Fascinating and challenging

A line drawing of where I am. Maybe tomorrow I'll think
to take a photo of my own during daylight.

I sat around a table at afternoon tea today with seven people. We were German, Swiss, (Northern) Irish, American, English, and Australian. Interesting!

We serve in five different east Asian countries.

We've been missionaries from about three years to decades.

It's a lot to take in, I've never met any of these people before. But I find it very stimulating. 

Though I don't feel super tired tonight, not like I did last night, I find myself plastered to the bed and with stomach ache: a classic Wendy stress symptom. 

I've interacted with passion all day long: over the topics raised during the training and also at meals. That equals tiredness. Not to mention a certain period in the early morning where I wasn't asleep. Mild jet lag (we're two hours earlier than Japan here) plus the normal fatigue that comes from travel. 

One interesting topic today was about what motivates you. A model with three main types of motivation was presented: achievement, belonging, and influence. I was fascinated to think about what motivates me. One is that I need to be passionate about something. I find it extremely difficult to do something that I'm ambivalent about. 

We talked about teams this morning and personality this afternoon. This morning confirmed for me that I'm not a cookie-cutter OMF missionary working in a team. This afternoon reminded me of how I don't fit into a classic extrovert or introvert box. 

I have a quiet non-conformist streak in me that I love. I like being a minority. But I can now tell that I'm going to struggle all week to find where I and my work situation fit into all this. Hopefully, though, I'll find things that have "take away" value for me.