A chat at the Ambassador

A month or so ago, I was at a nearby restaurant, enjoying my "Monthly Meditation," (happens monthly on the date of our birthday- the 13th of each month for me, to be used specifically for time with Jesus and the Word) sipping tea, and enjoying the birds singing around. While expats are a general rarity here, at the Ambassador- they are not. In fact, expats are so uncommon that I've come to behave very much like the locals, and just stare at anyone out of the ordinary here. My gift at committing cultural faux paus is unbeatable.

The woman at the table next to me greeted me, introduced herself and shared a bit about what she was doing here  (an architect from New Jersey, working with a organization looking to build a mental health hospital here- great!, had been in country for about 3 days and was flying out later that day). She asked me a bit about myself. I shared that we moved here in 2009, my husband worked for an NGO, and before I could go any further, she interrupted and exclaimed "You're the trailing wife! I used to be a trailing wife for a couple of years!"
That thought was so completely horrifying and shocking that I choked on my tea (which I rather skillfully turned into a more socially appropriate coughing fit) and thought to myself, "Lady, I love my husband, but there's just no way I could survive life here for so long as just the 'trailing wife' ". Really, she'd been in country for only 3 days, so I'm just assuming she was ignorant of what life here was actually like.

She continued as I tried to recover from my coughing fit, "Ya know," she said, "A good project for you... would be helping the pubic library. Have you seen that place? It really needs help." At that moment, all my current tasks and roles dauntingly danced before me: taking care of myself, mom, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, neighbor, home educator, loving the unlovely, language learning, facilitating language learning, hostess, cook... and poetically thought to myself, "No way."

I'm guessing she hadn't been here long enough to realize that much of the population is actually illiterate, and that perhaps, increased adult literacy programs might be a more logical step. Don't get me wrong, I love books. I LOVE LIBRARIES! And I would LOVE for someone else to have that passion and bless our family by creating a wonderful library...right next door ideally. Great. Thank you.

We chatted for a bit more and went our separate ways. I'm always grateful for these unexpected worldview widening conversations. Always good to learn.

In other news, I just got a new tablet which I am so very excited about. I had a hilarious conversation with my sister that Ill tell you about some other time. What are your favorite apps and games?

Love, hugs, and  bugs (well, mostly mosquitos),
Emily