To help me understand the cultural here Shannon and Kathy had me spend the night with one of the nationals. Everyone who comes here for an extended amount of time has to do this and most experiences are good and educational. I must admit, I had been dreading this event since Kathy told me about it long ago. I mean what was I supposed to talk about for over twenty-four hours. While my hosts knew some English, the wife being my translator friend, it is still hard to communicate sometimes. However, as I got closer to my "cultural immersion" Jesus gave me peace and told me, "Hey, this will make a great story." He knows me too well.
We started our adventure at a three hour training session all in the native language. This session took place in the Muslim background believers building and had about thirty people in attendance. That day they learned about house churches and the importance of discipleship. If we go to a village and see someone become a believer and then leave, what good does that do for them? Nothing. We must stand by them until at least one other person comes to the faith. About halfway through the lesson Anna (my translator friend) and I left to meet up with one of the young girls I will be disciplining during my time here.
Rosie is about fourteen years old and her parents are believers who work for S and K. She is one of the most shy people I ever met. I had been warned of her shyness so tried to prepare myself by thinking about my shy friends and how they like to be approached. Some of my shy friends deny they are shy and instead like to be called observant. So I thought about them and what they have "observed" about people. If I am being honest, I enjoy my observant friends because they really do pick up on things that I miss because they take time to see and listen. So knowing this I was careful to not be spastic, loud or pepper Rosie with questions. She likes puzzles and painting. We will be studying two chapters of Mark a week.
Anna and I then headed back to the meeting for lunch. The power has been going out quite frequently since we have returned from Bangkok and we have had 87% humidity so we walked back into a group of sweat stains that were talking about Jesus. The church was so generous to provide us with lunch. Let me tell you, I am surprised I still have lips. That food brought my taste buds to their knees begging for mercy. I tried so hard to be a good sport and to take one for the team, but halfway through, after I got out of my spice coma, I told Shannon that I could do it no more. He was ever so kind and showed me where I could casually dump my bowl. For the record, even he who has a way higher spice tolerance then me admitted that the meal was seasoned with dragon's breath.
Once I entered into this new culture I said good-bye to many things for twenty-four hours. The hardest being western style toilets. Yep, I used a squatty potty like a pro. Good thing I packed my own toilet paper or else I would have had to get creative. Yikes!
After lunch I went to Anna's family's house for the afternoon. Her home is beautiful and airy and her family is kind. Anna's father is a dentist so they are middle class. His dental chair sits in the living room and acts as quite the conversational piece. A part of me believes that Anna brought me here as an excuse to spend the day with her family because after talking for a bit she left me in her sister's room to entertain myself. Soon her sister, Riley, came into the room and we became fast friends. Riley knows enough English that we were able to communicate. She loves drawing and Cinderella. We watch Aladdin for a bit and then she took me outside to explore their area. A few of her classmates invited us in to sit for a bit. White people attract attention here and people like having them in their homes, but as Shannon puts it, "then they do not know what to do with us once they have us." So we sat in silence for a bit and watched a Hindi Bollywood movie. From what I gathered, it was a love triangle including Romeo and Juliet and the Cheetah girls. Quite entertaining. I then shared my awesome skills of knowing the colors in their language and we giggled about nothing. Soon after Riley and I went back home and watched "White Chicks" on tv. I have never seen this movie before so imagine how awkward it was to to watch this for the first time with people who do not know much about America and think that we are crazy for having black men dress as white chicks. I felt the need to clarify that in real life, I have never witnessed two groups of preppy white girls having a dance battle in a club.
Soon the whole church arrived and we had a service in their home. It was fun and afterwards we were served dinner. Anna made me my own little bowl of non-spicy chicken curry and I will forever be indebted to her. After dinner I went into Riley's room and taught the little girls two dances and played them "American music" while they showed me their dance skills. I started with One Direction, but they said "NOPE!" They enjoyed the sounds of Maroon 5 and Bruno Mars. Go figure. I had a wonderful time with them.
Anna, her husband Mark and I then left for their home. Anna and Mark live with Mark's family which is traditional here. A two bed home caters to two married couples and a younger brother and now me. This was the part I was most nervous about. In case you have not picked up on it yet, the women here are very restricted in what they wear and do. So I was curious to see what Anna's pajamas looked like and made sure to wear my schlumpiest pajamas. Where would I change, how would I hide my new look from the men, what were they going to do? Before getting ready for bed Anna and I taught Mark Uno and I smothered myself in mosquito cream. Picture rubbing nice smelling mayo on yourself. I then jumped into the tiny wet bathroom and got read for bed. There is no sink and I cannot drink the water without fear of death (literally) so I had to ration my water bottle. I then jumped into the bed that Anna and I were going to share.
Let me set this scene up for you: Since two married couples share this home Anna and Mark surround their bed with blankets for privacy. So every night their bed turned into a gypsy oven. The bed is wood with three blankets for cushioning. Needless to say I did not sleep well, but had plenty of time to pray for the people here, you guys and for Shannon and Kathy. Around six in the morning I slithered out of the tent and changed back into my South Asian clothes and then slithered back into place. Once the house was waking up I acted like I was waking up too and put on a great performance with yawning, eye rubbing and the whole nine-yards. Quite convincing.
We then ate breakfast, hung out for two hours and then went to the tea gardens to see the church that they had built there for the people. It was a blessing to go back to the place where my team had spent time investing in last year and to see the fruit. I had the opportunity to talk in two of the schools and to reconnect with some of the kids from last year. However, I am still a punk and by noon I was hot, jank nasty, tired and wanted to speak English. So we got on a rickshaw came to S and K's and I said my good-byes. According to Shannon and Kathy I brought a nasty stench with me! After debriefing with Kathy I went home took a long shower and a nap. I then went back to their house for dinner and to spend time with people of my culture.
Overall I had a good experience. I learned many things and I think this event brought Anna and I closer together. I am thankful that these people let me into their world and taught me their culture. I have a new level of appreciation for my blessings. There is a vast difference between seeing the needs of people and living in them. In three words my time was educational, humbling, and hilarious.
Good to know this song is not limited to the American South.
Rosie is about fourteen years old and her parents are believers who work for S and K. She is one of the most shy people I ever met. I had been warned of her shyness so tried to prepare myself by thinking about my shy friends and how they like to be approached. Some of my shy friends deny they are shy and instead like to be called observant. So I thought about them and what they have "observed" about people. If I am being honest, I enjoy my observant friends because they really do pick up on things that I miss because they take time to see and listen. So knowing this I was careful to not be spastic, loud or pepper Rosie with questions. She likes puzzles and painting. We will be studying two chapters of Mark a week.
Anna and I then headed back to the meeting for lunch. The power has been going out quite frequently since we have returned from Bangkok and we have had 87% humidity so we walked back into a group of sweat stains that were talking about Jesus. The church was so generous to provide us with lunch. Let me tell you, I am surprised I still have lips. That food brought my taste buds to their knees begging for mercy. I tried so hard to be a good sport and to take one for the team, but halfway through, after I got out of my spice coma, I told Shannon that I could do it no more. He was ever so kind and showed me where I could casually dump my bowl. For the record, even he who has a way higher spice tolerance then me admitted that the meal was seasoned with dragon's breath.
Once I entered into this new culture I said good-bye to many things for twenty-four hours. The hardest being western style toilets. Yep, I used a squatty potty like a pro. Good thing I packed my own toilet paper or else I would have had to get creative. Yikes!
After lunch I went to Anna's family's house for the afternoon. Her home is beautiful and airy and her family is kind. Anna's father is a dentist so they are middle class. His dental chair sits in the living room and acts as quite the conversational piece. A part of me believes that Anna brought me here as an excuse to spend the day with her family because after talking for a bit she left me in her sister's room to entertain myself. Soon her sister, Riley, came into the room and we became fast friends. Riley knows enough English that we were able to communicate. She loves drawing and Cinderella. We watch Aladdin for a bit and then she took me outside to explore their area. A few of her classmates invited us in to sit for a bit. White people attract attention here and people like having them in their homes, but as Shannon puts it, "then they do not know what to do with us once they have us." So we sat in silence for a bit and watched a Hindi Bollywood movie. From what I gathered, it was a love triangle including Romeo and Juliet and the Cheetah girls. Quite entertaining. I then shared my awesome skills of knowing the colors in their language and we giggled about nothing. Soon after Riley and I went back home and watched "White Chicks" on tv. I have never seen this movie before so imagine how awkward it was to to watch this for the first time with people who do not know much about America and think that we are crazy for having black men dress as white chicks. I felt the need to clarify that in real life, I have never witnessed two groups of preppy white girls having a dance battle in a club.
Soon the whole church arrived and we had a service in their home. It was fun and afterwards we were served dinner. Anna made me my own little bowl of non-spicy chicken curry and I will forever be indebted to her. After dinner I went into Riley's room and taught the little girls two dances and played them "American music" while they showed me their dance skills. I started with One Direction, but they said "NOPE!" They enjoyed the sounds of Maroon 5 and Bruno Mars. Go figure. I had a wonderful time with them.
Anna, her husband Mark and I then left for their home. Anna and Mark live with Mark's family which is traditional here. A two bed home caters to two married couples and a younger brother and now me. This was the part I was most nervous about. In case you have not picked up on it yet, the women here are very restricted in what they wear and do. So I was curious to see what Anna's pajamas looked like and made sure to wear my schlumpiest pajamas. Where would I change, how would I hide my new look from the men, what were they going to do? Before getting ready for bed Anna and I taught Mark Uno and I smothered myself in mosquito cream. Picture rubbing nice smelling mayo on yourself. I then jumped into the tiny wet bathroom and got read for bed. There is no sink and I cannot drink the water without fear of death (literally) so I had to ration my water bottle. I then jumped into the bed that Anna and I were going to share.
Let me set this scene up for you: Since two married couples share this home Anna and Mark surround their bed with blankets for privacy. So every night their bed turned into a gypsy oven. The bed is wood with three blankets for cushioning. Needless to say I did not sleep well, but had plenty of time to pray for the people here, you guys and for Shannon and Kathy. Around six in the morning I slithered out of the tent and changed back into my South Asian clothes and then slithered back into place. Once the house was waking up I acted like I was waking up too and put on a great performance with yawning, eye rubbing and the whole nine-yards. Quite convincing.
The church.
We then ate breakfast, hung out for two hours and then went to the tea gardens to see the church that they had built there for the people. It was a blessing to go back to the place where my team had spent time investing in last year and to see the fruit. I had the opportunity to talk in two of the schools and to reconnect with some of the kids from last year. However, I am still a punk and by noon I was hot, jank nasty, tired and wanted to speak English. So we got on a rickshaw came to S and K's and I said my good-byes. According to Shannon and Kathy I brought a nasty stench with me! After debriefing with Kathy I went home took a long shower and a nap. I then went back to their house for dinner and to spend time with people of my culture.
Still rocking the bracelet we made last year!
The school.
I love reading your stories!! I LOL (and very loud I might add!) I can just visualize you doing it all!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I can provide laughter! Thanks for reading!
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