There are many phrases and gestures that I have noticed I have picked up from living here. But one of my favorites is saying: Oh, sorry. Let me explain. On my first trip here, I realized that when I would drop something, the nearest Rwandan would say, "Oh, sorry". I would laugh and say, "I dropped it, why are you sorry?". Or I would smack my funny bone on something. Again, "Oh, sorry". "But you didn't do it, it was me who smacked my own funny bone." I didn't get it. Oh, sorry isn't an admittance of guilt here. It is a sympathy gesture. For example, I'm sorry you dropped your phone and the battery just flew across the room...again. Or, I'm sorry you are coughing your brains out and you seem to be in pain. I believe that the short phrase "Oh, sorry" or "I'm sorry" has so much more meaning to me now than ever before. It is taking a moment to empathize with someone. Stopping to realize that the stra...
Last weekend was Easter and many families have many traditions on celebrating our risen Lord. For the last 15 years or so, my family has attended the Leadership Training for Christ (LTC) conference. We started attending the Dallas, TX conference when I was a freshman in high school and moved into the Tulsa, now Rogers, Ark. conference. I was immediately drawn to it because it gave me an outlet for the talents that God had placed deep within me and I was shown how to develop those talents to bring glory to God. And you get medals. (I was am a fairly competitive person, so it was a motivator.) People in our church would sign up as coaches to help guide us through events like drama, chorus, speech and so many more! They were mentors to us; guiding our unique talents that God had put deep inside of us. I'm sure sometimes they felt like they were herding cats! Some events were group events and some were individual; allowing us to share our talents with each other and also giving us ...
As of tomorrow, I will have been away from Oklahoma for one month. It is funny the things that I have really noticed that I missed, besides my family, of course. I told Keli Shreck that I would pay 100,000 francs for a Dr. Pepper (that is the equivalent of $200, by the way). I repeated the same sentiment later in the day to Bryan, who went into his cupboard and no kidding pulled out a bottled Dr. Pepper (which I haven't seen in one WHOLE month)--funny thing was that his youngest had drank about 3/4 of the bottle and when he opened it, it didn't even spew. I told him it didn't count because it was flat, whew! I also miss my car, not just my little Fit, but the convenience of being able to jump in my car and go to a fast food restaurant or Wal-Mart to go pick something up. There is a convenience factor that I really miss. When we go to a restaurant to eat, I know it will be at least 2-3 hours. And you can't go to one store to get what you need. Over the counter medicin...
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