Carol’s list of 25 random reasons why it’s good to be a missionary

Carol’s list of 25 random reasons why it’s good to be a missionary

1. You’re doing at least one thing God said to do.
2. If the liberals win the presidency, you have the consolation of the people in the country where you work being happy with the U.S.
3. You can appease your guilt right away because “the-starving-kids-in-Africa” are right next door.
4. You read more.
5. If your kid ever wants to be President someday, he or she can talk about how his different worldview gained while living overseas qualifies him for handling international affairs (that is, if being really conservative becomes politically correct)
6. You learn to appreciate things that are taken for granted sometimes.
7. You get automatic practice with learning patience and learning to trust God.
8. You get automatic help with your vow to not watch too much T.V.
9. You get less junk mail and hardly any sales calls. (Although I got one here in Haiti on my internet phone from a Fast Burn Weight Loss Farm. I didn’t have time to explain how I’m sort of already at one.)
10. Lots of people want to be your friend (so what if it’s because you’re a rich American who can take them to the U.S. where they can live happily ever after?)
11. You have a great excuse to spend time on facebook – keeping up w/ supporters
12. You get to play board games with your kids, because there’s not much else to do.
13. The people you live with say you’re really good at the language. (Unless you live in France.)
14. You tend to lose weight instead of gain because of withdrawal from American food addictions.
15. Women actually wish they had your hair.
16. You get more exercise than most Americans.
17. Instead of getting snow days off, which require you to shovel snow or pick at ice, you get political days off with no snow or ice.
18. You get to be around missionaries, who are really great people.
19. People think you’re better than you are because you’re a missionary.
20. You do things you never thought you could do.
21. Christmas is not too commercial anymore & it’s easier to avoid things like Halloween if you want to.
22. You’re likely to get to drive a truck and a motorcycle (unless your wife says no)
23. You learn by experience not to panic so much in scary situations.
24. You learn to be resourceful (in Creole, you learn to degaje)
25. You get frequent flyer miles and you pay less income tax.

we're too hot, you're too cold

This morning on the internet I saw that it was 34 o F in PA and when I talked to my Mom & sister on Skype I saw they had turtleneck shirts on and were expecting flurries. Well, down here, it's just getting hotter. Through the "winter" we've been pretty comfortable...especially for those of us (me) who don't play soccer. But now it's hot enough that the kids are on a mission to get the blow up pool set up. Unfortunately, Richard says we don't have enough water right now, so I guess I better try to distract them with making chocolate covered Easter eggs.

Bursting Waterbed

Or what happens when you turn on the hose to fill a waterbed and then sit down to watch Ice Age 2?
We were falling asleep on the couches in front of this silly movie when we suddenly remembered that we had left the hose running into Joy's waterbed. We jumped up (suddenly VERY awake) and found

This:
...stood frozen for a couple of seconds (probably screamed) wondering if it would burst in front of our eyes... ran in all different directions (feeling like we were all of a sudden living one of those exaggerated animated films where things stretch way beyond capacity before they burst)...I ran for the outdoor bathroom where the hose was connected (to shut off the water), Joy ran for a bucket, Richard and Ricky for rags. AFterwards we could laugh.
That was by far the biggest water ballon we've ever seen.
We wondered about how many pounds it must have weighed at that point. We drained a whole lot out and it seems to be OK. wow.