Everyone learns to walk and eat and talk, but you never think anything of it. Then suddenly you arrive in a foreign culture and you have to re-learn everything. You're suddenly told that the way you dress, eat, drink, talk, walk, sit, etc is wrong. Of course those ways aren’t wrong, they’re just different. But the culture you’re in perceives things to be a different way than the one you’re used to, so if they say it’s rude to wear shorts or eat standing up, even if those things are completely normal in America, you just have to adapt.
September 22, 2011
Victories in the Small
And of course you face all the challenges of just being a new place, trying to find your way around town, trying to learn the language, getting to know the people around you and how the organization runs. In the beginning, everything will be unfamiliar to anyone in a new context, but the victories come when I find that I am able to do something that I know I wasn’t able to do a few months ago.
Sometimes those victories come with language. I’m able to negotiate a boda boda ride in Luganda (and I know how much things should cost so I’m able to negotiate a fair price!!) when I know even a few weeks ago I couldn’t do that. Getting to that place took lots of stumbling over the language and probably looking foolish, but all that matters is in the end I was able to pull through and be successful.
Other victories come in all sorts of little ways. Knowing how to navigate the chaotic madness of Kampala, knowing where I am in town and how to get to where I want to go, when I know a few months ago I was blurry-eyed and didn’t know which way was up. Knowing how to deal with the kids in situations of indiscipline, or being able to participate in leading staff devotions or discipleship with the kids without any preparation.
By no means am I under any delusion that I have it all figured out. I think I could spend my entire life here and still learn things every day. But one of the most important parts of living cross-culturally is the ability to adapt. And while as a toddler you never were self-reflective enough to think "hey I've learned how to walk. I used to not know how to do that. Success!" as an adult having to re-learn everything to fit into a new context, those small victories after so many fails can be so encouraging.
Ok I originally started writing all about some of the highs from the last week, how I've really felt encouraged and as though I've adapted in a lot of ways. But it was turning into an insanely long post, and we all know brevity in writing has never been my strong point :) So I'll write about those things later in separate posts. For now, I haven't posted pictures in a while so I'll put up a few.
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| A couple of our sweet girls walking up to the children's home |
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| Teaching Bible stories to the kids at fellowship time |
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| We were praying during fellowship, and this sweet little girl fell asleep on the bench while praying. How cute is that? |
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| Remember the newborn baby I wrote about a few posts ago? This is her! Baby Rachel. Too precious! |
Teeny hands with love
We have a new addition to the apartment! This is Mallie. She's still very much a kitten, and in the time it took me to write this post, she went from playful and trying to climb on my face, to sprawled in my lap sleeping, to now attacking my fingers as I type. Isn't she cute? (when she's mellow!)
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