A Taste of America :)

Well, this week has been a week of transition. Today students began to return home and go on outreaches while I discovered a clean room after living with five other girls in a small room. The room is now clean because it is almost empty - I am the only one left. I now take a rest before beginning to work with the School of Biblical Christian Worldview on Monday. I must share about my joy of service this week and all the people which visited the base.

Wednesday was cleaning day and I was in charge of preparing a morning snack and cooking lunch. I have been very interested in baking some cookies. Beate suggested that I bake some cookies for cleaning day's morning break. I was very excited. Through suggestions of others, I decided to bake some peanut butter cookies and brownies. I began baking on Monday afternoon the peanut butter cookies and then finished baking on Tuesday evening the brownies. The cooking team had the joy of helping me taste the brownies to make sure that they tasted good. It has been a while since I tasted the rich chocolate of brownies. One German lady thought that is was a German chocolate cake. Maybe the Swiss cocoa powder made a difference. Either way, I was thrilled to taste some American dessert and to share it with the base on Wednesday morning. Then I cooked sausages with artichoke soup and bread for lunch. Then in the evening I had more of a taste of America with French Fries! I was so excited to have so many tastes from home in one day. I finished on Wednesday very tired but very pleased. Now I enjoy some time of rest and reading before another eventful week :)

I also saw someone else I knew from my time here in 2002 and 2003. His name is Mirko from Germany. It is amazing how small the world can seem at times :) Be blessed - until next time

~Rebecca

Flies, Snails, and Slugs...Oh My!

Well, rain is here with more moments of sun and warmth. With the rain and the warmth, there are more animals to pass on the road every morning and evening. Let me try to paint a picture in words of my morning commute from the farm house to the base. I wake up at 6:10 a.m. and get ready for about 30 minutes. I have already taken a shower the night before - I am not that fast :) Then I begin my walk around 6:40 a.m. The first animals which I meet are the cows eating on the left immediately following the house. Then on my right are two sheep which usually talk to me in their unique way as I pass. Next, as I round the corner I see horses on my left having their breakfast. By the horses, there is a fenced in area with the guinea pigs and chickens. The rooster crows to announce a new day. Then I may pass a snail on the road before I walk down the gravel road leading to the base. On the gravel road, there are often bugs that I think look like slugs. I am not the expert in bugs. There could also be worms on the road after rain. Among these friends I meet along the road, I may have to dodge birds which fly above my head. At least they seem so close I feel like I need to dodge them. Once I reach the base, I have breakfast between 6:45 and 7:15 a.m. During that time, there may be flies which want to join me at the table. I have a break after breakfast until 8 a.m. and at 8 a.m. my day officially begins. Now you know about my morning and the friendly critters I meet thankfully mainly outside :)

This week is the last full week for the schools here. They are preparing to go on outreach to China, Mongolia, Cameroon, Madagascar, and countries in Europe. I am preparing to transition from work in hospitality to staffing the worldview school. Today I cooked lunch for the last time. I realized that after the fact. This afternoon, I looked through the applications for the worldview school. There will be seven nations represented in the school. They are the U.S., Switzerland, England, Norway, Germany, India, and South Korea. Most of the students are around my age. One student is younger than me by a few months. Otherwise, I will be one of the youngest in the school as staff. They may not realize this though unless I tell them. Some staff at the base thought I was 25-27 years old. I realize my age is perceived based on who I am around. In the university, people thought that I was younger.

This week I have had the opportunity to experience the necessity to choose my reaction. I learn, not only in my mind but with experience, the ability to choose to follow my feelings or not. Yesterday, it was raining a lot. I came down from the farm house with my umbrella keeping me dry to a warmer building after it cooled down outside. In the evening, it was still raining, but as I left, I discovered that my umbrella was broken. I pushed the button to open the umbrella, but the button went in and stayed in without opening the umbrella. It was almost funny. My umbrella broke when I needed it, of all times. So I asked a student if I could borrow their umbrella. On my way to my room, I realized that I could easily be upset and frustrated because I now had no umbrella or I could be thankful that I had an umbrella at that moment to keep me dry during my journey. I chose to be thankful.

Well, that is a little about my time at the moment. I will move on Saturday from the farm house to the base for the remainder of my time here. I will miss that room, but I look forward to the people I will live with when the worldview school begins at the beginning of July.

Until next time,

Rebecca

An International Community

Well, another weekend has come and is in the process of leaving. This weekend has been rich with fellowship and different cultures. On Thursday night, I was invited to have dinner at Beate's apartment with another German and a lady from Cameroon. Much discussion was about the different cultures, different living conditions, and different ministeries. Simple things like which floor is the first floor and which week is next week can have different answers depending on the culture. It was fascinating to realize this. On Saturday, I helped clean a flat of two ladies who are moving to China within the month. My job was to clean the chalk in the bathroom. The water here has chalk which builds up on faucets and in hot water kettels. The chalk can be quite stubborn! :) Then I enjoyed the afternoon and evening with some people from Germany, Switzerland, and Madagascar. The evening included a flavorful pasta with Swiss cheese and an American movie. I do miss America at times. The evening was long and pleasant. I went to bed at 12:30 a.m. which is much later than my usual 10 p.m. in a farm house.

Now I will enjoy some chicken curry dish for dinner before I walk up to my room hopefully before the thunderstorm arrives. It may be strange to walk through a field in a thunderstorm, but I am sure that it will work out. Until next time :)

Rebecca

Someties It Seems Like A Dream

Whenever I walk back to my room, I enjoy the sight of the rolling mountains, trees, Swiss farm houses, and cows. It seems like a dream. Am I really back in Switzerland? Am I really seeing old friends again? Has it really been a year and a half since I was here? I am really blessed to have this time again. There are familiar faces and new faces. There are different countries which I am discovering through the people here. There is a Finnish couple, some people from Cameroon, and a guy from Nigeria. In a couple of weeks, the base will be international in a different way as schools finish and new schools begin. Life is good.

After two days of long hard work, I am feeling the physical effects of early mornings and energy used for tearing up the carpet. This morning was missions morning and we learned about someone's time in China. It was encouraging and eye opening to see the people in that large country. I helped prepare for the snack after the program after breakfast at 7:15 a.m. The carpet was successfully torn off of the floor yesterday for preperation of new carpet today. Not only was the carpet up, but my body was sore from the use of muscles I normally do not use. By lunch I was tired and sore and less creative in my mind. Tonight I forgot the title I planned for this blog. A lack of sleep causes a lack in my memory until I get the rest I need. Even though I was tired I completed all I needed to do today and tomorrow morning I will be able to sleep in and take a break. I will be more refreshed the next time I write.

Last week I was sad when I woke up and the cows with the bells had disappeared to travel up the mountain for more fresh grass. I was pleased when a few days later four cows were in the field. I found out last night that the cows are pregnant and will stay outside of my window until they give birth. I get to enjoy the sounds of cow bells a little while longer.

I am glad to discover that I am understanding more German and Swiss German. Usually Swiss German is similar but the pronounciation causes me to not understand. This morning when pictured and descriptions were shown about China I could understand most of the German, but it was still nice for someone to translate it into English because I did not understand everything.

Well, I will stop for tonight and get some rest. I am sure many more things have happened of which I could share, but I just cannot remember right now. Take care!

New Experience: Tearing Out Carpet :)

Well, this week has begun well. I was once again in the kitchen baking a cake with rhubarb and apples. Then I volunteered to tear up carpet in a classroom. There is unity between the carpet and the floor so great machines and a chisel and hammer are used to rip the carpet from the floor. The dust was bad during the fifteen minuites that I chiseled so tomorrow I will have a bandana or cloth around my face to help with the dusty air. I was not downstairs tearing up carpet for too long because I was baking a cake with rhubarb and apples which was burning a little. It was three cakes to feed 30 people for an afternoon coffee tomorrow. Then on Wednesday morning we have missions morning. There will be a time of worship and then a snack around 10 a.m. I will begin preparing for the break after breakfast at 7:15 a.m.. The missions morning begins at 8 a.m. Elke will be sharing about her time in China. I look forward to that time of sharing and fellowship. Tomorrow morning I will be helping Alexandria cook lasagna for probably 30-40 people. I am definately getting experience in the kitchen. I also clean, and now hospitality has new carpet so the kitchen is open for business. No longer is there the dining room table and chairs taking up space. I will begin cleaning the kitchen tomorrow while finishing to clean some guest rooms. Life is full, but wonderful! :)

Not Enough Butter, but still a delicious cake

Hello,

This week has been a time of learning in the kitchen. I have baked two cakes. A different version of a carrot cake and a chocolate cake. I hope to make an American version of carrot cake one time so that they can taste the difference. For over two hours yesterday, I baked a chocolate cake for about 40 people. I had to double the recipe and doubled everything except the butter. I heard that the taste was different than the normal taste of the recipe, but it was good. Everyone enjoyed the dessert today. For preparing lunch, I have been washing a lot of lettuce. In Switzerland, they call it salad. I now know the process of cleaning the lettuce to remove fine dirt and bugs, taking away the bad parts, and tearing the large lettuce leaves into medium size. Today, I prepared the noodles for a casserole since I will cook pasta, chicken, and salad on Friday with an intern. Then I prepared salad over a nice conversation. Beate, my supervisor, talked about her time in the US. She had a variety of experiences from the family with a large, flat television and many rooms and bathrooms in the house to a mobile home with a widow. She was amazed at the vastness of stuff with the large refrigerators, large televisions, many bathrooms, and large breakfast. I was interested to hear about her time in the States. Then we cleaned and cut fennel to blanche and then freeze. I think blanche is the right word in English, but I could be wrong. The vegetables are put in hot water for a short time before being frozen. Switzerland was the first place that I ate fennel as the whole vegetable. Normally, I have fennel seeds I believe or fennel as a seasoning. I have enjoyed my time in the kitchen.

I was reminded today that God cares about the small things. I had a meeting on Monday morning with Beate about my plan for the week. I brought my mechanical pencil and my stick eraser. I thought that I lost my eraser, but in reality I left it on the table. Someone had it at lunch today. It was a miracle, because that is my good eraser that I need at times when my schedule changes and I have to erase and re-write in pencil.

I will end this time on possibly a funny note. As I walk to my room at the Zenger's house, I pass many animals. I pass horses, cows, sheep, chickens, and guinea pigs. The funny thing is that the chickens and the guinea pigs are in the same fenced in area. That is quite a picture :)

Until next time :)

Rebecca