containers and trash

Oh boy...yesterday was such a good day for Dwane. The container came that he had to pack all of his stuff into to ship it back to the states and everything fit! This and the fact that we packed it all in 2.5 hours was due in great part to a guy named Randy who lives in Dresden right now. He used to work for UPS and he did a great job organizing. Dwane had actually put ME in charge of that which is great because I do like to tell people what to do but organizing like that is HARD!! Randy took care of it all and it worked out great. There were 2 other Americans there--Clint and Steve and a German girl named Sara. We had a great time packing and afterwards we went to Burger King to eat...yum.
The guy driving the truck carrying the container had a very strong Saxon accent...which here in Leipzig is pretty prevalent. It is REALLY hard to understand and they use idioms that no one else uses...so he was trying to give us some advice a couple times and even though some of them had lived here 5 years and spoke German really well...couldn't understand him. The guy laughed about it and we all had a good time.
There's still some cleaning to do at the house and some trash to get out but for the most part now Dwane, Annalisa and Johnmark can just enjoy their last time here in Leipzig.
So the trash...yes, let's talk about that. They loaded a couch and a mattress into the van to take to the dump. The dump in German cities is not just a pile of trash somewhere like a junkyard or something. There are several different containers for different types of trash and there are people there who tell you where to put things and whether you can even leave them there or not...sometimes they just tell you that you can't throw it away...bizarre i know. Well, so yesterday Dwane, Johnmark and I were going to the dump with the couch and mattress and Dwane decided to see if they would let us throw a bunch of other things away from the house. You also have to have special stamps that people get with their "how to throw trash away properly" booklet =) So we got some extra stamps for people...they correspond to .1 square meter of trash each...and went to the dump. Dwane has been there a couple times and so he knows the head guy there--Bern---who is from the Ukraine originally. Bern is probably 60 years old and has gray hair on his head in an Einstein-like do, and a similarly gray beard that covers most of his face. Great personality too! So we drove up and Dwane said hello and Bern enthusiastically greeted him and Johnmark and then asked if I was his daughter...No, said Dwane and then immediately Bern said "oh! girlfriend!" ....No, said Dwane as we all laughed...just a friend. So...we backed the van up to the trash containers and opened up the back and started to bring out the stuff that we hoped they would let us throw away. Turns out Dwane made a good decision to bring me along because Bern thought I was so great that he didn't really care what we had to throw away...he sorted some of it, taking out electronics and metal things and wooden things...but then just saying "sparmull" which is the kind of everything else plastic trash. He gave me a piece of candy and a great big hug as we were leaving...apparently it was just SO great to meet me! Dwane didn't even have to use all of his stamps to throw everything away =) such is life
Last night Brielle and Annalisa and I had a nice little devo/chat at the bakery about what we pray for...for example if we pray for patience, being prepared to have God allow us to demonstrate that patience in many situations. Just thinking about how life's struggles are maturing us and that's why James tells us to rejoicing in tribulation. Profound, I know =)
I can't believe I've been here for 10 days already...and been away from all of ya'll for that long! I do miss so many people but I know that I will see you sooner than I think. Love you!