Thursday, March 22, 2012
I'm trying...
After a year of being in St. Lucia, there is still something I haven't gotten used to. It's not the high prices of certain foods I like (1 lb of strawberries for over $20), or not seeing food that I do like (snow peas I've only found once in a whole food like store in the north). But as you might have guessed, it does have something to do with food! I have not been able to get used to the fact that some weeks (or months) I can find things, such as stick of butter, sour cream wheat germ, and honey, and other week (or for several months) it's not available at any of the 3 grocery stores I check! I think of sticks of butter as a staple because I love to bake and it makes it so much easier to measure. I know that sour cream is not considered an essential, but to see it once in a while just drives me crazy because I expect to always find it! However, I deal with it and eat my tacos without sour cream and measure out my butter using my measuring spoons. Sometimes, I think the grocery store just likes to tease me and let me get used to things and then pull it away!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Visa
While I'm outsite of the US, I try to keep informed about what is going on there, the hot topics, pop culture and such, so that way I'm not completely out of touch when I get back. The news became important to me while I was in college, news around the US and world news as well. There has been a case in Florida of a teen girl overstaying her visa and it was ruled she and her sister are to be deported. From my understanding, she was there on a visitors visa and stayed without renewing it (and I'm pretty sure visitors visas have time limits, such as you can only stay for so many months and then you have to leave and come back). So now a community in Florida is fighting for her to get to stay.
I am getting ready to go through the visa process for a fiancee visa. It is a long process that takes time, money, and a ton of documents. Would it be easier for us to get a visitors visa for my fiancee to come to the states? Yes, it probably would. It would take less time, money, documents, and headache. But that is not the type we're going to file for because we want to stay there and it's lying. I've had people tell me to just get that type, go to the states, get married, and then file for him. That's untruthful and not right, so we're going to go for the type of visa we want and need, even if it is more work.
You may wonder how these two cases fit together. I'm in a different country and we're going for a different type of visa; however the end result will be the same. She wants to stay in the states, but her mom did not get her the right type of visa to stay there. We are working hard on the correct type of visa because we want to be able to stay there. Since I have been here, I've heard dozens of stories about people being turned down for even visitors visas or student visas for one reason or another. I've heard stories of people who have masters degrees that would like to stay in the states, but are unable to. If this girls mom files the right type of paperwork, I have no issue with her staying, but there are people in her home country that are going through the correct methods to get the correct visa to come to the states. My question is this: why should you be the exception and jump in front of everyone when you disobeyed the rules?
Now I am all for uping the quotas so that way more people are able to come to the states legally. But I think this debate about making people who came into the states illegally legal takes a whole different turn when you know people trying to get to the states legally.
What do you think?
I am getting ready to go through the visa process for a fiancee visa. It is a long process that takes time, money, and a ton of documents. Would it be easier for us to get a visitors visa for my fiancee to come to the states? Yes, it probably would. It would take less time, money, documents, and headache. But that is not the type we're going to file for because we want to stay there and it's lying. I've had people tell me to just get that type, go to the states, get married, and then file for him. That's untruthful and not right, so we're going to go for the type of visa we want and need, even if it is more work.
You may wonder how these two cases fit together. I'm in a different country and we're going for a different type of visa; however the end result will be the same. She wants to stay in the states, but her mom did not get her the right type of visa to stay there. We are working hard on the correct type of visa because we want to be able to stay there. Since I have been here, I've heard dozens of stories about people being turned down for even visitors visas or student visas for one reason or another. I've heard stories of people who have masters degrees that would like to stay in the states, but are unable to. If this girls mom files the right type of paperwork, I have no issue with her staying, but there are people in her home country that are going through the correct methods to get the correct visa to come to the states. My question is this: why should you be the exception and jump in front of everyone when you disobeyed the rules?
Now I am all for uping the quotas so that way more people are able to come to the states legally. But I think this debate about making people who came into the states illegally legal takes a whole different turn when you know people trying to get to the states legally.
What do you think?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Living in the moment
"Wherever you are be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God." Jim Elliot
This is something that is really hard for me. I am a planner. Which obviously means that I look to the future to plan. The future being later that day, week, month, year, or even the next couple years. While this is not a bad trait, in moderation, for me it can become obsessive to the point where I miss what is going on around me. I was sitting on a bus the other day thinking about how I just wished the bus ride was over and I was in town. Then it dawned on me, I'm not always going to be living on an island in the Caribbean, just enjoy the view. While planning is good (and I have a lot to plan for right now!), I still can't let it take over my life or I'm going to miss the present and what God has to teach me here and now. I'm going to miss the smiles on the childrens' faces, their greetings, the joy of the people I interact with each day. I will miss all this and I don't want to.
This is something that is really hard for me. I am a planner. Which obviously means that I look to the future to plan. The future being later that day, week, month, year, or even the next couple years. While this is not a bad trait, in moderation, for me it can become obsessive to the point where I miss what is going on around me. I was sitting on a bus the other day thinking about how I just wished the bus ride was over and I was in town. Then it dawned on me, I'm not always going to be living on an island in the Caribbean, just enjoy the view. While planning is good (and I have a lot to plan for right now!), I still can't let it take over my life or I'm going to miss the present and what God has to teach me here and now. I'm going to miss the smiles on the childrens' faces, their greetings, the joy of the people I interact with each day. I will miss all this and I don't want to.
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