Kapi nayadiva, tupu resa.

Learning about culture in a new way. Do you ever really know a place, person, group, system--really?  Names and places run through my mind while I sit with this question--Masha, Adj, Over the Rhine, Naomi--this place, Nkurenkuru, Namibia, Africa, the "developing world"--how many labels can I give it?  None will ever describe fully how I cannot fully describe this place.

Out of touch, yet connected.

I look through a lens that shines light only on what I know. Daily I pray for wisdom strength, guidance and perspective in hopes that what I don't know will be revealed to me in a way in which I will gain understanding.  Compassion I have, patience I exude (now-a-days), laughter I try to bring to every situation even when m jokes just don't translate culturally--we still smile through our confusion--but understanding?  I am not sure I will experience this in just two years.

Today I found myself realizing that:  I'm new here!!!!! That may sound silly, but I have habits now, I have friends, I have a routine, every Sunday I have the same recurring unnamed emotion that is a combination of loneliness, anticipation of the week ahead, a calm that comes with the silence of a village, and exhaustion--every Monday I may or may not cry and by then the week is packed and time flies, Friday comes and Chaz and I do something ridiculous and Sunday is right around the corner.  SO I am caught off guard when I hit certain roadblocks (that I am sure are only  in place for the following reason) that remind me, "Hey, this is not our home, you haven't lived here forever, you don't understand the culture or the daily dailyness that makes up this corner of the world and guess what, Sarah" YOU MIGHT NOT EVER!!!!! Smile and move on, Sister."