Somehow we have been gone a whole month already!  We did get out of the city this weekend to go to Laurelville camp.  It was a nice change of pace and we were happy to be able to see both of our parents, do some hiking, and learn from great speakers. 

Our time in D.C. has been very busy between working and schooling, but we have had ample time to get out and see the city.  We are about a half hour bike ride to the D.C. mall, so we have frequented museums and the monuments there.  It has been great to be able to study insects and Africa one day from our school books, then hit the Natural History museum the next day to see the corresponding exhibits.

 Other good experiences included participating in the climate march last Saturday, hitting an organ concert in the National Cathedral, touring various historic buildings and, of course, sampling from the vast array of ethnic restaurants in D.C.  We are amazed at how our kids have jumped on board with trying Middle Eastern Tabbouleh, West African goat, Cajun crawfish, and many others in between.

We have also thoroughly enjoyed the hours of conversations with guests and staff at the guest house.  The guests there are mix of people traveling through for business or pleasure, often connected to the Mennonite Church, as well as many international visitors (mostly from developing countries) for various reasons.  Part of our responsibility is facilitating breakfast and evening tea conversations, which often last an hour or more.  It has been fascinating to interact with different segments of people and the range of perspectives they bring.

Because of the size of our family, we aren't actually staying at the International Guest House.  Instead, we have a 1 bedroom basement apartment which is several miles from the guest house.  It is a pleasant 30 minute bike ride along a riverside path north to work or south to the mall.  We are near a park, which explodes with people walking their dogs in the evening.  Our kids try to get their fix of laughing at and petting various dogs, since they are constantly missing their own.

Thanks for being a part of our journey.  We are having a great time and hope all is well with you also!

Eric, Jodi, Julia, and Nathan 

Hello and thanks to all of you that are taking the time to read our first blog of our time in Washington, D.C.  For those of you who don't know, we are taking some time out and volunteering at the International Guest House in D.C.   http://igh-dc.com/    We have been here for 2 weeks now, and feel like we are settled in nicely.

There are long term staff here at the Guest House, so we are mainly aiding them in daily chores both inside and outside the house.  One of the great things about working here and at this stage in our family's life, is that the kids can help.  And they really have been a big help indeed. 

This place makes a staggering amount of breakfast muffins and tea time cookies for the guests.   Julia has been baking regularly along with weeding, planting herbs and tomato plants and cleaning.  Nathan has been mowing the lawn, cleaning porches, and helping Eric with bathrooms and changing bed linens.

But just as important, we are enjoying time with the other staff at the Guest House and interacting with guests.   We received such a warm welcome and have thoroughly enjoyed staff lunches and connecting with new friends!

We will let you know more about our situation down the road, but for now wanted to get a quick note out to say hi, thanks for your support, and let you know we are doing well!

Jodi, Eric, Nathan and Julia Miller

Our time in Tucson continues to be fun and rewarding.  Jodi's parents came for a week.  They were lots of fun to have around.  Jodi's mom, Sandy, helped out with school and kid sitting, and her dad Terry worked at CHRPA for a day to check it out.  Considering all the snow days that our kids make sure we know they are missing, they skipped a couple of days here and went on a couple of museum field trips with Jodi and the grandparents.

 

  

Prior to Jodi's parents coming, the director of CHRPA had the idea of having me teach school with the kids and have Jodi go out with CHRPA for a day.  I told him that was a terrible idea.  The educational and psychological damage of me schooling the kids would likely take weeks to reverse.  But we did take him up on the idea of having our whole family go out for a day.

CHRPA built a wheelchair ramp for an older lady (and very friendly boxer) that recently lost her husband.  The Miller family wasn't up for building the ramp, but painting was right at our skill level.  We may not have been the most efficient painters, but we all had a great time doing it.  We also enjoyed a nice burger lunch during the 1 ½ hours it took the primer to dry.  It doesn't take long in a desert.

The kids did such a good job, maybe they should graduate to doing the under the mobile home work instead of me!  Yesterday we found a smelly dead cat under one . . . hey, kids like cats, right?

Hope all is well up North.

Eric, Jodi, Julia, and Nathan.

Greetings once again from Tucson.  We continue to enjoy our time here!  These past few weeks have flown by!  We were happy to have Barry and Brenda Hummel visit us for a weekend.  They graciously kept the kids one evening so we could go out with another couple.  Everyone enjoyed this (right Barry?)

We've met many new neighbors and have made many connections with them.  We were the only SOOPers (Mennonite Mission Network's program that we are serving with called Service Opportunities for Older Persons (now Families as well)) for most of December.  (We might add that the average age here on campus is about 70-75 without our family in the mix).  Right before Christmas the first couple arrived to set up their RV next door.  Then in early January, one, two, then three RV's arrived to line the church parking lot.  And last night we had another neighbor join us just outside our side door.

As you'll read below, one of the best events here has been the Sunday night game nights.  Popcorn is made, games are played and puzzles are always in process.  Dominoes has become the kid's favorite game and they have greatly improved!  What a great sight to see all generations around the table playing dominoes!

One of the biggest reasons that we take three months leave of absence ever few years is to allow our kids to experience a different way of life whether it be in Kenya or Arizona.  It only makes sense then, to dedicate the rest of this blog to the kid's.  They were not keen on writing/typing the blog themselves.  So  I asked them some general questions that they thought about and answered as follows. 

      1.    How has it been living in an RV since Thanksgiving?  What are some memories you'd like to share?

Nathan:  It's fun!  At night when we are supposed to go to sleep (in the loft above the driver's seat), I tickle Julia.  It's fun because I had a little shelf above the window to store stuff.  Now I'm on the other side so I store my books behind the TV.  I sleep well at night.  I received a big Lego container for Christmas which helps hold my Lego sets in the camper.  We watch movies on the TV - now we're watching "Little House on the Prairie" which is funny.

Julia:  We had a dance party inside the camper on the way to Arizona in the dark with glow sticks, flashlight rings and headlamps that flashed red lights.  Sleeping in the loft is not like our room at home.  Sometimes it's fun to be this close to the family.

2.  Tell us about school…do you miss classmates?  Any fieldtrips you'd like to explain?

Nathan:  I really miss my friends but in school we can concentrate more because we are just two.  We like getting out of school earlier too.  The Arizona Desert Museum was my favorite because they have all different animals.  I especially liked the black bear.  He peed in public!

Julia:  The field trips are more fun than schoolwork.  I miss my friends and Mrs. Widder.  I like that we finish early and don't have to wait on others as much.  The schoolroom feels freer than the camper and it's bright green (but it would be better if it was purple).

3.  When you're not at school, what do you enjoy doing?

Nathan:  I like to play with Lego, to read while keeping my feet warm and to watch videos.  I like going to the library each week. 

Julia:  I like visiting Adele, riding my bike and reading a good book.

4.   Describe a hike, bike or other trip that was memorable.

Nathan:  We went on an 8 mile loop bike ride and I got a Dr. Pepper at the end.  At Javelina Rocks I threw small rocks at the big rocks and smashed them into pieces.

Julia:  I liked horseback riding near the (Saguaro National) Park.  Dale, my horse, was great.  

5.  What in Tucson do you want to remember most?  (They added to this question by listing things they miss the most from home).

Nathan:  I got to watch a bear video.  I liked Mt. Lemmon and climbing on the rocks to look out from up high.  I like going to the library, eating quesadillas for lunch, and playing games on Sunday night with our neighbors.  I miss our dog Furbee, Grandmas and Grandpas, Lego and toys, my friends and my bedroom.

Julia:  I liked the Arizona Desert Museum and Sunday night game nights - those are fun.  I like the food and how often we eat quesadillas in the RV.  We eat lots of salsa.  I like how the schoolroom looks.  I miss Furbee and my bed.

The kids are doing well in school and are looking forward to a little break time before returning to the classroom.  We are looking forward to Jodi's parents arrival today.  Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Jodi, Eric, Nathan and Julia Miller

Things are still going well here in Tucson.  We entered 2014 having already enjoyed one month here in Tucson.  It's hard to believe how fast time is going!

Life in a small camper is great in that it forces us to stay organized and work as a team.  (I made that sound really good, but it doesn't generally work out that way!)  Life in a city also has its good and bad parts.  The bad is what you would expect - traffic, noise, and concerns for safety in our neighborhood.  The good is that my work and the kids' schoolroom in the church are only a 10 second walk across the parking lot.  Also, when the camper gets too small we can go out to eat and with a 20 minute drive we can be hiking in Saguaro National Park or Sabino Canyon.

Julia's Christmas gift - a cake pop maker

Hiking in Sabino Canyon

Although we missed being at home for Christmas, we enjoyed a Christmas Eve supper and service at Shalom Mennonite and were invited to someone's house for lunch on Christmas Day.  The kids were very excited and thankful to receive Christmas packages from grandparents, friends and school.  Now we have to find room in the camper for them!

The work at CHRPA home repair continues to challenge and interest me.  My most recent of many humbling experiences was when I was trying to remove a bathroom faucet that was leaking and needed to be replaced.  I took out the plumbing with the greatest of ease.  After a quick pat on my back for a job well done, I went to remove the faucet.  Because of the leak, the connections were corroded.  I worked painstakingly for 20 minutes with my neck in a kink trying to get the flange off the faucet so I could pull it up through the hole in the sink.  My partner sprayed some nasty stuff on it to loosen it up.  This helped some, but mostly just made it stink under the sink.  Finally, after several more minutes of struggling through sweat, stink, neck pain, and ego, we decided to just cut it off with a grinder.  As I pulled the faucet up to cut it, it pulled right out!  Yep, the flange was smaller than the hole and I could have pulled that guy right out a half an hour before without an ounce of effort!  Should have checked on that a little sooner (and will next time).

But even more challenging, interesting, and humbling, is the part of the job that involves meeting and seeing inside the homes of so many people that I have done a pretty good job of ignoring the existence of.  We always chat, usually laugh, and occasionally eat together (I certainly wish there was more of that!).

After a time of trying to connect on our similarities, I hate the part at the end when we have to go through the required paperwork so they can prove they are poor enough to qualify for our services.  Although they are thankful for the help, I am certain it shames many of them to have to accept help because of their poverty.  None of us like to NEED help and they are no exception.

In years past I would not have thought about the shame factor.  Certainly the impoverished are not worried about their ego, they are just trying to get by.

But now I realize how ordinary these people are.  As a matter of fact, I realize how much better than ordinary many of these people are.  How did we manage to somehow turn the Biblical tables, vilifying the poor as lazy, and uplifting the wealthy as worthy?  Doesn't the Bible have it the other way around?  

I am trying to fight the way I have become accustomed to judging and categorizing people not on who they are as a person, but rather on how similar they are to me.

Below is a link to a good thought provoking article on poverty.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/30/what-dave-ramsey-gets-wrong-about-poverty/

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.  We wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Eric, Jodi, Julia and Nathan

Greetings from Tucson!  All is well.  We are enjoying our little RV in the church parking lot.  And we are anticipating Christmas and enjoying all the festivities this time of year.  We miss loved ones and appreciate all the photos and texts throughout the holidays!

Homeschooling for Jodi continues to be a challenge, especially with holidays and needing to get last minute Christmas gifts, baking done and other day to day things that arise.  Nathan and Julia are attentive students, however, it's tough to stay focused when the weather is nice outside plus their teacher is not as organized or as creative as she should be :-).  But they love reading, so whenever there is a lull, a book comes out and they are content!  

This weekend we had off and decided to get out of our camper for a while.  We debated for a while, but on Wednesday we ended up making reservations at a dude ranch just 12 miles from where we are staying.  Because we signed up so late, they gave us a good deal since they knew they wouldn't be full.

We all had a great time.  The kids had lessons and rides with other kids their age and Jodi and I took lessons and rides with adults.  Some of our rides were separate, however, since my skill level put me with the "try and stay on your horse" group rather than Jodi's "loping over the hills" group.

The ranch abutted the Saguaro National park, so our rides went through beautiful mountains filled with enormous saguaro cacti and all kinds of other cacti and desert plants.  It was a surreal place to ride, but at a bit risky since falling would mean landing on rocks and/or a cactus not to mention trail apples from the horses ahead.

Also of note is that we had our first Sonoran Hotdog, which is a local American/Mexican fusion.  It is a hotdog, wrapped in bacon, covered in pinto beans, salsa, mayonnaise, and mustard, in a bun, with a hot pepper on the side.  It is actually very good.

Working at CHRPA continues to be great in that the work itself is fun and being able to connect with so many people that are different from me is rewarding.  Today we put in a toilet for an 80 year old Korean War vet and his wife who works as a cook at a local Mexican restaurant.  I have seen poverty in developing countries before, but this is different.  I'm not sure if it's better or worse, but I guess it's all bad.  Their house should just be torn down and rebuilt.  They were very grateful and they resteamed for us the most wonderful tamales for lunch, definitely the best I have ever had.

It seems that I have to struggle with my own biases of poverty here more than I do when it is overseas.  As opposed to in Kenya, when I see poverty in America I tend to tack it up to bad personal choices rather than something that is out of their control.  It is true, when I am fixing a furnace and look over and see a big screen TV, I get a sense of poor decision making.

However, after talking with these people face to face, I get the feeling that they work hard and are not in poverty by choice.  I am sure that in spite of a tough childhood, many of them could have made the "right" decisions to work harder in high school, go off to college, and get a higher paying job.  There certainly are many of those stories out there in books and on Oprah.

But when I look back at my childhood, I think I was pretty much a product of my environment.  I tended to do what my friends did.  I took advice from and emulated my parents.  I went to college where my older siblings did.  Those people were the people that I was exposed to as a child and it would have been hard to stray from those influences.  I believe that I would be in the same boat as the people I am working for if I were born into their household.

If I believe that, then where is my compassion?

I do not know how fix poverty in America or if it is even possible (fixing their houses is definitely not the answer by the way!).   I may be unwilling to help fight poverty in America because of how difficult it would be, because I don't know how, or because I feel there are more important battles out there.  But if nothing else, I think it is important that I at least know about it and try to grasp the extent of it.

I did happen to receive via email a couple of links that I think are good concerning poverty in America.

http://www.holmesbargainhunter.com/article/20131216/COLUMN/712169923/-1/hbh#.UrDrFKJQHPs.facebook

www.mcc.org/fearnot/world/pennypoll  (click on the photo show)

We have already received many Christmas cards, gifts, and the knowledge that we are in your prayers.  We thank you so much for all of these.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Eric, Jodi, Julia, and Nathan

Greetings from Tucson!  We are now feeling more settled in after being here for almost two weeks. 

The kids continue to adjust to our homeschooling routine and trying to figure out how to enjoy their new surroundings.  They are doing well and even enjoying the small camper space still.   My focus has been homeschooling which has gone well but keeps me very busy!  We have had a chance to see some local sights here in Tucson.  Last week we visited the Sonoran Desert Museum.  They house rescued animals and have some amazing displays of minerals/plants and other desert gems.  It is an amazing museum where the kids learned a great deal and had fun.  

Saturday morning pancake tradition:

This past Sunday we attended Shalom Mennonite Church for the first time.  We enjoyed the fellowship and especially the singing of Christmas songs.  We are slowly getting into the Christmas spirit even without the snow!  Last evening all four of us ran a fun Christmas 5k run through the Winterhaven Festival of Lights.  It is a neighborhood in Tucson that decorates almost every tree and almost every inch of their yards, plus they pipe Christmas music into the street and there are hayrides and trolley rides for the public to ride to view the amazing display of lights.  It benefits the Tucson Food Bank which is where we will be volunteering on Wednesday evening, collecting canned goods to be distributed over the holidays.  Overall we are enjoying city life!

Tucson Botanical Gardens:

Another bonus to being here in Tucson is that we actually know some people here!  Sure, it's great to get to know new friends which we have lots of opportunity to do.  But we've also run into people that we either knew in the past or have some connection with through our families.  We have been able to spend time with close friends from college - the Matt Baer and Jeanne Yordy family.  They have graciously welcomed us to Tucson and given many recommendations of kid-friendly activities plus evenings here and there for we adults to relax and catch up while the kids jump on their trampoline.  That has been invaluable and we have so enjoyed reconnecting with them.  Many have asked us what our plans are for Christmas Day and such - we are looking forward to spending more time with their family over the holidays!

Eric continues to enjoy his work with CHRPA...his thoughts are below:

Every day is something new with housing repair with CHRPA (http://www.chrpaz.org/  if you want to check it out).  It is always fun in part because we get to meet and see the homes of the people that we are working for, the majority which are elderly.  They have always been very thankful and as helpful as they can be. 

Today I worked with two other guys fixing a roof.  It was a nice change of pace from fixing more furnaces and water heaters.  But I realized what a softy I am as a physician.  Roofing is hard work!  Thankfully it was nice and cool and I very much enjoyed the fresh air and the surrounding mountain views. 

The sad part of this job was that the roof should have been deemed beyond repair.  However, at a cost of $4-5,000, CHRPA couldn't replace the roof but was forced to spend much time, SO MUCH effort and eventually good money after bad to repair it again later.  It won't last long, but since the owners looked 90 years old it will hopefully hold out longer than they will!

I have noticed during my short time already how expensive it is to be poor.  When we repair things in a mobile home (the only option many poor have), you can see that anything that needs to be replaced is much more expensive than its traditional house counterpart.  A furnace, door, faucet, or whatever cost much more and is of poor quality.  The lack of insulation in mobile homes requires much more on heating bills.

In the long run, the roof we fixed today would be much cheaper to replace than fix, but that is not an option if you are 90 years old on a fixed income and don't have money now.  It isn't an option to buy a quality car that will reliably get you to work on time and one that doesn't cost thousands extra each year on repairs and fuel.  It often isn't an option to overextend on credit cards when you are trained as a medical technician but have been out of work for two years. 

I have talked to all these people.  They seem to be hard working people that have certainly made mistakes but are trying their best.  

I see the same thing in health care.  It is cheaper to eat unhealthy food, but the cost is realized later.  It is cheaper to avoid seeing a doctor for regular check-ups, but the resulting ER visit and hospitalization ends up costing much more.   

It is expensive to be poor.

On our way home from fixing the roof today, we watched a $10 million Air Force jet landing (there is a big base just a couple of miles from us).  $10 million could replace a lot of roofs, or make a lot of schools better, or create a lot of good will helping people overseas. 

But for now, we will keep patching roofs.

Thanks to all for the many thoughts and prayers.  We've enjoyed receiving Christmas cards already as well as emails, texts and phone calls!  We hope you all are experiencing a peace-filled Christmas season full of love and joy!

Eric, Jodi, Julia and Nathan Miller