![\"pen-holder\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/files\/2016\/11\/Pen-Holder-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It’s been almost three months now. \u00a0Looking back, it’s hard to remember the first few weeks and our general state of overwhelm with a new culture, new surroundings, and new language. \u00a0Not that it’s over–not by a long shot! \u00a0But we’re getting more comfortable and beginning to figure out the flow of life\u00a0in this segment of the world. \u00a0If you’ve never experienced it before, I’ll try to demonstrate with a few examples how it feels to make a home in a new culture.<\/p>\n
#1) The Empty Pen Holder<\/p>\n
We’re all familiar with the overflowing pen holder on the desk, “junk drawers” littered with spare writing implements, and the day you clean out the car and discover a gold mine of freebie pens in the glove compartment. \u00a0And no matter how hard you try to reduce the population, it just keeps growing. \u00a0Every time we move, I clean out our extra pens, saving only our favorites. \u00a0This time, I kept just three or four of the best, thinking it would be silly to cart fifty pens across the ocean. \u00a0Maybe it was a mistake. \u00a0I have yet to meet a free pen in Asia-Pacific. \u00a0For about three weeks, we were constantly searching for those three or four pens that were never in the right place at the right time. \u00a0Eventually we had the presence of mind to buy a few more, but it has taken these whole three months to fill up the pen holder to the point of feeling “normal.” \u00a0Now, every time I look at my twenty-or-so pens sitting in the container on the desk, I feel a sense of comfort and belonging.<\/p>\n
#2) Finding the “Right” Toilet Paper<\/p>\n
With every move until now, we’ve been within easy driving distance of a Super Walmart. \u00a0Even though there are always things to get familiar with in a new city or State, having a local Walmart brings a little cohesion to life. \u00a0If you’ve been to one Walmart, you’ve been to every Walmart. \u00a0So everywhere we moved, we could depend on finding our favorite paper products. \u00a0Imagine moving to a new country with totally different brands, unreadable (to us) labels, and a general lack of two-ply toilet paper! \u00a0We have now become Asia-Pacific TP connoisseurs and are happy to announce that we have found our favorite brand. \u00a0We always try to keep an extra package in stock (just in case the store shelf is empty on shopping day).<\/p>\n
#3) Growing Comfortable with Local Traffic Patterns<\/p>\n
So far, my most embarrassing moment in Asia-Pacific was the time I screamed in a taxi because I was SURE we were about to run into a moving bus. \u00a0All the other passengers (including my husband) thought I was crazy, and handled the situation very coolly. \u00a0In fact, to them, it wasn’t a “situation” at all…just normal driving. \u00a0I’m slowly learning to trust (almost<\/em>) every driver. \u00a0And no, we did not hit the bus.<\/p>\n #4) Preferring Hot Sauce to Ketchup<\/p>\n At a local restaurant recently, Titus and Ivan were served an order of French Fries with small bowls of ketchup and hot sauce side-by-side. \u00a0We thought Titus would regret accidentally dipping his first fry into the hot sauce, but not so. \u00a0With wide eyes he exclaimed, “I like it better than ketchup!” and continued to eat the rest of his fries with the orange dip.<\/p>\n #5) Feeling Cold<\/p>\n Admittedly, I haven’t reached this milestone yet. \u00a0But maybe someday I’ll actually feel chilly when I walk into an air conditioned building or when the sun goes down on our equatorial jungle. \u00a0I’ve heard it happens to some people. \u00a0In fact, just today Ivan broke out into goosebumps in a mildly air conditioned building!<\/p>\n As much as it feels great to be more comfortable in our host culture, to have some\u00a0pictures on the wall, a comfortable rug on the floor, and the scent of a pumpkin spice candle burning in the family room, these are not the things that make us truly at home in any culture. \u00a0We don’t want to fool ourselves into a false sense of belonging just because we’ve managed to surround ourselves with a few familiar things. \u00a0Pray for us as we navigate the slippery slope of making a home in this world while also keeping our eyes on our true home in Heaven. \u00a0No matter what discomforts or sacrifices are required, pray that our hearts’ deepest desire would be to live in total service to the King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been almost three months now. \u00a0Looking back, it’s hard to remember the first few weeks and our general state of overwhelm with a new culture, new surroundings, and new language. \u00a0Not that it’s over–not by a long shot! \u00a0But we’re getting more comfortable and beginning to figure out the flow of life\u00a0in this segment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1082,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"tag-new-tribes-mission","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1082"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/jared-kresge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}