09 Aug Emma: Overseas Visitor

At the beginning of harvest this year, one of my sister-in-law’s friends from Germany asked if her son could come and experience harvest. Of course we said yes and a couple of weeks ago Christoph arrived to spend six weeks with us. He is 13 years old and I think he is enjoying himself. We love having him around, too.

This is Christoph from Germany. He is from the same area that my sister-in-law Verena is from.

Christoph is a great help to the crew. Sometimes it’s washing the combines, running tools to the guys, helping service the machines, getting dishes out for supper, or just riding in the combine. He is enthuses about every aspect of harvest and wants to see and do everything. He has a great sense of humor and adds a lot to our conversations. I’m still amazed by by how well he speaks English. I guess the school systems are different over there, and they start their second language in the first grade-it’s rather uncommon not to know a second language. There are times when he is stumped on a word or two, but thanks to our German interpreter – Verena – this is not a problem at all.

We give him a hard time about his hair and that we should cut it, but he says no. He wants to keep it. He says that he would like to get a pair of these “western shoes” and we tell him that in order to get some boots, he’ll have to cut that hair. (Of course we’re teasing him). He just laughs and says he’ll have to think about it.

I got out my guitar the other day because Christoph said he could play a little. That was the biggest understatement of the year! He picked up the guitar and right away started jamming out to Metallica. I was bit jealous, he’s a great guitar player.

Be safe and God bless!

Emma can be reached at emma@allaboardharvest.com. All Aboard 2011 is sponsored by High Plains Journal and DuPont Crop Protection.