The Script

Israel and Jordan...If you must know the details

Wow, I just realized it's been a really loooong time since I updated this.  I'm not as good with this blogging thing as my friend Katie is...I haven't finished my writing from South Africa last year, or even begun writing about the trip to the Amazon last December, and now I am about to depart for another trip.  Unlike last year's trips to Cape Town and the Amazon, this is purely a vacation, a much over due one.

Many have asked about my plans...well pretty much to survive, not get caught in the middle of the Israeli-Iran conflict, and see a couple sights along the way.  Here's the run down.  Obviously, I don't have any pictures yet, but I promise I will do a better job after this trip and you can compare the before and after yourself and see how the trip went.

Day 1

Depart for Tel Aviv via Toronto...oh yeah, I will pick up a few Air Canada baggage tags to stick on my bags.  Need to start practicing my Canadian accent.

Day 2

Arrive in Tel Aviv, combat jet lag and hang out on the beaches of Tel Aviv.

Day 3

Walk down the board walk from Tel Aviv to Old Jaffa.  Then take the train to Haifa.   See Mt Carmel and Elijah's cave.

Day 4

Visit Akko, Meggido (hey I figure it doesn't hurt to orient myself before Armageddon), then head on over to Galilee.  Will visit both churches that claimed to be the site of Jesus' water to wine miracle, Mount Tabor - transfiguartion.  Overnight in Nazareth.

Day 5

Get up super early for this long day.  Visit Tabgha where Jesus mulitiplied the loaves and fishes.   Then go to Capernuam, Mount of the Beatitudes, Sea of Galilee, and Tiberias.  Then will take a bus to Jeruselam.

Day 6-7

Jeruselam - Church of Holy Sepulcher, Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount, Mount Zion, site of the Upper Room, and of course, walking the Via Dolorosa

Day 8

Day trip to Bethlehem, Jericho, Mount of Temptation, Masada, Qumran caves where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.  

Day 9

Morning in Jerusalem and travel to Amman, Jordan

Day 10

The Citadel in Amman in the morning, then travel to Mt Nebo, yeah we are doing it backwards, seeing the Promised Land first before going to Mt Nebo.  It would really ruin the trip if I ended up dying on Mt Nebo like Moses.  We will also see Um ar-Risas and the Shobak Crusader Castle on the way to Petra this day.  We will walk through Petra by candlelight at night, which should be cool, but I'm sure the pictures will be diastrous, as I'm not planning to bring a tripod.

Day 11

Horse-riding into Petra.  Hike to the top of the Petra treasury facade (that big building in Indiana Jones).  Will be doing a Jordanian cooking class that night, should be fun but let's hope no one gets food poisoning.

Day 12

More hiking around Petra, then go to Wadi Rum.  Will have a Jeep tour of the desert, the highlight of our time in Jordan will be camping in the desert with the Bedouins in camel hair tents.  I'm sure there will be plenty of time in front of a camp fire, Sheesha, and star gazing that night.

Day 13

Going to float on the Dead Sea, maybe I'll feel adventurous enough to get a mud bath.  Then go see the Byzantine mosaics in Madaba and hang out in this ancient city.  Maybe visit the hammam to wash away all the filth we've accumulated on the trip.

Day 14

A ridiculous departure at 2:45 am from Amman to Frankfurt on Lufthansa.  Fortunately there is a long enough layover for us to get into the city and get a pint, or two, or three before flying back to the USA.

So there you have it.  It's still not too late if you want to join me on this trip.  Please submit a 500 word essay on why it would be fun for me to travel with you and I'll give it some consideration.

Back from Cape Town, South Africa

So I've been out of reach for a few weeks...I was privileged enough to return to South Africa to serve on a mission trip for about 2 weeks in late February and early March.  It's been a busy week and a half since returning and I haven't had too much time to reflect and process all that's happened on my trip.  I will try to put in some serious time this week to catch you up.

I will start my first post by giving some basics on this trip.  I am a returning veteran on this trip organized by Justice and Mercy International (JMI), part of my old church in Nashville.  We've been working with an amazing organization in Cape Town called Living Hope for the past 5 years.  Living Hope serves the townships in the cape penisula, about 45-60 minutes south of downtown Cape Town.  It was founded by pastor John Thomas to care for the communities devastated by HIV/AIDS.  Living Hope started orginially as a hospice organization to aid those infected and suffering in their last days of life, but God had greater plans for pastor Thomas.  Living Hope continually expand into an organization that equips people with job skills, teaches/mentors the youth, and cares for the homeless and people with substance abuse problems.  It's amazing to return each year and see how Living Hope grows beyond my imagination.

As you probably have heard Cape Town is a beautiful city but don't let its beauty fool you, there's much despair, poverty, and illness among the less affluent residents of the city.

View of Cape Town from Table Mountain, on the left is Lion's Head and Signal Hill.  Robben island can be seen here.  By the water is the soccer stadium where they hosted the World Cup in 2010.

View of Table Mountain from the city...the clouds are called the Tablecloth

We are fortunate to have 16 on our team this year, divided into 4 workgroups -- the construction team, kids team, medical team, and counseling team.

The 2011 Rolling Hills/JMI team on Table Mountain

JMI has worked in a specific community called Red Hill for the past 4 years and of course we are blessed to be able to work with this community again.  Red Hill has about 500-600 residents and unlike bigger townships, it's in a rather isolated location and due to the small number of residents, services and transportation options are very few and far in between for them.

Red Hill was established a couple decades ago when the landowner turned over his plot of land over to the city to allow the migrant workers to establish a community.  The original residents of Red Hill mostly came from the Eastern Cape moving to Cape Town seeking better job opportunities.  Over the years, 3 distinctive "sections" developed in Red Hill -- the lower, middle, and upper camps.  The lower camp has become mostly English-speaking, filled with immigrants from Zimbabwe.  The middle camp is mostly Xhosa-speaking and is the hub of the community.  The clinic building, stores, and community center are all located in the middle camp.  The upper camp is home to mostly Afrikaans speaking people. 

While no official statistics is kept for this small community, HIV, TB, cancer, and substance abuse are fairly common here.  I remembered a couple years ago there were a lot of adults hanging out during day time due to unemployment, however this year it seems to me that many more are employed so I hope it's a sign of progress.  Cancer has become a recent concern in this community and particularly I note more anecdotal reports of pediatric cancers.

On the far left is the Lower Camp, Middle Camp in the middle, and portion of the Upper Camp in the far right of this picture.  Note the proximity to the vineyards by the Lower Camp.

The yellow building in the middle is the clinic - it has been our home base for most of our activities during this trip (except for Kids' Club).

I'll try to put up a few stories this week about this trip.  But in short, the trip has been wildly successful.

 

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

This blog is looking like it will feature a condiment or sauce of the week, even though it's not my intention to do so.  What's a guy to do when these delicious sauces and condiments find their way to my stomach.  Last week I shared this amazing condiment called Bacon Jam.  Well this week I stumbled upon this pasta sauce called Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Pasta sauce. 

For those of you who know me well, I'm a pasta sauce snob and usually make my own.  Who knew this day has come for me to buy pasta sauce in a jar! Worse, I'm admitting the fact that I'm buying a jarred sauce in public. 

I saw this at World Market last week and I was intrigued...butternut squash pasta sauce?  They got me....my curiousity got me to shamefully put one in my shopping basket.  After work today, I decided to cook some ravioli (OK so I'm not a ravioli snob and I bought some frozen ones) with this sauce.  It's creamy, cheesy, and slightly sweet from the squash, but you can also taste the garlic and spice/smokiness from roasted red pepper.  This sauce is really brilliant, it satisfies my craving for savory, sweet, and spiciness, all in the same sauce.

You just have to try it to understand, you'll discover a whole new dimension to pasta.  Apparently you can pick this up at World Market or Costco.  It's a bit pricey but definitely worth it.

 

Alabama We Thank You for College Football....and VIRAL VIDEOS!

You probably have heard by now that the Auburn Tigers are the National Football Champions this year and all in all, it was an OK game.  It came down to a last second field goal to win the game. Congrats to Auburn and War Eagle! 

Of course along with Alabama winning the title last year, and the Heisman going to Cam Newton this year and Mark Ingram last year, some are saying that Alabama's #1 export is powerhouse collegiate football teams.

 
However I think we don't truly appreciate Alabama enough for its significant contribution to this great nation if we only talk about football.  Much more important than football, Alabama's greatest export is viral videos.  See what I mean below...you might have seen some of these but they are worth watching again on YouTube:

From Mobile - the Leprechaun:

 

From Montgomery - Representative Alvin Holms on Beer

 

From Huntsville - Antoine Dodson and the Bed Intruder

 

The original interview can be found here:

 

Another one from Huntsville - Old Man Struttin'

 

From Birmingham - Dale Peterson's campaign video for agricultural commissioner

So we salute you Alabama for thrilling football games...and hours of entertainment and laughs on YouTube.  You helped many of us in some of our darkest days when we thought everything is going the wrong way and all is hopeless, we can always say "At least we don't live in Alabama".

And to Katie - this blog's for you...WAR EAGLE!

My Bacon Jam Story

You know it's New Year because TV and magazines are filled with ads for diets and other weight loss tools.  I'm so tired of seeing these my alli stories, so I figured you probably are as well.  Just for a change, let me tell you my Bacon Jam story.  You are welcome, world.

I discovered Bacon Jam earlier this month when I went to Yeah Burger, one of my favorite burger joints in the ATL, with my friend Q who was visiting from Nashville.  For some reason, I never noticed Bacon Jam as one of the condiments on its menu before.  My curiousity got the best of me and I ordered it on my burger.

I fell in love!

So what is Bacon Jam, you may ask...according to its maker:

we take a big bunch of really, really good bacon, and render it down...add a bunch of spices..onions, etc. and let it simmer for about 6 hours…give it a quick puree, blast chill it…and

you have bacon jam..

It was full of bacon flavor with hints of sweetness and the occasional crunch from the bacon bit really adds a nice texture to my burger.

 

So I took my resident with me to Yeah Burger today for lunch and needless to say, I had it on my bison burger....and it got me thinking, maybe, maybe I can order this stuff online.  Who would have thought?

After typing "bacon jam" into Google, I found out that there is almost a cult-like following.  Yes I agree with many of these posters that bacon jam is a like crack cocaine.

I'm hooked.

As I am writing this, I'm thinking about all the delicious possibilities I've been reading up on for thes past hour.  I have to wipe the corners of my mouth so I don't get my keyboard wet from my drooling.  I can't go to sleep... Must. Have. Bacon. Jam.

There are many recipes out there, like a BJLT sandwich, Egg in a Basket with Bacon Jam, BJ on baked Brie.  And the most interesting of all, BJ fried rice.

Needless to say, I've already placed my order for a jar of this bacon goodness.  Bacon is meat candy.  I can't wait for it to arrive so I can try out these delicious recipes.  Maybe someday I can get my friend Katie to try this bacon product.

Merry Christmas!

It's a White Christmas in the ATL!  Apparently it's been 128 years since the last white Christmas here.  The snowflakes are big and beautiful.  I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy each other's company.

I unfortunately had to work today but it wasn't too bad, got out pretty early and I guess someone's got to take care of the ones who are stuck in the hospital.

Just some random thoughts on this Christmas...

• Why is Starbucks open today?  Are people that addicted to caffeine and lazy to not make their own coffee this Christmas Day?  I feel sorry for the workers at Starbucks, seriously people this is not an essential service or emergency.
• Speaking of addiction, as I pulled up to the hospital I can see that the drug dealers at the corner of Peachtree and Pine obviously do not observe Christmas either.
• Attended Christmas Eve midnight service last night, the best-kept secret?  No kids!
• Speaking of kids, church service last week had the kids get involved and answer questions.  Needless to say, this is a sure way to introduce chaos into your service.
• The cafeteria usually is pretty decent at the hospital but I guess the regular chef must be off today.  Well Christmas lunch today made me grateful that this is a special, once a year holiday.  Yes it was that bad.   What did they do to make it so bad?  They'd do better by just opening up the can of candied yams and let it be...instead they tried to cook and spice them and turned it into a texture somewhere between puree and liquid.  And the roast beef?  I'd rather eat shoe leather with gravy...or even without gravy.
• Thankfully everywhere I turned there is a treat somewhere at the nurses' station.
• It seems like there isn't any new Christmas song remix this year...and grateful for it.
• Got to remember to stock up on peppermint bark while I still can, at 50% after Christmas sale!
• Been thinking a lot about my friends and others serving in the military away from home...my Christmas wish is for them to return home safely.

Hope Santa has been good to you this year.

Fun Towns in Pennsylvania

I almost forgot about all these fun towns in PA until a recent parody remains me of these great cities:

• Blue Ball
• Bird in Hand
• Virginville
• Intercourse

Exactly what were the people thinking when they named these towns.

By the way, here's the parody of the song California Gurls....Pennsylvania Guys

This One's for You, Katie!

Since Katie refuses to join Facebook, I guess I will post my drawing class productions here, just for you, Katie!

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Georgia Rambler

Great episode on This American Life this week...listen to it while you can.  The episode is free only until 8/7/10.

Georgia Rambler - This American Life

Pretty funny how the rest of the country is making fun of the South, but I mean, can you blame them?  I thought Georgia would be better than Tennessee but it's probably just as country (or redneck if you wanna skip the political correctness).

New Beginnings

So tomorrow I start my new job at Emory in Atlanta.  Whew one week off work flew by quickly, of course, the week was occupied mostly to pack, move, say goodbyes, and then unpack.  I didn't realize how much junk I held onto until it was time to pack, getting rid of some of the material things was easy.  Makes me wonder why I got them in the first place.  Why is it that I live my life with all this junk around?  And not just physical baggage but emotional as well.  While I was not looking forward to this move because of all my friends in Nashville, it has been a good wake up call for me to examine my life and look at some of the junk that I've been hauling around for too long.  It was liberating to give up the physical and emotional stuff that I do not need to bring with me to Atlanta.  Having my head shaved at my go away party also made me look like a new man, thanks Quentin!

Flood_edited-1

The items with memories like photos, gifts, on the other hand, took on different meanings, especially when it is time to move away from my dear friends.  I was so careful not to leave those items with the movers that I packed it all into the Mini, I was surprised the car was able to move at all.  In fact, it moved too fast, my friend Bunn wondered why I needed to leave Nashville so quickly.

Speed

Maybe I'm getting old or nostalgic, I found myself valuing my friends more than ever.  Or maybe it's because these people have meant so much to me in the past 5 years.  It was really, really hard to say goodbye. It was a good thing that my friends Susan and Quentin, and his brother Zac came down to Atlanta and spent my first weekend in Atlanta with me.  It makes the physical departure from Nashville that much easier.  But when I sent them home a couple hours ago, I couldn't help but feel sad and I must admit my eyes swelled up with tears.  They are such wonderful people, I doubt that I will be lucky enough to find friends like them again anywhere.  I am never really good at saying goodbyes and I am kicking myself that I sent them off without saying much.  But the great thing about them is that they will understand and forgive, that's what makes them such great people.

While no one can replace my friends in Nashville, I also realize it's time to start anew in Atlanta and I must do my best to start my new life.  It's exciting and scary at the same time so I can't wait to see what Atlanta has in store for me.  My church family in Nashville has been very supporting and lifting me up during this transition, I hope that I can live up to their expectations that I will be strong and courageous, and will do the right thing.