Boda Boda fahren in Uganda (Part 3)

Visiting the Village 

The kids outside the house

On one of the last days, we got the chance to go with the school children from the village to visit their homes. Each group visited 2-3 families and brought gift bags to each family which consisted of: candles, matches, soap, sugar, and salt. It was such a humbling experience and so heart breaking to see the conditions of how these families live. The first family we visited had about 8 people living in a hut and the grandmother and aunt took care of all the children living there. There were two month old twins that we held and it broke my heart to think that they weren’t going to get the nutrition they needed living in those conditions. We had a translator with us the entire time because most of the village families don’t speak English except the child that attends school at Noah’s Ark. They were so grateful for our gift and in Africa it is custom to always give your best to the visitors, so they tried to give us mangos, but we didn’t take them because we just wanted to bless them. The owners of the Noah’s Ark told us that they would try to insist, but to not take anything because often the family will not eat just so they can provide for a guest or give a gift in return.

Me with one of the twins

The second family we visited was a boy that lived with his grandpa and great grandpa. Peter had come to their house and invited the boy to attend Noah’s Ark for school and he was viewed as so lucky to be getting an education. All of the houses that you see are very small and have no clean water supply, so often the children are in charge of waking up before school and walking to get water. As heart breaking as it was to visit the village, it was such a humbling experience and it gave us a better understanding of where the children come from and what their situation at home is.

Wendy and I with the second family.

Coaching

Harry and I with the boys that I coached every day

I got the privilege of coaching the older boys every day. They made up the school soccer team that plays against other schools in the area. I loved coaching them because they were so eager to learn because the coaches there don’t know a lot about drills and doing speed work with the children because usually they just play. The boys were between ages 14-18 and were so excited to do technical work. We would always play at the end and on Saturday when they had more free time we would literally play for 4 hours. I loved it. Girls don’t play sports often in Africa so they weren’t that great, but it was neat how even when the coach made the girls play, the boys would still pass to them. I was more frustrated with the fact that they were playing than everyone else because they just stood in a big group in the middle and the soccer game actually took place on the flanks. One boy that I really connected with was Samuel. I thought his name was “Somewhere” for the first few days because I couldn’t understand him. He was pretty quiet and super humble, but really good at soccer. He also was so eager to learn and work hard; he asked me every day if I was coming back the next day. I found out he is 16 years old and lives in the village. He plays for the third Ugandan team, which is two under the national team and I guess has a chance at playing for the national team someday. He lives with his mother and often people pay his mother to let him play with them. I just loved watching him interact with people. He would treat the girls with so much respect and always include them.

Henry (in white) and Samuel (in yellow)

Each morning I would wake up and go running in the village. Let me tell you it was quite the run each day because we were running up the steepest hills and the heat didn’t make it easier. On the third to last day, I went running and I saw Samuel walking with water towards me at about 7:00am. So I asked him if he wanted to come running with me and figured we could go for 15 minutes or so and then head back to get to school on time and I could go to breakfast. He wanted to come with, so we went to his house and got his stuff. I told him I was tired and don’t want to run too much longer and not too fast. He agreed and said he could show me where he used to go to school. Samuel claimed it wasn’t that far, but we were running FOREVER and everyone was staring at us and saying things to him because he was running with a “Mzungu” (which is what they call white people) and I guess everyone knows Samuel around town. To say the least I was tired and had planned on going for a light run, but about 30 minutes later we were STILL going. I kept saying “Samuel, how much longer? I don’t see Noah’s Ark!” His response was always we are almost there and let’s be honest I had no idea where I was because everything looks the same. The worst was that I needed to go to the bathroom. After 45 minutes, I finally saw the finish line and I literally thought I was going to wet myself. One funny story was that I always ran with my IPod on my arm and listened to music. So when Samuel came out of his house to go running with headphones as well. They went into his shirt so I didn’t see what he was listening to, but he told me his MP3 player got stolen. I was curious the whole time as to what was on the end of his headphone cord or if he just brought them because I had mine. I didn’t want to make it an awkward situation though. I am still curious to this day though. I didn’t realize how fit he was. He says he wakes up and runs for 45 minutes every morning, then goes and borrows his friend’s soccer ball (because he doesn’t have one) to do footwork at the field. On the last day I gave him a ball, and some gear to equip him a little better so that he didn’t have to always borrow from his friend. This kid definitely has a future in soccer. He told me his dream is to go play outside the country or even at college in the USA. I am still brainstorming ideas of how I can make this happen. He would be baller at college soccer.  All in all, “Somewhere” has a special place in my heart.

Dawn and I at the waterfall

Out and About in Uganda

Two days before we left, the owners planned a day trip to bring us to the source of the Nile (Jinja), eat chicken on a stick and go to a famous waterfall. We loaded up in the van for the outing and our first stop was the waterfalls. It was cool, the tour guide told us all about the different tribes and how numerous rituals still exist today. For example, we saw a cave and supposedly a python still lives in there and people come and worship it. It was really interesting. The next stop was to eat chicken on a stick at this market. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t my favorite.  I felt like a dog eating it.  It was nuts though, when we pulled up in our van tons of people come running up and start shoving food in your windows to buy. It was crazy! I needed to go to the bathroom here, so I asked the owner and he gave me a key to it out back and a roll of toilet paper. I walked through the kitchen and took a trail to this little outhouse. I walked in and the first thing I see is tons of bugs and lizards. It was a pit latrine and I was like, “Ok Liz, you can’t hold it so just get in and go as FAST as possible. I was nervous a lizard would attack or a mosquito would bite my butt or something. It was quite the experience and I couldn’t see anything in there. EEK! 

This is how they attack your van with food

Next we went to Jinja, the source of the Nile, where we took a boat ride on the Nile where it starts from Lake Victoria. We saw a baby alligator, beavers, and some other cool animals. We stopped off at an island for a bit and there was another boat full of Ugandan students there at the same time. Our tour guide came and asked me the infamous question, “Do you play basketball question because you are really tall?” and we were chatting about what I do in Germany, etc. Then randomly this one student comes and asks if he can have a picture with me and I look dumbfounded and caught off guard. I say uh, sure and so we take a picture, while all the other children are yelling “Mzungu! Mzungu!” Sure enough one by one all these students are asking to take a picture with a Mzungu. It was literally like paparazzi and I felt like a celebrity. We probably took about 15 different pictures and it was just a really awkward situation, but ended with a big group photo. I am used to getting stared at because of my height, but when a tall, white girl in sports clothes walks around Uganda, the Stare-o-Meter increases rapidly.

Chicken on a stick

Our group 

The boy that asked to take a pic.

The group picture with the students

In the tea fields

Boda Boda fahren in Uganda (Part 2)

Now that you have a better idea of what Noah’s Ark is like from my last blog, it is easier to write about different experiences and opportunities we had there.

Accommodations

View from our porch

The place we stayed in was really nice and honestly I figured we would have to purchase bug nets, but we were fortunate to have screens on our windows to protect us from malaria carrying mosquitoes. Seeing that we were going to Uganda, most of us were taking Malaria pills and were warned to bring bug spray. I didn’t bring bug spray because I figured someone else would have some and I honestly am not a big fan of the smell. One brave group member didn’t take malaria pills. In all reality, I didn’t even see mosquitoes or ever get bit by one. They are more common in the rainy season.

Our living room

A cool lizard outside our place

Although we didn’t see mosquitoes, we saw our fair share of lizards and spiders. I am not a big spider fan and I have actually become a little better about it. Growing up anytime I saw a spider I just screamed, “DAD!!! SPIDER!!!” as loud as I could. Lizards on the other hand are cute to look at from far away, but the thought of one crawling in my mouth ever since the Parent Trap movie makes me a little nervous. Or I guess just crawling on my in general when I am sleeping. After I had seen one in our room, Wendy (the other American) and I started doing nightly checks, which come to think of it is kind of pointless because even if there is one I am not about to catch a lizard. Good thing, we usually only found some spiders. One night though, we were sleeping and I started hearing some kind of animal or bug. Usually the monkeys were loud at night and crickets, but this time it was from Wendy’s side of the room (thank goodness J). As I was rolling over to go back to sleep I accidently lightly kicked Wendy (because our beds were really close) and didn’t think much of it. About 30 seconds later, she sits up quickly and I say, “Wendy, did you hear that?” and immediately she is on her feet in her bed saying that something just attacked her leg. I instantly think, “EEK! LIZARD!” and jump up as well. Wendy springs to the light and we are looking around the room. No sign of any bugs, lizards, or monkeys. She starts to explain more distinctly what she felt and I then realize that she felt my kick. HAHA. We were laughing pretty hard and probably woke up the rest of our team, but at least we double checked our room.

In our cabin we had a running joke about the different phases of electricity. There were three phases because of the generator and what not. Phase 1= everything works, Phase 2=only lights, no plug ins Phase 3= plugins work, no lights, and Phase 4= nothing works. It made things a little interesting at times, but we managed. On the third to last day, somebody broke the handle on the faucet so we had to shut the water off, and that became Phase 5.

Meals with the Children

The dining hall, as you can see it is somewhat chaos

I once thought that our family Christmas’ were like a zoo, but dinner at NACMU brought a whole new definition to that. All 139 children in one room eating are pretty intense. Not to mention many of which are toddlers and babies. I would usually come a little late because I had been training the village children. I would eat and literally as soon as I said I was done the children would grab my plate and literally lick it clean. I had to fend their hands off my food. At the end of each meal, one of the kids would read a bible story and ask a trivia question and then the children would sing songs. When I say sing, I more say yell the lyrics at the top of their lungs. I loved it though. One of the other fun things that Noah’s Ark does is make each child feel special on their birthday. They get to sit in front of everyone at their own table and everyone sings to them. They make a cake for the child and give them gifts that they open in front of everyone. Each kid gets a piece of cake as well. Let me tell you with 139 kids, that means you are celebrating birthdays practically every day (actually 139 days minus a few for the doubles), but still it made me laugh.

The children and I at dinner.

School Visit

The kids reading "Animal Farm"

One afternoon, Kourtney (my college teammate that visited for a day) and I visited the secondary class. We ended up attending during their English lesson and just took our seats in the back. We tried to sneak in and not distract, but me and sneaking don’t go very well to say the least. Not to mention I was wearing sports clothes and they were all matching. The class was reading good ole’ George Orwell’s, “Animal Farm”. I was supposed to read that back in the day (think I ended up using Spark Notes), so it was somewhat familiar to me. As we were sitting there I looked over at a girl that was near me and saw that she was wearing the same sport bra as me from Target (they don’t have Target, so it must have been a gift). So I got her attention and pointed to mine and exclaimed, “We match!” She didn’t look as excited as I was about the matter and then Kourtney leaned over and whispered a valid point, that I probably just embarrassed her and called her out because it isn’t really acceptable to have your sport bra showing in Uganda. I thought, ”Way to go, Liz. Always thinking before you speak (NOT).” We stayed for awhile and then got a little bored, and “snuck” out.

Boda Boda

On about the fourth day there, Wendy and I were assigned the duty to go into town and get some groceries. This required riding a Boda Boda (motorcycle) there, which goes against everything my mom has ever taught me. Never ride without a helmet. Never get in a “car” with a stranger. Regardless, Boda Boda’s are everywhere and they just pretty much do what they want. It is unbelievable what people put on these things. One time I saw the driver plus a woman and two children. Or 5 mattresses folded in half. Or a washing machine strapped to the back of one. It is incredible what people fit on a motorcycle. So Wendy and I rode on one together with a driver and of course being the big person (like usual), I got demoted to the back seat. To say the least I held on for dear life. Once we arrived in town a storm was coming in, so we tried to shop fast. We went to the grocery store and got everything that we needed and strategically packed so we could ride a Boda Boda home. At this point we had to make a quick pit stop to get some phone credit at this little stand on the side of the main road. This truck, which is like a moving DJ and just drives around with huge speaks playing music and singing/yelling came in front of us and stopped. All of sudden this guy is saying, “Mzungu, Mzungu, can you dance?” to us and like I said in my previous blog, Mzungu means white person. He kept going on about us and by this point everyone is staring at us clearly because we were the only white people around. Not to mention is starts down pouring so we can’t go anywhere except awkwardly stare and look clueless. I thought about busting out the worm or something to give them a show, but vetoed that idea quickly because I can’t do the worm. Eventually they left and we waited the rain out because Boda Bodas’ don’t drive in the rain, partly because everything becomes mud. Once the rain slowed down we went on the hunt for a Boda Boda that might still be going and faced that we were going to get wet, but as long as the eggs got home in one piece that is what mattered. Needless to say, it was an embarrassing, wet afternoon adventure.

This is a Boda boda! 

Boda Boda fahren in Uganda (part 1)

So here begins the blog about Africa. It is hard to know where to start because there is so much to write. First and foremost, I fell in love with Uganda. After arriving in Berlin from Minnesota on Friday, I had two days to unpack and repack for Uganda. I left Sunday evening to Amsterdam, where I had a layover until the next day. Nothing like sleeping in a comfy chair all night. I was looking forward to watch the Germany soccer match, only to realize that I was in the Netherlands and they were playing at the same time. Therefore, I got to watch a small score in the upper corner and be entertained by the mice running around on the floor collecting food. Yummy. When I got on the plane the next day I was pumped because I got the seat with the all the leg room and I sat next to this really friendly Canadian rugby coach.

When we finally arrived, I had thought that Harry (an AIA colleague) would be picking me up so I just scanned the crowd for a group of white people or Harry. I didn’t have anyone from our teams’ number, so I just waited outside. Luckily my new friend, Daniel, was waiting with me for his ride as well. He went back in to check for his people and came back and said he saw a sign for Noah’s Ark Children’s Ministry. Good thing I happened to mention that to him, otherwise I would have been waiting there ALL NIGHT. They didn’t know what I looked like and I was looking for Harry.

Then came the ride from the airport to Mukono and let me tell you it was an experience. Dawn (she was our coordinator and was amazing the entire two weeks) said, “Feel free to take a nap.” since it was really late, but little did I know I would be bright eyed and bushy tailed fearing that I might not see my 25^th birthday. I have never experienced a place with so few traffic rules. It was crazy, it was like everything goes. Not to mention, we were driving in this big 15 passenger van and I thought we were going to lose our engine.  Cars pass each other all the time and they just flash their brights all the time. Seriously we had cars within 50 feet coming straight at us. I weirdly felt safe though. Along with all the vehicles on the road, there are tons of these motorcycle/dirt bikes that are called “Boda bodas”. More about those later.

A monkey outside our place

When we finally arrived at the children’s home, all the others were already sleeping. I couldn’t believe how nice the place we were staying at was. Our view was incredible and we had monkeys right outside our windows at time.

Our bedroom

Noah’s Ark Children Ministry Uganda is incredible and I was blown away with how self-sustaining it was. We went on a tour the first day and saw the entire facility. There are so many volunteers and Ugandan workers that make NACMU possible.  It consists of: 

*Farm with crops and a mango grove (they tasted AMAZING!)

*Animal farm with cows, chickens and pigs

*Nursery, primary, and secondary schools for the children in the home and some from the village

*A medical clinic available to the local community

*Church

*Home for the younger children

*Three home units for children 16 and older

*Housing for volunteers and many of the workers

*Warehouses to build all the furniture used at Noah’s Ark

*Library

Church, but they are in the process of building a new one

They have staff for each task, whether that is laundry staff, cooking staff, farmers, teachers, office staff, security, and medical staff. Noah’s Ark started out in one home with Peter and Peta (the founders from Holland) and fifty children and now houses 139 children and provides schooling to almost300, plus jobs for many people from the local community. Each and every child has a different story of how they ended up at NACMU and many times the police contact Peter and Peta to take in abandoned children that they have found (more specific stories to come later). This ministry is completely support based and has organizations in America, Germany and Holland that help support it.

Our days usually consisted of two different training sessions and then doing some work around Noah’s Ark in between. We also visited the children at school and ate dinner each night with them. Another opportunity we got was to visit the homes of the village kids. This is just a preface of NACMU and my next blog will be more about the details of our experiences and adventures. I am still waiting to get the pictures.

Our team minus Harry (5 Germans, 2 Americans)

Zu Hause ist immer schön.

So it has been almost a month since I blogged last, but I figured that would be the case since I knew it would be crazy busy being back in the States for three weeks. As I write this I am sitting at the airport waiting to leave to head back to Germany. I still can’t believe that it has already been three and half weeks. It seems as if I just arrived a few days ago. Honestly looking back I can’t really say it was a relaxing three weeks, but it definitely had its moments. Culture shock was rough at first and I think the top four things I noticed were:

1)      How many overweight people are in America

2)      How many large vehicles there are (I have gotten used to seeing mainly small compact cars)

3)      How much money it costs to just live everyday life

4)      How horrible the public transportation is. I rode the bus for three hours one day just to get into the city. I swear we stopped at every person’s doorstep. I could have run as fast as the bus.

Instead of writing about everything that I did, I figured it would be easier to just post lots of pictures and write captions underneath. Everyone likes looking at pictures rather than reading words.

Went to Gastov's German pub with some friends. Played high school
 bball with both of these girls

Kevin came in town to visit

Katie got married. She played bball at Drake and these are some of the
other girls that came. I love tall people.

First Twins game in new stadium. :)

Bonfire at Bre's house on Memorial weekend!

Jayna came to see me for the weekend from California

Jason, Dustin and I got some Boba Tea.

Greg's cabin with Laura and Shauna :)

\

Got dinner and stayed with old Drake teammates. Miss them so much

Hung out with the Drake soccer guys in KC

We took family photos at Macy's. These dudes are cool.

All the girls at my house for a BBQ

The girls minus Anna visiting my grandma.

Jackson Dennis Benz (Al and Ty's new baby)

grillen, spielen, lernen

At a team outing

Summer is finally here. Kind of. I am so excited that the weather has been warm. Often I literally walk outside and just smile because it makes me happy. It is crazy what a little sun can do for the soul. Life has been super busy though, but at the same time really good. Hence the lack of blogging. Between German class becoming more intense, ministry continuing, soccer training, and support raising; there isn’t a whole lot of spare time. I still can’t believe it is already May and I fly to America in a few weeks. I haven’t even really had time to think about it or get that excited. But I am excited. I will definitely miss Germany though and especially my team. I absolutely love the team I am on. The girls are great and we have had so much fun hanging out outside of training and getting to know each other. Last Saturday we grilled in a local park and just hung out for six hours. I brought an American football with (a somewhat foreign object here) and we played catch for a long time. We also watched the semifinal for the Champions League as a team, and as many of you know being a Wörle, we are huge Bayern München fans, so it was a big game. Luckily, they pulled out the win otherwise Dad wouldn’t have been a happy camper. It was amazing and I can’t wait for the final on May 19 against Barcelona.

My awesome roomie :)

Soccer has just improved overall and I am enjoying playing even though at times the situation is frustrating. When I think about giving up soccer at some point in my life, it breaks my heart. Yesterday at training, it was one of the first times I just played without thinking and felt so free. It’s as if nothing else in the world mattered and when you enjoy your teammates it makes everything that much better. In bible study we have been going through a series on how God desires for us to be transformed into the likeness of His Son and how we can put ourselves in a place to encounter God’s grace and love.  We connect it to sports and learn practical ways that we can serve/love our teammates and use our talent as a platform to reach others. As you may know, soccer has been a battle the entire year and I was just talking to someone the other day about it and realized how much has changed. It is crazy to think last fall I would be terrified for training and literally would bike home almost in tears singing worship songs, and now I get excited for training some days (obviously there are the lazy days though too). Just another way that God has been faithful. In training I have really been focusing on using it as an act of worship and remembering that even if I work hard and don’t get “rewarded”, it doesn’t matter because I am working for the Lord and not for man (Col 3:23).

Lately, I have been just so worn out and tired at the end of my long days that I just want to crawl into bed and pretend that my to-do list doesn’t exist. There are times I will sit down on my couch to have my quiet time and say to God, “Can we just hang out right now and kick it?” I don’t know if you have ever been in that place where reading, processing and thinking seems like the most overwhelming thing EVER. It has been good though because it has taught me to just be with God and sit in His presence, which is something I tend to struggle with. Also trying to be a prayer warrior because at times I feel so helpless and burdened by the hurt and dying world that we live in. There are so many people that need the love of Jesus, but where do you start? I have been trying to trust the. At AJ on Wednesday, we heard a story about a married couple that were missionaries in China (1930’s) and ended up being executed (beheaded). When they were taken away their daughter was left behind, wrapped in a blanket, and someone found her and took her in. Eventually she went back to America and was adopted. With that being said, the mother (Betty Stamm) that was executed had written in her journal two years earlier:

Grilling out in the Park 

“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt. Send me where Thou wilt. And work out thy whole will in my life at any cost now and forever.”

I have been trying to read this each day and make it my prayer. I want to pursue the Lord wherever that may bring me. Betty did that with her life. We all can do ministry right where we are. I have been challenged with this though. Do I truly give myself, my life, my all, to Him? It is easy to give the things that don’t matter that much, but what about those things that are really hard to let go of. And at what cost? Support raising has been tough lately, but I keep asking myself, do I truly believe that the Lord will provide? One time, I heard a definition of faith that I really liked. It is: “Faith is taking God at His Word and believing that what He says is truer than how we feel or any circumstance we will ever face.”

So these are the things that I have been challenged with and just been processing through, but I hope to write more soon. 

Fahrrad fahren

This post is going to mainly about one thing and that is biking. Or in German “Fahrrad fahren”. Since the weather is getting warmer here I have started to bike more places. This includes biking to German class every morning.  First of all let me start out by telling you a little about my bike. I got it for free from a woman whose father passed away and she didn’t want it anymore. I have a sweet basket on it as well. The seat is a little low for me and squeaky at times and the backward pedal brake doesn’t work. Other than those things, it is a great ride. Here are some things that I have come to know about biking in Germany (you would think it wouldn’t be that complicated, but I guess I never biked in America so maybe I didn’t notice all the “rules”): 

1.       There is a bike lane that is painted red here. If you are walking in the bike lane you will get ran over. Literally. Or if they will repeatedly ring their bell at you until you move. If you want to die, walk in the bike lane.

How cool is this foldable bike! I really want one!

2.       The Bike Bell: this is important because of what I mentioned before. See I feel rude to ring a bell at a person so I either go around or bike slowly behind them until they move. I have been informed that this is worse and ruder. It is the polite thing to tell someone to move out of your way. Partly I avoid using mine because it sounds like a dying cat, which is a little embarrassing.

3.       The passing rule: I have no idea what side I am supposed to pass on, so I always just go as fast as I can and ride on the people walk way. People probably think I am really rude, but when I think I am being polite, I am most likely doing just the opposite

4.       My friend got a ticket for not having a bike light at 12pm in the afternoon. How can you even tell if someone’s light is working? I got lucky because I use to bike home every night from training without a light until my host mom bought me one because she was worried I would get hit.

5.       I don’t understand how people like biking because it hurts my butt, and what makes me even madder is that every day when I bike to German everyone passes me and I am pedaling so fast it seems. I swear I am pedaling faster, but they are moving faster. This is NOT logical. Then I switch mine to a higher gear and it’s like my quads are about to rip. Either EVERY biker has crazy strong quads or my bike SUCKS. Maybe there is a biking trick I am unaware of.

6.       I still haven’t figured out if I am more like a car or a human on my bike. For example, when I am biking down the side of a busy road and it’s a red light, but there is no reason for me to not go do I need to sit at a red light? Or can I bike through it? I usually just pretend I am a human when it is convenient.

7.       I actually love biking on busy roads because I feel like a race car driver. Even though I am going WAY slower. It is just so freeing and I guess it is the closest I get to driving over here, which I really miss right now. Germans are really safe too, so I never really worry about a bus side swiping me or anything. Sometimes people have to slam on their brakes, but I think they would get in more trouble than me. I guess I would get more hurt, but I don’t worry.

If only rollerblading was the equivalent of biking in Berlin. Imagine if we lived in a rollerblading society and instead of hoping on your bike to go to work or school, you strapped on your blades. I would LOVE this. Maybe there is a city where rollerblading is the popular thing to do. It is crazy to me how in certain cities it is not the cool thing to do. Whereas in college in Des Moines we rollerbladed everywhere and I then I visited my friend in Madison and she said that NOBODY rollerblades. I guess whatever. That’s all for this post. Doesn’t give much of an update, but at least now if you visit you know the biking dos and don’ts.

Frohe Ostern!

Britt and I before her game

Well it has been a long time since I have blogged. Life has been crazy busy and usually when I go to write a blog I have something to write about, but that isn’t the case today so I will just see what flows from my mind (always a scary thought). It is crazy it Easter was already here. Last year, I spend Easter in Prague so it is a bit different being in Berlin this year for it. We couldn’t really go anywhere because we had a game on Easter Monday and had this fan club thing on Good Friday (Karfreitag). Holidays are always somewhat lonely in other countries because you just think about all your friends and family being together and you aren’t there. Most of my teammates went away to their parents’ houses. Yesterday, I went to my host family for Easter lunch after our game. I get so excited to eat warm, homemade meals now that I live on my own because my meals are pretty boring. They are such a blessing. I thought I would have outgrown the whole Easter egg hunt, but this year I got to do two hunts.

Meg, Britt, and I after a different
game

A few weeks ago Meg (friend from the States) was here visiting, which was so much fun. We just did random things and in the mornings I had German class, but I wasn’t training yet because of my knee so we got to hang out at night. We went to one of Brittany’s volleyball games in Potsdam and since Meg played she taught me some things about volleyball. My other friend in Berlin plays for the men’s professional team here and they made it the finals, which is a big deal. So that is super exciting. I always wished I played volleyball. It looks like so much fun and WAY less running than soccer. I love what I do here, but one of the hard parts is that we work with some Americans that play as professional athletes over here and provide them with community, etc, but then they leave when the season is over. It is hard because you connect and then they leave and never know if they are coming back for the next season.

All of us at the Potsdam Champions
League soccer game

On the soccer front, I am finally playing again and have been running and training. I will probably dress on Monday, but doubt I will go in because I am just coming back. It feels so good to be playing again but I am hesitant with my knee. I try to not be though because that is when you are more likely to get injured. Another bit of good news is that Spotify is FINALLY in Germany. I love it. Makes listening to new music so much easier. I have also started reading the Hunger Games. Along with the rest of the world. I am on the second one and they are so good. I hope to go see the movie here. It is the nice thing about having a Kindle and just being able to download the books instead of getting them shipped from the States.

Easter brunch with friends

Exactly six weeks from yesterday I will be back in America to visit. I am really excited, but at the same time kind of nervous because I think the adjustment will be harder than I think. We will see though. Last time I came home I didn’t have much time to process because it was so busy and I was living off adrenaline the entire time, but this time I will have a lot more downtime, which I am excited for. It will come fast, but between then and now I have a lot to get done. As the weather gets warmer, it is always harder to sit down and do work because I rather be playing outside. I am getting excited to play soccer when it is warm, and every night when we go to training it stays lighter a little longer. I love that. This blog is all over, but it is hard when it has been so long. I will try to keep up better.