there and back again

ok friends,
i can't even imagine what you must think of me (us) for leaving you all hanging like this. i apologize PROFUSELY! i have no excuse except for the obvious: i'm lazy! sorry!
but hopefully you'll all forgive me with a kindly "better late than never!"

no, but i suppose if i had to come up with an excuse i'd say that it's because i felt the pressure of having to end this with a bang! something special, the best blog ever written, type of thing. or at least come up with a good answer for the questions "what have i learned? how has this trip changed you?" daunting questions to answer. it's big! this whole trip was big, so that means i had to learn big things, right? maybe... i think the changes came rather subtly with things i learned through the experiences i had. maybe people who haven't seen me in 7 months noticed. maybe they don't. but the changes are there, i promise. there's no way you can travel so far, see and experience so much without learning something, having your eyes opened to new things. i'm sorry i can't pinpoint anything specific, but...this is the best i can explain it with my inadequate words.

another question i get alot is "what was your favorite country that you visited?" also, a hard one to answer, and the only way i can answer it is by saying that i loved each place for different reasons. let me explain:
austria was our very first taste of independence. that made it special right from the get go. meeting the oasis team was really great, and being able to be a part of and see another refugee minitry team. REALLY great people, of whom i have alot of respect for. might even get a visit from one of them (RIGHT??! you know who you are..)
and austria is such a BEAUTIFUL country and the atmosphere is just gorgeous. on our days off from ministry the two of us would set off on an adventure and just explore. really amazing times. and then we'd come back all cold and find a cafe and order a cafe melange and a topfenstrudel and warm up...ahh :) good times!

costa rica was good mainly because of the people we were with everyday. the rolands, the couple we stayed with, taught me so much probably without even realizing it. every conversation was a good one, it seemed. my favorite times were daily breakfasts with them. not just because of the food (but that was good too - papaya smoothies!!!!) just having conversations, having devotions. waking up to the sunshine. it was an excellent and relaxing time. and the people we taught english too - GREAT FUN! not so much the teaching english, but getting to know them. :) (a quick reminder: we were teaching six costa ricans english because they were headed onto the mission field and needed to learn english before doing so) i can gladly report that three of our six students have reached their destination of the middle east!!

colorado...haha, i have never laughed so much in my whole life than i did in those 2 weeks. meeting, spending time with, and getting spoiled rotten by kendra's godparents and godbrother (? - that really isn't a real term, is it?). TOO MUCH FUN! it was excellent.

and it was JUST what we needed before arriving in the philippines.... i loved (and hated) the philippines for the sheer difficulty of it. it taught me many valuable lessons. opened my eyes to things. how well off i am. how, though i prided myself on being a pretty multicultural kid, i still have SO much to learn about people and EVERYTHING else. for the first month i was there i wanted out. by the end of our two months i really, REALLY loved it. the people there became like family, and the difficulties from the beginning did not feel as overbearing as we thought they were. the philippines is where the real change in me began. and i learned how to eat fish :) and i'm a godmother now. :)

australia was TOO short, but it was WAY cool! experienced some crazy reentry shock after the philippines, but two weeks is way too short of a time. i really want to go back there someday. for much more than just two weeks. and now i know a bunch of aussies that i need to visit :)

zambia was an amazing first impression of africa. i was just in awe of how beautiful and different it was than anything i've ever seen before. and the kids we were with were just precious :) we also got to jump off a cliff and raft down the great zambezi rapids!

kenya was good to see because it was a totally different experience from zambia. more awesome refmin (refugee ministry) people - we really are an amazing bunch, aren't we? in my completely un-biased opinion, we refmins are the best missionaries out there ;) SO much fun to be there and it really felt like we just chilled. that was our "debrief" time, of sorts.

and that's that! my favorite aspects of each country. the best part is, the whole thing made me better appreciate my home.

you might have noticed that in every country, my consistent favorite was the people. i feel like i can relate to the apostle paul when he writes to the churches at the end of many of his letters "i long to see you" or "i long to come visit" (not his exact wording, but you get what i'm saying, right?). it seems that most of my memories from these places have to do with the people we met along the way. memories that make me and kendra smile. all we have to do is say a person's name and a flood of memories of the good times we had getting to know them come back and we'll be laughing. it's made me incredibly grateful for having the opportunity to share this with kendra: it wouldn't have been as much fun on my own, and i wouldn't have anyone to talk about all the great times with. (thanks, dear :)
anyways, so now that i have gotten close with so many people, scattered so far around the world...i long to see them again. someday...

and now we have been back home for almost 2 months. it was a WONDERFUL reunion with our family, friends, and just being back home in our lovely city, in august. the beach, the gorgeous summer weather... ahh.. perfection :) i could not have planned a better return. i was not tired at all of traveling, and i could have gladly continued on, but i can't think of any other time in my life when i have been more thankful for my home, my familiar city, my room, my family. it's good to be back :)

and now what's to come? you are probably wondering. good question. (any suggestions?? just kidding... but if you've got any...) kendra and i have both been volunteering with helping hands at the refugee center (the ARC), which we enjoyed even from before we left for our trip. we are both also looking for work/working to save up some $$$ for our schooling, which (for both of us) comes next year (Lord willing). can't give you too much of an update on that at the moment, sorry. come ask me next year.
i was corrected in my last blog about this having been the the greatest adventure of our lives (tho it was a half joke.. but you wouldn't get it if you're not kendra or me). it really has been the greatest adventure of our lives, THUS FAR. but of course, we all know that the greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
(bonus points for all of those who caught the hobbit references ;)
i have not yet, but i'm gonna set up a flickr to share some of the photos. if you're interested, ask me.

thanks to all who have kept up thru our travels. the support we got from you was really an encouragement throughout the trip. God bless and GOODBYE!!!!

-becky