Bits from Belgium - Week 5

Monday, July 11, 2011

I am doing well. I was very busy today... and the last few days! I wouldn't have it any other way. Everything went smoothly, but I am tired tonight. Trying to do all the "normal" things, plus "host" and train the new girls (the next girl arrived today :-), is exhausting! Michelle is also 17, like Jenna, and has been settling in well. Michelle, like Jenna, is also very willing and eager to help. They're both great girls, and I consider it a privilege to be here helping them in their first visit to Belgium and also helping them help the Petries. If you think of us, please pray that I can be a good teacher to them both, set a good example, and also be a friend to them. It's a hard balance to be trying to teach and lead, but also want to be friend with them too.

I made my first crockpot meal today. It was a pork roast, and turned out well, even though it wasn't quite what I expected. It was quite tangy and almost sweet and sour-ish. I was just excited that crockpot worked so well and required so little attention! :-) The crockpots here run much cooler than in the US, so I had the roast on high for about 9 hours, and it was just done in time for dinner!

What else? I picked up Rebecca's shirt at the dry cleaners, got a few things at the grocery store, and went to the post office. All not very remarkable or exciting to do in the USA, but here, every outing is a nerve-wracking, exciting, sometimes embarassing adventure as I stumble my way through language barriers, cultural differences, and new experiences in general (I mean, how often do you see me going to the dry cleaners?! :-) This has been so good for me! :-)

I laughed earlier this week when I realized another thing God has been doing "to" me with this visit. Typically, my work is focused more on Rebecca and her care, which is great and enjoyable for me. However, this time, the need for me is in more of Annie's role, which happens to be helping "run" the household (meals, laundry, shopping, making sure things are stocked, etc.). God is having me "play house", which is great experience for me since I have lived at home most of my life, and probably have it pretty "easy". :-) Talk about good preparation... and God's sense of humor in working out a way to get that experience for me! :-)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Today was a good day.

The morning was busy with laundry, taking medicine inventory, dishes, helping with the morning nurse and also teaching Michelle. At lunch, Paul and Rebecca ate alone in Rebecca's room, so us girls went out to the garden and had a lovely lunch in the beautiful weather, and then had a fun photo shoot. It was a nice, relaxing time together, and I guess Rebecca was watching us from her room and laughing at us. :-)

The afternoon was a little quieter. I helped Jenna with finding and understanding the train schedules and then went for a walk around the lake. It was starting to cloud over and some storm clouds were rolling in. I loved it! There were sailboats on the lake again, and when it started to rain, the kids' instructor (?) came around on a motorized, blown-up boat and "rounded them up". It was so cool to see all the sailboats turning and heading in the same direction together. I took a nice, relaxing shower afterwards, and then set out to defrosting the refridgerator (one of Annie's requested jobs for us this week). It was a big job, but I'm pleased to say it's done, and looks much better! We cleaned the whole fridge and shelves, and it was a very rewarding process when it was all over! It's cooler and windy tonight and has been raining off and on.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I had a good day today. This morning, was up at 7 with Michelle (the newest caregiver). All went smoothly, and I had a quiet-ish morning while Rebecca had her quiet time. I read two particular scriptures that jumped out to me... The first was from 2 Corinthians 1, and was so, well, comforting! I shared it with Rebecca too.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

The other scripture was from 1 Corinthians 15:58:

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Paul took the three of us girls grocery shopping this morning. We got so much food... I felt like we'd surely never have to shop again while I'm here. But... with 6 mouths to feed, it will go quickly, no doubt! :-)

Tomorrow is my second to last day off. I am hoping to take a train up to the northern coast of Belgium and see the North Sea and beach, and then take a train back and stop in Brugge, another beautiful Belgian city with pretty churches and canals and chocolate and... stuff (I've been there once). :-)

The moon must be near full. It was cloudy, misty, and very chilly here today, but this evening the moon shined and was so beautiful and bright. I loved it. If you see it tonight, or tomorrow night, look for the reflecting coming from the east. I'm waving and smiling at you!

Thursday, July 14

Happy Bastille Day! (France's "Independence Day"!)

I had a great day today!. Today was my day off again, and I took a train this morning from Genval to Brussels, then got off that train and onto another one headed for Oostende, the very northern tip of Belgium. It was chilly, gray, and wet today, which kind of "put a damper" on things, but at the same time, I found great entertainment and joy in the excitement of the various "elements" I faced, and, for most of the day anyhow, maintained a positive attitude and had fun with the elements. :-) There are many positives to having perfectly miserably weather to go "tourist-ing": 1) you don't find crowds, 2) you don't get hot and sweaty 3) you cover a lot of ground because you need to walk quickly to stay warm 4) If you ever visit again, in different weather, it could be a whole new experience 5) you see and do things you not otherwise have seen and done (like go inside buildings, shop, etc. 6) you have better stories to tell (like almost getting blown away, or meeting the family that went through 3 umbrellas!)

On the approximately 1 1/2 hour train ride up to Oostende, I randomly sat next to a family who... gasp... spoke American English! I was shocked at first, and then immediately asked them where they were from. Turns out they are from Macon, Georgia (just outside of Atlanta... we went through it on the way to FL! earlier this year) I had a nice time visiting with them and it made the time pass really quickly. The family is doing a little "tour de Europe" together, and are spending a couple days in Belgium, and were touring Brugge today. They had three kids, two daughters and a son, all who looked to be mid to upper teens? We stopped at Brugge about 15 minutes before Oostende, so I wished them a good time in Brugge, and jokingly told them I'd look for them later when I stopped by Brugge on the way back. Little did I know, I actually WOULD see them again there, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So, on to Oostende. We arrived in Oostende in a downpour, so I waited in the train station for about 15 minutes until the rain lightened, and then started walking. The train station is right by the marina and a short walk down a brick "boardwalk" to the "beach". I immediately discovered that the weather was going to win today. First, my feet quickly became soaked outside and in. Oh well, I've had that happen before. Next, the incredible winds of Oostende took care of ripping my umbrella up to the point that it got thrown out this evening. Actually, it was the Petries' umbrella, but thankfully not an expensive one! :-O I guess the North Sea beach is known for its winds, and today was, I think, worse than usual. I don't know that I have ever faced such strong wind gusts. At one point I was being blown down the sidewalk/road, and was slightly concerned that I wouldn't be able to stop at the bottom before crossing the street! It was almost hurricane like, but really cool too! There was a lot of construction around the beach, but I did find a nice spot to observe the roaring, surging sea, watch the sea birds, and smell... ick, fish! There were all sorts of cool boats around too (even one with an American flag on it! It also had a Belgian flag). There was hardly anybody around, and we were all soaked to the skin, carrying shabby, beaten umbrellas, and mostly smiling, laughing at the situation, and cheerful. Though I didn't get to touch the sea, (it was just too rainy and windy to get down on the beach) I did taste the salt in the rain. Does that count? :-) After walking around and dodging in and out of doorways to hide from the downpours, I headed back to the train station, made a stop at a magnificent church, and then hopped a train back towards Brussels, but first, stopped in Brugge.

Brugge is called "mini-Venice" because it has lots of little canals and waterways weaving through it. I had been there once, but it was fun to go back, and it reminded me a lot of Prague, actually! I walked and walked and walked all over - I had a map, but everything was so wet still that I just chose to keep walking around somewhat aimlessly, admiring the buildings, and half-lost most of the time. The city is surrounded by a circular-ish river, so I knew as long as I stayed within those boundaries, and in the areas where most of the tourists were, I was fine. There were also maps around the city for when I was ready to head back to the train station. So yeah, I was mostly lost most of the afternoon, but enjoyed it. I stopped and did a little chocolate shopping and found a couple shirts for Rebecca.

After taking lots of pictures, and did I mention that I walked a lot (? :-) through the misty rain and varied winds (it was milder in Brugge, but not by much!), I started heading back to catch my 5:35 train back to Brussels and then Genval. Along the way, guess who I ran into? Yep, the family from Macon, Georgia! It was so funny! They were on their way back to the train station too. They were taking a different train back, but it was nice to hear briefly about their day, and I was able to take a couple family pictures for them before they headed on. It's so funny how something as simple as meeting up with a couple other Americans and visiting with complete strangers can make such a difference in brightening a day! The train rides back home were quiet... wet... and relaxing. I got home, ate a little, took a warm bath... ooohhh.... ahhhh... don't think I've done that since the last time I was here?! I was going to bring along Leafy Luke today, but found him a little dry and losing leaves. :-( So instead, I grabbed a picture of Luke and I together, and was going to take pictures of that everywhere. But alas, the weather was such that I could not risk having such a precious photo ruined by rain or wind, and so it stayed in my bag. Nevertheless, it was there with me the whole time... through rain and... well, more rain!

14 days. I'm rounding the bend into the "bittersweet" part of my stay here. I'm already a little teary when I think about having to say good-bye to Paul and Rebecca. For everything I "give" them, they always give me so much more when I am here. At the same time, I am ecstatic about who I am coming home to! And so, I shall live with strong mixed emotions as I near the completion of this time. Once I am out the door and on my way back to Ohio, I will be fine, but walking out of here is always hard. Really hard.