Living in a country thousands of miles from my family, I often get asked if I miss them. I miss them everyday. Things happen everyday that make me wish they were around the corner instead of around the world so that I could share what I am experiencing more frequently.
But, after living here for 4 months, I am a part of the community. I recently shared lunch with a teacher at the school that I am working at. I mentioned I was trying to cook a certain recipe that required corn starch only to realize I don't know the Hungarian word for it. She managed to find me some. The woman at the corner bakery I go to recognizes me and automatically gets what I want. Every Tuesday, a student of mine helps me translate the lunch menu for the following week. My mentor's wife welcomes me home with a hug when she picks me up from the train station. The youngsters at worship have begun to recognize me and smile and wave when I get there. I have realized I can live without the best of the best coffee ever made. Showers don't need to take a half an hour. Biking is not just for exercise, but can be used (and is used) for daily transportation. Asking for help is required when you don't know the language. However, if you don't speak the language, you can still build strong, healthy relationships with people within your community. Do I miss my family? Everyday. But, I am so thankful for a community of people who make sure my heat works, I have food, and I am cared for. "I beg young people to travel. If you don't have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown, eat interesting food, dig some interesting people, have an adventure, be careful. Come back and you're going to see your country differently, you're going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture,food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You're going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It's not what Tom Friedman writes about. I'm sorry. You're going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can't get out of a book that are waiting for you at the end of that flight. A lot of people- Americans and Europeans- come back and go "Ohhhh." And the lightbulb goes on. (Henry Rollins)
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Elaina JohnsonI am from a town on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin. I grew up in Hudson, WI, where I had the privilege of returning after graduating from Winona State University with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation. Archives
December 2016
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