The Long and Short of It

Haha... I crack myself up. Right.

So I cut my hair. I donated 10 inches to Locks of Love. It's really weird now... I haven't had it this short (shoulder length) since I was 13! I hated it for a few days, but now I'm slightly getting used to it and seeing the good side. And hey, God gave me my hair so it's really His to use for His glory, and I was just following that, so that's good! And when I think about it, I only gave up half my hair. The person who will get 10 inches of my hair will have lost ALL their hair. It's the least I can do. So I'm okay with it now. Even though it's not really "me," it will grow, and I guess it's sort of a cute style so I can live with it until it grows.

But I thought I'd give you all a heads up on this so that when you see me next, if you haven't already seen me in the past 3 days, you won't freak out. ;D

Random thoughts about Mexico #4

Tuesday was our R&R Day! It was wonderful! But it was also really strange. Going into the ultra-rich tourist resort area known as the Hotel Zone after being out in the gritty, poor, REAL Mexico all week was a shock. Everything was made so lushly, so comfortably, it sometimes sickened me. Not that comforts like that are bad or anything... it was just weird seeing the difference. And I guess it was sort of the "conspicuous consumption" thing I had a problem with. I mean, just compare, say, the Sheraton Inn (a HUGE hotel with marble corridors and fountains everywhere, actual nice bathrooms, and of course an big outdoor pool out right by one of the most beautiful beaches in the world) or that big mall (full of expensive shops and restaurants of every kind, and also full of people buying up whatever they felt like, not to mention the streams of drunk party people) to the house of that one mother in Tecax (she had, was it, 5 children? And it was a one-room house, 15x15 feet, with a "roof" that leaked horribly every time it rained which was almost every day. The kitchen consisted of a bucket on some concrete blocks.). It makes me really sad.

What's even weirder is coming back home. We take SO much for granted. We are all SO EXTREMELY WEALTHY here in the US. We're not exactly the wealthiest people in our church, and we have to worry about making ends meet, and live without certain comforts, and buy clothes seldom, and wait on the someday when we'll have more money to finish our house, take a big vacation, and a bunch of other things. Only a few years ago Dad was jobless and bedridden sick and we lived with our grandparents, surviving by the generosity of others. When I'm here in the US it's so easy to lose perspective, to think that we actually have it a little hard sometimes. But after going down to Mexico, I realize that we really don't have any right to complain. We have electricity, air conditioning, a practically endless water supply, HOT water, a nice, clean, house with 2 stories that's made from sturdy, really nice material, furniture and beds to sleep in, and enough money to do heck of a lot more than live. I have a closet full of clothes and shoes. When I walk into my room I can't believe how much stuff I have. We have computers!!! We have CARS! Hey, we even have toilet seats, lol! We are really SOOOO rich. We have no right to complain.

Lol, after I got home, I was just WAITING for Mom or Dad to start complaining about this or that about our money, house, or whatever so I could pounce on them with my ready-made list of all the things we take for granted here. ;)

But anyway, back to the Hotel Zone. We certainly did enjoy our time there, despite the gaudy display of wealth. It was an amazing day!

After riding a public bus to the Hotel Zone, we went out for lunch at a big mall. The mall was sort of outdoors, just covered with canvas canopies in an artsy sort of way. Full of all kinds of stores and shops and restaurants (this is the same mall I was talking about earlier). A bunch of us (I think it was Hannah, Sara, Stephen, Kaitlin, Zac, Jennifer, Dave, Josh, Andrea, Chris, Caleb, and possibly a few more, I just can't remember who!) went to Chile's, the same place we went for supper on our R&R Day last year. Just like last year, it wasn't quite so good as the Chile's here, but we had a lot of fun. Stephen was obsessed with building things out of the Chile's packets; it was funny.

After lunch, we split up. Most of us went to the beach, but some went to see a movie. Kevin and Eric went back to the mission because Kevin all of a sudden got really sick. It scared us all to death; it was really sad! I don't think they ever figured out exactly what was wrong with him, but we sort of labeled it "dehydration" even though it didn't fully fit the bill for that. :(

I went to the beach, of course! We walked through the Sheraton to the same spot on the beach where we were last year. The water is so beautiful there. It's the classic white sand, turquoise water beach (well, actually, if you go out to La Isla de Mujeres, which we did last year, it's even more beautiful!!). We had so much fun. We spent the entire afternoon out there.

After learning how to jump over the waves in Tulum, I had so much fun out in the water with my friends! I figured out (actually, someone showed me) that if you get far out beyond where the waves start to turn white, it's really easy and a lot of fun! One of the absolutely most awesome things of the entire day happened while we were out in the water (it ties for absolutely most awesome thing of the day with seeing the ocean at night under the stars). We saw it coming slowly toward us from far out in the ocean... a rainstorm! When it hit, some people got out, but a bunch of us stayed in the water, even though it got a bit choppier. That was so amazing, swimming in the pounding of the playful ocean in the pouring rain, surrounded by the sound of a waterfall on the waves and the laughter of my friends. I will remember that all my life.

Of course it was one of those quick, freak Mexico rainstorms, so it only lasted about 10 minutes and then out came the sun. Some other things we did on the beach: Sara, Hannah, Stephen, Jackie and I played frisbee (of course!). Sara and I lay down on the sand and eventually got halfway buried. Sara discovered it looked REALLY funny if she laughed. ;) We also hung out and talked for a bit over underneath those shelter-things where we put all our stuff and where all the beach chairs were; that was nice. I looked for shells in the water for a bit, but I never found anything. Stephen found a LOT though, so he was giving them away. I ended up with a really awesome piece of white coral and a pink and white seashell.

All the guys made a big sandcastle together, it was pretty cool. Hannah made a sand turtle, but I never got to see it. :( Last year Sara and I made a really cool sandcastle, but I never got to this year. That's alright, though, I was having fun doing other things. Oh! I just remembered something really funny! We had a little sand war! A few of us were running around throwing sand at each other, and boy was it fun. Not quite as good as last year, though—last year it was at night, and it was HUGE even though it was just between Sara, Stephen, Chris and me! It lasted a long time! So much fun!!

That evening we all met back up at the mall. I went to McDonald's for supper (blech. I'm NOT a fan of that place, but I didn't want to spend anymore money). I got a kid's meal, which contained the best toy I've ever seen in a kid's meal, or at least the only one I've ever kept—a really cute stuffed monkey. I named him José Luis after the most awesome little boy in Tecax. :)

After supper we all split up into a bunch of little groups and walked around the mall. I was with Andrea, Jackie, Nicole, Kaitlin, Caleb and Hannah. Hannah and I got a little Cancún keychain for Susie, and we also found a hammock for Jessica (later on the whole group contributed to the cost of it). There was also this cool little shop, I forgot what it was called, but it had a bunch of Lord of the Rings stuff. And another store had a bunch of Star Wars shirts. Outside of that store was this big plastic Cookie Monster. Kaitlin, our own favorite cookie monster, really enjoyed getting to meet him. ;D

After it was dark we all met up again and walked back over to the beach. I think I already told you about seeing the ocean at night (in my post "Oh, Mexico!"), so I won't describe it again.

As we walked back from the beach Hannah and I sang (and Sara a little, though she was hoarse, and Chris sometimes or whoever felt like joining in). It was really nice; it was just that sort of time when you feel like singing. Everything's so beautiful and peaceful, and God is just so obvious. At those certain times I just feel like I have to sing, or else my heart will burst with the beauty breaking the spell, pointing Love as King (to steal the idea from one of my favorite songs). So I was glad someone was willing to sing with me (thank you, Hannah!). Last year was so awesome—Sara and Chris and I sang all the way back from the beach, for the entire time on the bus, until we got back to the mission. I love that! But this year we were all tired so I was the only one who really felt like singing, and soon after we got on the first bus I didn't feel much like it, either—too tired, and Sara was hoarse, and it was just not right singing without her being able to join in.

We had an interesting experience getting home. Normally one certain bus route would take us all the way back to the mission, but the bus driver in the bus we were in decided for some reason he didn't feel like taking us that far. We had only gone about 5 minutes when he told us to get off there. So we unloaded onto a sidewalk sort of on the edge of the hotel zone and waited around forever for another bus with the right route to come by. We were all SOOO tired, and the mosquitos were terrible! Somehow we survived the half-hour that we waited there. Somehow just being with my awesome friends made it okay, even though we were exhausted and weren't much for conversation. Finally the right bus came (and this one wasn't full of drunk people, like the one that we had had to turn down a few minutes before!), and this one took us all the way back.

Awesome day. It's amazing how God uses even the R&R Day to teach me and show me more of His love and grace!

Well, I think that's the end of my Mexico ramblings (maybe... we'll see). Wednesday we took off and went back to Oklahoma. Oh, it was cool, when we got near OK City, we started looking out the window for Norman, and we found it! We found the stadium, and from there we could map out all these different familiar roads and buildings and such! I actually saw Wildwood! And from there I traced the street down to our neighborhood. So I saw where our house was!! It was so cool. We were all picking out familiar sights all the way to the airport. That was exciting because I'd never been able to pick stuff out like that before... yay!

Okay, I'm done now, I need to leave for a bible study thingy! Au revoir!

Random thoughts about Mexico #3

Monday was awesome. It was actually a big adventure for me, at least! It was our work day. Everyone had different things to do. I never thought mine would be as much of an adventure as it turned out to be!

The Chains let this one lady set up her empanada stand in their driveway every morning. Mr. Chain had the idea of painting a big sign for the stand on the outer wall, and Jackie, Lane and I volunteered. So at about 10:00, we put on sunscreen and old clothes, and went outside to see what we could do. Well, some other people were painting the walls, so we had to wait for them to get done and for the paint to dry before we could get started painting ourselves. But we filled up that hour—we talked to the lady who ran the stand to find out what she wanted, drew out a plan for the sign, and walked down the block with Daniel Chain to get some paint. The lady made us an empanada so we could paint one on the sign. It was awesome, while we were sitting around outside planning everything out, Eddie and Mark Chain were working on the pickup nearby, and they had Switchfoot's Meant to Live album blasting out the speakers. That is one of my absolute favorite cds in the world! And cooler than that, that cd always has reminded me of Mexico ever since I first started going last year, especially the song "This is Your Life." So it was awesome to hear it actually while we were IN Mexico! We all sang along.

Finally it was our turn to paint! We had to paint pretty high up the wall, so we used this scaffold. It was a little freaky. The board on top was really old and had almost rotted through in places. We made sure to always spread out our weight, and some spots we avoided altogether. It wasn't very wide, so it was very weird trying to switch places! At least we could lean against the wall for support. Fortunately, I'm not scared of heights (just falling, lol! There IS a difference, I think!), so after I got my balance I was fine.

First we drew our design on the wall in pencil. We stopped midway through this for a quick lunch, then got right back to work. I had a feeling then that we probably wouldn't get our siesta that day, and I was right. I guess that needs some explaining. At about 2:30 or so in Mexico, shops and everything just close down for a few hours because it's so hot. Last year we always just kicked back and relaxed—and maybe even took a nap—in the hammocks on the breezeway (on the top floor of the mission). But I remembered one time last year when Jackie, Sara and I painted a mural. It took us forever, and we didn't get a siesta that day—we got done just in time to go get ready to go out to a village and do our program. So, I braced myself for no siesta. It wasn't that bad, it was actually a lot of fun. Serving God is fun, even when it is tough work, and our work was a kind that I was very satisfied with doing, lol!

Well, it ended up taking us 5 1/2 hours. Part of it was just because all three of us are HUGE perfectionists when it comes to art. We would paint something over once, then one of us (usually me) would go back over it and slowly... carefully... paint around the edges and make them smooth. Very tedious work, but strangely satisfying. We wanted to— we HAD to have it perfect, or as close to perfect as possible.

We each brought our own strengths to the project, and it worked really well! Lane is great at lettering, so she penciled in most of the lettering, and also filled a lot in with paint. Jackie is a REALLY amazing painter (as I'm sure you all know) so she spent most of her time working on the empanada. It turned out WONDERFUL!!!! It looked good enough to eat, lol! My strengths are just a little here and there, so I sort of did random things where needed—a little lettering here, and a LOT of painting, mostly making the edges straight.

It was funny, at about 2 or 3 pm Sara, Kevin and Zac got done with whatever work they were doing, so they decided to come watch us and be our "go-fers." They went to Super David's and got us drinks (my Cristal Manzana was sooooo refreshing out in the heat). I REALLY appreciated it! And they decided to be our entertainment, lol. They did a pretty good job. I was glad they were out there.

It must have been an interesting sight: 3 obviously non-Mexican girls standing on a 6-foot-tall scaffold painting an empanada and a bunch of letters on the side of the building, right by a main street. It was sometimes not that fun for us, though. We finally started counting how many offensive gestures were made towards us (they were offensive to us, I mean—catcalls, whoops, shouts, and other degrading things.). We stopped counting a few hours later—the numbers were too depressing, lol. It made me really mad. Next time that happens here in the US I'll just be thankful, because I know people do it a LOT more in Mexico, so it could be worse. :(

At about 4:45, we were getting near the end when we noticed the dark clouds rolling in. Oh great. Our paint was water-based and Mr. Chain had warned us that the paint would run if it started raining! So we worked as quickly as we could, still trying to satisfy our perfectionistic inclinations. It was frustrating. It was getting darker by the minute and we were starting to panic. As Lane and I were painting the last few letters, the first few raindrops came. By that time, there were a few more people down on the ground watching (beats me why—we were soooo slow they might as well have tried watching the grass grow!). A few of the guys ran to try and find a tarp. All of a sudden, at about 5 pm, the clouds opened up. I felt like breaking down into tears and laughing insanely all at once as I stood on top of the scaffold in the rain, trying to physically shield the wet paint as Lane still tried to paint the final letter. What we had worked on all day... what we had put so much of ourselves into, with so much care, with so much precision on each inch, each centimeter... our service to God... would it really get destroyed? I told God that if that was what he wanted, I'd be fine with that—after all, it was His project and we'd done it for Him, so it was His to use or destroy in His own wisdom. So I felt peaceful.

The cold rain felt really good after being under the scorching sun all day.

Within a few very long seconds someone handed me a plastic bag, or sheet, I'm still not quite sure what it was. I pressed one side to the wall above the wet paint, and it actually stopped the flow of rain, mostly. Lane finished the letter. It was done! I still felt like I was going to laugh or cry, or both. All of a sudden Kevin and Caleb climbed up with a big tarp. They stood on either side of the scaffold and held it over me as I tossed the plastic sheet down to the ground, then knelt and carefully smoothed away the running paint, over and over as it came. It was amazing—only a few letters were running (the ones we had just finished painting), and that was IT!! Mr. Chain had been sure that the whole thing would be ruined! I realized that God really was protecting it. After what seemed like forever, the guys got part of the tarp up over the wall, so it could hang there by itself and really stop the flow of rain onto the sign. We all carefully climbed down from the scaffolding, the rain still pouring. I was thoroughly soaked, and thoroughly happy.

So that was our Monday adventure. :)

If you'd like to see a picture of the finished sign, go here: http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-06-19%2018.16.54%20-0700/Image-A361BC3EE12511D9.jpg

Random thoughts about Mexico #2

As I have probably already mentioned, our dramas and puppets and all that were for these programs we'd put on in the evening. Last year we went around to different villages, a different place every night, doing these. This year, we actually went out and trained a local Mexican team to put on the same programs as us, which they are still doing now! That's why we spent a few days in Tecax—to train a Mexican team. So we taught them the dramas and puppets and how to set things up and everything. The first night we did the program ourselves on the town square, then the next night both us and the Mexican team did it together, and then, after we left, the Mexican team did it all by themselves. If you want a more detailed account of how the programs went, go read Hannah's blog. She explains things very well!

Lol, I'm not gonna let Sara get away with this one: On Friday night we were handing out tracts as people were leaving. I was standing with Sara, Megan, Zac and Josh (I think!). Sara was talking about how funny it was that Venancio (our evangelist) liked to say "Hasta la vista, baby!" Now, when we hand out the tracts, we're supposed to say, "¿Lea por favor?" which means "Read please?" So this one elderly lady came along, and Sara handed her a tract, and said, "Hasta la vista, ba... OOPS!!!!! I mean, lea por favor?" It was SOOOO funny!!! The lady laughed (along with the rest of us, lol!). Poor Sara. It was pretty funny, though... and since she was laughing too and we were telling everyone else about it for awhile afterwards, I thought I should write it here for posterity. :D

On the way back to Cancún from Tecax on Sunday, we stopped at Tulum, these Mayan ruins right by the sea. They were so awesome! Sara has a few pictures on her blog, I think. The water looked SOOOOOOO good (especially after not having taken a real shower in a few days!), so naturally, once we were inside, I headed straight to the beach. It felt so good! I had so much fun this year, too. Last year I was just like Hannah. Dave pulled me out into the waves, and the first wave came and I didn't know to jump at the right time, so I was really put off from getting that deep for the rest of the trip. I was very content with being knee-deep. But this year, someone actually taught me what to do, and I went out and had SO MUCH fun. It was awesome!!

I lost track of time, and before I knew it, I only had, like, 5 minutes to look around the ruins! Somehow Nicole and I did it, and took some pictures, too. They were so cool, though it's a little freaky thinking about what they used to be used for when it was a Mayan temple. BAD stuff.

Oh I remember something interesting! Sunday morning was the day we had the pig for breakfast before we left Tecax. The locals fixed it for us. It was actually pretty good, I thought. But a few hours later, when I started having stomach pains (along with a few other people!), it didn't seem so good, lol. In Felipe Carillo Puerto it was the worst. That was where we stopped for lunch, at another missionary's house. I could barely eat, but once I did, I felt a lot better!

Hehe, while we were there, there was this concrete driveway that dropped off a few feet on the edge. I found out it was the perfect place to do elevés, the really good kind where you stand with your toes on the edge and your heels hanging off. That felt SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I did, like, 200 of them (a LOT—normally I do around 50!). It's really difficult going from dancing and working those muscles really hard just about every day for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden not for a week. My calves really appreciated that driveway!

After we got back to the mission in Cancún that night, we were all waiting around for the showers (SHOWERS!!! Real showers!!!! Happiness!!), when it started raining. Sara, Stevo, Chris, Caleb, Zac, Seth and I immediately ran over to front railing of the breezeway, where the water was pouring in. It felt so good! We were all having a blast being really goofy and crazy. The floor got really slick, so we started sliding back and forth. We hung our heads out over the railing, trying to get as wet as we could, and calling it our "showers," since by that time we weren't sure we would get any real ones after all (it's hard for 29 people to take showers in a row with such a limited water supply. Actually it's impossible.). We made a lot of noise, I'm sure. Of course we got a picture. It's hilarious. See it here: http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-06-19%2018.16.54%20-0700/Image-A360F6F2E12511D9.jpg From left to right is Seth, Zac, Sara, Chris, Caleb, and me. Stephen's the one in the air. ;D

Well, there I've told you about the first part of the week. I'll write more tomorrow!

Random thoughts about Mexico #1

Well, reading Hannah's thoughts on Mexico has got me thinking! So I decided to share some of my own Mexico thoughts with you all. Some of this I posted as comments on her blog. Actually, I kept posting so many long ones filled with thoughts of my own that I decided to stop annoying her with it all, and that's the REAL reason for posting this here. ;) j/k!

I'd suggest you read Hannah's blog too so you're filled in on what we were doing, since I doubt I'll be stopping to explain all that much.

Well, where to begin?

Let's see... I remember the first night when we got to the mission. After supper we immediately set about bagging hundreds and hundreds of toys and candy and popcorn to give out during the week. It seemed to take hours even with all of us working! But we all set about it with a joy and vigor (weird word there, lol) that could only have come from one Source. By the last few bags my feet were so tired and achy, and all I wanted was to sit down. But God helped me stick with it joyfully until the end, even though it was hard work, and so soon into the trip!

The ride to Tecax was great, even though it took us like 8 hours! We all had so much fun playing mafia and catch phrase or just hanging out and talking. We went through a few rainstorms, and of course we kept the windows open! Now that was awesome. For those of you who haven't been down to that part of Mexico, it is EXTREMELY humid and hot down there. On just one of the days we were there, the temperature was 107° and the humidity was ninety-something percent. But when one of their rainstorms came through—usually just about every day at one time or another for 15 minutes—the temperature cooled down a bit, and the breeze was absolutely heavenly. Especially on the bus where, when all the windows and skylights are open, the wind blasts through at breakneck speed! It actually got a little chilly a few times! And of course, getting wet always felt wonderful.

The bathrooms by the church where we stayed in Tecax were... interesting. That is all I will say. Except for two things: It could have been worse. And I appreciate toilet seats a lot more now (and running water, and cleanliness, and toilets that flush, and sinks that work... well, I appreciate a LOT of things more now, let's just say!).

The church was nicer than I expected, considering I was expecting see-through walls made of bent sticks, a dirt floor, and a thatched roof, like a church we saw last year out in a remote village. It actually had concrete walls and a ceiling, as well as a TILE FLOOR! And it even had a stage sort of like at our church. It was a pretty big room, too, which was nice since most of us had to sleep in it. It had some fans that worked somewhat well on the ceiling, and during the day the front and side doors could be opened to let the breeze in. So we didn't get TOO hot, although it wasn't quite as nice as the breezeway back at the mission! I was just thankful that it was an actual building, and there were actual bathrooms! Yay!

I was in the drama team in 2 of the dramas. We're doing the one we did the most, Creation, in church on Sunday. I can't decide if I like that or not. It's a good drama that points to Christ, but #1. The music is REEEEEAAAAAALLLLYYYYY cheesy (it's done without words to a recorded tape) and #2. I have to play fight with a guy, which is a little weird. It was easier for most of the times we performed it during our program things in Mexico... something just sort of snapped in place for me. But every time we'd practice it it was really weird.

On our first night in Tecax after doing our first program thing on the town square, we climbed this huge hill to the Ermita of San Diego, this big church that was built in the 1600's. We got to see a wonderful view of Tecax—all the lights were sprinkled down far below us, surrounding us, and reaching out until they met with the blackness of the jungle. We went behind the church where it wasn't lighted for awhile. There were bats EVERYWHERE! It was so cool! They were constantly going this way and that over our heads. And the stars were amazing. So beautiful and bright, and so many of them! I stood there for the longest time just staring—trying to memorize all the stars that I didn't recognize that were lower on the horizon, because I knew I might be able to see the constellation Centaurus there, but I didn't know what it looked like. I've ALWAYS wanted to see the star Alpha Centauri in Centaurus... well just that whole constellation in general. And guess what? When we got home I looked it up, and that was the constellation I saw!!! I was so excited.

We walked a bit farther up the hill to this gazebo-like thing on the edge of the jungle. I forgot who was with me when we went back there, but there were only two of us, and everybody else was either already up there or hadn't come yet. So we sort of discovered the holes ourselves, lol. There were this big, black holes dotting the rock we were walking on. In the dark they just looked like these black pits of nothing here and there. It was so dark you really had to be on the lookout, they sort of came out of nowhere. Yeah, I was little scared of them, if you can't tell, lol. They really freaked me out. My apologies to whoever was with me—your hand must have ached for a long time afterwards! ;)

During the day in Tecax when we were sitting around waiting for this or that, something interesting happened. At first it was just the girls making necklaces and bracelets and anklets and things out of embroidery floss, but one by one, we converted all the guys. We soon had what we called our "knitting circle," where we'd all sit on these benches by each other just working away at our bracelets. By the end of the week, I'm pretty sure the guys had made more than the girls! They really got into it. It was funny. They rock.

On Saturday we actually went out to eat at a very fancy restaurant a few towns over. It was open air, of course, to let the breeze through. The food was delicious (except for this one VERY weird flavor of ice cream). It had the nicest restrooms we'd seen in days! It had a big mirror, one of the few real ones I saw all week (I walked in and screamed, lol). And it had nice toilets and sinks and all that! Sara took a picture of one of the toilets because she was so excited to see one with a seat, lol. We all were!

Saturday night was the night one little local girl gave me the really pretty silk flower. That was so sweet... it's one thing I'll keep around for the rest of my life, you can bet.

Every day we were in Tecax a group of local children would come to the church to play. We became fast friends! They were all so sweet! I will always remember Gabby, José Luis, Jasmine, Tirza and Gladys. I remember the streamers in the hair, dancing around in a circle, teaching them the hokey-pokey, playing hand-clap games (and making up our own!), their fascination with our cameras, our many attempts at communication, making embroidery floss jewelry with them, and José Luis' "aiyiyi"s. Saying goodbye to them was really hard. I miss them so much! But I hopefully will see them in Heaven.

It was SO neat being able to work with our fellow Christians in Mexico. Even though we don't speak the same language, or have the same background, we really are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we have a bond stronger than a language barrier. And one day, we will be able to speak to each other in Heaven! That'll be SO cool. I can't wait to see them.