culture shock

About two weeks ago, I returned to the Dominican Republic from a vacation in the U.S.A. A funny aside - never thought I'd be taking vacations from the Caribbean to the USA, always thought it was the other way around...

At any rate, the culture shock, conflicting worlds, collided several days ago. Julie and I went to supper at a Dominican couple's house. It was a lovely supper, aside from their child throwing up because of the pasta sauce, but that's another story.

My estimation is that less than 50 words were spoken in English the entire night. Now I'm by no means fluent in Spanish, but I do OK conversationally in most situations. However that night, I threw in the towel and became a casual - albeit frustrated observer. It was the straw that broke Pete's back. *sigh* The last time I truly felt this way was 2 weeks after getting married, and the time before that was August of 2003. There are many "things" that factor into this:

• seperation from family
• no matter where you go, you are different than everyone else
• having even a simple conversation is laborious and draining of your mental/emotional energy
• island life is nice, but for a guy who grew up in the Plains it can make one feel claustrophobic and trapped at times.
• little things become so frustrating - going to the store to buy a green pepper and you can't remember the name (aji, in case you were wondering), using sign language and saying "pimento verde" when I know that pimiento refers to the pepper in the shaker, it's just that I don't know another word...

But I must say "PTL" (Praise the Lord) for inverters! This little beauty converts 12V battery power to the 110 for our electrical system. So when the juice turns on and off at random or inconveniece, we hardly notice. Whereas before, we would groan, scramble for matches by the light of cell phone to ignite the kerosene lantern. Really put a damper on studying or any movie, cooking, etc that we might have been doing.

In other news, trip the states was great. Had some amazing food, and wonderful quality time with family. I'm so blessed to be a part of the family that God put me in.