Dear America,
You don’t know how privileged you are. Stick with me now and let me explain. It’s not just in the sense that you have clean water and plenty of food. Praise God for that. BUT we are so spoiled living in America and it has taken me leaving America to understand that. Let me explain…
As Americans, it is no problem for us to get a visa to almost any country in the world (ALMOST).
Someone here in Albania told me they have been trying to leave Albania for school. They have a scholarship to attend a university in Western Europe but their visa has been denied three times. Not one person on our squad has been denied their visa request to any country we have gone to so far.
Americans are often quite loved abroad. People are fascinated with us because we have given them Hollywood and Justin Bieber.
Not once in Asia did I feel like someone was hostile towards me because I was American. People treated us so well and often gave us things even if that meant they had to go without (especially in India when they would feed us when they barely had enough money to feed their family dinner). Here in Albania, Americans are loved. Crazy right? Most of us can’t even point out Albania on a map. I sure couldn’t before I got here. BUT after World War II, President Woodrow Wilson fought for Albania to remain a nation and not lose its borders or be swallowed up by other nations. Because of that, Albania is very grateful to America. There is even a statue of Woodrow Wilson in one of the squares here.
So many countries speak English. We have not yet gone to a country where there are signs or menus not in English, and even if the menu is not in English, we can still manage to get by.
On our flight out of Thailand, we flew on the airline Air India. The announcements on the plane were spoken in Hindi and English, not even Thai. And the flight attendants spoke enough English to communicate with us when we asked for a pair of headphones. Leaving Thailand and heading to India and yet they still speak English.
The equipment at the gym I joined this month is all in English. The Start/Stop buttons, heart rate, calories burned etc…all in English. Which seems crazy because only the young people in Albania really know English so they can’t even read their own gym equipment while I can.
Most of the clothes throughout Asia and even here in Albania are in English. English is truly a universal language. How blessed are we as Americans for it to be our first language.
Being American has come with so many perks. We are incredibly blessed to live in a free country where we can freely share our faith. In Vietnam you can go to jail for sharing about Jesus. I know we all don’t realize we have freedom because it just seems a natural part of life. But being outside of America, I can truly see we are the land of the free.
I apologize if this blog seems snooty or like I am being a know-it-all during my travels. But I promise that is not my intent. I have just come to realize America is truly a great and free and blessed nation. And I wanted to remind you because just like I forgot while I was living there, I just wanted to give some outside perspective now that I have been out of the USA for almost 6 months. Let’s continue to pray for America and for all the nations around the world!
