Just some nice images to remember me by!!

Woo Hoo

Happy Australia Day Everyone!!!

Unfortunately, this is the first year for ages that I haven't been down the beach with a bunch of mates- instead doing a quiet family thing at home (just doen't have the same Aussie feel!?!) as it's the last day for a month that I will spend on this great nation.

Does mean I should get to listen to a decent chunk of the JJJ hottest 100, which I usually miss- but I won't be able to get the CD (the staple item in my collection) until I return.

So 7am I head off to the airport for a 11:25am flight to Ho Chi Mhin City...... fill you in on the rest when I return.

Final Vietnam update

(the pics a of a couple of the houses we will be helping to rebuild.)
This will probably be my last post before I head off to Vietnam for a month on the 27th, because my computer has decided to crak it and so I'm at uni at the moment, using the computer for instudy related use!!!

Finally details on what we will be doing over there-

We will be working on pulling down and rebuilding up to 12 houses in Cong Hai village, just north of Phan Rang. Our work will involve assisting builders in pulling down the existing houses by hand (inc transportation of materials and cleaning), laying the foundations of the new houses and building brick walls (ie. transportation of material, brick laying, other jobs etc). We may not get all the houses completed by the time we leave, but at least our donation will see them through to the end. I will also be organising other activities which focus on cultural exchange, such as teaching english to locals etc. It is likely the the two groups will be working on separate houses.

Check out my previous post for a photo of the existing houses (apparently these ones were the best houses!).

Accommodation will either be at the local Temple or the local Town Hall. We'd prefer to have everyone at the Temple as it has better facilities, but we are still negotiating with the government on this.

Food will be purchased and cooked by the local Temple for us, though I'm sure there will be ample opportunity for us to help out (a real highlight on other OzQuest expeditions). To minimise illnesses etc, food will be almost entirely vegetarian and we will be providing vitamin supplements (c and iron).

We are still working on the timetable, but we will almost certainly be back in HCMC in time for New Years celebrations on 16 February, which are apparently great fun!

Interesting quote

"The only dream worth having.... is to dream that you will live while your alive and die only when you are dead... which means exactly what?...To Love. To be Loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity around you. To seek joy in the saddist places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try to understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget." Arundhati Roy

I'm going to die!!!

Haha, maybe thats a bit dramatic (although will one day eventually be true- not in denial over that one), but I did pass out on the couch for an hour when I got home after going out for lunch and a short shopping expedition.

I've come down with something which has some resemblance of the common cold- however with a totally lack of physical energy (by brain is generally fine, if a little slow which you can't tell from a written blog!). This is what I imagine chronic fatigue would be like- can you develop chronic fatigue at 21? The hot weather prob doesn't help but usually I love the heat- more lethargic during winner- at the moment I'm just not my summer happy self. Having to ditch social engagements and prob a hazard on the road- more than usual :)! (na, I'm such a good driver that booze busses don't even pull me over!! modesty is still something to be worked on!)

Learning about diseases does make you a bit of a hypercondriac though- you start to develop signs that resemble just one symptom of a disease and that definitely means you have it and can officially whine to all your friends about how your, once again, close to deaths door. I'm just too tried to catch up with mates at the moment- so you guys will do.


So start praying that I get over this before Vietnam trip on the 27th, otherwise Mich and Steph will be carrying me around Vietnam- with joyous grunts of appreciation at being allowed such an honor- or not :S

An article in todays Herald Sun Newspaper, written by James Norman-p.22 'Churches fight the good fight', talked about how the church is such a good example where politics and popular culture fail.
'As a young person, I find more wisdom and relevance in the words of church leaders than in the signposts of popular culture or in the deeds of political leaders'.

'Churches are also among the few places where people can gather to ponder the really important issues. They are places people come together as citizens rather than as mindless consumers.'

All this written by 'someone who considers himself to be a part of the secular majority'!

Sounds similar to a program on SBS last night which described the need from spirtuality (in diff forms) where consumerism and popular culture of Australia today fail and the need for connection beyond ourselves.

Maybe one day- if enough secular people start thinking like J. Norman there will be secular churches. Or maybe with all their enjoyment of the spirituality in nature and descussions of the important moral issue, turning from consumerism and instead reaching out and helping other- they end up worshiping God....? Can you worship God without the label of God?

Is recognising Easter and Christmas essential elements to worshipping God or is that just a religion without God?




"I think its God that makes people care for people. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. I believe it's God that brings loved ones together. I believe its God that makes trees bud and food grow out of the earth." -Ernest Gaines.

School on Sat!!

Schools in Vietnam
Did you know...



1. Children in Vietnam go to school six days a week- Monday through Saturday.




2. The school day is about four hours long.

3. The school year runs from September through May.

4. Children are expected to take school very seriously and to work hard.



5. All children learn how to read and write. They study literature, math, science and geography. They are also taught traditional manners and customs including social skills and respect for their elders, family and community.

6. Most school days begin with a test. The teacher calls on students to stand and answer a question.

7. Students sit together and chant during lessons.



8. Saturday is a review day. Students stand and tell the teacher what they have learned during the week.

9. Students do not get grades on a report card. Instead, they are ranked first, second, third and so on.

Class Rank

1. Hoa
2. Chi Hai
3. Quang
4. Khuoi
5. Anh
6. Dieu


10. Many students must wear uniforms to school.



11. Many schools are overcrowded because there are so many children in Vietnam.

12. Most schools have no playground equipment or extra activities.

13. Students are encouraged to stay physically fit. They exercise by practicing gymnastics for ten minutes during recess every day.

14. Students take turns cleaning their school. They are divided into clean-up groups. On their assigned day, they come to school early to sweep rooms, clean chalkboards and empty the trash.

15. Some children, especially in rural areas, do not go to school because they must work to help their families afford basic needs.

Good Vietnam site written mostly by kids

I just want you to be HAPPY!

Recently watched a show on SBS about the drug problems of the youth in Israil.

One comment made stuck out in my mind. 'parents tell their kids they just want them to be happy and using drugs in one method kids use to escape pain and be happy'.

Ya can't just blame the parents- we a living in an age where 'just being happy' is the ultimate and the constant drive and pursual of the majority.

2 major probs with this- no one can always be 'happy', being unhappy is ok (to a certain extent) and we need to learn to deal with it and sit with it.

- Often we don't know what makes us happy and marketing plays on this big time and we're canstantly told what should make us happy and we should desire- but does it?

Sports hols.

Found this group that organizes trips overseas- inc. sports couching kids in other countries- how much fun!!!

How great would it be to teach kids to surf in Brazil- I'd have to learn how to surf first but for my next overseas adventure this is very tempting.

Also a lot of requests for soccer coaches- but once they've been exposed to Aussie rules, soccer would be a distant memory! (although to be honest I prefer trying to run a soccer match at work with the kids than AFL).

So check out- http://www.i-to-i.com/

J.C. the pic

It took a day in the hols and coming down with the flu to the point of not wanting to do much at all, for me to become a computer geek and work out how to post a photo- but I've finally done it!

So introducing little Joshua Aaron Clayton (or as I've offically nick named him, with out parental consent- J.C.) only a few mins old!

Aussie Signs

Some good old Aussie signs my sis found on the drive from Melb to Darwin.

There will be no moon walking in central Australia!! :)

I'm offically stupid! :) Like most humans

Remember this story from the many articles on men/women/rels stuff I had to read in a behavioral studies subject back at Monash- (also a perfect example of Freud's super ego idea).....

"When I was in college, I drove one of the school transit buses part-time to earn money. Sometimes, when I had no one on board, I drove -um- rather quickly. One day I came hurtling around a corner, and there was an elderly man standing at the bus stop, shaking his head no at me. It irritated me that he was disapproving of my driving! Years later I lived in New York City, and one day I shook my head no to tell an approaching bus driver not to stop because I didn't need his particular route. Suddenly, it hit me: All those years ago that elderly man had just been saying no, he didn't need my route. Instead, I built up this whole assumption that he had examined my performance and found me wanting."


Apparently females are meant to be smarter than that!! But I missed out on that particular female trait, as the following story proves!! (Although if going to uni and doing a major in behavioral studies taught me anything- its that 'experts' do not know everything about the human mind).

Borrowing a pair of hard core walking boots for the upcoming Vietnam trip, and on Christmas eve went to the 'thousand steps' in Ferntree Gully to wear them in and get my feet used to them. Climbing at a fair pace but about half way up I was getting pretty hot and breathing heavily. Everyone else who was passing me going the opposite direction was breathing easy- I was completely embarrassed and worrying about how unfit I obviously was!

When I got to the top of the steps I actually went on a bit further on a more even track. When I decided to come back down the steps my breathing was fine and I was passing people who were heaps worse off than I had been- one guy was hanging off the railing and moaning with every step. Woohoo- I'm not the most incredibly unfit person ever! -totally convinced myself I was though and that everyone who heard my heavier than normal breathing knew it!-

Funny how we often judge ourselves by the way we think others see us!

Some nice quotes from 'A lesson before dying" by Ernest Gaines.


"I think its God that makes people care for people. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. I believe it's God that brings loved ones together. I believe its God that makes trees bud and food grow out of the earth." -p.223


"A hero does for others. He would do anything for people he loves, because he knows it would make their lives better." -p.191

Aids Quiz

AIDS Quiz


1. True or False: HIV infections are found in every country of the world.

2. How many deaths worldwide have been attributed to AIDS since the disease was first recognized in 1981?

a. 5 million
b. 10 million
c. 15 million
d. 25 million

3. What percentage of worldwide deaths due to AIDS occurred in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005?

a. 32%
b. 50%
c. 71%
d. 95%

4. True or False: A person with AIDS always has HIV.

5. True or False: Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs will cure an HIV-positive person.

6. Which of the following statements is true?

a. Every minute, a child under 15 dies of an AIDS-related illness.
b. Every minute, four children are orphaned by AIDS.
c. Every minute, another child becomes HIV-positive.
d. All of the above.

7. How many new HIV infections occur in children (<15 years) worldwide each day?

a. 800
b. 1,800
c. 3,000
d. 5,200

8. What percentage of the world's HIV-infected children live in sub-Saharan Africa?

a. 35%
b. 50%
c. 69%
d. 87%

9. True or False: If a child born to an HIV-positive mother is not infected at birth, the child is then safe from getting the infection from the mother.

10. What percentage of children (<15 years) in developing countries who need antiretroviral therapy (ART) have access to it?

a. 3%
b. 10%
c. 23%
d. 60%

From: Compassion




Will post the answers as a comment!

Lose the Bible!

Research by Christian booksellers Assoc. and Zondevan Publishers indicate that the average American Christian owns nine Bibles and is actively in the market for more. That statistic troubled Christian resources international executive directore, Fred Palmerton, whose organisation recieves more than 250 letters a month from pastors and Christian books. "Every day more than 122,000 people become Christians and most of those people are in Africa, Asia and South America" reports Palmerton, who serves as a volunteer. 'They're attending churches where even the pastors have no Bibles. In our country, the church isn't growing so much, but the pile of Bibles on every Christian's bookshelf surely is".

Bare your bookshelf website has been set up to enable Christians with surplus Bibles, commentaries etc. to send them to under-resourced Christians in the developing world.


So if your not emotionally attached as I am to my 2 bibles and 1 childrens bible it might be a good way to clear some room.

Is a symbols meaning based on its created meaning or the meaning given by each individual?


- Is the candy cane a Christian symbol or only to those who chose to see it as such?

- Is the 'devils horns' rock music symbol a sign of devoltion to satan or only to those who make the sign with their hands with Satan in mind?

- Can something on earth be completely evil or only if people choose to see it and believe it is evil and use it for evil purposes?

A sweeter cane

Each year on New Years I spend time with Mich and her family looking at Chrissy lights- this year it just happened to being pouring down, but still we did the hr walk in heavy rain to the point that my jeans became very heavy- good work out!
We were the only ones stupid enough this year to be walking- but one lady from a house came out giving us candy canes with this story-

'A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas candy cain. He incorporated several symbools for the birth, ministry and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolise the Virgin birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolise the solid rock, the foundation of the church and the firmness of the promise of God.

The candy maker made the candy in the form of 'J' to represent the precious name of Jesus who came to earth as our Saviour. It could also represent the staff of the 'Good Shepherd' with which he reaches down into the ditches to lift out the fallen lambs who like all sheep have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used three small strips of the scouring Jesus received by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have eternal life.

Unfortunately, the candy became known as Candy Cane- a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But the meaning is still for those who 'have eyes to see and ears to hear'.'

Don't know how valid or true the story is but its a nice way to look at the humble candy cane!

what does peace even look like

Interesting reflections on what 'Peace' means and our assumptions-



Not as the world gives….

“Peace I leave with you
My peace I give to you
not as the world gives do I give to you.” John 14:27

We prepare our hearts these weeks for the advent of the Prince of Peace and we do so in a world that knows little of peace. War in Iraq…turmoil in Afghanistan and Lebanon…floods and civil strife in Somalia…

Darfur.

I confess that the situation in Darfur fills me with futility and despair. Last year the despair sent me on a search for answers and I decided to do a diploma course in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at Coventry University. Coventry is a place that has known its own private war, having been devastated by bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe in November, 1940. The ruins of the original Coventry Cathedral stand as a monument to peace and forgiveness, in memory of the people of Coventry who chose to forgive rather than be consumed by hatred and bitterness.

I was fascinated by the concept of a city of reconciliation and so I was eager with my questions when the curator of the cathedral museum was the tutor for one of my lectures. “How does Coventry’s being a city of reconciliation affect football hooliganism?”, I wondered. “How does it affect relationships with the Asian community?”

The tutor was puzzled. “Well, it doesn’t affect any of those things”, she confessed.

I want a more robust peace.

In a paper for another lecture, I told the story of the children of Nate Saint who was one of the five martyrs murdered by the Waodani in Ecuador in 1956. Years later, his children, Steve and Kathy Saint, returned to the Ecuadorian jungle to be baptized by one of the men who had murdered their father.

“Impossible!” protested the head of the department. “I don’t believe it. It can’t be true.” He had boundaries and limits for reconciliation and peace.

Close your eyes and imagine a scene of peace. When you think of the word “peace”, what comes to your mind?

Really. Close your eyes. Feel. See. “Peace.”

If you are like most people, the scene you imagined was one of nature. Maybe there was a sunset, a scene steeped in autumn hues. Or was your scene leafy green, with glints of blue peeking out between the branches and the soft gurgling of water over rocks?

I’ll wager that none of you imagined a busy street scene, raucous with traffic, blaring horns and shouting vendors.

I live in Istanbul, a city of perhaps 15-17 million people. On any given market day in my area of town, I will be jostled and shoved by what is essentially the equivalent of the entire population of Lithuania. What we naturally think of as “peace” doesn’t exist in my city. What does peace mean in an urban environment? What does it mean in the Middle East?

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (Romans 5:1)

Scripture paints a different picture. We have peace with God because of the bloody, ripping, agonising, death of Jesus Christ. It’s not very pastoral...it’s not very green. The only hills hold jagged wooden crosses and instead of birds chirping, it is angels wailing and demons crowing.

We all saw it visually when we saw “The Passion.” Scenes so bloody that many theatre-goers had to turn their heads were scenes of peace – the cost and the purchase of peace through agonising death.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossians 1:20-22)

Colossians confirms this by giving us another translation of what God has done. He MADE peace …by means of Jesus’ blood on the cross. Put away definitions of peace as passsive – He MADE peace.

These verses also have changed my perspective of a passive Jesus hanging in obedience on a cross. Instead, think of a warring, crucified Commander in desperate battle to purchase those who belong to Him. We were his enemies, firmly entrenched on the losing side. But in love He enters into battle to bring us back to Him – a violent war and struggle with the forces of evil. He went into battle for us so that He could purchase peace.

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. (Ephesians 2:14-16)
Peace as a noun usually also gathers adjectives around it that are commonly considered peaceful. Tranquil. Gentle. Hushed. Given the task of creating a list of verbs to go together with peace, creative writing students might come up with “flowed”, or “tiptoed.” Again, scripture differs in its portrayal. We’ve seen Jesus as a bloody warrior, a purchaser of peace. In these verses from Ephesians he breaks down the wall of hostility in bringing peace. He ends the system of law – and as creatures want to live under law rather than the Spirit, we know that this abolishment is challenged violently in many cultural contexts throughout the world.
The most poignant example of violent verbs of peace has to be in Romans 16:20 when Paul reassures the believers in Rome that “the God of peace will soon CRUSH SATAN under your feet!” The God of peace? Check the Greek for typos. Surely it must be the God of breakthrough…or God, the King of Kings, the Lord, strong in battle, will crush Satan under your feet.” But no, it is the God of peace.
One of my favourite hymns understands this concept. In “Crown Him with Many Crowns”, the third verse goes like this:
“Crown Him the Lord of peace
Whose power a scepter sways
From pole to pole that wars may cease
And all be prayer and praise.”


The Lord of peace, the Lord of power. The warrior who goes into battle to purchase peace.

Darfur needs this Lord of peace.

-- Pam Wilson

New years 2007

Well I offically survived my first New Years Eve without Michelle in about 7 years- although there were phone calls and msg so I'm not sure if it counts (I'll be stuck with Mich constantly for a whole month so the brake is prob good for us!!).

So where was I? Front row, hanging over the barrier, being squwashed against the barrier, watching the 'Living End' (which was for the majority of my teenaged years a fav band), my face in some security gaurds crotch everytime a crowd surfer came over my head (I'm the perfect hight for something ;)).

I spent from thurs to Mon at Pyramid rock festival as a volunteer- snapping on wrist bands at the entrance- stuck in the sun and dust for 4 hr straight at a time- which while enjoyable meeting and working with people did leave me horribly sun burnt despite constant applications of sunnie (I now have a perfect thong tan line on my feet which cracks me up every time I look at it!). Next time I might try and get a job in the bar- out of the sun but that might mean missing out on bands so something to consider.

Sleep was something that didn't happen for me mainly due the the campers next to and behind me that I don't think slept the entire time and wouldn't shut up or turn off their music (they were deffinately on some kind of stimulant drugs). By the end I was a zoombie and during the 7hrs non moving drive home I spent most of it on the phone chatting to friends just to stay awake.

All up it was a great way to spend New years! Highly reconmend (although not for everyone as I know some who ditched cos hated it) to all who enjoy music more than they dislike camping/ dirt/ sun- all of which I enjoy so not an issue!

Dog gone

My mums friend spent some time in Vietnam as a teacher and one of the students she was tutoring did exceptionally well in the IB. The girls family, as a gift of gratitude, took mums friends out for a meal to a restaurant specialising in the Vietnamese delicacy- Dog.

Mums friend unhappily ate the gift- wonder what customs of ours other cultures would find hard to accept. 'The city of Joy' by Dominique Lapierre had many examples where the Catholic priest was often told off for not using the slums toilet (which could not be considered a toilet by our standards) in the 'appropriate' manner. The Western way of going to the loo just didn't cut it and was offensive acording to their customs- just as we find having a meal of dog or washing our hair in urine mildly intolerable.