Sometimes…

Sometimes I get annoyed with having to find a restaurant or food stand to eat at when I hungry and tired and just want to open a cupboard and quickly pull something out.

Sometimes I get sick of sleeping in a sleepsac and on different mattresses and pillows every night.

Sometimes I get frustrated with having to worry about mosquitoes and malaria, bus seats and lice, beds and bedbugs, unsafe drinking water and contaminated ice.

Sometimes I tire of speaking in broken English phrases, using pantomimes and not understanding or being understood.

Most of the time though…
I feel so incredibly blessed to travel as I am.

A chance to travel with a spouse who loves me and who continues to give me new things to love about him and with two amazing friends who stretch my travel experiences by encouraging me to get off the beaten trail and teach me about development issues and international affairs.

Opportunities to have a history class, art lesson, culture study, foreign language session each and every day, often unexpectedly but always enjoyable.

Time to think (about my Western assumptions and expectations), read (books, newspapers - whatever I can get my hands on), write (emails, journal entries, articles).

So many moments to spontaneously praise God for what we are seeing - the scenery, the people, the different expressions of religion.