We survived! Our five weeks in the tents was completed on July 4th, and we are happy to report that the Bachman Family is back in their English home.The experience we had was amazing. Waking each morning to the sun peering in our tent and the fresh cool air of the countryside was really a pleasure. Our Father gave us just the right amount of rainy, stormy nights, sunny days, windy afternoons and everything in between.
Some nights we were so hot we had to shed all blankets, and other nights we couldn’t find enough clothes and blankets to put on. Our little girl was so adaptable, she slept in a snowsuit, or just regular pajamas, with several blankets, hot water bottles, or without.
Jadynn was great! She loved being outside and her mommy loved dressing her for the (occasional) warm weather with sun hats and dresses. During the five weeks, she learned to crawl and is now scooting around the dorm at a quick pace and is starting to get into everything.
Home Sweet Home. We grew very fond of our tent as it became a home to our family. It was just the right size, and we enjoyed making it cozy for ourselves and our visitors. The colorful panels are windscreens to protect those sitting outside from the high winds that sometimes sweep through this area. Our comfy lawn chairs were where we sat, mostly in the evenings, and reflected on the days events and enjoyed a coffee or tea while baby was asleep.
The kitchen and dining room was the hub of our daily activities, like preparing meals, feeding baby, and meeting with friends. During the day we had our language sessions here a few mornings a week. Our Dutch language helper and our teammates met here, drank coffee, had cookies, and of course spent hours listening, recording and mimicking in Dutch. Learning about language and culture is not just work, it is relationship building too, we became good friends and had a lot of fun together, while also accomplishing a great deal in the language. We cheered for one another as we progressed in the language, and really rejoiced when the sounds we produced sounded like real Dutch!
The whole family in our tent. Our loving Father was so good to us and showed us His help in many situations. We sometimes find it hard to believe that He has given us one another. Also, that He gave us such a precious life to look after. We do not feel qualified for such a task as raising a family, let alone living in a foreign country. We do know, that He is able and if we are willing, then we can do great things.
Our bedroom. The place we really looked forward to seeing at the end of the day. The work was hard not only mentally but also physically, with gathering water each day, doing laundry, washing dishes, emptying our toilets and cleaning them. Each day we got a good night’s sleep because the demands of this lifestyle require much more effort than we were used to in our modern convenient lives.
Jadynn loved to crawl on our bed. She used our soft duvet to strengthen her developing leg muscles and this allowed for softer falls too!
Baby Jadynn had her very own nursery in our tent. Mom and Dad decided early on that our precious girl should have her own space so that we could all sleep well. Maybe you recognize the rocking chair that Robynn painted and covered in pink when she was expecting! Jadynn did not miss a beat and fell right into her normal routine even in the tent. There were a few nights she woke up, but only because she was cold. After a snuggle and a hot water bottle in her bed she was back to sleeping through the night.
Jonathan was required to put in at least 8 hours of language and culture study each day. This is where he spent most of his time during the day. It was only a few meters from our tent, so Mom and Jadynn could visit and see how he was getting on. Here in the main marquis students were allowed to use electricity only for the use of computers with language learning software. This place was very quiet as each one concentrated on the drills and intricacies of the language that they had been assigned to learn. Among the languages that we were learning were: Dutch, German, Russian, French, and Estonian.
One of the weekends while we were in the tents there was a large conference. Jonathan was given special permission to come out of the tents for the weekend and lead music. In the picture above he is singing a song he wrote during a trip in Russia accompanied by Robynn.
Several of our British friends from our local community came to see us. Pictured above are Paul and Caroline (holding Jadynn), and Simon and Janet with little Judith. These were just a few of our dear friends that took the time on a visitor’s weekend to come and encourage us. We had been looking forward to seeing them, as it had been several weeks since we had been together. Thank you so much for your visits, Eastgate family!
Of course it wasn’t all hard work! We did enjoy quite a few nights around a warm fire cooking, roasting marshmallows, eating, playing volleyball, and getting to know one another even better in this intimate and close-knit community.
The Dutch language group. As a thank you to our language helpers Reinout and Arenda, we invited them over for a barbeque. We were planning on not working on language during this time of relaxation, but we couldn’t help ourselves. Our desire to learn and be understood kept us constantly talking in Dutch and asking for corrections as we advanced and began to see results from our hard work.
The clay oven. We were not the best at using it, but we did give it a try. To start up the fire, prepare the food and cook it correctly took several hours. One night we thought it would be nice to make a simple meal, baked potatoes with beans. Much later Jonathan handed me my plate and said, “ Hope you really like them, they took me 4 hours to make, can you believe it?” Needles to say, they were really good!
Of course, as the only American couple in the tents, we had to make our own cultural contribution. We couldn’t find anything more typical than pizza and Coca-Cola. So every Wednesday night we had this meal with our neighbors and perfected the art of pizza making.
All in all, it was a unique experience that we’ll never forget. We were encouraged by so many who thought of us, visited us, and wrote us letters. Hearing from our friends and family only made us more excited to return stateside and to see everybody again. We will graduate from the Cross-Cultural Communications Course here on July 24 and will be returning to the US shortly afterward in August. We look forward to spending time with each of you and sharing what He has done. Jadynn is eager to see you, too!
