England

This letter came from an amazing college friend over summer break. She wrote in my yearbook (haha, yes, we did this in college...I loved it because my private school was so small that we didn't have yearbooks) that she had heard that I like writing letters & that she liked writing them, too. She put her London address, making hers one of the most memorable messages in my yearbook. :)

It was even better since she wrote back.

Fun Facts about England:

Queen Victoria loved Valentine's Day cards. In fact, during her reign, she sent nearly 2500 cards.

The English gulp down more tea than anyone else on Earth. Even though Americans enjoy their tea also, the English use about 20 times more.

Big Ben is not the name of the entire building that contains the clock. The name is actually what the bell inside the tower is called. The structure is actually called St. Stephen's Tower.

Mozambique

This is a letter to my friend Reina & her family from a child they sponsor. I was there when they got it, & it was so exciting! :)

(Click to Enlarge)

Picture the girl drew for them. :)

 Mozambique Fun Facts:

Portuguese is the official language in the country of Mozambique. However, Swahili, Sena and Makhuwa are spoken commonly across the length and breadth of the country.

In 2008, thousands of Mozambicans were forced to leave their homes for the sake of higher ground when the mighty Zambezi River overflowed its banks.

South Africa

(Click to Enlarge. Sorry for the blur.)

I was really excited and surprised to receive this from my roomate when she left me for a semester abroad. :)

South African Fun Facts:

Table Mountain alone has over 1,500 species of plants, more than the entire United Kingdom.

South Africa is the second largest exporter of fruit in the world.

South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique are tearing down fences between the countries' game parks to create a 13,500 square mile game park, which will become the largest conservation area in the world. It will be bigger than Switzerland, Belgium or Taiwan.

South Africa has a penguin colony, which thrives thanks to the cold Antarctic currents on the west coast near the Cape.

Germany

Mrs. Barbara has once again provided me with a delightful surprise to support one of my dreams for the blog...to have a letter from every country. :) I never would've expected a letter from Germany to be the first one I got, & I definitely wouldn't have expected to have one written in this beautiful German! Fun Fact: You would have to try one kind of German bread per day for almost a whole year in order to be able to taste them all! There are over 300 different kinds of bread in Germany.

I couldn't tell you what the letter says.  At the time I got it, I had a german neighbor who translated it for me.

A little background: 

In 1965, Frank was stationed in Germany.  I went there to be with him.  He had to have living quarters for us before we could go there and there were none available in the government housing area, so he rented an upstairs apt from a lady in Kandel, Germany.  Her name was Luise Metz.  We called her Frau Metz.  We already had two boys one 4 and one 2 and I was seven months pregnant with our 3rd child when I went to Germany.  Our daughter was born a month after I got there.  She had a lot of problems at birth and when she was about 2 days old they dismissed me from the hospital, but she had to stay there for a couple of more weeks.  I went back to our apt in Kandel with the boys.  I was in quite a lot of pain (breast pain due to milk) and Frau Metz saw the pain and discomfort I was in.  I tried to communicate to her that I wanted a breast pump to releieve some of the pressure, but instead she brought a German Midwife in to minister to me. I had no idea of what they were saying or what she was going to do; but it worked.  We moved from her place before our daughter was dismissed from the hospital, but when she was six months old, we went back to visit Frau Metz.  She was so glad to see us and to see the baby.  She had bought a cute little German outfit for her.  Over the years,I kept in touch with her and sent her letters and Christmas cards until one year we got a letter from one of her friends saying that she had passed away. 

-Barbara