Friday morning, I had a reader at 10am and 11am. The first was Palden, my Tibetan immigrant. Thursday morning was a little rough with him, just because I didn’t think his English was as advanced as I found out that it was this morning. We had a really good talk, I feel like I learned a lot about him. I mean, it basically epitomized why I wanted to do LST to begin with. I love meeting people and hearing their stories, and Palden has an amazing story. It’s been a good start so far.
Hillary and I both had appointments at 11am, but neither of them ended up coming… on time. Hillary’s wasn’t a for sure thing, he’ll probably end up coming later. I had an appointment with an older lady named Annemie who is a member at the church. She ended up coming around 11:30 looking for Carol. She is quite possibly our new favorite person ever. She brought us new oven mitts and dishtowels. Then she asked us if we wanted to see some of Belgium, this question took us both a little off guard. Then she said, “Well, I guess not…” To which we both responded, “Yes! We want to go some where!” Hillary had an appointment at 2pm, so we had a bit of a time crunch. If Hillary hadn’t had that appointment, Annemie said that we could have gone to Holland or something like that. Whaaat?!
Instead, we headed out to a little place called Lillo, one of the last real villages in Belgium. This village was about 30 minutes outside of Antwerp. The car ride was fun, talking with Annemie was so great. She was telling us about her travels and Belgium, she has an amazing life. So, we got to Lillo, and it was… perfect. We both loved it instantly. All of the other villages by the harbor had been pushed out by the boating industry, all but Lillo, which is now protected by the Belgian government. This place was just like, magic, haha. There were the cobblestones, and it was tiny. Hillary asked Annemie how old Lillo was, she told us that it was 800-900 years old. Hillary told me that it’s the villages like Lillo that make her love Europe… well, one reason for her love, haha. We took a little break in a restaurant, and sat and talked over coffee. We learned about how Annemie got involved in the church and just different things. We left the village, and really this was just the perfect outing. It was something different, and not extremely cliché.
When we got back to the church, Hillary and I made some lunch and then waited for her 2 o’clock. After that, we headed to the grocery store to get some ingredients for Shepherd’s Pie. Hillary felt the urge to make some. This is the first real cooking we’ve done since being here. I mean, eggs, spaghetti, and frozen spinach are great and everything… but it was nice that those weren’t the main components of our meal.
We composed the pie before Hillary’s final reader of the night came. Phunsok, one of Hillary’s Tibetans, who has been utilizing the lesson time more than any of our other readers. He really wants to learn English. I chilled out up in our apartment while I waited for the lesson to be complete. Hillary was interrupted by some Ghanaians about an hour into her lesson, but she was okay with it because the Ghanaians are fantastic. We’ve both decided that they might be our favorites. So, Phunsok left and we then began our feast, haha.
Because the day before we had gone to the Brazle’s house, I was able to charge my computer, which meant that we could watch a movie or something. This seemed like such a luxury, because we’d been without technology for longer than the average American… and probably longer than the average Belgian as well! So, we started to watch the first season of Pushing Daisies, a short-lived dark comedy that used to be on WB.
In the middle of the first or second episode, I noticed something… on the wall. This was something that Hillary and I had yet to see while being in Belgium. It was the orange glow of a setting sun. It has been overcast and hazy since we got here, but not on Friday night. The clouds had cleared, and we could see the sun setting and it was… perfect… not unlike Lillo, the Belgian village. It was like God saying, “Welcome. Feel good about the work you are doing here.” That’s what I got from it anyway. It was the perfect end to our first week. God is good. God is love.
Peace, Love, and Jesus,
Dana and Hillary… and soon to be Maureen. :)
you have a lot of favorites :D
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