Winter Wonderland

Well after my last post I certainly didn't think I'd be saying that I'm now in Switzerland. Due to some visa problems, my Swiss compatriots were not going to be able to have their child in India. Rather than stay in India by myself for over a month, last minute it was decided that I would join them in their home town in Switzerland.

Our last month in India was busy working everyday to build the bunk beds for the future children's home. We ended up building three triple bunk beds and two double bunk beds. We learned a lot in patience caused by the manual tools breaking, paying entirely too much for Indian prices for power tools that ended up breaking, daily power outages, unable to acquire basic parts to build, and a host of other issues. Needles to say, I'm a pretty laid-back person now at this point (at least comparable to my previous self). Sometimes there's only so much you can hope to accomplish in an entire day, just one trip to buy some screws that are "brand new" only to find out you have to wait for them at the store for an hour and then when you get home find half of them are broken or the wrong size. These different events are what make you realize that this truly is a different country and things don't always work out the same as in the western world. The saying "low and slow" takes on an entirely different meaning every day.

Finally, a saw that I didn't break

The prototype

Let's get our weld on

Metal and wood. True beauty.

Climb on up the tower of rest.

The ministry work we did took on a whole new look as our mission field truly was the men at the hardware shop, power tool store, the welders, our neighbors and local food shop. We formed relationships with the men at all the stores and when we would go to gather more supplies there would always be groups of people that come to assemble around us. It was an interesting phenomena to observe how the demeanors of the shop owners would change as we continued to see them again and again. Several of the owners asked us when we would be visiting their shops again and truly enjoyed spending time with us even though we had difficulties communicating.

Sometimes it's good to know where your food comes from. We visited our local chicken shop a few different times to make some delicious chicken curry and it's really quite an experience. You decide how large of a chicken you'd want and then well they knock off the head right there and let it run around in a barrel. After the squawking is done, they chop it up based on the size of pieces you'd like. I miss my vegetarian ways.

The day traveling from India was unlike any other travel day I've experienced. Our neighbors whom are normally already quite noisy at night, took things to a new level. The entire night long it sounded as though a full orchestra and football match were taking place inside my room. As we left our house at 3 AM we were greeted at the airport with several unfortunate events that almost prevented us from boarding the plane. Praise God He gave us all peace and He fought the fight for us to make a way for everything.

Who drew the short straw today Miss Chicken?

Nom nom nom..

Since here in Switzerland, things have been 180 degrees difference from India. I've been partaking of the best honey I've ever had and let's just say that all you who know me, know I love my honey! Oh yeah and the cheese, bread and chocolate of course is amazing as well.

I stepped in to a dream

I belong in this environment

I've had the chance to help take tourists snowshoeing and having fondue at a fire pit while it's snowing. I've also been able to assist in building igloos with a school group. I've become an "expert" in cross country skiing and love the feeling of my lungs burning as I press myself deeper and deeper into the mountains and snow in solitude.

Kids with saws...

One of the finished products

Good work boys and girls!

The largest fondue I've ever had

Like a boss

I'm fortunate enough to have the chance to build relationships with a number of amazing people here and love learning more and more about the Swiss and German culture (and a bit of the language) while I'm here.

Castle fun

Cross Country Ice Beard

A few nights ago I went with some people from the church to learn line dancing. Who would have thought I'd be practicing line dancing while in Switzerland!? This has to have been one of the funniest and best nights I could have imagined. I certainly do love listening to music from my
homeland while throwing down some dance moves on top of it.

Hard work makes a great view

Yee-haw!

A german salute

I'm hoping to head out ice climbing and to do a bit of skiing before I leave Switzerland. Speaking of leaving... I'll be returning to the good 'ole U.S of A. in March.

Until the next update, salü!!