Cultural Differences that Let You Know You've Been Abroad a While

We were gone too few days to experience what some would call 'reverse culture shock,' but we are finding ourselves amused by some of the differences we are noticing now that we are back.  It started as soon as we touched down in the airport in Miami and has continued all week.

So let me put it this way.  You know you have been abroad a while when you:

Protected trees in the middle
of a Bolivian street.

• get excited about how inexpensive something is and then realize that the price is in dollars. 
• find that seat belts actually work and you are expected to use them.
• lean in to kiss the cheek of someone who has offered you a hand shake. 
• look for fresh milk at the grocery store in one-liter plastic bags.
• see a blue-eyed person and wonder what country they are from and how long they have been here.
• cannot find the bill you need to pay for your items because they all have green on them.
• wonder why the driver stopped for a red light when there was no oncoming traffic.
• say "Muchas Gracias" to the clerk who has been speaking to you in English.
• think it strange that so few properties have fences and walls around them.
• automatically toss your toilet paper in the trash can instead of the toilet.
• wonder why people are watching baseball when there surely must be a good soccer game available to watch.
• miss the shade of the protected trees in the middle of the streets, sidewalks, and parking lots.
• are surprised by how few forty-year-old cars are on the road.
• wonder if the tap water is safe enough for you to use it to brush your teeth.
• think it is normal for a taxi ride across town to only cost a couple dollars.
• see a construction site and wonder why they would spend money on a porta-potty.

Since we were only gone a couple weeks, it is not taking us long to get back to the way of doing things here.  However, I am grateful for the tapestry of cultures that we get to enjoy, and we look forward to going again where there will be new things to learn when we go, and thing to unlearn when we return.

Blessings in Disguise

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  I Thess. 5:18

The miles passed quickly as we made our way in the car from Mercedes, in Corrientes, Argentina to Concordia, where we were going to cross the bridge into Salto, Uruguay.  As we approached the bridge, orange cones blocked the access and a police woman stood on the side of the road.

“What is going on?” Anibal asked.  “We’re going to Salto.”

“I am sorry, sir,” she said.  “The bridge is closed for repair.  It will open again in the evening.”

“But these two have to get to Montevideo,” Anibal explained.  “They have a flight out tomorrow.”

The policewoman kindly offered the available choices: 

• Wait until the bridge re-opened and go across then.  We knew that was not a good option because we would miss the afternoon buses to Montevideo.
• Go down to the next bridge which was more than 60 miles away.  That was not a good option for Anibal because it would take him further out of his way and delay his return home.
• Go into the next town to the Navy base where we could catch a boat across the river.

The third option was obviously the best one, so Anibal turned the car around and drove down the road.  After meandering through the town, we eventually found the Navy base where we got out and asked about the schedule.

"The boat just left and the next one is not until 3:00 p.m."

Oh well, there was nothing to do except wait for the next one.  We had plenty of time, so we left the car at the Navy base and headed out on foot to find lunch.  It was not even noon yet and many of the restaurants were just opening.  We walked along the sidewalk and saw one restaurateur setting tables outside.  

"Are you open?" we asked.  

"If you wait just a moment while I finish setting up," the owner replied.

We ordered burgers.  The typical Argentine burger comes with a fried egg on top and lettuce and tomato.  Charlie asked for mustard, but since it is not a normal condiment, we were charged for the entire bottle.  At the end of the meal, I asked about a tip.

"We do not usually do that," Anibal told us.  "Besides, you are leaving behind the bottle of mustard.  Let that be your tip."

Getting to experience a typical Argentine burger was a blessing.  It was a blessing in disguise because it came with a delay in our schedule.  If we had gone across on the bridge or if the boat had not just left, we would not have been able to experience that.

We headed back to the base.  We said our goodbyes to Anibal and continued to wait.  At 3:00 we boarded the boat and headed across the river to Salto.

In Salto, we got a taxi to take us to the bus station.  The taxi driver said to us, “I was born in Salto.  I have lived here all of my life, but I have never taken the boat across to Argentina.”  Without even realizing it, we had experienced what he thought was a novelty.  It was, to be sure, another blessing in disguise.

Days before, when we left Montevideo, we made arrangements with our missionaries there to stay at a hotel near to their home so that we could spend time with them.  Now we were very delayed and had no idea when we would arrive.  We contacted them to let them know they should not expect us.  At this point, we had no idea when we would actually arrive in Montevideo.  Of course, that meant that we had no idea where we would stay that night.

We arrived at the bus station and saw a Days Inn across the street.  An unexpected blessing.  We would not have to worry about having enough money for a taxi.  We could just walk there.  And yes, they had a room available.

In the morning, Charlie and I joined other hotel guests on the tenth floor for a typical Uruguayan breakfast of fruit, pastries and coffee.  After breakfast, I sat at one of the tables with my Bible and notebook in hand and marveled at this blessing in disguise.  Little did we know the night before as we pulled into the city that I would be able to sit on the tenth floor of a high-rise, enjoying my quiet time with the Lord with such a beautiful view around me.

The following day we boarded our plane to return to the U.S.  A few minutes after our scheduled departure, a deep voice came over the intercom.  “This is your captain speaking.  We are sorry for the delay.  There was a problem with a seal.  It is not something that will interfere with our flying, but we need to have the maintenance book signed off before we can fly.  Thank you for your patience.”

A half hour later we were still waiting.  Once again we heard the captain.  “Thank you so much for your patience.  I really thought we would be flying tonight, but because of some very bad weather over the Amazon, we have been informed that we cannot fly the plane with the problem with the seal.  I am so sorry.  This is a surprise to me.  I really thought we would be leaving tonight.”

So we all got off the plane and re-entered Uruguay.  The agent crossed off our exit stamps from a few hours earlier.  We reclaimed our luggage and headed for a hotel for the night.  As we drove through streets that were starting to become familiar, I realized we were heading for a different part of the city.  Now we would receive a night in a beautiful hotel with my loving husband, and even our meals were mostly covered. This was definitely another blessing in disguise.  

Traveling the world has helped us to understand that we can expect changes to our plans.  Yet even so, sometimes our reaction to the change shows that we do not appreciate the change.  We can chafe at the sudden change instead of finding the treasure in the adventure.  Instead of looking for the blessing, we focus on what was lost instead of what we gained.  No wonder we need to be reminded that we are to rejoice in everything.

Thank you, Lord, for your blessings, especially those that come disguised.
  

Three Countries in One Day

The alarm’s melody permeated my dreams at 4:45 a.m.  We abandoned the comfort of our beds and twenty minutes later, everything was packed and ready.  I looked across the drive and saw lights in the conference room.  Maybe someone was there getting ready for breakfast, I thought to myself.  Maybe there would be coffee. 

“I’m going over there,” I told Charlie as I pointed to the lighted conference room.  I quickly crossed the driveway in the drizzling rain, with my Bible and notebook in my hand. 

View from the balcony of the conference center.

No one was there.  Teabags and hot water were available, though, so I made a cup of tea and sat down to praise the Lord as I watched the dawn lighten the sky.  Although it was misty and overcast, I marveled at the beauty surrounding me.  I listened as the waves pounded the shore and birds called to each other as they flew overhead.  I thanked the Lord for letting us come to Uruguay.

Before long, a small navy blue SUV arrived.  Anibal Fornazarich, our Uruguayan missionary to Argentina, was at the wheel.  Tied to the top were small suitcases covered over by a blue tarp.  I joined them and helped Charlie take our suitcases to the car.  When they were all loaded behind the back seat, we clambered in next to their teenage son and took off.  A few miles down the road, we heard the tarp flapping loudly.  We stopped and retied the part that had come loose and continued on.

After a while I fell asleep.  The short night was catching up with me.  When I awoke, we had left the city of Montevideo far behind and were surrounded by farmland and sheep and cattle ranches.  If I had forgotten where I was, I might have thought I was in Wisconsin or Ontario. 

“When we get to Rivera” Anibal explained, “we cross over into Brazil.  But it’s a soft border.  You don’t have to worry.  You won’t need a visa.”

When we arrived in Rivera, we wound our way through the city, heading toward downtown.  We stopped at a stoplight.  María, Anibal’s wife, pointed to busy boulevard in front of us.  “This side is Uruguay.  That side is Brazil.  We are now in Uruguay.”

When we crossed to the other side of the boulevard, and María started to laugh.  “And now we are in Brazil.  You could cross back and forth between Brazil and Uruguay many times in one day here.  In fact, most people shop on the Brazilian side because the prices are cheaper, regardless of where they live.”

Brazilian gas was definitely cheaper than Uruguayan gasoline, so Anibal filled the tank, paying with Brazilian Reales.  Then we passed the main plaza in the center of town.  On one corner stood a Uruguayan flag.  On the other flew a Brazilian flag. 

When we left town, the signs along the sides of road in Portuguese let us know that we were still in Brazil.  We drove for almost an hour and made a turn onto another highway.  We passed a sign in front of an unmanned building proclaiming, “Customs and Immigration”.  Evidently, we were returning to Uruguay.

We headed to a home in Uruguay’s northern town of Artigas.  There a group of believers gathered for a service.  What a privilege it was to meet them.  Even though they have no pastor right now, they continue to meet together.  They were excited to hear from a pastor for the first time in a long time.  They “ate up” what Charlie taught.

We left Artigas and passed back into Brazil.  We found a Brazilian steakhouse.  At 10 p.m., it was still the dinner hour, so the restaurant was busy.  We declined the service of “meat on a stick” since the buffet was large without it.  Otherwise they would have kept bringing us steak and chicken from the rotisserie until we were stuffed.  Not only did we not need that much food, we were in too much of a hurry to get to our destination to spend enough time to enjoy such gastronomic delights.

At 11:30, we left the steakhouse and drove back into Uruguay.  We drove on through the darkness, over bridges where the moon shone on the lake.  I wished I could have seen the landscape in the daylight because I could tell that it was beautiful.  I looked in the sky for the Southern Cross but I did not find it.  Two hours later, we approached the Uruguayan/Argentine border.  At the border, the Uruguayan office was closed.  Anibal knew, however, that we needed to document our exit from Uruguay since we would be coming back into Uruguay in order to fly back to the U.S.  If we did not have the exit stamped, we would have to pay a fine.  He got out of the car and asked a policeman what to do. 

“Oh, there is an office open ahead,” he said. 

A mile ahead, a sign indicated where we needed to go.  We got our passports stamped exiting the country.  A couple miles later, we passed into Argentina.  We got out of the car once more and headed into the immigration office.

“Have you paid the reciprocal fee?” asked the agent.

Fortunately I knew that he was talking about the visa and showed it to him.  (Argentina charges the same fee for their visa as the applicant’s country charges for an Argentine to obtain a visa, so instead of talking about a visa, he asked about the fee.)  Our visas from five years ago were still good, so he stamped our visas and we were once again on our way.

Just before 3:00 a.m. we arrived at the hotel where we were staying.  We rapped on the door for several minutes before the night watchman arrived.  We set our alarms for 7:00 a.m. and were so thankful to be able to stretch out in bed.  The long day was over.  Tomorrow was already here.  It was time to get some quick shut eye. 

  

The View from My Office

Normally, my office window looks out on the woods that border our back yard.  I enjoy watching the robins look for food and the blue jays chase each other through the tree branches.  As autumn comes, I can see the changes in the leaves as the woods take on a golden glow.  Now that the day lengths are shorter, I am sometimes already working when the sun rises over the treetops.   It is a peaceful view, and I am grateful for it.

Through the years, however, the view out my “office” window has varied.  Recently it was the view of an airplane wing atop a cushion of clouds on a blue sky since my desk was the tray of the seat in front of me.  

Later that evening, it became the airport as we waited for connections to Uruguay.  Hundreds of people passed by on their way to their gates to fly to places around the world.  Charlie and I sat together working out our presentation for the conference.  After a while, it was time to give up our little table in the "Marketplace" and move to the gate.  There our "office" became a place of rejoicing when Alejandra and Sergio Herrera, our missionaries in Mexico, arrived.  It had been years since I had seen them.

The next day my view changed to that of blue skies, a sandy beach, and a gray-blue bay as I sat at my “desk” in the meeting room of a conference center outside of Montevideo, Uruguay.  What a blessing it was to be surrounded by IPM’s missionaries from all over Latin America as we met for a regional conference.  Some of them we had already met.  Others we were meeting for the first time.  When their voices lifted together in song, it gave me a little glimpse of what a joy heaven will be.

At the end of the conference it changed again. One day it was a panorama of pastoral quietness as we sat in a car for hours driving from Montevideo to the north of Uruguay.  Spring flowers in varying hues of yellow, blue, purple, and peach bordered the roads.  Mile after mile we saw sheep grazing in vast expanses of pastureland.  Then we passed ranches and dairy farms where cattle grazed.  It could have been Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.

Later that week it was the view out a window of a house in a neighborhood of Mercedes, Argentina.  Houses border a dirt road.  Inside the gate, green grass grew and extended outside the gate too.  Dogs barked as they wandered up and down the street.  Inside the living room of this small house more than twenty people gathered to learn about Hermeneutics.  Charlie taught through a translator, a missionary who has been here in Argentina for many years.

Tomorrow it will change again.  Yet in every case, I am grateful.  I have a laptop computer that I can take with me so that I can work from anywhere.  God has given me eyes to see the beauty around me wherever we go in the world, and He has given us opportunities to serve Him in many different places.  What a blessing to have an "office" that changes multiple times throughout the year.  I am blessed.

 

October Update

October, 2015

Dear faithful friends,

The countdown has begun and preparations are underway.  Tickets are bought.  Packing is beginning,  and we are excited about the opportunities ahead of us.  Please join us in praying about these things.

Travel:

·         October 25 – 26:  Fly to Montevideo, Uruguay.

·         October 30 – November 4:  Travel by car and bus in Uruguay and Argentina.

·         November 4 – 5:  Fly home.

·         November 7 – 8:  Joan flies with her parents to Japan.

·         November 23 – 25:  Joan flies home again.

Conference:  In Montevideo, we will join IPM’s missionaries from all over Latin America for a conference.  This is an opportunity for our missionaries to get some much needed encouragement from the home office and from each other.  It is a chance for us to meet our missionaries face to face and to find out who may want us to come to teach seminars or courses for them.

Teaching and Preaching:  The conference ends on Thursday.  On Friday, we will travel inland to spend some days with one of our missionaries, Anibal Fornazarich, where we will be teaching some seminars.  Pray for effective teaching for both of us and for effective translation for Charlie.  He has been asked to teach on hermeneutics, and that is a hard subject to teach in one language, let alone through an interpreter.  On Sunday we will cross the border into Argentina where we (or maybe just Charlie) will teach seminars for the next few days.  Charlie will also preach, probably both in Uruguay and Argentina.  

Curriculum:  The VBS curriculum that Joan has been working on for a couple years is finally done.  A sample copy in English and one that has been translated into Spanish will be taken to the conference.  There our missionaries will be able to peruse the material and make any necessary changes to the Spanish edition.  After that we have to figure out how to get it into their hands.

Flexibility:  As you may be able to tell, flexibility is necessary.  It is entirely possible that the schedule and subject matter of our teaching will change when we get there.  This has happened before.  Pray that the Lord will use for us His eternal purposes.

Trip to Japan:  Pray for Joan as she accompanies her 90-year-old parents to visit their son and his family who are missionaries in Japan.  This is likely the last trip abroad that they will be able to take.   Pray that it would be a blessing to everyone they meet along the way.  Pray for Charlie as he stays home.  If you would like to have him come and speak while she is gone, it would help the time pass by more quickly.  He is more than happy to travel while she is gone.

Thank you for praying.  We could not do this task without God, and your prayers on our behalf before His throne assure us that He is at work. 

Co-laboring together with you,

Charlie and Joan Farley

Letters From Abroad

I love reading the letters from our mission's international missionaries.  (By international, I mean that they are not from the US.)  I love the dedication of these men and women.  Here are a couple quotes from their recent letters. 

“We pray and are planning to start building a mission school in November, using bamboo, wood, and with a tin roof (cost $980). In the beginning, simple furniture such as table, bench, desks, chairs, and black board will be needed (cost $450). For four teachers’ salaries $400 is needed per month.”  An Indian missionary

Regarding their Bible institute:  "Like every year, we did have to deny many who applied, because of limitations in space and finances, but we do thank God for blessing us with 210 students this year who were willing to face the challenges and sacrifices of leaving families and ministries behind, all for the furtherance of the gospel. We would like to ask you to pray for a few of our students who had to go home for family emergencies. One student received the heartbreaking news that his little boy passed away while he was at SALEM." – One of our Haitian missionaries

That same missionary wrote about their elementary school:  “Lord willing, school will be back in session before the end of the year. Exactly when, we cannot say. We do not have the luxury of a stable government that announces the dates of the education calendar each year. It usually depends on the political climate, the economic situation of the country, and so on. Hopefully we will get the go ahead to welcome our students back on campus within the next few months.”

“Brethren, I kindly ask you to pray for a book I want to reprint. I have added six chapters to my book “I escaped...from Satan’s gallery.” The book’s idea is to show a gallery full of windows, each of them representing a religion in which this astute enemy tries to entertain and deceive man. It was amazing how this book blessed many homes. At the time that I printed this book, I had a car and sold it to pay for the expenses.”  An Argentine missionary.

"We had the opportunity to travel to {a 10/40 window country} for a week on a mission trip. I taught “Introduction to Old Testament” (part one) for five consecutive days to four of our online students. I also preached at two home churches.  (Christians there are not allowed to meet publicly.)" - A national missionaries in a sensitive location.

It stirs my heart to read of the work God is doing all over the world through the lives of our co-workers.  Some of them have suffered great persecution, yet they continue on.  If you would like to support one of these amazing missionary couples with your prayers, please let us know.  They are well worth your consideration.