The Grampians

A Night in Lilydale

What Occupies Our Time

Our week, like yours, is basically divided into 3 main categories: Work, Weekends, and Whatever.....

Work

Erick and Hilko are honing their construction skills in building the addition to a house belonging to our host family, Andrew and Julie Bruce. Previous to our arrival Andrew injured his back and, consequently, this project came to an abrupt stop. Since our arrival two and a half weeks ago, the guys have made impressive progress securing and cementing all 48 stakes, builing the flooring frame work, laying the floor boards, and are currently constructing the walls.

Annette and I on the other hand, are training for motherhood. We are assisting Julie in the home education of their 4 boys: Joshua (9), Samuel (7), Toby (6), and Rueben (2). Baby # 5 is on the way and is due to arrive in about 3 weeks. In addition to home-schooling we also help with cleaning, cooking, and the general maintenance of the home. We both agree that it has grown our appreciation for mothers and also our freedom! ::smile::
Seriously, if all children were as well-disciplined and easy to please as the Bruce's, the future would be bright.

We are simply amazed at the absolute perfection of God's timing in sending us here for these 10 weeks. Many thanks to the Ellis family (Brian, in particular) for assisting in orchestrating such a winning combination. Seeing God's guidance in such a tangible way has fueled our faith and we are enjoying the benefits of following His plan. We could not have asked for a better scenario~*

Weekends

Our weekends are comprised of encountering authentic Australiana flavor in various forms. Last weekend we enjoyed live music provided by a local Victorian band called The Sons of Korah. This weekend found us in the midst of the majestic Grampians, a series of mountains, unusual rock formations and cascading fountains. Erick was elated to spend his 25th birthday camping in the midst of it all.

Whatever

There are times when you simply need to get out and do your "own thing".

Hilko, our videographer, naturally spends his spare time surfing. For those of you who know Hilko well, this comes as no surprise. Since we are a 3 minute drive from the beach, he grabs his gear (surfboard and wetsuit provided by Julie's cousin) and heads out to his second home: The ocean. He has not caught a wave yet and describes the Australian waves as "fat". (A.J---can you explain this to me? ::smile::) He also enjoys editing footage of our trip. He plans to have a video prepared by the end to show you all our adventures abroad.

Erick, our logistics manager, spends his "chill" time reading and writing. His current book is Lord of the Flies. It has been interesting to see our personalities emerge with the stress and strain of logistical resolutions. Erick has aced his role as manager and I think his ethics are -slowly- beginning to change the way we all view money. Cheers to him for being strong-willed and tight-fisted....

Annette, our intern, has graciously allowed us to chip and break away the rough edges of her "baby" mentality. This trip has forced her to leave the role as youngest sibling and embrace the idea of equal responsibilty. Since she is now seen as an adult, and expected to act like one, it has made her more aware of the vital role she plays in the success of the trip. She enjoys working in the garden and spending time doing extra curricular activites with the boys Her maturity with the boys impresses me and I know that one day she will make a great mom!

I, the social director, spend my free time journaling. Being away from life, as I know it, has given me time to process my way of thinking and its many inconsistencies. There is something freeing about embracing life away from the norm. I think it's easy to view life from a jaded perspective when you are in the midst of comfort. Once the barriers of normalcy are shaken, your true character emerges and that is a rare encounter. I am taking strides to accept this new challenge and glean vital lessons from it.

Someone wise once said, "If you can learn to get along with your siblings, you can learn to get along with anyone." This trip has proven that to me. Your family knows the real you. The you with no make-up or pretense. The you who is not always gracious and kind. Your family rallies around you in your successes and cries with you in your failure. They tell you, in no uncertain terms, what is lacking and areas that need desperate improvement. They tell you the truth because you need it. And through it all, at the end of the day, they are the ones that love the real you.

~This is Grace-Emma and Annette in front of our little red car....thanks to Lauren Ellis for graciously letting us use it.


~On Little Rock with our Aussie friends, the Ellis'


~The Foursome


~Erick overlooking the city of Hamilton


~The great adventure of driving the car on the opposite side of the road!!

Hello from Australia!!!

G'day mate!! How's it going? Well, I am presently living in Australia with my three siblings at an Aussie family,named the Bruces, home. Hilko and Erick ( my brothers) are working on their new house and Grace-Emma and I are helping with the family at home. The mom is 9 months pregnant, so she is unable to do a lot of things.So we are tutoring the boys, cooking, doing some gardening...it's really great. So I guess you could call our time here like a "lay low" time.To bank some time and money. I've definitely learned one thing, travel is a great thing, but it can get tiring. Going to a different place every 3 or 5 days. I spanned 6 countries in 2 weeks...craziness. The countries were the Netherlands, Germany, London, Scotland, Dubai and Australia.

Erick was the only one who was able to get his working holiday visa and so he is getting paid, but really we are all working? ...It's kind of hard to understand. Take care!

Ta Ta,

Netty

The Silent One Steps Forward

First of all, I must apologize for not writing thus far. If I had a good excuse I guess that now would be a good time to put it to use, but there are none available to me. I will say that now that we have settled for a few weeks we will be able to be more regular with our updates and you should be hearing more from us.

I suppose that I should give a quick rundown of my thoughts and musings since the beginning of the trip since it has already been four weeks...

It's really quite epic when you think about it:

Four siblings,scattered by time and their own adventures hither and yon, set out on a journey to reunite and reconnect after a lengthy relational hiatus. Their plan is to undertake a grand adventure seeing the world as they go, facing dangers and uncertainties, meeting friends and foes along the way and hopefully departing with a deeper understanding of eachother and the world they live in.

Sounds like a movie or at least a reality TV show. But this is our adventure and here we are in the midst of it. To this point it has been everything from exciting and thrilling to overwhelming and claustophobic. And this has only been four weeks.

This is how I see the way that the interpersonal dynamic works itself out. Each one of us has sort of been our own person for the last six years or so. Sure we would meet up on holidays and special events like graduations and such, but beyond that we all did our own thing. We had our independence and we liked it well. Now we find ourselves in this situation where we have to make decisions as a foursome and we depend on eachother for emotional support, where if someone is late we wait for them and if someone is having a bad day, we all have to bear the weight. On the flipside we have four people who specialize in certain fields and that comes to the table too. Grace-Emma is our soical person. She chats people up and makes phone calls and generally handles all of our PR. Hilko is the videographer and techie and also our resident philosopher. Annette is in charge of photography and is the 'intern' in the group(which really is just a nice way of saying she gets handed the jobs that we don't want to do.)I do finances and random logistical tasks. We like this arrangement and when it is working it is a beautiful thing.

I suppose I should say a bit about the countries we've seen so far.

Holland:

I have a very romantic view of Holland. This was my tenth time in the country and I still look at it very starry-eyed. Who wouldn't want to live in a place like Holland? It's clean, well-run, and full of beautiful stylish people. Everyone speaks English (even the bum on the street, I found out) and they are friendly and well-mannered. I suppose that there are plenty of things that are not to like about Holland; I just don't want to acknowledge them. Our time in Holland was short but very enjoyable with lots of glimpses into the culture and a lot of great memories made. Near the top of my list was happening upon a live performance by Mental Theo during our first night in the country. Who's Mental Theo? Only the greatest DJ in the world. Props to Fokko and Geke for letting us stay with them.

Germany:

We only spent a few hours here. How ironic is it that we ended up in a Texas-style roadhouse where the waitresses had to strain to understand our English? Very ironic.

England:

What I heard about England was true. London is notoriously expensive, the crowds are insane in August, everyone does carry a little Nokia phone and there really is a pub on every corner. We only spent a weekend, but we had plenty of good times and my advice to anyone headed for England is see the city for a day and spend the rest of your time in a small town. That's the real England. Props to the Swanns for being such good hosts. We owe you one. Stop by on your next trip to Fernie.

Scotland:

The truth about our time in Glasgow is that all we really saw was the inside of the hostel we stayed at and the streets that we passed on the way to the STA Travel nearby. What we saw was nice and I like Glasgow much more than London, even though London is glitzier and has way more money. People are really really nice and their accents are so cool that you want to think up random questions with long answers just so that you can hear them talk. We didn't hook up with any haggis but we will on the way out. Props to our man George at STA for all the work he did for us in order to make sure that we made it to Australia. George had faith because he worked on something that I don't know if he fully believed would even happen. Cheers

Dubai:

Another one of those few hour stops. It was 2:30 in the morning and it was 33 degrees. There were so many people. It was so much to take in. By a stroke of luck, the airline put us up in a posh hotel during our stopover. I was too tired to really apprectiate it all but one distinct memory is that my first night in the Middle East was a throwback to my first night in Africa. A lot of the same smells and sensations. Africa vets, so far my impression of the ME is that it is Africa with a lot of money. Something funny is that I am in the hotel and want to take in some culture so I flip on the telly and they were playing American Idol and the Sopranos.

Australia:

Everyone needs to come here. You will be hearing lots more from me about this country so for now suffice it to say that this is a beautiful country and I am looking forward to being here for the next few months. News so far is that we are living in a town called Warrnambool(good luck pronouncing that) on the South Coast. To give you an idea of bearings we are about 5 hours west of Melbourne right on the ocean. It takes us about 2 hours to drive to the Grampians(how do you like them apples, Colin?) We will be here for the next few months. Hilko and I are working contruction and the girls are helping at the house of the people we are staying with. It is a comfortable arrangement and leaves us with lots of freedom to explore this part of the country. Like I said you will be hearing more from us more often from here on out so I won't bore you with trite. Stay tuned.

In Oz at last...

Greetings from Geelong, Victoria, Australia!

Since departing from Toronto, two and a half weeks ago we have spanned 3 continents, and have visited 6 countries so far: The Netherlands, Germany, England, Scotland, Dubai, and Australia.

-England-
Our second day in England, we visited all the touristy spots like The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, St. Margaret's Cathedral, Big Ben, and The Tower Bridge. We were especially excited to see the flag flying high over Buckingham Palace signaling that the Queen was in residence there. Although we did not have tea and crumpets with Her Majesty, it was a thrill to finally see the Palace and all the guards. We even fought our way through the crowd to touch the gate! Our friend, Hayley, was a fantastic tour guide showing us the places of interest in her beloved home. A new experience for us were the fish 'n chips. I think we all agreed that it was excellent!
On Sunday we attended the Notting Hill Carnival, A celebration of the ethnic groups who were despised for so long and are now free to celebrate life! Our afternoon was filled with latin music, lively dances, and vibrant colors. It was a terrific taste of home!

-Scotland-
This is the place where our travels took an interesting turn. While in Glasgow, we realized that our ticket names were not the same as our passport names. Since we did not have a problem with this in Toronto we thought nothing of it. The travel agent in Glasgow assured us that we would be rejected if we tried to enter Australia on our "mis-matched" tickets. So, needless to say, we racked our brains for alternatives. Our first option was to change the tickets so that the names would correspond with the names on our new passports. Although costly, it was a very real option. After talking with the airline we would be flying with, they told us that we would be able to enter if we had our old passports along with the new ones. What to do.....what to do....
We contacted our Mom in Michigan and asked her to fedex our passports to the office in Glasgow. They promised to have the package there before 8:00 pm the next day. This was fine, except that our plane was scehduled to leave for Dubai 6 hours earlier. After obtaining the tracking number, we contacted the head fedex office in Paisley and asked them to hold the package for us. The next morning, Erick walked to the office, picked up the passports, and we were on our way to Dubai.

More updates on Australia to come....