Stretching Out

Our new “career” is all about stretching.  It makes living here exciting, but often difficult.
Our comfort is being stretched. 

Our idea of fun is being stretched.

Our taste buds have been stretched. (click on picture to read label.)

Fried Chicken Feet
I’m kidding.  They don’t seem to eat much dog here :).

The reason we stretch is to become more flexible in order to be fitter and more useful for service.  This weekend, we saw the results of stretching.  It was up-close and personal.  Since there is a language gap between us and the locals, we sometimes feel alone and helpless.  This weekend we were invited to go on a “Donation Trip” with our new friends who work at the office.  The trip was organized completely by the nationals from my office and they made us feel like we were one of them, but it required a little flexibility.
In my opinion, the alarm never sounds good at 5am on a Saturday morning.  Even though it is a beautiful harp melody that wakes us up every morning, I often have a burning passion to propel my iPhone out of our fourth-floor apartment window.  I restrained myself once again, but I compromised with the annoying harpist a few times by pressing the snooze button(which aided to our tardiness for our weekend trip).  After her continued nagging, I realized we couldn’t put the inevitable off any more, so we got out of bed.
After leaving the house, the first order of business was to fill up the truck with fuel.  I told the man to fill it up (I think), then I proceeded to fumble through a series of levers inside of my truck finding a way to unlatch the fuel tank door.  Eventually, after popping the hood and pulling on some mystery levers, the gas station attendant found the correct one (it is the one labeled with the fuel tank in case you were wondering).  One great thing we have discovered about gas stations here is that they give you freebies when you fill up.  So far we have been given two huge bottles of water each time we have filled up with gas!
It was good to know that we were not the only late people to arrive at our rendezvous point.  However, shortly after 7:00 a.m., our caravan was meandering into the mountains.

There were only a few people who knew the destination.  We just knew we would be driving for a while and the roads probably were pretty rough, since there was a disclaimer on the invitation: “TRUCKS ONLY!!! NO CARS!!!”  After an hour into our trip, we stopped at a market in a small village.  There was a benign looking entree wrapped in a banana leaf.  I inquired about it, hoping it was something sweet.  The lady pointed to her head and said the word for pig.  Then it was confirmed that it was pig brains.  I opted for some banana chips instead.

After two hours of driving, the pavement ended.  Briefly it was charming cobblestone streets through tiny rural villages, but after a while it turned to gravel, then dirt, then grass, then ruts, then nothing.

 
After three hours of low-gear white-knuckle driving, we arrived in a small village in the middle of nowhere.  The nearest town of any size was hours away on roads inaccessible during the rainy season.  Our job was to hand out donated goods to the tribal children.  We were warmly welcomed by the whole community.  They gave us water and some sort of sticky rice cooked in a bamboo.

We ate a quick meal and then proceeded to give away small packages of necessities and a portion of the Book to the under-privileged overjoyed children.  Their gratitude was humbling considering how little we were giving them.  We were also able to share with them other stories and the Truth, through the use of the story bead bracelets.  Each adult also got a specially prepared package along with the Book.  The adults in the village also crafted a story bracelet and now the whole village has the colorful bracelets.  But even better was the knowledge that everyone in the village heard the Truth. 


We  played with the children and shared stories with the adults for a few hours, but as the sun got lower we had to leave the village.  The road out was worse than the road in.  After only five minutes outside of the village, we came to an obstacle.  It seemed impossible to get the trucks up a hill with ruts and very loose dirt.  But after careful navigation and several running starts, all trucks were successfully up the hill. 

After three more hours of rough roads, we stopped and kissed the welcomed pavement.  Eventually we stopped at a local campsite and spent the evening around a campfire as one body: two cultures, uniting as one for a common purpose.
 
Before heading out the next day, we did some fun stretching by picking some oranges and strawberries at our campsite.  It was an experience wandering around large orange groves and strawberry patches finding the perfect fruits.  The low hanging fruit was usually too ripe and often rotten, but the best oranges were always the hardest to reach.
  
We learned a lot about the local culture.  It was a wonderful weekend!