It would seem the exhausting nature of the travel to Afghanistan/Albania and the 10 hour jet lag was more than I had anticipated. Needed to sleep. At night if possible. Monday, the first day back, was spent in a zombie-like stupor, not really asleep but far from awake. My wife and I had several long conversations that I don’t remember. I stared a lot at nothing in particular and dozed off without much warning several times. I was then wide awake all night. I managed to do the radio show Tuesday morning but am pretty sure we won’t be winning any awards for that broadcast. On the other hand, it is possible I’m a better broadcaster when only half conscious. (If you happened to hear that show, don’t feel the need to email any critiques.)
Wednesday was not a lot better but I finally managed to sleep during the night rather than on and off all day and am now, Saturday morning, feeling like my body clock is close to correct. Or would be if I were on a ship about a-thousand miles off the eastern seaboard.
But that is a lot closer to home than Afghanistan, or Vienna, for that matter (captured in the above photograph as our flight from Albania was approaching to land). I must say it seemed somehow unfair to me that, after the time in Afghanistan, I would only be in Vienna long enough to tour the airport.
And I complain!
While in Albania, I visited a school for Roma (Gypsy) children run by an American missionary.
She is there with the Christian organization Youth With a Mission, YWAM. The school gives the 160 kids the blessing of an education, the love of the teachers, and food to eat. Then many of the children go home to conditions you wouldn’t believe; families of six living in one small room in rat-infested slums. No running water. No electricity.The stop at the school was part of a full day of visiting missionaries who, in their hearts to follow Jesus, had made Albania (the poorest country in Europe) their home. I met some of the most amazing, beautiful people you could ever encounter.
Even as I visited the various mission teams, I confess I was thinking about how tired I was from the past eleven days. I was thinking about home. Sleep. Clean clothes. It’s not that I wasn’t deeply impacted by what I was experiencing. As I have said before, I believe when you get a glimpse into the heart of God, you see something often missed by much of this world.
Yet still, I was thinking of myself.
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Here’s something interesting. The experts (whoever they are) say, when it comes to adjusting to jet lag, it takes a full day for every hour of time difference. If that is true I won’t be truly back on track until the middle of next week.
