A World of Difference - Congo Initiative

This Congo Initiative update can be found in full, by clicking here!

A World of Difference

On a cool, overcast and breezy morning on July 28, students, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, family members and people from the wider community gathered to celebrate UCBC's second Commencement. Graduates were robed in their garments with stoles draped around their necks--down one side was printed "U.C.B.C." and down the other was the name of their academic discipline. The Commencement address was given by Daystar University's Vice-Chancellor Dr. Timothy Wachira. Special awards were presented by UCBC President ("Rector") Dr. David Kasali. The UCBC Welcome  Center was dedicated to the late Lyn Lusi, a courageous woman who dedicated her entire adult life to Congo, founded HEAL Africa with her husband, and served on the Board of CI-UCBC in Congo. 

So what's one more graduation? Honestly, we have them every year. Many of us have gone through them ourselves and sat through those of family and friends. Aside from the distinctly Congolese flair, in many ways this graduation looked a lot like other graduations. So what's the big deal?

The big deal is that the young men and women graduating from UCBC one month ago are not simply cogs in the machine. They did not graduate merely by satisfactory completion of assignments and rote memorization, which is the standard for Congolese universities. These graduates have not simply completed their studies, but they have been formed. They have been transformed. And now they will go out to transform. It will not happen overnight. It will not be easy. It will take years. Decades. Generations. But a new thing has begun and is flourishing at UCBC--the intentional, deliberate formation of leaders who are choosing peace, justice and hope for Congo--who take seriously the call to serve others. 

The big deal is that each graduate from UCBC represents another rupture in the cycle of poverty. Poverty that is not only physical, but mental. Circumstances may not change, but mindsets do. Value systems are formed that give new meaning to being fully human. Life, in all of its beauty and terror, is suddenly very different when seen through the lens of hope rather than despair. This is why a UCBC graduation makes all the difference in the world.  

UCBC Graduation 2012

Enjoy a few of our photos from this year's graduation ceremony!

Ready to leave home and go to the graduation ceremony

Students ready for the ceremony to begin!

On the way down to the ceremony - students were so happy!!

Family waiting for the graduates to arrive

Music with Mama Hulda as a prelude

Noé on the keyboard

The graduates getting closer to the stage!

Guitarists

Serious (or anxious?)graduates

Applied Science students waiting to receive their diplomas. 

The Rector and leaders handing out the diplomas

Graduates celebrating (during the ceremony) with friends and family

Lots of flowers, photos, and laughter!

Noé and Bethany - during the ceremony

A proud new graduate!

Young family members enjoying the celebration with a cold Coke!

Some of the new grads with President, Dr. David Kasali

A young son looking hungrily for the food - where is it?!

At the reception with  Noé's Mama

A great photo opp outside the Lyn Lusi Welcome Center at UCBC

Congratulations to all of the UCBC Graduates!! We are so proud of you! :) 

Campus Frenzy

It is two days before Graduation and the campus is in a frenzy. 

Most students have finished up exams. But a few have one this morning.

The library has been successfully and totally moved from the computer lab. We now have a library with book shelves holding hundreds of books, tables to study at and even a few couches and comfy chairs to read in. It’s a proper library.

Irene and Jerlas after presenting her final project (very well)!

Candidates for graduation have presented their final papers, publicly defended them, and are now awaiting results to find out if they will graduate on Saturday. (see photo on the right)

Visitors have been steadily arriving since Monday. Even more will come tomorrow.

The stage is getting set up, as are the tents for spectators to sit under during the graduation ceremony. Chairs and parking and decorations are all being prepared. The campus is changing before our eyes!

He occasionally uses a brush to "cut in," but the painter
does not protect the space around him, like the floors! 
Our cleaning crew will have a bit more work today :)

Final grades are being submitted (or calculated!) by the teaching staff – hopefully providing all of the grades and details for the 2^nd semester.

The diploma _____ (covers? books? folders? what are they called?) are here, with UCBC’s logo on the front – they look wonderful.

The grass – all of the grass – is being cut today. Thankfully not by hand, or with the weed whacker (there must be a real name for that!), but with a small push mower. It is gas-powered, so even though it will take most of the day to finish the lawn, at least it won’t take 3 days and 10 people!

Painting outside of the Welcome Center

The walls in the Academic Building are getting a fresh coat of paint... Dad, you might not be so impressed with the technique - but hopefully it will look great when the work is finished! The outside of the Welcome Center is also getting a make-over. (see photos on the right)

The CI-UCBC Board meeting started yesterday and goes until tomorrow. It is great re-connecting with members of the board and getting to know some of them a bit better.

Noé presented about the Work Program yesterday in the Board Meeting. He talked about the progress of the Program and some of the challenges that he’s faced… And he put together a wonderful presentation showing the changes on the UCBC campus, over the past four years. It’s remarkable to see.

UCBC is getting ready for graduation! 

Hopefully we’ll be able to upload the presentation so you can see the photos, soon!

Until then, it’s back to work :)

UCBC's 1st Annual Tree Day!

June 13th, 2012 - one of my favorite days at UCBC! 

Please check out the update from Congo Initiative on Tree Day here at UCBC - The Tree Planting Project.

(The one that I'd written got lost when my computer re-started itself to install updates... [Click here to read a tiny bit more] So check out what Congo Initiative wrote instead!)

I'm proud of Noé for all of the work he put into organizing this special day! It was a great celebration of the gift we have received, in our 90+ acres of land; a celebration of the nature and creativity of God - and it was enjoyed by the whole UCBC community. 

Enjoy the photos, dear ones! 

June Update

Dear Friends,

The latest update (and the first one in a while) is completed and ready for you!

June 2012 Report

Please read it, share it, and enjoy it!

With love,
Bethany and Noé

Trees and rats

Noé and I after planting his tree on campus (mine was already
planted - more photos to come, hopefully soon!)

I had written a full update and before publishing it (I was waiting for some photos to upload), I went to chapel and while there... My computer installed updates and restarted. My update was totally lost. So since then, I haven't had the words / focus to try to re-write it... But in the mean time, for now, here is a photo of that day, the UCBC's first annual tree day.

Also... Watch out for the rodents at UCBC!!

This is what the mice (rats???) did to our container, which was
closed tightly, but forgotten at UCBC overnight... Yikes.

Future UCBC students

They visited UCBC this morning and went on a tour of the campus, visiting classrooms and staff. It was a pleasure to have these future students with us today!

Learning from Anne Bailey Medley

Anne Medley is back at UCBC (click here to read my post about her time with us, in 2010). This time she's here for just under a month, but it's so good to have her back teaching again. She made a huge impact on our students in 2010 and this year's class was excited to have the opportunity to learn from her as well.

Anne with students, 2012

She just put an update on her Congo in Focus website, please go to her site to check out the work that UCBC students are doing!
Congo in Focus














*updated 29 May 2012*

grading English homework

Spending the morning grading English homework isn't so much fun...

Especially when I reflect on the struggle that we had in our last class, Saturday morning... My mind keeps thinking, "How will tomorrow's class go?"

Ah.

The good thing about Saturday was that almost 40 students came to class that morning... it was nice to see some of the "new" faces join the rest of us in class! hehe

[Attendance issues, anyone?]

So today I'm grading homework... And trying to prepare (myself?! hehe) for whatever tomorrow holds.

But grading the homework while listening to some good music and eating a piece of cherished chocolate is fantastic!

Thank you Mom, for the Reese's! :)

And thank you Sarah, for the new music!
xoxo

Chocolate, you make almost anything better!

Boosting brain power at UCBC

Being bilingual 'boosts brain power' - BBC News

1 May 2012 Last updated at 07:49

Learning a second language can boost brain power, scientists believe.

The US researchers from Northwestern University say bilingualism is a form of brain training - a mental "work out" that fine-tunes the mind.

Speaking two languages profoundly affects the brain and changes how the nervous system responds to sound, lab tests revealed.

Experts say the work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides "biological" evidence of this.

For the study, the team monitored the brain responses of 48 healthy student volunteers - which included 23 who were bilingual - to different sounds.

They used scalp electrodes to trace the pattern of brainwaves.

Under quiet, laboratory conditions, both groups - the bilingual and the English-only-speaking students - responded similarly.

But against a backdrop of noisy chatter, the bilingual group were far superior at processing sounds.

They were better able to tune in to the important information - the speaker's voice - and block out other distracting noises - the background chatter.

'Powerful' benefits

And these differences were visible in the brain. The bilingualists' brainstem responses were heightened.

Prof Nina Kraus, who led the research, said: "The bilingual's enhanced experience with sound results in an auditory system that is highly efficient, flexible and focused in its automatic sound processing, especially in challenging or novel listening conditions."

Co-author Viorica Marian said: "People do crossword puzzles and other activities to keep their minds sharp. But the advantages we've discovered in dual language speakers come automatically simply from knowing and using two languages.

"It seems that the benefits of bilingualism are particularly powerful and broad, and include attention, inhibition and encoding of sound."

Musicians appear to gain a similar benefit when rehearsing, say the researchers.

Past research has also suggested that being bilingual might help ward off dementia.

A little motorcycle ride to UCBC

(This is not the gate to our house. But I used to live here!)

Noé and I are really blessed to have our motorcycle. I call it ours but he's had it for almost a year already. Since I got back from the States in July, Noé's called it my motorcycle, and I've called it his. But, "what's mine is yours, what's yours is mine..." It's our motorcycle and it's really helped us so much. 

I remember so many times in the last few years where we'd have to borrow from friends or rent them if we needed to go places for the day... It's really just been a huge blessing for us to have our own source of reliable transportation.

A few days ago, Noé and I left home to go to work (albeit a bit late, due to yours truly). When we left the house, Noé said he didn’t know if we’d have enough gas to make it. I thought maybe we’d stop to buy some gas along the way, to ensure we’d “make it…” But he said, let’s see! :)

So we left.

And we passed the gas station.

And as we were going around the last corner before UCBC, I was feeling pretty good about how we’d nearly made it!

And then Noé says, “Oh, that’s the sign. We’re out of gas.”

(I still don’t know what the “sign” is, but this has happened a few times where he knows we have a few moments [or meters or centimeters or…?] to go until we actually run out of gas. And at this point, we'd never actually run out of gas, so the "sign" is actually pretty helpful.)

Anyway, instead of stopping on that corner, where the last little boy was selling gas in old ½ liter water bottles – we kept going.

We were so close.

We got to just before the UCBC driveway, when we were no longer sputtering forward, but coasting… And then we coasted to a stop. So I hopped off the motorcycle and Noé pushed it across the street (we have to cross traffic to get to UCBC).

He then told me to get back on. I smiled and couldn’t help but say, “Shouldn’t I just walk down the driveway?” He was like, no – let’s go. So I get on, and we easily coasted down the whole driveway to our regular parking spot underneath one of the trees.

As I got back on the motorcycle to enter UCBC, Noé reminded me that the entire driveway slopes downhill… And sure enough, my husband got us to UCBC, in spite of us not having enough gas.

It was hilarious.

Memorable.

And a lot of fun.

I’m thankful for these little moments that God gives us.

It could have been stressful, annoying, frustrating. But it was something that just cracked us up. Nobody knew we ran out of gas, and so what if they had known! We got to UCBC, we were able to get more gas before the end of the day, and get back home - all without a "problem."

It was a good morning!