'Culture shock is already setting in. To be in a place where the roads are paved with concrete...not red dirt. where there are more cars than bicycles. where stores are actual buildings-not open huts and semi-small clay rooms. To be in a place where there are more 'cawaagas' (white people) than black people....' --taken from my journal as we were waiting in the airport in Entebbee, Uganda, on our way home.
The culture shock is settling a bit, but i still fee so unsettled. Just opening my drawer to pick out a shirt yesterday morning, was overwhelming. So many choices, that even i had been so disconnected from for 16 days straight. Just to see how developed our country is, how rich we all are in the states is a shock to me. We have full buildings that we live in! I can turn a knob and retrieve water to drink, or to start a machine to clean my clothes...and yet i still complain! These people spend hours doing these 'chores' i constantly complain about. I am blind to these blessings.
I also became blind to the poverty of the people in South Sudan. I seemed to forget these people aren't even a third world country yet. There was no one to compare them to...everyone is in the same poverty state. But it was their JOY, unity and community that was so strong. that made them seem far more wealthy than many of us! And they really are!
"Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity." -2 Corinthians 8:2
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