What do cockroaches, lizards, termites, ants, mosquitoes, and spiders have in common? Oh yeah, they all periodically live in my house. I wish I were kidding. Now before you all cancel your tickets to come and visit me, let me just say that we’re not overrun, by any means. But when you have to wash all of your clothes because you found 3 baby roaches and a spider in your closet, you get a little annoyed. Combine that with a little cultural stress, and it snowballs. This is so disgusting. I can’t stand living here anymore. Can’t I just go home now? Seriously, it was never like this in the States....And then the Lord reminds me of TX :) Where I killed a few roaches, spiders, and ants in my house, and lizards roamed my walls as well. Ok Lord...you’re right. But at least we had carpet.
Oh how quickly we forget. I find that as life seems to get “hard” or undesirable here, I am quick to remember the “green grass” of the States. I become like Elijah, quick to throw a little temper tantrum in my mind when things don’t go my way!
Yesterday I let bitterness take root in my heart. I was short with my husband, short with my son (who whined constantly all day). There were more ants, despite my efforts to keep a clean house. My walls are still bare, despite my longing to make our house feel like a home. They still burn trash in our street, which makes our house smell like, well, burning trash. I was finding myself becoming increasingly annoyed with everyone and everything. My husband, sensing my cultural stress, suggested we go to McDonalds for ice cream. (I know, right? How hard can it be when there’s a McDonalds in your city?) :)
As we drove our way to McDonalds in the rain, we stopped at a stoplight. As normal, kids were selling newspapers on the corner. But as I looked closely, I noticed - no parents were around with them. And in fact, they weren’t selling anything. They were begging for money...barefoot...in the rainy gutters. There was a little girl no more than 5 years old, skipping barefoot in the rain, as someone just gave her 2,000 Rupiah - the equivalent of 20 cents. I noticed a woman sitting on the side curb with children around her. Most likely, these children were orphans, gathered up by this woman. They would beg all day, and she would collect the money at the end of the day. Ever seen Slumdog Millionaire? Yeah. Like that.
Suddenly, ice cream didn’t seem to matter. My bare walls and the ants in my kitchen didn’t seem to matter...we had a safe, beautiful home to return to. Eli’s whininess faded away, as my gratitude for him grew. I felt guilty that we were on our way to get Eli new shoes...and these children were playing in the gutter barefoot. Where would they find their next meal? Would this woman let them keep any of the money they had worked for? Who was taking care of these kids at night? Who would protect that 5 year old girl from being sold into sex slavery? I wanted to cry, to pull over and give that woman a piece of my mind, to take the kids to McDonalds with us and get them a decent meal, to give them the shoes off my feet all at the same time...
But then the light turned green. The kids scattered. We went on to McDonalds and the mall as planned. But did it really matter any more? We decided to buy food items and flip flops to keep in our car, so we would have something to give the children the next time. But when do you know if you’re doing more harm than good? Chances are if we give a child a pair of shoes and he or she lives in an orphanage, he or she could get beaten up because of it and the shoes would be stolen. Once I get this language down, my heart longs to reach out to the children in this city...They are dearly loved by Jesus; and yet they are the most exploited people in this city.
wow wow wow...
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