What do I miss? Pt 2

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Now that I am in North America, back to the land of plenty I find myself like I thought I would when I wrote my first 'What do I miss' post missing things about our lives in Congo. Again not to say that I am not enjoying our time back in North America but over the last 2 years before we left we really did make Congo 'home'.

So here they are:

I miss not living out of a suitcase.
I miss people understanding me when I talk about Fufu and the Roulage.
I miss fresh mangos, pineapples and avocados.
I miss the Rains down in Africa :-)
I miss our MAF team, they are really such a fantastic bunch of people that have a heart to see God glorified!
I miss our house.

I miss being able to go out side without putting 80 layers on.
I miss speaking French.
I miss our Congolese staff and friends that we have come to know and love. It is them who will truly change their country, they are a resilient and God fearing people. 
I miss quiet. North America is such a busy place it is easy to get caught up in just being busy and not having time just to be quiet. Kinshasa is not 'easy' but there are many times when you just get stuck... in a traffic jam, at home cause your cars broken or just that its too much effort to go out; so it forces you to take the quiet time. Where as in North America its easy to go out, run to the store, go out for dinner, drive to jasper etc; so that quiet time had to be scheduled along with everything else. 

I love the ease of driving around and just being about the 'run' to the store only takes 30 min, not 3 hrs.
I love my friends and family. This is only Nicks second time in Grande Prairie so it has been nice to introduce him to some important people I grew up with and impacted my life.
I love power and water, ALL the time. 
Ruth loves putting on all sorts of cute winter outfits.
I love nice people, where your are innocent before you are guilty instead of the other way around. (AKA if you bump into someone they say sorry like it was their fault no matter who's fault it is... well most ppl do) 
I love being able to take Ruth to indoor play places and have her interact with other kids. 
I love the snow and crisp cool air (though Nick would disagree with me :-P) 
I love having been able to spend everyday all day with my husband for a couple months... (Though now I miss him like crazy) 
I love all the time Ruth gets to spend with her Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles and many others. 


This is a life that I never expected that I would be able to live. A life without doubt full of adventure. There are many difficulties of living the Missionary Expat life; there are lots of books written about how to adjust well both into the culture you invite yourself into and then back into the culture you grew up in. They both change you and thus you are not fully integrated into either; however instead of becoming a 'third culture kid (adult)' I hope that we can become bicultural. Were we as a family can be fully comfortable in both cultures realizing that there will always be people that don't understand us and what we have experienced and also those we do not understand. We must take the initiative and rise above, ever learning, ever thinking of others; realizing that we are never better then anyone else. No matter they be Canadian, American, or Congolese. 

This is a tiny little planet with a eternity of things to learn and appreciate and I hope I love and miss them all. 

   

1 comments

  1. We miss you too! We are looking forward to the four of you returning. Enjoy having time letting Ruth get to know your parents. We will keep the Mangos, bananas and pineapples growing here. :)

    ReplyDelete

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