Life at the Mission is primitive, but not as bad as it could be. The Mission houses its trainees in 13 cabins up and down a grassy knoll. The cabins are 20'x30', and are all exactly alike. As you walk in the door of the downstairs of the cabin, there is a living room, a small kitchen, a stone hearth and metal pot-bellied wood stove, a bathroom, and a narrow staircase leading upstairs to a hallway with two bedrooms. Not much, but enough to live in and have a place to call your own. The bathroom does have indoor plumbing, and the Mission provides a small fridge/freezer that runs on propane. You won't find a light bulb or a light switch in any of the rooms, however, because there is no electricity inside the cabins, unless you rig up something to harness air, light, or water, or run it on batteries.
My bedroom
If you follow a snaky road down from the cabins about a mile, you will pass by a few 'real' houses, a laundry facility, and a man-made lake before coming to a small building. The building goes by almost as many names as the Mission itself, but I will try to simply call it "the shop." The shop is the real hub of Mission life, and every event that takes place there is interspersed by 30 minute coffee breaks. So, as follows, a daily schedule at the shop would be....
8:00 am - morning devos, led by staff as well as trainees, complete with a few songs
8:30 am - coffee break
9:00 am - Bible class
10:30 am - coffee break
11:00 am - men's technical
12:30 pm - coffee/lunch break - trainees provide all their meals, so this takes place at home, not at the shop
1:30 pm - meet back at shop for afternoon's work
3:00 pm - coffee break
4, 5, 6... whenever really... - call it quits for dinner, and the rest of the day is yours
The shop
In May of 2010, I got sick. My likeliest explanation for how my illness began was that I picked up the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) at a hospital or nursing home. However, it wasn't until about a month and a half later when my roommate Tina tested positive for mono that I realised I also had mono. Later, Tina's fiance (now husband) Mike also came down with the virus. We also infected another family (aren't we generous?) through improperly sanitized silverware. You will hear more about this family in later posts.
By the end of July, I was so sick I could hardly walk. I would ride down to the shop with Mike and Tina and sleep in a side room during devotions until class was ready to start, and I laid down on the floor with a notebook and my Bible while I would listen because I was too weak to sit in my chair. One night I called my family in tears. I didn't have the energy to cook, eat, walk, or study. On last minute's notice, both my mom and Mike's mom came to North Carolina to help us clean out our cabins, pack, and cook for us. Without them, I know I would not have made it, and I don't think Mike or Tina would have either. We made it through the end, but just barely. Tina hardly had the strength to graduate.
I then moved back home for the Fall semester. I tried to go to college in California, but the virus was still raging its way through my system, so after passing out during a full day of activities, I knew I still needed rest. I stayed out West just long enough to participate in Mike and Tina's wedding on August 20th in Colorado before flying home.
A picture of Mike, Tina, and Me - taken while we were sick
That Fall, it seemed like I was getting better, but I could tell that certain things were retarding my recovery. One of those things was sugar. In October 2010 I kissed sugar goodbye. I still can only eat sugar in very small quantities, and when I do, I know to be careful afterwards because it can trigger some curious reactions from my body.
By November I was doing well enough in order to maintain a life of daily activities. I participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote a novel in less than 30 days. I applied for a job and went back to a work for a few weeks, and after Christmas, I was ready to go pursue more of my college degree in Biblical Studies. I thought life was back to normal.
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Disclaimer: If you have a health resource you can't resist sharing, I would love to hear about it if you feel it will be truly helpful. I am already doing my best to fight this illness from a nutritional, structural, as well as medical stand-point. Please avoid comments with "miracle cure" stories about your Aunt Milly's granddaughter who drank coltsfoot tea for a week and has been fine ever since. I'm very thankful it worked for her in her case, but there are so many environmental, emotional, and other factors that make CFS/ME complicated and different from just an average illness. That being said, please leave thoughtful and uplifting comments below.