A Tiny Bit of French

I love random moments of success. I'm once again in Luxembourg, this time for just over a month (with small trips to Germany every now and then, hence the awesome New Years video).  This country is a place of many cultures and languages.  There are the Luxembourgish people with their native language, Luxembourgish (yes, it's a real language), but there is also French, German, English and a whole slew of other languages mixed in, including a good bit of Portuguese.  And then there is me, who only speaks English.  Using German I can get around and make a fool of myself to communicate simple things, but the problem is, a good majority of people here only speak French.  And the only language I feel sillier speaking than German is French.

This morning boyfriend decided to work from home, so I thought it would be fun to run and get us breakfast pastries at the shop across the street.  And then boyfriend reminded me that they only speak French. Oh crêpe!

I had boyfriend briefly tell me how to say the name of the pastry he wanted and a few other quick words before I wandered down to the bakery.  Luckily I already knew the name of my favorite: pain chocolat. Who can forget that?  I was a little hesitant since I don't know any other French, but I had to at least try.  There are certainly worse things in life than making a fool of yourself in a French bakery.

Two minutes later I was hopping up the stairs back into boyfriend's flat with the bag of pastries. It was a simple feat, but I couldn't have been happier about my French accomplishment.

I love my foreign adventures, even if they only take a couple minutes and even if I only used three words of French. The pain chocolat was even sweeter knowing I conquered the French bakery by myself!

Fire Across the City

The greatest display of fireworks I've ever seen.  That's right Disney World, this New Year far surpassed anything I've seen in the Magic Kingdom.  This video only captures a portion of the firework madness we witnessed from the mountain overlooking Bonn in Germany.  We could see all the way to Cologne on the horizon, and the thousands of fireworks in between.  The best part was that it was unexpected and unplanned, just a city full of celebration.  I hope you enjoy the video!

Five Billion People

I recently found the newspapers my mom saved from the day I was born.  The USA Today, the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution; all were dusty and faded sitting on the top shelf of my closet.  The headline that struck me the most was this: “5 billionth human will be born today;” That could have been me!  It’s baffling to consider that 25 years ago the world was two billion people emptier than it is today.  With the birth of the Earth’s seven billionth person just yesterday I thought it was quite timely to find that paper today.  Or completely the opposite of timely, depending on how you look at it.

That’s not it though; the headline goes on, “5 billionth human will be born today; child likely to grow up poor, illiterate.”  And just like that, it could have seemed like my fate was sealed.  As it turns out, I wasn’t that five billionth person. I was somewhere close in the lineup, but that headline certainly doesn’t describe all the blessings I’ve had in my life.  One of those blessings was being able to live in Ethiopia for two years, where I met many people who could have been that five billionth person.

My life has been privileged, but just as easily I could have been born into a life of poverty, without education.  I read in the article that "nine out of ten babies today are born in the Third World;" Nine out of ten of us born that fateful day in 1986 would be born into poverty.  The odds were against me, and yet somehow I managed to beat them.   

I, like many American children, grew up dragging my feet, not in love with the idea of going to school every day.  Now I realize how blessed I was to have had the opportunity to be educated, and even today to be able to continue my education.  It’s the lottery behind the system that puzzles me.  Why did I grow up in America? Why was I born into this life?  It's all chance.  But it’s a good reminder that you could just as easily have been born in a developing country.  We should all be grateful for the blessings in our lives and remember to show grace and love to others.

All I know is that every day the Earth's population is growing.  Every day there are more people that need assistance.  Who am I not to try to help?  I’m not sure how or when, but I can’t wait to continue working in developing countries.