Challenges of Living in a Foreign Country

It is AMAZING to live on a beautiful island like St. Lucia, but there are also several challenges I am facing living in a foreign country.

1. Communication- This is probably one of my biggest challenges right now. Even though people in St. Lucia speak English, the accent and pronunciation of certain words makes it difficult at times to understand. One example of this is that the word "ear" is pronounced like "air." (I am hoping and praying that I will pick up part of the accent during my time here, because it sounds awesome.) When we first arrived, I had to focus very hard on the speaker to understand what they were saying. Now, it is a little easier to understand, but I still find it challenging to follow conversations when nationals talk to other nationals, because they speak faster with each other than they would talking to Tanya, Kirsten, or myself.

2. Food- Food is ALWAYS on my mind. Food is my passion. We have access to lots of amazing food down here (sugar cane, coconuts, the most delicious bananas on EARTH, passion fruit...) but I miss a lot of food back home. I talk about this all the time, and I am probably driving my roommates crazy, but it is so hard to see people on pinterest and facebook posting delectable recipes and pictures of food back in the states. I have made a list of all the food I will eat during my three week vacation back home for Christmas, and it gets longer every day. I am pretty sure I will gain all of the weight I've been losing back in those three weeks.

3. Heat- At the end of each day, Tanya, Kirsten, and myself are WIPED OUT due to the heat. It's a real thing. Especially after walking 30 minutes to and from the beach, all we want to do is each something, rinse off, and go to bed. It's a hard life... ;)

4. Early Sunsets- The sunsets are beautiful here. (We have yet to watch a sunset from the beach though...) We are living in a safe neighborhood, but we have been advised not to walk outside at night. Right now, the sun goes down around 6:30 pm. In a few months, the sun will be setting around 4:30. Because it gets dark here so early, we are limited to staying at home when it gets dark. We do have access to public transport, which we have tried twice so far, so if we needed to go somewhere after dark, we have a way.

Despite these challenges, there are so many blessings here, which I will write about at a later time! It is comforting to know that God is with us throughout any challenge and that He is blessing our work.