Emily Rachelle Writes

Read A Summary, Part One ; A Summary, Part Two ; Lessons Learned ; and Dominica vs. America. the campsite we stayed on and ran for the dominicans

Read A Summary, Part One ; A Summary, Part Two ; and Lessons Learned . On July 31 at 11:16 PM while on the last flight home, I wrote a comparison between Dominica and America.  All week I'd been keeping a list of categories with noticeable differences and paying close attention during my conversations with the Dominican campers.  Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list.  A person can't learn everything about a culture in only ten days, and I can't share every single detail I did learn - it's simply too much, and a lot has to be learned firsthand through experience.  Below is what I did share in my final journal entry.

Read A Summary, Part One  and A Summary, Part Two . On July 27 at 5:58 PM I wrote this in my Mission Trip 2012 journal: Today was... interesting. Definitely busy, but not the good kind of busy.  Lunch was good - fish cooked three ways.  I learned Americans, myself included, don't like breadfruit.  Then during free time was the girls' hike, and that's when things went south.  The hike was divided in half so those who wanted could go back to camp midway.  By the time we got to that point I was out of breath and very weak and tired, so I went with Jonathan, Katie, Andrew, Ashlee, Alex, Adina, Zach, and later Mrs. Bartow.  I never made it back to camp - I pretty much collapsed on the side of the road. 

Read A Summary, Part One. July 27 6:17 AM  Adina and I get up for the sunrise to see only a golden glow through all the clouds.  The world is wet and it rains again. 11:25 AM   More rain, camp games, and Dominicans using my camera.  They love taking photos!

As many of you know, I just got back very early yesterday morning from a ten-day mission trip to the island of Dominica.  When you spend ten very busy days with almost thirty other people immersed in a third-world island country - no cell phone, internet, computer, television, air conditioning, or hot water; plenty of bugs, sweat, heat, strange foods, new people, new lingo (but thankfully still English) - it takes time to adjust to your life. A simple example is the fact that I'm writing this post in August wearing long socks, a wool head wrap, and a hoodie because the air conditioning is freezing my nose off. All that to say: I'll try my best to share my experience with my lovely readers, but you really had to be there.

As you read this, I am either on a plane or in an airport somewhere between Georgia and the tiny third-world island nation of Dominica, where I will be spending the rest of July, along with twenty-one other teenagers and five adults from my church. We'll be helping the Cornelius missionary family host a VBS-style summer camp for native children, as well as helping around the church with services, maintenance, and anything else they need.

I've been waiting for this one, mainly because it's the only one I knew exactly what to talk about the day I started this challenge. See, I have this nasty(ish) scar on my leg - my left calf, to be exact.  And you'd expect a scar that looks like mine to have some sort of bragging-rights-story with it. You'd be wrong.

Hi there, lovely readers. :) As of this past Sunday, my family is on vacation visiting relatives in Indiana. I have posts scheduled for this Thursday, this Saturday, and next Tuesday and Thursday as well. However, I may not be able to respond to comments or emails. I'll be sure to check in as much as I can, though. Just thought I'd let y'all know. Anybody else going on vacation this summer? What are your plans?

Anybody who has seen my bucket list  or the dream wedding books  Ashlee and I made at a sleepover will know that I just love travel and vacation in general.  So, really, this week's challenge is really hard. I could choose Panama, my country of birth...

As a military child, I get to see the world. But when it's moving time again, I feel like I could hurl. I've been to England, France, Japan - I love to travel around. But I wish that I could do it without living there year-round. It's well and good to see the sights, taste the language and the food. But after several weeks or so, I wish the trip would conclude. I want a normal life, you see: A house my family owns - In a town I'll have grown up in, where I won't feel so alone.

Oh my. Exactly five years ago would place me... in a very cold and snowy rural area called Rome, New York.  I was... let's see... almost eleven.  Oh, that was the year Dad was in Korea.  He had just left sometime in October, and we did a present a day for twelve days before Christmas with Mom that year.  She read little explanations of the Biblical meaning behind each gift in the song.  Then on Christmas Day when we opened the rest of our gifts, we tried to include Daddy via webcam but it didn't quite work out, if I remember correctly.  Those were the days of innocence and bliss, where the Internet was wholly unknown to me and the perfect summer consisted of climbing trees and making an Olympic track out of the swingset.  Before Okinawa and teenagers and Facebook.... wow, it was a different life on a different planet.  Literally.  (Almost.) I don't have any photos - none - from before Oki, so I'll go Google Dad's name and see if I can fi...

the sea... specifically, the sea surrounding okinawa, japan the sea by night... the sea by day... the seawall the sea view from okuma, a well-known oki resort the sea view from our vip cabin at camp schwab (The lovely ladies in the first few photos are Haley, Beth, Ryanne, and Reagan.)

This is actually a song I wrote nearly a year ago, when we returned to America after our three years on a tropical island.  Since I can't compose music to save my life, I usually refer to it as a poem. [verse 1] Snow drifting, falling to the ground Fire burning, family all around It's the time I've been dreamig of so long The first snow I walk outside, staring up in bliss Spin in circles, shriek at all I've missed It melts on contact, but I don't care The first snow [chorus] Sparkling white Cold and clean Beautifully fresh Perfect, pristine I love the seasons Spring, summer, fall But winter's first snow Beats them all [verse 2] Soon we'll eat turkey and watch football Hang bright lights and deck the halls But for now I enjoy this sweet beginning The first snow We wash the dishes, let the fire die Get our coats and say good bye The day is done, but I never forget The first sno...

A thank-you note to someone who changed your life... well, there's two I could go with right now.  As I already wrote one of the recipients about a year ago, I think I'll go with the more unusual letter. Dear Department of Defense, You probably don't get many letters from us brats, do you?  While we either love the places you let us visit, hate the rearranging of our lives you so often cause, or couldn't care less about you, we rarely let you know.  I mean, I'm not even sure who's reading this - probably some low-pay new guy who sorts through the unofficial mail. But anyway, I just wanted to say thanks.  You probably don't remember, but back in 2007 you stuck my family on a tiny island that most active duty list as the number one desired spot to be.  I hated you for it.  I wrote poems and letters and laments about how much I hated you.  But I learned a lot there - I learned what it was like to be bitter, and how to let go of that and heal.  ...

Okinawa. Today's post is a little long, but bear with me. These are my top picks from three years' worth of photos. the beach at Camp Schwab a common site: a native with a bike a habiscus, the famous Okinawa flower, in my backyard (literally) our next-door neighbor's palm trees (no, we didn't live on the beach) another flower growing in our backyard our next-door neighbor's bench the view from the mountain we all climbed at summer camp the fields at Pineapple Park the Pineapple Park's signature pinapple carts As a military brat, you always end up missing the places you've been and the people you've met - whether you liked them initially or not.  Today I'm missing Okinawa.  Is there someplace or someone you're missing today? 

So, my friend Nathan, my brother Eddie, and myself have been hanging out lately and recently mentioned bucket lists.  We tossed the idea around and made a few suggestions before Nathan said I ought to make one as a Tuesday list.  Which brings us to today's post. As a bucket list is sort of a lifelong thing - growing as you get older and get more ideas, shrinking as you cross off completed items - this is really just a start to my list.  It's a list, nonetheless. Before I Die To Do: -graduate from high school -read every book on my To-Read lists -adopt a child -have a pet that is MINE -hold a koala -feed a giraffe -ride on a dolphin's back -own and run an orphanage -be published -look through a telescope -attend a March for Life/SFLA conference/March for Life Youth Rally -own a VW bug or bus To Learn: -Spanish -sign language -crochet -knitting -cross-stitch -sewing (with buttons,...

Gorgeous views. This is the view from the VIP cabin at Camp Schwab in Oki.  My friend Beth invited the Twins, Haley, and myself to celebrate her birthday with midnight walks on the beach, wonderful romantic teen movies, hilarious gummy worm photo shoots, and embarrassing cave explorations. Today, I guess G also stands for Good Memories.  I may not have wanted to get attached, but I have so many friends and memories from Oki.  That's another story for another day, though. 

After sleeping in the next morning, we woke up feeling as if we hadn't slept at all. (That's how I felt, anyway.)  But we all got up and ready for the day, and we drove to Denny's for breakfast. (This is important because it was our first time at Denny's since we moved to Japan.) After breakfast, Jon was feeling sick from too much sugar and we stopped at a drugstore for Pepto-Bismol. (I later called Pepto-Bismol a 'magic potion' - a comment invariably produced from my already absorbing way too many comments about magic from the night before. We made jokes throughout the week about magic and Pepto-Bismol.) After that we drove back to the cabins and took a bus to Epcot.  My memory after that is a little foggy.  I know where we went, but not in the order, so bear with me. We went to Spaceship Earth at some point during the day, so since it's first on this map/list that I brought home, I guess it'll go first here.  My thoughts? A pretty cool ride! ...

Okay, so I won't have time to give the rundown on the entire past week vacation in one little blog post. So I'm going to go day-by-day. I'll probably be completely boring and way over-detailed, but I want to have this all written out for me to look back on later, and it's a lot easier to type on my blog than write in my journal. So bear with me. :P Well, we started our vacation with a five-and-a-half hour drive from Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, to Orlando, Florida.  (For new readers, we is me, my dad, my mom, and my three brothers: Eddie, Jon, and Nick.)  We watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and followed that with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian .  (Ben Barnes is amazing. I love Caspian!! <3)  We arrived a half-hour earlier than planned and, consequently, were able to check into our cabin early.  We stayed at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort, which was very nice. (Except for a few allergy issues. Sea...