The Hard Work of Living Overseas- Pt. 1

Recently an acquaintance asked me if we “worked hard” while living overseas. For many months I’ve been completely devoid of inspiration for what to write about here, but now feel ready to begin again with story after story of how “hard work” not only took its toll on body and spirit for 10 years, but left us confident that most anything worth doing is purchased by hardship and toil.

My short answer is, “yes, we worked hard”, but more often than not, most people really don’t care to listen for more than 3 minutes to hear our story. If you are reading this, then more than likely you are interested; I’ll try to keep you entertained. If nothing else, you will know our family much better.

After moving to our host country, we lived in an apartment. We knew no language. At. All. We spent countless days sweltering in that hot apartment learning how to count, how to say the time, and what to say if you were being introduced. Outside amidst icy, suspicious glares we tried to find one, just one, friendly face who might be willing to teach us our colors, about weather, and clothing. We also felt the sting of being publicly berated for making a very serious faux pas of tossing a piece of bread aside after it fell and got dirty. My kids were spit on, had rocks thrown at them, and were laughed at routinely. Injuries happened- from scorpion stings to cut hands that needed stitching; the early months were some of the most difficult. 

Although not particularly tough physically, it was “hard work” going to our neighbor downstairs to apologize and offer to pay for new wallpaper when our washing machine overflowed and ruined their walls below. It was hard work to listen to our neighbor to the left beat his wife night after night. We slept little because mosquitoes kept us up, there were fist fights outside our window, and it was 90 degrees inside until 2:00AM. 

Fall came and we felt it would be a good idea to purchase a home and remodel it to live more comfortably- every parent wants a wants a yard for their kids to be able to play in. We bought it as stupid foreigners who trusted the owner. It wasn’t until a couple years later that we went through the “hard work” of having an intense land dispute in a foreign language and being threatened to be taken to court. One day, half our land was literally taken from us including our outhouse. You may think that funny, but when the pipes are backed up for the 3rd time in a month, digging a hole isn’t that funny. 

We moved into that house and started camping. For 5 months. So far, we’ve had a lot of “hard work”, but a whole lot more is about to come our way! 

To be continued….