Right Now, I am in Hyderabad, India completing my squad leader training!!! We will stay here for one more day and then disperse to the various ministries throughout the squad to continue training, share in ministry and invest in individual teams. However, I have spent the last FOUR MONTHS in Europe with team AKAL ESH and so in honor of such an incredible continent, people, food and time together we came up with a list of 40 things that have become our new “Normal” over the last 4 months….ENJOY!
40 Things that have become “Normal” over the last 4 months in Europe…
- NEVER being able to throw toilet paper away in the toilet
- Dropping hundreds on a meal in foreign currency because the exchange rate is so high.
- Finding foreign Nutella, Eating foreign Nutella
- Buying vending machine coffee for 20 cents.
- Walking to the grocery store, Walking to church, Walking to ministry, Walking in general
- Hang drying all your clothes
- Seeing every tree painted half white
- Not being allowed to sit on the floor because it can “hurt your inside lady parts”
- Eating Kabobs ALL THE TIME (kabobs in Europe are basically like gyros in the states..yum!)
- Eating way too many pastries because its cheap, fast and delicious
- Public transportation when walking is not feasible
- Praying for just enough hot water in the shower to rinse the shampoo out
- Instant coffee as the only coffee available anywhere
- Being told by your contact that you have 5 minutes to prepare a sermon, 2 songs and a testimony for the church
- Mistaking normal water for carbonated water and feeling like you are gonna gag when you take a huge gulp by accident.
- Not showering for days. And being ok with that.
- Sniffing your clothes, deciding that even though they smell to others they can last at least one more wear.
- Using sharades as a new form of communication.
- Smelling like poo for a whole month because you are a pig farmer
- Not knowing where you will sleep at night, then meeting a sweet stranger who opens their home to you, then makes you massive amounts of food.
- Piling way more people in a car than are considered the legal limit.
- Watching horses attached to carts ride by on the streets more often than cars.
- Finding alone time by closing your eyes and putting in your headphones…even if they aren’t connected to your ipod
- Socks with Chacos…aka SOCKOS!
- Having farm animals as pets
- Openness with you teammates about your bowel movements
- Assuming insults from the locals are jokes that didn’t quite make it because of the language barrier
- 8 year olds driving cars
- Packs of stray dogs following you everywhere.
- 36 hour bus rides
- Getting excited about 12 hour bus rides because that is a short trip
- Public restrooms not having toilet paper…BYOTP
- Paying to use the restroom in public places
- Random farm animals in the road
- Dead cat heads in the street
- Speaking in broken English to other Americans
- Calling each other “the Americans”
- Praying for healing and revival everywhere you go because the spiritual darkness is so evident but knowing the power of Christ can overcome anything
- Loving Eastern Europe and cherishing all the relationships you’ve made.
- Knowing you’ll miss this season so bad because it taught you so much that you never thought you even needed to learn.
Farewell Eastern Europe….Its been a great ride!
