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.

Coffee

    Ever wonder where your coffee comes from? I found out! These are some pictures of the Azotea coffee plantation near Antigua.

The short, dark green bushes are coffee trees!

Coffee cherries are picked by hand (the beans are inside).

The wheat colored stuff through those doors?

Coffee drying in the sun!

Coffee Beans

The roasting building

The finished product is bagged and exported and maybe even enjoyed by you!

The annual yield of one coffee tree equals 40 cups of coffee! 

How many coffee trees are planted here just for you?

Jet Leg

I am suffering from the common traveler’s ailment. Mis piernas están cansadas! My legs are tired! The day of sitting still on a plane made my legs as tired as a day of walking. The great thing was that yesterday we hiked to the Ecological Park at the top of the mountain Magdalena is at the base of. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top. There were some pretty steep parts that were made more difficult by the loose footing and altitude. My lazy legs were promptly pushed to the limit. Today I can feel all my leg muscles quite distinctly:) Nevertheless, the view and the rope swing at the top made the work worth it! As it is with most hikes. The Park was a Peace Corps project a while back. They made the trail up to the top and built some playground elements and places to sit at the summit.

Last night I slept with three pairs of pants, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, a zip up fleece, and socks! I would have worn a winter hat if I had one! I was still pretty cold, but warmer than the night before. Greta and I woke up to breakfast of eggs scrambled with tomatoes, red peppers, and some other unknown spice or sauce of sorts, bread, and coffee. Everyone drinks coffee here, from my five-year-old brother Justin to my dad José! They make their coffee significantly weaker than we do in the US and it has a lot of sugar in it.

Today was the first day at ministry sites in El Gorrión for us all. El Gorrión is a more rural impoverished village about a 20 min walk from Magdalena. I think we were all a bit unsure of what to expect but excited to get started. SI built a brand new Community Center for El Gorrión called Centro de Capacitación Integral where the clinic is located. They also have a new doctor, Doctora Sara Romero. Today was a new experience for us all at the clinic site as it was the very first day in the new clinic and with the new doctor. It went perfectly – except for spending the entire day on my feet. Doctora Sara let me listen to heart and lung sounds and palpate a stomach for amoebas. In the words of Doctora Sara, amoebas make the intestines “feel like a bag of rice.” No amoebas found today:) My site leader is a wonderful woman named Maureen. She’s a nurse originally from California. She and her husband Nick are on staff with SI. Nick works at the school in El Gorrión. They live in Antigua and work mostly in El Gorrión.

 Here is the clinic! The closed door is where the clinic is. The hallway leads to meeting rooms and storage and the roof and the bathrooms. There is also a kitchen to the right of the hallway.

A day of sitting followed by a day of hiking followed by a day of standing…I think the worst of the jet leg is passed.