Land of Our Sojourn

About 3 months ago we realized that work had gotten to the point where we could not rest and relax without getting out of town. So we found some good tickets (can't get anywhere without flying) and got out of town for 3 days. Our kids are so accustomed to air travel that just going to the airport and getting on a plane is like an amusement park for them. We found a nice hotel that was in the middle of a big city. Even though this particular city is not very beautiful the hotel had a wonderful garden area, play place, pool, and beautiful restaurant on top of the hotel.  We laughed as we watched the kids absolutely thrilled by a small kiddie pool and small play place. We said to one another 'That's the blessing of having no parks in our town - we are all easy to please.'

Even though it takes a lot of work, it is always nice to get away from our city for awhile. This past week we took two flights to another island for a leadership conference with our company. Our kids absolutely love to fly! We have to take a whole day now for packing on the front end and resting on the back end. Traveling can be so exhausting with 3 little ones. Our time at the conference was really nice. It is always great to be with other Westerners and to speak English with people who know and understand your situation. We had wonderful meetings where we were challenged to think through how we communicate in our culture and re-examine if we are sometimes communicating things we don't mean to with our actions and the way we use our time. It was very challenging! We feel like we are coming back with some good tools for learning. Even though we have been here 8 years, we still often feel that we have so much to learn. The even was jam packed! We were up at 6 to get kids dress...