a little light from the dark

The Home Stretch

Matt Fisher — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:32:38 +0000

Man, so it’s been a while since I wrote anything…sorry about that. I guess i just have not been inspired to write. I think it was easier when i first got here, when things were still new and fresh…when this was not yet “my life”. Now it’s just daily life…yeah, i see zebras and such, and stand guard for friends at ATM’s, and yeah i spend my days with ex-drug dealers and homeless fishermen…but i guess anything can become normal eventually, eh? It’s a lot harder to write about normal.

But the time of this being my life is quickly ending. As of today, I have 29 days until I am homeward bound. I am starting to think a lot about what i did here, what I am taking with me, and what I am leaving behind. i know i’ve changed, but it doesn’t really feel like it. I think sometimes it’s hard for us to see our own change. maybe it will be more obvious once I’m home. i told a friend yesterday that travelling the world changes who you are. Unless you just have no desire to learn or change, i think it is impossible to spend time among other cultures and not be shifted. I know my views and perspectives on many topics have shifted. I wrote a couple of pieces, on topics like faith and why we fail to help the poor, which i never posted on here (maybe i will get them up once i have time to make them a little more coherant). Writing them really proved to me that the way i see the world is forever changed, hopefully for the better.

So, I’m sure a lot of you want to hear more about the little roadtrip that produced all of those facebook photos. I will start by saying two things: 1) A roadtrip in Africa is a whole different beast from an American roadtrip and 2) If you ever get the chance to drive through Africa, don’t let anything stop you.

In 15 days we drove from Cape Town through Botswana, to Livingstone, Zambia, then across the border to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, back west to Rundu, Namibia and then down through the Namib Desert back home. We have teams in each of those 3 cities, and our goal was to visit each of them, to come alongside and encourage them, to help resolve issues and whatever else we could do for them.

In Zambia, we camped in tents on the shore of the Zambezi River, complete with crocs, hippos, poisonous caterpillars and a colony of giant spiders…fun stuff, huh? We were right in the middle of a string of mud-hut villages that dot the banks of the river, part of the explorer Livingstone’s “smoke from a thousand villages”. With the team, we visited villagers, had bible studies with interested neighbors, fixed houses and more. For one house we repaired, we needed to rebuild the leaking roof. So i spent the afternoon chopping down trees in the bush with a machete until my hands started bleeding…sadly, that did not take very long, me being the city boy that i am. On another day, we spent the afternoon visiting a young girl who was dying, literally wasting away, of HIV/AIDS. It was quite possibly the saddest thing i have ever seen.

In Zimbabwe, just across the border, we stayed in a poor community called Chinotimba, where our team is living. i must say, I loved the people there. So open, kind and friendly. Also, they have the greatest names ever. Some names from people I actually met: Love-more, Try-more, Okay, Obvious, Blessed, Blessing…the list goes on. It was so fun to spend a couple of days with the team, in the homes of these people, hearing there stories, praying with them and just seeing their lives.

going from Vic Falls to Rundu, the climates could not have been more different. Vic Falls, being right next to its namesake, is lush and green, full of wildlife. Rundu is…sand. Sand roads, sand yards, sand sand sand. We got our huge 4×4 Land Cruiser stuck on flat ground in a sand pit, in the middle of the road. Nonetheless, it was good to be there with the team. i got to practice with one of the local club soccer teams (on their sand field), which was a lot of fun. I also got to visit a guy who my friends, Janis and George, had met at a bar. We spent an afternoon helping this guy and a few of his friends learn to read the word and form his own opinions, instead of being told by others what to think. He quite enjoyed it, and felt like a stronger person, more able to choose for himself what to think and believe. We also had the pleasure of visiting a village of the local San people. They are the original inhabitants…think Bushmen. we took them some food supplies and helped build/decorate a new school building for their kids. the school also doubles as a dorm for a number of young orphan girls who had been sleeping in the bush. this was the first time i have ever seen, in person, all of the kids with distended, malnourished bellies, like on the infomercials. It was sad, but at the same time, the kids seemed happy. That’s one thing that really struck me in all of the places we visited…people are content with what they have…something so many of us wealthy westerners are never able to quite achieve.

After Rundu, we decided to take and extra day, and our leftover travel funds, to visit Etosha National Park in Namibia, one of the best game reserves in Southern Africa. It was amazing to spend a day and a half driving around spotting wildlife. We saw over 60 giraffes, countless herds of zebra and antelope, elephants, rhinos, a hyena, and even 3 lions lounging in the shade of a tree. It was most definitely worth the price of admission, and was a fitting end to our roadtrip.

So that is my trip in a nutshell. My next bit of travel will see me back in good ole TX. I love it here and will be quite sad to leave it all behind, but at the same time, it will be nice to be home again. See you all soon!

Happy Birthday Big Brother

Matt Fisher — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:33:44 +0000

Thirty years ago today, in good ole’ San Antonio, TX, my big brother was born. Many of you know my brother, some of you don’t. But I am guessing that most everyone reading this has heard me talk about him enough to know that he is one of my favorite people. Now, my family is not really that big on gift giving…don’t get me wrong, we have fun on Christmas mornings and birthdays, but I think we do a good job of not going overboard with gifts. What we DO enjoy, though, is doing personal things for each other on special occasions. So today, on his big 3 – 0, I want to take a minute to let you all know a few things that are great about my brother. So, Michael Ryan Fisher…here’s to you.

Lets start with a good childhood memory: back in our WWF wrestling-watching days, we used to gather all of the pillows in our entire house, build a makeshift wrestling ring in our parents’ bedroom and practice all the moves we saw on TV on each other. This quite often ended with me injured and/or crying, but that never stopped us for very long. Fun times, for sure.
On a less ridiculous note, the man knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to go after it with everything he has, even if it leads him to the other side of the world. I know a lot of people who say they want this or that thing, but very few who are willing to shape their lives around their dreams and goals to the extent of my brother.
Also, he is an idea man. If you have known my brother very long, you have probably heard at least one or two of his business/adventure/entrepreneurial schemes…well, I have heard pretty much all of them, and even been dragged into a few of them, not that that’s a bad thing. One of these days, one of his ideas is going to hit it big, and we are all going to end up working for him.
Two words: facial hair. Exhibit A:
My brother is my favorite travel partner, as well. So far we have toured the entire western U.S.(multiple times), hung out on the North Shore in Hawaii and cruised around Ireland with our dad. Next up…motorbike tour through Thailand…hopefully.
Another thing I really appreciate about my brother is that he is not afraid to question things, even the hard things. Even when it forces him to re-examine his own ideals and convictions, finding what is right and true is more important to him than staying comfortable and protecting his pride. I think that’s a pretty rare thing
He LOVES to dance. In our family, he got 100% of any dancing genes my parents may have passed on…leaving me with the other zero percent. He even thinks he’s pretty good, which leads to some entertaining times…I’m pretty sure there are one or two youtube clips of him out there that prove my point.
We laugh together…a lot. Knowing someone for your entire life makes for a lot of inside jokes, crazy situations, etc. etc. Just ask him some time about our evening in Dingle, Ireland when we laughed until we cried in a local pub while looking up ridiculous websites on our dad’s iPhone. Who knew bacon tacos could be so funny.
he is my resident music guru. People tell me a lot that i have great taste in music, but i must admit that probably at least 50% of my music selection comes directly from Ryan’s playlists. If you ever are bored of your same old music, just ask him for some suggestions, and you will end up with more new tunes than you can really even listen to.
And the number one great thing about my brother…is that I know that I can always count on him to stand beside me, to encourage, support, challenge and pray with me. I can’t count the number of times we have talked late into the night about life, dreams, hopes, God, girls, frustrations, fears, crazy business ideas and anything else you can think of. He knows me better than most people ever will, and I know that I can trust him to be there for me, and he knows he can expect the same from me. Everyone needs a friend like that. It just makes it extra fun that he is my brother as well.

Feel free to add to the list down in the comments. If you want to help celebrate him on his 30th, leave a note below saying something about him…something you appreciate, a good/funny memory, anything else you could possibly want to say about him.

Happy birthday, big brother. Love you.

Lesotho

Matt Fisher — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:58:27 +0000

Photos first today:

Things I did this week:

Things I did NOT do this week:

I got back late last night from a whirlwind of a roadtrip to Lesotho (leh-soo-too). I went, along with 4 friends from Cape Town, to the small enclave kingdom to help some friends of ours who live there run an Easter camp for local village kids. The kids ranged from 8 years to 18 years old, were almost all orphans, living with aunts and uncles, homeless, etc. they spoke little to no English. They were also the most enchanting collection of kids that I have ever been around.

Our trip began at 4:07am last Thursday morning, when we left my house in Cape Town, drove 1300 kilometers across the Great Karoo Desert, the Free State, some of the most beautiful farmland I have ever seen and, finally, to the border of Lesotho. At 7:15pm, with the sun going down we reached the border, where 4 out of the 5 of us were quickly ushered through with visa stamps, while one of us, a Zambian friend with an expired SA visa (it’s a long story, but it is SA’s fault, not his, and they know about it) was questioned and detained for deportation as an illegal immigrant. It took us an hour, a lot of pleading with border security and a lot of prayer to get them to let him go with a fine.

With one disaster narrowly averted, we drove the final 10 ks into Butha Buthe, to Mama’s house. Now Mama is pretty much exactly what you would picture…a large black woman who loves to cook for a crowd, make people feel welcome and just generally be a “mama” to anyone who needs it. It was awesome to find myself in yet another country where I know nobody but those I came with, and to be greeted like family as soon as I step out of the car. It was also at this point that I came to the realization that I would most likely not see a real toilet or a shower for the next 6 days.

The next 4 days, which was how long the camp lasted, was, like I said before, a whirlwind… 80ish Sutu village kids, a run down primary school campus, and lots and lots of new experiences. After the first day of camp, between not being able to speak their language, a severe lack of sleep, and meeting 100 new people…not always an easy thing for an introvert like me…i was drained and beginning to think the weekend was going to be more about surviving than enjoying. But as I spent the next day getting to know the kids and other volunteers better, I began to really love it there. I realized quickly that these kids lived lives like nobody I had ever really met…most of them going through things of an intensity and weight that no child should have to shoulder. Dead parents, abusive relatives, homelessness, hunger, sickness. Yet these kids had a life to them that was awe inspiring. In true African fashion, these kids spent every spare moment singing tribal songs, dancing village dances, filling the evening air with their voices.

As I got to spend time with them and pray for them, hearing their stories and sharing mine, I began to experience what I can only explain as God’s love for them…an intensity that made me hurt and weep for them (yeah, I will readily admit that I actually cried for these kids a number of times over the weekend) and to want to give everything I could give to show them that they are loved and that they are valuable…not worthless and alone like their world tells them. That was basically the aim and theme of the camp…breaking down lies and building up the truth of who they are, what they are capable of, God’s love for them, etc. It may sound too deep for little kids, but believe me when I say that they needed it and were ready for it.

It is such a blessing to get to be an agent of love to a kid who has no other. Even culture and language barriers from half a world away are not too much to keep someone from knowing and receiving that they are loved. There are a number of kids, to whom I never actually said a word that they would understand, who, by the end of the week, would run up to me and throw their arm around me, or grab me for every picture they could, every time they saw me (granted, the picture thing might just be because I am a whitey ).

All in all, I am thankful for the chance to go and serve in this way, and I would gladly do it again, car-seat-beds, showerless days and all. Lesotho is a beautiful place, in more ways than one, and it is the kind of place that nobody leaves from unchanged. I am no exception.

It ain’t often that you ever find a friend

Matt Fisher — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:44:22 +0000

You know what I love? I love it when, in the kind of work that I am doing here, you realized that the people you spend your day with, the people you work with, pray for, visit in the hospital, etc. are, in fact, your friends. I love realizing that I really just want to go hang out with them, to see how they are, to talk life and family and the like with them. There are so many cultural, economic and social differences between me and the people I meet – things that we rarely take the time to look past in finding friendships – but at the core we are all human, and all desire to be known and to be a friend.

I spent the day on Friday just visiting friends in Ocean View. One friend read us some poetry he had written, shared his food with us, and opened his home to us as a place we could come any time, any day, even if he is not around. We prayed for his sick son, discussed plans for the weekend, etc. I hung out with another friend who is stuck at home with a broken leg and just played with his 4-year-old son (this kid has more energy than anyone I have ever seen), and talked about family and about what we are learning in life right now.

The other side to this is that, once people are close to you, it makes it so much harder to see them falling back into drugs, abuse, hopelessness, etc. It takes it past just feeling frustrated to a place of really hurting for them. If I am honest, I would say that frustration and failure are the more common experiences here for me. I just have to keep reminding myself that all I can do is be a friend, love each person I meet and share what it is that I have to share…and leave the rest up to them, and to God.

I have been gone from home for 3 months now, half of my trip. My time here is starting to feel limited. I see the end coming. The community here, my coworkers and friends in All Nations, is somewhat transient, always changing, always gaining and losing the most amazing people. It’s the nature of a community like this. It draws people from all over, for a month, for 6 months, for a lifetime…it depends on the person. I had to say goodbye to one of my friends here for the first time last week. It was sad and reminded me that my own time here is limited. Another good friend will be heading back to her home in Hawaii this next week. It would be hard to live in a place like this, and to see so many people come, become close friends, and then leave.

But I am so thankful for new friends, whether for a week or for 6 months or for a lifetime. I am better for each of the people I meet.

and now…some new photos
Ocean View

Cape Point

What to say, what to say

Matt Fisher — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:33:18 +0000

Sorry folks,
It’s been a few weeks since i have updated this thing. It’s strange…it seems like the longer I’m here and the more I settle into everyday life, the harder it is to know how to update people on what’s going on. Life is life here. It’s life in Africa, with a very different job than I’m used to, and a lot more roommates than I would choose on my own…but it’s still just life. It’s hard to break down everyday life in a way that’s interesting to everyone else, half a world away.

Not that things here are by any means “normal” by back-home standards. I am still splitting my time pretty evenly between helping out with the training school and spending time in the communities, hanging out with all sorts of interesting/fun/crazy people…young, old, drug addicts, Rastas, etc. etc. etc. Two of my friends from the community are in the hospital this week…one from a severely broken leg and the other from tick fever. One of my American friends here saw someone get stabbed the other day in Ocean View…kind of nuts…luckily i have not seen anything like that yet. I climbed Table Mountain last week…its one of the stranger hikes I’ve ever done…getting “up” the mountain is only like 10% of the hike. Its like an entire wilderness up on top, with some of the more unusual and stunning views I’ve ever seen. It’s not very often you can see white sands and crystal clear seas from a mountain top.

There are lots of other stories and things i could write, but I am just not sure how to share it all. I will try to get a better update up soon. Please accept my apologies in the form of a new photo gallery from Table mountain…

Don’t you think maybe its about time

Matt Fisher — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:07:13 +0000

(In case you haven’t figured it out yet…all of the titles to my posts are lines from songs that I am listening to, or just happen feel are fitting to the subject at hand)

As of this past weekend, I have 25 new roommates. All of the students for the training school started arriving Friday, and more are showing up every day. Things have gotten a little bit crazy…as if they weren’t before. The craziness that is the Training School (and one of my primary responsibilities while I’m here) kicked off officially Sunday night, and lasts through the end of April. Its fun to suddenly find myself living in community with people from India, Germany, England and all over Africa and the U.S. I love hearing all of the different accents, all of the varied stories of lives that somehow ended up in the same place at the same time at the far end of Africa. People have been brought here by very different passions and dreams…all tied together by a common faith in Jesus and a need to live out that faith by working for the good of those who can truly be called the “outcast and the widow”.

So what have I actually been doing here? I know I talk a lot in big, somewhat vague pictures. So here are some specifics. Up to this point, I have basically been doing just whatever needed to get done. I have built things (shelves, beds, etc), organized and been put in charge of all of the cash for the training school (any of you who know me back home know how ironic this is…), taken about 30 trips to various place around town to buy things needed for the house and office, helped rearrange, repaint and clean the house where 25 of us are now staying, started on organizing all of the travel and accommodations for our guest speakers for the next 2 months and, not surprisingly, become the unofficial go-to person for anything computer related. Oh yeah, and I am in charge of putting all of the students into teams and making sure those teams keep this house clean and organized for the next 3 months…no small task when 50-odd people will be in and out of it, eating meals and hanging out every day.

I also have started working with one of the long-term teams here in one of the township communities. The one I am spending my time in is called Ocean View. According to one older woman I met there, it is a community that was built by the government about 30ish years ago as a place to move the Coloured population to during the Apartheid days. I have had the privilege of meeting some really awesome people there, being invited into their homes and hearing their stories. I look forward to becoming more familiar with, and known in, the community of the next 5 months (man, its strange that it 5 now, not 6 anymore).

Yesterday, we took all of the new arrivals to an adventure camp/challenge course thing, which is something i haven’t done since my summer camp days, and something I have never done with a group of adults. It was fun though, and I think was beneficial for everyone, helping them get to know each other a little better before starting to serve together. Today, we introduced them to one of the 3 townships we work in, Masiphumalele. Tomorrow, Ocean View. I am looking forward to that.

I have also just had a lot of time to think, pray, read and just process all of the things that get lost in our crazy daily lives back in the States. Sometimes I think that the biggest hindrance to us becoming the people we want to be is the busy lives we live. It has been good to have a reprieve from that here. I think our minds and our hearts need more space than we give them in order to grow, but I think that can of worms is best saved for another post.

All in all, things are good…but I am exhausted. Relaxing it is not, but totally worth it.

We’ll leave all our hopelessnesses behind

Matt Fisher — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:53:38 +0000

The 12 year-old son of one of the Zulu men who works for us here, our groundskeeper, was walking through his neighborhood last week when two of the boys he was with stole a cell phone from a neighboring shack and ran away. Some local men saw our friend’s son and, assuming he was in on it, surrounded him and confronted him. They began to kick and beat him, a mob of grown men versus this single 12-year-old boy, without giving him any chance to explain himself. The mob grew and eventually someone in the crowd sent for a can of gasoline and a lighter, fully intending to light this boy on fire, to burn him alive, for being an accomplice to stealing a cell phone. Luckily, the boy’s mother heard what was going on and was able to get the police to intervene…the boy is ok. But the community has told his family that after this week the boy must leave the community and not come back, or they will retaliate against his family. The thing is, phones, cameras, iPods and more are stolen every day all over the community. It wasn’t just about the theft, it was because the boy was Zulu, and the rest of the men were Xhosa, two tribes that have a long history of war. There is still so much animosity here, so much anger, fear and xenophobia, made still worse by poverty and hopelessness.

In another community right down the street, a young expectant mother has just recently decided not to abort her child, deciding instead to learn to care for it and to raise it with the father. But then the father leaves, deciding instead to go rejoin his other family in Zambia, taking all of their belongings and money with him. The girl is left with no job, absolutely no money, a baby on the way, rent due and a broken heart.

This is why I am here.

I know that I have written a lot about how great my travels have been, of fun adventures and such. I know that my photos make it look like some great vacation. But in the end, that stuff is not important. Here I am lucky enough to work with a group of people who genuinely care about fighting for the oppressed and to work for the betterment of lives. Every day in the communities here wives are beaten, children are taught to traffic drugs, infants are abandoned because mothers have no idea what to do with a newborn and no hope to learn. People live and die with no hope for anything different. Having faces to put to these things makes me wonder how we sit by so easily and do nothing. How can I say I follow a God who can do all things, or say that He is a God of hope and love, and not do something? No, I am not prideful enough to think that I can just solve problems this big. But what is love if it is not a willingness to face the impossible with someone. And besides, my hope is in one for whom nothing is impossible.

Our friend’s son is safe. Some other friends are working to get him into a quality boarding school for a time. The young mother I mentioned has learned to write a resume and now has 2 jobs, is learning about being a new mother and is still planning on raising her child. In the coming weeks, we are starting a trade school to teach young men to provide for their families and to pull themselves out of the chains of poverty. I work here with people who daily fight for the well-being of children here, finding healthy homes for them, teaching mothers to care for them, and counseling those who feel their only option is abortion. There are so many issues here. So many places where needs are overwhelming. But i am lucky enough to work alongside those who want more for those who don’t know how to find more. We are trying to offer a little life, a little hope.

And hope is a powerful thing.

All these places feel like home

Matt Fisher — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:55:57 +0000

“Do you love South Africa so far?” Nathan asks. Nathan is a young colored South African (yes, colored is the correct term for his people group, don’t go all PC on me), who’s home I am sitting in. The walls are made of cardboard and the roof, corrugated metal with pieces of particle board nailed to the bottom.
“I do, its amazing.” is my reply. “It is very beautiful.”
“It is very hot, though, yes?” he says.
I just have to laugh. Outside, it is currently 76 degrees and sunny, with a cool breeze coming off of the ocean. I try to explain to him that where I come from, this is a nice spring day. He doesn’t seem to believe me, as today it will get over 80 degrees, uncomfortably hot, in his opinion. In his defense, air conditioning doesn’t really exist over here.

I think it took me about 5 minutes to decide that I love this place. Don’t worry, I still plan on coming home this summer. But I couldn’t be happier to be spending my next 6 months here. It is a beautiful place, as you can see from the pictures, the people are warm and friendly, and there is so much new to explore for me here. Nicki, a 28 year old Afrikaner, has been my host and tour guide thus far. So far i have done everything from hiking to the top of Chapman’s Peak to going to see Masiphumalele, a township where people live in poverty the likes of which we Americans only see in movies.

I got into town just in time to take part in a baptism service at the beach yesterday, where 8 Africans told stories of their new faith in Jesus, sharing changes from anger to joy, addictions to freedom, miraculous healings and more, and were baptized by the Pacific waves.

This morning i went to a house church, or bible study, or whatever you want to call it, in a home in Ocean View, one of the poor communities here in Cape Town, which consisted of me, 3 colored Africans, one Afrikaner and a Dutch man with his young son. It was fun to see a group of people from all across the globe and all different ethnic and economic backgrounds wanting and going after the same thing, sharing similar desires and struggles, and working to encourage one another in faith and life.

One a more personal side of things, it just feels…right…for me to be here right now. As soon as I settled into my room, I just felt at peace and ready to explore my new life here. I can already tell that a lot of my tendencies, shortcomings and defense mechanisms are going to be challenged here, and that if I want to have a successful stay, it is going to require a lot of growth on my part, but I feel more ready for it than I have in a while.

Today is the last day of “vacation” time for me, as my internship officially starts tomorrow morning, and I fully expect to be very busy. Hopefully I will still get the chance to keep up with all of you. As a side note, the internet is kind of slow here, and you have to pay based on how much you use it, so I will not always be able to put up as many pictures as I would like. I broke the rules a little bit today, putting up the ones I did, but i wanted to share at least a few with all of you back home. Cheers.

What you see…is only the beginning

Matt Fisher — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:32:27 +0000

(If you just want to see pictures, feel free to skip to the bottom)

Today is my last day in Paris. So far this little adventure has been wonderful. Waking up each morning to fresh croissants and coffee, courtesy of my host (who, much to my pleasure, discovered that i am a fan of chocolate croissants), finding a good iPod playlist for the day, and taking the Metro all over town…not a bad vacation.

The travel getting here was some of the worst I have experienced. Nothing really went wrong – no delays or anything – but, for the first time ever on an international flight, i didn’t sleep a wink. I don’t think i have ever been so tired or grumpy, after 27 hours awake, across 6 time zones, two cities’ subways and 2 new airports. To be honest, when I got here, I laid in my bed wondering if I had made a mistake, choosing to leave home and travel for 6 months. I was exhausted, uncomfortable, my computer plug didn’t work (it works, i was just too tired to figure it out), I didn’t speak the language, etc. I surprised myself, Mr. self-proclaimed restless spirit and traveler, having these thoughts so quickly. I guess discomfort is a powerful thing. But hey, 13 hours of sleep fixes anything right?

I woke up the next day feeling much more my normal self, ready to go explore. So, in case you were unsure, yes, it is very cold in Paris in the winter. Bring a lot of warm socks and hats. But it’s also amazingly beautiful. i spent the day wandering the streets, trying to find my way to various landmarks using the backroads that crisscross the city. Being an old city, nothing lines up, none of the streets go where you think they would. But that’s part of the fun of exploring a new city, right?

Paris at night is the most beautiful city i have personally seen. Blows NYC out of the water. The Eiffel Tower is a spectacle, and everywhere you look monuments light up the skyline over centuries-old brown stone homes. the Champs Elysees, was a lot cooler than i expected, and even if you don’t like shopping (which I don’t), its worth a nighttime stroll. As an aside, the champs elysees is the most expensive strip of real estate in all of Europe, at $1.5 million per 1,000 square feet.

I went to the Louvre yesterday, and all I have to say is Roger and Colleen, I don’t know what you are smoking, but the Louvre is totally worth a day’s time. My favorite part was all of the sculptures, both the more modern (17 and 1800s) and their ancient Greek/Roman counterparts. The photos i have below don’t really do most of it justice. I was mistaken for another famous person, this time a German pop star. I think I’m going to start keeping a tally of how often i am either mistaken for someone else or told that i look exactly like some person I’ve never met.

My host has been great. I am only her second random out-of-town house guest, and she has been quite gracious. I have basically a whole upstairs area to myself, and we share the downstairs kitchen and living room areas. She gave me a tour of her part of town, including a trip to her favorite park, which overlooks all of the city, as well as some good tips on getting around on the Metro. I found the place on sweet little website called AirBnB.com. If you ever need a place to stay out of town, but don’t want a hotel, I suggest checking it out.

Other than just the fun and adventure of it, I think my time in Paris has been good for me. It has been a good chance to get over the jet lag and strangeness of solo travel before hitting the ground in South Africa, where I will actually have work to do, and people to interact with. I think being alone makes me more aware of a lot of things about me – things I like and, much more often, things I dislike. I have been thinking and praying a lot about a few of those things during my stay here and have set some personal goals for my time away. I won’t bore you with the details here, but if you want to know so you can pray for me or if you are just curious what is going on in my head, feel free to ask.

Ok, time to get off the computer and go experience one more day of Paris. Tomorrow…Abu Dabhi and then on to Cape Town!

Around Paris

At the Louvre

Let’s Hear it for New York

Matt Fisher — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:14:53 +0000

Flying out of NYC today. Only a few hours left in America for quite a while. Its been a great bit of travel so far. An epicly long roadtrip across the western US with my family – with a break in the middle to pack my mom’s entire house into a UHaul – in which I got to see a whole new part of the country. If you havent been to northern Utah or Idaho and you like the outdoors at all, then you need to go. It is beautiful. Got to see my mom and step-dad’s new home (Boise) and watch all the local Boise St. fans go nuts during the Fiesta Bowl. And now I am sitting in my long-time friend’s Brooklyn apartment watching the snow after a great long breakfast at this trendy little hipster joint called Three Leaves. If you ever happen to go there, get the ricotta pancakes with an americano…very satisfying. Sorry Sara, no bagels this time around. And sadly, no photos of Boise or NYC…The weather sucked in Boise, and I just haven’t had the time in New York.

The real part of the trip starts today though…in about 20 minutes. I am about to lug my backpack across Manhattan’s subway system to Newark International to catch my flight to Paris. After never having been to Europe before, this is my second time there this year. I have traveled alone before, but never quite this far. it should be interesting.