Everything I ate was cooked over a fire...

Everything I ate was cooked over a fire and I wasn’t camping….at least not what those in the western world would think of when the word camping is used.

Initial and random thoughts on homestay:

Homestay is a period of time when missionaries in a new location live with a family for the purpose of learning more about life in that area and possibly learn some language as well. We were fortunate to have a base knowledge of some language. Some people go into homestay not knowing any of the local language.

-everything we ate was cooked over a fire

-I thought we (Melody and I) were living a simple life in our new home until I saw how simplified things were for the family I was living with for the week. I now feel like we live in a palace.

-It seemed completely normal to have the young children sharpen the machete on the concrete blocks outside.

-Fire was a bit of a mystery. I would love to know where it started. People would go get hot coals from whoever had them so no one really started a fire from nothing.

-The sense of community was overwhelming especially when it came to providing a little of this and that. A few times a day people would come to ask for a little salt, tea, or other items.

- there was very limited expressions of love through physical touch and through words

-sweeping a dirt yard everyday and even multiple times a day really does make a positive difference

-farming by hand is fun for a few minutes

-seeing rice get bought in the market, made into flour, and used to make bread was definitely pretty awesome

-I was very entertaining to many (especially children) as I tried to do so many new things

-I will always enjoy connecting with kids cross culturally through tickling, especially since they never seem to figure out that they can tickle me in return

-language learning is so, so very hard and often right when I think I understand something, I figure out how extremely wrong I was in my thinking

-cooking with my hands was quite enjoyable, who needs a spoon to stir when God provided hands?

-I can carry firewood on my head but not much else

-people here are so resourceful; for example: using grass and a twig to tie a bundle of firewood