February 1, 2008
I am writing this not knowing when I'll be able to post it to the internet. Hopefully tonight! I have had a crazy past two weeks. Right now I am sitting in the empty lobby of my city's airport. My flight to a larger city is scheduled to leave here 3.5 hours but I came early for fear of not finding a taxi to take me here on this rainy Friday night. I'm really looking forward to a great next couple of weeks. I'm going on a vacation.... of sorts..... I'll be taking a break from my life of study and travel and spending almost two weeks in a different country where I'll expect to see some old friends from America. Our time together should be invaluable for many different reasons. I sure know I'm ready for a break!

This past week I traveled with some students to their homes in various small towns and villages around the country. It was a trip that stretched me way past my limits both physically and emotionally. I'm glad I went, because the relationships I am developing with my student friends are great - and focused on good topics. But I discovered that I have a false sense of confidence in my ability to travel. Because I travel almost every weekend to my favorite small town, I have come to believe that I can travel anywhere, by bus, with the same ease. But as I went from place to place by myself, I learned that when I try to buy a bus ticket and the only thing I can understand in their reply is "... don't have ..." , I'm not as well equipped as I thought I was!

I left my city with a student named Stacy. We took 4 busses of decreasing sizes to arrive at her small village in the south. It was an enjoyable trip and her family welcomed me with great hospitality. Some of the unique things I found about Stacy's home was that her living room was her father's medicine store. They used a tarp for the roof in some places of their house, and had no roof in other places. They kept their chickens in a room in the back, which was also the bathroom! This was not a bad home, but there were definitely things I had not experienced before.
       

             

   

      
The next morning Stacy arranged for some of her high school classmates to meet us for a picnic. There were 12 of us traveling on 5 motorcycles to a river about an hour away. We had a great time, and they even let me drive some of the motorcycles around. The boys made a mud oven under a bridge and baked us some sweet potatoes. We stood around a small bonfire to stay warm and played some silly games. It was pretty cold and began to rain in the afternoon. We had a great time together.

   

   

    

The next student I went to visit was our new sister, Sunny. She lived far north from Stacy and I traveled on another 3 busses in order to arrive in her town. On the final leg of my trip I sat next to a physics student named Denise. I was able to share with her and she asked some questions which left me hopeful that Dad might let her wrestle with some things that I said. Please keep her in your thoughts. The rain had been heavy this entire time, and weather was very cold. The roads were so bad that Sunny couldn't go to her village so we stayed in the town where her relatives live. She recommended I stay in the local hotel because her uncle's home was very small and cold. Although it was my intention to stay in the homes of the students as I traveled, I really appreciated the escape from the cold wind and rain while I stayed in the hotel. I even took a hot shower - which I have decided is one of the best luxuries ever known to man.

We had a great time together. Sunny's good friend Ruby lives in a village 20 minutes away, so she came to spend the next day with us. We had fun walking around town (in the rain) and then went to Sunny's uncle's home to make ourselves a gourmet lunch! It was one of the best meals I've had here because they let me pick out all my favorite things at the vegetable market. That night Ruby stayed in the hotel with me and the girls sent me off to the bus station in the morning. I took a before and after picture to demonstrate the difference between light layers (3 pants and 3 shirts) and heavy layers (4 pants and 6 shirts).
    

    

     

           

The next place I went was much further north and into some larger mountains. It's a beautiful part of the country and if it hadn't been raining so hard I would have taken many great landscape pictures out the buss window. The student's name is Kina. When I arrived in her small town I will admit that I was hoping she either lived in an apartment with heat of some sort, or that she would also recommend that I stay in a hotel. It was REALLY cold and pouring rain. But when Kina and her friend Shirley met me at the bus station the rain had let up to a drizzle and she had three motorcycles waiting for us. I thought it would be no problem to ride the motorcycle with my hiking backpack on my back, but I didn't know that we were about to drive an hour deep into the mountains on muddy and flooded roads. The drive was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. I can't wait to return to her home when it's not so cold. It was breathtaking! But my backpack was very heavy and it didn't take long for the pain of holding myself on the back of the motorcycle to take away my enjoyment of the view. When we arrived, my friends and I sat around the fire with her family for a long time. I was happy to be able to share some stories with them but they weren't ready to respond with anything but giggles. That's okay - it's the first time their ears have heard these stories. We had dinner with her family and then I sat around the fire for about 4 more hours before they were ready to go to bed. I was definitely ready!

Kina's bed was a big flat board, covered by some bamboo (for padding). The girls let me sleep in the middle because it was the warmest spot, but during the night they pressed so close against me that I was unable to turn from one side to another - which I have found is a necessity when sleeping on a hard board. My body stayed warm all night, but my head was stuck above the blankets in the freezing temperatures.
       

   

   
The next morning I decided I couldn't keep traveling in the cold and rain because I was beginning to feel very weak and knew I was getting sick, and would only get sicker if I continued on. The girls and I caught rides on motorcycles (in the rain) back into the town and I have never been so happy to be sitting on a bus - with HEAT! I arrived back in my city late that night but because it was pouring rain in my city, I ended up walking around for an hour trying to catch a taxi. Eventually I hired a motorcycle-taxi to take me home (at that point I was already soaked so it didn't matter anymore).

I got home late Monday night only to find I didn't have an internet connect now that my roommie took her computer with her on vacation. WOW! I'm telling you what! I have experienced moments in my life where things were so hard that I just wanted to sit down and cry like a big baby - but I have to keep putting one foot in front of the other until it's finally over and I'm finally home. Climbing down the mountain in Colorado with two busted knees and hail coming down around me was one of those times. This week was another. I know that these experiences must make us stronger somehow, but in the short-term it sure does make me feel week. But the thing I found myself thinking during this journey was how completely spoiled I am. I am a wimp. I know I write all the time about how much I love adventure and how I am so hardcore. There is no way that's really true. I can only offer the illusion of being hardcore, but that only exists when all the conditions are just perfect for me.

I have discovered that I enjoy SAMPLING adventures, like small bites of food on little plastic spoons in the grocery store. And in these small portions I am willing to experience the extreme and crazy things of life. But if I am forced to sit down to an entire MEAL of some of these hardcore experiences, I am suddenly not so excited and I no longer feel wildly adventurous. I just want to go back to my comfortable and familiar place. Well, this may not be an unusual human perspective, but it has been a revelation to me that it is MY perspective. I hope that I can learn to grow past my comfort zone and learn to LIVE in the moments that Dad puts me in - no matter what size bites they come in.

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February 15, 2008
I returned home last night and was so happy to sleep in my own bed! I had a wonderful vacation to a country MUCH warmer than my own. It was so nice to do away with the long underwear and get to wear flip flops and shorts instead! I love being warm!

I was so worn out a few weeks ago that this vacation came at the perfect time. I got to spend many great days playing games and hanging out in the beach with wonderful friends. Our time together was really productive, and I feel like I am able to return home with fresh energy and a deeper perspective on the big picture. I got to meet some new friends while on vacation, and I learned a lot from them. My time of learning from these people was definitely the highlight of my vacation. Some of them were great singers, and they led us in a rich time of music together. I would love to go on and on about how much I learned over the last two weeks, but I'm not able to. It is enough just to say that my trip was well worth it, and I will be looking forward to a similar vacation next year - to see my new friends again and to continue to learn from the wisdom and experience they have to share.

Most of what I'll focus on in my blog today will be the beauty of the country I was in and the place I was staying. I noticed one major difference between this country and my normal vacation spot of Mexico :
     

  

The downtown area was crazy - full of people and full of corruption. We didn't ride in taxis. We got around by jumping into the backs of pickup trucks which had been converted with benches on each side of the bed. A few times we crammed almost 20 people in together!
   

There were several shopping centers we went to for some great food - like Dairy Queen! Believe it or not - I didn't manage to go to Starbucks one time during my whole vacation, even though there were several of them in the city I was in. Maybe next time....
One night we had a small "carnival" at the hotel. We played silly games and won lots of candy for the prizes. I brought home a bag which should last me at least a week.
       

At the Hard Rock Cafe they had a sign outside the restaurant that I thought was pretty funny.

The last week of my vacation we went out to dinner almost every night. There were some really cool restaurants in town. Each night we would meet in the hotel lobby until everyone was ready to go. I had such a great time with my friends. Lots of laughs.
       

Of course we made sure to get some time in the sun!
   

One night I saw a celebration going on for the lunar New Year. They had men climbing up poles and dragons dancing all around.
   

I played paintball with some friends - and never got shot once! That might speak well or poorly of my strategy, but I had fun either way!

Here is a picture with of a good friend of mine who roomed with me at the hotel.

Here are some views from the roof of the hotel where I stayed, and of the beautiful sunsets.

   

   

   


How beautiful is that! If this wasn't enough to refresh my soul - I don't know what could!

I had a great time and am ready and motivated to get back to my studies with renewed energy and focus. Please remember me as I get back to work!

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February 24, 2008
Since I've been home from my trip out of the country I have been getting together with my local friends, and have also taken a trip back into the mountain villages to spend more time with my new friends out there. Here is a picture of our sister who is alone in the good fight to share with her family and village. We came to visit her and encourage her, and she invited many friends over for dinner so we could share the good story with them while we were there. It is a difficult thing to do because the story we tell is so strange to these people that their only response is laughter. They have never heard of such a thing! They really need our thoughts for Dad to open their hearts to begin to understand.

I was able to have dinner one night with my little friend, BinBin, and her family in my favorite small time. Here she is in her favorite picture pose and then, on the right, with her mom:
     
She is growing up before my eyes! When my roomie and I visited her this past week she was speaking more clearly than ever before - including some English words that I think her mother teachers her so that she can say them when we come visit their family. How sweet!
We got to show the whole family a really good video about a great story. They didn't pay attention very well, but we're not going to give up on them and I hope you won't either. Please keep them in your thoughts.

As I enjoy my last week of "freedom" before my full time language classes start back up, I have been able to have a couple of game nights with some of my friends. Here I am with some Americans who live near my apartment. We are playing RISK. I am pretty happy in this picture (I am the yellow army) but I, shockingly, didn't end up conquering the world. Maybe next time....

WARNING: Do not read below this section if you do not want to see disturbing pictures that portray the transportation, preparation, and sale of dogs for food.
I am not kidding!

As winter seems to have come and gone in my city, I have slowly collected evidence to dispel any doubts or rumors about the eating of dogs in this country. It is a FACT - the people here eat dogs and aren't ashamed to say it! None of these pictures show me eating dogs. That is because I have not done it. When I first came here I was excited to eat the most exotic and strange foods I could find - just for the experience and bragging rights. But I have changed a lot in these past 4 months, and my desire for strange or new experiences is lessened in comparison to the relationships I have, and the effect my behavior or attitude can have on the people around me.

To speak more clearly; although many people in this country eat dog in the winter because they believe it will warm up their bodies, many other people are quite disturbed by the eating of dogs. As one man said to me this week; "Dogs are friends." Many people, including some of my close friends, have had traumatic experiences with their own dogs being killed before their eyes. They are saddened and upset by the sight of the dogs hanging in the meat market and are quick to tell me that they do NOT eat the dogs. So out of respect for their very real pain, I have chosen not to eat the dog meat. There may come a day that I don't have a choice, and out of respect to my host I will partake, but it won't be my first choice.

But that hasn't stopped me from being fascinated by the culture here, and so I have taken pictures of dog meat as I have seen it in its various stages of production. This is neither a message of approval or disapproval. I am just sharing with you some of the sights on the city streets where I live. Enjoy!

We'll begin with the live dogs being transported to their place of death.
          

The next step is the killing and cutting up of the dogs. This is kinda horrible, but they do some pretty torturous things to the dogs as they kill them. I won't go into all that, but you will notice that the hair of the dog has been removed, and their skin is nice and crispy.
Here are some pictures of the dogs being butchered.
       

          

Next comes the sale of the dog meat. In the meat markets and the smaller towns the dogs are just thrown into a basket or piled onto a table to be sold or eaten right there at the market.
    

    

In the more sophisticated places the dog meat is hung up on racks in front of little barbeque stands. You can buy a whole dog to take home, or buy some that is already prepared to eat. In these cases the dogs are often hung up along with rabbits and goats. I'm not sure why.
   

      

Well, I hope this hasn't been too disturbing for you. I have been waiting to share these dog meat pictures with you until I had a week where not much had happened, and I wanted to have some extra material to add to my blog. It's all part of living life in a new culture, in a new country. If you have ever glamorized life overseas into a beautiful thrilling adventure, full of rich tradition and a chance to watch DAD work in His wonderful ways, as I often have, you may have a lot of surprises waiting for you on the other side of the ocean. Ahhh.... such is life.

Dad will always be working, and getting to see it first hand will always be thrilling, but we'll never truly find that perfect place we're all searching for until we are taken home someday. Only HE can build us a home that will satisfy. The rest will always be a bit disappointing.