So I had my first German Easter this weekend. It was a little different from normal but not really in any way that I had expected. Basically that makes it just like everything else here that's different from home. The main differences that I noticed would have to be: 1. we did not sing "Christ the LORD is Risen Today" and 2. the service wasn't all that celebratory. Other than that it was fairly normal. They even have their own version of our little "The LORD is risen!....The LORD is risen indeed!" saying. Or at least I think that's what it was. I can't really be sure though.

I was in Gießen for the weekend and a good weekend it was. I did absolutely nothing, which is to say it was about like all the other weekends I have here. I've gotten to the point, however, where a weekend like that can still be called good and that's a good feeling. On sunday morning I was sitting in church waiting for it to start and an older couple sat down next to me. We got to talking and I find out that he's an animal nutritionist who lives just outside of town and works with all the local farmers. He invited me to come out sometime and visit the farms and see agriculture around Gießen. I didn't have time on that visit but next time I go back I certainly will make it. What I would have given to meet him the first month I was here!

The big news of the week, however, has to be that my resolve finally broke. I had been cracking for a while but last thursday I finally trimmed my beard. I have been cold ever since and these are nice, warm spring days. People keep asking me why I did it and, to be honest, right now I'm asking why I didn't do it sooner. I'm glad I didn't if only for the warmth factor but it's so nice not to have to take care of it all the time.

Work here continues on about the same. We finally finished planting and we only have 15 pigs left so soon it will change slightly but not that much. Samuel keeps demanding more of my attention. He likes spending time in my room and he likes playing with (read: destroying) things. His favorite are electrical gadgets (iPod, camera...) but fortunately I've managed to keep his hands off of those. I have a hard time disciplining him when we can't really communicate and his dad doesn't really do much either so it gets a little out of control at times. I know divorce is horrible for the children but it certainly is nice to be able to send him away every other week.

All in all my time here in Germany has been a wonderful experience. That said, it is very nice to think about having our spring retreat in a week and a half which means that the second term is half over. I've enjoyed it here but this isn't my home. I'm sure July will come too soon when it does but right now, I'm ready for it to come.

Love and warmth
David

So I've been here a few months, I have a few left to go. Time has really ceased to mean much to me anymore. At first, the days went slowly but the weeks flew (is that really how it's spelled?) bye. Now the days fly and the weeks crawl. It's kinda weird and I've given up trying to figgure it out. What's even harder to grasp, though, is that I'm 1/3 done here in Weierhof. Soon I'll be home and almost instantly after that I'll be at school.

So, aside from the random ramblings. Work here is going really well. We're in a bit of a holding pattern right now waiting for the feilds to dry out so we can start planting. Normally they would be almost done right now but apparently it's been really odd weather for this time of year. We're doing a lot of stuff right now that's never important enough to get done when there's other stuff to do. Two weeks ago Ortwin discovered my computer skills (so far I haven't fixed any of his computer problems. He solved one on his own after I had given up on it, though) and last week he let me start doing some mechanical work (like dissambeling and greasing the whole 3-point assembly on the big tractor). We've been doing a lot of that kind of stuff. That and cleaning. As often as I clean the kitchen you would think it would radiate light by now, but, alas, there are four young children in the house half the time so...no such luck. We've also been cleaning outside which I don't think has been done for a few (read many) years. So it's been good.

To quote from the Hamfast in The Lord of the Rings, "All's well that ends better." All in all, this is turning out to be a pretty good ending to the year. Even though the year isn't all that close to ending yet.

Peace and Love
David

Welcome back everyone, I don't really have a lot of time so I'll prioritize and be breif...hopefully.

First, I promised Hannah that I would mention her here. She's a Canadian that I met in Gießen and I think our current status would be classified as dating. I called her on valentine's day so I guess that pays a little tribute to the status of our relationship :) I don't really know how much I'm supposed to disclose here but I think I covered the most important part.

Second, I made it safely to Weierhof! It's been four days now and I can honestly say, I have never worked a more grueling four days in my life. I've probablly worked harder but not when I'm this far out of shape. Two years in college and six months in a fairly slow paced job can do that to you. So far I've spent my time hand splitting and stacking wood as well as mucking out pig and cow stalls. I do a little work in the house: sweeping floors, washing dishes, and the like, but most of my time is outside. It's been fairly warm this week, 5-10 degrees (upper 40's) but it's also been raining so every night I've been sore, tired, and wet. It's going to be a great six months! (seriously, I'm excited) I haven't met the entire family yet (the kids spend half their time with their mother) but Ortwin is a really good guy to work/live with.

Finally, contact info. We had a 4 day conference with all the trainees between placements and it was drilled into our heads that we should give everyone contact and emergency contact info because MCC is tired of getting calls from families of trainees wondering how to get ahold of their loved ones :)

David King
c/o Familie Gallé
Crayenbühl Str. 10
67295 Weierhof-Bolanden
06352/5471

For those of you calling from the states, I think you would dial 011-49 and then the number without the leading zero but I'm not quite sure on that one. As for emergencies, my contact person here in Germany is Johannes Neufeld, he lives in Frankfurt and should be able to get a hold of me in a decent amount of time. His phone number is 069/79534998. I'm also thinking of getting a cell phone but I probablly won't get around to doing that until it's not worth it anymore. There you have it.

Love and blessings
David

So it's been a month since my last post and I do appologize for that but I have a feeling that this will become more of the rule than the exception in the comming months. In two weeks I move to my second placement in Weierhof and, from what I hear, my internet access will be very limited, and thus, my blogging will be very limited.

The last month has been good though. I had two Christmases, one with a German family and one with an American family and they were surprisingly very similar. I was expecting much more differences to ponder but the only ones I really noticed was that in Germany St. Nick comes on the 6th of December and they celebrate Christmas on the 24th.

Newyears was also fun. Hannah Beck (an American friend of mine from here in Giessen) and I went to Karlsruhe to party with some of my friends. I don't think I've ever breathed in so much firework smoke in my life. I don't ever want to again but it was still fun.

These past two weeks now my family has been here and we've been travelling around. We started out here in Giessen and then headed east to Leipzig and then Prague. It was my first time in the former East Bloc and it was very eye opening. In Prague we took a 7 hour guided walking tour of the city and by the end of the day we were frozen and ready for coffee and a good bout of teaching my aunt how to play Texas Hold-em. Always a recipie for good times :D

The next three nights we spend in Wintersheim which is about a 20 min drive north east of Weierhof. There is another trainee living there on a winery and they have some guest rooms that we were able to stay in. We took day trips from there to Weierhof, Heidelberg, Luxemborg, and we drove through the corner of France just to say we were there.

After leaving Wintersheim we spent an hour in the air and an hour underground and we were at the London Mennonite Center where we spent the next three nights. We went all over the city and even took a day and drove out into the countryside to Oxford and through the Cotswalds. A lovely time. And of course, while we were in London we had to see some shows. Mary Poppins and The Lion King were absolutely fenominal!

And now I'm back and life continues, at least for two weeks...after that, well, we'll see what happens.

Love and enjoyment!
David

I don't really have a lot of time to write now but I'll let you all know everything about my many Christmases later. For now, I don't know how many of you pay attention to it but Google's logos for the past five days have been kinda cool. You can see them all at http://www.google.com/doodle10.html

I guess this proves once and for all that I truly am a Google freak.
David

So I haven't really felt like blogging lately and I would feel guilty except that our internet has been unreliable at best so I can't always blog anyway. That plus nothing really exciting has happened other than my deutch class is over (much rejoicing!!). This past weekend, though, I went to Weierhof where I'll be living for the second half of the year. I met Ortwin and his two younger kids. I'm not sure where the older two were but from what I hear I met the best half of the family. They're really nice people, though, so I can't imagine that the other half would be very bad.

On Saturday we decided to take a day trip to Trier. It's about 100km from Weierhof and it's the best preserved Roman city in the world. They also have a really big Weinachts markt (Christmas market) in the city center. We drank glüwine and ate wurst and had a grand ol' time. It happens that Trier is also the birth place of Karl Marx and being good little Marxists we took a few hours to go through the museum. Good times were had by some. The best part was to start our audioguides at the same time and turn the volume up as loud as it would go. The rest of the day we spent looking at old Roman ruins and exploring an old bathhouse. There is an intricate set of tunnels underground that are only lit by very dirty skylights. It's almost dark in broad daylight let alone after dark. It was a good time and we all came back tired of people and walking.

Sunday brought church in a language I don't quite understand yet and then a trip to a winery. There is a trainee about 30km on this side of Weierhof who lives on a vineyard. I spent a coulpe of hours there and then made the long trip home. Sorry for being kinda scattered and not very detailed. I'll try to do better some other time.

Rest and pleasure
David

I'm not really sure why but since I've been here my memory has improved. Not necessarily being able to remember things from day to day but remembering things that happened years ago. A few days ago I helped to carry some old furniture out of an office that's being refurbished. There were two heavy desks and a few book shelves that had to go down two flights of stairs. The next day we loaded a truck for Armenia and now I'm sore. It brought back memories of past injuries. There came sweet memories of home and bitter memories of pain.

I remember one fateful winter evening when I was four years old. Mom was in the barn milking and, in my excitement of a new discovery (I have forgotten what it was), I went running in to tell her all about it. As I ran, I slipped on one of the icy concrete steps and gashed my chin. I remember some time later as we drove into the parking lot of the doctor's office, my mom had to pull me from the car screaming. I don't know why I was scared of the doctor but my eagerness to hold onto the seat of the car probablly came from the fact that I had a good idea that a needle was headed my direction once inside the building. I got my first, and only, four stiches. I still have the scar and, to this day, it gives me fits if I try to shave. Thus, I have a beard.

I remember eight years later when I was in junior high. I was playing football at the time and one evening at practice we were running tackling drills. By some turn of fate, i got paired up with the biggest, strongest player on the team. The worst injury I can claim from the ordeal was a cut on my left arm, it didn't even bleed much at the time. The next week during the game, however, it made up for lost time. Shortly into the first quarter the ref yanked me out of the huddle and sent me to the sideline to clean my arm, there was blood from my elbow to wrist.

I remember some time later, after my first year at Hesston. I was at home for the summer and helping out on the farm. As I climbed out of one of our chicken pens I tripped and dove head first into the car that I had driven there. Blood came streaming from the cut across the bridge of my nose and, for a while, I couldn't remember much. Eventually I found some water and washed my face. I drove home and let dad finish feeding the chickens. I spent the rest of the day in the house with ice on my nose.

I remember last spring. I had just graduated from Hesston and was working at home until I left to come here. For two years I had been in school and physical labor had been far from my list of daily activities. Early on that summer I sprained my right shoulder and rendered that arm quite useless until it had time (and help) to heal. I remember trying to work and trying to simply live with your dominate arm injured. It is this injury that I remember most. Not only because it was most recent, but because it seems to have not fully healed. Or perhaps it's been, to some small degree, reinjured. My right arm is always the first to get weak and it stayes sore the longest. When this happens, the memories come. Lately, they've been comming a lot.

Rest and strength
David