Of packing and surprises

My sister and I successfully surprised our parents with bringing her and baby Joseph for a visit before I leave. There's lots to the story, but I'll tell it in brief. Hehe.

The setup: I told my parents that I needed to catch up with a friend after a meeting on Wednesday night. "You know how things go with Kami... it'll probably be late," I said. I did go catch up with Kami. I picked up a carseat from her, visited for a little while, then headed for the airport at 10:30 PM.

Arriving at the airport about 1 AM, I met my sister and nephew, situated them in the car, and proceeded to drive through incredibly dense fog all the way home. Joseph alternated between sleeping (post-feeding) and wailing (any time he was returned to the carseat while awake). It was during one of those stops that I posted this status update :

 We arrived home at 5:15 AM, and Joseph was asleep. So we parked, brought things inside, and situated R and J in the boys' room upstairs. Papa heard us come up, but thought it was just me making all that noise. Haha, riiight.

That produced this update.

As it turns out, my parents are surprisingly trusting people. Neither the early morning return, nor the status updates, nor the box of diapers in the garage gave them pause enough to consider they might have surprise "guests". They didn't discover their grandson in the house until several hours later when he came out to play. It's been a really good visit. I've gotten lots of 10 week-old snuggles and play time, mixed in with packing and goodbyes.

In other news, my packing is pretty well complete.  I have a guitar, two duffel bags, and  a small backpack.  See?

 If all my luggage arrives in good shape, I'll be delighted!

In the next day I'll be saying a couple more goodbyes, collecting baby snuggles, doing a few last errands, and soaking in the gorgeous Autumn weather.

This week I'll be traveling.
 --> Tuesday I fly to Georgia for checkout with AltLink
--> Thursday I board my first flight of 3 international ones.
--> Saturday (home time) I'll arrive in the islands
--> Sunday (home time) I'll take a boat to Clove Island.

The following week my team and I will be having island orientation, then it's on to language learning! 

Do pr@y that all of the traveling goes week, that transitions occur smoothly, that luggage arrives safely (and on time!), and for all the details that still need to be dealt with.

Until later,
~Abby

Getting ready for culture shock

Aside from the physical tasks related to getting ready for Africa, there's also the mental/spir'tual side of things. And a big part of this is being ready for culture shock.

Culture shock: the emotional, psychological, and physical impact of learning to live in a new culture, that threatens unconscious assumptions and challenges a person's ability to flex to a new way of life. 

The following is a list of various "symptoms" of culture shock. Take note though, it's not an exhaustive list:

- Homesickness
- Boredom
- Withdrawal (excessive reading, excessive use of electronics, only wanting time with other Westerners)
- Excessive sleep
- Excessive eating
- Irritability
- Exaggerated cleanliness
- Relational tension
- Chauvinism
- Stereotyping nationals
- Hostility toward nationals
- Loss of ability to work well
- Unexplained weeping
- Psychosomatic illnesses

As you can see, it tends to manifest itself in various forms. From personal experience, I tend to withdraw, to be overly cynical, to be irritable, and to be excessively tired.

So how do I prepare for that? I make a plan for self-care:

--> Figure out what helps me to rest and rejuvenate
--> Take a break before I'm completely drained
--> Spend time with the Father regularly
--> Determine ahead of time what coping mechanisms are acceptable (music, journaling, a nap) and what coping mechanisms are not acceptable (sleeping in, avoiding people completely, technology).

In addition to that, I try to consider possibilities: what do I know about Clove Island? What inconveniences might I deal with? What problems could I run into? When I can consider these as potential threats to my equilibrium ahead of time they have less opportunity to blindside me later. An expected inconvenience is still inconvenient, but it's not a surprise.

And then I determine that, anything which blindsides me also cannot upset me. It may perplex, annoy me, confuse me, frustrate me, or otherwise interfere with my preconceived notion of how life should be, but it will not make me give up or take out my problems on other people.

They say that palm trees are especially resilient in the midst of hurricanes because they have the ability to flex with the wind instead of staying rigid. This is my desire with moving to a new culture: that I would flex, shift, and adjust, but never break.

And finally, I have to view this as an adventure. As G.K. Chesterton said

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." 

Now it's your turn: what tips do you have for dealing with cultural stress? Ideas for self-care? Leave a note in the comments!

What prep looks like

It's been barely a week since I transitioned from support raising to full-on Africa preparation. Hard to believe really; it seems more like a month.

I've been busy finishing things up with work, making sure that things are ready to transition to a new person. I've also done a lot of sorting. There are clothes to get rid of, things to donate, items to store more efficiently. Everything is examined by these two criteria:

     1) Is it something worth taking with me?
     2) Is it worth storing for 2.5 years?

If the answer is no to both of those, the final question is: discard, or donate?

Fortunately, this process has been simplified by the fact that I've gotten rid of a lot of things with each transition back and forth between college, home, and Central America. Sorting as you go certainly helps when it's time to pack your life into a couple bags.

So what do I still have to do?

-- Sort some more. Still things to go through and deal with.
-- Buy some last items. If you want an idea of what I'm still needing to get, you can look at my Amazon wish list.
-- Sell my car. Anyone want to buy a 2006 Hyundai Sonata? It's got 176k miles on it, but drives beautifully.
-- Pack. There's a lot you can fit into two 50lb duffel bags and a daypack. But still. Prioritizing?
-- Commissioning service: save the date! October 20th at 4 PM. Email me for further details.
-- Spend time with friends and family. Anyone down for a coffee date before I jet?
-- Thank you notes. Yes, I'm still working on those. It's really neat as I write notes to old friends and new ones to think about all the different people our Father has brought alongside me to help and be part of this whole venture.

There are so many more things that I could say, but I'll leave those for later posts. Questions or comments? Feel free to respond in the comment section. 

And just for all y'all's benefit, a picture of me, trying to be a not-so-jolly green giant: