We were then taken by bus to Mennorode, an absolutely gigantic place that none of us were expecting, especially in the middle of a huge forest in the Netherlands.
For those of you who don’t know, since June I have had an ongoing battle with what can best be described in as little detail as possible as Traveler’s Stomach. It’s not fun. Somehow I made it through all the flights unscathed. My roommate, Bryce from Bethel, somehow slept through all the times I awoke in the night. Nice guy.
Anyway, while at Mennorode, we had sessions as an entire group as well as split up as Dutch and German/Swiss trainees. We did most everything together and I can say that even though we had been together there for only three days, I have already made life-long friends from both the US and Canada. For the three days, we had language, culture, and traveling sessions. For some (not me) the traveling sessions were too much and many questions were asked while a lot of people sighed in disbelief. Much bonding was had though.
The first full day, I brought my condition to the attention of some of the committee members. I, however, was not the first casualty of the weekend as a certain individual felt a high amount of exhaustion. For a while, they believed that he had appendicitis, but after some sleep he was all right. Then it was my turn. This summer I had a knack for visiting doctors in such odd places as South Dakota. The Netherlands can be added to that list, and as of a few hours ago, so can Germany. The doctor in Holland listened to what I had to say and prescribed to me the very same thing I had already been taking, which wasn’t helping. Strike one. During this time, the committee members were always asking if I was improving, which I thought was good to hear even though my condition wasn’t improving.
On the night before we left for our placements, they had a coffeehouse where trainees shared their talents. I participated twice, both with my ukulele. First, Audra and I sang Beautiful Dawn by The Wailin’ Jennys. I think it went really well. Then Bryce and I played a song from A Mighty Wind. It didn’t go very well but it was fun nonetheless.
On Saturday, the time had come for us to board a train and head to our placements, mine being on the vineyard in Wintersheim. Aside from the many, many questions from the young first time travelers, this train ride was uneventful for me, much like the flight over. I was met in Alsheim by Heike and Daniel, age three.
Though I have no idea what Daniel is saying, he is the cutest and brightest little guy to be living with for six months. When we got to the house, I met the rest of the family, father Heiko, oldest son Lukas, and middle daughter Pauline. In my next post, I’ll show pictures of the house and surrounding area.
Today was my first day on the job. First, I watered the many potted plants spread throughout the courtyard. That took about an hour. Then Heiko showed me how to box the wine and I did that before lunch. After lunch, he showed me how to wash the wine bottles to get the dust off so labels will stick better. There will be a video of that process sometime.
I was told by Johannes that I need to see a doctor on Monday when I get to my placement. So I did today. I got a rather, umm… “thorough” examination by the doctor. Apparently that meant he could easily determine what medicine he needed to prescribe. Who knew? I now have two containers of medicine that I am taking. I haven’t been taking them long enough to see any results, but I hope I can finally have a restful night.
I feel like I’ve written enough. Guten nacht.
Jon
2 comments:
I say a liebe Gruss to the whole family! I got a little teary eyes when I read your blog. Only a few weeks ago i was there in Wintersheim visiting the fam.. Daniel is sooo adorable! Once you start understanding him he is hilarious. All he talks about the vineyards and tractors and pigs.. and getting dirty and how he has to deal withe the gulle (sp?) and how it stinks.. soo cute! All of best of luck!
I have had an interesting week. Wednesday, I noticed a pimple was growing on my upper lowerlip that was real annoying, and it hurt anytime I touched it. Thursday, that pimple was twice, even three times its size, and I noticed as it swelled, it looked like it was more of a bite mark. Friday, it was scabbing over a little bit and while I was at work on Saturday, my gland in my throat was tender and hurt any time I turned my neck; needless to say, this beasty was no mere pimple. Sunday I was tired the whole day (also had to work) and I basically wanted to sleep any time I wasn't doing anything. Monday morning, I looked at my lip, and it was swelled even bigger, to the point where it affected my speech. So I decided to go to the doctor, and see if this was a spider bite. Turns out, it was a staph infection - normally, not a serious one, concerning my skin, but since I have a heart murmur, the staph infection could have travelled to my heart and it could've killed me. So...I'm on this steroid to stop the swelling of my lip, and I'm also on a bunch of antibiotics, but man, was it some scary stuff.
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