Posted in General Posts by Courtney MacLellan on 5/6/2010
I had an appointment with an infectious
disease specialist yesterday. All of the tests that were run when I
first got to Canada looked good and showed that my liver and lungs
are fine (which is the main concern with malaria). My malaria test
was also negative. The doctor ordered more bloodwork and ran a few
other tests and is going to get back to me with results. At this
point, the two main possibilities are that a) there is still a large
enough amount of the malaria virus in my liver that it's making me
sick and I just need another round of malaria treatment or b) because
malaria is such a foreign illness and I got sick with it twice in
such a short period of time, my body is taking a really long time to
recover. Either one is pretty straighforward and easy to take care
of, so hopefully it's one of those things. The doctor wants to make
sure that it's not another illness I could have picked up this year
just to be safe, and then we will discuss our next step.
It's rough to think that I might have
come home from the World Race when all I needed
were a few more weeks of rest. Obviously, it's good news and I hope that is the case. It just
doesn't make being home any easier. I'm doing okay at home though –
I miss the squad so much and I'd take my crazy world race life back
in a heartbeat, but I trust that God is good and this is what was
supposed to happen.
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Posted in General Posts by Courtney MacLellan on 5/2/2010
I am home. I left Togo on Thursday
night and arrived home early Saturday morning. At this point, I have
no plans to rejoin the squad. The Race is over for me. I'm sorry not
to have let anyone know, it happened pretty quickly.
The story: (just the thought of
recounting the past month makes me tired, so I'll try to keep this
short. I tried not to say much about having Malaria because I didn't
want anyone to hear the "M" word and get worried. Lots of people get Malaria, get treated and are perfectly fine. It just didn't seem to work out like that in my case.)
I got sick with Malaria at the end
of March in Ghana. Got treated, felt better, for a few days. Got sick
again (as did a teammate), we were both retreated, both got better.
The second time around, my "better" wasn't actually better, but I
just figured my body had been through a lot and was just needing more
time to recover. However, a few days after that I got sick again. I
stayed behind in the capital, Lome, while my team headed to a village
an hour away. Made my first visit to a Togolaise clinic. Received a
prescription for something that would give me an appetite and a
multi-vitamin (not exactly what I needed). Spent a few more days in
Lome and finally decided I was feeling well enough to rejoin my team.
Headed out to the village and spent the next two weeks more or less
laying on the couch. Visited a few more clinics without much luck (although I did get "diagnosed" with diabetes at one! Yeah, I don't have diabetes). I never got really sick, so I hoped that maybe my body was just
needing a lot of recovery time.
On April 20th, I got sick
again, fever, exhaustion, muscle aches, started having a little
trouble breathing, decided I absolutely needed to find a good doctor.
Tried another clinic, got really excited about the fact that they
didn't do anything dangerous and actually ran some tests! Returned
the next day to pick up test results. Ended up having an episode in
the waiting room where I was having trouble breathing. Got admitted
to the hospital. My tests came back showing that everything looked
okay. However, I clearly wasn't better. Spent five days in the
hospital, the third night I realized that my chart showed I was being
treated for stomach parasites rather than malaria (which explained a
lot about why no one seemed that interested in treating me, had a
talk with the doctor, "Of course she has stomach parasites! We're
world racers, I couldn't care less about her stomach!" - My awesome
team leader, Christina, who stayed with me in the hospital and used
her ER nursing skills to protect me). Finally, they started taking my
lungs seriously and gave me a bronchodilator and then discharged me.
All they were really interested in was treating my individual
symptoms and not finding out why I still hadn't fully recovered from
Malaria and I was feeling pretty good, so we went with it. That was Monday. At this point, I had no intentions of coming home. We
were supposed to head to Nigeria on Wednesday morning and I was more
than willing (and felt I was in good enough health) to give Nigerian
healthcare a shot. However, after I talked with my travel insurance
on Monday afternoon, I was informed that now that I had been admitted
and then discharged from the hospital for Malaria, no other
malaria-related medical expenses would be covered. So, the situation
was basically that I was in Africa, still not better, with no real
insurance. Logically, I was out of options, I had to come home. I
prayed a lot about it and God gave me overwhelming peace that it was,
in fact, time to come home.
Tuesday morning the official decision
was made. I spent all day Tuesday, trying to get things figured out
re: getting home and paying my hospital bills. I didn't even get to
tell my team I was leaving until around 8pm Tuesday night. Early
Wednesday morning, I said good-bye to the other teams in Lome and
they headed to Nigeria. Three squadmates stayed in Lome with me , finishing up with hospital stuff and getting ready to come
home. Flew out of Togo on Thursday night and arrived in Truro early
on Saturday morning.
So, I'm home. I've already had some
tests run in Halifax and they looked good. I have an appointment this
week with a specialist in Halifax and so things should start getting
figured out soon.
I'll post more about being home and how
I'm doing health-wise but for now, this is all I've got. I can't wait
to see everyone and catch up, but please be aware that the last week
or two has been a lot for me and I haven't had a chance to process
being home and what that means. It'll be a few days before I'm ready
to jump back into life in Canada, both health-wise and emotionally.
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Posted in Fun Facts by Courtney MacLellan on 4/7/2010
-If you have a birthday in the first week, the sweet ladies that cook your food will continue to call you Birthday Girl for the next three weeks. As in, "Birthday Girl! Your lunch is ready."
-Stores in Ghana enjoy names like "Anointed Hands Cake Decorating", "Ask the Lord Beauty Shop", "Jesus Lives Radiator Shop" and my personal favorite, "God Heals Fast Food".
-In Ghana, you greet everyone by shaking hands. And by everyone, I mean everyone. The small child going to pre-school, the man that sells phone minutes, the lady that runs the small store on the side of the road, the mother carrying her baby on her back and her laundry on her head, you get the picture. Five minute walks easily become 45 minute walks.
-You no longer think about weekend plans or your to-do list in the shower. Instead, you write sermon outlines in your head.
-The week-long convention on the Holy Spirit you've been advertising for weeks turns out to be your convention. You find out this fun fact two hours before the first meeting.
-You now smuggle drinks and snacks into all-night prayer on Friday night rather than the movie theatre. In fact, the closest you've come to a movie theatre is showing the Passion of the Christ in a dusty parking lot on a projector. (I stole this from Amy, it made me laugh).
-The receptionist at the malaria clinic knows most of your team by name. She is also convinced that Tyson has been withholding anti-malaria medication from the women on his team. We tried to explain that we all have our own, but she wasn't having it.
-When your malaria test is negative, the receptionist asks why you would assume you have malaria just because you're sick. When you come back two days later and the test is positive, she asks why you haven't taken any medicine for it yet.
-The chief of a village you're visiting points and smiles at you and makes the hand motions for sleep. Your squad leader kindly explains to you that he isn't inviting you to take a nap. However, you're not all that excited about being the fourth wife of a fifty year old Ghanaian villager.
-You spend anywhere from 1 to 4 hours navigating public transport, which involves cramming into three of four different fifteen-passenger vans, in order to reach your ministry destination. It's all worth it though because, well, first of all, you're doing ministry and gladly put up with a few inconveniences, of course, but also because you can buy ice cream on the side of the road while your van is stuck in traffic for thirty-five cents.
- In fact, you can buy almost anything on the side of the road from the comfort of your vehicle. Snacks, water, soccer balls, super glue, phone minutes, blow up toys, kitchen utensils, lamps, steering wheels, pretty much anything you might need.
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Posted in 06|Ghana by Courtney MacLellan on 4/7/2010
This blog is from March 15th - it just took me awhile to post it. :)
5:30 am – My alarm clock goes off.
5:50 am – I manage to pull myself out of bed.
6:00 am – We meet downstairs and head to Pastor Isaac's house.
6:30 am – We arrive at the "bus" station (aka 15 passenger vans in a dusty parking area).
6:30 – 8:00 am – We do worship, Amy gives a testimony and Christina preaches. The rest of us hand out pamphlets to the people waiting for the vans. It's not my favorite way to evangelize, but some people actually seem to listen and one woman asks us to pray for her legs.
8:00 am– We tear down the sound system (well, the boys do anyway) and the banner which has a picture of our entire squad on it and start to head home.
8:15 am – We live ten minutes from the van station but we stop to greet everyone we see – including the bus station man, a taxi driver, kids walking to school, random people on their way to work and we even bump into Pastor Isaac's uncle. We also stop to pray for a woman that has just had a baby and for another woman who is expecting a baby.
9:00 am– We have egg sandwiches and Nescafe for breakfast. We don't even think about real coffee anymore. We get really excited about the Nescafe. It has become a treat. In fact, later on, we discuss making a video about how much we love it and sending it to Nestle.
9:45 am – My entire team mysteriously disappears so I hang out with some of the neighbourhood kids and we listen to Lecrae. We also learn how to use an Ipod and talk about how Ghana is going to win the World Cup. It's really nice being in a country where I can actually communicate with the people.
10:30 am – I take a really long, really cold shower and sing Great Big Sea really loudly because my team is still mysteriously missing and no one can hear me.
11:00 am – I discover that my team is holed up in the other girls' room planning birthday stuff and I'm not allowed in so I go back to my room. I turn up the air conditioning, put on sweatpants, curl up in my sleeping bag and pretend I'm in Canada. I listen to an Andrew Shearman podcast and take so many notes that I might as well have just made a transcript.
1:30 pm – I wander around the hotel for a bit and consider how sad it is that I am spending my birthday alone and loving it. I chat with Amy and she tells me later that they kind of felt bad for leaving me alone all morning until she talked to me. Apparently I was kind of giddy. Hello, my name is Courtney and I am an introvert. I love alone time.
1:40 pm – I head out to the roof, put on my sunglasses, stick my earphones in and hang out with Jesus. It's basically incredible. And refreshing. And exactly what I need.
3:00 pm – Lunch time! It's fried yams, chicken and coleslaw. Which isn't all that African. And it's okay with me. Ghanaian food is not my favorite food so far...
3:30 pm – I was enjoying the roof so much that I decide to go back out for a bit longer. I get the fastest suntan of my life.
4:00 pm - Amy and I go running around our neighbourhood. I get sweaty in approximately 4.5 seconds, and dehydrated in 7. We have a nice chat about life.
4:45 pm – Get home to find that Team Rhema has arrived to help celebrate my birthday! I decide that I should probably shower before the birthday celebrations.
5:00 – 8:00 pm – Birthday party! We all just hang out and chat. Bill and I continue our conversation from Cambodia about how many heads of state we can name and have a long talk about the World Cup...and how many teams we can name.
My birthday was wonderful. Amy taught the Ghanaian women that cook for us how to make pizza. It actually turned out really well! My team also performed a skit that was a human singing birthday card. And hilarious. They made a video of our past five months together which was awesome. It's crazy how many things we've done and how many people we've met in five months. And then it was present time! My presents were really thoughtful and great.
8:00 pm – We head to the internet café and spend the first 15 minutes praying for the internet to work. In a room at the back of the internet place a men's choir is singing You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban. I realize, once again, that my life is weird.
8:15 pm - The internet actually begins to work and I start singing Jesus Loves Me This I Know....then I get embarrassed and stop. I check my e-mail and find that our contact from Cambodia that we went to the village with has e-mailed me pictures of the village kids holding a sign that says Happy Birthday Courtney that is decorated with their handprints. It's real cute. I look at it for a good ten minutes (mainly because the internet has stopped working, but also because I love it and I love them). I continue checking birthday messages and then I watch a video from my friend Sarah. She prefaces it by saying that I should only watch it alone because she thinks it's embarrassing. I'm in an internet café but I figure my team is busy doing their own thing and won't notice so I watch it. And when it starts playing I realize that the speaker hooked up to my computer is hanging on the wall and is really, really loud. So, we all enjoy the birthday video together. :)
10:00 pm – I'm now home and writing this blog and about to go to sleep because we have more bus station evangelism planned for 6:00 am. (This is also the latest I've stayed up since we arrived in Ghana! I'm kind of proud of myself. Most nights I've gone to bed between 6:30 and 8:00 because of jetlag).
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Posted in 06|Ghana by Courtney MacLellan on 4/7/2010
We didn't have a lot of free time this month so I didn't do much blogging. I just thought I'd share a few things from my journal to try to update you on this month.
March 13th-
Yesterday at the village when Pastor Isaac was talking about how he hoped each of us would come back, I started thinking about how I could help in a more practical way. I'm not sure how I feel about the expectations that we are going to fix everything, as though we walk around with dollar signs on our foreheads, but there's no denying that the need is there. I like what Pastor Isaac said about the villages: they worship idols and lack clean water and so when Christians come in and dig wells they are also able to introduce the Jesus in whose name they provide clean water.
March 14th-
We went to the national thanksgiving and prayer service today. People have been fasting and praying all over the country since Ghana's Independence day on March 6th. It was really long but I'm glad we went. The pastor that spoke and then the president both said some really good things about not just waiting for God to hand them blessings, but to work for it, trusting that God will bless their work.
March 16th-
We showed the Jesus film tonight at the van station. I was pretty skeptical about it so it was cool to see how many people came to see it – probably about 100 people were there. I LOVED how the crowd clapped and cheered after each of Jesus' miracles.
After the film, a TON of kids crowded around us, it was a literal mob. They were pressing so tight that I was afraid some of the smaller kids would get hurt. It was really overwhelming. They were pushing each other out of the way to get closer to us and they were holding our hands, hugging us, touching our hair and skin. One girl told me that they thought we were from Compassion and that we were going to sponsor them to go to school. They were so mean to each other, almost cruel. They were trying to embarrass each other. They even started fighting. I was holding the hand of one of the girls from the church and one of the kids whacked her in the head, hard.
March 17th-
We did school ministry today. In the morning, we went to Tower school, which is kindergarten to junior high. I like this school a lot. The worship is really fun, everyone dances and claps and a few of the boys pound on the drums. I preached this morning, about how we are powerful as children of God. I enjoyed it. I liked that when I asked them a question, they actually answered and when I said, "right?" they said "amen!" In the afternoon, we went to the all-boys high school. Enjoyed some more worship and dancing and then Mike gave a testimony and Tyson preached. It's funny that preaching to 600 high school students is no big deal now.
March 22nd-
Tonight was the first night of our Holy Spirit convention at the church. Tyson preached, so I gave a testimony. During worship, the pastor's four-year-old daughter was sitting in my lap and braiding my hair.. She pretty much took all of the hair from one half of my head and braided it. She finished right before I got called up to give my testimony and it took her so long to do it that I didn't have the heart to take it out. So I go up to the pulpit with my hair looking CRAZY and I start sharing a few stories about times when God has made me laugh. However, I really don't think they translated very well, because no one is laughing. In fact, no one is even shouting amen, and they love to shout amen. So, I'm standing there, with my hair looking insane, wearing big, baggy pants that I got in Asia and the kids have dubbed my "china pants" (they make me pretend to be a sumo wrestler when I wear them), and I'm telling stories about how God is funny that no one understands. Except, I'm kind of telling them like someone who's really bad at joke telling because I keep cracking myself up before I get to the funny part. I sit down and Tyson gets up to redeem the situation by giving an awesome sermon about the Holy Spirit, in spite of the few hours notice. He gets a lot more amens and hallelujahs than I did...
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Posted in 06|Ghana by Courtney MacLellan on 4/7/2010
We arrived in Ghana on March 8th. We were really busy and the internet didn't always choose to work when we had free time so I haven't been able to post blogs yet. We stayed in a suburb of Accra called Gbawe and we worked with Pastor Isaac. We did school ministry, house visits, outreach and church services. We almost always preached and gave testimonies. It's been really different from any other ministry we've done so far. It's been good to be challenged in something new though. It turns out that I actually kind of enjoy preaching.
When we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by a banner with a squad photo on it and all of the pastors we are working with were there to greet us. Some of them traveled hours to get to Accra. Before we arrived, they'd been praying regularly for us and some of them had even memorised our names. Ghanaians are very welcoming and friendly. Strangers on the street will stop to introduce themselves and tell us that we are "welcome to Ghana". We have been very well taken care of in the time we've been here.
When we first arrived, I had major culture shock. It was a hard transition to go between two cultures that are so different from each other and from my own. It took about a week and half before I felt like I settled in. I feel like this is definitely the month where I have missed home the most and talked the most about what food from home I want to eat..(Cereal, Greek salad, pita pizzas and blueberry cheesecake for the record). It's also the month where it has most hit me just how long the world race is. We're at the halfway point now and in some ways it's hard to believe that it's already half over but then I think about how long ago Guatemala feels and it hits me that the Race is actually REALLY long.
[There are a few more blogs about Ghana coming and then hopefully I'll be able to update everyone on Togo!]
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Posted in 04/05|Cambodia by Courtney MacLellan on 3/7/2010
Courtney Styres birthday was on March 6th! So obviously Logos had to celebrate!
We started the celebrations off with a surprise party the night before we left Siem Reap.
Cake time!
Played a few party games...
Poor Dalin....
Court's actual birthday was a travel day, so we had birthday suprises to keep the travel fun!
Once we arrived in Bangkok, we continued the celebrations with dinner at a Japanese restaurant!
Courtneys and Amy at dinner!
Parachute pants!
Finished the day at Alice in Wonderland in 3D!
We're pretty glad Courtney was born. :)
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Posted in 04/05|Cambodia by Courtney MacLellan on 3/7/2010
We said good-bye to the kids in the village on Wednesday afternoon. It was, by far, the most difficult good-bye yet. We spent two months falling absolutely in love with these kids and it was not easy to leave. Later that night, I went out on to the balcony and just sat there. My heart hurt. It's kind of funny because the last few months I've been praying that it would be hard to say good-bye because I want to know at the end of the month that I loved the people we ministered to well. And then this month it was so hard to leave the kids. And I told God that I couldn't feel like this six more times. But I am also learning that God really is my comfort and after I spent some time with Him that night I felt so much better. Now I am back to hoping that I can love everyone we meet as much as I love our village kids. :)
Here's a little look at why I love them so much:
Srey Lim wearing my sunglasses.
Courtney and I with Dalin who also helps out at the village.
(And translates for us!)
Right before we left on our last day.
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Posted in Fun Facts by Courtney MacLellan on 3/6/2010
 -You've developed a random cough, you're toiletry bag includes lice
shampoo and worm medication and you feel more concerned when you DON'T
have rumbly tummy then when you do.
-You casually mention to your team that you are going to Africa in less than two weeks and the conversation goes something like this:
"Hey, I just realized that in less that two weeks we will be in AFRICA!"
"Huh, that's nice. What's for dinner?"
-The phrases "choose in" and "say amen" get you through your day.
-Things like toilet paper, towels, pillows and washing machines have become luxury items. Air conditioning is like being transported straight to heaven.
-You judge dirty clothes based on your ability to wash them rather than on whether or not they smell or are covered in dirt.
-Bangkok has become your Asian hometown (we've been back and forth six
times in the last three months) and the Bangkok YWAM base feels like
home.
 -You buy your teammate a birthday gift that you know she won't like
because you just really want to see her wear parachute pants.
-$2 for anything is expensive.
-Your hygiene habits have become a paradox: sometimes you don't shower for three to four days but you wear more skirts and jewelry than you ever did at home.
-You go to the theatre to watch a movie and it feels so much like Canada that when the movie is over and you turn around and see that everyone else in the theatre has black hair, it freaks you out for a minute because you forgot you were in Asia.
-You're new favorite thing to do during border crossing is to sing children's songs and do the actions.
-You spend an afternoon sitting on a wooden platform with women in the village, smiling at them (they don't speak English, you don't speak Khmer) and playing with kids and you find yourself wishing you could stay forever.
 -There's not really any such thing as "waiting" to cross the street, you just go because otherwise you'd be waiting until the next day. You don't really look both was either, it's safer to just walk straight across staring straight ahead.
-In Asia, you've taught English to bar girls, to adults above a bank, to kids in numerous schools, to kids in a church, to university students in a student centre and above a coffee shop and to monks in a Buddhist temple.
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Posted in A Day In The Life... by Courtney MacLellan on 3/6/2010
A little snapshot of my life in Cambodia:
Every morning we eat breakfast as a team. Usually we get breakfast from the local market because it's much cheaper than the grocery store. However, the market is really crowded, really smelly and has random dead chickens, fish and pig heads hanging out everywhere. One night this week, I remembered right before I went to bed that it was my turn to get breakfast in the morning. I usually try to get it the day before to avoid the early morning rush (and to avoid having to get up early) but I forgot to go. I decided to go by myself because I didn't make a plan with Mike and I didn't want to wake him up. Here's how my morning went:
I head out to the shed to grab a bicycle. I grab one and start to wheel it to the street only to realize the tire is flat. I take it back and get the other bike and its tire is flat as well. I'm already a little grumpy at the prospect of facing the market madness and the flat tires just make it a little bit worse. Grumpily, I start walking toward the market, dreading the boring walk and the heat. However, five minutes into my walk I meet Amy on her way back from her morning exercise and she has my Ipod. The walk suddenly becomes much more enjoyable as I blast some Snow Patrol and make my way to the market.
I get to the market and it is even more jam-packed than usual. I try to make a game plan in order to get out there as fast as possible. I head to the bakery first to grab bread. The one-year-old twins of the owner are there and I immediately get handed a baby to cuddle. The day is looking even better. I buy my bread (which turns out to be moldy when I get home...oops) and say good-bye to the babies.
I head back to the center of the market to get eggs but I take a long detour through the tourist-y section in order to avoid the "dead animal" part of the food market. I find myself judging all of the tourists who are walking around wide-eyed and snapping photos. And then I remember that I don't actually live in Siem Reap and am therefore also a tourist. I finally make my way to the eggs, leaving the tubs of live, flapping fish a wide berth and buy my eggs. For a minute I am outraged at being charged the "white person price". That is, until I realize I am white. I begin to realize how much Siem Reap has become "home" to me in the last two months.
As I mentioned earlier the market is absolutely packed this morning. As usual, the old ladies simply shove me out of the way when they need to get by. I'm more or less used to this by now and figure when I'm old I'll just come back to the market and shove their grand-kids out of the way to make up for it...or something. I'm waiting in a particularly bad traffic jam when the old lady behind me starts jabbing me in the back to move. I'm literally nose-to-nose with the person in front of me, and so I obviously can't go anywhere. When the back jabbing doesn't work, she literally grabs my butt with both of her hands and tries to maneuver me out of her way. Using my bum as the steering wheel. I feel that this is a new low, even for the market.
I stand there feeling incredibly awkward until the traffic jam resolves itself and the old lady is able to successfully shove me out of the way. I then continue on my merry way to the fruit stand. However, half way between the eggs and the fruit I hear a shout so I look around to see what's happening. And as I look up, one of the vegetable ladies jumps off of her vegetable table (they sit on the table with the vegetables) and starts brawling with another vegetable lady. Seriously. Brawling. Vegetables are flying everywhere. The entire (extremely large) crowd makes a beeline to watch the fight. Eventually, market security separates them (I didn't even know they existed, they have walkie talkies and everything, which is rather impressive for Cambodia).
After the women are separated, everyone is still crowding around. You really don't see open fighting in Cambodia, especially between women. I think it's a novelty to everyone and I know it will be awhile before I can move. I'm standing next to one of the random "restaurants" in the market and I see people drinking what looks like iced-coffee so I use my best hand motions to order one, just to kill time while I wait and because I'm slightly curious if it's any good. It eventually comes (in a plastic bag of course) and I take a sip. And on my very last day in Siem Reap, after two months, I discover that the food market has the exact same ice coffee that I was addicted to in Thailand. For fifty cents. And I feel a little sad. But then I remember how much condensed milk it has and I think it might be good for my health that I didn't know any sooner.
I buy my fruit and then hurry home to lovingly cook breakfast for my team. On the way home, I follow two precious old ladies carrying their baskets from the market and hope I'll have a best friend to go market shopping with when I'm old.
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