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| On a train heading to a woods in which to hike |
I'm on vacation! Well, mostly -- I've had a few work calls and e-mails, but I think I'm nearly done with that. Work has been pretty intense recently -- lots of travel -- including weekends -- and staying in the office late while in town. I'm really glad to have these days off.
I'm a full-time missionary, which means that my salary and work expenses come from donors. Now, I've always been a very frugal person, so mostly this isn't difficult. Living in Haiti has also made me a more generous and sacrificial person, and I have even learned to (sometimes) give up my food so that a friend could eat. But I'm actually on vacation in Europe right now. How does this work?
My friends are scattered all over the world, and it just so happens that one of my best friends from way back is a woman who lives in Germany. Eva and I were roommates for three years, and we have stayed really close -- since I've become a missionary she's paid the phone bills so that we can continue to talk several times a month. She was due to visit me in Haiti in October, but sadly had to have an operation and canceled her trip. I really wanted/needed vacation, and actually had some people give me personal funds to make it possible to come visit Eva.
To me, spending vacation in Germany is about the same as spending it in Ohio or California -- I just have to sit a little longer on a plane. I've lived in Europe twice (Italy and Spain) and before becoming a missionary I traveled here several times. I've even visited Eva twice in Stuttgart already (well, I think it might be three times, but she thinks it's been twice). So I would like to list the things that make this trip exciting to me. They are actually all things that would be true of my life if I lived in Arizona, Minnesota, or Seattle -- and are probably true of your life, too:
- Clean drinking water from the tap!
- Hot water from the tap!
- Autumn weather (although in Arizona we would call this "winter weather")
- A beautiful apartment where things work and paint isn't peeling
- Quiet
- A piano to play
- Coffee shops
- A really huge variety of healthy food, and yummy, yummy food (Vietnamese food! hummus! pastries!)
- Comfortable furniture
- Exercising without feeling faint from the heat
- Not having to scrub the dirt off my feet at night
- And the biggest and best and most important thing of all: A friend to talk with face-to-face that I've known for more than a year or two.
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| This is a very over-exposed picture of Eva -- we were eating outside at a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Stuttgart. (It's phenomenal to travel with a vegetarian!) |
Now, I love the life that I live in Haiti -- the ministry, my co-workers, the music school at which I volunteer -- and do not spend my days thinking about all of the things listed above that I "lack." (Well, except for friends -- I haven't known anyone in Haiti for more than a year or two, and many of my friends there have already moved or are moving away.) And I sometimes feel weird that people know that I'm here in Stuttgart, since it sounds exotic and tourist-y and castle-y to many people. It doesn't sound that way to me (and donor funds didn't pay for it). Tonight I get to meet Eva's small group (cell group/community group) from church, and on Saturday her parents are coming down to visit -- fun for me, but not a castle! :)
