Culture Shock Week

Once again I sit here at Café Barista and try to formulate my thoughts into words to properly describe what I have seen and the emotions I have felt in the past week.

This week was culture shock week. I must admit I have never been this stressed, more uncomfortable and insecure than I have in my entire life. Fear of the unknown had run its course and I broke several times this week. As the week started BJ and I had begun to plan out the next couple of weeks. As he described the places we would go and some precautions to take, my fear just overwhelmed me. I am a plan A, plan B, and Plan C, type of person. I am more comfortable and feel more in control when I am aware of all aspects and have time to weigh all decisions before making them or at least know how I will react when problems arise. Being here there is no way to do that nor is it smart either. My fear is not too much of being robbed but more of traffic accidents and the pure terror of the unknown. Being robbed is something that I feel I have a little more control over. It is one person against me whereas when we are driving it is me Vs. hundreds of cars! Cars and tour sized bus’ filled with more than the maximum amount of people that should be allowed coming within a mere 2 inches of our doors. All the while we must stay aware of the little motorcycles, with 2+ people on them, zooming in and out of all the cars, riding in between lanes with their little horns that you hear when usually it is almost too late. Pray for me on this as I know traffic and the driving style here will not change.

Here, everything runs by time or traffic. Traffic and time are openly at war and you just happen to be caught up in the middle of it. Your opinion does not matter and neither time nor traffic is on your side. However, you must drive to get to wherever you are going and therefore have no choice but to take part in the whirlwind of chaos. BJ has been so observant and knows when it is time to push me a little more or time to call it a day and let me wind down. My steady reassurance is that everything I do each day is never left to chance. Everything in my path is “Oked” by God.