Bucket List #32: Europe

     There are some things on a bucket list that are easily completed. Other things you just have to wait for. One of those waiting things on my list read "Go to Europe". The end of July and the beginning of August were spent in England and France meeting Will's family. Bucket List #32. Check. 

     Because Will is here for school, he only gets to see his family once or twice a year. I was so excited to be included in this special visit thanks to the amazing generosity of Will's whole family in letting me stay with them and eat their food and experience a little bit of their lives. 

     The first and last few days was spent in England in the town of High Wycombe with Will's mom. She is a sweet lady who cooks delicious food, drinks a lot of tea, and plays a mean game of Scrabble! The middle week was spent in France in the village of La Bazoge with Will's dad, sister, and grandpa. It was fun to get to know each of them and be able to put a face and personality with the names I already knew. They were all so hospitable and generous!

     England and France are interesting because things are very similar to home but there was always that slight difference that reminded me that I was not at home! Different word choices, driving rules, and process at meals kept me asking plenty of questions. France was the first country I've been in where I didn't speak the language. Now I know how it feels to be helpless in front of a dinner menu :) Thanks to the help of Will, Mr. Pearce, and Grandpa John's excellent French, I survived. 

     I tried a lot of new foods in Europe. Marmite, duck, quail, escargo (snails), scallops, green tomato chutney, pate (duck liver spread), crab salad, anchovies, and other various dips, cheeses, and appetizers. All of it was better than I expected :)


     Here are some pictures of the trip. Enjoy!

Will's mom's house. And Will.

  

!Barney!

Walking by the river in England. Those two white pyramids on the right are swans gone bottom up. All swans in England are protected property of the Queen.

Trick riding motorcyclists doing a pyramid at the Thames agricultural show. 

Horse and hunting dogs at the show.

Baled straw in England

Leaving England for France on the ferry

A look down the street outside Grandpa John's house in La Bazoge, France.

Gallete: a lunch crepe in France.

Mont Saint Michel - a tiny island with a huge monastery.

Mont Saint Michel

The tide comes in and covers the grass. A special breed of sheep eat the salty grass when the tide is out.

In the monastery looking around.

The hugeness made me feel like a tiny child.

People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.  ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Will and I outside Mont Saint Michel

Back in England before the journey home, something very very English - a game of cricket!

Psalm 121:4-8

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Joplin

The organization we worked with.

Forest Park, our home for the weekend.

Pouring.

This is the wettest I have ever been from rain. I wasn't dry for two hours.

This uprooted tree blew there from somewhere else.

What if this is what you came home too? Your home, but without walls.

That headboard isn't from this house. It blew in from who knows where.

Destruction in the path of the tornado.

The top two floors of the hospital were gone. Gone.

Mattress in a tree.

Hi.

This sign tells the address of this pile of rubble that was someone's house.

Mom, Louis, Callie, and Sophia working in the supply warehouse.

Surveying the damage from the top floor of a house we cleaned.

Lindsay, Hannah, and I.

Team 10.

The stories are endless. These pictures are just a glimpse of a story the people of Joplin will never forget.

Twister

     Although I am home from Guatemala, I am still traveling! Tonight my family and I are leaving for Missouri to help with tornado relief. Here's some of the story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13518005

The Dragon

     They could be any old piles of soil, but these mounts are alive. With a sigh, a puff of smoke escapes from the lips of Fuego. It’s easy to forget that the pastel hills in the distance are the mouth of the fire-breathing dragon, Earth. My goal before I leave here is to see the glow of flowing lava. Every night, I check. Every night, I see nothing but the blackness of the heavy fog that veils the beast. Finally, on one of my last nights, way off in the distance, the liquid fire rises and falls amid a shower of sparks. I smile. 

Rest easy, Earth.

Photo courtesy of Greta :)

Speechless

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

     There are some things in life that there are no words for. The rules of language confine emotions to a rhythm of sounds that desperately grasp at and slip away from the power of the true message of your soul. 

     Today I was speechless for the second time in one week. 

     Last Thursday, I witnessed life filled to overflowing. Like the tears that rolled down the cheeks of the young woman bringing her child into the world, life could not contained. The joy that transformed the tired face of the woman when we brought her new son to her for the first time cannot be put into words. Holding the hand of a complete stranger in her most personal moments and wiping the sweat off her face as she struggled through contractions bridges the gap of culture. Even being a small part of the experience of this woman left me sinking in a sea of inadequate expression when we congratulated her on her perfect baby girl.

     Today, I held a woman as she mourned the loss of her son-in-law. No language barrier was needed to leave my mind blank when it came to expressing my sorrow for her. I was there next to the car as she stepped out after returning from the hospital where her son-in-law lost his battle with cancer, leaving behind a wife and three children under ten including a forty day old baby. Family and friends had gathered, but in that moment it was just her and I and memories. There is no time or language that restrains that kind of emotion. She wept as I embraced her; my shoulder was hot and wet with tears. I smoothed her hair away from her face as she turned to face reality.

     The soul is capable of communicating love in its own language. Hold your tongue and let it speak.

Survival Skills

     I was reflecting back on my time here and thinking about how much I have learned. Obviously, I have learned a lot of Spanish as well as other things in my Economics class and Internship in the Clinic, but there is something else I have learned that does not fall into a class. I'll put these things in the Survival Skills category. 

     How to live in Guatemala is something that I didn't realize I was learning so much about until my family came to visit and I remembered what it was like during my first weeks here. I remember going to the market wanting to hold our group leader's hand! I was sure I'd get lost in Antigua and eventually die of hunger or wander into El Salvador. But slowly, things became easier. 

     I had to relearn some of the simple everyday life things I didn't even have to think about before. Here I learned how to go shopping at the grocery store and market, how to barter and not be totally ripped off, how to add minutes onto a phone, how to order food at a restaurant and not get sick (usually), how to go to the bank and exchange money, how to use the bus system and not get lost (mostly), how to cross the street and not get hit, how to get medicine at a Pharmacy, how to wash clothes, and how to shower without being electrocuted (by experience), and how to use the toilet without clogging it (paper in the trash). 

     Life is easier when you can take care of yourself. The longer I was here, the more confidence I gained. It is funny to think back to the girl who was almost being hit by tuktuk, zapping herself in the shower, and staring blankly at the cashier in the grocery store when asked about a "factura". Ah yes, the memories are sweet. 

     What have you learned about living in a new place? 

Myself and Two of the Three lovely ladies I had the pleasure of guiding around Guatemala for a week using my Survival Skills :) The other lovely lady was my Grandma who took this picture for us. Thanks!

Images of Semana Santa

     Semana Santa is past but here are some of the striking images of the celebration! The colorful carpets are representative of the palm branches and coats people laid down to cushion the road as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. These alfombras (carpets) are made with colored sawdust, flowers, or other creative materials. They cushion the road as Jesus passes by in processions. 

The beginnings of a large alfombra

Sprinkling the colored sawdust

Adding a border

There is no peace without justice. There is no justice without pardon.

A unique use of color

It was for love.

A beautiful use of flowers

Morning light

This horse doesn't seem too happy to be in the procession.

Precious

 

Good Friday morning procession

Good Friday afternoon procession

A radish and bouquet!

A fruit and veggie island display!

Detailed!

A Noah's Ark alfombra with play-doh animals kids made! The cutest alfombra around.

This picture just about sums up Semana Santa. The people! Jesus! Mary! Antigua!

The End