It’s another gorgeous day at Namwianga! One thing we cannot complain about has been the weather. It is nice & cool in the mornings, probably about 60 degrees, heats up in the afternoon to about 90 (but with almost no humidity it is definitely tolerable), starts cooling down around 4:00 & is cool again by night-time - in the 60’s. So far there’s been a nice breeze blowing most of the time, so even in our unairconditioned houses, it feels great with just a fan. We are going into summer, so there are a few things starting to bloom like Jacaranda trees which are a bright purple flowering tree. I wish I could send a picture, but until we get our own internet service going, we can’t do pictures.
We’re now going on our 5th day without fresh water in the pipes, although they just brought us some from another source in a big trailer. They say our tank is now starting to fill up. We haven’t had access to enough water for a decent bath in 5 days, so I’m sure everyone will want one as soon as it’s available. With the water shortages, lack of internet, & occasional loss of power, the missionaries here say we’re getting to experience the real Africa! They have been gracious enough to allow us to use their internet services, so at any given time there will several people sitting on their veranda with their laptops.
Well, this has been a fairly quiet weekend. We did all get to go into “town” - Kalomo - on Saturday morning. When I say town, it consists of about 2 blocks of small shops, restaurants, a post office, & outdoor market. However, it does have an internet café which is why we were going in. A few people got to use it, but the service was slow & spotty, so most of us just went to the market & a local bakery. The market has rows of stalls which are made of sticks bound together & they sell all kinds of clothes, shoes, & chitenges (about 2 yards of fabric which all the women wear wrapped around them as skirts). The chitenges are what most of us went for as they can be wraps or made into skirts, tops, or purses.
On Saturday afternoon, we had a woman come & give a cooking lesson. She made several things of which I don’t remember the names of but one was a drink which was made from corn meal & water (not my favorite) & chicken & nsima which is the favorite meal around here. (also not MY favorite). We even got to watch & help them chop the heads off the live chickens & pluck the feathers. Fresh from the farm to the table!!!! The poor chickens were so skinny it was hardly worth taking their lives for!
Saturday night was spent watching Blood Diamond out on the veranda. After 45 minutes of trying to get the sound to work on our video set-up, we finally got it going. Which of course, meant that it was late getting over, so I had perfectly good reason to fall asleep toward the end -right, J.D.!?!
Sunday morning we bounced over 40 minutes of “roads” - probably 10 miles or so to a village called Kisibi, which is the home village to Leonard, our chef. Most of our group went & we were a large part of the crowd. It is interesting as the men sit on one side & the women & children on the other side. They sang “We love you in the name of the Lord” to us & requested us to sing 4 songs. I love that after you sing a song they all say “amen” together. After the service, we again did the line greeting where everyone shakes everyone else’s hand. It is so sweet the way the little girls shake hands & do a slight curtsy.
After the evening service, one of the secondary school students was baptized in the Gregerson’s water trough. A great start to a new week!!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
TIA - This is Africa!
Unfortunately, our internet service has been out for the last few days, so I haven’t been able to post on the blog, answer emails, or pay bills!! So - when you see this, it may mean that our internet is finally working again~or we're borrowing the neighbors. You sure do miss something like that when you’re so far away & that’s the only means of keeping in touch.
We’ve had some fun firsts this week! On Friday evening, most of us piled into a few vehicles & headed to a nearby village that has a Bible Study/ Devo every Friday night. After bumping over “roads” part of which required 4-wheel drive, we arrived at a 4 room school house which has no electricity. It was pitch black & looked like there was no one there yet. We unloaded & walked toward the building to discover there were about 30 men, women, & children already there. We lit a lantern & sat in school children’s desks & for the next hour had one of the most up-lifting times of worship. The people there sang beautifully & their strong voices echoed through the room. David Gregerson, one of the missionaries here, gave the devo with it being interpreted into Tonga. Afterward, they asked our group to stand in front & sing for them which they answered with many “amens”. At the end of the service, everyone went outside & as you go out the door, you stand in a line & greet everyone coming out the door after you, so that by the end, there is a huge line & everyone has shaken hands & greeted everyone else!! Every man, woman, & child participated - it was really a neat thing.
Saturday morning we went on a walk through the Paddock with a herbalist (medicine man). He shared many of his secrets with us of the plants he uses to treat ailments from snake bite to infections to infertility to even “unluckiness” such as not being able to find someone to marry. It was quite interesting & we were surprised to find that he was willing to share his secrets, as most will not tell them as they could hurt their business once people around here know.
Saturday night is going to be our movie night & tonight we watched Cry Freedom about aparteid in South Africa. We sat out on the veranda & used a projector to watch it. After the movie, we all went back to bed pretty quickly & about 15 minutes later as Janice was locking up her house, she heard a “whacking” sound. It turns out that Justin, our fearless night watchman & his friend were killing a snake up on the veranda where we had just sat minutes before. He said it was a cobra, but none of us actually saw it to be sure. Janice said it looked like it was about 6 ft. long as they were carrying it away!!! I guess the Lord was watching over us! A little excitement for our first week!
On Sunday, most of us worshipped with the Namwianga church of Christ where there were over 400 in attendance. This is the congregation where most of the students from the secondary boarding school & George Benson teaching college attend. It was a pretty Americanized service. On our way home on Sunday night, several of us heard a group of students singing over on the secondary campus & they let us listen in while they sang - They were a singing group called Sweet Aroma & were 8 students from the high school. They had wonderful voices & were obviously unafraid to use them to praise God! Hopefully, I will be able to get some video or audio of them to include in the blog.
On Sundays, our cook is off, so we are in charge of our own food for the day! He had left us banana bread & cereal for breakfast & we pulled out leftovers for lunch as several people had gone into other villages for morning services, & for supper fixed chili with fixins & baked apples. Not bad for our first meal to cook in Africa! Thanks to the leftovers from the Zambia Medical Missions group, we have a lot of food from America that we had not expected to have.
On Monday, during chapel we had a couple of visitors from the college here. One of them is the choral director & he taught us 3 or 4 songs that they sing in Tonga. We will be having chapel with the school some days & he is hoping we will learn these songs enough to be able to sing with them by Friday!! For the most part they repeat verses often, so that makes it a little easier. They stopped by again after dinner to go over them again. The people here sure seem to enjoy singing which fits just fine with our group!
Thurs. - Well, it’s now been a full week without our internet. They are having to replace some parts - it is a month old system, after all, & is taking much longer than we had hoped. We also found out last night that our water lines had been cut by a man wanting to water his cattle. Which means we now have no fresh water either. Thankfully, one of the houses has a small reserve tank, so we can still use that for meal prep, drinking, etc. but no real baths for any of us for at least a couple of days. There is lake water we can treat & bathe in (a bucket bath) but most of us are just skipping it for today, anyway. After all - this is Africa!! We’re having lots of “this is Africa” experiences!! Some of the students are really kind of excited, though, as it gives them a chance to practice some of the things they learned at HUT. Like - purifying water by placing it in a clear bottle & setting it in the sun for the day.
Today on our way to chapel over at the George Benson College, we saw a green mamba!! Fortunately, it was already dead, but was neat to see what it looked like. I would just as soon not see one alive, but I’m sure I will before the 3 months are up!
Friday~
Our students sang in chapel for the George Benson college - they sang 3 Chitonga songs & 1 English. I think they did really well considering we've only been here less than 2 weeks! We received word today that it will probably be another week before our internet service is up & running, so I'm borrowing a neighbors. Several of us piled into a truck to go into town to check out the internet cafe there, but when we arrived found that the power was out there & stayed off the whole time we were there. Some of us went to the small outdoor market area & walked around - they had mostly older clothes, some new, & chitengas (fabric wrapped around the waist like a shirt or can be used to sew with). Kalomo is a very small town, so when Macua (white people)show up, we're easily noticed! People here, though, have been very friendly. It's a different feeling to be in such a minority!
When we arrived back home, our power was still out & is still out, so I am now at a neighbors house ( the Oldenburgs, from Abilene) using their dial up service! We're feeling very much like we're in AFRICA!!
We’ve had some fun firsts this week! On Friday evening, most of us piled into a few vehicles & headed to a nearby village that has a Bible Study/ Devo every Friday night. After bumping over “roads” part of which required 4-wheel drive, we arrived at a 4 room school house which has no electricity. It was pitch black & looked like there was no one there yet. We unloaded & walked toward the building to discover there were about 30 men, women, & children already there. We lit a lantern & sat in school children’s desks & for the next hour had one of the most up-lifting times of worship. The people there sang beautifully & their strong voices echoed through the room. David Gregerson, one of the missionaries here, gave the devo with it being interpreted into Tonga. Afterward, they asked our group to stand in front & sing for them which they answered with many “amens”. At the end of the service, everyone went outside & as you go out the door, you stand in a line & greet everyone coming out the door after you, so that by the end, there is a huge line & everyone has shaken hands & greeted everyone else!! Every man, woman, & child participated - it was really a neat thing.
The Greeting line at Kisibi Church.
Saturday morning we went on a walk through the Paddock with a herbalist (medicine man). He shared many of his secrets with us of the plants he uses to treat ailments from snake bite to infections to infertility to even “unluckiness” such as not being able to find someone to marry. It was quite interesting & we were surprised to find that he was willing to share his secrets, as most will not tell them as they could hurt their business once people around here know.
The medicine Man
Saturday night is going to be our movie night & tonight we watched Cry Freedom about aparteid in South Africa. We sat out on the veranda & used a projector to watch it. After the movie, we all went back to bed pretty quickly & about 15 minutes later as Janice was locking up her house, she heard a “whacking” sound. It turns out that Justin, our fearless night watchman & his friend were killing a snake up on the veranda where we had just sat minutes before. He said it was a cobra, but none of us actually saw it to be sure. Janice said it looked like it was about 6 ft. long as they were carrying it away!!! I guess the Lord was watching over us! A little excitement for our first week!
On Sunday, most of us worshipped with the Namwianga church of Christ where there were over 400 in attendance. This is the congregation where most of the students from the secondary boarding school & George Benson teaching college attend. It was a pretty Americanized service. On our way home on Sunday night, several of us heard a group of students singing over on the secondary campus & they let us listen in while they sang - They were a singing group called Sweet Aroma & were 8 students from the high school. They had wonderful voices & were obviously unafraid to use them to praise God! Hopefully, I will be able to get some video or audio of them to include in the blog.
On Sundays, our cook is off, so we are in charge of our own food for the day! He had left us banana bread & cereal for breakfast & we pulled out leftovers for lunch as several people had gone into other villages for morning services, & for supper fixed chili with fixins & baked apples. Not bad for our first meal to cook in Africa! Thanks to the leftovers from the Zambia Medical Missions group, we have a lot of food from America that we had not expected to have.
On Monday, during chapel we had a couple of visitors from the college here. One of them is the choral director & he taught us 3 or 4 songs that they sing in Tonga. We will be having chapel with the school some days & he is hoping we will learn these songs enough to be able to sing with them by Friday!! For the most part they repeat verses often, so that makes it a little easier. They stopped by again after dinner to go over them again. The people here sure seem to enjoy singing which fits just fine with our group!
Thurs. - Well, it’s now been a full week without our internet. They are having to replace some parts - it is a month old system, after all, & is taking much longer than we had hoped. We also found out last night that our water lines had been cut by a man wanting to water his cattle. Which means we now have no fresh water either. Thankfully, one of the houses has a small reserve tank, so we can still use that for meal prep, drinking, etc. but no real baths for any of us for at least a couple of days. There is lake water we can treat & bathe in (a bucket bath) but most of us are just skipping it for today, anyway. After all - this is Africa!! We’re having lots of “this is Africa” experiences!! Some of the students are really kind of excited, though, as it gives them a chance to practice some of the things they learned at HUT. Like - purifying water by placing it in a clear bottle & setting it in the sun for the day.
Today on our way to chapel over at the George Benson College, we saw a green mamba!! Fortunately, it was already dead, but was neat to see what it looked like. I would just as soon not see one alive, but I’m sure I will before the 3 months are up!
Friday~
Our students sang in chapel for the George Benson college - they sang 3 Chitonga songs & 1 English. I think they did really well considering we've only been here less than 2 weeks! We received word today that it will probably be another week before our internet service is up & running, so I'm borrowing a neighbors. Several of us piled into a truck to go into town to check out the internet cafe there, but when we arrived found that the power was out there & stayed off the whole time we were there. Some of us went to the small outdoor market area & walked around - they had mostly older clothes, some new, & chitengas (fabric wrapped around the waist like a shirt or can be used to sew with). Kalomo is a very small town, so when Macua (white people)show up, we're easily noticed! People here, though, have been very friendly. It's a different feeling to be in such a minority!
When we arrived back home, our power was still out & is still out, so I am now at a neighbors house ( the Oldenburgs, from Abilene) using their dial up service! We're feeling very much like we're in AFRICA!!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Settling In
We're all unpacked & starting into a routine now. Most of us are still waking up at the crack of dawn (the rooster down the road doesn't help with that) but that makes it easier to get up for early classes.
The weather here has been really very pleasant. It is the dry season & they are going from winter into summer. It is nice & cool in the mornings, then heats up quickly when the sun comes out & then cools off again in the evenings. There is a light breeze blowing most of the time, so it is pretty nice. It will start heating up soon & then the rainy season starts in November. Everything here is dry & brown (although a few things are beginning their spring blooming) since they have not seen a drop of water since March. That means we must be very careful of our water usage & not waste a drop!!
One interesting thing we have here are wall spiders!! They are big flat brown spiders that sit up on the wall every evening. They tell us not to kill them as they are our friends - they eat Mosquitos!! I guess I'll put up with them as long as they stay in their area & not mine!
We had our first official Zambian meal today: Nshima (a corn meal paste), rice, boiled chicken in tomato & cooked cabbage. It was actually pretty good. Our cook, Leonard, does a great job! He is cooking mostly western foods & has made us pizza, fried chicken w/ mashed potatoes, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, & several cakes!! He & a helper cook 3 meals a day for 30 people - no small job! I have a feeling I'm not going to lose any of the weight I was hoping to on this trip!
I am still having difficulty getting pictures on my slide show. I may have to investigate another way to do pictures. Hopefully, I'll fix it soon as I want you to see for yourself what we're doing!
The weather here has been really very pleasant. It is the dry season & they are going from winter into summer. It is nice & cool in the mornings, then heats up quickly when the sun comes out & then cools off again in the evenings. There is a light breeze blowing most of the time, so it is pretty nice. It will start heating up soon & then the rainy season starts in November. Everything here is dry & brown (although a few things are beginning their spring blooming) since they have not seen a drop of water since March. That means we must be very careful of our water usage & not waste a drop!!
One interesting thing we have here are wall spiders!! They are big flat brown spiders that sit up on the wall every evening. They tell us not to kill them as they are our friends - they eat Mosquitos!! I guess I'll put up with them as long as they stay in their area & not mine!
We had our first official Zambian meal today: Nshima (a corn meal paste), rice, boiled chicken in tomato & cooked cabbage. It was actually pretty good. Our cook, Leonard, does a great job! He is cooking mostly western foods & has made us pizza, fried chicken w/ mashed potatoes, pancakes, biscuits, cookies, & several cakes!! He & a helper cook 3 meals a day for 30 people - no small job! I have a feeling I'm not going to lose any of the weight I was hoping to on this trip!
I am still having difficulty getting pictures on my slide show. I may have to investigate another way to do pictures. Hopefully, I'll fix it soon as I want you to see for yourself what we're doing!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Zambia - Our home away from Home
We arrived safely in Zambia after a LONG journey. We left at 4 a.m. on Friday & arrived at Livingston around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. We had an overnight stay in Johannasburg where we discovered that 8 of our bags had not made it there with us! After trying to figure out which bags were missing - which was not easy as the airline person in Little Rock had just slapped tags on the bags - not matching them with the names on the bags - we finally determined which ones were missing. THEN we had a bout with the customs agent who wanted to confiscate our trunks because we had brought medicines & med supplies into their country. After all kinds of cajoling, he finally agreed to let us pass as we were leaving again the next morning. We finally climbed in bed at 1:00 am that night.
Upon our arrival in Livingston, we again had customs difficulties with the trunks of supplies & it took another 2 hours to secure an agent to negotiate for us. They did (thankfully) agree to let us take the trunks on & they would finish with the paperwork & let us pay later!! We arrived at our home away from home, Namwianga Mission, 2 hours later - about dinner time. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of pizza, garlic bread, & cake! Everyone fell in bed that night!
Vann & I & the girls are sharing a 4 bedroom house w/ 8 other female students. Thankfully, there are 2 full & 4 - half baths in this house! It is a really neat place with concrete & tile floors, & a hugely tall ceiling w/ a straw roof. The walls don't go to the ceiling, so it's all open, but shaped in a U-shape, so at least you can't hear a lot going on in the other wing. There's a large living/dining/kitchen area, so it's become the social - hang out place!!
Our first morning up, everyone woke up around 5 am. We enjoyed pancakes w/ home made maple syrup & took off for a tour of the mission. We stopped at the medical clinic, Erics house, Haven house, & the basic school. The medical clinic is an outpatient clinic but they are working to make it into a hospital. It is a really nice facility & several of our students will be doing volunteer work & clinicals there.
Eric's House is run by Roy & Kathi Merrit & their many workers. They have a really nice home & there they care for up to 20 children that have been abandoned. Several of these they have adopted as their own children. Also there right now are about 20 more orphans under the age of 2 that are waiting for their facility, Haven House 2 to be finished. It's pretty wild around there!! The girls had a great time holding & playing with the children & will be spending a lot of their afternoons at Eric's house & Haven house. Haven house is also an orphanage, but for infants. They keep kids up to age 2 there until they are old enought to move to the Haven 2. In Zambia, approx 25% of the children are orphans as the AIDS/HIV disease has taken so many of their parents & many women also die in childbirth & the babies cannot be taken care of by their families. These babies are well taken care of at Haven House, but it is obvious that they cannot possibly receive near the amount of attention & stimulation that they need to thrive. During our visit to the Haven house we were told that they had just received a baby boy the night before & they were going to name it Vann. Check my pictures for a picture of our family with Baby Vann (also nicknamed Mini-Vann around here!)
Tues. is our first day of classes here. In the afternoons all of the students will be rotating through the 4 places - the clinic, Erics house, Haven house, & an after-school tutoring program. I'll have tons more to tell you about those later.
Here are new Pics added of Baby Vann. I'll have pics of the other babies coming soon!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Summer Fun!
Since arriving home from Europe, we've spent most of the summer resting, catching up, spending time with family & friends. Vann started back to work almost immediately & I have been working off & on. Last week we traveled to Myrtle Beach to be with Vann's family. We spent the week relaxing in the condo, playing in the water, & sun-bathing, & eating! The whole family went to see the Grande Cirque which was a really good show. The weather was great the whole week - partly cloudy with a nice breeze & cooled off beautifully in the evenings. We drove 16 hours straight to get back home - we're just wanting to hang out here as much as possible knowing that we're heading out again pretty soon!
The girls started school on the 10th & so, basically, even though it's over 100 degrees these days, summer is over for us. We'll spend the next 2.5 weeks getting ready to go to Zambia for the fall semester where Vann will be directing Harding University's new international program there. We're excited, but at this point so busy trying to get things together, we really haven't had much time to think about the fun part!
Stay tuned for more info about the HIZ program as we travel to Zambia!
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Berlin & Spain
Leaving Greece~
After 2 days of tearful goodbyes to all our students who were heading out for free travel all over Europe, it was our turn to go. We we taken to the airport by the Myhans on Friday afternoon for our flight to Berlin. It happened that there was a ground-crew strike at the Berlin airport, so our Easy Jet flight was delayed by an hour. It was an easy flight there & we arrived in Berlin around 9:30 pm. After collecting our luggage, we found the metro station & headed toward our hostels metro stop. It was located in what was East Berlin & in order to reach the ground level, we had to go up & then down flights of steps twice. That wouldn’t be any big deal, except we were each pulling a 50 lb. suitcase along with a carry on bag. Yes - we were seeing that we should have shipped a lot more stuff home!! We just weren’t expecting to have to do this many steps! We finally found our hostel & checked in & guess what?? Our room is on the 3rd floor. Again - no big deal - except there’s NO ELEVATOR! Here we go again!! At least we’re getting our exercise!! We hadn’t had a chance to eat anything since lunch, so we headed out into the neighborhood around 10:30 to find food. We hit the jackpot at a wonderful Italian restaurant where we each ordered a main entrée of pizza or spaghetti, drinking water & we all 4 ate for around $10!! That’s unheard of in Europe!!
Next morning , Saturday, we got up & headed to breakfast provided at our hostel. We jumped on the metro & headed into town. We got a ticket that allowed us to travel unlimited for 2 hours, so we rode to the other side of town to get a feel for where things were & see the city a little. We decided to check out the sights & found the Check Point Charlie stop where the East & the West faced off & the Brandenburg gate. We also visited Museum island where we saw the Gallery Museum & Pergamon Museum. The Pergamon museum had wonderful, huge displays of the Alter to Zeus as well as the gates of Ishtar. They were really something to see. We probably would have appreciated all this even more if we hadn’t just spent 3 months looking at other great ruins!
We found a Dunkin Donuts at one of the metro stops, so had to indulge in a donut for tonights dessert. The girls thought we deserved a treat after spending hours walking through 2 museums! Yes,, we’re about museumed out!
We turned in for an early (anything before midnight these days) night & got ready for our last day in Berlin.
Next morning we set out determined to find “the wall”. We finally found it as we visited the “Topography of Terror” exhibition which was on the location where the 3rd Reicht headquarters had been. We soon realized we were just a few blocks from Checkpoint Charlie where we had been the day before. We just had a half day today as we had to get back to the hostel, collect our luggage, & head to the airport. We all agreed we really liked Berlin & would like to spend more time here.
Hola! Hablo Espanol??
Sunday - We’re off to Southern Spain!! Our flight took us from Berlin to Malaga, Spain where we arrived Sunday around 4:30 pm. We had already reserved a car for the week so all we had to do was load up & find our resort. We had no trouble finding the Club La Costa resort & were soon settled in. We have a 2 bedroom condo that is first floor with a small pool only steps from our doors. Our condo is on a bluff overlooking the ocean, although since we’re on the first floor, you can’t really see the coastline from here. Our first morning, we just hung out around the pool & relaxed. It is a little cool & breezy here but the pool is heated, so it’s at least tolerable. In the afternoon, we headed out to town to eat lunch & buy groceries. We found a wonderful Chinese restaurant. I said we should have started years ago taking pictures of ourselves in front of all the Chinese restaurants we’ve eaten in as we’ve eaten Chinese all over the world!! That afternoon, while the girls watched TV, Vann & I walked around the resort & down the beach a little way. We’ll have to do more exploring later.
Gibralter~
On Tues, we decided to head out to find Gibralter. We didn’t have a map except a very simple one that pointed the direction, so we took off in that direction! After driving about 20 minutes, we realized Savannah didn’t have her passport, so we had to turn around to get it. Back in the car & an hour later, we’re wondering if we’re going the right way as no signs include Gibralter in them. BUT - there’s really only 1 major road going this way, so we continue on. Soon we see a sign for Gibraltar - 7 km. Yea! We walked around the town of Gibralter, which is a British ruled area (everything in English - another YEA!). We opted not to spend the $100 for our family to do a tour of the rock since the girls weren‘t all that interested, ,but just enjoyed it from below. Maybe we’ll return another time to see it without the kids.
The rest of the week has been spent basically chilling out around the pool & getting a little sun! The weather has been beautiful the last half of the week with clear, sunny skies. It is really beautiful here - it reminds me a lot of Greece with the mountains going down to the sea with small towns dotted all along the coastline. We even have an old castle just down the beach from our hotel!!
Sunday, April 29 - We checked out of our resort around noon & had some lunch before our 3:30 flight from Malaga to Madrid. In Madrid, we collected our bags & headed to find a storage area for the bags so we could go into town & look around. After dragging them to the far end of the airport, we found that all the large lockers at that location were taken - so we dragged them all back to the other end to find enough large lockers to hold all our bags. So - finally around 6:30 pm we were heading into town. We found the metro to be really easy to get around on. We stopped in the center of town & just started looking around. There are lots of really neat older buildings - very ornate - & great statues. We didn’t really have any plans, so basically just wondered the streets. We came upon a Hard Rock Café, so had a relaxing American style dinner!! We decided we were really just tired, so headed back to the Airport where we spent the night until time for 4 am. Check in for our 6 am flight out. The flight was very smooth - no problems, thankfully. We arrived back home around 6 pm on Monday night after having gotten about 4 hrs. of sleep in the last 48 hours!! We were exhausted, but glad to be back home sleeping in our own beds!!
I’ll get the pictures from Berlin & Spain on soon!
After 2 days of tearful goodbyes to all our students who were heading out for free travel all over Europe, it was our turn to go. We we taken to the airport by the Myhans on Friday afternoon for our flight to Berlin. It happened that there was a ground-crew strike at the Berlin airport, so our Easy Jet flight was delayed by an hour. It was an easy flight there & we arrived in Berlin around 9:30 pm. After collecting our luggage, we found the metro station & headed toward our hostels metro stop. It was located in what was East Berlin & in order to reach the ground level, we had to go up & then down flights of steps twice. That wouldn’t be any big deal, except we were each pulling a 50 lb. suitcase along with a carry on bag. Yes - we were seeing that we should have shipped a lot more stuff home!! We just weren’t expecting to have to do this many steps! We finally found our hostel & checked in & guess what?? Our room is on the 3rd floor. Again - no big deal - except there’s NO ELEVATOR! Here we go again!! At least we’re getting our exercise!! We hadn’t had a chance to eat anything since lunch, so we headed out into the neighborhood around 10:30 to find food. We hit the jackpot at a wonderful Italian restaurant where we each ordered a main entrée of pizza or spaghetti, drinking water & we all 4 ate for around $10!! That’s unheard of in Europe!!
Next morning , Saturday, we got up & headed to breakfast provided at our hostel. We jumped on the metro & headed into town. We got a ticket that allowed us to travel unlimited for 2 hours, so we rode to the other side of town to get a feel for where things were & see the city a little. We decided to check out the sights & found the Check Point Charlie stop where the East & the West faced off & the Brandenburg gate. We also visited Museum island where we saw the Gallery Museum & Pergamon Museum. The Pergamon museum had wonderful, huge displays of the Alter to Zeus as well as the gates of Ishtar. They were really something to see. We probably would have appreciated all this even more if we hadn’t just spent 3 months looking at other great ruins!
We found a Dunkin Donuts at one of the metro stops, so had to indulge in a donut for tonights dessert. The girls thought we deserved a treat after spending hours walking through 2 museums! Yes,, we’re about museumed out!
We turned in for an early (anything before midnight these days) night & got ready for our last day in Berlin.
Next morning we set out determined to find “the wall”. We finally found it as we visited the “Topography of Terror” exhibition which was on the location where the 3rd Reicht headquarters had been. We soon realized we were just a few blocks from Checkpoint Charlie where we had been the day before. We just had a half day today as we had to get back to the hostel, collect our luggage, & head to the airport. We all agreed we really liked Berlin & would like to spend more time here.
Hola! Hablo Espanol??
Sunday - We’re off to Southern Spain!! Our flight took us from Berlin to Malaga, Spain where we arrived Sunday around 4:30 pm. We had already reserved a car for the week so all we had to do was load up & find our resort. We had no trouble finding the Club La Costa resort & were soon settled in. We have a 2 bedroom condo that is first floor with a small pool only steps from our doors. Our condo is on a bluff overlooking the ocean, although since we’re on the first floor, you can’t really see the coastline from here. Our first morning, we just hung out around the pool & relaxed. It is a little cool & breezy here but the pool is heated, so it’s at least tolerable. In the afternoon, we headed out to town to eat lunch & buy groceries. We found a wonderful Chinese restaurant. I said we should have started years ago taking pictures of ourselves in front of all the Chinese restaurants we’ve eaten in as we’ve eaten Chinese all over the world!! That afternoon, while the girls watched TV, Vann & I walked around the resort & down the beach a little way. We’ll have to do more exploring later.
Gibralter~
On Tues, we decided to head out to find Gibralter. We didn’t have a map except a very simple one that pointed the direction, so we took off in that direction! After driving about 20 minutes, we realized Savannah didn’t have her passport, so we had to turn around to get it. Back in the car & an hour later, we’re wondering if we’re going the right way as no signs include Gibralter in them. BUT - there’s really only 1 major road going this way, so we continue on. Soon we see a sign for Gibraltar - 7 km. Yea! We walked around the town of Gibralter, which is a British ruled area (everything in English - another YEA!). We opted not to spend the $100 for our family to do a tour of the rock since the girls weren‘t all that interested, ,but just enjoyed it from below. Maybe we’ll return another time to see it without the kids.
The rest of the week has been spent basically chilling out around the pool & getting a little sun! The weather has been beautiful the last half of the week with clear, sunny skies. It is really beautiful here - it reminds me a lot of Greece with the mountains going down to the sea with small towns dotted all along the coastline. We even have an old castle just down the beach from our hotel!!
Sunday, April 29 - We checked out of our resort around noon & had some lunch before our 3:30 flight from Malaga to Madrid. In Madrid, we collected our bags & headed to find a storage area for the bags so we could go into town & look around. After dragging them to the far end of the airport, we found that all the large lockers at that location were taken - so we dragged them all back to the other end to find enough large lockers to hold all our bags. So - finally around 6:30 pm we were heading into town. We found the metro to be really easy to get around on. We stopped in the center of town & just started looking around. There are lots of really neat older buildings - very ornate - & great statues. We didn’t really have any plans, so basically just wondered the streets. We came upon a Hard Rock Café, so had a relaxing American style dinner!! We decided we were really just tired, so headed back to the Airport where we spent the night until time for 4 am. Check in for our 6 am flight out. The flight was very smooth - no problems, thankfully. We arrived back home around 6 pm on Monday night after having gotten about 4 hrs. of sleep in the last 48 hours!! We were exhausted, but glad to be back home sleeping in our own beds!!
I’ll get the pictures from Berlin & Spain on soon!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Saying Goodbye!
I finally got around to putting on the pics from our Greek Island Cruise & Ephesus!! Take a look.
Well, the time has come for us to say goodbye to all the wonderful friends we have made this semester. The time has flown by & we have grown to love so many here. Our students are leaving over the next 2 days & we are hugging each group goodbye & sending them off with prayer. Most of the students are going off in groups to travel on their own in other parts of Europe. It's been a wonderful time of learning, growing, & experiencing new things for all of us!! We've had a wonderful group of students & the Myhans & rest of the staff here have made this a great experience for all of us.
We will be heading out on the 20th flying to Berlin for a couple of days before heading to southern Spain for a week of R & R!! I'll keep you updated!!
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