write things in a more non-threatening way. Mr. Obama’s plan to make a speech to students is not new – President George H.W. Bush did the same in 1991, in a move that was opposed by Democrats. So opposition to things that sitting presidents do really does cross over the party lines.

Then there is this health care reform. I have had times of no health care especially when I was a small business owner and my husband was without a job. We just held our breath and paid the bills and tightened up the belt until we didn’t have any more holes in the belt! Then we have had had health insurance that wasn’t worth a penny that we paid into it because it didn’t cover anything we needed it to cover. And then companies put caps on how much they will pay. So if you are in a bad accident or are hit with a catastrophic illness, you better learn to suck up on the pain and heal yourself from within because they will be sending your sick butt home.

Do we need health care reform? YES WE DO? Do we need the government to run our healthcare? HELL NO! Since when did the government do a good job at running a business? Just think back to Katrina? How well did they do with that? People are still living in limbo waiting for the government help on that one. The other problem I have with the House health care bill H.R. 3200 is the government agency that will be given the authority to implement and enforce will be the IRS. Just what we need.

Think I am flapping my right wing leaning self-indulgent conservative self about that? Look up the bill and read it. It’s close to 1000 pages and you read for yourself what your congress probably has not read. You will find out exactly what having a catharsis means then. And while you’re at it, call up your old teachers and thank them for having the patience to teach you how to read and think for yourself and for knowing when to wash your hands.

The Demise of the Small town newspaper is at hand.

So my time as a writer for the Monitor is running out. The proverbial clock is ticking on the life span of the paper and the word has finally come down that when the clock strikes midnight of December 31 the Monitor Herald will become extinct. That is sad for a newspaper that is so old. And it’s sad for me and the other columnists that have been given the privilege of having our stories published week after week.

What exactly does a newspaper do anyway? What is its purpose in the grand scheme of things? To deliver the news to your doorstep…correct? Wrong! Perhaps decades ago that was the intent and purpose but the advancement of the electronic age took care of that. There is news to be found on every television station at most any time of the day now. There is the internet that gives even more up to date news information. The Newspapers are not in the business of selling you, the reader, the NEWS. They are about selling advertising and writers like me are just filling in white space between those ads.

That is a harsh thing for me to say about myself and other writers but it is the cold ugly truth. The consumers that buy newspapers don’t pay for news. They have never paid for the news. Newspapers make their money not from delivering the news but from delivering advertising on newsprint into people’s homes. Just like television stations don’t make money off of those weekly programs that we all love to watch and are addicted too. It’s those pesky ads that intrude upon our senses and plant the idea that we need to run to J.C. Penny’s and get some new linens for our beds or to go to Kroger for their 10 for 10 deals of the week. I used to work at both of the TV stations in our area and for a national advertising agency and I had to churn out creative story boards for commercials on a daily basis. It is a dog eat dog world in the world of advertising in both the video and print genre.

Now I can’t say what it costs to print a paper and deliver it to the paper boxes and to the post office but I dare say it’s a lot more than the .25 cents or .50 cents people have been paying. Think about it for a moment, and you will realize those paltry sums couldn’t come close to making up the cost of merely printing a newspaper and then delivering it by hand to a subscriber’s doorstep seven times a week, 365 days a year.

Nor can a company make money in 50-cent increments by sending employees out in gas-guzzling trucks down country roads each day or once a week distributing to hundreds of newspaper boxes over scores, perhaps hundreds, of square miles. I dare to offer that it may actually cost $25 to $40 dollars a paper to print and deliver just one paper that we have all had the luxury of paying about $21 to $28 dollars a year for.

I realized a few years back that times were getting tight with newspapers when they started going to a smaller type and a slightly smaller size and format. Little by little our newspapers and magazines have been shrinking. The comics, the way to lure younger people into reading a paper, started getting smaller. Then some papers, in the hopes that they would not offend anyone, started reporting what I call the ‘happy talk news’. Nothing too too controversial. After all, you don’t want to tick off the advertisers. The advertisers are the bread and butter of the papers. And I don’t want this to seem like I am attacking the businesse’s that buy advertising. Heavens NO! I used to be a business owner and I had to advertise to get new customers. I can’t begin to tell you how much I spent on print advertising trying to target my market.

Newspapers don’t have the comfortable monopoly position any longer. People get their news in many different ways now and that is what is leading to the demise of the smaller local papers. Young people don’t read any more like the past generations. Try as we might, it’s hard to grab the attention of some people unless its in a video format.

What will become of papers and journalists and writers in general? I don’t have a clue. I just know that I am a dinosaur that continues to evolve and I am not too technologically challenged. Perhaps the papers and reporters and journalists that survive will come out on the other side of the technology universe and be the better for it.

As for my writing, I may not be appearing in ink on newsprint for much longer but I will still have my internet blog and I thank the Monitor for giving me the venue to express my opinions. It has been a great learning and growing experience for me.

Now is anyone out there looking for a feature writer?

I read Banned Books and they are good!

September 14, 2009

A few weeks ago one of my fellow Food Pantry volunteer ‘buds’ started playfully badgering me to get back to writing about controversial subjects. And I finally did with last week’s column. Thanks to all that decided to respond. I appreciate any and all feed back and last week was no exception. E-mail started pouring in at 6 AM Thursday morning. Some of them I answered. Some I just read and laughed and hit the delete key.

As I said last week, it’s no secret that I am a conservative. Yes, that may be a bit hard for some people to believe but I am about a lot of things and I an entitled to my opinions and beliefs just like the people that are liberal are entitled to theirs. I don’t get all bent out of shape and start yelling at my friends just because they vote a different way than I do. It’s a free country folks. We can vote for whom ever we please. We still have freedom of speech in this country of ours and if you want to be informed there are many ways now days to get all the information that you need so you can make up your own mind about things.

It distresses me to hear about things and one source reports it one way and another reports it a different way and yet another will give a totally different spin. But folks, that is why I read every thing I can get my hands on and hear every report I can so I can figure things out. I learned a long time ago that I did not want to be a ‘sheeple’ and silently follow someone down the path of no return.

Take books for instance. Banned books have always been a bugaboo for me. I discovered that there is an actually week called Banned Book Week. People will ban books for various reasons, mainly out of fear of something. In the US of A we have a much freer press than most country’s do although there are times I wonder if the people doing the reporting were at the same event I was attending! Our legal system does sometimes suppress legitimate expression, for a time at least, in the name of security, copyright, or “the children”. (And sometimes the threat of criminal violence can suppress books when the law does not.) It is worth remembering that books can be published thanks to free and independent publishers. Anyone can get a book published now. It’s just not always going to be on the NYT best sellers list right away.

As far as I know, I don’t think there have ever been any banned books our library at Bruce or in the schools. Or if a book did appear on a banned list, the librarian and school officials had enough common sense to chuck the list in the round file 13 and leave the book where it belonged. Some books I have heard that are banned in some states is laughable. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Living Bible by William C. Bower; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain; Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman;
Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm; As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Even history is ‘sanitized’ in some textbooks.

There have been some popular books in recent years and talk of banning the books and not letting the children read them. After I had heard this for a while I starting asking people what was so bad about the books. No one I asked had actually read them. They were simply repeating what someone else had said. Always being the defiant one, I decided to read the books. After all, my children might one day want to read them and it has always been my policy to read whatever my children did. That is what my mother did to me when I was a kid. I found nothing wrong with the books and they are now a part of my extensive library. They are right up there along with all my Shakespeare, Faulkner and the other books that have been banned and unbanned through time!

Banning books isn't something that was done centuries or decades ago. It happens nearly every week somewhere in the United States. Often people take notice of banned books, protest, and the proscription is lifted. Sometimes nobody notices and the banned book stays lost to a school or country. I may be a conservative person but I do NOT believe in banning books. There are times for censorship and we all know exactly when and what should be censored and not placed where young impressionable minds can be exposed.
Thankfully we still have the freedom to write about what matters to us, and the freedom to read about what matters to us. And if you get anything out of this column, I hope it is that you grow to better appreciate these freedoms and the power of books and ideas. Go to you local library and check out the great books they have. Start with some Faulkner. He is not my favorite but As I Lay Dying is quite thought provoking! And ask the Librarian what she recommends. They always know a good read!

The Swine Flu and Sweet Potatoes

will have problems. if we eat too much fiber….well you know what happens when you eat too much fiber! Don’t eat sugar. Wait! You need to eat some sugar, just make sure it’s the not the white processed kind. Don’t eat fat. Oops you need to have a some fat.

Now we are hearing about swine flu. H1N1 or the hinney flu or, as someone brilliantly dubbed it, the government flu. I am not going to say that it doesn’t exist. But the more I read and hear about it, the more I get skeptical. Now number one, I am not fond of vaccinations. Born in 1953, I had most of the things that kids get shots for. I even survived the polio epidemic of the summer of 1954. Any time I have blood drawn, the labs always come back with the question ‘Have you recently been vaccinated?’ The antibodies in my blood are exceptionally strong.

The first time I heard of the Swine flu was in 1976. I was one of the first to get the experimental flu vaccine developed just for the H1N1. President Gerald Ford even went on television and was given the shot so I thought why not. I wasn’t allergic to eggs and it was produced in the US at the time. I took the shot and was violently ill within 12 hours.
I was later diagnosed with Swine Flu.

I am not going to tell you that I breezed through it. It was probably one of the roughest things I have ever had to deal with. And you must bear in mind that I don’t let many things stop me from going. Since 1976, I have had one other case of the flu and I didn’t even try to find out what the strain of it was. But I felt like the newspaper in the bottom of a bird cage! (just think about that one for a few minutes)

So now we are hearing about the H1N1 virus and the word Pandemic is being bandied about. IF and when the purported vaccine is available, I will not take it for several reasons. Mainly, the last time I took a flu shot, I had a reaction. I don’t like reactions and neither did the doctor. On his advice, I will not take another one. Secondly, since no one seems to want to tell exactly where in the world this vaccine is being produced, I am suspicious. It’s apparently not being made in the USA. I don’t like that. And last but not least I want to see all of congress and the president himself line up and be the first to take the shots. It’s only fair that the people that were elected by the people should be the first to lay their lives on the line for the rest of us.

As for me and my household, we will be going the natural way for now since this flu seems to not be seasonal and so many people are walking around in public with no regard for others and are coughing and wheezing and touching things. I take lots of vitamins and supplements and wash my hands obsessively and use hand sanitizer. As a disclaimer, I am not in the medical profession, I don’t profess to be a medical guru. But I believe in taking a common sense approach to this swine flu brouhaha.

To ramp up your immune system, take 2000-5000 mg a day of Vitamin D. The best form of Vitamin D to use is D3 if you can’t get out in the sunshine. Exposure to the sun is the best way to produce Vitamin D.

Take Vitamin C as it not only boosts levels of infection fighting white blood cells, but it also increases the number of interferon antibodies which work to keep the swine flu from even entering cells. Aim for 200 mg ingested over the course of day either in food or supplements. I love orange juice and eating the fruit! Sweet potatoes also have Vitamin C!

Take Vitamin E which fosters production of natural killer cells that seek out and destroy swine flu germs. It’s hard to eat enough food to reach therapeutic levels of Vitamin E, so consider a supplemental dose between 100-400 mg.

Eat foods rich in Vitamin A to boost immune response, however, avoid supplements and eat your carrots and sweet potatoes.

Eat foods rich in bioflavonoids because they fill up cell receptor sites so H1N1 flu germs can’t get into your cells and cause infection. Bioflavonoids are found in white and green teas, wine, dark chocolate, peppers, garlic, blueberries, and citrus fruits.

Take a zinc supplement. Zinc doesn’t just increase immune response, it makes it fight the swine flu more aggressively. Supplement with 15 to 25 mg a day and don’t go over 75 mg as that can actually weaken your immune system.

I have my order in for some sweet potatoes a surgical mask and a 55 gallon drum of hand sanitizer. How about you?

Moms are Moms around the world!

Ema from Serbia, the last of my exchange students, arrived at the Jackson aiport Friday night at almost the stroke of midnight. Donna Williams, the Regional Director of AYUSA here in Mississippi, picked her up at the airport and they spent the night in Jackson to get some much needed sleep. Ema finally met her host family Gina and Rickey Baker Saturday afternoon. Grayce and Jake, Gina and Rickey’s daughter and son, fell in love with Ema’s sweet personality immediately. They made the mad dash to Tupelo for all the important things that Ema would need for her stay here in the USA for the academic school year.

So another adventure begins for a student from halfway round the world and a host family as the two learn about each other personally and about the customs of both countrys and how the two can mesh and learn to co-exist. This is diplomacy at its best.

Our student Anna has just fit into our family like she has always been here. She is bubbly and happy and full of questions and will answer anything that we ask. She misses her parents and talks to her mom frequently on the internet. She told me her Mom tried to bribe her with a new puppy if she would not come to America. Her Mom and Dad miss her a lot but they have to place their trust in us to provide their child with a good, safe, loving home. Marina, Anna's mother, saw the pictures of Anna's bedroom that I decorated just for her on my facebook page. She was surprised that we would go to such trouble as to make a special room for her daughter. It eased her mind about her daughter's decision to come.

I have nightly conversations with Amjaad’s Mom, Wijdan in Bethlehem. She told me that it was very difficult for her because Amjaad is her youngest child. But seeing the photos that I have put up on my page for her to see has made her feel much better. Amjaad is very happy being the big sister to 3 little boys. And she is very happy to be on the basketball team at school. I don’t know anything about basketball except the goal of game is to put that ball in the basket. And it seems Amjaad has that talent.

Wijdan said that all of the women told her that life was dangerous here but she felt that God would provide the perfect home and loving family for her child and that she would be safe. I believe that also. Donna and I prayed about finding the perfect placement for Amjaad and we found it with Gina and Michael. Wijdan says that seeing Amjaad’s happy face with her beloved American family has given her assurance that her daughter is going to be well taken care of.

As Host Parents we have to cope with the adjustments to new foods, new schools, new customs, a different language and all new people. We have to be on the look out for signs of homesickness and culture shock. While on the other side of the world, parents and other family members are dealing with the worries of all the things that they hear about that are bad about America. They worry that their sons and daughters will be made fun of or bullied. They worry that they might not be living in a safe environment. They worry that they won’t have enough to eat. They worry that if their child is ill that there will be no one to comfort them and take them to the doctor.

As a parent, I understand and feel their fears. These people have placed their trust and faith in my lap that I will keep a watch over their precious daughters. As one of the mom’s told me, She has given me her heart to love and care for. I will do for their children what I hope would be done for mine if either of my daughters’ were exchange students in their care.

So I will take many photos and post them on my computer for their moms to see and write about their lives as their year of living in an southern American home progresses. Each student will have a different yet similar experience and I will watch it through 7 pairs of eyes and record it every step of the way with my camera.

A friend to man

Let me live in the house by the side of the road where the race of men go by;
The men who are good and the men who are bad, as good and as bad as I;
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.
-- Sam Walter Foss

I like the above quote. It pretty much sums up what I think the exchange student program is all about…living on the side of the road and being a friend to man.
For two days last week we were working very hard to make sure the airline finally found Julia’s long lost luggage. After many exasperating phone calls her traveling luggage finally arrived Tuesday in Tupelo and then it was delivered to our home and I took it from there out to her Host home. With the school open house that evening I suspect that she really wanted and needed her clothes.

Julia and her Host family and our student Anna and I, along with Ariel and Erin went to BHS to introduce the exchange students to the teachers and to get familiar with the school. Amjaad’s Host mom Gina met up with me so that she would be able to talk to some teachers because Amjaad had not arrived yet.

The rest of the week was exciting as Gina and her family were in the count down awaiting the arrival of Amjaad. She arrived in Washington DC on Thursday and would be arriving in Memphis Saturday morning. In the meantime, I was busy working on getting everything ready for another family to hear from their pending exchange student.
Ema from Serbia is approved to come to Calhoun City and live with Gina and Rickey Baker for the school year. Gina and Gracye (and Rickey too I suspect) had gone into the same high gear mode the rest of us did when we realized that a new person would be coming to live in our homes.

Saturday morning, the Schmitz family, my family and Donna and Roger Williams were all up before the sun getting ready to make the drive to Memphis. Donna was meeting two YES girls from Pakistan that were going to live in Grenada. I was there along with the Schmitz family to finally meet Amjaad. We all stood on the mezzanine and watched the planes landing and taking off. As the time of her arrival drew near the planes were landing back to back with perhaps one minute between them. As the plane we thought she might be on was being guided to one of the far off gates, we made our way back to a spot where we could see the passengers coming down the concourse.

I knew that Amjaad was tall and that was what I was looking for. Pretty soon I saw three girls wearing bright red YES t-shirts and one of them was very tall. I started waving wildly and taking pictures. Gina’s son Gregory was holding his orange sign that said Welcome Amjaad up. Her other little ones were eagerly looking at the girls approaching our group.

Donna and one of the Host families from Grenada greeted the Pakistani girls and I introduced Amjaad to her host family and to mine. It was so good to finally meet her in person after talking with her for weeks on facebook. We were sending messages to her mother in Bethlehem to let her know that her child was safely in our hands. After we went down to the baggage claim area and retrieved her luggage, (and it all arrived thankfully!) She left with Gina and Michael and the boys to begin her new life adventure.

Donna had to go to Tupelo with one of the Pakistani girls because her luggage went on to Tupelo. After they picked up her luggage then they were able to go on to deliver her to her host family in Grenada.

Now I am waiting to go to the airport one more time with Gina and Rickey Baker to greet Ema. Hopefully she will arrive in the same airport as her luggage and will be ready to hit the road running because she won’t have any time to get over the jet lag!

This is going to be an exciting year for the high schools in Bruce, Calhoun City and Vardaman. Donna and I are here to answer any questions that the students and faculty will have and to help out in any way that we can. For the community at large, these students are required to give presentations about their countries. Give us a call or get in touch with their host families and make arrangements for them to come and speak to your club or organization or church group. We are planning International Tasting luncheons serving traditional foods from their home countries in each community to help raise funds so we can take these kids on a special trip or two.

Let us show them how welcoming our communities and schools are and lets learn to be “a friend to man’

Julia is finally here. Luggage is lost SNAFU!

"I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day & I believe in miracles" -Audrey Hepburn

This past weekend has been a long one for me and for one of my charges. Saturday was the day that Cindy arrived from France and Julia was coming from Germany. Cindy’s flight was to arrive in Jackson at 7:55 and Julia was scheduled to arrive in Tupelo at 9:05. As the Community Representative for AYUSA I try to be at the arrival of all the students I have placed. That was not going to be the case. Brother Scott and Denise and their brood headed down to Jackson to get Cindy. I would be picking up Julia because her host family was still on their way back from a week of competing in the Little Britches Rodeo in Colorado.

So nothing could go wrong could it? We took Anna shopping for school clothes and then to see the Harry Potter movie. After the movie we were going to the airport to wait. The second I walked out of the theater, my phone started vibrating and messages started hitting. All of them saying “urgent” and “call me”. Then the call came from California and the AYUSA offices. Julia’s flight leaving Frankfurt Germany was delayed and that made her late getting into Washington, D.C. That late flight meant she missed flight to Atlanta and would not be coming into Tupelo. But no one seemed to know where she actually was. She had not called anyone and by now everyone was going into full blown panic mode.

I called her host family to update them and told them to stay put until I found something out. After a lot of calling and being put on hold and first being told they could not give us information, finally someone found the child and I talked to her. I can’t tell you the relief that washed over me on hearing her voice. I told her that I was going to have her flight changed because the airline was telling me that it might be THREE days before she could get to Atlanta. I started seeing red after hearing that! I had her flight changed so she would arrive in Memphis on Sunday morning and I promised her I would be standing at the gate when she disembarked from that plane.

Sunday morning arrived and we all loaded into the car and headed to Memphis on 78. Jessica and Jeff and the boys were also going north on I55. We arrived first and I started getting a little panicky when I couldn’t get the guy at the ticket counter to tell me if she was on the flight. For security reasons he could tell me the flight was on time but he could not tell me about the passenger. I showed my papers, my id, I begged but to no avail. By this time I was starting to get angry. That emotion didn’t move him either. I noticed the homeland security people were starting to close in on me so I decided I had better hush or be carted off never to be seen from again. But I knew I could take that little weasel guy out if I had to! I was pacing like a caged tiger for a while and then I went and stood where I could see down the corridor waiting for her plane to land and not knowing if she was on it. One of the security guards proceeded to strike up a not so subtle conversation with me. So I told him the whole story and he told me to go back to the ticket counter and tell them that I wanted a gate pass. So I did.

I handed my purse to Ariel and taking my camera and phone and id card and the paper with Julia’s flight information on it with me I went back to the ticket counter. This time I got a different clerk and after checking my id against the list of ‘known trouble makers and banned people” he told me that she was on the flight and then signed my pass and I went through all the check points and got to the gate about 3 minutes before her plane arrived. I saw Mr. ‘I can’t tell you anything about the passenger” while I was waiting at the gate. I just waved my pass at him.

The plane finally landed and I watched through the window and she was the last one off. I got around to the gate just in time for her to see me. We were both so relieved to see each other. I texted my daughter to tell her that I had Julia and we walked to go and meet her new host family. She was so exhausted from being up all night. Her new family immediately surrounded her and I took photos that were sent by internet to her father who was anxiously waiting in Germany for word that she had arrived. She might have been tired but her smile was beaming with happiness when she met her Host family for the first time!

Now as she gets rested and acquainted with her new family, I am still trying to track down her luggage. We recovered one bag that arrived in Tupelo but the other one is still MIA and that is just not acceptable to me. But I still believe in miracles and tomorrow is another day. And that bag had better miraculously appear!

They're Coming to America. TODAY!

Far
They've been traveling far
Far from their homes
But not without a star.

Sunday morning arrived all dark and rainy. Not the sort of day I wanted the first of the my exchange students to experience! But even tho it was raining, we headed out to Tupelo to await the arrival of Katya from Ukraine who is staying with the Scott Wright family in Calhoun City. I had a lot of thoughts while waiting with another family and the AYUSA Community Rep that was waiting there for their student from Russia to arrive.

I can’t describe the excitement that my family felt in seeing the girls exit the plane. I was feeling so much excitement and I was just picking up a child to deliver to the host family! Katya was arriving just as Bro. Scott would be getting ready to step up to his pulpit to deliver the Sunday sermon to his congregation and it was easier for me to miss church than it would be for him. So we greeted Katya and brought her to her new home in Mississippi USA!

Free
Some want to learn to be free
They huddle close
Hanging on to a dream.
Katya is a very talkative and poised young lady. Her English is fantastic and she is eager to learn our customs and way of life. We left her with her host family and new host grand parents and headed on down to Columbus to await the arrival of Anna, the student from Armenia that we are welcoming into our family. The last we saw of the Katya and her new family, she was snuggled under a blanket on the sofa flanked on each side by her new little sisters and showing them a DVD about Ukraine and its history. Bro. Scott was eating some chocolate she had brought (and he didn’t even share!) while Denise was cooking dinner

With their bags and on the planes
They're coming to America
Looking forward to adventures again
They're coming to America
Anna’s flight was running a little behind schedule and I was getting antsy, pacing the floor in the atrium looking out at the runway. My pacing was finally rewarded with the sudden appearance of the aircraft as it emerged from the clouds and lined up with the runway to touch down. I realized I was holding my breath when the wheels touched the pavement!

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, They're traveling light today
To see for themselves
This land of the brave.
These kids are really brave to leave their homes at such a young and tender age to travel half way round the earth to places they have never heard of or seen just to experience our way of life. And their parents are very trusting to entrust their precious children to a Host family to look after and raise as their own for the academic year in a far off land.

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
And our smiling friendly face.
Every one of us Host Moms that I know personally have been in a dither making the spare room an inviting haven for our newest family members. We want this to be a great experience for these kids that have been brave enough to come here. All of the rooms are quite colorful and quite welcoming! Anna was very excited to finally see her room. I had sent her pictures this week and she told me her Mom was very happy to see where she would be sleeping for the next 10 months.

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America!
As we drove back to Bruce, Anna commented on how clean everything was and how much space there is. She comes from a country that is one-fourth the size of Mississippi with 3 times as many people. She was amazed at all the land devoted to trees also. We arrived home and I cooked spaghetti and garlic bread as she explored the house. She told me that her home is Armenia is only 4 rooms. I felt bad for the times that I think I don’t have enough space!

Got a dream that brings them here
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America
A new adventure has begun for my family and the Wrights. It will also begin for the Schmitz family and the Adams family of Bruce as their students will arrive next week and the next. Brother Scott and Denise also will join us in the double placement club by accepting another student. Cindy from France had been placed in another part of the state and her host family backed out at the last minute. So Katya will not be the only exchange student attending Calhoun City High School this year.

Welcome to America and Calhoun County Katya and Anna. We are so glad you came!
They’ve come to America! TODAY!!

Their coming to America

With apologies to Neil Diamond.



Far
They've been traveling far
Far from their homes
But not without a star.

Free
Some want to learn to be free
They huddle close
Hanging on to a dream

With their bags and on the planes
They're coming to America
Looking forward to adventures again
They're coming to America

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, They're traveling light today
To see for themselves
This land of the brave.

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
And our smiling friendly face.

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America

Got a dream that brings them here
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America

They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today

My country 'tis of thee
Today
Sweet land of liberty
Today
Of thee I sing
Today
Of thee I sing
Today

FLEXible Anna and Katya

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon
July 20, 2009


Let us build a new relationship with Russia and the New Independent States - one based on two peoples coming together in a common commitment to make the tough choices for the long-term health of each country and the world; two peoples aware that having stared each other to the brink of nuclear holocaust, we now have a special responsibility to find in each other and within ourselves the capacity to reconceive our possibilities as two nations, two peoples, one world.
-1992 Former US Senator Bill Bradley
The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) is a federal government program that provides opportunities for high school age students from former Communist Bloc countries to spend a year in the United States, living with a family and attending a U.S. high school. The scholarship is awarded through a merit-based competition, to students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
This Sunday, July 26, a new cultural adventure begins for my family and for the family of Brother Scott Wright, the pastor of Lewis Memorial in Calhoun City. Both of our exchange students will arrive on that day. Katya fromUkraine,the student that will become a part of Bro. Scott’s family, will be arriving in Tupelo at 10:30 AM. I will be at the airport to greet her and bring her to meet her new family.
In a recent Facebook chat with Katya I asked her a few questions.
Q.What do you think will be the most exciting thing about coming to live in the USA for the school year?
A. Getting new experience, making friends, learning American culture.

Q.What do you think will be your biggest challenge when you arrive?
A. To my mind it will be sharing my own culture, mentality, habits with Americans.

Q. Why did you want to be an exchange student?
A. Because I want to know more about Americans, there culture, become more independent, meet new friends.

Q. What do you hope to achieve during your time here as an exchange student?
A. Independence, looking things from different points, being FLEXible.
After we drop Katya off in Calhoun City, we will be headed to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport to await the arrival of Anna, our own exchange student from Armenia. Anna is very excited to be coming here. Her first email to me said it all…..
“Hello Dear Family! How are you? I'm Ann, I'm going to stay with you for a year, and I believe that we'll get to spend a lot of good time together.
First of all thank you for choosing me. I was so happy to know that I was one of the first ones to be chosen. I am very excited and a little nervous at the same time. I am excited because I know that my year in the USA will be unforgettable and wonderful. And I'm a little nervous, because I know that it would be just a little hard for me in the beginning because of my English, but I'm ready to overcome all the challenges.
I have already started to imagine everything, my departure, my first day in school, the celebrations of the holidays with you, and many many other things.
I'm very happy to know a little about you. I saw the pictures, and I'm sure that I'll spend great time with you; especially with my sisters (I have no sisters, only a brother). Now I want to write a little about me, my hobbies and interests. I'm sure you know that I've played piano for 8 years. I really enjoy hearing classical music. But it’s a little crazy I like to hear rap and rock very much too. I found out that you like the series of ”Harry Potter". SO DO I!!! Here we go!!! There is already one common thing. I had mentioned that I like to read the books of "Harry Potter", but besides that I like to read historical books, because history is my favorite subject. I've read that you are interested in Armenia, and it will be a great pleasure for me to tell you about it, because it's a small country, but it has a very long history and a rich literature, and it's very ancient. The weather here goes up to 104 (F) in summer and 0 F, so I will definitely enjoy the weather in Bruce. I hope I'll be there for the first day of school. I've told my parents about you, and they are sure that you will take excellent care of me. They are little sad, but on the other hand they're very happy that I have the opportunity to learn about the US lifestyle.”
This Sunday Bro. Scott and Denise and their daughters will join in the cultural adventure along with my family as we learn to be FLEXible and become the Host Families for two extraordinary girls!

Germany will meet Bruce USA in a couple of weeks!

“With an open heart and an out-stretched hand
I have met the foreigner in his own land.
And she is now my friend and he is now my brother,
and together we will build a world in which we love each other.”

The preceding quote is from a poem written by a CBYX Alumna. CBYX is the acromyn for Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange. The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange was initiated in 1983 by the United States Congress and the German Bundestag in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the first German immigration to North America. The exchange program is all about the importance of common values, mutual acceptance and lasting personal relationships to young Americans and Germans.
Since 1983, almost 15,000 German high school students have come to experience the American way of life. By extension, these numbers multiply into 15,000 hosting families. This year, a wonderful girl from German is coming to live with Jeff and Jessica Adams and their 3 boys and attend high school at Bruce. I was so excited when Jessica told me her family would love to share their home with Julia and to become a part of the growing group of Host Family’s in Calhoun County.
As with my other ‘kids’ that I have placed, Julia and I have been communicating via Facebook. The Host Moms and I are in daily contact with each other and all of the kids. I get questions about what clothes to bring and what is the weather like and which banks will work with an overseas bank, what is school like, etc.
In a recent exchange with Julia I asked her what motivated her to come to the USA to study for a year and what expectations she might have. This is her response:
“I wanted to be an exchange student because I wanted to find out if all the things you hear in Germany about the USA are right or not. I don't want to build on the things other people say about. I want to find it out by myself.
I want to live exactly like my host family and getting familiar with all the American customs they have and being a part of that family and treated as their own children. I want to try out everything I have the possibility to. I don't know which things those are but I wanted to come there to find that out.
I think the language will be a thing which will be a very strange thing at the beginning. But also all the habits we don't have in Germany. The completely different school system in the US.
I hope I can reach all those aims and won't disappoint my family!!”

Just think about the culture shock. Julia is going to go through as she discovers all the differences between our country and hers. She comes from the Bavarian region with centuries old castles and the best chocolate in the world! Things like street-signs and everything she takes for granted will suddenly just upside down. In the end her horizons will be broadened and she will feel like she has discovered a new world!
Some interesting facts about Germany are that there are no speed limits on the highways. In Germany, many people (83 million) live in a small space about the size of Montana. And the food! I love German food. You have not lived until you have eaten real German potato salad and real sauerkraut!
The Adams family is getting ready to forge a relationship with a girl and her country. In later years they may find themselves visiting her in her hometown. Both the Host Family and the student are going to be changed by this experience. Welcome to America and to Mississippi Julia. We drive slower and speak slower and we are looking forward to learning about your culture and your life and sharing ours with you!
Check out www.AYUSA.org and look at all the students that want to come to study in the US. Sign up on line or call me. I’ll be glad to help you become a Host Family!

Hosting a foreign exchange student

"My experience changed my life. My host family helped me have a great experience and they really opened my mind to everything. My host mom, she has a big deep heart, I learned from her that nothing is impossible in this life, and the important part is to make sure that you always give your best for everything."

This is what one exchange student had to say about the experience of coming to America and living with a host family for a year.

As a new school year is rapidly approaching my family has been busy getting ready to begin our second year of being a host family. And to add to that excitement, I decided to answer the call to become the Community Representative for this area and find the perfect homes for foreign exchange students wanting to come and experience our way of American Life.

One of the exchange students that will be arriving soon is Amjaad. She is a YES student from Bethlehem. YES is the acronym for Youth Exchange and Study. She has been preparing for this experience for a long time, learning English and writing essays. It is a very competitive process to go through in order to be chosen to come to America.

Bethlehem (in case you don’t know) is a city about the size of Tupelo. It is the birth place of Jesus and home to the oldest Christian community in the world. It is THE HOLYLAND. Amjaad lives there with her Mom and Dad. Her mother teaches English and her dad teaches history.

Amjaad and I have been chatting almost daily thanks to Facebook . She is half a world away but we chat a good bit. She asks questions and I answer them. I won’t be hosting her but I will be like the second Mom for her. As the Community Rep with AYUSA, the organization that I work for, I will keep close contact with the exchange students and the host families to help make the transition easier and to just be another person welcoming a student to our American ways.

Amjaad called her host Mom, Gina Schmitz of Bruce, on Sunday. She is so excited about coming and being the big sister to Gina’s three very active boys. She also is excited about starting school here and she wants to play basketball with the Lady Trojans. She plays on her country’s basketball team in Palestine. Thanks to YouTube, she has been able to see some video’s of the Lady Trojans in action.

She tells me she is a little scared about coming. Not that she is fearful of anything. But she is scared because everything will be new for her. Just imagine what it will be like! Every day will be a new adventure to cope with; new sights, new smells, new foods, new home, new family, new bed to sleep in. She will be attending a new school, meeting new teachers, having to speak a language that is not her native tongue, study History and Literature that is not familiar to her culture and meeting all sorts of new people that will be just as curious about her as she is about them.

It will also be an adjustment for her host family. Gina will finally have another female in that house full of boys and will be learning about high school subjects also. But what a wonderful time this will be for this family.

I can tell you from our previous experience that hosting an exchange student is such a wonderful learning experience. You learn about other customs and cultures. It is a wonderful sharing of ideas and values and experiences because not only is the exchange student learning something new, so does the host family, and the teachers and students at school and the community at large that the students are a part of.

All exchange students come here to learn about our leadership belief systems, our civil society principles and community service. We will be taking them to Jackson to see our State Government in action, (hopefully there will be some sort of action and lawmaking going on!). They will attend city council meetings and be making presentations about their native cultures and traditions at local churches and for the local Civic clubs. They will become part of our community and a family member in their host homes.

For a short time, Amjaad will be here learning what life in Mississippi is all about. The Schmitz family has opened their hearts and their home to a wonderful young person from another country.

We don’t want to be the only ones having all the fun. You too can say YES by opening your heart and home to a young person from another country.

Things that make me go Whaaat?

June 22, 2009

This past week has been a week of things that make me scratch my head and go “Say whaaaat?”

One such incident was Naked Hiking Day which occurred Sunday. I am as serious as a heart attack. Naked Hiking Day occurred on the Summer Solstice which was also Fathers Day this year. According to an NBC news report, every year on the first day of summer, a few outdoor enthusiasts nationwide expose virtually all of themselves to insects, scrapes and thorns for the pleasure of bonding with nature au naturel. The hikers that were interviewed said it's not about being lewd and crude and all that. It's just enjoyment.

One hiker who blogs about hiking in Mississippi's Homochitto and De Soto national forests on his Web site, theplacewithnoname.com., cited as inspiration, passages from Henry David Thoreau, naturalist John Muir and backpacking guru Colin Fletcher that suggest nudity enhances one's appreciation of nature. This strange dude said he started hiking naked as a boy after a day of skinny dipping one long hot summer.

I don’t know about you but the woods and the great outdoors can be hot enough as it is this time of year with clothes on and I am sure not going to be shagging my duds just to commune with Mother nature. Can you imagine? I shudder at the thought of seeing some Borat or Bruno type character traipsing through the woods with a pale bare bottom just a shining in the noonday sun.

What are these people thinking? Don’t they worry about ticks, chiggers and the ever present, always hungry and looking for a meal, Mississippi mosquitoes? There are just some places on the body that OFF and DEET just should not touch, if you know what I mean! Now some of the naked aficionados’ claim that there's an advantage to hiking naked in a buggy area: wood ticks on the skin are easier to spot. And they do wear hats and hiking boots and carry back packs as well as apply plenty of sunscreen and bug repellent.

Thank goodness. And here I thought they were totally naked.

Now since these folks are out there hiking in parks, which is public property, that means you or I could happen up on them. Or what about the Boy and Girl Scouts that are out on their Summer time camping trips. If I am out in the vicinity of a wooded area, I sure hope some of these naked hikers accept the responsibility that I don’t want to be surprised by them and their enjoyment of nature, and they will keep to the shadows or at least carry some shorts to slip on. And between you and me and the backpack, if I ever do see a naked hiker, I will probably just start laughing at the ridiculous sight.

Politicians and Seagulls

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon
June 29, 2009

Last week, I headed down to the Gulf Coast for a couple of days with Donna to go and meet a new Host Family for a foreign exchange student. Scott and the girls went along for the ride and planned on catching some sun and fun in the sand while Donna and I worked.

The drive down wasn’t as long as I thought it might be. And I was looking forward to a couple of days of not listening to the news about the economy and state budgets and Cap and Tax Bills. Politics and Government was not high on my list of things I wanted to know about.

While the girls walked along the beach and took in the sights of the sand and surf, the ‘Old Folks’ walked out on the new fishing wharf at Long Beach with our chairs and big cups of tea and sat under one of the covered areas and enjoyed the much cooler temperature sitting right out over the water.

We struck up a conversation with one of the fisherman that was hauling in crabs. It was an interesting sight to see. The female crabs were loaded with eggs and he threw them back into the water because there is a $500 fine for catching the females. The male crabs were aggressive. They would run up the sides of the baskets just snapping their claws. He said those vicious little snapping claws could hurt pretty badly. I believed him and just watched from my nice cool spot in the shade.

I sat and watched the waves and the seagulls as both were in constant motion. The seagulls were just hovering in flocks searching for morsels of food and I was fascinated at their ability to catch the breeze and hang in one spot like so many kites without a string.
When we walked back to the van the gulls started following us back to the beach.

We had the remains of our lunch so the girls held some of it up and the gulls swooped in and snatched it out of their hands. The noise level rose quickly. As soon as one bird scored some food it seemed like twenty or more of its feathered friends descended upon us. I don’t know who was screeching louder, us or the gulls. While the Ariel and Erin were holding food in their hands or tossing it onto the ground, I decided to toss my tidbits into the air sort of like getting a dog to catch the food you throw at it.

Much to my amazement, seagulls do that game very well. One gull in particular stood out as it was really starting to eyeball me. As the kids say, it was creeping me out. It would just hang on the air current and turn its head and where ever I tossed the food, it grabbed it from the others. I was throwing food with one hand and snapping pictures with the other. Then I realized that the air space over my head was just filled with big, squawking birds, and just what do birds do when they are flying over your head in big groups like that? Thankfully we all got into the van without being anointed on our heads with bird doo. Donna and I went on to meet with the new host family and then we turned the van toward the north and headed back home to the hills and heat.

As the rest or the week progressed and I listened to the news and the radio about the American Clean Energy and Security Act (Cap and Tax bill) that Congress voted on, the images of those seagulls kept coming back to my mind. . Congress is supposed to work for us and carry out our wishes but that sure isn’t what happened. The Cap and Tax bill narrowly passed and it’s just another power grab that is going to cost you and me, the tax payers a lot more of our hard earned money. As I have done my homework, this is what that bill is going to do: This bill will:-Increase our GDP by $2 trillion-Kill an average of 261,000 jobs-Add $1,960 to an average family budget-Raise electricity rates 90%-Raise gasoline prices by 58%.

Yep. Politicians are like those Seagulls. They hover around and squawk and screech that they will doo this and they will doo that for the hard working tax paying citizen and they appear to be working for the people that voted them into office. Then after they get what they want, (being elected into office and letting that taste of power go to their ego), they grab our ‘handouts’ and doo to us just what those hovering flocks of seagulls doo if we are ignorant enough to keep standing there giving them what they want.

Weathering the Weather

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We’ll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, whether we like if or not” unknown

I have not been able to find who said those wise tongue twisting words but they seemed very appropriate to me after the weather events of Friday. This quote started playing in my head Friday evening as I sat and watched the storm roll through Bruce while I was glued to my computer screen watching the radar updates from the National Weather Service and sending in my reports of rainfall amounts and wind speeds.

Meteorologists will never solve the mysteries of weather until they can gain an understanding of the mutual attraction of rain and events and weekends. Stormy weather and special events go together like hotdogs and mustard, apple pie and ice cream, summertime and NASCAR. You get the idea. Such was the case with Friday nights Relay for Life.

The ever changing unpredictability of the weather is one of the things that has always fascinated me. I have been so fascinated by it that in the last few years when I found out that I could take training with the National Weather Service and get certified to be a SkyWarn Weather Spotter, I jumped at the chance. I went and took the initial training and then the follow up classes on identifying the clouds and how to report the
co-ordinates and what types of pictures to document weather events that the NWS wants.
I don’t usually have to ‘chase’ a storm. I am usually just ambling along and the storm ‘finds’ me.

I have never been one to think that bad weather always looks worse through the window. I’m usually out in it looking up like a gawking chicken saying stupid things like, “why is that cloud moving in a circle and what are those little finger like things coming out of it?” Ask my mother about the day I was standing on the top of my van in the parking lot of our business in Tupelo looking right up the gullet of a tornado that was forming. I was totally enthralled with the ominous beauty of the cloud. I did finally heed her warning and run for cover. The damage that little whip of a tornado did was amazing.

Friday morning I was in Tupelo ‘putting out a fire’ so to speak, at a store putting together a last minute display. I ran a few errands and headed back home at 2:30. The sun was out and the sky was that pure intense Cerulean blue that usually precedes an impending storm. I checked my phone and saw the text message from the NWS that all storm spotters were activated for the evening.

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. I called in to tell them I had gotten the message and I asked what was going on. I had just crossed the Calhoun County line and the weather was dramatically changing before my eyes.

The sun was blocked by black roiling clouds. The cloud to ground lighting strikes were a bit too close for my comfort. When one hits and all you see is bright light and hear the sound immediately you know you are at ground zero. A tree exploded on the side of the highway where I had pulled over. The rain was blowing in sheets sideways and the tree tops were moving in a circular motion. Then the hail started. There I was, creeping on toward Bruce looking for a wide open space to stop instead of under the tree shaped lightning rods! I called into the Weather Service and reported the size of the hail. I had to yell over the sounds of the pickup getting pelted by all the hail. When I gave my approximate co-ordinates the meteorologists told me that there were micro bursts in the area and I needed to get out of there. Not wanting to be flattened by an invisible fist of air, I started creeping on home. Thankfully, I moved out of the little event back into the sunshine and made it home only to start waiting for the main event to hit the town square at 5:45.

There is a muscular energy in the sunlight that seems to go hand in hand with the spiritual energy of wind. Only those in tune with nature seem to pick up on the energy in wind. All sorts of things get swept off in the breeze: ghosts of events long past, pieces of soul, voices unsung, thoughts repressed, love uncherished, and thousands galore of spiritual ether. Wind is like an emotional rush because it blows those emotions away; along with your lawn furniture and tents and tree limbs!

Weather is a great metaphor for life - sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and there's nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella or in the case of Friday evenings Relay for Life, pack it up ASAP and go home and reschedule.

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain and then wait for the rainbow.
Rainbows apologize for angry skies.

I founght the good fight and finished the race.

Well all I can say is …I am so glad the elections are over and done with. For the record, just in case there is anyone out there that presumes to think I have been sitting here licking my wounds and fretting about losing by only 3 votes, let me assure you that I am not. I actually felt a huge relief that it was over. The more I got involved in the campaign and looked at the issues at hand; I realized that I could be more vocal about things that need to be brought up by being the average citizen on the street. So to all you folks that are now sitting in the catbird seat, look out because I have been making a list and I promise to be very vocal about it.

I learned a few things by running for office. I learned there are still people out there are dead set against a woman being in any kind of political office. There is still a good old boy attitude out there. The glass ceiling still waits to be broken. I learned that people will try their best to dig up some dirt on you and if they can’t find any they will just flat out make something up trying to get a rise out of you. I am truly amazed at the people that will throw stones while living in a glass house. I have to wonder just who appointed those stone throwers as the paragons of virtue?

I also learned that people will tell you with their mouth that they will vote for you but their body language and eyes say they won’t. I never will understand that one. I will tell a person why I won’t vote for them. Why can’t people just tell the truth and be done with it when the person seeking office comes to the door? “Yes of course I’ll vote for you.” Or “ I’m sorry but you don’t stand for what I believe in and I am going to vote for the other candidate.” Now how hard is that? It’s a simple matter of being truthful and I have been known to be brutally honest with folks that knocked on my door. You can ask many that have ventured to my door asking for votes.

Will I run again? I won’t say yes but I probably won’t. I’m not a politician. I wasn’t running for an office because I wanted a ‘title’. I have plenty of those that I don’t use now. And it sure wasn’t for the prestige of the job. I wanted to work and be an honest beacon for people that don’t like to speak out for various reasons. But as Saint Paul said “I fought the good fight and I have finished the race.”

And that is all I have to say about that. Now if you will excuse me, I have a list to get back to.

Saying Good Bye to Lo Ping

Off they flew, into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun!
Off they flew into the wild blue yonder, back to where their adventure began!

I awakened last Friday to a whirlwind day. Ariel and I had some things to do Friday that apparently was an emergency and not what I needed on that particular day. We rushed around to get everything done and got back to Bruce by lunch time so Ariel could go vote absentee in the city election. Then we arrived home so Ping could start loading her luggage in the van for the trip to Golden Triangle Regional Airport. Her departure time was 3:45pm.

I was busy cleaning out the accumulation of junk and bottles and mail from the front of the van and Ping was busy tossing bags in through the rear doors. I would run back each time to snap a picture trying to document her last day with us like I tried with Jieun.

We finally all climbed into the van and made a quick stop at Moms so Ping could give her and Bella some gifts. Then we made a stop at Jeffery’s so she could get her last lunch there of pasta salad. We took pictures there also. We made one last swing around the square so she could have a visual goodbye to the Town of Bruce and we were finally off.

We laughed along the way about how she was staying awake which was so different from the first time we had made the trip and she fell asleep within 15 minutes. She was busy looking at things and talking about things that had happened to her during her 10 month stay with us.

When we arrived at the GTR we went in and she had to put all of her shampoos and other liquid toiletries into the luggage that would be checked. One of her bags could expand so she unzipped the expanding panels and shoved in the rest of her hand carried items and it took Ariel and Erin and Leslie holding and pushing down on the top while Ping was struggling to get it all zipped and strapped back down. After much grunting and pushing, the poor little bag was ready to be checked.

Pings ticket was ready and her passport and papers were in order so we walked around to the checkpoint area. There were no tears only laughter and everyone was hugging and saying goodbye as she went through the first checkpoint. We laughed as she took off her shoes and we saw she had on some wildly striped socks. She was just dancing and hopping with a huge smile on her face. She was so ready to go.

Finally after all of her carry on things were checked and rechecked, she was allowed to gather her things and segue into the passenger waiting area. We were separated by a glass wall so we were standing there laughing at her taking pictures of us taking pictures of her.

After a few minutes the passengers were allowed to board the small turbo prop plane. We went up to the mezzanine so we could watch the plane taxi down the runway and take off. We watched the red and gray plane as it gathered speed and lifted its nose into the air and made a graceful liftoff. As it turned into the wind and then made the flight pattern and headed toward Memphis I realized that our time as a Host Family was officially over for now.

The drive back to Bruce was quiet. We were all thinking about what all we needed to do when we returned. Supper had to be cooked, laundry was waiting, Ariel was going to move her things back into her bedroom now that both the girls were gone, Erin had grass to cut and Scott had to go to work after he dropped us off.

I came in and sat at my desk and suddenly a message from Ping popped up on my facebook page. It said “ i am at memphis airport right now ! paying five dallors for 15 mins internet...i miss u guys so much...i cried as soon as i got on airplane...cuz i started to miss u guys already...i am sad still!!!”
Then I cried.

Being the Host family for foreign exchange students has been a wonderful experience for us. The girls became a part of our family and everyday lives. Its going to be hard on them to make the readjustment to their culture just as we are having to readjust to them not being here. But I wouldn’t have missed this experience for anything.

Off they flew into the wild blue yonder, back to their Mom’s waiting arms!
We’ll be here in the Fall waiting to meet just one more!

Blogging from Bruce
May 26, 2009

Vonda Keon

Tuesday was a sad day. We finally said good bye to our Korean exchange student, Ji Eun. After a week of frantic packing and repacking and weighing and mailing boxes to her parents in South Korea , Ji Eun finally got her two huge suitcases stuffed full and closed and her carry on bag packed.

Erin took Ji Eun and Ping and some friends swimming for the last time on Memorial Day. I had cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and baked beans for them to eat when they came home. Then everyone started moping around just waiting for 2AM to arrive. No one could sleep.

I finished typing a report for a job I am working on. Ji Eun was making sure all of her clothes were washed and packed and she was double checking everything making sure that she had her passport and other travel papers ready for the long flight back to her homeland. She left some gifts for me and Scott and for some other people she wasn’t able to see before she left, so I will deliver those. She finished signing some papers for me to send to the Secretary of State Delbert Hoseman for certification of her grades so she can prove that she went to school here in Mississippi for the past 10 months.

I heard the girls at 1:30 loading her luggage into the van and at 2 AM we all climbed into the big white whale and headed north. The heavy suitcases were riding on the very back seat. Rachael and Leslie were in the next row, Ping and Ji Eun were on the middle seat and I had the seat behind Scott with Erin riding shot gun. Everyone talked for a little while but about the time we got to Paris, they were all nodding off.

The ride was quiet until we arrived at the Memphis airport at 3:45. Scott parked the van and unloaded the luggage and we all processed into the terminal. At 4:30 the ticket counter finally opened and Ji Eun’s bags were weighed. The heaviest one tipped the scales at exactly 70 pounds so she had to pay 50 dollars for that one. After her passport and visa was checked she said good bye to us because she had to start going through the check points.

She started crying and that was all it took. The rest of the girls started crying too. I took pictures of her as she passed through each check point. She had to open her carry on bag and take out her computer and open all the little zipper bags of her things. She had to remove her shoes and then walk through the scanner. Then they re-examined her bags. She finally got all of her things back in her carry-on bag and her computer bag and she turned and waved to us one last time before she head down the concourse to gate 11C.

She is going to be back with her familiar foods and her friends that she has grown up with. But she has changed after living here for nearly a year. She will have to make adjustments just as she did when she arrived here. Her family and I were worried about the swine flu and I made sure that she had a mask and plenty of hand sanitizer with her and I gave strict instructions about not touching her eyes and nose without washing her hands. But then as I looked at the news I saw North Korea was firing off test missiles. So there are worse things than swine flu to worry about.

It seems like only last week we picked up the shy quiet Korean girl at the Golden Triangle Airport in Columbus. She arrived wanting to experience life in the United States. This morning we returned a much wiser, more mature, and much taller young woman to embark on the trip back to her parents and her culture. She will be missed.