bad asia day.
today, i had a “bad asia day.”
it all started with lunch. i ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. when i got my sandwich, there was no cheese. i pointed it out. the waitress lifted the bread and pointed to what was obviously mayonnaise (side note: i loathe mayonnaise). she said that was cheese. i said no, it was mayonnaise. she said it was melted cheese. i again said it wasn’t. she then walked away. i tasted the white stuff. it was mayonnaise. fail #1.
then, we were headed to the fabric market. it had been raining, and i was wearing my favorite dress. unfortunately, this dress was now covered in mud from the rain/dust combo. also my feet/legs were caked with mud. fail #2.
after buying some great fabric to cover my hideous bedspread, we walked to catch the bus back to school. we had to catch two, one of which we had never taken before, but vietnamese people always like to help foreigners, and by help i mean tell them something even if they have no idea. so we took this bus, and then passed by the bus that i knew would take me back home. so, we got off the one bus, and grabbed the other. after ten minutes on this bus, we realized it was going the wrong way. so, we got off again, and got on going in the right direction. a 10 km trip took 2 hours. fail #3.
i get home, my teammate says she has no water. fail #4. i call the school official to tell her, she says she will tell the guards, and also that there is a new schedule. this actually is great, so not a fail, but still an inconvenience to my evening, so i feel annoyed nonetheless. my teammate says the gaurds have come but (obviously) speak no English, so there is no communication happening. that sucks, i think. but i told her if it wasn’t fixed by the morning to come shower in my shoilet.
i go to wash my mud-caked feet so i can go to bed, and as i am washing them i notice my water pressure die a little…and a little more…and now there is no water. so now, i have soap covered feet that are still disgusting, and i have to get in my nice clean bed with dirty feet, because i also have no water. fail #5.
the thing that makes asia so hard is that vietnamese people do not feel that this is a bad day. i realize that to them, its just a normal day, and they go about their lives like nothing irritating is happening. like when i’m on a bus and the bus driver stops the bus to go buy a new watch battery, none of the vietnamese people think its weird, but i definitely do. life is just harder and more complicated here. nothing is simple in vietnam (or china, etc.). again, its a reminder of why i am here. its not because i choose to. its because he called me here, out of his love for me and the people of this land. its hard not to get irritated, and somedays i think i might snap - NO, I DO NOT WANT TO RIDE ON YOUR MOTORBIKE I AM OBVIOUSLY WALKING SOMEWHERE! - whew, that feels better.
each day, i am faced with a choice to let Him change me or give in to selfish, temporal desires that do not last beyond this life. its so hard, and i need His grace to make the choice that most honors Him. please ask that I do this faithfully and not of my own strength!
