…the kids have taken me hostage…I am staying to love on them a little longer…(in my dreams)
So it’s now about the third week into ministry and it sure feels like it’s been a lot longer. We have been told that World Race time feels about three times longer than normal time. Each day does have so much crammed into it and it is mostly unfamiliar. For me it’s an unfamiliar language (though most of my group speaks enough conversational Spanish to get by), the food choices are not as familiar, transportation is different, ways of living/speaking/doing things is different, expectations for time are different, sleeping arrangements are different (sometimes literally daily in a new environment). We are becoming expert packers/unpackers. I really thought I’d be in one place each month & would only need to pack/unpack once a month. How wrong I was! Within the first week alone, I had been in 4 different places. Some places we have to pack it all up & put it away during the day only to drag it back out at night. There are things in my pack that I’m only carrying through Asia then I can get rid of them (the really hot weather clothes-I can pick up a new outfit in India when I get there). There are other colder weather clothes that I’m keeping for Africa (we’ll be in the far south during their winter-it gets really cold) along with a couple of long dresses. It’s a challenge to pack enough stuff to last for the year without getting totally sick of it all by the end of the year. So far I’m not sick of black beans & corn tortillas though I cannot say the same for all my friends. And I’m pretty sure there will be a lot more of that to come.
Although we are only a few minutes away from Antigua most days, we have no internet connection where we are and only head into town about once a week. I’ve had the slowest computer & have been challenged to even get through reading my email messages. So, we’re all working on having better internet time/usage to stay in touch. It’s a work in progress. Some months we’ll have less access & we’re trying now to figure out how to juggle things to make it work. It’s a learning experience in patience to say the least. And sacrifice too. My brother & his wife are having their baby hopefully today as I type this message in preparation to post. It’s super hard to be so far in times like these. I’d like to see some pics of the precious baby & the new parents!! My team’s been cool about that & we’re heading in to town tonight to get online. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in touch with family via Skype. Those days are best.
