My head is stuck in a different world. We’ve come from a life of being outdoors more than indoors (or somewhere in between if the hut is open on both ends). That life is fairly simple with the activities of cooking breakfast (over a fire), going to wash the breakfast dishes in the stream, sitting down to weave string bags and talk with whoever is visiting with us, fixing lunch, doing dishes, visiting or hunting/fishing for Nate and Tali, doing some extreme wheelchairing to get to the river to bathe, washing clothes, more extreme wheelchairing to get home, visiting, cooking supper, total exhaustion, and climbing into the hammock at 8pm to go to sleep.
The next day we would do the same thing all over again. It was uncomplicated by buying groceries, getting Tali to school, keeping up with email, bills and seeing numerous doctors. No running around to sports activities, no music lessons, no TV, no music, no iphones or wiis. Entertainment comes in the form of interacting with friends. If we happened to have some “free” time we all wrote in our journals, bemoaned our language skills or just took a nap!
We are now in a world of living indoors, not worrying about what we’ll eat for the next meal, plumbing, electricity, every type of entertainment you can imagine...TV, movies, ads and billboards screaming about their products, stores which sell very little that is under $5.00, school, after school activities, music lessons....ugh, I have to stop. It is overwhelming. And I’m starting to fit back in. That makes me very sad. My focus is shot to pieces, I feel less grounded in knowing who I am in this world and it is a daily battle to remember that I’m here to advance God’s kingdom, not my own. I’m forgetting more and more that the little things don’t matter. So, I’m pretty much mourning all this, but it is going away all too quickly. My life here in the U.S. is very little about surviving and helping others around me survive. A far cry from the meaning and purpose I felt in Ecuador. But I know that God has me here in the U.S. right now and not in Ecuador. So, what am I to do here and now? And WHEN do we get to go back!=) Oh yeah, live in the here and now.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing Rachelle. I've really been missing Ecuador recently (I think I'm finally hitting the reverse culture shock), and what you said totally hit the nail on the head. I don't like how busy I am or that it's so easy to waste time here. My favorite part of the summer was being in Shell and just taking time to slow down and spend more time with God - there wasn't always more than that to do. I would love to go back to Ecuador some day, but only God knows when or if that'll happen. I'm so thankful that you and your family were able to be there this summer. I really enjoyed getting to know all of you. You are such an inspiration and I miss you all!
Amy Anderson
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