A few positives

So, I'm aware the last post was a bit tragic, and I didn't want to leave that in cyberspace for too long without a follow up. Thanks for the various comments and messages, I am doing better, though still sad, and have some positive stories now.

Monday I had the opportunity to spend the day at Regent College which is a theological college in Vancouver. Martin (and others I know) has attended and speaks very positively of his time there, and I had looked into what I might be able to do there around this time but hadn't found anything that worked. So I was pretty pleased to discover a 'Summer Sampler' opportunity to attend (for a small fee) the first lecture of a week course for three papers they run as block courses over summer. Another intern, Mallory came with me, though we only attended one lecture together. It was a really good day. The first lecture on Genesis was the one that I enjoyed most from a content perspective, and I'm going to find some more material by the lecturer, John Walton to read or listen to. The second class though was the best from a 'connections' perspective. Wouldn't you know, in a class of maybe 60 people there were three other Kiwis. But wait, there's more. One is the son of good friends of my parents, another is good friends with the daughter of the missionary couple I was with for my first two weeks in Thailand, and the third, Jennie is a priest from Wellington and we also have some mutual acquaintances. What are the odds?! Then in the evening lecture I had the opportunity to get to know Jennie better as we were paired up for some discussion time. We've exchanged contact details and I hope to interact with them more. The day also included a chapel service, a pretty tasty lunch, and a spare hour where I could wander around the campus (the school is within the much bigger University of British Columbia, UBC) and get a bit of a feel for the place. So that was a great day, though it was long, we left A Rocha before 7am and got home about 10:30.

My other positive to report is quite different, but equally worth reporting. Aiden is about 15, and part of one of the families who lives here onsite. He is one of the keen board gamers, and when we do a games night (often on a Thursday) he's one of the ring-leaders. A while back he and I played a game of two-player Risk, where the aim is simply to wipe out the other person. (In games with more players there are other goals like taking over certain continents.) I beat him quite convincingly, and I found out later this was an achievement, he's an able gamer with a reputation of being hard to beat. Of course we couldn't stop at one game and a week or two later we had our second game, and this time he was the clear winner, I was royally beaten. So, there was always going to be a decider, it just had to be scheduled. And it was tonight. And I won. And I'm pretty pleased!! It was a hard fought game and it wasn't clear for quite a while who had the upper hand. In case you missed it, I'm pretty pleased :-) Of course he wants to play it again, but with our various plans and schedules I don't think there'll be another opportunity before I go. So, that will just have to be where it rests. With me as the winner. Shame that.

Last positive to report, I have started to write my toad report, but realised I didn't have a picture I was happy to use. And I thought I'd missed my opportunity, but the other night they were out in force again, hopefully the final wave before they finish migrating. So I got a photo with which I'm very pleased. And since I don't expect most of you to read my report, here it is.

That's enough for now, I'll write again soon.