Back in the West...though Australia's not really west, is it?

Well...we are in Australia. I've been feeling a lot of things in the past couple of weeks. A lot of good things, some bittersweet. I'm guessing a lot of what I write will be similar to what Becky has already said, but I really do want to share what I've been thinking and feeling lately. So bear with me.

To put it in one sentence, we really grew to love being in the Philippines. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who'd have seen us our first few weeks there would have never thought it possible - even we didn't think that we'd be sorry to go, quite honestly. I've never been more happy to be proven very wrong. I'm happy that I'm sad, if that makes any sense.

So having said all that, landing in Australia on June 9th ended up in an interesting mix of thoughts and feelings. For the first couple of days, I just couldn't get used to seeing tall white people everywhere - blond hair, red hair, blue eyes, green eyes, pale pale skin. Coming from 2 months in a country where I was a white giant with pretty eyes, it was rather refreshing to walk down the street and not have every eye on me. And everybody speaks English, obviously. I kind of got that same "i'm-the-same-as-everyone-else-here" vibe that I get every time my family goes back to the States on furlough, only this time it was even more so, having come from an Asian country.

But I do miss being surrounded with Filipinos, at the same time. Isn't that weird? I really do. I miss so much about the Philippines, even things that drove me crazy when I was there. I guess the times when I've most noticed the differences is the past two Sundays, when I've gone to church. Man...just to refresh your memory, our church in the Philippines was unlike any other church we've been to - choreographed dancing, lots and lots of worship, very expressive, very charismatic. It totally threw me and Becky for a loop our first Sunday in Manila, but since then, during our two months, we managed to find a comfortable groove in worshiping with our GK family. No, we never actually danced, but we still came to enjoy the worship services very much.

So coming back to a typical Western church service, what I would normally be used to, has just been odd, because for the first time in my life, i'm not used to it! Everything seems so...short...and toned down, and quiet. Especially quiet. I just feel like saying "Come on, people, belt it out!" Haha, I guess you never realize how much impact a place has had on you until you leave it. I know that sounds so corny, but sue me, life is corny and there's nothing that will change that.

Sydney has been great so far. We had a great day walking around the city yesterday (check out Becky's new blog below mine). Today we went to church with the Starks and then in the afternoon we met the other members of the Zambia team, and we began training. Lots of orientation, very thorough and helpful. The kind of orientation that Becky and I both agreed would have been really helpful to have before coming to the Philippines. Oh, well, what's done is done. Our "assignment" for this first day was to not take a shower tonight or tomorrow morning before starting training again. Interesting, and I have a bad feeling about what point they're trying to drive home.

We have two more days in Sydney, and then on Wednesday we head to Zambia! We'll probably blog before then. We seem to be getting back into the groove a little bit. Anywho, thanks for listening to my scattered thoughts. Enjoy the lovely pictures Becky posted below!

-Kendra