Dear Friends and Family,
If you didn’t know, I made it home safe and sound! I have been home for about a week now. I’ve been quiet for a while as I came home with a nasty sickness, and I have been trying to get healthy and get used to being back in the states.
To be honest, it hasn’t been super easy. Culture shock is a thing, and it’s a thing even coming back to the states, to a culture I grew up in. Things are different from the Philippines, and though I missed home and I am extremely happy to be back, things are weird and I have gained a new perspective over the past three months.
It is hard for me to think of the right words to explain the past three months. The hardest question that people ask me just so happens to be the first one that everyone asks; “How was it?!” Uhhh….Great? That sounds dumb. Incredible? That doesn’t even do it justice. Life changing? Well of course. (Don’t get me wrong, I love when people ask me about my trip and I look forward to trying to share about it with you.)
To be honest, I’ll never truly be able to explain to anyone just how great and incredible and life changing these past few months have truly been, and I am okay with that. I will probably spend the rest of my life sharing random stories, like when I’m walking through the rain and think of the time I walked to church in the rain with Genesis and Kate as we tried to stay dry using leaves from banana trees, or when I see kool-aid packets and think of the times me and my sisters all sat in our little kitchen dip-dyeing our hair with kool-aid, or when I see ginger and think of all the mornings I peeled and chopped ginger that went into the huge pots of Lugaw (like soup) that we would then hand out.
It is weird being home-sick for a place that isn’t your ‘home’, but I know that Tacloban City in the Philippines will always be a little home for me, and I will always have family there. I am beyond grateful for the time I spent there, and though it is hard right now, I already see the fruit that the Lord has made from my time spent there; fruit within me, fruit within my sisters, and fruit within the community.
One final thank-you to everyone that supported me going there. My life is forever changed.
Mahal Kita,
Sam
