I thought it would be
cool to post a blog kind of telling you random things. Nothing profound and nothing of great
insight; just a few things that have changed about me.
Coffee
I miss real coffee with a passionate passion. I know that’s redundant, but I don’t really
care. If you didn’t know already, when
you’re in foreign countries, REAL coffee is almost non-existent. I say almost
because there are certain places that you can find coffee dripping from a
filter… its succulence beaconing your very taste-buds, screaming at your
addiction. Well… my point is, I’ve had
to adapt my drinking habits. Instant coffee
is rather disgusting by itself… so, yes, against my better judgment I’ve –
daresay – added things to my not-so-regular
cup o’ joe. The girls could tell you
about this sin I’ve been repeatedly committing.
They say they’re proud of
me. I merely hang my head in shame
because I now drink my coffee with cream and sugar (a lot of sugar).
But don’t worry. The
times I do have a real cup of coffee…
I drink it black… unless it’s an old batch, then I’ve been adding the “sin” to
it.
Sleeping Habits
These actually change on a regular basis; however, as of
late, I’ve developed horrible habits of sleeping in. For the better part of the year I’ve been
getting up before most everyone else does (6:30-7:00) so I could squeeze in
some quiet time and force myself into waking up without subjecting them to the hell that can resonate off my person
that early in the morning. I posted a
blog about it in Iquitos. You can read
it here. But here in Gordon’s Bay, it’s
been really easy to sleep in. The
curtains keep the room dark and I easily sleep through the alarm. I haven’t been crawling out the bed until
about 8:00-8:30, knowing full well that three of the girls don’t even get up
until 10:30-11:00. Caroline still says
she doesn’t talk to me in the morning until I talk with her… she’s afraid I might
speak death into her life, which saddens me because when she gets up I don’t
feel mean. Maybe my facial expressions
have changed…
We’ve stayed up really late the last several nights though… until
about 1:00 or 2:00am doing holy things, like prayer! (Or shamefully, watching Heroes).
Eating Habits
This one is really important. If you’re thinking about coming on the World
Race, you can’t be picky. I had to cast
that aside at the very beginning of the year when a fish was staring back at me
on my plate. I’ve found myself eating
things that I didn’t ever think I would like again nor eat again. Things from my childhood have popped back up
too. For instance, when I was little I
remember that I hated broccoli with the upmost passion. It was one vegetable I almost refused to
eat. Now I love it. I think it’s great! Although I don’t think I could eat it by
itself yet. I need something to off-set
the taste, like ranch dressing or something.
Burgers anyone? I
used to order them plain, without garnish, naked, however you say it. I hated the onions, I hated the tomato, even
the lettuce. Now I love crap on my
burger! I’ll eat it with lettuce,
tomato, onions, even mustard and/or
mayonnaise! I know my mother’s
completely repulsed by this right now, but it’s true! I had a ham and cheese sandwich a few weeks
ago and I put mustard on it because I knew it would make it taste better!
As for more veggies, I’ve taking a real liking to peppers…
and avocadoes. I really like guacamole
now. I’m going to have to get some of
Abby Hutson’s infamous guacamole when I get back to the States.
Tuna is still repulsive.
The ladies tried sneaking some in my omelet yesterday, but I tasted
it. Blech! It’s a staple food item in most places and it
just makes me want to gag. And I don’t
like Milk Tart pie, a common African dessert.
Sorry, Tom, but I think it tastes funny.
The texture’s all wrong…
Music
Those of you that know me know that I have a special liking
for folksy-acoustic-type music. No
worries, I still love it (in fact I’m listening to Andrew Peterson right
now). However, I’ve found myself liking
the darker side of softer rock lately. I know that sounds strange coming from a
missionary. Don’t you listen to praise
and worship music all the time, you may ask?
The answer: no. How can you limit
God to speaking solely through “Christian” music? You can’t (though people do).
Driving
We don’t drive here that much because there’s not too much
opportunity for it. But if you do drive,
it’s quite the adventure (so I like to think).
It’s fun driving on the left-side of the road (no, it’s not the wrong side, just the left side). Having to adjust mentally to all of that…
imagine if you’re not used to driving stick-shift all of the time and then suddenly,
you do! And to top it all off, you’re on
the right side of the car and the
gear-shift is in your left hand! Let’s put it this way: I can drive stick
fairly well now… on the opposite side of the car. Thanks, dad, for teaching me in your crappy
truck because driving these nicer cars makes it easier!
Clothing
I know what you’re thinking: Matt, you’re no GQ. Heck no I’m not and praise be to God Almighty! But I’ve figured something out about myself…
I have this desire to look nice now. I
obviously still don’t care about the way that I look because I’m wearing the
same clothes several days in a row, but I wore a button-up shirt yesterday and I
felt like I was styling… though I was far from it. I had only worn it once on this trip thus far
and I felt good. It’s amazing how our
clothes can make us feel. I remember
dressing crappy back home; I’d walk around in sweats and not give ten cents
about the way I looked. Now I want to
care.
But it’ll have to wait until November.
There’s probably more that’s changed about me but my mind’s
starting to draw a blank, which is why I mentioned clothes. I don’t really care too much about them.
Hope you enjoyed this.
I’ll leave you with a recommended reading list, full of books that I’ve
read since being here in South Africa:
- –
The Shack
by William Young - –
Victory
Over Darkness by Neil T. Anderson - –
Spiritual
Slavery to Spiritual Sonship by Jack Frost - –
The Way of
the Wild Heart by John Eldrege - –
A Tale of
Three Kings by Gene Edwards - –
God
Chasers by Tommy Tenney - –
Everything
Must Change by Brian McLaren
Happy reading!
