After School Shenanigans and A Good First Week

This is what one hopes to find after leaving three eight-year-olds alone for 30 minutes with conspiring imaginations...


(Gabriella escaped from the zoo, Suzanne joined the Cirque du Soleil, and Greetje became a live TV reporter on her cardboard television)

Just a glimpse of the oh-so-sweet parts of my first official week as Au Pair. A successful week, I conclude. Much to learn about my responsibilities, the roles expected of me and new roles I'll ascertain. Right now I see a blunder of expectations in my mind, therefore driving myself a bit nuts. But I envision what my life will look like when I get settled into a routine. Similar to how it has been in any of my life settings(with the exception of a living with a family who daily depends on me). It will look like this: a mixture of busy and balanced, fun and challenging, relaxing and inspiring, with some lonesome moments, but mostly full of life and healthy interactions.

Susan has made my transition into this new life quite comfortable. She's fully welcoming, helpful and approachable. I observe her daily as "Super Mom" and she does it as a single parent. It's quite amazing. Full-time director of a bank, a wonderful mom to Greetje and foster mom to Gabriella, a hockey mom, gymnastics mom, theater mom, music mom, a wonderful home, active in the community and committees, loyal to friends and family, a host to any... and she's cool.

It's going to be a good year.

Last night the girls and their playmates planned a disco party for Susan, a friend and I in Gabriella's room...


As the winner of the Dutch word scramble my prize was an improvised dance performed by Susan and her friend. Susan chose the chicken dance in order that we were all familiar with the moves.

Oh, Pear!

I am an au pair. Here are some pictures to help you with the pronunciation:
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An open source contributor says:

The au pair title comes from the French term meaning "on a par" or "equal to", indicating that the relationship is intended to be one of equals: the au pair is intended to become a member of the family, albeit a temporary one, rather than a domestic servant. In the best circumstances, both parties benefit from learning about the other's culture.

Address:
Burnierstraat 38
2596 HW Den Haag
Netherlands



Though I've been here a total of five days, today (Monday) is my first official day on the job. The past few days consisted of getting to know the family, settling into my new home, jet lag recovery, becoming acquainted with the area on bike (the children have been excellent tour guides) and transitioning from old au pair to new. Mila, the previous au pair left Saturday for a 40 hour busride back home to the Ukraine. So now there are five of us in the house. Susan (the mom), Greetje (8-year-old daughter), Gabriella (7, almost 8-year-old foster child), Elody (21-year-old French/Dutch friend of family who is staying with us for five weeks while she interns with a local architecture firm) and I! All girls. Even Sara the anti-social cat. Except of course for Herman the Tit, the '88 Peugot 205 Susan bought for me to use from time to time. He's the only male in the family, but he stays outside on the street :)



Most days I will bike the children to school at 8:30 and pick them up at 3:00 and take them to their prospective activity for the rest of the afternoon. Which is either gymnastics, music lessons, field hockey, drama or playing at the house/friend's house until dinner time. Either Susan or I will cook. We eat dinner together, clean up and Susan spends time with the girls and puts them to bed. I am free in the evenings and on the weekends. Room and board are provided as well as insurance and many other benefits.

I am a bit spoiled at the moment with Elody here. She steps in to help in many instances: meals, playtime, cleanup, babysitting, etc. She is also very delightful company to have around and a new friend I can visit in France.


The family is wonderful. I would say so far that Susan's and my personality will get along fine. She's intelligent, generous, straight-forward, likes to drink wine, is quite funny and a bit "ATG" (against the grain). The children are creative, silly, polite and explore interests that I also enjoy. Good times are ahead.

One of the best parts about where we live is the location. Ten minutes to bike to the city center and 15 to bike to the beach. Sunday was our last day of summer and just-so-happened to also be the last day of sunshine for a while. Stefanie, my dear friend I met at L'abri who lives in Ede, came by train Sunday morning to visit a local American Protestant Church with me as well as spend the day with us all at the beach. It was a perfect day. We at lunch at Susan's brother's restaurant, we bathed in the sun, swam, and people-watched. European beaches are quite entertaining.






Goodbye Summer. Hello New Life...

For Myself and My Fellow Doubters: Doubt Doesn't Count You Out

Ok. It's time for me to put something on here beyond entertaining records of events and people. There are much too many things going on inside of me to not disclose. At L'Abri I've recognized the freedom to be me FULLY. Not the Kelley that others expect to see and hear (which I'm good at portraying), but the unique Kelley who is created lovingly in the image of God. And the Kelley with all of her big life questions, struggles and insecurities. I have felt a similar welcoming for questions in my other settings (home, church, college, nashville) but because my inner questions often reflected some serious doubts about Christianity, fear was always attached. Unfortunately the Christian culture I was nurtured by gave me this fear of doubt. For example, I hear the echoes of evangelists, teachers and preachers, "If you're not 100% sure then you're 0% sure." And in a somewhat fundamentalist setting I would often translate that as "Certainty or hell. " So I held my questions, my doubts and with lips sealed I grew to be a very doubtful Christian. Doubtful Christian. Sounds oxymoronic, eh? But what I've discovered is that the opposite of doubt is NOT certainty. It's faith... trust... courage. There are few things if ANY that we can know with absolute certainty. But our ability to approach these teachings of Jesus with courage is a gift. And when we make space for that gift to be active we are never let down. We learn that it works. It makes sense. We can trust the Bible because it describes reality the way it is. We are hurt by the wrong we inflict on others and ourselves, we all strive to do right and expose wrong, and we feel disconnected from God, others and even ourselves. This great sense of pain and unknowing is the result of humankind's severed relationship with God, which is proof in itself that we were created for a relationship, our iniquities have distanced us and we need to be redeemed. We need restoration of the self we were intended to be so that we can properly commune with our Maker. Love Him. So we are told to obey His commandments as a reflection of this love for Him. When we obey, we understand that He is good and trustworthy. We learn in our love for Him how to love others. And pieces of our intended self are restored bit by bit.... Here I am preaching the gospel (=the good news) to myself. The good news with which I can resonate. And this good news is that God loves me and that death (the "big D" deaths and the "little d" deaths) do not have the final word about me. And there are still days of doubt for me. There always will be. It's my personality, as it was Thomas's. What is all this? Can it be true? Am I brainwashing myself with Christianese? How can I know? But Jesus speaks to my personality as He did to Thomas's. And I can at least have peace with the thought that my doubts are okay and don't make me any less a redeemed child of God. They are welcome and so are yours.

Orange Lentil Soup

i made this today.
healthy. simple. delicious.

1.5 liters of water with veggie boullion
100 ml olive oil
400 grams red lentils
1 can tomatoes
1 oranges zest
2 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp oregano
salt to taste

combine, let boil. reduce heat. stir and simmer for 30 minutes.
serves 8-10

Expressions and Impressions

I had a very special Valentine's Day in Holland. In Europe Valentine's is moreso a holiday for couples. But thanks to mom and Neeley who each sent me a lovely package with treats I was reminded of how much I'm loved. And isn't the expression of love what St. Valentine fought for? So I extended this expression by passing out cheesy American valentines with pixie stix that I brought from the States to everyone here at L'abri. The kids really enjoyed the foreign treat.

Thursday is our day off here at L'abri anyhow, so Mette, Kara and I planned to spend our Valentine's Day-off in our favorite city Utrecht with our Dutch friend Jojanneke. Our plan was to have a ROTIC day, which is ROmanTIC without the man! (Haha.Thanks Kara.) And that we did! We set off Wednesday night to Utrecht to enjoy some live jazz music with friends at 't Oude Pothuys (translation 'the old pothouse'... pots that you cook with, not the pot you normally associate with Holland). In the picture is Mette, Me, Kara, half of Levien (who I met last year at a L'abri theme weekend), and Karlien (who came to stay at L'abri for a short stay this term). So it was nice to meet with our friends, enjoy some drinks together, and take in the ambience of the cave-like, dimly lit, smoky lounge. The jazz music was okay. A bit too loud and percussive and no vocalist. But we weren't just there for the music.

We stayed the night with Jojanneke in her Utrecht flat. She had all kinds of mats and blankets spread about over her floor for the three of us to crash. We got up early to enjoy a brunch downtown at a restaurant called "Broers" (translations 'Brothers') that Robb recommended. We sat for a couple of hours stuffing our faces with bread and cappuccino, hearing about Jojanekke's thesis research in India. She also entertained us with cultural and historical lessons about Utrecht-the city itself and she even pointed out the "typical" Utrecht University students who put on the I-just-rolled-out-of -bed-around-noon-looking-fashionable look to chat with their scratchy Dutch voices alongside their cigarettes and koffee. Then we set off to stroll about the city, enjoying the people we saw, the coffee, window shopping, book shopping and conversation. We went into a shoe store and I saw the silliest hat on clearance for one Euro. Since I'm a silly girl I thought, "hey, why not buy this?!" So I bought the strange hat, which was an additional 50% off. So for 50 cents I got to look like an idiot... But it paid off. Allow me to tell the story...

We were taking the train back to L'abri in the afternoon. Aware that I lost my train ticket I purchased the night before in Tiel I began to prepare to act my role as "the apologetic, unfortunate, young, female, foreign traveller" in case the train attendant asked to see my ticket. When the young male train attendant walked into my cart I got a little nervous, but he, on the other hand, began to to laugh and laugh at my silly hat. When he came to my seat he asked for all our tickets. I gave one last search through my bag and pockets and told him I must have lost it and I was truly sorry. Now usually these train workers show NO mercy for a traveller without a ticket and charge them the full price for the ticket plus an additional 45 Euros! So I was extremely fortunate that he took a liking for my hat, because he decided to cut me a break and allow me to purchase a new ticket at the Kiosk at our destination Tiel. When we arrived at Tiel he walked with me to the Kiosk and I got to the woman at the counter to purchase the ticket. The train attendant and the Kiosk worker were talking in Dutch, but from the body language, vocal tone, and the little I could translate I could tell they were discussing how I "lost" my ticket and had to buy a new one.
Well, it turns out the Kiosk worker REMEMBERED me from the night before and explained to him that I DID in fact purchase a ticket from her. The train attendant turned to me and said, "You don't have to pay. She remembers you bought a ticket..." What great mercy he showed to me! He still had the authority to make me pay, but didn't. I thanked him and his words to me were, "I see you make quite an impression on people." I'm not sure if it was ME that made the impression or the hat, but I cannot regret the $.50 impulsive hat purchase which saved me over 50 Euros in the end ($75 U.S. dollars!).

L'abrians: A Caricature

Though over 20 students have come in and out of the L'abri house since January 10 I'd like to introduce you to the few who I consider long term.


Name: Tae Young
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
Age: 24 in Korea (at birth Koreans are 1), 23 to Westerners
About Tae Young: A chemist who helped detonate landmines for the Korean military for two years. Likes to find uses for the few American expressions he knows like "trash talk" and "poop or get off the pot." An excellent caulker.



Name: Jantine
Hometown: Haarlem, Netherlands
Age: Mid 30's
About Jantine: She is a loving wife to Arvid, her husband and currently studies to change careers from journalism to contextual therapy. Though caring and sensitive you wouldn't dare get in the way of her axe.


Name: Clara (Christian name), Yoon Sook (birth name)
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
Age: 30 to Westerners
About Clara: An exemplary woman of love, joy, discipline and service. Social worker, hymn hummer and expert knitter. Loves new experiences and she even let me tie her limbs into challenging yoga positions.


Name: Kara
Hometown: Portland, OR
Age: 27 as of recently... one of the best birthday parties I've ever had, and it wasn't even mine
About Kara: My fellow helper who I not only share household chores with, but also long walks, beer, "potty talks," and patty cake. A displaced artist and non-performing pianist. Enjoys culinary ventures, bike rides through the Dutch countryside, dead people's music and the matching tattoos on her wrists and feet.


Name: Mette
Hometown: Copenhagen, Denmark
Age: 23
About Mette: The only accomplished recorder player I will ever take seriously. She's studying linguistics and wants to translate Bibles for Wycliffe. Recently listened to a 40 cassette lecture series on the book of Revelation by Francis Schaeffer. One of the few people here who laughs at my jokes. Smart and full of surprises.

Apples, Me and Everything Greek

Winter certainly makes things bare. Here you see the apple orchards near the house now compared to September when I was here last.
The barrels of apples I helped pick months ago have been either consumed or rotted. So, sometimes I get to buy apples from the nice old lady two houses down. I walk up to her door and say something like, "Hi! I mean...Hallo! hmm... um... appels kopen?... voor L'abri... vier kilo... dank je wel.." Which translates into something like "Hi. (gibberish, gibberish) Buy apples?... for L'abri... four kilos... thank you!"And then she carries a further conversation with me in Dutch, except my only contribution to our dialogue is a big smile and a nod. But in the end I have a delicious sack of crisp and juicy, golden and red apples.

I'm getting pretty used to my schedule here at L'abri. I make a lot of tea and coffee, wash and hang a lot of laundry, and scrub a lot of toilets. I drink a lot of tea and coffee and sit around the fireplace to keep warm. I go on a lot of walks with Kara from Portland--we toss around ideas about relationships, culture, and personal shortcomings. I have a stack of books I'm working through and I journal often. I play patty cake with five-year-olds. I bake fresh bread and make soups from scratch. I knit while listening through Henk's vinyl record collection--Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence." Michael Jackson's "Bad," and Dutch folk singer Boudewijn de Groot's greatest hits album are currently my favorites. I participate in group lunch discussions, most recently about perfectionism, work, idealism, purity and experiencing God. I do a lot of yoga and push ups in my 7' x 12' bedroom. Here you can see my room and yoga mat.


A vital part of the week is my Monday afternoon tutoring session with Christa. It's helpful to have someone to think with and who can articulate what I often cannot. She listens well and can quickly expose the root of my struggles. She also assigns homework so we have something concrete to work with. Most of what I gain through my experience here will come through these interactions, I am certain.

Last Sunday was Kara's (the other helper from Portland, OR) 27th birthday. The other students and I planned a full day of birthday events including a surprise birthday song at 7:30 a.m., a long bike ride to a surprise tea party, a Greek-themed toga dinner party with Greek music and dancing, Greek food and a pile of gifts for Kara to open. She was overwhelmed with our efforts and remembers it as one of her best birthdays ever. A very special memory for all of us.