CULTURE SHOCK

Two weeks ago, a young friend of my dad called him.  She told him that she and her sister were both without jobs.  Liseth, the sister was being beaten by her husband and in 2 days they were going to be kicked out of the place they were living because they did not have money to pay the rent.  Liseth has 3 small boys, Fernando, 5, Alejandro, 3, and Gabriel, 1.  My dad is renting a 7 bedroom house in Ojojona, where he houses small groups.  We were told we could use two bedrooms, which would allow for 5 more to house groups.

My dad asked me if I minded them living with us for a "little while" until they could get back on their feet.  Because I couldn't think of a mom and 3 small boys or of a single lady living on the rough streets of Tegucigalpa, I said yes, it wouldn't be a problem.  I also thought a little while would be about 2 weeks.

I am trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus with them, and it is very challenging for me.  There are lots of cultural differences.  We went to Pricemart on Monday.  We had planned out meals for about 10 days and new that we would have enough left to last us close to two weeks.  When we got there on Wednesday after not being able to get in on Tuesday, we found that a lot more than we expected had already been eaten.  Our chicken had been put uncovered into the refridgerator.  Most of our milk was gone, one of our 2 bottles of juice was gone, and several other food items.

I know they were hungry, and had not eaten good food in a long time.  But I was frustrated because they had prepared food for themselves on Monday and put it away when we walked in.  They could not find my pots to cook with, so they instead used my mixing bowls.  They have been asking us to get them things several times, and seem annoyed when we tell them we can't afford it.

Last night, I hit the breaking point.  They asked me if they could clean our rooms, and they rearranged our rooms.  Cleaning and rearranging are not the same.  Also, we had gotten a brand new table with some money our church had given us, and it had been cleaned with some sort of soap that was already messing the stain up.  On top of that the 3 year old and 5 year old were standing in the kitchen telling us they hadn't eaten all evening.  I don't know if they were put up to it or if they are just in the habbit of begging.  It frustrated me because we knew all of our tortillas, some beans, some chicken and several other things had been eaten that day.  I was also annoyed that they were climbing all over the furniture and walking into my room and Haley's room without permission. 

This blog sounds really whiney, and for that, I'm sorry.  I needed a place to vent.  I did have to think about the fact that most Hondurans do not have a mentality of saving.  If they have enough money for food, they buy it on a daily basis.  They would never have 2 weeks worth of food in their house at once, therefore, they probably haven't considered that the food was supposed to last for 2 weeks.  Most do not have a fridge in their house, much less a freezer, so they do not know how to treat food that goes in a freezer.  Discipline is not a strong suit of Honduran mothers to their children, so we can only pray that they will see an example in us with how we discipline Haley.

My dad has told them they need to find a place to be in 2 weeks.  During the next two weeks, please pray for my attitude.  Please pray that I remember what Jesus says in Matthew 25, not only in my head but in my heart.  Please pray that I don't let the little things bother me so much.  Please pray that my heart is more like Jesus.  Please pray that we can become good friends during this time.