Being in a foreign culture, I´ve decided, is a lot like jumping off a diving board into a pool. At first, it is amazingly refreshing. The water caresses your skin and you feel alive. Pretty soon, you realize you can’t breathe and you want out. But, if you´re in the middle of swimming lessons, they don´t let you out. Then you get mad at everything. The water, the swim instructors, yourself, etc. I’m not a swimmer, but I think that the idea is that you finally get accustomed to the water, get in the zone, and fit.
This idea goes along with a seminar I heard at the Nehemiah Center last Saturday, the 28th of August. Mark and Nancy V, who work with CRWM at the Nehemiah Center, talked about the stages of transition. First comes fun = the honeymoon stage. Then, flight and all its avoidance issues. After you progress to fight, where you can´t stand it anymore and think it stupid, to be extreme. At the end, you fit. Acceptance and openness to living.
I think people sway on a pendulum through these stages quite a lot through any transition, but eventually they stay in the category of acceptance and fitting more often. My experience with Spanish and the Nicaraguan culture has been like that.
At first, I loved it all. I didn’t feel like anything was going badly. There were things to get accustomed to, but it was okay. Speaking Spanish a lot of the time was exciting for me. There are things that are really hard to talk about, or I feel mute sometimes. However, I haven’t been too embarrassed about asking people to repeat themselves. I feel comfortable enough with the language that I can have good conversations with people. I thank God for my host family. I was really nervous about it, but they are great. We are still getting accustomed to each other, but I think it will be a great friendship.
I have three sisters: Karen, with a 2 year old son; Marlen, a university student, and Juniette, still in high school. My papá works at a metal recycling place. He goes to work early in the morning, comes home at night, and goes to bed. I don’t know him very well yet. But we smile at each other happily. My mamá works at the national University in León as a facilitator to the dental students. She is very affectionate, and we’ve had a lot of [scary] conversations about some deep stuff, like immigration, racism, church issues, etc. It is hard to express myself on these issues in English, worse in Spanish.
I was in flight stage last Sunday in church. Everything was very different, and I felt very uncomfortable. The service wasn’t bad, but very different. The women all wore veils to cover their hair, everyone kneels to pray, they pray all together in audible voices, everyone leads a song, etc. I think I will grow to like it, but it was intimidating.
The fight stage hasn’t been very strong yet. I had a few feelings of rejection of Nica life, but they have passed. I need to remember to bring my feelings before God and ask him to guide me. You can pray for the Spirit´s guidance in my words and actions.
I have been feeling pretty good. They eat a ton of food at once here, and I have trouble eating it all. I´ve felt a bit nauseous in the morning, but nothing too unusual for me. My stomach usually reflects my stress level.
I really like my Spanish class right now. I have an individual study on Rubén Darío and his literature. I learned about the literary movement Modernism, and now I´m reading poems and short stories from Darío. Next week, professor Raúl and I will visit Darío´s house of culture and his tomb.
I have been learning a lot. Although I´ve only been in Nicaragua a little over a week, it feels like a long time. There are a lot of things to get used to, but God is good, and He is faithful. I´m so thankful that I serve a God who takes care of me wherever I am. He is a God of love. My mamá reminded me that God´s love is what I need to focus on while I´m here, not all the issues that overwhelm me. Hooray.
