Catching Up

Hi Everyone! Long time no write, I know. Sorry! It’s been a crazy week and I’m constantly running from one place or another – here and there and everywhere. Each day is full of plans, lessons, and adventures and I don’t have time to go into them now so I’ll just highlight a few to catch you up. (In no particular order)

A Team from Texas arrived last week and we went on a mountain hike the next morning – started about 7 in the morning and returned home about 1:30 p.m. It was gorgeous from the top – crystal clear day you could look down and see the lakes surrounding you and mountains everywhere. So beautiful. Reminded me of the song “Shoulders” from For King & Country. It was a hard climb – we took several breaks on the way up and took time to pray and sing songs – I think we sang most of the way down. So many beautiful little mountain flowers – reminded me of Heidi, or the Sound of Music. I wore KT tape on my knee before I went up so that I wouldn’t hurt anything and took it off the next day – now I have the funniest tanline on my knee from the tape. It looks hysterical haha

Yesterday was American Culture Night 2 and we taught them more dancing and then jumped in the lake at about 11:30 p.m. – it felt so good because we were so hot. It’s against Macedonian culture to do anything that would require extreme body temperature change, so they all thought we were gonna get sick, but it just felt amazing!

I had the opportunity to catch a bus and go to Ohrid to see one of my campers from two years ago – it was a neat experience to see her apartment, meet her family and eat a traditional Macedonian meal with them. I was so humbled by their hospitality and the joy they had to meet me. It was also a new adventure for me – because I had never been to the city or ridden the bus by myself before and my Macedonian is far from perfect yet haha but I made it where I was supposed to be and all was good!

Thank you all for your prayers – it’s been a bit of a hard time saying goodbye to everybody from last week and saying hello (and trying to remember) all the new faces. I miss you all and wish you could come join me here.

My fiddle has been a huge source of encouragement and comfort for me – and for others. I’ve brought it out and played down by the dock next to the lake a couple times and people just gather. Trying to give them a taste of good old fashioned fiddle music – Rachael style J

Oh that’s another thing. There’s another Rachel here from the Texas team, so everyone has taken to calling me “Ray Ray” so we don’t get mixed up…

I know it’s not a lot sorry but hopefully this gives you a glimpse of life here. Crazy busy and packed from one minute to the next. I’m holding up well though. I’ll be home and talking all of you guys’ ear off before you know it!

Caio!
Rachael