by Richelle Wright on May 9, 2013
About a month ago, we had a conversation here about one of those unsettling and sometimes divisive (at least as far as opinions about best practices) components of our expat, international lifestyle – local men and women employed to handle those domestic tasks and home maintenance labor. One thing I did pick up from that [...]
by Lisa McKay on May 7, 2013
When I first moved to Laos with my husband Mike, I tagged along on one of his work trips out to a rural village where Mike’s organization had recently helped set up a gravity-fed water system. During this trip, Mike and the staff (and, by extension, me) were the guests of honor in the village [...]
by Laura Parker on April 30, 2013
Sweaty heads and dirty feet tumbled into the car after an evening last week at BHJ Girl’s Home in SE Asia. And we waved goodbye out the window as the gate was closed behind us, and I asked my three kids in the backseat, “Well, did you have fun?” And, immediately, my son started in– “I didn’t like the food. [...]
by Angie Washington on April 22, 2013
We sat in the booth at a sandwich shop. By divine serendipity our paths crossed on “home” soil. She was back from Africa and I was up from South America. As we picked at our oversize, overpriced deliciousness stories poured out. “Things are so rough in the village. The ladies tell me I need to [...]
by Rachel Pieh Jones on April 17, 2013
When you start to pick your nose in public, you might be too cheap for Kleenex. Or you might live in a really dry, dusty place and need to dig that one out before it makes you bleed. Or you might be overdue for a break. When you (if a native English speaker) start to [...]
by Laura Parker on April 11, 2013
Missionaries can be a negative, cynical bunch sometimes. And I’m not pointing fingers because I get it. I’ve drunk the kool-aid and have come up woefully short of expectations (of myself, the work and others), and I’ve done this same fall-on-my-face-move on four different continents. Hacking out a life overseas can make a pessimist out [...]
by Chris Lautsbaugh on April 8, 2013
Have you ever found yourself asking, “What am I doing?” “Is this worth it?” “Is this what we signed up for?” If so you are not alone in your emotions, although these feelings can make you feel very isolated. Missions and any form of leadership carries with it an aspect of loneliness. Ordinary friendships become [...]
by Richelle Wright on April 5, 2013
This question must cross the mind of every missionary parent, at least at some point. I know it has crossed mine… and more than just once. First, I wonder- What would it look like, their resentment, I mean? Would my child become angry and act out? Would I see sullen and negative with constant [...]
by Lisa McKay on April 3, 2013
Change is in the air. After three years here in Luang Prabang, we’re leaving. My husband, Mike, is taking up a new job in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), so we’re packing up our life here and moving. We’re also having another baby in just over four months. Because of the lack of quality medical [...]
by Tara Livesay on April 1, 2013
We stood in the driveway staring at the house we had rented in Port au Prince, “This looks like New York,” she declared. “My family will call me bourgeois living in a huge house like this.” She was correct in her observation, it was a very nice house; similar in size to every house we’ve [...]
by Editor on March 28, 2013
One Saturday morning I woke up to humid Asian heat rising over my bed and the sound of cranky motorbikes on the way to the market. Oblivious that a tragedy had happened while I slept, I got up and went about my morning routine. When I finally logged onto my facebook, I became numb at [...]
by Rachel Pieh Jones on March 13, 2013
My 7-year old went to her Somali/Arab/Afar dance class one Saturday afternoon. The guard outside informed us that there was no longer dance on Saturday afternoon, no matter that we had signed up, no matter that we had paid just last week. Discouraged, we ran errands instead and ended up at a store which sells [...]