Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Eden Valley part II

The rest of my time at Eden Valley was very enjoyable. Especially the weather on Friday and Saturday turned out exceptional, as it was very sunny and mild. I also got to hike some more and was able to visit with several people.

On Sunday, I got to do something for my health and wellness which I really needed after my long travels and all the packing at Cindy's place. After breakfast at the President's house (it's always good to know that there are people who care for you), I had a massage appointment with a former staff volunteer at EVI who is currently a student nearby in Fort Collins. Joy and I worked together on the farm when I was there in 2008. She gave me an excellent treatment, and I felt so much better. ´

On my flight back from Denver to London, I happened to sit next to a lady from India. I figured that she was a Hindu, since she had a caste mark painted on her forehead. She seemed to be very obese, and from her hands I could tell that she was either affected by rheumatoid arthritis or gout. I felt impressed to reach out to her, and so when they distributed the special meals, I asked her if she knew the difference between her hindu meal and my vegan-vegetarian meal. Then she shared her dessert with me, and she also gave me a sample of an Indian specialty. It was a mixture of seeds that they eat there as and after-meal digestive and breath freshener (roasted anise, fennel and other seeds). I had a flyer with me with an outline of the eight laws of health which I gave to her. She looked it over and seemed to be quite interested. In fact, she asked me about coffee, and I told her about the importance of drinking water. So she got the health message now, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will touch her life. 

I'm very thankful that I could do this trip, and I guess this is part of the answer to the question why I wasn't able to change my job this past summer. If I had started a different post as from September, I would have never asked for a vacation end of October. So the Lord definitely knows what's best! Of course it wasn't easy to come back to dreary Brussels yesterday afternoon. But arriving at my place, I looked out of my living room and saw some beautifully colored trees in the backyard. That made it easier for me to get back to reality!

What follows are a few picture impressions of my stay:


Eden Valley Campus

A deer
Snowy mountains
Valley View


And here the look from my living room - no Colorado mountains in the background, but  beautiful fall colors!