EAsia, oh EAsia, where do I begin? You were a dark, cloudy, rainy, yucky place at first to me. All I could see and feel was uncertainty, headache pain, nervousness, excitedness, sleepiness!, dampness and dreariness. I was advised about what EAsia would be like, but my ears did not listen. I’d been to Thailand and it is Asia and I loved Thailand so I’d love EAsia, right? I could handle EAsia, right? No. Thailand is not EAsia. Not by a long stretch except that it takes 100 years on an airplane to get to either place. And the people have the same skin coloring. Other than that, nothing is the same.
My ears heard there would be squatty potties, and I giggled at the thought. I did not understand that would be my only option for the most part when we were out. My ears heard it would be hot, or maybe cold, but dress in layers, and all I heard was hot. I did not understand that it would be cold. I saw the weather say it would rain at least the first three days. I did not understand it was a cold, drizzly rain. Or that it would last all week. I heard the beds would be hard, but that ended up being the least of my worries. I did not hear about the lack of toilet paper or paper towels or napkins.
BUT! What my ears and my heart heard was that there were mkids who never get to see and talk English with other white kids (besides their siblings) who needed childcare so that their parents (who hardly see or talk English with white people themselves!) could “conference” together. My ears and my heart heard there were villages that the O family worked in and they needed help with checking the health of the children. I could do that! I could go to the other side of the planet and love on kids. That is a specialty of mine. And I could take my daughter, who also loves to help others. God graciously provided the money, so we boarded the many planes to get there and headed to the other side of the planet.