First week of class

Well, a small update

My first week of classes is done, and I'm pretty glad about that. I am starting to get a better feel of how things run here, but I am still quite fuzzy and somewhat stressed, but really no more than I am any other semester. They say coming here is like starting college over as a freshmen again and I think they are right, just never thought I would do that again ;)

There has just been such a vast array of emotions since being here. I think it is true of all the students who are here. Sometimes it feels like home, sometimes it doesn't feel like anywhere, sometimes life seems calm and other times you feel so rushed you just want to run away. Overall I would rate my first two weeks here as a solid good. Not great and earth shattering and marvelous, but good, and I think that is OK.

Yesterday, we got to talk to the wife of the director for USP, who doesn't really do a lot with the program, but lives here and has been here for 5 years. One thing she reminded us of, in her words, was that we shouldn't try to be "cross-cultural super genies" sounds kind of corny, but she definitely has a point. I think whether we admit it or not, many of us came here to try to do many things such as, figure out a career path, help a bunch of orphans, hit it off with our families and the culture so great that we never want to leave... and the list could go on. But, as she noted, this isn't really reality, and she reminded us that it's OK to come here and just be. If none of the above things, or things that we thought would happen don't, we haven't failed. Whether we want to or not, being in this culture will change us, perhaps not always as we hoped, but it will. I think that is true for much of life, it is just more accentuated here.

I think this is kind of an important time of the semester right now, and we'll see if I am right. We're kind of at the point where we are getting past the 2-week serve project honeymoon period where everything is great and wonderful, and reality is setting in that we are part of this culture for 4 months. I think it will be a bit challenging for me and for most of us on the trip, but I think we will come through and will survive just fine. There is just so much to learn, sometimes I feel like a sponge that is already full of water but is trying to soak more up...

on another note, posting pictures seems to be quite close to an impossibility here, so perhaps I will email them to a few people and see how that goes. The rest of you will just have to wait ;)

well, it's 5:40 here, so I guess I should head back to my host family, bathe and see if I can help out with supper ;)

I guess a few prayer requests I might have: that we will be able to stay focused on our studies, but find a good balance between engaging the culture and engaging our studies. The rest of the students who aren't staying with families the whole semester just started their 2-week homestays and I get the feeling they are all quite nervous about it, so prayer there would be appreciated. Right now, I feel I am in a transition with my host-family of getting past the "get-to-Know-ya" conversations and into more things of daily living and it has been a bit of a struggle thus far, so any prayer there would be appreciated.

Hope all is well with all of you at home or wherever you are!

Justin