Jumping in the Ball Pit

Today we got the keys to our apartment down the street from our language school, Les Cedres. We are currently staying in a hotel in a tourist area which has kept us in a relatively "safe" cultural cocoon. Looking at the apartment today, I was hit with my first wave of loneliness and alienation. My first taste of culture shock.

I remember studying Spanish in college in Mexico, so I know that language learning will come. Yet, precisely from this past experience, I know the insecurity and even fear that can arise from being in a place where no one speaks your language. On a deeper level still, I remember the isolation that occurs when all the cultural nuances of behavior and norms subtly shift to a place where even the unspoken does not make complete sense. I look forward to this adventure God has us on, yet at the same time, I struggle at times with the difficulty of the energy required to do simple tasks such as buy groceries and setting up a basic household.

We actually found a fast food restaurant, appropriately named Quick, today. (the irony being it is very difficult to find a quick, cheap place to eat here) It even had one of those indoor playgrounds, and Bryan and I savored the ten minutes of conversation it enabled us to have. I watched our kids, and especially Ian, dive into the playground ball pit with absolutely no inhibition about interacting with the other children. I remarked to Bryan that I know that children's brains are wired to acquire language rapidly, but it also must be, to some degree, their healthy fearlessness that promotes rapid learning.

Minutes earlier, I hesitantly went into a store extremely self-conscious about how I might be perceived. Yet, here were my children, playing and interacting with other children. My kids spoke English, the other kids spoke French, and somehow they managed to communicate beyond words, in the midst of words and probably acquiring new words. While I ate my pretty average poulet sandwich, I witnessed a bit of God's creativity and freedom in the lives of children. I pray that we all interact with such creativity and freedom, not only in language learning but in healthy transmission of the Gospel. May it just spread like one jumping in a ball pit with laughter, joy and an understanding that goes beyond words.