Arrival!
It's like trying to find a word in the dictionary that you don't know how to spell--so is preparing for a trip to a country you don't know. There is a lot of necessary information missing that leaves you a bit disconcerted.
Flight was uneventful and I arrived safely. The first person I really met was Aida, my hostess, a staff person at Samaritan's Purse. Some of the first things I saw were mountains!!! Almost within touch! And palm trees and piles of mangoes for sale on the side of the road. So many other things to describe--you'll just have to come visit me!
Mornings--off to Samaritan's Purse office, then have devotions as a team, and then eat breakfast. I then go to the Samaritan Center, an HIV/AIDS testing site in a shopping mall. The other morning I was able to somewhat run the "registration" table myself. I am learning...I am praying for the courage and the language to attempt to talk to the people in the waiting room.
One of the most difficult things is that you feel like a child again. I want to help--but I don't know how. I want to talk--but I can't express what I want to say adequately. I want to fit in--but I lack the language, the social norms to do so. I don't know what to expect--hard for the planner in me. I like being independent--but now I have to fit into a language, a family, an office, a place where I don't even have "all the letters" necessary "to spell."
But there is a beauty and a joy in learning a new language, a new culture. It challenges me in healthy ways. I have had to lay down "my rights" again and again, but I will never, ever, ever lay down as much as my Lord did. It gives incarnation a whole new meaning.
Flight was uneventful and I arrived safely. The first person I really met was Aida, my hostess, a staff person at Samaritan's Purse. Some of the first things I saw were mountains!!! Almost within touch! And palm trees and piles of mangoes for sale on the side of the road. So many other things to describe--you'll just have to come visit me!
Mornings--off to Samaritan's Purse office, then have devotions as a team, and then eat breakfast. I then go to the Samaritan Center, an HIV/AIDS testing site in a shopping mall. The other morning I was able to somewhat run the "registration" table myself. I am learning...I am praying for the courage and the language to attempt to talk to the people in the waiting room.
One of the most difficult things is that you feel like a child again. I want to help--but I don't know how. I want to talk--but I can't express what I want to say adequately. I want to fit in--but I lack the language, the social norms to do so. I don't know what to expect--hard for the planner in me. I like being independent--but now I have to fit into a language, a family, an office, a place where I don't even have "all the letters" necessary "to spell."
But there is a beauty and a joy in learning a new language, a new culture. It challenges me in healthy ways. I have had to lay down "my rights" again and again, but I will never, ever, ever lay down as much as my Lord did. It gives incarnation a whole new meaning.
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