Not so Burkina Faso, mister!

(By Erik)

Jeanie just got back a few days ago from diabetes camp. She spent the better part of a week counseling and testing kids with diabetes — and she loved it.

I’m VERY proud of her, by the way. I don’t get to say it much here, but what she does constantly amazes me. I lucked out in the spouse department.

(Several of you have felt compelled to remind me of that.)

Anyway, while she was gone I actually turned to housecleaning as a means of occupying myself. I finally sorted through some boxes full of stuff my parents brought when they visited us last November. It’s all stuff they had to box up when they moved from Macon, Ga., to Spring Hill, Tenn.

I found a bunch of small flags in one of the boxes. I collected them when I was in high school. I went to a bunch of “model United Nations” events (since the football team was full). If you never had the great pleasure of going to a model U.N., you basically pretend you’re an ambassador and you represent your country on various committees, etc.

Yeah, it’s a thrill a minute. I know that’s what you’re thinking. But back in high school I couldn’t get enough of it. It gave me an appreciation of foreign countries — and a collection of small flags.

Now that I’ve been able to travel outside the country to cover international church news, I have a separate collection of little flags of the countries I’ve been to, and I sort of have this rule that I can’t buy a flag until I’ve been to the country that flag represents.

So now I have this whole host of nations I feel oddly compelled to visit to “earn” the flags I purchased back in high school. Just for fun (and because Jeanie’s asleep and I’m again trying to occupy myself) here’s a list of the places I need to go:

Burkina Faso — “Where?” is usually the response I get when I mention this landlocked country in western Africa, bordering on Ghana. I “represented” Burkina in a model U.N. in Washington in 11th grade. I was in the International Monetary Fund meeting. Each country got a number of votes based on how much money it put into the fund. The United States got 6,771 votes (or some number like that). I got one. We got to visit the Burkina Faso embassy and talk to an ambassador. She spoke French.

I really do plan to visit Burkina someday. Jeanie’s friends Andy and Melissa are missionaries there. I’ve gotten to know Andy, mostly through e-mails. Great guy.

Denmark — I collected all the Scandinavian flags at some point. I’d love to experience Copenhagen (the city, not the tobacco product).

Germany — I took two years (zwei jahre) of German in college, but have never set foot in the country. I have been to Austria, though.

Greece — There’s tons of stuff I’d love to see here. Greece is the word.

Holy See Papal State — Yeah, I actually represented the Vatican at some sort of model U.N. I kept trying to tell the other Catholic countries to do what I said. They didn’t listen.

The Vatican actually has its own government, situated in downtown Rome. Not sure if you have to show your passport to get in or not.

When we did our Missions Sunday at church I think Neil Arter carried this flag. It was listed as one of the “unreached countries.” I’m guessing it would be pretty hard to plant a Church of Christ in the Holy See.

Iceland — We had some friends in Macon from Iceland. They went to visit and came back with T-shirts that said “Hard Rock Café: Reykjavik.” I’ve wanted to go ever since.

Israel — Maybe not the safest place at the moment, but I would love to go there and visit the Churches of Christ in Nazareth and Jerusalem.

Latvia — I have no idea how I got this flag. And I was SO CLOSE back in 2002. I went to a conference in Estonia, which is next door. Along with Lithuania, these countries are the Baltic states, formerly part of the Soviet Union. Estonia was great, by the way.

Malawi — I’ve been hearing about this little African country since I was 5. Our church in Macon supports Jimmy Judd, a longtime missionary here. I think this country also has the highest concentrations of Churches of Christ in all of Africa. I definitely want to see it for myself.

Norway — This is my hands-down, number-one, gotta’ go there country. My great-grandfather came over in 1910, and I think it would be really cool to lead a contingent of Tryggestads back in 2010. Maybe we can even find the little farming village we’re named after. We’ll see.

Sweden — Norway’s next-door neighbor. They kind of view Norwegians like Georgians view Alabamians.

Yemen — This would no doubt be the hardest flag to "earn." Not the easiest country to get into (or out of)!

I represented Yemen (next to Oman and Saudi Arabia) in a model U.N. in Macon, just a few months after the first Gulf War ended. The other countries on my committee were trying to pass a resolution punishing Iraq and demanding reparation payments.

Representing Yemen, I was the only voice of opposition to this. I kept trying to tell the other countries that if they came down too hard on Iraq, it would only lead to a second Gulf War. That's not exactly what ended up happening in real life, but still ...

I think I also told the representaive of Burkina Faso that he was being a dink. (He was another kid from my school. And he was.)