Saturday, March 29, 2008

Culture Shock Part 1

One thing I have noticed here is that Anna is always in more culture shock than we are.
When walking on the street it is custom for women to come up and pinch Anna on the cheek, she has gotten black and blue from this. This ruins it for the ones that just try and shake hands. Then there are the overboard people who want to pick her up and take her home to show their family. We stop all of this as well as we can, when we got here I thought it was cute and Anna would quickly adjust to it. But it invaded Anna's space and did not make her feel safe. I have no idea how many young men have pictures of Anna on their phone.

This culture shock was evident Friday night at the Anto All Star Day (school talent show). We spent the week trying to help Anna learn her dance to the "I'm a Barbie Girl" song. Her teachers told us to hide when we got there or she would cry. It wasn't us ....

Anna saw what she feared most, 250 people who are known for invading her space, she just bawled. She cried so hard she was hyperventilating. Her teacher said she is so good in class why now is she not cooperating? I told her of Anna's fear and she understood. Anna was supposed to stand on the stage as the letter "O" in the word Welcome. She still did but in my arms (how stupid am I?). We stayed for the whole presentation her sitting on my lap and even falling asleep. We always had a hand ready to stop any space invaders.


We got home and later that night she had a fever and threw up. My poor little baby, here its Sunday and she still has that fever. She also doesn't want to go outside and see the women. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming.

Pray that we can get her fever down, reintroduce her to the neighborhood and just make her feels safe.

5 comments:

  1. Poor Anna! I will definitely say a prayer for her!

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  2. We are so sorry to hear about Anna, as you, it makes me want to just hold her and shelter her from the world. But we can't. We will be praying for her. How do the other kids in the neighborhood handle all of the pinching or is Anna with her little blond hair just asking to be "loved on". Hat and glasses? :-)

    Oh, Samuel says he loves Anna's flower on the top of the page. :-)

    I need to email you guys! Dave has been working on the desktop computer (our hard drive passed away), so I will so, once I find your address again. :-)
    Chris

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  3. You realize that when you guys come back, it will be a shock all over again. I can't speak of how it will affect her. I know I has bad with my bug bear hugs and facial raspberries :-Þ And no, I will still do that, even to Ryan! gi

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  4. Yes we know this whole thing is "culture shock." The truth of what is happening is that we are being changed, by God, to think differently, and that does hurt. Add to that we are being apposed, not by God, from doing good. Yes we do not like it here... and we will not like it there for different but similar reasons. What we long for is Heaven, the perfect love and perfection that can only be found in Christ.

    It is wednesday and the fever has gone down, we started yesterday giving Anna antibiotics. We think the stress let her get sick. We are cautiosly showing her that the world is somewhat safe, but being sick makes it hard.

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  5. Holly-
    Keep praying :)

    Chris-
    Sadly it is just Anna, who comes close to the Aryan (ever wonder where Hitler got that idea from? you got it... India) definition of perfection. We try our best to protect her but it is like playing a game of basketball we dodge left to escape one and there is another there... the most sucessful way is for Anna to go to full tears and us to get upset... then next time they give her some respect... and we feel like a fool.

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