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.