I suppose you all are wondering how things are over here, after that last depressing blog entry. Our storm kept going for a couple of more days, but the good news is that because the flood damage to our rooms was so severe, we were all evacuated to a new building. My new room has a bigger bathroom and is a bit newer than the last one (although it doesn’t have internet connection, so I am in one of the classrooms right now pretending to study.)
It’s finally stopped raining and my clothes dried out and I even went running again yesterday and almost passed out in the heat. Today is our one day off and I got up pretty early and Nikki and I used an old electric skillet we had found and made pancakes and French toast for the whole class. (Yes, all 7 of us.)
This afternoon some of us are going to walk to the beach, so expect some pictures of a very sunburnt Heather very soon.
I appreciate your encouraging comments on my blog, it reminds me that even though I’m far away from home, we’re all still connected and we can share our lives with each other.
So far, academically, things are great. I’ve aced every exam so far and am enjoying the classes, especially Gross Anatomy. (I don’t know why they don’t call it Disgusting Anatomy, cause that would be way more appropriate.) I’ve also learned a lot of life lessons this last week.
My roommate is a cool girl, but we’re pretty different. I want the air conditioner off, she wants it on. I never lock my door or close the curtains, she’s locked me out like 5 times already. I never call my parents, she calls her parents about 3 or 4 times a day. (Sorry Mom!) I don’t mind creepy crawlies in the slightest, she uses bug spray like it’s going out of style and a massive “Hello Kitty” mosquito net. I’m a Christian, she’s Muslim. When we had to move rooms this week I wanted to be in the room on the end of the building with 6 windows and a brand new shower and no ac. She wanted to be in the room in the middle with 2 windows, ac and a hole in the shower wall that I can look out of and see the yard.
She wasn’t going to budge on the ac, even though it was highly inconveniencing everyone. Anyway, I’m older and had been there longer and was the one making the decisions. We argued. I admit, I was pretty upset. I went into someone else’s room and sat on the bed and sulked. (Wow, how embarrassing can it get?)
After a while I thought, I may be right about which room we should have, but is it a big deal? Here I have this absolutely stellar opportunity, when all my classmates know that Shomaila is being a jerk about the room, and are watching me to see what I’m going to do. I could push for my own way, which was clearly the right way, or I could choose to turn the other cheek and let her have the room she wanted, and be gracious and forgiving about it. I’m embarrassed to say that it took me about 30 minutes to change my attitude, but I finally did. I packed my clothes and moved into our new room.
And you know what? It’s absolutely fine. And you know what else? There were a few people who were blown away by my humble attitude. (One of them was me! I thought, hey, where did that come from? Cause I’m not normally this nice!) The good news is that Shomaila and I get along great, she’s a really nice girl. And I had the opportunity to demonstrate forgiveness and grace and I did.
Another life lesson I learned this week was to never drink three shots of rum on an empty stomach. Without going into any details that might incriminate me, I woke up the next morning and thought, what on earth happened last night? (Don’t worry Mom and Dad, NOTHING happened, WHATSOEVER). But I was given a serious lecture by Brendan about responsible, safe drinking, and I had an even more serious talk with God about it. (A really serious talk involving the words “I’m sorry”, “Please forgive me” and “I’ll never do that again”.) I thought about not telling anyone, keeping the secret between me and my two classmates who had been up with me the night before. (Obviously that was a bad idea of course. Perhaps I err on the side of indiscretion, but I’d rather be transparent about my faults than cover them up so no one knows I have them.)
The truth is that getting drunk is not only stupid, it is dishonoring to God. When I talk to Shomaila and my other classmates about grace and walking in the light and following Jesus, if they don’t see me living the walk I’m preaching, it means nothing.
I don’t have to preach with words. I can show them what grace is by forgiving them for their faults. I can show them love by giving up my time to cook them breakfast. I can show them self-control by having one drink and then calling it a night before I have to be scraped off the floor. I can show them truth by not cheating on my exams and having the integrity to not look at the answer key for assignments. I can show joy by refusing to join in complaining about flooded buildings and lousy cafeteria food.
And I suppose I could also show self-discipline by actually studying right now instead of writing on my blog.
Cheers! Have a great week, everyone.
p.s. The rum was actually mixed with coke and the coke here isn’t carbonated and it kind of tastes like rum anyway, so if I was making excuses I’d probably use that one.
2 comments:
Youll never do that again??? :) So funny to read your blogs its going to become part of my daily routine I think. Are the beaches really nice? Sounds like quite a multi cultural experience. You should have a blast. And dont forget that your humanness can speak volumes to people that are bound by religious rights. There is no bigger turn off to people than someone who lives at an unatainable level. Mix the rum with pineapple juice and seven up. Much tastier. :)
definately pineapple juice, and if you fry up some maggots like you did the g.hoppers in august, you can add protein to your diet. ....Dad
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