Newsletter: September 2005

A NEW YEAR JUST BEGUN…

Hello everyone ! It’s now been almost a month, that I am back home from my summer vacations… So I thought it would be a good idea to write and tell you what’s new…

I know that you have all been pondering the meaning of my very noticeable since last semester regarding my usual writings. I have to admit that the making of my newsletters have been displaced way down at the end of my list of priorities these days..

Not that it is necessarily a bad thing, but I realize that writing to you is an activity that I appreciate and which keeps my writing abilities well awakened… Therefore, if you accept again to be on my sending list for this new school year, I commit myself to keep you a bit more informed on what’s going on, as much as will be possible… (Again, if you do not want to be part of my list, please do not hesitate to write back to me and I will remove your adress !

My goals for writing is first to keep contact with those of you that I barely see anymore. Any answer, even if it is short, will always be highly appreciated and will receive an answer from my part whenever I’ll be able to… (that is, when I will have finished sorting out my 400 e-mails that have accumulated in my inbox since this summer…) Secondly, I also write thinking that my newsletters will be particularly interesting for me and my family when my university years will be way behind !

A NEW WAY OF DOING IT

Knowing that my letters can (sometimes ?) be too long and that they can take up unecessary place on your computer, I decided to post my writings on the web for this year. So doing, I join the many others that have started a blog, which is a kind of diary open to the public through the internet. (Thank you Philippe for giving me the idea !

So take advantage of this letter ! It will be the last newsletter that you will receive as a whole !

EVER SINCE WE TALKED TO EACH OTHER…

Since the last time that I kept contact with you, the least I can say is that my existence has been quite « eventful » ! Standing out during my final tests period last spring was the suicide of a friend from Quebec… I had started to write to you a letter on that but I never got around finding time to finish it… The least I can say is that my emotions felt like they were on a rollercoaster during that time!

Then, there were my 2 movings in a 10 days period. Actually, at the end of my lease in residence, I moved my stuff to Vaughan’s room and I stayed in one of the rooms of the house where he is living as I waited to move again for our project in Montreal with Campus Crusades for Christ. The owner at Vaughan’s place has been extra kind with me and he didn’t even ask for me to pay for my stay for the few days that I was there… Maybe he was hoping that the wonderful moments that I spent there, being so close to my boyfriend (I only had one flight of stairs to go and I was at his place !) would make me want to quit the university residences this year to become one of his new tenants… Sadly for him, it didn’t work out that way… I am good with staying in the residences and I will stay. I have my intimacy, I’m very close to my classrooms and the shopping center. I know that if I had chosen to go stay in the same building as Vaughan, I might have had more of a hard time to prioritize my studies…

MONTREAL PROJECT WITH CAMPUS CRUSADES FOR CHRIST

I spent 3 months, living in Solin Hall (McGill University residences) with 39 other students (Vaughan included…) from universities all over Canada. Through livng this community life, we have learned to grow together in our faith. We found ourselves a job during the day (As for myself, I became an instructor for Mad Science… it was the ideal job for me !) During evenings and weekends, we had practical workshops on Christian living, Bible study groups, cofee-houses, social activities, and, most importantly, we were in constant watch for occasions to share our faith with people from any background in the great Metropolis.

It was one of the most enriching moments of my life ! I had gone to Montreal hoping to have an impact on the people around me for God but it is God that had an impact on me for the people around me. I realized, this summer, that the best way to make the most of my involvement in the causes that are close to my heart is precisely to spend time searching my heart and seeking this divine interior transformation that will produce in my life genuine compassion and sensitivity to the people around me. I learned the importance of being a human BEING instead of a human DOING. It is also during this time that I understood how too much busy I was and I made a few good resolutions regarding not taking on too much for my second to last semester of the Pre-Clinical part of my formation… Doing less to do more… here is the challenge that I am taking for this new school year ! Wish me good luck !

TRIP IN ROMANIA

Right after the Montreal Project, I flew to Eastern Europe to see again a country that I’ve held as very dear for a very long time : ROMANIA ! How my emotions were bubbling all over as I suddenly found myself immersed in a strange but known environement. The white paint on the trees (to reflect the car lights) along the way, the stork nests on the telephone posts, the donkey-driven carts in the streets, the mud-brick houses in the countryside, the penetrating smell of diesel in our worn minibus… all reminded me the times of old, all was summoning my attention !

During my first week, I participated in a project with International Childrent Aid Foundation, an american NGO. I would tell the Bible stories for the children’s daycamp, play with the orphans at the orphanage, pray for the sick at the clinic…and translate…and translate again… At the end, I almost got to the point that I was thinking in Romanian. People over there considered me as a peculiarity from Canada who had succeeded, by some mysterious miracle, to catch their language. But I soon realized that when the excitement of showing off my linguistic abilities weared off, I had to search to know and connect with the people for what they were as individual personons, and not as being part of a cultural community that I love. Understanding this had a big inpact on me and helped me to grow. I learned a lot through meeting Romanians.

For my second week, I visited with friends whom we had met in 1996, during our family trip there which had lasted 3 months. The Romanians from Brincoveanca have been touched to see that there existed someone from « the outside » who would come at their place not as a tourist, not as a volunteer for some humanitarian organisation, but simply to tell them that they are appreciated and that they are important in her life. My stay in the midst of this small, retired community has been filled with rich human encounters and intercultural experiences. I have been hosted by a gypsy family, washed my own clothes by hand, caught acarian bites, learned to cook typical local food… I have lived Romania…and it has been an incredibly growing experience !

BIBLE QUIZZING TOUR

As soon as I came back from my trip, I started another journey : a tour across different churches in the province to promote this Bible Quizzing game that I have talked to you about. (It’s a quizzing game based on the memorization of Bible books) We were hoping to recruit new teams for this year. We were lodged by a different host each night. With the jet-lag from my trip in Romania, I can say that I went through a few tough nights ! We did receive, however, a wonderful welcome everywhere we went and tons of fun as we practiced together and gave quizzing presentations.

GRAMP-JALAC (TO BE PRONOUNCED : GRAN-JAL-ACK)

At last ! Vacations ! Me and Vaughan have had the opportunity to pass our last week off school at our family land (The Gramp-Jalac), in the Laurentians. It has been a time of refreshing, rest and socialisation with the family on my mom’s side… What a pleasure to see each other again and to reconnect after such a long time of not seeing each other !

A NEW SEMESTER

I have had a good start up to now. I succeeded in maintaining myself more or less up to date in my studies. I learned to put the big pieces first in my schedule so I do not feel as if I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off ! In addition to my medical classes (Ethics, Epidemiology, Locomotion System), I take an Arab course with Vaughan (We are getting ready for our trip to Lebanon, next year !). I also started a theology course at the VIE Bible Institute, hoping to get a certificate that will be credited by the Montreal University. I find everything to be quite thrilling... and if I had not yet reached my 3rd page for this newsletter, I would have talked to you about it a lot more ! !

Oh well ! We should keep some for my next letter !

Thank you for wanting to be part of my life again this year ! May Life spoil you this week !