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Wednesday, August 13, 2008 

The Trip That Was

I just got back into town after visiting my friend and his family in another city for 5 days, and I'm heading out again tomorrow to visit another friend in another city. In the meantime, here's an update.

I had a lot of fun staying with my friend and his family. For one thing, all day every day I was immersed in the language. From the time I got up to the time I went to bed I was talking to somebody or being talked to in the language.

Fortunately for me, my friend's older sister happened to be staying with them as well, and she brought her kids with her. (The husband stayed in the other city because he had to work.) I had a lot of fun playing and joking around with the kids, I don't interact much with kids over here.


Don't let that face fool you, this kid can be a monster. Parents don't discipline their kids much over here, and it shows. Here's a warning to my kids (if I ever have any): I'm not sparing the rod. You'll thank me later.

I got to spend a lot of time with my friend, his family, and my friend's friends. It was nice to not have to try and find people to talk to, my friend introduced me to everybody and we were able to talk a lot about Jesus and the Bible. A lot of people heard truth for the first time.



It was a full 5 days, we packed a lot of living into that time. First up was the traveling wrestling circuit. They made a stop in the city right when I happened to be there. My friend and I headed out and had a great afternoon watching guys try to put other guys on their backs. When some one's back hit the ground, the match was over.




That night my friend and his friends and me headed to the local bar. Though I didn't have fun sipping sparkling water while my friends got tipsy, I did enjoy giving a mini-concert that night. My 3-song set list included "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "I Will Not Forget You" by Enter the Worship Circle, and "There Is None Like You" by Shane Barnard. It's easy to give concerts in this country because nobody understands what you're saying. You can just make words up if you want to.



The next day we took the kids to a local horse farm. They had a blast, and I had fun helping them to have fun.
I thought I'd try a goatee for a while. What do you think?


Besides all that, I got to work at the restaurant my friend's mother owns, pick hazelnuts during harvest time (hazelnut harvesting is big business in my friend's city), and swim in a certain sea for the first time in my life. I also shot a rifle for the first time, and yes, I hit the paint can I was aiming for.

I was pretty bummed when I had to leave, I really enjoyed sharing life with my friend and his family and friends. It was like I was leaving a little life behind, complete with my own family and friends. I didn't expect to be sad like that. As my friend told me when I left, "People get used to being around each other pretty quickly. Our time passed too fast."

One trip down, one to go. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.

1:42 PM |

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